May 6, 2013

Games for Didactic Use

Filed under: Create Better Impact,Educating for Sustainability,General — Tags: Educating for Sustainability, Education for Sustainability, Fun, Game Design, Gamification, Green, Sustainability — admin @ 9:17AM

One of the things that is important to me is creating positive change in the world. While I loved teaching, I felt that there had to be a better way to connect with people. After watching the failures of schools to produce responsible students and that of the environmental movement increasing changes for the survival of the species it seemed clear that there is a better way. So I researched and read and looked at what appeared to be successful. What I’ve come to is that games area fun and engaging way to connect with and communicate a message. While the message can be communicated through both the theme and the mechanics either should provide a better way for information to be retained as behavior change.

The use of games for education is a growing field, although it has been in practice for decades in experiential education. Using games in education, in a didactic purpose, is linked with greater understanding and better assimilation of the information by players. I may not be a scientist, but I can observe that there is movement on the games front as this understanding percolates through society and more play pops up. (more…)

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May 3, 2013

Called to Council

Filed under: Conscious Leadership,Spirit — Tags: Leadership, Mexico, Paititi, Spiritual, Tulum, Vision Council, Weaving Wisdoms, Wisdom Council — admin @ 3:51PM

Receiving the call to Tulum rang strongly in my being. What resonated was the request to come for a Vision Council or perhaps it was the unwritten call to the fibers of my being. Frankly, the location could have been a slum for all I knew. That being said it was mid-winter in New England and most places to the South would be a dream to visit that time of year. The greatest draw was the council’s purpose of progressing and “holding the vision of creating a gathering where elders, teachers and lineage holders from around the world come may together to share and integrate wisdom.” From the point of receiving that first email from Paititi my soul’s song grew louder and more beautiful as our council to discuss what has come to be known Weaving Wisdoms drew closer.

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March 25, 2013

To Gamify or Not to Gamify

Filed under: Conscious Leadership,Create Better Impact,General — Tags: Branding, Engagement, Fun, Game, Game Design, Gamification, Innovation, Marketing, Organization Development, Play, Social Media, Strategy — Kirsten @ 11:13AM

To Gamify or Not to Gamify

That is the question.

Gamification is a hot topic nowadays. In conversation I’m seeing people reaching blindly towards gamification the same way they stumbled towards social media five years ago. To many, gamification is something that they’ve heard about people doing successfully and so they want it.

The surge in interest in games reminds me of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. A little silly to watch, but everyone genuinely wants to succeed. The other interesting dynamic is that I’m not sure anyone can see the donkey yet. While we are working closer and closer to understanding how to do this, it seems to be a field that includes elements connecting game designers, educators, and marketing professionals and thus one which our incongruous education system of silo-ed study has not created an environment conducive to cross disciplinary understanding and action. Some might disagree on this point, but I’d point out that in order to design effective games you need to understand systems theory, game design, psychology, math, sociology, etc.

But back to the topic at hand. In the past years candy, and other ‘junk food’ companies offered games to their consumers on their websites. I expect that they were seeking to get traffic to their websites. The games that I’ve seen often have little to do with the brand, but there in the background was the logo. M&M’s does this with a shuffleboard game, for example. The point is obviously engagement since you don’t need to play a game to open a bag of M&M’s. Connecting your product to an enjoyable experience is a good idea and one that came naturally and early to that sector. (more…)

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March 21, 2013

Gamifying Create Better Impact Games

Filed under: Create Better Impact — Tags: Branding, Community, Facebook, Gamification, Indiegogo, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Waste Not — Kirsten @ 12:10PM

So as you may know Create Better Impact Games is my company. I design games around making the world a better place which I know will one day be worthy of winning awards from Games for Change. Right now, this is a little tiny company with a little tiny budget. Not that one day it won’t be able to hold its own with the big boys, but for now marketing is not the top priority.

As I got ready to bring Waste Not to market using an Indiegogo Campaign I had to think seriously about how to approach marketing. While I have a lot of people in my contacts I couldn’t be sure who would actually have natural interest and who might need some convincing.

Being a game designer I tried to think of ways to make liking or signing up on social media fun and engaging to the community. This process is called gamification and everyone and their mother is currently trying to apply it to their web presence. I am lucky that it is part of my natural reaction to communications.

What are you going to do with it?

Back to the point. There I was at the start of a campaign trying to raise money to print Waste Not. My Facebook page for both CBI Games and Waste Not were relatively new with little to now following, I had just begun a Twitter presence for Waste Not, and I had nothing on Google+. So in response I decided to give away a version of my game for free via social media. You heard me, for free.

I figured that if people got a chance to play the game, even if slightly different interactions than with having a deck of cards, that they’d be more likely to ‘like’ and engage with the marketing of the brand. In this case, I was seeking to let the game speak for itself.

