Value of Video Games

As someone who is guilty of giving my opinion liberally, even when I don't have all the facts, I can't completely condemn those who make assumptions about video game violence and then publish those opinions. However, I have learned the value of getting the right information and then spouting off, in that order. Our elected representatives should always strive to do the same, of course.

But I am also someone who loves a good comedy moment. So I appreciated The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's take on the current US Congressional hearings on video games.

I am fairly well-informed on the topic. I am a parent of two sons who grew up with video games (supervised by me); I am a teacher of students who game; I am a gamer myself (Fate, Neverwinter Nights, Myst way back when, Puzzle Pirates lately, Black and White, Populous, etc.). I have also worked as Story Editor for an interactive game company, in the early '90s. We dealt with precisely these issues of story quality, level of violence, and effect on young players.

What the critics usually fail to point out, are the real-world skills gamers develop by playing. Most games these days require a significant ability to manage resources. Role playing games require the player to manage time, equipment, consumables, transportation, time limits, and often other people. The massively-multiplayer games (MMORPG) involve teamwork, negotiation, problem-solving, collective attainment of objectives, communication, and conflict resolution. Gamers learn to work together regardless of the absolute age of the player, as a competent player may have a higher in-game status than an older but less-experienced player.

What CEO would not want an employee who has all those skills?

We don't yet have real-world certification for game-taught skills. Well, perhaps only in the military...target simulation, anyone?

Remember that today's fighting forces grew up developing hand/eye co-ordination and reaction skills using the same joysticks and display panels that are integral in today's technology, such as Harrier jets, the Space Shuttle, Navy ships, and tanks.

Why do we think the games are the problem?

Critters I Have Known

I am a confessed critter lover. Dogs, cats, gerbils, horses, ferrets, and alpacas have all enriched my life. I've had my encounters with bears, elephants, killer whales, dolphins, an assortment of birds, and other critters, too.

I thought the stories of some of these critters would be interesting, particularly in audio form. I'm no James Herriot, but I can tell a decent story, and speak warmly about the critters I have known. I learned something from each of them.

So that's one of the new projects. I will be creating podcasts of each of the 20 or so critter stories I have, and at some point there will be a CD. These are stories that are meant to be shared.

I might even talk about this wicked calico cat.

Fun with Video

As you know, I have been working more with multimedia, especially since the STC Conference. I recently took some training with a local filmmaker, Mike Cecotka, who has been helping me tune up the quality of my video output. I am still working my way up the learning curve, but there is a great deal more I want to do with multimedia from an education standpoint.

Podcast and vidcast lectures or teaching materials interest me greatly. While I am continuing to put course materials together in a format suitable for audio and video, I use my laugh practice vlog as the content for experimentation.

Here's one of my earlier laughs from the vlog, updated with music and titles. Let me know what you think. At the very least, it should give you a chuckle or two.

And yes, I do know many things that are green, including frogs, broccoli, and chroma key. I just couldn't think of anything when I was laughing. Nice to have a break every now and then, don't you think?

Tolerance for Ambiguity

One of the things that I share with my students is this phrase from many job postings: "Candidate must have a tolerance for ambiguity." What this means is that the 21st century workplace tends to be a place where you won't find the specific direction and precise instructions that were hallmarks of Industrial Age workplaces.

In the Information Age, fewer people have to do more, with fewer resources, than ever before. Supervisors are more likely to say "There's a target off there somewhere, go and hit it" rather than "I want you to do this, in this way."

Instructions are more vague; outcomes less defined. They may not care exactly HOW you get to the objective, only that you reach it within a reasonable time and within budget. Workers are expected to think for themselves, problem-solve, and take initiative rather than having everything spelled out for them.

This is a key skill for our graduates. Yet it is anathema to an academic setting. By definition, school requires specific actions, with identifiable, measurable results, taken by a specific deadline. There is no room for ambiguity. And very little tolerance for lack of precision.

So does that mean that our educational system is still in the Industrial Age? Hmmmm.

Smart Quotes

Perhaps you have to BE a technical writer to understand. We care deeply about things like punctuation, typography, page layout, navigation, and usability. It keeps us up at night. We can have endless discussions on whether there should be two spaces or just one after a period. (One, people, ONE! The computer is NOT a typewriter!!) And on that particular issue the camps are divided and never the twain shall meet. (Don't even go there!)

