MacArthur-Foundation
Latest
Game Changers: Teach kids with LittleBigPlanet, earn $50K
A super team of foundations has assembled with one goal in mind: Giving you fat stacks of loot. OK, it's not entirely about that, but you could win $50,000, just from creating levels in LittleBigPlanet. Basically, Sony (in cooperation with the MacArthur Foundation, the ESA and the good ole US of A) is holding the "Game Changers" competition, a contest that charges players with creating levels that teach America's youth about science, technology, engineering and math -- you know, the STEM initiative. Basically: Edu-gaming. Now, before you start having flashbacks of horrible dance routines and long division space battles, know you're on the clock right now! The official submission page will start accepting applicants' levels on January 15, so you better start coming up with ideas. For more info, hit up the "Game Changer" page here and best of luck! [Via PlayStation Blog]
ESA partners with Microsoft & Sony for STEM initiative, launches game creation competitions
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the game industry lobby group, today announced two new game creation contests meant to support President Obama's STEM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math studies). A partnership between the ESA, Microsoft, Sony, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), and the MacArthur Foundation will help to fund and run a series of STEM-related game design competitions. Details of the first two competitions – "Game Changers" and the less creatively titled "STEM National Video Game Competition" – are scant at the moment, though the former will involve Sony donating 1,000 PS3s and copies of LittleBigPlanet to libraries and community-based organizations in low-income districts, with plans to share the winning levels free to the gaming public. When asked, an ESA representative told Joystiq that more information would be revealed in "the coming weeks."
Government workshop on evaluation of broadband included Second Life users
This morning's workshop on using broadband internet to increase the US government's transparency and citizen participation included a brand new feature -- Second Life participation.The workshop was streamed live to the MacArthur Foundation's island in Second Life as a representative forwarded questions from the citizens over to the participants of the FCC's workshop. Second Life citizens were able to be hands on with the workshop, getting their questions sent over a specific channel to be answered as they came in."In developing our nation's National Broadband Plan, we are committed to finding innovative, cutting-edge ways -- both online and offline -- to reach out to the public and elicit suggestions, questions, and insight regarding our nation's broadband future," said Jen Howard, the FCC chairman's spokesperson, to New World Notes. "We are delighted that this first workshop will have an aperture into Second Life and that staff is experimenting in such ways to reach all stakeholders."[Via GamePolitics] Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Cinemassively: Global Kids Kofi Annan Simulcast to four different virtual worlds
Global Kids has been quite busy with their activities this year! They recently streamed Kofi Annan receiving the MacArthur Foundation's first International Justice Award. Not only was this event special and meaningful in the first place, but it was also fairly unique in how far it reached. The award ceremony was broadcast to the web, Second Life on both the main grid and the teen grid, There, and Whyville! Could this be a glimpse of the future of event outreach? For more information, check out their site, Holy Meatballs!If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Visions of Global Justice
This coming Wednesday, 19 March, the USC Network Culture Project will feature the work of thirteen talented virtual world artists on the theme of justice, all specifically created for this event to celebrate the International Criminal Court. The artists involved are a talented set indeed from visual, audio and performance fields: Tuna Oddfellow, AM Radio, Pavig Lok, Tooter Claxton, Juria Yoshikawa, Dancoyote Antonelli, Filthy Fluno, elros Tuominen, Chance Abattoir, Adam Ramona, Josina Burgess, Velazquez Bonetto, and Junivers Stockholm.
Curtain falls on "Shakespeare World"
You may never have heard of Arden, the brain child of Edward Castronova and now you never really will. The project was ambitious, aiming to create a MMORPG that also educated the players in the world and works of someone regarded by many as the greatest wordsmith the English language has ever seen.According to this report in Technology Review, the virtual world failed because whilst it was crammed with educational content, no one went there because "it was no fun" and they forgot to include the puzzles and the monsters and the game-play elements. The work was supported by a $250,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation's digital learning programme. Whilst this is pretty big money in educational grant terms, particularly in the humanities, it's a drop in the ocean when compared to the millions of dollars that go into creating the online MMORPGs that we normally review.It is a lesson well worth remembering for everyone creating educational games, you need the educational content AND the game content. A hard balance to strike - I speak from personal experience here.
Virtual worlds teaching kids consumerism
Here's a CNet article about a USC panel discussion concerning how virtual worlds are affecting children, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, who are investing in research in virtual worlds. Telling points from the discussion:Spaces like Club Penguin and Webkinz encourage consumerism as part of being a good citizen. Well, this is true, but let's lift our heads from the monitor and realize that American culture itself embraces that model, and virtual worlds are merely the latest iteration of that concept. If we're not careful, these things will become yet another scapegoat for undesirable behavior, just like videogames have been and continue to be.Educators continue to extol the virtues of virtual worlds as beneficial for learning. One of the strengths of online distance learning is its ability to provide the chatroom experience, which is inherently social, with the ability to immediately gratify the desire to search for background information. Being in your class in Second Life and Googling facts at the same time brings to your education a valuable 'live' experience that is difficult to match with standard real life classrooms. Add to that the playful nature of speaking through a customizable avatar, and this is a worthy new color in any educator's palette.Real world ugliness is promulgated throughout virtual worlds, including bullying, racism, and homophobia. The problem is that, no matter how you view virtual worlds, either as utopias or dystopias, human behavior is a learned thing, and that frequently begins at home. Respect for your fellow humans must be taught. If it isn't taught, it isn't learned. Of course online spaces are filled with abusive behavior; life itself is filled with it. Like consumerism, this is a problem that virtual worlds are only bringing into sharper relief, not engendering themselves.[Via CNet]
Public diplomacy through jazz in Second Life
In the days of Second Life Insider, before becoming Massviely, we had already reported on USC microcontinent and Annenberg Island, home of the USC Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School in Second Life. We had also reported on the arrival of the MacArthur Foundation and their desire to understand virtual worlds and support activities that support their main aims that happen to operate within this environment.Eureka Dejavu, also known as Rita J. King, is one of those exploring Second Life for the MacArthur Foundation, and as part of her work she attended Black Watch, a play and discussion about morality and violence, and the Virtual Jazz Festival hosted by the US State Department on Annenberg Island. Obviously rather different in style as well as location, but both fostering the ideals of peaceful cultural exchange rather than an exchange of bullets. Her piece makes for a good read of itself, and her blog is well worth a look as it presents a view on Second Life as a tool for developing consciousness and morality.
