[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Corvus Elrod]

I stressed the importance of sleep and proper diet at our jam this year. As
a result, a lot of the teams ensured they got proper night's sleep. At the
postmortem we held last night, it was the teams that got sleep that had the
most complete and polished games.

I'm hoping that the Jam will continue to serve as proof that crunch doesn't
work as well as sleep. But it takes putting that message out there
continuously to make it stick.

--
Corvus

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 8:27 AM, Jose P. Zagal <jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu> wrote:


>

>  The timing of this thread, in the week following Global Game Jam, is

>> hilarious.

>>

>> "We should not encourage students to "crunch", or expect that they

>> will, or assign them work such that they have no way of completing it

>> without having to put in crunch-style hours."

>>

>> Unless it's fun.

>>

>

>

> You raise a good point that I've wrestled with over the years.

>

> Does Game Jam somehow legitimize (in the eyes of the students) overtime and

> crunching? I don't really have an answer for that, and I hope that someone

> explores the question...

>

> I am concerned that it does, and this year I almost cut the "overnight"

> aspect. What I have done, as far as organizing Game Jam is:

>

> 1. On Friday I send everyone home. Game Jam only runs overnight from Sat to

> Sun.

>

> 2. We end earlier on Sunday (11am, rather than 3pm)

>

> 3. I make sure to provide decent meals (within budgetary constraints)

> rather than snacks to create opportunities for participants to take a break,

> step away from the computer, and nourish themselves properly.

>

>

>

>

> --

> José P. Zagal

> Assistant Professor

> College of Computing and Digital Media

> DePaul University

>

> http://www.ludoliteracy.com/

> http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal

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