No Such Thing: Education in the Digital Age

This episode is another two-parter and it’s something of an experiment. If you listen to both episodes, it’s two hours of gameplay, and talk about games in learning, play, popular titles, a takedown of the Fortnight franchise by young Game Reviewer, and Rudy Blanco's student, Kimari Rennis - I can’t wait for you to meet Kimari - we talk about diversity in games, we define some terms, sidetrack a bit into mythology, and so so much more. Here’s the bottom line, though. If you’ve never played video games with your students, you might be missing out on a tremendous learning opportunity. How often in your class does a student jump in an say, “I’m happy to control the ship?” This and so much more in the episode ahead. Enjoy.Links from this episode:NYC Video Game Critic’s Circle: https://nygamecritics.com/DreamYard Project: http://www.dreamyard.com/(Game 1) Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime: http://www.loversinadangerousspacetime.com/Until Dawn (game): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Until_DawnPlants Vs Zombies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_vs._ZombiesGeorge Fan, PVZ designer: http://plantsvszombies.wikia.com/wiki/George_FanDisney Quest (arcade): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisneyQuestFortnite (game): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FortniteSmite (game): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smite_(video_game)Pub G: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayerUnknown%27s_Battlegrounds(Game 2) Don’t Starve Together: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_StarveAssassin’s Creed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin%27s_CreedPlaystation “Shareplay”: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/ps4/share-play/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The organization Games for Change is hard to describe as being just one thing: they throw a Festival that happens every year in NYC, and that's been the backbone of the organization, but around that has grown a really important community of artists and activists, educators, computer scientists, developers, funders, and game studios who believe deeply in the power of games for improving the human experience. Sometimes that's about empathy for other humans, sometimes it's about zooming in on something remarkable, sometimes it's about simply tapping the playfulness in all of us. When I think of Games for Change - some might call them Serious Games - I think of titles like Dys4ia, a flashgame by the legendary Anna Anthropy - quoting from Wikipedia, "to recount her experiences of gender dysphoria and hormone replacement therapy". There are hundreds of titles, and many would argue that the boundaries between "serious games" and others is really about your game design practice, more than genre. They can be blurry, when you put them up against Educational Games, or even virtual environments where the outcomes aren't purely a play for revenue.I've been really lucky to be a part of this organization's evolution as a participant at the festival, as a partner to their student game design challenge in my role at Mouse, and as a member of the community that gains so much from the vision they put forward 15 years ago. I feel like an Anniversary gift is in order, and while I didn't send chocolates to founders - Ben Stokes, Barry Joseph, Suzanne Seggerman - it felt like the next best thing to spend some time with G4C President, Susanna Pollack, and give you a chance to hear from two winners at this year's festival.3 Conversations, 15 years of Games for Change - enjoy.Notes from this episode:Games For Change: http://www.gamesforchange.org/Attentat 1942: http://attentat1942.com/Attentat 1942 Gameplay: https://youtu.be/kLct7kVW1sMCharles University: https://cuni.cz/About Assassins Creed, Origins for Education: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/arts/assassins-creed-origins-education.htmlSTEAM: https://store.steampowered.com/Technology Student Association: http://www.tsaweb.org/Play Garrett at Chameleon School: http://tsabms.bsd.k12.pa.us/VideoGameDesign/Team903/2018 G4C Student Challenge Winners: http://www.gamesforchange.org/studentchallenge/awards-2018-student-challenge/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Gretchen Givens Generett, is a researcher / educator on issues of teacher professional development, educational leadership, and cultural diversity. An associate professor in the School of Education at Duquesne University, Gretchen is the Director of the University Council for Educational Administration Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice.   Her teaching and research are designed to enhance the skills and habits of mind necessary for educators to effectively teach students from diverse populations.  