playing

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

GAMING

Parents Can Help Kids By Playing With Them – Gaming Has Benefits And Perils

As the pandemic forced many Americans to hunker down at home, the video game industry saw record spending and profits in 2020. Interacting with other people through gaming became, for some players, essential for social connection. As an education researcher and professor of digital literacy, I study the education benefits and perils of digital gaming. These range from providing opportunities for collaborative problem-solving to displaying content that perpetuates racism and sexism. Connection and collaboration Digital games can provide a forum for a diverse group of people to come together. That’s especially important now, while our physical locations are restricted. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, undergraduates have shared with me the vital importance of digital games for the...

Robots are playing many roles in the coronavirus crisis – and offering lessons for future disasters

22Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Robots are playing many roles in the coronavirus crisis – and offering lessons for future disasters

A cylindrical robot rolls into a treatment room to allow health care workers to remotely take temperatures and measure blood pressure and oxygen saturation from patients hooked up to a ventilator. Another robot that looks like a pair of large fluorescent lights rotated vertically travels throughout a hospital disinfecting with ultraviolet light. Meanwhile a cart-like robot brings food to people quarantined in a 16-story hotel. Outside, quadcopter drones ferry test samples to laboratories and watch for violations of stay-at-home restrictions. These are just a few of the two dozen ways robots have been used during the COVID-19 pandemic, from health care in and out of hospitals, automation of testing, supporting public safety and public works, to continuing daily work and life. The lessons ...

There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal

U.S. intel agencies issued dire, classified warnings to President Trump in January and February about the dangers posed by the coronavirus, according to revelations reported in The Washington Post. For weeks, U.S. communities coast to coast sounded the alarm. They didn’t have enough tests to diagnose, track and limit the spread of COVID-19. Meantime, federal and some state officials downplayed the need for a coordinated response. There’s a name for situations when systems that are supposed to take care of others do harm: institutional betrayal. As trauma psychologists, we see that betrayal by the Trump administration, and we offer some lessons from behavioral science to guide the government response to this global health crisis. Traumatic events involve death, or the threat of death, ser...

I Stopped Playing the “Strong Black Woman”

21Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

I Stopped Playing the “Strong Black Woman”

We are paying for this myth we’ve bought into with our lives.I never saw my grandmother rest. From morning to night, she appeared to be in service: cooking and cleaning, helping and caring for others. She died of a heart attack at 69. As I reflect today on the high rates of heart disease, stress, obesity, and other physical as well as mental ailments among African American women, I wonder what would have been the impact had she said, “I ain’t cooking tonight, everybody is on their own,” or “I’m headed out for a walk,” or simply, “I’m tired, and I need to rest.” What messages might I have inferred from watching her take 15 minutes of quiet time in the morning to “get centered.” Instead, I observed what appeared to be a never-ending pace of busyness, problem-solving, and making ends ...