Melanie McBride's Public Library

"Melanie McBride, a Toronto-based educator and researcher with Ryerson University's Experiential Design and Gaming Environments lab, echoes that sentiment.

Personal and autonomous learning is self-directed and self-selected according to the learner's own needs, preferences, and learning arrangements … Truly autonomous and personal learning means making our own choices about what we wish to play or learn with, whom we wish to learn with or from, where we want to do this learning, when we prefer to learn or play, and how we want to learn. (personal communication, October 3, 2011).

In other words, the truly personal, self-directed learning that we can now pursue in online networks and communities differs substantially from the "personalized" opportunities that some schools are opening up to students. Although it might be an important first step in putting students on a path to a more self-directed, passionate, relevant learning life, it may not bring about the true transformation that many see as the potential of this moment."

melpress learning education autonomy personalized

library tedxlibrarians melaniemcbride

mcbpress melaniemcbride tedx tedxlibrarians gaming videogames videogame worldofwarcraft wow MMORPG gamers library

Privacy also makes us productive. In a fascinating study known as the Coding War Games, consultants Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister compared the work of more than 600 computer programmers at 92 companies

privacy research groupthink teams heteronomy hegemony

writing kitten Motivation cats

"The answers Finland provides seem to run counter to just about everything America's school reformers are trying to do."

Education finland research reform book

Abstract: In this live, web-based simulation, participants play the role of senior management of a video game hardware platform producer such as Sega, Nintendo, or Microsoft. Built around a companion case study describing the launch of Sony’s PS3, participants learn about the dynamics of competition in multi-sided markets. In such markets success depends not only on a product’s price and features, but on how many people own it (a direct network externality) and on the number of games and applications available – that is, the size of the installed base of complementary products (an indirect network externality). Platform markets are increasingly common in settings besides video games, including computers, the Internet and e-commerce, mobile telecommunications, and many others.

simulations Games mit Simulation videogames video game MSTIR

Ash is a very tactile boy. He happens to have a thing for soft, silky textures….anything plush, hair, fur….touching it entices him, and soothes him too. This is the basis of his comfort objects. And his oldest, longest-lasting and most effective self-soothing technique? Feeling my hair. Daddy’s hair, if mine wasn’t available.

sensory autism processing disabled research

education eno brianeno conceptual inspiration innovation philosophy

informal education learning hastac research online learning formal

"Many of these are variations on the four fundamental grips. (And if you like this sort of thing, you should read John Napier's wonderful book.)"

design hands body interaction sensory research edgelab

"The negative reaction to gay characters in games isn't surprising, says Melanie McBride, an educator and games researcher at Ryerson University in Toronto. She says most commercial games "reinforce dominant hegemonic power relations." She adds that more game developers must acknowledge the imbalance in games that can be "intentionally alienating and intentionally non-inclusive" and that gamers should be more vocal about inclusion."

mcbpress gaming videogames citations melaniemcbride jaimewoo press articles MMO MMORPG LGBTQ queer

mcbpress WoW gaming worldofwarcraft gillespie education games gamebasedlearning GBL MMO MMRPG melaniemcbride

The eagle spends more time in the element of father sky than the other birds and father sky is the element of the spirit.

The eagle is a symbol of truth, power and freedom, as it roams the sky. Its wings represent the balance needed between male and female, each one dependant upon strengths and abilities of the other.

The eagle was given the honor of carrying the prayers of man between the world of earth and the world of spirit where our creator and the grandfathers reside.

Therefore, when one holds the eagle feather, one must speak the truth in as positive a way as one can, for the ear of our creator is that much closer to the feather of the eagle.

feather feathers symbols belief education truth power freedom mel FN Cree

"This brings be to the main point of this blog post, which is the notion of playbor. I first came across the term—a combination of ‘play’ and ‘labor’—on the Web site for a conference on digital labor hosted by The New School in New York. The Internet as Playground and Factory notes that, “Today, communication is a mode of social production facilitated by new capitalist imperatives and it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between play, consumption and production, life and work, labor and non-labor.” The simple idea driving the playbor discussion: What happens when we collapse the often conflicting interests of work, personal ambitions, and entertainment into a single activity?"

research play edge playbor

tedx tedxlibrarians speaking presenting

jamesgee gee GBL gamesbasedlearning gaming games research video learning

fanfom wow redshirtguy convergence affinity literacies resource example gaming videogames

videogames gaming games research

play behavior games bartle playertypes gaming gbl research