#12 - Gaming in Libraries
..."If you don't offer them something they value now, you're going to be irelevant to them the rest of their lives." Eli Neiburger (Gaming in Libraries Symposium, December, 2005)
Learning Objectives
- Learn how libraries are using are using online and video games to promote learning and technology skills.
- Learn about virtual communities, like Second Life and how they are being implented in libraries.
- What is Dance Dance Revolution anyway?
- What is an "avatar"?
- Review the Learn More: Avatars tutorial.
- Second Life: Info Insland Archipelago Tour (on YouTube)
- "When everything is available online, why come to the library at all?" See how Aarhus Public Library in Denmark is answering that Questions (via YouTube).
Skills Practice
- Go to Just for Kids: Games and play one of the education games that the library offers through it's Web site.
- Explore one of the more popular online games that our young customers are playing in the library - how about World of Warcraft or RuneScape?
- Go to YouTube and watch a view clips of Dance Dance Revolution.
- Learn about Speed Stacks; how would you incorporate this into a teen or adult program at the library?
Experience Sharing
- Share your gaming experiences on your Learning 2.0 blog.
- Did you create an avatar of any of the online games you explored? Why not share that image on your blog as well.
Resources
- Library Technology Reports (July/August, 2006) - "Gaming in Libraries."
- Christy Branston, "From Game Studies to Bibliographic Gaming: Libraries Tap into the Video Game Culture."
- Ameet Doshi, "How Gaming Could Inprove Information Literacy."
- Donald T. Hawkins and Barbara Brynko, "Gaming: The Next Hot Technology for Libraries."
- Popular Mechanics, "Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look (with Video)." Is this gaming or computing?
- SirsiDynix Institute, "Teen Second Life: Library Services in a 3D World."
- "Second Life" on Wikipedia.
- "RuneScape" on Wikipedia.
- "World of Warcraft" on Wikipedia.
