Hanging up the cloak and dagger

A childhood favorite (the movie, that is).
Image courtesy the Killer List of Video Games.

I don't write about my research on this blog very much. This is because my colleagues and I are in the process of applying for grants. Honestly, the idea that you have to keep your ideas and findings secret until you've secured a source of funding is a bit uncomfortable for me—"information wants to be free," and all that. Is someone going to steal our ideas? Will funding sources determine that we're doing such a great job as volunteers that there's no need to help us ramp up our work? Doubts aside, when I have little experience of a situation—no real understanding of why things are the way they are—I am inclined to trust people who do possess that experience and knowledge.

Academia, like everything else, is as much of a culture and a mindset as it is a collection of information and procedures. In graduate school, I learned to how to formulate questions, conduct research and publicize results; how to make professional contacts; how to lecture and lead discussions; how to design curricula. I know stuff, and I know how to do stuff, and in many ways I've begun to "think like an expert." But I'm not yet at home in the culture. That takes time.

But I am engaged in research, and I do want to talk about it; if not in the specifics, then at least in generalities. I have questions about things that bear on my research, and I want to hear what others have to say. I see work being done by by brilliant people at other institutions, and I want to share my thoughts and excitement. So I hope this post will be the start of a more open dialogue—a more frequent monologue, at least—about my own work with games-based learning.

Expect more soon.