GLS conference

As I mentioned earlier, I'm in Madison at the GLS Conference, and it's pretty nice to see a pretty cool academic dialogue take place about games. Here's the chance to see John Seely Brown, Eric Zimmerman, Jesper Juul, Doug Church, and some of the other folks whose stuff I've been reading, and put faces and personalities next to their writing (ah, the importance of physicality). I'd have to say that one of my favorite presentations was the one on Second Life, where Cory ___ and James Cook spoke of some of the things they've been trying to do there, and some of the obstacles and issues they've been running into. I've got notes, and if I were smarter, I'd have taken them directly on the computer, but my computer got conscripted to be the printer computer since no one else had (or was willing to download) the driver for the Samsung ML1740 (which sucks, btw). So I haven't had much tech access.

Speaking of, my new PPC HP iPaq 5455 has dead keys (P and 9), and I need to return it for replacement. That's a pain in my butt, and pretty darn inconvenient since the whole thing was so late to be delivered in the first place. This will place a pretty horrid (further) delay on the development of my "Mystery Trip" game. 

Yesterday I saw these: 

    SYMPOSIUM Cory Ondrejka & Dr. James Cook Brace for Impact: How User Creation Changes Everything CASE IN POINT Megan S. Conklin 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom Constance Steinkuehler Session Chair

    INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS Games, Learning and Identity David Squire Creating Links - RPG Characterisation, Identity and Learning Elisabeth Hayes Gendered Identities at Play Lisa Galarneau  The Power of Perspective: Games and Simulations for Transformative Learning Kurt Squire  Respondent

    SYMPOSIUM Extending the Reach of Games Douglas Thomas Teaching (not so long ago) in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Using Star Wars Galaxies (in/as) the Classroom Joshua Fouts Public Diplomacy and MMOGs: Rethinking Foreign Policy, Cultural Understanding, and Peace through Play Stephen Gillett Guild Building is Skill Building: How guild building leadership & management skills learned in MMORPGs transcend into the real world of a startup company John Seely Brown Moderator Connie Yowell Respondent

    

Today I saw these: 

    SYMPOSIUM Playing Culture Jesper Juul & Eric Zimmerman Respondent :Henry Jenkins

    WORKSHOP Sasha Barab The Quest Atlantis Project: A Socially Responsive Play Space for Learning. David Shaffer  Session Chair

    SYMPOSIUM A Conversation Across Generations of Media Scholars Henry Jenkins & Kurt Squire & David Bordwell & Jonathan Frome. Moderator : Jay Lemke

    INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS Designing Games Robin Hunicke The Case for Dynamic Assessment, Doug Church Games and Improvisation, John Seely Brown  Respondent

Too bad the free wireless is only 28k, but I suppose I should be happy that it's free. 

I think I saw Robin Hunicke at AERA. Or at least there's something really familiar about her and what she's saying.