During our chat, Gretchen shares her own personal narrative, and talks about how each of us has a story that needs to be explored as preparation and proper framing for the work we endeavor to do. I learned so much from my chat with her, and I hope you do too.Dr. Generett has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes in the field of education. She is the co-editor of the book Black Women in the Field: Experiences Understanding Ourselves and Others through Qualitative Researchpublished by Hampton Press and has served as the guest editor for the journals Educational Foundations, Educational Studies, and Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership.  Notes from this episode:Dr. Francisco Guajardo: http://iel.org/francisco-guajardoLinda Treadway: http://iel.org/lynda-tredwayGretchen Generett’s Inspire Speaker Series story: https://youtu.be/d_fwIjZlaMwMalcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History (on school segregation): http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/13-miss-buchanans-period-of-adjustmentChris Janson https://www.unf.edu/bio/N00607194/Matt Militello https://coeweb.ecu.edu/directory/name/matthew-militello/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're getting to this episode without having given a listen to Episode 34 on MakerEd and Autism, hit pause and back up one episode. This one won't land without its predecessor. In fact, when I recorded this interview, it was intended as a segment that I would drop into 34, but the more I tried to make it work, the less I liked it. I didn't want to interrupt the previous conversation, and I didn't want to give short shrift to Dave Wells, who's a critical piece of the Maker Educator puzzle in NYC. So much so that i'm mashing up some of the conversation I have had with him previously on the show to fill in some context on NYSCI, the NY Hall of Science, where Dave works, and to round out the episode. The first part of the interview you're about to hear is from the Manhattan Make-A-Thon earlier this year where i had a chance to sit with Dave and talk about the work at NYSCI. If you prefer to skip forward to the details in the second half about how Dave and the NSF-funded research team from NYU and Education Development Center implemented the project - head to ~8:30.David Wells, Director of Maker Programming, is responsible for all programming and activities in NYSCI’s Maker Space. He oversees the design and implementation of maker-related programs which engage families, students, and visitors of all ages, he's a “maker of things” in his own right, and designs sight specific interactive art installations using discarded technology, audio experimentation, and digital media He received his B.F.A. from F.I.T. and a Masters in Museum Education from Bank Street.Links from this episode:Dave Wells, Bio https://nysci.org/people/david-wells/NYU's ASD Nest https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/asdnest/Education Development Center https://www.edc.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kristie Patten Koenig is an occupational therapist, with a PhD in Educational Psychology.From her bio: She examines the efficacy of interventions utilized in public schools for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.She's the Department Chair for Occupational Therapy at New York University and a leading researcher on K12 interventions related to Autism Spectrum Disorder.Dr. Wendy Martin leads research that deepens understanding of how key components of educational programs influence effectiveness and participant experience with the prominent research group, Education Development Center.We're talking today about a project that they collaborate on: it's about maker education and Autism.Notes from the episode:ASD Nest @ NYU: https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/asdnest/Wendy Martin: http://cct.edc.org/people/martin-wendyKristie Koenig: https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/ot/faculty/Kristie_KoenigDiagnostic and Statistical Manual Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is part two of a couple of episodes on "Broadening Participation." Dr. Sunshine Menezes, has served as executive director of the Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island since 2006. She became a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Communication in the URI Department of Natural Resources Science in 2017. She'd spent more than a decade before that as specialist in Science Communication and science policy. Menezes received a B.S. in zoology from Michigan State University, a Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, and was a Rhode Island Foundation Fellow from 2013-2014.Enjoy this second conversation from the 2018 convening of the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Learning's Task Force on BP through informal STEM learning.Links from this conversation:Dr. Sunshine MenezesMetcalf InstituteArpita ChoudheryThe Science of IllustrationArpita Choudhery's Etsy ShopCenter for Advancement of Informal Science website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is important groundwork for understanding some of the nuance of broadening participation. This interview is with experts like Jaime Bell, Cecilia Garabay, Christine Reich, and Dale McCreedy, and together we dive into the issue. I taped these interviews after a two-day convening of the task