Lately I’ve been saying, “I’ve got a lot on my plate.” When I want to switch it up, I disclose the more colorful, “I’m trying to keep multiple plates spinning.” But I’ve been thinking (always dangerous), This paints plates* too reductively. Plates aren’t disembodied, external objects; they don’t merely host gorge-inducing portions or demand frantic maintenance. Plates define our very foundation. We’re built on plates. If living in Los Angeles has taught me nothing else, it’s that our wellbeing depends on the stability, balance, and flow of these plates.
So what’s on my professional plate? Very glad you asked… I’ve enabled comments so that anyone who’s interested can discuss a project with me — this post is mostly meant to inform and engage, and only minimally to vent. Thus, in no particular order:
-co-writing/editing a $1.35M grant to the National Science Foundation
-co-writing an article for journal Learning, Media and Technology on Explore Locally, Excel Digitally, an after-school program my colleagues and I designed and instructed during Spring 2011
-final edits + table layout for Sunukaddu chapter in African Childhoods: Survival, Education and Peace-building in the Youngest Continent
-co-designing challenges for PLAY! platform (which my colleagues and I will present at the Digital Media & Learning Conference and the Annenberg Innovation Lab Festival)
-considering user interface, affordances, and embedded biases of PLAY! platform with colleagues
-brainstorming ideas for Dojo, continuing to meet with folks and think through my dissertation plan, and designing presentation to GameDesk
-writing dissertation prospectus
-co-writing case study about Summer Sandbox and Playing Outside the Box for eBook on participatory models of professional development
-co-facilitating the USC Serious Games Network and co-developing outline for panel I will moderate on serious games’ business models, hosted by USC Marshall School of Business, with panelists Laird Malamed & George Rose
-analyzing data from Laughter for a Change with RFK-LA, a weekly after-school improv workshop with high school freshmen which I participant-observed during Fall 2011, and making a presentation for the Digital Media & Learning conference
-participating on a panel addressing Henry Jenkins‘s Convergence Culture
-revising NCA conference paper on grassroots epistemologies for submission to a scholarly journal and for a chapter in Global Health Communication Strategies in the 21st Century
-attending a gala for the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party, whose membership I’ve instructed in leadership strategies
-writing five letters of recommendation for last semester’s students
-considering a possible joint paper on The Hunger Games
-attending various meetings and workshops
-leafing through stacks of library books and recent Amazon purchases + blogs and articles
-taking on the serious/fun business of playing serious games
Now what’s for dessert?
*My mom paints plates too! You should see her bowl for Rosh Hashanah honey — it’s a beaut!