Week 10: Gaming and MUVEs
April 2 - April 8, 2008
Learning Objectives
By the end of the week, you should:
1. Identify the educational potential of gaming.
2. Understand how computer and console games can be used in library programming.
3. Understand how libraries can create educational games.
4. Understand the value of gaming collections.
5. Understand how virtual worlds differ from games.
6. Identify best practices for gaming programs in libraries.
Lecture
This week instead of listening to a lecture from me, you're going to listen to a talk by Michael Sauers and Rhonda Trueman on Second Life from the SirsiDynix Institute in April 2007. You can watch the video if you can play wmv files, or you can listen to the MP3 and follow along with the slides.
Windows Media File(WMV) (55 minutes)
MP3 Audio (55 minutes)
A few changes since the talk:
1. Second Life now has Windows Vista support for recent graphics cards with updated drivers. See http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php for system requirements.
2. Voice chat does now exist in-world.
Readings
Required
Farkas, Chapter 13
Sutton, L. and Womack, D. (2006). “Got Game? Hosting game night in an academic library.” College and Research Library News.
Branston, C. (2006). “From Game Studies to Bibliographic Gaming: Libraries Tap into the Video Game Culture.” Bulletin of the American Society of Information Science and Technology.
Gross, M. (2006) "It's My (Virtual) World" New York Times.
Steinkuehler, C., and Williams, D. (2006). “Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as 'third places.'” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4)
Bell, L., Peters, T. and Pope, K. (2006). "Enjoying Your First Life? Why Not Add a Second? Developing Library Services in Second Life" Serious Game Source.
Look around the Second Life Education Wiki
Browse the blog InfoIsland.org, the blog for the folks behind Second Life Library 2.0
"Second Life Library 2.0" MySpace. (MySpace page for the Second Life Library 2.0. They have some video tours of Info Island on there.)
"Tour of Eye4You Alliance Island" (in Teen Second Life) (Video).
“Second Life Reference.” (Video)
Greenhill, K. (2007). “Ten Very Good Reasons why your Librarians Should be in Second Life.” Librarians Matter.
Greenhill, K. (2007). “Six Very Bad Reasons to Have a Library Brand in Second Life.” Librarians Matter.
Optional
Hinchliffe, L. (2007). “Gaming in the Library: From Collections to Services and Beyond” Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium. (MP3)
Galik, B. (2007). “How to Convince Administration and Management the Value for Libraries in Virtual Environments.” Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium. (MP3)
Downey, A. and Boyett, K. (2007). “Information Literacy through Unique Education Gaming Application.” Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium. (MP3)
“Second Life Guides.” San Jose State University SLIS.
Examples
Take a look at some of the libraries offering gaming events and some of the success stories provided in the Gaming section of the Library Success Wiki.
Play Quarantined: Axl Wise and the Information Outbreak. Username: techsource Password: 2007
or
Create an avatar in Second Life and visit Info Island.
Things to Do
1. Explore the examples listed above and write a blog post reflecting on your experiences in Second Life or playing Axl Wise and the Information Outbreak. Depending on which experience you chose, make sure your reflection includes answering the following:
1. What do you think about libraries and librarians providing outreach in Second Life?
2. How does gaming lead to learning? How can that be capitalized on in libraries?
2. Comment on at least two other people's blog posts
3. Bookmark three additional resources about gaming and MUVEs and tag them libr246-13.
4. Social Software Dynamics Paper due April 8, 2008 at 11:59 pm PT.
