![Prufrock Poster in Second Life](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-images\/eliot_poster_001.jpg?w=584\")
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The next podcast from the University of Mary Washington’s Faculty Academy 2006<\/a> features Rachel Smith<\/a> of the New Media Consortium<\/a>. Her topic: “Gaming in Education<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Rachel has inspired a number of changes in my life, including some recent investigations into Second Life<\/a>. That exploration has had several effects: some impassioned conversation<\/a>, sometimes a little less sleep than usual, and most interesting of all, a sudden rush of understanding (or at least partial understanding–mustn’t be presumptious) between me and my two children, ages 15 and 11. Sure, I IM, I blog, I Skype, I have an account on Facebook where my students poke me and write on my wall, and my online bona fides seem pretty, ah, bona<\/em> around my dream team<\/a> and most of my colleagues. I’ve done some twitch games, watched my son become enthralled by Guitar Hero<\/a> (arena-rocking to the music I grew up with–what’s not to like about that?), paid some Continuous Partial Attention to my daughter’s Neopets<\/a> activities, even hoofed it now and then with Dance Dance Revolution<\/a>, where there’s a pretty good version of “Let’s Groove” that I really need to get back to. But it wasn’t until I started to get comfortable with a persistent online world and an avatar that I created, one who looks the way I’d like<\/em> to look–buff, but winsomely so, and sans corrective lenses–that I began to understand something crucial of what my kids prize about their online interaction and creativity.<\/p>\n Listening again to Rachel’s thoughtful, funny, and sensible remarks on gaming, I realize that she prepared me to make a leap I needed to make, and that life after the leap is pretty much the way it was before, with the exception of a new, brilliant window I can suddenly see through. I won’t pretend I can recognize (or even focus on) everything I see through that window<\/a>, nor will I conclude, prematurely, that everything beyond the pane is paradise. I’m pretty sure it isn’t. But for this habitual learner, the latest lesson has been fun, illuminating, intellectually stimulating, and a new avenue of contact with my children–and perhaps my students as well.<\/p>\n Thanks, Rachel.<\/p>\n Technical Note<\/em>: This podcast was recorded with a Sound Projects C3 condenser microphone at the front of the room, set on a figure-8 pattern to grab audience response as well as speaker audio. The mic was powered by (and fed) a Mackie mixer, which in turn fed the line input of an Edirol R-1 digital audio recorder. Audio was captured in mp3 format at 320kbps. Post-production was done in Sound Forge 8 by converting the mp3 recording to a .wav 16 bit\/44.1khz sampling rate format. If I had it all to do over again, I’d put a wireless mic on Rachel. I love the Sound Projects mic, but you’ll hear a number of level changes and a lot of off-axis miking that took a long time in post-production to get even to this condition, which I hope is listenable. The speaker really does need to be untethered, and the mic needs to follow her. Live and learn.<\/p>\n