Carla C. E. Fisher

Sandbox Summit Videos Available

2011-05-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sandbox Summit was a few weeks ago. It's a great event, but they also posted many of the videos from the event at MIT's Tech TV for Sandbox Summit.

I highly recommend Drew Davidson's talk and this one from Brendan Boyle and Duane Bray of Ideo.

Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses 3: Research for Kid-Friendly Social Gaming Experiences

2010-03-12T09:03:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I gave the third Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses talk at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. This year's focus was social gaming. The slides are available now. Slides from past presentations are available.

As always, give a yell if you want to talk about them more or have any questions. Thanks again to all who made it out!

See you at Game Developers Conference?

2010-02-28T20:26:00.000-05:00

So I'm heading to the Game Developers Conference next week.

My session, the third in the Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses series, is on Thursday, at 3pm PST, in room 309 of the South Hall.

I'll be around all week, so if you're going to be around the conference and want to meet up, give me a yell!

Cheers,
Carla

Teachers College Educational Technology Conference Call for Papers

2010-02-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

I'm involved in the Teachers College Educational Technology conference again this year, to be hosted March 15th and 16th. Below is the call for papers. All papers must be student-authored, which makes is a very friendly environment. It was fun last year. (Proceedings from last year are on the site as well, which may be of interest to some.)

And non-graduate students can attend the conference. So mark your calendars!

Call for Papers:
Published online at http://www.tc.edu/tcetc

The Communication, Computing, and Technology in Education Program at Teachers College invites submissions for its 2010 Educational Technology Conference, "TCETC 2010: Technology, Media, and Designs for Learning."

This conference will serve as a multi-disciplinary forum for graduate students to discuss and exchange information on the research, development and applications of emerging technologies in PK-12 classrooms, distance learning settings, higher education, and corporate learning environments.

TCETC 2010 will take place on Saturday, May 15th, and Sunday, May 16th at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY. Papers exploring topics such as the following are encouraged. The topic list is illustrative rather than comprehensive; we encourage papers presenting completed research and works-in-progress on other related topics.

Instructional Design of Online Environments
Social Software, Web 2.0 Tools
Human-Computer Interaction, Computer-Mediated Communication, Mobile Media
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
Games for Learning, Possibilities of Virtual Worlds
New Literacies, Identity Formation, the Future of Libraries and Museums
Cross-Cultural Communication, Gender and Technology
Media in the Developing World
Integrating Technology across the K-12 Curriculum
Change Issues Related to the Adoption of Technology in Educational Institutions

Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts (in English) of no more than 500-1000 words must be uploaded to the conference website, http://www.tc.edu/tcetc
The deadline for submission is 11:59 EST on March 31, 2010. First authors will be notified by April 10, 2010.
Authors at a distance with video/audio capabilities may opt to present virtually through Second Life. Please contact tcetc@tc.edu to discuss this option.
Abstracts should summarize the proposed presentation in a way that permits evaluation of the paper's quality and significance. The committee will consider:

1) the paper's appeal to research communities interested in instructional media and emerging communication tools;
2) the paper's suitability for oral presentation; and
3) the quality of the content and significance of results.

The conference submission site, via http://www.tc.edu/tcetc, will prompt you to include the paper title, presenter's name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and email address(es) of the author(s). In addition, please include a biographical statement for each author of no more than 100 words. If your paper is accepted, this statement may be posted to the conference website and included in the program.

Confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the entire review process; all rejected submissions will be kept confidential. Accepted abstracts will be posted to the conference website. Presenters will have the opportunity to revise their abstracts and post them no later than May 1, 2010. Participation in this conference does not preclude submission of that work to other academic conferences.

Exceptional conference presenters may be asked to submit full papers to appear in a publication of conference proceedings.

Feel free to contact the conference Chairs, Darnel Degand, Carla E. Fisher, and Caron Mineo with questions or for more information. Please also monitor the conference website at http://www.tc.edu/tcetc for information regarding registration, accommodations, travel, and conference updates. Presenters and attendees must pay a small registration fee.