Colleague Dick Margulis has an excellent blog on typography and had encountered a problem where the curly or "smart" quotes he was using in his posts were not showing up in the burned RSS feed summaries. Not only were they absent, they were behaving like delimiters and allowing parts of the text between them to drop out. In the end, he did two very technical-writer-ish things: he reported it as a bug to Feedburner, the folks who create the RSS feed, and he posted the problem to a list of other techwriters to garner collective wisdom on the subject.

That's what technical writers do, among other things. We try to solve problems and then explain them so other people won't have them, we get solutions from other experts, and if necessary we report the bugs so that they can be fixed.

In record time, i.e., overnight, Feedburner twiddled with something so that the smart quotes problem has disappeared. This swift response from technicians is something most techwriters only dream of. Therefore, Feedburner has gone up a few notches in my estimation! They have made the world a little safer for typographers, techwriters, and readers.

You may not have noticed, nor cared, that there is a difference between "these quotes" and “these quotes” but some of us do notice, and we do care. Someone has to.

Community in Bloom

Ya gotta love the Communities in Bloom initiative throughout the country. What better way to inspire and motivate local municipalities to beautify the streets and public places with flowers? Their stated objective: "Communities in Bloom is a Canadian organization committed to fostering civic pride, environmental responsibility and beautification through community participation and the challenge of national competition."

My neighborhood in Thornhill is no exception. We have yet to trounce our closest neighbor, Richmond Hill, which whom we share an administrative border. They have won in 2003 (National Champtions) and 2005. But I'm sure we're good contenders. I am an enthusiastic supporter -- I appreciate the flowers every day.

Last year at this time, I stopped to take this video, and have a good laugh. Laughing -- that's what I do. If you haven't seen
Laugh Practice yet, you are missing something! It's a good counterbalance to the Adversity blog, and was one of the reasons I ended up coaching a candidate on Style by Jury.

One thing leads to another you know. Enjoy the laugh. And the flowers.

New Baby!

My sweet, smart niece Rebecca and her clever, talented husband David have just added Graeme to the family, born on June 15. He is the youngest brother now to Noah and Cameron. Labour went quickly and easily enough, with Mom, baby, siblings and Papa all fine. We're very blessed to have this little guy as part of the family.

I love little boys. Big boys, too, but I just seem to have a motherly affinitiy to the little ones. My own two boys were quite a handful. And I only had two hands -- that's why I stopped at two. Had things been somewhat different, perhaps I would have gone on to have a baseball team. Ah, well.

No pictures yet of the wee one, but here are RJ and Devon, each taken at the age of 5, just as they started school. They are both now over 6 feet tall, and definitely something to be proud of. Devon served a tour in Afghanistan with 1 PPCLI; RJ is attending college. Yes, boys are super.

A Kind, Wise Friend

Today's Sunday School topic was friendship, based on the story of David and Jonathan. We're working our way through the Old Testment in a 4-year cycle that highlights each one of the four standard works each year. David and Jonathan were true friends.

The criteria for true friendship we discussed were these:

1. Your friend helps you be a better person.
   
2. Your friend keeps you from doing something that is contrary
   to your stated beliefs and values.
   
3. Your friend supports your relationship with God.
   
4. On the worst day of your life, and when you are at your worst,
   your friend stands by you and loves you anyway.
   
5. Your friend is truly joyful when you succeed, knowing that your
   success in no way diminishes theirs.

Teachers should be kind, wise friends. And you don't have to be older
to be wiser. Sometimes youth have a great deal of wisdom to share.

As a teacher, not only at Seneca but in other aspects of my life, I like
to teach others whatever it is that they might be able to learn from me. It is said that the smart person learns from experience, the truly wise person learns from the experience of others.

Experience doesn't give you wisdom. Experience makes you pay attention. You keep getting experiences until you DO pay attention. Learning from experience gives you wisdom. Therefore, I'm fairly wise. And I have paid a lot of attention. I hope my students, and others, learn from my experiences.

I like to think I am a good teacher. I try to be like the best teacher. The example is clear; I have a perfect model to learn from.