Dear Friends, You may recall that back in September I announced a new online game in which you and your students get to choose which people of the past have had the greatest impact on psychology. Now that we are well into a new semester, I am reminding teachers who whose students now know enough about the discipline of psychology that they will have grounded opinions about who has been most important.
You can find the game here: http://elo.sha.nemart.in. Of the 400+ individuals included in our list, the current Top 10 are: 1. B. F. Skinner 2. William James 3. Sigmund Freud 4. Jean Piaget 5. Ivan Pavlov 6. John B Watson 7. Wilhelm Wundt 8. Charles Darwin 9. Albert Bandura 10. Harry Harlow Play is extremely simple: The player is shown a pair of significant individuals from the past and asked to click on the name of the person who had the greatest impact on the psychology. If the player needs to refresh his/her knowledge of the figures, there is a short description of their important career highlights, along with a link to their Wikipedia entry. As soon as the player clicks on one of the two names, s/he is shown a new pair to choose from. The educational aspect of the game is that having to choose between historically significant individuals will encourage students to read (at least little) about a wide range of important figures with whom they may currently be unfamiliar. Players can play the game for as long as they like, as often as they like, whenever they like. They can quit at any time (though they might find it a little addictive). At the bottom of the page, they will find "top ten” lists that have been compiled from the tens of thousands of choices that they and others have made. (Click on the “Ratings” menu tab and they’ll find the complete list of ranking, along with some specialized top ten lists, including one for women psychologists.) As well as a game, this is also a research project for us: the PsyBorgs Digital History of Psychology Laboratory at York University in Toronto. When starting the game for the first time, the player is asked three optional demographic questions, and there is a consent form to be “ticked” if the player is willing to allow his/her data to be anonymously included in the research project. (This project has been approved by the York University Office of Research Ethics.) If the player would prefer to skip all that and go straight to the game, that is fine as well — s/he can go directly to the first matchup. PLEASE SPREAD THE NEWS! To your students! To your colleagues! To anyone who might be interested! Obviously those with an interest in the history of psychology will like the game more, but we are aiming to include as many different kinds of people as possible to play it. The more the merrier! Happy playing! Chris ….. Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 43.773895°, -79.503670° [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo ………………………………... --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=48199 or send a blank email to leave-48199-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