We look forward to your submissions!

Sincerely,

Darnel Degand, Carla E. Fisher, and Caron Mineo
Conference Co-Chairs | tcetc@tc.edu

Cooney Center Prizes Info

2010-02-26T21:20:00.002-05:00

I've been asked by the good people at the Cooney Center to remind everyone about the Cooney Center Prizes. Here's the info...

Apply to the Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation in Children’s Learning

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop is accepting applications for the inaugural Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation in Children’s Learning, a national competition intended identify, inspire, nurture, and scale breakthrough ideas in children’s digital media and learning. The program will annually award cash prizes and provide ongoing business planning support to innovators in children’s educational media.

The Cooney Center is challenging innovators in two categories: Breakthroughs in Mobile Learning and Breakthroughs in Literacy Learning. Up to five finalists in each category will be invited to pitch their ideas to media industry and education leaders at an event held at this year’s E3 Expo. This year's prizes include $50,000 towards prototype development in the Mobile Learning category and $10,000 and the opportunity to work with Sesame Workshop to turn a literacy idea into a product for national dissemination via Sesame Workshop's revival of the iconic literacy show, The Electric Company.

What I've been reading lately... young adult novels

2010-02-10T13:55:00.002-05:00

Originally published on my tumblr blog on 10/7/09

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – It’s the sequel to Hunger Games. Is it the best story ever told? Probably not. It’s kind of like Survivor meets the future dystopian society. But she can really tell a story. In both Hunger Games and Catching Fire, I couldn’t put it down.

Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley – What an amazingly beautifully designed novel! The design is great, the concept is great, the story is fun, but the copy-editing was not so hot. I stumbled a few times when errors occurred. Just makes me sad when it’s such a fun idea. I’d still totally recommend reading it. Wouldn’t it be a total nightmare to die during high school and discover that you still have to go to school AND that not all ghost teenagers are automatically your friend?

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins – A friend recommended Collins’ earlier work. I only read the first in the series. It’s for younger readers, but her storytelling abilities still shine! With all the bugs, bats, and spiders, I’d guess this would appeal to boys. Actually, it’d make a great video game…

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray – Part turn of the century (20^th, not 21^st), part Gossip Girl, and part supernatural thriller. I’ve just downloaded the remaining two books in the trilogy for the flight to China. Historical sci-fi with cliques! So fun!

What kids think, according to two reports

2010-02-10T13:53:00.000-05:00

Originally published on my tumblr blog on 10/27/09

I’m always on the look out for more information about kids – what they like to do, how they spend their time, and so on. Two recent reports, while not specifically about kids and games, provide some interesting information. All told, the two serve to remind us of the role of technology in children’s lives as well as the importance of children’s immediate social surroundings.

1. Smartypants Young Love Surveys Children’s Popular Brands
Smartypants released survey results of the brands children ages 6-12 love best. Topping the list of 100 is Nintendo Wii and DS. It’s a fairly technology heavy list. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s an accurate representation of kids’ interests or if they distributed the survey digitally, which could attract a larger proportion of technology-loving respondents. Still, it was nearly 5000 kids, so that’s got to count for something!

Incredibly scary was the amount of the list that’s food brands. (At least it’s scary to me…) But it’s also interesting that technology has a larger presence than television networks and programs.

The main technology players on the list are
1: Wii
2: DS
12: iPod
14: Playstation
22: Nick.com
31: PSP
36: YouTube
42: Xbox
50: Mario
51: iTunes
54: iPhone
65: Google
76: GameCube (surprised me!)
96: Nintendogs
The tv networks and commercial properties on the list are
7: Nickelodeon
13: Disney Channel
17: Cartoon Network
35: Spongebob Squarepants
46: iCarly
75: Animal Planet
84: LEGO
95: Monopoly
Read the full list at http://www.asksmartypants.com/younglove/Young_Love_Top_100.pdf

2. Highlights State of the Kid 2009
The good folks at Highlights for Children (my old stomping ground) recently released the results of a reader survey. 845 kids (ranging from 5-12) returned surveys that were bound into the March 2009 issue or answered the survey online.

