17. 914 International Politics in the New Century –
via Simulation, Interactive Gaming, and ‘Edutainment’
Professor Nazli Choucri
Department of Political Science
Director, Global System for Sustainable Development
MIT E53-493 617-253-6198
Teaching Assistants:
Cristobal Garcia
Carlos Ortiz
Christi Electris
Objective:
This workshop is designed to introduce students to different perspectives on politics and the state of the world through new visualization techniques and approaches to interactive political gaming (and selective 'edutainment.’) Specifically, we shall explore applications of interactive tools (such as video & web-based games, blogs or simulations) to examine critical challenges in international politics of the 21C century focusing specifically on general insights and specific understandings generated by operational uses of core concepts in political science.
Course Contents:
DAY 1 Global Gaming & Global Agenda
| Focus | Introduction & depth look at the new challenges of the global system through immersion in a cyber-narrative and on designing a computer game of crisis and decision in International Relations. Schedule |
| 10:00 - 10:20 | Introduction – Challenges, Concepts, Theories, Outcomes Professor N. Choucri |
| 10:20 - 10:30 | General Workshop Logic - What, Why, How & When? C. Electris What this course is about: |
| 10:30 - 11: 00 | A) Political Edutainment, Simulation and Gaming C. Garcia |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | B) Hot Spots” and Game Logic – Highlights, Templates and Visualization for Integrative Cyber-Narratives & Data Barometers & Political Consequences in Global Agenda! C. Electris & C. Garcia |
| 11:30-11:45 | Brief Break |
| 11:45-1:00 | Creative Workshop on Global Agenda: Building Case-Based Story Lines, User Interfaces Discussion of Group Projects D) Visualizing the gameplay through User Interfaces |
* Form groups of 2-3 persons
- Design 3 options for each move for 3 rounds
- At least 5 pages per person
- Issues (hot spots) to work on: environment, migration, terrorism, energy, war, drugs-narcotraffic, natural disaster, epidemics-health, human rights-international law, trade disputes.
- Databases: where to find data and cases: MIT libraries (Lexis-Nexis), ICE, International CB, world fact book, Department of Energy, Tufts, Press, The Economist, Uppsala University (www.pcr.uu.se)
- You can also be creative and come up with a storyline of your own.
Assignment 1 –
A) Pick two or three games from the following list and play them. Pick one game
and write one page on the concepts the game was trying to convey. How would
you improve the game to get the concepts across better? Would this be a good
way to get the concepts across in "Global Agenda!"?
LIST: -Political game from http://www.socialimpactgames.com
-…Lists from Related Resources at Stellar
-…
-…
1-2 Pages. Individual work. Due Day 2
B) Pick a story line/hotspot/issue for your final project. What are the key
concepts in this project? How will you control for personal bias?
Write up 1 page proposal for your final project as a group. Due day 2
Required Reading: [in alphabetical order, specific page selections needed etc,]
Bolter Jay David and Grusin Richard (2002) Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge: The MIT Press. p. 88-103
Choucri N. and Garcia C. (2003) Global Agenda: Fostering Political Edutainment in the 21st century. – Introduction & Overview, May 2003.
Hughes, Barry (1993) International Futures: Choices in the Creation of a New World Order. Westview Press. p. 1-45.
Manovich, Lev (2001) The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 213-233, 244-259.
Rieber, L. P. (1996). Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games. Educational Technology Research & Development, 44(2), 43-58.
DAY 2 Visualization & International Relations
| Focus | Introduction to different visualization tools in the social sciences, with special emphasis on the contributions of visualization to the logic of scientific inquiry. Particular focus on relevant scholarship and research via a survey of recent projects and advances in scientific visualization. Students will also be introduced to Geographic Information Systems as a specific tool for managing geographically referenced data. (During Day 3 students will also participate in a hands-on ArcGIS tutorial, including how to retrieve data, create simple map representations, and interpret the results from visual renditions produced.) |
Schedule:
| 10:00- 11:00 | Continuation of Edutainment and Gaming C. Garcia |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Introduction – Overview & Connections to Day 1 C. Ortiz |
| 11:15 - 11:30 | Visualization of ‘Hot Spots” – Review Hot spots from a visualization perspectives C. Ortiz & C. Electris |
| 11:30-11:45 | Brief Break |
| 11:45- 1:00 | Global Agenda Workshop: C. Garcia, C. Electris, C. Ortiz, S. Wales |
Assignment 2 – on visualization of information
Part 1: Review the Tufte reading, and based on the games you surveyed for the first assignment discuss: a) what visualization techniques were used; b) how where they used; c) why these were useful to convey the gaming environment data. Moreover, discuss the effectiveness of the visualization techniques and suggest how you improve these.
1-2 pages. Individual work. Due Day 3.
Part 2: Discuss how visualization will play a role in your final game project, treating specific concerns such as the graphic user interface, the display of data concerning the virtual world of your game, etc... Make specific references to visualization / graphical techniques that would enhance the gaming experience and add value to the exploration and interaction of the gaming environment.
