Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Denmark

Our last class was awesome, but it brought up some questions that are really disturbing.  Most namely, is Denmark heading the way of other neo-liberal nation-states? It such a depressing thought to contemplate.  Denmark is great because it is so democratic and value individuals holistically. I really hope that in 10 years or 20 years Denmark will have been able to maintain its societal values and not caved to the pressure of the EU and the rest of the world to be so market driven that individuals exist solely for their own economic benefit.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Games for the Adult Learner

Just finished two readings for tomorrow's class, both by T.D. Henrikson.  The first one was entirely beyond me.  I think it was supposed to determine the difference between gaming and simulation.  I'm still not sure that for adult games there's a difference - or at least not one that is obvious to me.

The second reading was interesting in that I now have an understanding of what the Nordic EIS game/simulation is about. However, I still feel like I'm missing the point.

Here's my personal perspective.  Games for adults do not need to be 'fun' - they need to be challenging and learner specific.  What's challenging for one learner could be dull and too basic for another or too difficult to cope with for the next.

But really, I don't want to go into work one day and be told I have to play some stupid game so that my team doesn't look bad.  Seriously, most games/simulations are terrible.  I'd rather just be given another policy to read, or better - a video to watch and be left alone.  Fake simulations with little/no real-life value are a waste of time, as are most role-playing exercises.  Most role-playing involves characters given a 6 line paragraph about who they are - and then they can't even answer basic questions about their issues, roles, etc.  The only role playing exercises I've been a part of that were any good were with the Red Cross Disaster Management program - realistic, challenging, a bit stressful as are most real new situations for people, and 'fun'.  The key to this being a success was that we played ourselves in new roles - we didn't play some 1-dimensional character and we were armed only with the knowledge we already had and had to learn on the fly.  We left feeling like we could handle a disaster situation - despite any procedural errors it would all work out.

For an actual game - I recommend Cranium.  I don't promise you'll learn anything, but it will be fun!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Neo-liberalism

One of the things I really dislike about living in North America is how consumer-oriented (read: greedy) everyone is.  The goal of the neo-liberal state is is to ensure that it is responding to market needs with the private sector driving political and economic priorities. Definitely this has been instilled in my psyche somewhere, but I dream of simpler times, where economic stability and social equality are the goals of the day. Won't continued economic growth result in some sort of fatal collapse? Isn't this constantly growing entity a bit cancer-like?