The questions are more about childhood than about any specific interest area and the report is written in such a way that still promotes the magazine, but it’s still a nice peek into kids’ lives.

The highlights?
* Kids overwhelmingly said their biggest problem is schoolwork, homework, and tests (23.4%). Then comes social issues, such as dealing with parents (8.1%), siblings (8.7%), and friends (7.3%).
* Outside their family, kids admire their friends (28.4%) and their teachers (17.2%).
* If kids had an extra hour in the day, 36.3% would play, have fun, or play video games.

Various research studies have shown that at age 3, children have around 15-20 people in their social network, and it’s mostly caregivers. By age 9, they have around 40 people in their network. The growth is mostly from the addition of friends. The questions Highlights asked help remind us that children worry about social issues and that their social situations can also be an important influence.
On a side note, it’s also fascinating to read what kids would tell President Obama (20.9% would tell him he’s liked) as well as what they want grown-ups to know about being a kid today (28.9% said being a kid is hard and 21.3% say being a kid is fun). They peppered the report with actual entries from kids, which is just plain fun to read.

Teenreads.com survey

2010-02-10T13:50:00.002-05:00

Teenreads.com (which I highly recommend, by the way, as a great source for young adult novels) released the results of a survey of nearly 2900 of their readers ages 11 to 18. By their own admission, the respondents are teens who are already hooked on reading, so it doesn't provide info about how to draw kids to reading. Still, some interesting stuff and definitely worth a read. Here's some highlights:

Social Networking
71% use facebook (26% more than once a day, 14% daily)
42% use MySpace (8% more than once a day, 7% once a day)
25.7% have a twitter account (6% use it more than once a day, 2.8% once a day)

Television Use
25% use a DVR regularly, 15% sometimes, 59% never (could this be a sign of the book-loving respondents' bias?)
25% watch 4-5 hours a week, 22% 6-8 hours, 27% 8+ hours, 22% 3 hours or less

Games
77% play games online

The Amanda Project

2010-02-10T13:49:00.001-05:00

Originally published on my tumblr blog on 12/2/09

I'm obsessed with books, particularly young adult novels, which some might consider weird given my chosen career of making interactive products. Still, books are cool. So I was particularly excited to discover The Amanda Project. It's planned to be a series of novels, but it's also an interactive community where users can post their own stories, some of which will become parts of the published novels.

The premise for collaborative story telling is great. Amanda disappeared, but she left clues with her friends, including you and me. So now we can share the clues she left with us as well as read the other clues and piece together the mystery. Nice, huh?

Articles of Interest

2010-02-10T13:46:00.003-05:00

Originally posted on my tumblr blog on 12/6/09

I'm cleaning out tabs on my browser and have articles of interest...
* Warren Spector on the Disney Epic Mickey title for Wii (from Kotaku) Art is pretty crazy. Looks to me as though it'll feel like playing Fantasia
* "Why an iPhone could actually be good for your 3-year-old" (from Boston Globe) Has a good video of kids with iPhone, too!
* "Developmental Stage Select" (from Escapist) by Neils Clark, author of Game Addiction. Basic overview of development and role of games.
* "The Hidden Playground" (from Escapist) Discussion of how kids aren't playing outside as often any more and how games like The Hidden Park (iPhone) might help reclaim outdoor play.

Selected Writing

2010-02-10T13:38:00.003-05:00

I've been known to write from time to time. A few can be read or downloaded online.

