A framework for the design and analysis of socially pervasive games

Pervasive games have the potential to create large social impacts on players and non-players alike. However, this can only happen when the game becomes integrated and accepted within a social community - or in other words, is socially adopted in its target environment. A socially pervasive game must also adapt to allow people to play at their own convenience. In my research I describe Powell’s Pervasive Play Lens (3PL), a framework for the design and analysis of socially pervasive games. 3PL is a powerful model that elaborates the magic circle to illustrate the concentric boundaries of play that surround socially pervasive games, helping designers understand when and how a person and a community might adopt a new pervasive game. This 3PL framework and theory have been applied to develop and refine Snag’em, a human scavenger hunt that has been applied to help students learn professional networking skills in several conferences over three years. I present my findings in a design research narrative that details the complex and rich social environments for Snag’em and the evolution of it’s design over several iterations. This narrative illustrates the application of 3PL and how designers can predict and measure how particular game elements create affordances that increase the acceptance, adoption, and adaptability of socially pervasive games

Deconstructing liberated subjects

This dissertation offers a critique of liberatory practices and projects that locate "voice" as the means to and sign of liberation. This work contributes to queer and trans* scholarship on emancipatory practices and offers insights for critical pedagogy. My project situates "voice," and the liberatory projects dependent on it, within a political "economy of vulnerability" that circulates and produces vulnerable bodies. I foreground the transgender student and the quiet student as two types of queer bodies and subjects that are mutually constituted within this economy. Though the pairing of quiet and trans* may seem irregular, considering them together serves as a wedge to get at the larger regime within which the privileging of voice, specific understandings of the body, and contemporary politics of liberation and empowerment operate. I focus in particular on visual and other cultural texts to examine the complex workings of the "economy of vulnerability." This analysis reveals the abstract surveillance machine that produces, for example, both conflicts about trans* access to bathrooms and the politics of school shootings

Questions & Answers (Addressing the Achievement Gap)

In Questions & Answers, we speak with Eric Cooper of the National Urban Alliance for effective education and Frankie Powell from the Maya Angelou Institute. They discuss two distinct approaches to address the achievement gap, Cooper focusing on aligning instructional practice with parental support in the home, and Powell with mobilizing community assets to enrich students' learning opportunities. In both cases, they urge action research as an invaluable tool for teacher practice as well as school-level strategic planning

Saving Ourselves: A Rural Breast Cancer Education Project

It is difficult to understand breast cancer disparities without some explanation of their context. According to the most recent data, mortality rates continue to decline in European American women. For example, in the decade of 2001-2004, the rate decreased by 3.7% annually; however, African American women continue to be more likely to die from breast cancer than European American women. One purpose of this proposed research project is to address the increasing disparity in women obtaining mammograms. Specifically this study also seeks to determine what do minority women in Robeson County know about mammograms, self breast examinations and clinical breast examinations

The effects of a physical activity program on mood states in college students

College students are at risk for adverse mental and physical health. Physical activity (PA) can reduce risks and promote positive mental health; however, less than half (49.9%) of college students meet the American College of Sports Medicine (2017) recommendations for PA. The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate an evidence-based PA program (#ubwell) designed in collaboration with university counseling services to enhance mood states and promote continued PA in college students. The program was held for 5 weeks. Students (n = 21) completed pre and post measures of perceived health, PA participation, intrinsic motivation, and mood states, and a post program evaluation. Additionally, participants recorded Feeling Scale and Felt Arousal Scale ratings before, during (mid-way) and after each weekly PA session. Results showed intrinsic motivation significantly increased from pre to post (p = .02). Participants experienced increases in positive feelings and energy levels across all PA sessions. However, pre and post measures of perceived health, PA participation, and mood states did not differ. Confounding factors such as participant illness, campus mourning (i.e., deaths of two students the week before), and mid-term/final exams may have influenced results. Possibly, PA provided a coping strategy during those stressful times that maintained mood and PA participation levels. Additional research with larger samples and longer programs may provide greater insight into the benefits of PA programs for mental health and wellness

