Reflections

On Thursday we looked at and played the game "Against all Odds" put together by the UN.

Looking over the comments left by people who have finished there were a variety of reactions, both positive and negative.

One point which pops up more than once is the suggestion that the game was hard because,

a) It wasn't clear what you were supposed to do or, 

b) That you knew what to do but didn't see the point.

If, as the title screen of the game suggests, the point of the game is to make players feel like they are living the lives of refugees, do you feel like it did a good job?

Take a look at the webfacts section of the game. This section is designed to give players extra information to help them know more about the conflicts and problems they face in "Against all odds".

Today's task is to look at the webfacts pages for a few of the games that you played on Thursday. In a paragraph comment response, please tell me whether you think the game did a good job of representing the information it claims to. If yes, why do you think it is well presented (use examples), if no then tell me how you would re-design it so that the information was better presented.

The most important way to defend people's rights is to inform them of what they are. My question for you today is, how does "Against all Odds" help people, and how could it do its job better?

Life as a Refugee

Today's class will continue our new focus on rights and freedoms.


To begin, please follow this link to the website for "Against All Odds"

"Against All Odds" is a flash-based internet game developed by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) which comes in 12 chapters, broken up into 3 sections. It puts you in the role of a person living in a country under an oppressive government, who must leave in order to stay alive.

The 3 sections of the game are "War and Conflict", "Borderlands" and "A New Life".

Take the time to explore the world of the game, make observations, and then post a comment to this post with the following information.

Escapism Assignment

ESCAPISM:

Based on our questions of "Why do we read?" and "What makes something worth reading?" Today I want to talk about the concept of escapism.

Your tasks:

1. On your own, in a word document, craft your best guess as to what a definition of the word escapism might be.
2. Share your definition with a partner, and see if there's anything you can add to your definition.
3. Check out the actual definition of escapism here, and paste it beneath your own in your word document
4. Beneath the two definitions (yours and the one from the internet), take note of whether your definition fits with the real one. Does your definition have something you think the internet definition is missing (or visa versa?)
5. Given these definitions, conduct a search for some kind of media (picture, video, short story, article, etc.) that you think fits with either definition of escapism. Copy the link to it, paste it into your word document and write up a paragraph that explains why you think your example could be a good demonstration of escapism.
6. Post the link and your paragraph as a comment to this post (make sure you put your name on your comment).
7. Find two posts your classmates have made and state whether you agree or disagree with their paragraph (and why, obviously) in your word document.
8. Email and/or save the word document with me.