Resources for Developers pdf handout. Developed with Carly Shuler for the 2008 Sandbox Summit

Professor Dalrymple's Patented Fairy Catching System (on Amazon.com)

Taiwan Travels on HighlightsKids.com

Dishing Criticism Efficiently on disclife.com

Taking Criticism with a Smile on disclife.com

Games and Projects

2010-02-10T13:27:00.001-05:00

Some links of games and projects I've worked on to come soon!

Presentations

2010-02-10T13:15:00.004-05:00

Here's the files from some past presentations. I'll update with new ones as I go.

Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses 3: Research for Kid-Friendly Social Gaming Experiences presented @ 2010 Game Developers Conference (pdf, 12.8 mb)

Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses 2.0: The Research You Should Know When Making Games for Kids presented @ 2009 Game Developers Conference (pdf, 10 mb)

Fun Follows Function: Ten Tips for Developing Quality Toys. Presented with Carly Shuler @ 2008 Sandbox Summit (pdf)

Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses: Researching Games with Kids presented @ 2008 Game Developers Conference (pps file)

Back to Blogger...

2010-02-08T15:54:00.001-05:00

After a failed go with Tumblr, I'm coming back to here. I'll be reposting some of my favorite posts over the past few months. Otherwise, onward!

About Me

2010-02-08T15:46:00.012-05:00

Most now know me as Carla Fisher, but I’ve also been known as Carla Engelbrecht (in various spellings), Radish, or simply Red. (But let the record show that calling me Red only reminds me of Toni the lunch lady in 3rd grade. Do you really want to be associated with that memory?)

I design, research, and produce kids’ games (mostly digital, mostly educational) and online learning environments. Depending on the client’s needs, I’m available to oversee the production process or consult at various stages of research and development if a development team is already in place. (See this pdf of my freelance services for more information.)

As much of my work focuses on helping game designers incorporate developmental psychology and research into their game design paradigm, I also offer workshops for clients who wish to educate their staff on bridging game design with developmental psychology and research methods.

One day soon, I’ll also complete my studies for a doctorate in instructional technology and media at Teachers College, Columbia University.

If you want the full story of my career, my resume/c.v. and a list of freelance services are both online.

If you’re interested in working with me, please drop me a line at carlaeng /at/ gmail /dot/ com. Or connect with me on Facebook or LinkedIn. I'm always happy to connect with others in the field!

Blue skies,
Carla

Moving to Tumblr

2009-08-14T12:15:00.003-04:00

I'm switching to Tumblr. I like that I can post little bits. Maybe I won't feel so guilty about not updating all the time! Or maybe it's just a mental thing. Anyway, check me out at http://playinvestigator.tumblr.com

My recent manga binge...

2009-07-01T16:49:00.002-04:00

I've been on a manga kick. Don't know why. It just happened.

It started off simply enough. I read a few issues of Fruits Basket, Vol. 1. Then I read Hana-Kimi, Volume 1: For You In Full Blossom. (I only made it through one of those. Just didn't like it that much.)

Then I devoured all four books for Miki Falls, starting with Miki Falls: Spring.

Now I just finished reading The Manga Guide to Statistics by Shin Takahashi.

It's a basic text (data types, standard score and standard deviation, probability, correlations, and chi-squares). It actually explains things in a relatively straight-forward manner and includes a cheesy romance story line. There's not a lot of exercises, so if I were learning the concepts for the first time, it would need supplemental information. But as a basic primer, I'm impressed. It was actually kind of fun to have a romance bud in between equations and hypothesis testing! I wonder how it would translate to hierarchical modeling... hmmm...

So that's a little of where I've been hiding. We all know I stink at blogging now. More sooner or later!

Good bye, Foster's

2009-05-06T17:20:00.002-04:00

My favorite kids' tv show, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, has aired it's last episode. It's just a funny, creative show. Not only is it nice to think about where imaginary friends go, but the characters they developed are hysterical. The sky really was the limit.