Now I’ve been going forward with the understanding that this deck of cards will be able to be used in many ways. That will always happen when you give someone a flexible tool, is that they will begin to bend it and play with it. In fact many of the stories that we know from childhood have changed over the centuries. The basic story is still there to communicate the archetypal hero/ine’s journey but the details change.

Well that’s exactly what I’m seeing happening with Waste Not on Social Media. While the instructions were to share the status so that others could see what you were liking and playing people tended to comment on the Waste Not status. While this did not garner the amazing viral experience I was hoping for, I did get the benefit of seeing how people began to play the game. And let me tell you it was fun! Yes, my games are fun for me too. Especially when I get to watch others play.

While I’ve let go of the control over the rules and will continue to allow for this project to flow and grow, I’m glad that I undertook this experiment in the gamification of my own marketing. I think overall those that played did have fun and many of them played several times. What I’m seeing now is a small but committed group of people who are totally engaged. I’d prefer this any day to a large, unengaged group. My hypothesis is that as long as I follow the same theory of engagement that as the following grows it may be smaller initially but they will be more valuable relationships.

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March 15, 2013

Dealing with Death in the Now

Filed under: General,Spirit — Tags: Burning Man, Compassion, Death, Dying, Friendship, Grief, Love, Now, Presence, Spirit, Suicide — Kirsten @ 10:44AM

A camp mate of mine from Burning Man killed himself this week. Some of the thoughts that went through my mind:
Why did I step away from Facebook? (I would have known sooner.)
Why didn’t I ask Chris, etc. who had died? (I would have known sooner.)

A profound grief sent me bawling this morning loudly into my husband’s nice, clean work shirt up to that point where the phlegm was so thick that I couldn’t breathe. I was heaving so hard trying to that I almost threw up.

Empty of tears for a moment I thought back to the spiritual work that I’ve been doing over the years for guidance. The prevalent theme recently has been focusing on remaining in the NOW.

The theory is that there is only every one time that you are in and it is now. The past happened and the future will but the only thing that you can make changes to is now.

So here I am, blowing my snotty nose in the now and thinking about my friend. Now it doesn’t matter that I didn’t know he was sad. I just didn’t. It doesn’t matter when I found out. I found out. While deep friendships are formed at events like Burning Man in crazy short periods of time, ours had and most likely would have remained as a part of that community due to physical distance. So what was it that was bothering me here in the now?

I had a conversation with a family member within the past week who was depressed. In the time I was worried about them and while I said a lot and didn’t censor myself, I didn’t share the concern that they might get to the point that Zach had. Realizing this as being a part of the crying jag today, I said something.

What is it we regret at the end of life? Not doing something. Not saying how you felt when it was important. Perhaps my lesson in this and the emotional release is connected to the ways I’ve hurt myself in the past by not sharing my feelings, intuition, knowledge when it was important. I’m taking from this don’t hold back when you feel the need to share even if it is saying I love you to a stranger.

Another lesson I’ve been connecting more deeply with is the practice of having love and compassion for all sentient beings. So for all sentient beings that are affected by Zach’s death, I love you. For all those who are going through their own growing challenges in life, I love you. I hold you all in compassion and love now.

Namaste.

I’m just a woman who is seeking to cope with the loss of a friend that thought my thoughts might be helpful to someone.

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March 14, 2013

Update on Updates

Filed under: Create Better Impact — Tags: Indiegogo, Waste Not — Kirsten @ 10:50AM

You like me, you really like me!

Lately I’ve been getting tremendous feedback from people stating how much they enjoy the campaign updates, and how much they look forward to them. Wow! Thanks!!

You are excited when new updates and newsletters post. You are happy for Waste Not’s success. How lucky am I to be a part of a community, made up of both people that I know and those that I don’t, that is so engaged with the process of creating a better world that they look forward to it? I’d say that I couldn’t be happier.

So what’s the next step? Well, there are 8 days remain in the Indiegogo campaign and I’d love to build this community more. Let me know what you’d like to see in the updates, share a picture of something the you reused or upcycled around your house, or maybe tell me how you are planning on using your deck of cards… Don’t forget you are welcome to check Waste Not on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WasteNotGame or Twitter https://twitter.com/wastenotgame/

Also important, tonight I will be videoing playing the game for your entertainment so look forward to some fun Saturday morning videos.

Support Waste Not on Indiegogo!

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March 7, 2013

Upcycling

Filed under: Create Better Impact — Tags: ReCycling, ReUse, Trash, Upcycling, Waste, Waste Not — Kirsten @ 12:53PM

Unlike Recycling, Upcycling does not need energy above and beyond the call of duty, but it does require some modification. It is also likely that when you are upcycling you are adding other items to the thing you are seeking to create.

Examples of Upcycling

Turning used tires into the soles of shoes
Melting plastic bags together to make an insulating internal layer for curtains
Cutting up an old T-shirt to make cleaning rags

Let’s put this into practice, how might you Upcycle an empty bag of chips?

