ARGs in Education

Subj: Thanx for joining the fanclub

 Hi Sharna,

Thanks for signing up to Jamierules Welcoming new members used to be the best part of running this site, but ever since Jamie’s death, it’s been…well, kinda depressing.

Sorry, what a dreadful start! I don’t mean to sound so glum – it’s actually really nice to have someone new on-board. A load of so-called fans have deserted the site over the last few weeks, so the messageboard is mostly down to a few regulars: Kal, Greta, Cochrane and me (Jess!).

You can check out the board at:

http://www.jamierules.co.uk/mb/index.html?iJi47D9vsXGzXifW4ym7iQ

When you’re done reading, click on the flashing ‘launch messenger’ button at the bottom of the page so we can have a chat (I always like to natter with newbies).

speak soon

Jess
xxxx

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the more of us that hold on to his memory, the stronger his light will burn
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A few things to note that are particulary target audience appropriate:

1) The spelling of Thanx in the subject heading
2) The use of the emoticon (which appeared as text in my email)
3) The frequency of kisses used to sign off
4) The ‘deep thinking’, cliched signature

I think this is an effective piece of communication, in that none of the techniques listed above have been overused, in the main, the content it is appropriate to the mode. When addressing teenagers, there could be an attempt to speak their language, by overusing text speak. That would smack too hard of desperation.

From a technical and organisational perspective, this intial communication appeared in my Spam folder of my email system. If ARGs are to be used in an educational context, perhaps dedicated email addresses should be set up for this purpose (does using a dedicated address negate the ‘real’?) or somehow ensure that all email address are in the address books of the participants. Conversely, perhaps the email going into the Spam folder is realistic, so could be just something the teacher/parent would have to manage in the learning environment, rather than the puppetmasters finding a technological solution during development.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 10:36 am and is filed under Jamie Kane, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.