Download or read book Avatars at Work and Play written by Ralph Schroeder and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-07-08 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Avatars at Work and Play brings together contributions from leading social scientists and computer scientists who have conducted research on virtual environments used for collaboration and online gaming. They present a well-rounded and state-of-the-art overview of current applications of multi-user virtual environments, ranging from highly immersive virtual reality systems to internet-based virtual environments on personal computers. The volume is a follow-up to a previous essay collection, ‘The Social Life of Avatars’, which explored general issues in this field. This collection goes further, examining uses of shared virtual environments in practical settings such as scientific collaboration, distributed meetings, building models together, and others. It also covers online gaming in virtual environments, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of users and presents an opportunity for studying a myriad of social issues. Covering both ‘work’ and ‘play’, the volume brings together issues common to the two areas, including: What kind of avatar appearance is suitable for different kinds of interaction? How best to foster collaboration and promote usable shared virtual spaces? What kinds of activities work well in different types of virtual environments and systems?
Download or read book The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods written by Nigel G Fielding and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2008-06-24 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is the first to provide comprehensive, up-to-the-minute coverage of contemporary and developing Internet and online social research methods, spanning both quantitative and qualitative research applications. The editors have brought together leading names in the field of online research to give a thoroughly up to date, practical coverage, richly illustrated with examples. The chapters cover both methodological and procedural themes, offering readers a sophisticated treatment of the practice and uses of Internet and online research that is grounded in the principles of research methodology. Beginning with an examination of the significance of the Internet as a research medium, the book goes on to cover research design, data capture, online surveys, virtual ethnography, and the internet as an archival resource, and concludes by looking at potential directions for the future of Internet and online research. The SAGE Handbook of Internet and Online Research Methods will be welcomed by anyone interested in the contemporary practice of computer-mediated research and scholarship. Postgraduates, researchers and methodologists from disciplines across the social sciences will find this an invaluable source of reference.
Download or read book Immersed in Media written by Matthew Lombard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-18 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highlights key research currently being undertaken within the field of telepresence, providing the most detailed account of the field to date, advancing our understanding of a fundamental property of all media - the illusion of presence; the sense of “being there” inside a virtual environment, with actual or virtual others. This collection has been put together by leading international scholars from America, Europe, and Asia. Together, they describe the state-of-the-art in presence theory, research and technology design for an advanced academic audience. Immersed in Media provides research that can help designers optimize presence for users of advanced media technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, collaborative social media, robotics, and artificial intelligence and lead us to better understand human cognition, emotion and behaviour.
Download or read book Avatars written by Bruce Damer and published by Addison Wesley Longman. This book was released on 1998 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With "Avatars!", readers can grab their avatar (a digital representation of themselves) and run to the nearest virtual world where they can experience the Internet. "Avatars!" focuses on what people do inside virtual worlds, such as building three-dimensional structures, navigating through the worlds, and learning digital etiquette and social interaction skills. A CD-ROM provides readers with ready-to-run worlds that connect them with thousands of other people on the Internet, and which are referenced in a companion Web site.
Download or read book Informal Learning and Digital Media written by Kirsten Drotner and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12-14 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book provides an engaging overview of the ways in which digital media impact on current understandings of informal learning, and it offes a range of grounded studies of the changing relations between digital media and informal learning processes with a particular focus on young people. A variety of international scholars examine these processes across a number of sites and settings, from Japan to Finland and the USA, and they discuss their implications for education, ICT and media. The volume is an ideal resource for graduate students as well as for practitioners and policy-makers.
Download or read book Organizing and Learning Through Gaming and Simulation written by and published by Eburon Uitgeverij B.V.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 45 edited articles, originally presented at the 38th edition of the International Simulation and Gaming Association conference 2007.
Download or read book Being There Together written by Ralph Schroeder and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtual environments provide places for 'being there together', for avatars to interact with each other in computer-generated spaces. They range from immersive systems in which people have life-size tracked avatar bodies to large-scale spaces such as Second Life where populations of users socialize in persistent virtual worlds. This book draws together research on how people interact in virtual environments: What difference does avatar appearance make? How do avatars collaborate and play together? How do the type of system and the space affect how people engage with each other? How does interaction between avatars differ from face-to-face interaction? What can social scientists learn from experiments and other studies of how people interact in virtual environments? What are the ethical and social issues in doing this research, and in the uses of this technology? And how do virtual environments differ from other communication technologies such as videoconferencing systems and other new media? This book is a state-of-the art survey of research on these topics, and offers a framework for understanding this technology and its future implications.
Download or read book Digital Games and Learning written by Nicola Whitton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, there has been growing interest in the use of digital games to enhance teaching and learning at all educational levels, from early years through to lifelong learning, in formal and informal settings. The study of games and learning, however, takes a broader view of the relationship between games and learning, and has a diverse multi-disciplinary background. Digital Games and Learning: Research and Theory provides a clear and concise critical theoretical overview of the field of digital games and learning from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Taking into account research and theory from areas as varied as computer science, psychology, education, neuroscience, and game design, this book aims to synthesise work that is relevant to the study of games and learning. It focuses on four aspects of digital games: games as active learning environments, games as motivational tools, games as playgrounds, and games as learning technologies, and explores each of these areas in detail. This book is an essential guide for researchers, designers, teachers, practitioners, and policy makers who want to better understand the relationship between games and learning.