Evaluating sexual prejudice among substance abuse counselors

Sexual minority individuals seeking substance abuse treatment services are not immune from barriers of sexual prejudice. Although ethical standards and recommended best practice guideline admonish substance abuse counselors harboring sexual prejudice, research demonstrates the continued existence of sexual prejudice. Research into the nature of sexual prejudice of substance abuse counselors has been conducted for many decades, resulting in accepted associated variables of sexual prejudice. This study explored sexual prejudice as predicted by religious beliefs, education level, and various demographic factors of substance abuse counselors. The research design included bivariate correlational and regression analyses to evaluate data from substance abuse counselors who were members in a national association of substance abuse counselors. The sample of 652 substance abuse counselors completed a confidential online survey. Results indicated moderately strong correlations between sexual prejudice, religious beliefs, and the demographic variables of race, familiarity with sexual minority issues, gender, and age. Religious beliefs, race, familiarity with sexual minority issues, gender, and age were all significantly negatively correlated with sexual prejudice. Multiple regression results indicated that 47% of the sexual prejudice variance was accounted for by religious beliefs, education level, and the demographic variables of race, gender, age, and familiarity with sexual minority issues, though education level was not a significant predictor. Implications of the results for the fields of counseling and substance abuse treatment are discussed

Anomaly

ANOMALY is a dramatic dance. It is concerned with fear of new ideas and with violence and intolerance that are often a result of this fear. Because of the dramatic and emotional content of the piece the choreographer chose to make this statement of fear of new ideas by illustrating it through a specific event. The dance has a plot that has to be carefully revealed so that an audience could follow it. The choreographer used the flash back technique. It became important to the choreographer to know how the audience perceives in order to know what images to present. It then became necessary to investigate theories of perception. Rudolf Arnheim was found to have several publications that were applicable. The music used was Claude Debussy's Le Martyre de St. Sebastian. The dance has six people, a soloist who represents the Anomaly, and two groups of two and three who represent people who cannot tolerate new ideas. The soloist and the two groups are seen all together as the lights come up. The set suggests a barren, formidable place full of rocks and crags. The costumes they wear suggest Medieval skirts but are intended to be symbolic rather than authentic in representation. We get the impression that something horrible has happened when the groups rush frantically to center stage. Their agitated movements subside as they seem to calm themselves and they turn, each in a different direction, and move off stage all doing the same movement pattern. All this is done to silence

Zora Neal Hurston, An Exemplar of Intersectionality of Black Womanhood, Professionalism, and Artistic Talent

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), the most prominent of the Harlem Renaissance women writers, was unique because her social and professional connections were not limited to literature but encompassed theatre, dance, film, anthropology, folklore, music, politics, high society, academia, and artistic bohemia. Hurston published four novels, three books of nonfiction, and dozens of short stories, plays, and essays. In addition, she won a long list of fellowships and prizes, including a Guggenheim and a Rosenwald.The perennial work of Zora Neale Hurston is a grand model for women of color to exemplify. Her intersectionality of being an HBCU graduate and sorority member resonates in our lives and informs our individual talents and professional development as women

Making HERstory: A Black Women's Panel

AAUW and the NAACP hosted a panel of African American female professors discussing discrimination, human rights, stereotypes, being a double minority, and gender equity

Training the Person of the Therapist in an Academic Setting

Drexel University’s Couple and Family Therapy Department recently introduced a formal course on training the person of a therapist. The course is based on Aponte’s Person-of-the-Therapist Training Model that up until now has only been applied in private, nonacademic institutes with postgraduate therapists. The model attempts to put into practice a philosophy that views the full person of therapists, and their personal vulnerabilities in particular, as the central tool through which therapists do their work in the context of the client–therapist relationship. This article offers a description of how this model has been tested with a group of volunteer students, and subsequently what had to be considered to formally structure the training into the Drexel curriculum. Historically the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) has struggled with how to integrate self-of-the-therapist training into school curricula (Watson, 1993). There are at least three current challenges that require educational programs to revisit their stance on how to conduct this training in an efficacious and ethical manner. First, the impending development of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s clinical competencies (http://www.aamft.org) will require educational programs to determine how to instruct and evaluate competency in the area of the self of the therapist. Second, training programs will grapple with how to assist therapists’ development at a personal level that is in keeping with accreditation standards and does not morph into therapy. Third, as the profession moves toward more integrative approaches, the question presents itself of how to position self-of-the-therapist training into curricula that are compatible with a yet evolving complex of therapy models. The purpose of this article is twofold: to further the conceptualization and articulation of self-of-the-therapist training in graduate programs, as well as to illustrate how one academic institution, Drexel University’s Couple and Family Therapy Department, is attempting to implement one model of training on the use of self, the Person-of-the-Therapist Training Model (POTT). We will describe the theory, the application of the model, and some administrative challenges to institutionalizing the model