Busynessgirl

NPS and Gamification

busynessgirl — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 03:52:32 +0000

Last weekend I visited Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument for a 3-day digital detox. [Yes, believe it or not, I can put away the Interwebs for 3 whole days.]

While hiking in Bryce Canyon, I stumbled across a bit of gamification of the hiking trails called Hike the Hoodoos Challenge.

With all the hype about digital badges and gamification lately, I can’t help but wonder why the NPS doesn’t take this a step further and develop a digital mobile game where you can earn activity badges in all the National Parks and Monuments by hiking the trails. It seems that you could just as easily use QR codes on the signage to “check in” to various trailheads via a mobile app. Better yet, let state parks get in on the action.

Maybe you’d rather just see the pictures though … here’s Bryce Canyon and our hike to the Queen’s Garden.

And here’s Cedar Breaks National Monument (we took the 2-mile hike to Spectra Point/Ramparts Overlook Trail)

Of course, if the NPS did create a mobile app game for hiking (Hiking the National Parks with Zombies?), then I suppose I would have to carry my phone with me, huh? Here I am, sans Internet-enabled digital devices.

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Board Games that Change Attitudes

busynessgirl — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:52:27 +0000

Two weeks ago I attended the APF ProDev Gathering in Orlando on the future of Games and Simulations. A great time was had by all, and we had an enlightening time thinking about what games and simulations would be used for 10-15 years from now. Several games I learned about are worthy of mention here:

Buffalo (by tiltfactor) is a game that has been shown to change your attitude about stereotyping careers based on gender and ethnicity. You wouldn’t really know that from playing it, but players walk away being more aware of how much they know (or didn’t know) about women and minorities holding non-traditional positions (CEOs, programmers, scientists, etc.).

Cards Against Humanity is really an “Apples to Apples” style game that should only be played by adults (and possibly only by adults that are consuming alcoholic beverages). This is a game that is interesting in many ways – one is that the game was originally a kickstarter, and the designers have made a small fortune on the game. But secondarily, I’m pretty sure that playing this game lowers your moral standards (so yes, it changes your attitudes). I don’t have any research to back that up, but trust me on this one. Don’t play this game with your parents.

Pox: Save the People (and, of course, ZombiePox) is about stopping the spread of a deadly disease. You can choose to vaccinate against the disease or cure the disease. Curing takes more resources than vaccination.

One more game that I think is worthy of mention (though it is one I’ve known about for a while) is Train, by Brenda Brathwaite. This is a game that explores the “devastation and tragedy of the Holocaust.” Read more in the WSJ article: Can you Make a Board Game about the Holocaust?

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Navigating Twitter Tutorial: The Basics

busynessgirl — Sat, 04 May 2013 13:39:11 +0000

This is a short 6-min tutorial to help new and existing Twitter users learn a bit more about navigating in the Twitter web application. Do you know where to find the code to embed a tweet? How about where to make a new list or follow a list? How do you view a tweetstream as a conversation? What’s the difference between a mention and a reply? Who can see a mention? Who can see a reply? Learn it here.

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LinkedIn Connection Timeline

busynessgirl — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:14:16 +0000

Just a little demo of what the LinkedIn Lab Connection Timeline shows you. A visual representation of who your connections are from different phases in your life.

Here’s How:

Go to LinkedIn Labs Connection Timeline.
Follow the directions to sign in to your LinkedIn account and share your data.
Wait.

Enjoy!

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WolframAlpha Facebook Report

busynessgirl — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:53:21 +0000

This is a delightful exercise that everyone seems to love. WolframAlpha will provide you with an extremely detailed analysis of your own Facebook data including visualizations, world clouds, graphs, and more.

Here’s how:

Go to WolframAlpha.com.
Type “Facebook Report” and execute the search.
Allow WolframAlpha to have access to your Facebook account by clicking on “Analyze my Facebook Data” and following the directions.
Wait while the data is analyzed.

Note: Sometimes the report seems to stall after 100% of the data is analyzed. If this happens, simply repeat steps 1-3. The second time, the report seems to load just fine.

Enjoy!

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My Social Media Story

busynessgirl — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:48:09 +0000

Here’s the story about how I came to use social media and why. If you’ve had trouble understanding why on earth people use social media, this might be helpful. I used social media to track my dissertation progress and develop a network of interested colleagues. I used social media to learn how to become a digital game designer. I use social media to stay connected to and learn from a fascinating collection of futurists, math education colleagues, social media experts, and data visualization folks from around the world. This is something I put together for my Social Media MOOC.

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Facebook Tip: Tagging Just a First Name

busynessgirl — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:45:08 +0000

Have you ever wanted to tag someone in a Facebook status update using just their first name? Here’s how. This tip is brought to you by the Secret Technology Club.

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Data Sleuthing

busynessgirl — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:37:10 +0000

Khan Academy Idaho is a grant-funded initiative to help K-12 teachers in Idaho integrate digital devices and the Khan Academy program into their math classrooms. Yesterday I gave a keynote there called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” about (1) the challenges facing math educators and (2) Data Sleuthing, a way to encourage math curiosity and data literacy in students.

Resources from this presentation:

Homework from the Presentation

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Activity Icons for Online Course Design

busynessgirl — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:26:31 +0000

When I went to build my Social Media MOOC, I wanted to find a great set of icons to visually clue students to the learning activities in the course. I looked high and low, but couldn’t find an icon set that had all the types of icons that I wanted (Discussions, Read, Write, Tweet, Watch, and Groupwork). In the end, I gave up and just hacked together my own icons.

If you’d like to add to the set, I used the IcoMoon App (and the free IcoMoon library), with hex color 2c5782 and 32 pixel heights. These icon fonts were then layered onto a rounded button in Adobe Illustrator.

You can browse the course if you want to see how the icons are used. Here is an example:

If you’d like to use the course activity icons, you’re welcome to do so. Download the course activity icons zip file, which contains all 6 icons and the adobe illustrator file for the rounded square icon (in case you’d like to build your own). I will take requests to build more icons for about a week and then create a second batch. Let me know if there’s a learning activity that you need an icon for in your online course. If you create some and would like to share them, that would be great! I’ll add them to the zip file for others to use.

Note that I am not a graphic designer, nor do I play one on TV. If you are a graphic designer, and want to make cleaner icons or different design sets of icons, I’d be happy to share or link to those too.

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Canvas Network Social Media Course

busynessgirl — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:55 +0000

I’ve been working hard on developing an open course for Canvas Network on Social Media. The course is now live and publicly visible. This means you can see all the content pages and modules (but not the discussions or announcements). If you’d like to take a peek, visit Social Media on Canvas Network. Here’s a preview of what you’ll see:

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