Emotionally Conscious Games Readings

I will hand copies of these out in class, but just for the record.

The Tao of Equus, Linda Kohanov: Predatory Logic pp. 92-97, Horse Training for Therapists pp. 223-241

Video Games, Fiction, and Emotion, Grant Tavinor

Neurofeedback in Psychological Practice, Frank Masterpasqua and Kathryn N Healey

Riding Between the Worlds, Linda Kohanov: Emotional Message Chart pp. 231-237

Although not directly related, some of you may be interested in looking at Epona Equestrian Services, which is Linda Kohanov's barn/business.

Readings for Thursday

Hello all, Happy Tuesday!... the assignment for Thursdays class is -

1."Lessons on the uses of ICT for out of school youth and adults in developing countries"
Bob Day and Rod Grewan

2."Inclusive education and equity an Latin America"
Todd Fletcher and Alfredo J. Artiles

3. Chapter 3 "Pedagogy of the Opressed" ("the essence of education as the practice of freedom")
Paulo Freir

I will have handouts for the 3 readings in class today-

Please also check out these sites about some of the education projects in place
(non-religious based) in Guatemala
USAID/Guatemala
Open Windows Foundation
UNICEF: Bi-Lingual Intercultural education for indigenous children
there are many, many more education projects going on in the country.... the "Rose Foundation" has some pretty nice, short videos on
YouTube, as well....

Here is a video with literacy statistics and photos from Guatemala (if your not a Rufus Wainwright fan, you may want to mute...) Video


This is a long video (an hour) about the use of Audio Technology to Reduce Global Illiteracy
I will talk about it in class, check it out if you have time-

Hope all is going well with all of your projects-

Terrorists on Twitter

Something of interest related to my presentation:
Terrorist 'tweets'? US Army warns of Twitter dangers.


As best said in the slashdot editorial about this story, "just wait until the army finds out about chat rooms and email!"

Readings. I know you're excited.

Here are some readings that might be helpful before Tuesday.

They're decently short and not too difficult to read-

One

Two

Three

It might also help to browse around PsychCafe or just google "online counseling" or "online therapy" and see what interesting sites come up. If you do this, pay attention to the design and who you think they appeal to/what they offer/what they don't offer.

I've been reading mostly books on the topic up until this week and have been looking for new materials that may be of use to share before Tuesday. If I find any, I will post them Saturday. I know that's last minute, though, and will not expect the additional reads. 

Woot. Have a good weekend!

Style Guides

Here are two style guide options to follow for your proposals. Please be sure to choose one or the other and follow it, beginning with the write up of your lit and media review.

Chicago Manuel of Style Online
APA

Emotionally Conscious Games

Video games have previously been used for recreation, but are becoming popular as a device for learning, health and other “useful” activities. This paper proposes the idea of using video games to help a person recognize and handle emotions. The term created for these emotion awareness games is “emotionally conscious games”, which descends from “socially conscious games”. Emotional well-being is often derided in today’s fast-paced, business oriented society, but emotional awareness can actually help a person make better decisions. Specific hardware devices, such as an EEG or the Emotiv EPOC headset will be needed to read brainwaves and/or emotions from the player. This data can than be processed in some meaningful way, providing some kind of useful in-game feedback. Since the “big picture” of emotionally conscious games may be too extensive for a master’s thesis, some smaller milestones are presented as more appropriate goals. Emotionally conscious games will draw from many areas, including psychology, signal processing, and game development.

For more complete details, download the .doc file.

Color and Design in Politics:Obama

I thought this blog was pretty interesting:

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/10/07/colors-for-obama/

Social Media Co-Lab

Here is a demo of Howard Rheingold's co-lab platform. Jenn, you might find some inspiration or ideas for your project.

I'm proposing to you tonight.

To view my proposal document before class (or after), you may follow this link:

Sweet sweet proposal

Neural Headset

Not sure how many of you are familiar with these, but since they'll probably relate to my research and maybe some of yours I'm posting here.

Emotiv Systems is developing a neural headset for gamers, which will be available late this year (2008). The novelty of this device is not that it can read brainwaves, but that it reads brainwaves without having to stick things to the person's head. Add in a gyroscope, and some infrared for head tracking and you could end up with a really neat device.

Another neural headset from NeuroSky, the MindSet. This one seems to work somewhat differently than the Emotiv EPOC. Both headsets read brainwaves without silicon gel. However the Mindset doesn't read facial expressions; it seems more focused on attention and eye-tracking.