1-2 pages. Group work. Due Day 3.
Required Reading:
Boylan, Myles. 2004. “What Have We Learned From 15 Years of Supporting the Development of Innovative Teaching Technology?” Social Science Computer Review 22: 405-425.
Scott Orford, Richard Harris, and Daniel Dorling. 1999. “Geography: Information Visualization in the Social Sciences-A State-of-the-Art Review.” Social Science Computer Review 17: 289 - 304.
Tufte, Edward. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. Introduction; Ch. 1,2,3; Epilogue.
DAY 3 Enhancing Global Agenda & Visualization Strategies: Exploring Problems in International Relations
| Focus | Illustrate the interactions of, or convergence between, insights obtained via interactive gaming and visualization techniques. Reflect on the representation and learning process. Review concepts and implications for international relations. Review implications of assignments and hands-on efforts so far. |
Schedule:
| 10:00 -10:30 | Demonstration & Illustration – examples drawn from existing visualization research, highlighting key features of sample visualization tools and techniques that contributed to their respective research. In-class exercises. C. Ortiz |
| 10.30-11:30 | Introduction to Geographic Information Systems - ArcGIS as a specific tool for managing geographically referenced data. Tutorial drawn from the US 2004 Elections Data. C. Ortiz |
| 11:30 – 11:45 | Brief Break |
| 11:45 - 1:00 | Final Project Discussion & Course Wrap-up C. Garcia, C. Electris, C. Ortiz, S. Whaley |
Final Project – Creating a lesson in International Relations from a historical event
Approximately 5 – 10 pages, in addition to diagrams.
DUE 1 WEEK AFTER THE END OF THE COURSE (JANUARY 21ST, 2005).
The final project will involve choosing a historical concept from an electronic conflict database and breaking down what happened, and what could have happened based upon factual data and analysis. You will be given a game storyline template and asked to understand the conflict in this manner.
The larger idea of this project is to understand how small or confined conflicts affect local and global environments in the world over time. This effort will draw upon the student's creativity in constructing alternate paths through history, and realistically representing these paths through a designed game tree.
Clear and thoughtfully done projects will have the opportunity to be included in the set of scenarios being developed in our Global Agenda! IR Game project.
Though the course will be over, you will be able to access the instructors of the course through email and set up appointments to discuss any questions or problems you may have.
Recommended IAP Course Readings:
Recommended Readings: Day 1
Baylis, John & Steve Smith (2004) The Globalization of World Politics 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 13-133.
Companion Web-site www.oup.com/uk/best.textbooks/politics/globalization2e
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New
York: Harper & Row.
Herz, J. C. (Jessie Cameron), 1971- Joystick nation : how videogames ate our quarters, won our hearts, and rewired our minds /J.C. Herz. Boston : Little, Brown, and Co., c1997.
Jenkins, H. Squire, K. & Tan, P. (2003) You Can't Bring That Game To School!: Designing Supercharged! in B. Laurel (Ed.) Design Research. Cambridge, MIT Press
Papert, Seymour (1980) Mindstorms: Children, Computer and Powerful Ideas.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing. Selection
Squire, K. (2001) Reframing the Cultural Space of Computer and Video Games in
http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/research-vision.html
Recommended Reading: Day 2
Koch, Andreas (forthcoming). Linking Multi Agent Systems and GIS - Modeling And Simulating Spatial Interactions. Department of Geography RWTH Aachen.
http://www.rwth-aachen.de/geo/Ww/deutsch/MultiAgentsKoch.PDF.
William Sims Bainbridge. 1999. “International Network for Integrated Social Science.” Social Science Computer Review 17: 405 - 420.
Rouse, Richard (2001) Game Design: Theory and Practice. Wordware Publishing
(on-line version through MIT library: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/books24x7)
Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. (2004) Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: The MIT Press (on-line version through MIT library).
Recommended Reading: Day 3
Castells, Manuel (1996/2000). The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture.
Vol.2: The Power of Identity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Choucri, Nazli (ed) (1995) Global Accord: Environmental Challenges and International
Responses. Cambridge: MIT Press
Geographic Information Research at the Millennium. European Science Foundation Social Science Programme. Le Bischenberg, France: September 13-17, 1997. http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/D-H/gis/confprog.html
Geographic Information Science: Critical Issues in an Emerging Cross-Disciplinary Research Domain. National Science Foundation: January 14-15, 1999.
http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/ncgia/gisciencereport.html
Hewitt, Christopher (2003) Understanding Terrorism in America: From the Klan to Al
Qaeda. London: Routledge.
Huntington, S.(1998) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order NY: Touchstone Books
Starr, H. (2002). "Opportunity, willingness and geographic information systems (GIS): reconceptualizing borders in international relations." Political Geography 21(2): 243-261.
Stiglitz, Joseph (2002) Globalization and its Discontents. NYC: W.W. Norton & Co.
 |
Global Agenda! |
 |