Rants about digital arts, photography and university.

So the idea seems to be that theory allows for practice which in turn refines theory.  And experimental practices inspire re-theorizing and turning new practices into common ones, where the new theory succeeds.  It’s all mildly confusing, but very logical.

I like the idea that MIT students are talking about using games in the classroom to master the content of their curriculum.  I also appreciate the fact that the article discusses the idea that a person is not turned into a psycho killer through games, and associates it with the fact that nobody has been turned into a scientist or anything else through the medium of gaming.  In that context, however, it’s also interesting to see what aspects of gaming can be applied to altering a person’s mind within the frame of a classroom.  The fact that gaming is a sort of simulation would allow for concepts taught in class to be experienced in a real-world-like environment.

It’s interesting to consider the implications of a game as a social environment and the idea of illuminative tensions.  I personally find the idea of collaboration versus competition to be a very interesting topic, but the analysis of offline vs online gameplay is also fascinating.  In the end, they’re somewhat interrelated, though, in that web-based gameplay fosters collaboration, whereas offline play is more conducive to competition, in that the person is always playing against the game/programmer.