Wednesday, January 11, 2012

From Grant Writing in EM830 to Web Privacy in EM835

My semester and year ended really well in December 2011. How wonderful to feel the exhilaration of accomplishment, personal growth, and have products resulting from assignments that are useful professionally. I ended up writing a comprehensive grant modeled for a National Science Foundation program for Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics (TUES). The grant focused on training GTAs to not only teach courses and science labs, but to create immersive, interactive content suitable for virtual labs and eventually a serious game. While the particular concept may not move forward, the goals of comprehending what is sought by the funding agency, how to make a worthy case, manage a large grant, and perform innovative research are truly thrilling.

January 2012: EM835 Information Accountability and Web Privacy poses intriguing questions about the future. How interesting that game developer extraordinaire, Will Wright, has a new venture that relates somewhat to the topic of our class.
Will Wright's photo from Reuter's Article By John Gaudiosi RALEIGH, North Carolina | Mon Jan 2, 2012
  Am I the only one who recalls the Hive Mind from the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card? Let's see what Wright does with this new adventure. He is still for me, the most eclectic thinker I have ever seen.

During the December break I read Dr. Jane McGonigal's 550 page dissertation on Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and ubiquitous games. Her research has given me so much to think about for my own research into game-based learning. I sent her a tweet to let her know I read it and Jane replied that I beat her husband in reading her dissertation. Now, to apply it! Onward.


    

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