force in Washington DC. Every step of this experience has been an honor and a priviledge to be a part of, and I'm really grateful for the chance to contribute and, of course, learn a lot myself. If you're interested in learning more about the task force and it's work, I encourage you to check us out from the Center for Advancement of Informal Science website - I'll drop a link in the notes.This is the first of 2 parts. If you leave this conversation thinking, what on earth is Science Communication, have I got a treat. In the next episode I'll share a short chat I had with Sunshine Menezes and we tackle that topic and its relationship to all of this.Enjoy this first conversation from the 2018 convening of the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Learning's Task Force on BP through informal STEM learning:Links:The Franklin Institute is happy to announce the release of Cascading Influences: Long-Term Impacts of Informal STEM Experiences for Girls. This publication describes the results of a research study conducted by Dale McCreedy, Ph.D. (The Franklin Institute) and Lynn D. Dierking, Ph.D. (Oregon State University) to better understand the long-term significance of informal STEM programs for girls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amil Cook is a teacher at Propel Andrew Street Charter School in Pittsburgh, and he sees educators as DJs for learning. Part of his mantra... "break all the rules"My conversation with Amil Cook highlights some opportunities that excited me when I first heard about them because they were totally novel instances where an educator was consciously pairing these specific technologies - crypto currency and 360 cameras - with learning experiences at the high school level. Amil and I, along with nearly graduated senior, Denver, take some exciting twists and turns.In this episode:Youth Leading Change Summit360 Camera360 Project Experience LinkTemple Lovelace - DuquesneShamik More: Dope, MovieYoutubers & Games:Myth, Daequan, NinjaFortnightPubG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is about Maker Education, but also about the high stakes of designing high quality professional experiences for educators. There are still too many professional experiences meant to hone craft, build skills, and excite that are way too dull.Manhattan Make-A-Thon is something different. And for that, it deserves a lot of credit. Earlier in the year, Lori Stahl Van-Brackle, Director of Instructional Technology for the Manhattan Field Support Center at the NYC DOE, challenged 20 schools in a special cohort to design maker-driven learning experiences that they would test with young people at school, and then lead experiential training at the make-a-thon: rooms upon rooms full of educators sewing, hammering, hot-glueing away while they discuss pedagogy alongside their peers. Many of them brought students, too. Which, where it worked, was an exciting glimpse at what it looks like when learning isn't something bestowed upon us, but is constructed through experience and interaction, and can most certainly be shared at the same time between teacher and student.My thanks to the talented team who made it possible. The following is a series of interviews with participants as the day unfolded.SPECIAL THANKS TO:Casey, Kenya, Carol, Mr. Deepak KapoorAmanda Solarsh, and Caitlyn from MS 104PS 191 in ManhattanAmy Sachs from Roberto Clemente, PS 15Jessica Wenke from Teqand David Wells from NYSCI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's interview is a live taping of the show from the annual Facutly Symposium at Borough of Manhattan Community College. The daylong symposium was called Techno Cultures in the 21st Century.Marc and Becca Lewis from Data & Society, explore the report titled,"Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online" widening its scope to include her further research on the "Online Far-Right" as content creators. If you're someone who spends time advocating for a creative and collaborative culture on the internet, this episode will be sobering, but required listening. The good people at Data & Society are reporting out, for our benefit, on the societal phenomena that occur on the internet. As you can imagine, 2017 was an important year for them. This report is a critical investigation of all that emerged online around the 2016 election. If you're still trying to understand the difference between "fake news" and "media manipulation," or alt right and alt light, or how a little green frog took over momentarily as a symbol of hate across our media, stay tuned.Huge thanks to the faculty of the Department of Social Sciences, Human Services, and Criminal Justice at Borough of Manhattan Community College, who were amazing hosts for this event.If you like this episode, subscribe to No Such Thing on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. If it's not available on your favorite player, let me know through our shownotes site, nosuchthingpodcast[dot]org. Already a subscriber? Please rate and review us, and tweet the showpage to your network with #nosuchthingpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.