Two of my favorites... "It's Hot in Topeka" and this nice person who put together a mix of Cheese moments

As far as games, I particularly recommend the Big Fat Awesome House Party. They just kept building and building and building an interactive version of the Foster's world until it became quite a fun place to spend ridiculous amounts of time!

Meanwhile, I'll Until Craig McCraken has another creation for us, I'll be watching Phineas and Ferb.

A favorite resource for child development milestones

2009-04-06T20:31:00.005-04:00

One of my favorite quick and dirty references for what's appropriate at what age is the PBS Parents Child Development Tracker at http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/. Of course, I might be slightly partial since I worked at pbskids.org, but still, I've continued to use the tracker, despite leaving PBS three years ago. That must count for something.

One of the reasons I like it so much is because it's so comprehensive. For example, for three-year olds, you can look at guidelines for language, literacy, math, physical health, and social and emotional growth. (And note that I still left out a few categories.) It's just not your puny table that you find in a lot of basic child dev books.

Bookmark it. Use it well. But remember, they're guidelines... not absolutes!

Kids Singing in Rock Band

2009-04-01T10:08:00.004-04:00

I love poking around YouTube for videos of kids using games. Since I briefly talked about kids and singing games in my GDC presentation, I thought I'd share some of the more amusing videos I've found.

Remember that the research says that kids around 3-4 years of age will generally follow the melodic contour, but they won't always hit the right notes and often won't pronounce words intelligibly.

Jonny T singing Blitzkreig Bop - Rock Band - Easy - 85%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63_jYrRsXY

He's actually quite good (better than me...) but it also makes me laugh when he swings his arms out and takes the microphone away from his mouth.

3 year old Rock Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAaWJIfeoXA

She's good too, although I really can't understand any of the words. (I think that might be a product of the song more so than about the child's skills!)

Rock band 2 Three year old Danny sings More than a feeling by Boston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-w7C7Ugt38

I looooove when he sings "I close my eyes..." Be sure to check out around 3:30 in the video, too. Totally rock star!

GDC Slides

2009-03-25T20:45:00.004-04:00

So my 2009 Game Developers Talk is done. Here's the link to the slides for Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses 2.0: The research you should know when making games for kids. I recommend using save as rather than trying to open it directly. The file is big!

Eventually I'll post some of the lost slides. I had so much jammed into that talk that I had to cut really good stuff! Ah well.

More soon on the conference...

The Cast-Off Slides

2009-03-24T11:32:00.004-04:00

When I'm at GDC, I feel this overwhelming urge to defend kids games. Probably because I'm surrounded by World of Warcraft and Ninja Gaiden players and not that many kids' games people. So originally, I had a slide in my presentation (shameless plug -- Wednesday at 2:30!) that had some recent kids and games stats. But my presentation is incredibly dense (slides to come soon...). And as such, I've had to make some tough cuts. One thing to go was the stats. I'm going to operate on the assumption that everyone at the session is there because they know kids games are an important share of the market. So for lack of a better place to share the info, here's the data from the slides.
- 84% of kids ages 2-14 play games on digital devices (NPD, 2008)
- 82% of kids ages 2-5 play games on digital devices (NPD, 2009)
- 20% of children ages 4-14 own a cell phone and 13% of ages 4-5 report using cell phones (NPD, 2008)
- 2-14 y.o. spend an average of 44 minutes per session on video gaming consoles (NPD, 2007)

More discarded slides and info to come!

Game Developers Conference is soon!

2009-03-08T15:58:00.004-04:00

I'm discovering that I'm really bad at blogging. Don't know why I thought I might be able to do this regularly when I've never even been able to keep a personal journal. Oh well, that's just who I am!

But happily, my Game Developers Conference session has finally been assigned a time.

Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses 2.0: The research you should know when developing games for kids will be on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.

There's a summary on the site, too. But basically, I'm attempting to focus on the research that is relevant to developing games for touch-screens (finger or stylus) and motion-based games. So it's a lot of discussion of gross and fine motor skills. Should be interesting!

