Medulla: A 2D sidescrolling platformer game that teaches basic brain structure and function

This article explores the design and instructional effectiveness of Medulla, an educational game meant to teach brain structure and function to undergraduate psychology students. Developed in the retro-style platformer genre, Medulla uses two-dimensional gameplay with pixel-based graphics to engage students in learning content related to the brain, information which is often pre-requisite to more rigorous psychological study. A pretest posttest design was used in an experiment assessing Medulla’s ability to teach psychology content. Results indicated content knowledge was significantly higher on the posttest than the pretest, with a large effect size. Medulla appears to be an effective learning tool. These results have important implications in the design of educational psychology games and for educational game designers and artists exploring the possibility of using a two-dimensional retro-style structure

Engaging Others in Online Social Networking Sites: Rhetorical Practices in MySpace and Facebook

While computers and composition researchers are concerned with the theoretical and pedagogical impacts of new technologies in our field, these researchers have only recently begun to consider the ramifications of the growing use of online social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook in academia. This dissertation fills a much-needed space in the field in its consideration of the pedagogical implications of social networking sites. Online social networking sites can provide teachable moments to talk with students about audience, discourse communities, intellectual property, and the tensions between public and private writing. Thus, if writing instructors ignore the growing conversation regarding online social networking sites, they may potentially miss out on familiar and accessible spaces for teaching rhetorical analysis.In this dissertation, through a qualitative analysis of undergraduate students and university writing instructors, I trace common threads in these individuals' attitudes and perceived beliefs about MySpace and Facebook. In chapters 1 and 2 I draw on Michel Foucault's theories of bio-power and confession to raise questions and concerns regarding pedagogical uses and abuses of online social networking sites, focusing specifically on issues of privacy and surveillance. In chapter 3, I outline the methods and methodologies that guided the qualitative portion of my study; the results of this study are reported in chapters 4 (students' views of social networking) and 5 (instructors' views), respectively. In chapter 5, I use technological literacy as a framework to argue that the immense popularity of online social networking sites coupled with the sheer amount of writing produced by students in these sites provides a compelling reason for rhetoric and composition instructors to begin paying attention to online social networking sites. To conclude chapter 5, I provide specific classroom activities that focus on MySpace and Facebook for instructors interested in bringing social networking back to the classroom. These classroom materials can be adapted to multiple classroom settings and can be modified based on a particular instructor's pedagogical needs

In defense of “slacktivism”: The Human Rights Campaign Facebook logo as digital activism

This paper examines the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Marriage Equality logo as an example of a meme to further understandings of memetic transmission in social media technologies. The HRC meme is an important example of how even seemingly insignificant moves such as adopting a logo and displaying it online can serve to combat microaggressions, or the damaging results of everyday bias and discrimination against marginalized groups. This article suggests that even small moves of support, such as changing one’s Facebook status to a memetic image, assist by demonstrating a supportive environment for those who identify with marginalized groups and by drawing awareness to important causes. Often dismissed as “slacktivism,” I argue instead that the digital activism made possible through social media memes can build awareness of crucial issues, which can then lead to action

Turning the Lens of Belief to the Classroom: Undergraduates’ Critical Engagement with Research

Students sometimes take for granted that peer-reviewed research automatically confers a scholarly ethos that is not always supported by the content of the piece. In this poster session, I argue for the inclusion of work related to “the lens of belief” in the undergraduate classroom, asking students to engage with published research through a critical rhetorical lens in order to move away from blind acceptance of any peer-reviewed work, and instead approach all research by attending to its rhetorical situation. The poster describes an exercise that can be adapted for undergraduate courses that asks students to engage critically with research

Effective Social Media Use In Online Writing Classes Through Universal Design For Learning (Udl) Principles

This article explores how universal design for learning (UDL) principles can be used to effectively scaffold social media in online writing courses. It offers proposed best practices for user-centered design in online environments when using social media. These include offering alternative assignments, using accessible social media technologies, and encouraging students to critique social media\u27s affordances and constraints. Thus, readers may take away from this article some practical suggested approaches that can help support technologically enhanced classroom environments involving social media

Training Online Technical Communication Educators To Teach With Social Media: Best Practices And Professional Recommendations

The author reports on social media research in technical and professional communication (TPC) training through a national survey of 30 professional and technical communication programs asking about their use of social media in technical communication. This research forms the basis of recommendations for training online TPC faculty to teach with social media. The author offer recommendations throughout for those who train online TPC faculty as well as for the teachers themselves

Policies, Terms Of Service, And Social Networking Games

Social networking games are embedded within the complex networks of online social networking spaces (Juul 2010, 20). They are not simple, mindless puzzle games but instead require sophisticated levels of information literacy and fluency from players. Based on the popular television series franchise CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Zuiker 2000), CSI: Crime City is one of two social networking games offered by game developer Area/Code and distributor Ubisoft in an overall series of 13 different CSI franchise games. Kitchen Scramble is a time-management casual game that allows players to manage the kitchen of a food truck. Based on the popular card game Yu-Gi-Oh! (Konami 1999), the Facebook version, Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM, is described as an “online social dueling app [wherein] you can challenge your friends, build a Deck from over 600 specially adapted cards, collect rewards and duel opponents of all abilities”

Social Media As Multimodal Composing: Networked Rhetorics And Writing In A Digital Age

Social media, once considered a niche technology that few people used, is now ubiquitous worldwide. Social networks in particular have become increasingly prominent in the past decade, with technologies such as Facebook (launched in 2004), Reddit (2005), and Twitter (2006) becoming an indispensable part of daily life for many in the intervening ten years