Forwarned

The Journal of The International Digital Media and Arts Association was envisioned, much like the organization it comes from, to offer something unique to its readers and contributors. It is a journal of many faces… Some are traditionally academic and serious, because we realize the need for formal academic discussions of topics related to the variety of disciplines that can be found in our membership. We realize that for many of you this is an important piece of how you will develop your curriculum vitas and resumes, contribute to your tenure growth, and enhance your scholarship among peers. This journal is committed to supporting you in these endeavors.

However, this journal was also always meant to be “different.” Different in the sense of having a sense of humor, provoking debates, generating outrage, or even being downright silly. It will be inclusive. It will explore. It could even have the occasional cartoon or knock-knock joke in it. Every time you open up the journal in one of its various guises (be it in print, on the web, or even arriving via snail mail), you will find something that will add to your understanding of the complicated and dynamic universe that we are supposed to in some way teach, explain, and translate for others. That’s the job of the journal and we are going to do it.

This particular issue is a reflection of work done at the conference in Oxford and represents the best of the papers submitted and shared this past April. It shows our more serious side and reflects what was referred to earlier, the breadth and inclusive nature of this organization/journal. What lies ahead? A combo journal that will be born out of the fall conference and a special topics call that was done this past spring; a holiday extravaganza that everyone is invited to participate in; and who knows what else… (Anybody know any good knock-knock jokes?)

First, I want to thank Jeff Ritchie, who put in the vast amount of work that made this journal possible. I also want to thank Randall Hoyt, without whom these wonderful articles would just be a stack of paper, and Sharon Ross, whose consul was invaluable in setting the course for this and future journals. Last but not least, a thank you to Conrad Gleber, whose vision and hard work got the journal rolling and whose footsteps we follow in.

Michael Niederman, Executive Editor

Columbia College Chicago

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In this issue

• V3N1: A Case for a Formal Design Paradigm for Serious Games

  By Glenda A Gunter, Ph. D., Robert F. Kenny, Ph. D., Erik Henry Vick, Ph.D. | July 2, 2013

  Serious games have become an educational trend. While we agree with James Gee that learning always takes place in well-constructed games, we contend that if content learning is to take place as a result of playing serious games, a new design paradigm must be developed.

• V3N1: A Media in its Infancy and “Plaintext” in the Ivory Tower

  By Jeff Ritchie | July 1, 2013

  In the late 18th century, during what was thought to be the Enlightenment’s dying gasps, William Wordsworth wrote a preface to a collection of poems that he and a close friend had published. The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads became a seminal work of literary criticism.

• V3N1: An Evaluation of Identity-Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities

  By Fred Stutzman | July 1, 2013

  The management and protection of student identity information is a high priority for academic institutions. Federal legislation, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), provides guidelines for academic institutions with regards to the disclosure of identity information.

• V3N1: Bit by Bit by Bit: Hypercomplexity, Digital Media Studies and Higher Education

  By Jeff Rutenbeck | July 1, 2013

  In his 2003 book The Hypercomplex Society (2003), Lars Qvortrup provides a compelling perspective on the social, cultural and economic shifts taking place in the early 21st century, especially as they relate to the processes […]

• V3N1: colophon

  By Randall Hoyt | July 2, 2013

  The Journal of the International Digital Media and Arts Association is on the cusp of a new phase of growth and readership as founding Editor Conrad Gleber, assumes the position of the President of the […]

• V3N1: Developing a digital media curriculum at a regional liberal arts university: a case study

  By Cher Cornett, Peter Hriso | July 1, 2013

  At East Tennessee State University (ETSU), the rapid evolution of digital media as a concentration in the Department of Technology & Geomatics, new directives from the Tennessee Board of Regents regarding general education requirements, the statewide standardization of hours required for degrees, and an influx of new faculty created an environment in which a major reconstruction of the digital media curriculum became necessary.

• V3N1: Integrating Typography and Motion in Visual Communication

  By Soo C. Hostetler | July 1, 2013

  Typography is a critical tool in visual communication, in part because it can evoke human emotion by combining form with narrative text. Human feelings may serve as the basis for the design of compelling images […]

• V3N1: Learning from Human Support: Informing the Design of Personal Digital Story-Authoring Tools

  By Mark Guzdial, Brian M. Landry | July 2, 2013

  Storytelling performs a critical function in society, serving as a “dialog between people, cultures, and times.” It began as an oral tradition, evolved into a written practice, and has now integrated digital media as “digital storytelling.”

• V3N1: Mobile Media and Digital Way-finding: Strategies for Implementation

  By Yanling Wang, Ericka M. Hedgecock, Oscar Fernández | July 1, 2013

  Given our inherent mobility, wayfinding, “a term introduced to describe the process of reaching a destination, whether in a familiar or unfamiliar environment,” 1 can be described as one of the earliest human activities. In a simple environment, the human mind is capable of generating a cognitive map or “the internal spatial representation of environmental information.”

• V3N1: The Alchemical Body: Descriptions of the Body as the Body

  By Seth Ellis | July 1, 2013

  Problem In what way is the body an idea, and the idea bodily? In what way can probing one extend the other? “How is it that the body thinks itself?” —Stelarc “The eye is like […]

• V3N1: The Continuum of Audience Interactivity from Narrative Dramatic Cinema to Computed Interactive Narrative Drama (CIND): Focusing on the Writer

  By Lori Ingle | July 1, 2013

  There is a continuum of audience interactivity between Narrative Dramatic Cinema and Computed Interactive Narrative Drama (CIND). The current trend to define CIND as interactive and cinema as passive obscures critical similarities between the two. There is nothing passive about cinema.

• V3N1: Video Games as Learning Tools for Project Management

  By Rudy McDaniel, Stephen M. Fiore, Adams Greenwood-Ericksen, Sandro Scielzo, Dr. Jan Cannon-Bowers | July 1, 2013

  Why Video Games? It is not surprising that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)–formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA)–aggressively advertises the popularity of electronic gaming in society. Within their yearly publication on gaming demographics, the […]