Download or read book Alter Ego written by Robbie Cooper and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction by Julian Dibbell. Text by Tracy Spaight.
Download or read book My Avatar My Self written by Zach Waggoner and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With videogames now one of the world's most popular diversions, the virtual world has increasing psychological influence on real-world players. This book examines the relationships between virtual and non-virtual identity in visual role-playing games. Utilizing James Gee's theoretical constructs of real-world identity, virtual-world identity, and projective identity, this research shows dynamic, varying and complex relationships between the virtual avatar and the player's sense of self and makes recommendations of terminology for future identity researchers.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Video Games 2 volumes written by Mark J. P. Wolf and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-08-16 with total page 991 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This encyclopedia collects and organizes theoretical and historical content on the topic of video games, covering the people, systems, technologies, and theoretical concepts as well as the games themselves. This two-volume encyclopedia addresses the key people, companies, regions, games, systems, institutions, technologies, and theoretical concepts in the world of video games, serving as a unique resource for students. The work comprises over 300 entries from 97 contributors, including Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell, founders of the video game industry and some of its earliest games and systems. Contributing authors also include founders of institutions, academics with doctoral degrees in relevant fields, and experts in the field of video games. Organized alphabetically by topic and cross-referenced across subject areas, Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming will serve the needs of students and other researchers as well as provide fascinating information for game enthusiasts and general readers.
Download or read book Actor Avatar written by Dieter Mersch and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of »technical others« and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration with extensive visual material.
Download or read book Wetware written by Dennis Bray and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A beautifully written journey into the mechanics of the world of the cell, and even beyond, exploring the analogy with computers in a surprising way” (Denis Noble, author of Dance to the Tune of Life). How does a single-cell creature, such as an amoeba, lead such a sophisticated life? How does it hunt living prey, respond to lights, sounds, and smells, and display complex sequences of movements without the benefit of a nervous system? This book offers a startling and original answer. In clear, jargon-free language, Dennis Bray taps the findings from the discipline of systems biology to show that the internal chemistry of living cells is a form of computation. Cells are built out of molecular circuits that perform logical operations, as electronic devices do, but with unique properties. Bray argues that the computational juice of cells provides the basis for all distinctive properties of living systems: it allows organisms to embody in their internal structure an image of the world, and this accounts for their adaptability, responsiveness, and intelligence. In Wetware, Bray offers imaginative, wide-ranging, and perceptive critiques of robotics and complexity theory, as well as many entertaining and telling anecdotes. For the general reader, the practicing scientist, and all others with an interest in the nature of life, this book is an exciting portal to some of biology’s latest discoveries and ideas. “Drawing on the similarities between Pac-Man and an amoeba and efforts to model the human brain, this absorbing read shows that biologists and engineers have a lot to learn from working together.” —Discover magazine “Wetware will get the reader thinking.” —Science magazine
Download or read book Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts Volume II written by James Flood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-04-22 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts, Volume II brings together state-of-the-art research and practice on the evolving view of literacy as encompassing not only reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but also the multiple ways through which learners gain access to knowledge and skills. It forefronts as central to literacy education the visual, communicative, and performative arts, and the extent to which all of the technologies that have vastly expanded the meanings and uses of literacy originate and evolve through the skills and interests of the young. A project of the International Reading Association, published and distributed by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Visit http://www.reading.org for more information about Internationl Reading Associationbooks, membership, and other services.
Download or read book Avatars Book One So This Is How It Ends written by Tui T. Sutherland and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2006-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this enthralling fantasy debut, five teenagers experience an Earth that's familiar but dramatically different, with voices that hover at the edges of consciousness, urgently calling.
Download or read book Total Engagement written by Byron Reeves and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can the workplace be more productive by including avatars, three-dimensional environments, and participant-driven outcomes? This grounded and thought-provoking book by Byron Reeves and Leighton Read proves that it is not only possible, it is inevitable. Implementing components of multiplayer computer games in the workplace will address a host of age-old problems. Games can not only stem boredom and decrease turnover, but also enhancee collaboration and encourage creative leadership. Games require extraordinary teamwork, elaborate data analysis and strategy, recruitment and retention of top players, and quick decision making. Recreating some elements of games - such as positioning tasks within stories, creating internal economies, and implementing participant-driven communication systems - can not only boost employee engagement but overall productivity. Of course, the strong psychological power of games can have both positive and negative consequences for the workplace. That's why it's important to put them into practice correctly from the beginning - and Reeves and Read explain how by showing which good design principles are a powerful antidote to the addictive and stress-inducing potential of games. Supported by specific case studies and years of research, Total Engagement will completely change the way you view both work and play.
Download or read book No Avatars Allowed written by Joshua Wise and published by Church Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can video games challenge us to think more deeply about our reality, faith, and community? Since the advent of video games in the 1960s, they have become the common experience of everyone from Gen-X to the Millennial and post-Millennial generations. While many of today’s clergy, parishioners, and theologians grew up gaming, the church’s stance regarding video games is one of, at best, bemusement. This book takes seriously the idea that video games can challenge us to think more deeply about our reality, divinity, faith, and each other. It draws readers into a small, but growing, conversation about models of incarnation and what it means to distinguish between the virtual and the real. This book will introduce readers to concepts and questions from the perspective of a Christian systematic theologian who has been playing games since he was four years old, and who has been writing, speaking, and podcasting about this topic since 2010. It is an invitation into a relatively new conversation about divinity, humanity, and technology.