Graduate Student Conference at TC

2009-02-12T08:34:00.002-05:00

Hooray! Student conference at Teachers College! Now I'm doing my part to spread the word.

http://events.tc.columbia.edu/tcetc2009/

Call for Papers

The Communication, Computing, and Technology in Education Program at Teachers College invites submissions for its 2009 Educational Technology Conference, "TCETC 2009: Technology, Media, and Designs for Learning."

This conference will serve as a multi-disciplinary forum for graduate students to discuss and exchange information on the research, development and applications of emerging technologies in K-12 classrooms, distance learning settings, higher education, and corporate learning environments.

TCETC 2009 will take place at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City on May 10-11, 2009. Papers exploring topics such as the following are encouraged. The topic list is illustrative rather than comprehensive; we encourage papers presenting completed research and works-in-progress on other related topics.

Instructional Design of Online Environments
Social Software, Web 2.0 Tools
Human-Computer Interaction, Computer-Mediated Communication, Mobile Media
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
Games for Learning, Possibilities of Virtual Worlds
New Literacies, Identify Formation, the Future of Libraries and Museums
Cross-Cultural Communication
Media in the Developing World
Teaching with Technology, including teaching Science, Math, Computer
Science, & Computer Science Education

Submission Guidelines

Papers must be completely authored by current graduate students. Abstracts (in English) of no more than 500-1000 words must be uploaded to the conference website <http://events.tc.columbia.edu/tcetc2009/> . The deadline for submission is 11:59 EST on Monday, March 16, 2009. First authors will be notified by April 3, 2009. Abstracts should summarize the proposed presentation in a way that permits evaluation of the paper's quality and significance. The committee will consider:

1) the paper's appeal to research communities interested in instructional media and emerging communication tools;

2) the paper's suitability for oral presentation; and

3) the quality of the content and significance of results.

The conference website will prompt you to include the paper title, presenter's name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and email address(es) of the author(s). In addition, please include a
biographical statement for each author of no more than 100 words. If your paper is accepted, this statement may be posted to the conference website and included in the program.

Confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the entire review process; all rejected submissions will be kept confidential. Accepted abstracts will be posted to the conference website. Presenters will have the opportunity to revise their abstracts and post them no later than April 20, 2009. Participation in this conference does not preclude submission of that work to other academic conferences.

Exceptional conference presenters may be asked to submit full papers to appear in a publication of conference proceedings.

Feel free to contact the conference Chairs, Marion Goldstein and Antonios Saravanos, with questions or for more information. Please also monitor the conference website at
http://events.tc.columbia.edu/tcetc2009/ for information regarding registration, accommodations, travel, and conference updates. Presenters and attendees must pay a registration fee of $25.

My first bag creation

2009-01-11T16:04:00.005-05:00

So most people know that my mom makes amazing purses. When I told my mom that I needed a new hobby and was thinking about sewing (need something to help get me through this dissertation work since there's no disc golf nearby and playing bassoon all alone isn't much fun), Mom gave me a great sewing machine for Christmas. Now I have to do something with it!

So I made a yoga bag, which only further confirms that I'm my mother's daughter. It took 3/4ths of a professional football game and I more or less followed the directions from this site. I even added pretty stitching around the drawstring. Hooray!

Now I have one more reason to go to yoga! Hopefully the sanity from yoga will help me get my work done, right?

Game Creator Game

2008-12-03T16:23:00.003-05:00

I'm amused. I've had a note in my notebook to look at the Game Creator game on Cartoon Network's site ever since Alice Kahn mentioned it at the Sandbox Summit in September. I finally just took a peek. It's pretty well thought out!

http://gamecreator.cartoonnetwork.com/

I especially like that you have to win your game before it can be shared with others. No making the impossible to win game here!

Finally... a site for me

2008-10-26T13:09:00.000-04:00

I've only been threatening to build a site for many, many years. Finally, I've done it!