Category: events

seminars, conferences, other events

Nordenstreng & Sipilä farewell lectures

The farewell lectures of professors Kaarle Nordenstreng and Jorma Sipilä are now available also as a video recording. Only in Finnish, I am afraid, but providing long perspectives and much insight to the development of Finnish university system, as well as our university and its certain disciplines. Flash video is here:

http://www.uta.fi/ajankohtaista/yliopistouutiset/0509/2705/jaahyvaisluennot.html

PDF version of Nordenstreng’s talk is here:

http://www.uta.fi/ajankohtaista/yliopistouutiset/0509/2705/jaahyvaisluento.pdf

and Sipilä’s lecture text is here as an RTF:

http://www.uta.fi/ajankohtaista/yliopistouutiset/0509/2705/sipilanpuhe0509.rtf

Mia Consalvo's visit

Mia Consalvo visited us today, and gave an interesting talk on the casual games, players and game cultures — something that relates directly to much of the work that our team has been carrying out in similar areas. We also had an opportunity to continue with coffee and cinnamon buns afterwards, discussing about the similarities and differences in the contexts of doing game studies in the US and here in Finland. Fascinating! Tomorrow more of Mia, as she will be acting as the opponent in Tanja Sihvonen’s thesis defence in Turku.

Mia Consalvo's visiting lecture

[Here is the info bulletin in Finnish about Mia Consalvo’s lecture in 22nd May in room B3108 — the lecture itself will be in English, welcome!]

Professori Mia Consalvo pitää pelitutkimuksen alueelta avoimen yleisöluennon perjantaina 22.5.2009 klo 12-14 otsikolla:

Hardcore casual: Game culture Return(s) to Ravenhearst

Luento toteutetaan tilassa RH B3108 (Pinni B).

Professori Consalvo on tunnettu pelien ja Internetin tutkija joka toimii nykyään Ohion yliopistossa (USA). Hän on erikoistunut digitaalisen mediakulttuurin ja teknologiakulttuurien kysymyksiin. Hänen tunnetuin julkaisunsa on pelikulttuurien suhdetta huijaamisen käytänteisiin tarkasteleva teos Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames (MIT Press, 2007).

Mia Consalvo vierailee Tampereella informaatiotutkimuksen ja interaktiivisen median laitoksen pelitutkimusryhmän sekä Pelikulttuurien synty -tutkimushankkeen kutsusta.

Lisätietoja:

Mia Consalvon kotisivut: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~consalvo/
Pelitutkimusryhmän kotisivut: http://gamelab.uta.fi/
Pelikulttuurien synty -tutkimushanke: http://finnishgamecultures.wordpress.com/

Professori Frans Mäyrä: email frans.mayra[at]uta.fi, gsm 050 336 7650

Mansegames seminar

Today in Werstas auditorium we have the Mansegames seminar (ICT Werstas) which discusses possibilities for boosting games industry in Tampere region. More: http://www.hermia.fi/?x43=317726

Olli Sotamaa's PhD videos

I used my mobile phone to take some videos from Olli’s PhD defence yesterday, as well as from the karonkka party afterwards. A great event, many thanks for professor Aphra Kerr on probing questions and insightful discussions — and the evening party afterwards was also excellent: warm-hearted speeches, delicious food, drinks, music, colleagues and friends gathered together for a special day. Congratulations to Olli once again!

Pelitieto.net

Julkistus [Our Finnish language online course on games literacy basics is now released]:

Pelitiedon peruskurssi julkistettu: http://pelitieto.net/

Erityisesti opettajille suunnattu verkkosivusto digitaalisista peleistä ja pelikulttuureista on julkistettu tänään Hämeenlinnan ITK-konferenssissa. Sivusto sisältää tietoa niin pelien ja pelaamisen historiasta kuin tarkemmin suosituimpiin pelilajityyppeihin perehdyttäviä osioita. Itseopiskeluun ja täydennyskoulutuskäyttöön soveltuva verkkosivusto vastaa tarpeeseen: nuorten ja vanhempien välille kasvanut digitaalinen pelikuilu on jo vuosia kaivannut myös koululaitoksen reagointia, mihin Pelitieto.net tarjoaa nyt osaltaan työvälineitä.

Lisätietoa: professori Frans Mäyrä, frans.mayra@uta.fi / puh. 050 336 7650
Tampereen yliopisto, informaatiotutkimuksen ja interaktiivisen median laitos (INFIM)
Game Research Lab: http://gamelab.uta.fi

Talks in ITK conference

The one-week Easter vacation is now all in the past, and I have been busily working — among other things preparing for the two days of ITK conference taking place this week. In Thursday I will be having a short lecture in the invited speakers track on the game playing and good life (an applied ethics talk, related to the ‘Beyond Good and Evil in Games’ that I delivered earlier in Tampere media education seminar). In Friday we have a thematic seminar session focused on learning in games and social media; speakers include Peppi Taalas, Tanja Sihvonen and me, all coming from our Alliance Cluster of Excellence on Future Learning and Games Research. See you there — or on the road! Link to the ITK pages: http://www.hameenkesayliopisto.fi/itk/.

Playful Experiences seminar starting today

The Playful Experiences seminar will start today, and feature an interesting mix of papers discussing games and other playful phenomena from various perspectives. You can find the final, updated program here: http://playfulexperiences.wordpress.com/programme/

Beyond Good and Evil in Games Education

I embed here my slides of the talk that I gave today in a media education seminar in Tampere. The slideset is in Finnish, but the gist of the argument is that games have been involved in a polarising discussion where they are seem as sources of ‘good’ or ‘evil’ effects, while I would argue for accepting the fundamental ambiguity of games and media, and call for responsible and “playful media educators” or “playful parents”, that would be in genuine interaction with the children and young people, having an eye on the individual differences, uses and contexts — understanding what games stand for in the lives of these real individuals.

Pelien hyvyydestä ja pahuudesta – pelikulttuurin ja mediakasvatuksen kysymyksiä

View more presentations from fransmayra.

Here is a link to the seminar program: http://www.uta.fi/mediakasvatushanke/uutinen.php?item=29511.

Kirjastoon! Award to Ilkka Mäkinen/INFIM

I am today talking in the Kirjasto ON seminar in Helsinki, and was pleasantly surprised as the seminar was opened by an award ceremony where Ilkka Mäkinen, docent of library history and colleague from our INFIM department was given applause for his long history in the study of libraries and teaching of library professionals. Congrats! Ilkka’s home page: http://www.uta.fi/~liilma/