To check your answer ask yourself if you or another person could do this with relatively little equipment. If you’d need to send the object a great distance or use intense amounts of energy then you are probably thinking of ReCycling. If the idea you have doesn’t require changing the shape or basic structure of the material then you are probably thinking of ReUse. Upcycle on friends!

Support Waste Not on Indiegogo!

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March 5, 2013

Recycling

Filed under: Create Better Impact,General — Tags: Energy, Recycle, Waste, Waste Not — Kirsten @ 12:44PM

http://igg.me/at/WasteNotGame/x/957618

Recycling has been the poster child of diverting the waste stream, but is it really the best option? Recycling actually takes a lot of energy to do and depending on where you are compared to where the processing center is, and the demand for the materials, it might be more environmentally costly than you think.

When you recycle, everything gets collected and shipped to a center. The batch gets tested for purity and if there is something that shouldn’t be in there then the whole batch gets rejected and put into the landfill. Yes, it really is important for everyone to rinse out recyclables and make sure that other waste doesn’t make it into the bins.

Once it has been tested the plastic material gets melted down into pellets (glass and paper have their own process of bailing or break down) and then that ‘new’ material gets shipped somewhere new for processing. The ‘new’ material then gets heated and melted into a new object.

Recycling is an intensive process, and one which there is not always a demand for the materials. So what happens when you recycle something and there is no demand? It gets put in the landfill. But don’t despair there are other options. Try going go up the ladder a little and possibly Upcycle, or better yet ReUse that item.

Support Waste Not on Indiegogo!

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March 3, 2013

ReUse

Filed under: Create Better Impact — Tags: ReUse, Upcycling, Waste, Waste Not — Kirsten @ 12:37PM

When it comes to the best possible thing you can do with something once it has outlived its original use, nothing tops the charts like ReUse.

When you reuse an item you maintain its inherent value. That is, not only the shape that it is in, but the energy that was necessary to make that shape does not need to get put into the process again. Of course, in order to do this you must find a new purpose for the item…

Some examples of ReUse:

Using broken bricks to line the edge of your garden
Bringing an empty glass jar to the store to fill up with something from the bulk section (make sure to have them weight it first)
A holey sock becomes a great applicator for oiling your cutting board
A Banana peel can be used to polish furniture before going in the compost

See if you can think of a way to reuse a torn T-shirt.
You can check your answer by asking yourself – Does this process require extra energy (time, effort, heat, etc.?) If you answer yes, then you are probably thinking about Upcycling. Upcycling uses the raw materials and with some added energy turns it into a new item. Learn more about that here. If you answer, no, then you are well along your way to becoming a ReUse expert.

Freecycle is a great way to find a use for items that you otherwise might have to toss and many communities are now creating swap shops or reuse centers. For more information about Zero Waste and ReUse please check out the Reuse Alliance.

Support Waste Not on Indiegogo!

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February 28, 2013

Guest Lecturer or Learner?

Filed under: Create Better Impact,Educating for Sustainability — Tags: Education for Sustainability, Game, Waste, Waste Not — Kirsten @ 12:08PM

I had the awesome opportunity to connect with a classroom students at Greenfield Community College who are working on their Permaculture Design Certificate this past week. Invited by their engaging, dynamic instructor, Abrah Dresdale, who requested that I talk about waste.

With an hour to teach and bountiful ideas, I arrived at the classroom and jumped right in. I have to admit that every time I step into a classroom or workshop I ask myself why I ever left in the first place. It just feels so right to be teaching, and I am energized in a way that feeds my soul.

In case you didn’t know, I left teaching and private school administration in ’08 to study for my MA in Sustainable Communities an Socially Responsible Business. While I had always thought that I would go back to teach, life after my degree lead me in the direction of working with businesses and non-profit organizations.

That brings us to today where I’m now launching my first game, Waste Not, on Indiegogo, and increasingly teaching through games and interactive exercises. This also brings us to why Abrah asked me to come in and guest lecture.

Waste Not is more than a game. Playing helps to teach about the different possibilities of dealing with what otherwise might be considered trash in a way that uses the least amount of energy necessary; rethinking the cycle so to speak.

So everyone in the course got a card and we played and shared together. Many creative ideas came out of the room that day (infinity candles, computers with upgradable components, etc.) especially when we got to the point of playing the ReDesign process in small groups.

What I wasn’t expecting is that the feedback I got would be about the greater picture. While the players definitely had fun and enjoyed our time together, the input that I was given was more whole systems. One woman commented that she could see the game as a great exercise for any group of people who were trying to problem solve together, and that by playing they’d really be able to do a better job as a group. Another man agreed that the applications of the game went far beyond learning about waste. Overall I got to enjoy being both the teacher and student that day and look forward to my next opportunity to do so.

I’m grateful for the comments and suggestions I recieved and will be taking them to heart (including how to store value, or give more points for multiple uses, etc.)

Support Waste Not on Indiegogo!

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