REFLECTIONS  - GAMING SYMPOSIUM

ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium home page including full list of sessions with links: http://gaming.techsource.ala.org/index.php/Main_Page

1. General/Overall Impressions:
+ The enthusiasm of the more than 300 participants keeps on encouraging me to create beneficial games.---Larry Mykytiuk (LM)

+ There really is no limit to the use of games in outreach and learning.---LM

2. Especially Interesting/Useful Things Learned:
+ Experiential learning comes from immersion in a situation in which you make decisions, usually with goals to achieve despite threats or obstacles and with resources to help in the struggle.  Such learning has the power not merely to inform (as when memorizing a "grocery list" for an exam), but to _convince_ the learner that certain things work and other things don't.  Perhaps because of the emotional charge attached to the things learned, they tend to stay in permanent memory.---LM

+ The observation of the first keynote speaker, Henry Jenkins of MIT, that gamers are involved in a _participatory_culture_, explains a lot of things: • low barriers to publicizing creative expression, as in blogs and Wikipedia (_contra_ academic culture, which stresses high, rigorous standards as a requirement for publication), • support for creating and sharing via • a social connection among members, as when two girlfriends wrote something like 38,000 words in a month for their role-playing game (RPG), • informal mentorship, as when a middle schooler taught two adults how to play a game, • the feeling that "my contribution matters," which helps adolescents achieve two developmental tasks: establishing their independence and coming into a sense of self-worth.---LM 

+ To play a game is to adopt a temporary, imaginary life.  This can be used to great advantage, and should be, up to the point where gaming begins to replace real life.---LM

+ The idea that gaming (even in academic libraries) can serve an important purpose, even if existing "just for fun." That the more serious learning games are not all that may be appropriate or effective for institutions of learning. Gaming has major implications for marketing, outreach, and library as PLACE (social and otherwise). -- CFR
  

3.  Thoughts About Possible Implications/Ideas for Gaming in the Purdue Libraries:

+ What if the OPAC could teach better searching? (from Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe of UIUC in substitute session "Gaming in the Library" 23JULY2007)---LM

+ Flickr can show the value of controlled vocabulary. (from Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe in substitute session "Gaming in the Library" 23JULY2007).---LM

+ Short games of 5 to 10 minutes could be used for in-class instruction (from Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe in substitute session "Gaming in the Library" 23JULY2007), but should be used _outside_ of class as an extension of it. (Scott Mandernack, 24JULY2007, who, fortunately, was not driving at the time, given his use of sweeping, enthusiastic gestures as a means of communication.  Thank you, Dave Eisert, for driving us back, thereby saving our lives.  Only kidding, Scott!)  Lisa Hinchliffe's idea finds an echo in the idea of using "express" versions of previously designed games for in-class assignments (Amy Harris and Scott Rice of UNCG [Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro] 24JULY2007, who at least put Scott Mandernack in the minority, even if he be right.  I agree that in general, the best use for even short games is outside of class, but still there might be some times when they can be used to advantage during class.)---LM

+ If ignorance of library location(s) or "library anxiety" (i.e., unfamiliarity with surroundings in a library makes people reluctant to come and makes it difficult for them to use its internal, physical resources) are problems, then BIG games is a likely solution.  The campus and the interior of a library(ies) become the game board, the clues/prizes/codes are in the libraries, and the referees/witnesses are the library staff (Gregory Trefry of GameLab 24JULY2007 http://gaming.techsource.ala.org/index.php/Big_Fun,_Big_Learning:_Transforming_the_World_through_Play ).---LM

+ If the libraries have a gaming night, • a "color commentator" (like Eli Neiburger) can keep the game spirit riding high for players and onlookers.  Otherwise, people can become inhibited and shy away from playing with abandon, • librarians and tech staff should join in with students [lest they think we are not the same life form]. (Lynn Sutton & Giz Womack, both of Wake Forest Univ., and Lori Critz  of Georgia Inst. of Technology 23JULY2007)---LM

+ Vendors are happy to lend equipment, even as much as two months early. (Lynn Sutton, Giz Womack, and Lori Critz 23JULY2007)---LM

+ Gaming nights and/or gaming events in association with welcome/orientation week could serve as a good opportunity to market and bring students into the libraries (per Wake Forest, Georgia, Illinois, etc.) -- CFR

Hey everyone, I don't mean to be anti-wiki or anti-collaborative, but I wrote up my notes as a whole report.  I am just going to link to it from here.  Not sure if this is the right place, but I will put it here for now.  I will try to go back and extract relevant thoughts similar to what Larry has done.  --Jeremy