NYU Game Center professor and freelance engineer Robert Yang never thought that teaching a class on Twitch would be a good idea, but as long as he was in things he did most of the work that started from him. “Oh, hello, Amber,” said the student who made himself known to be talking. “And hello, organized people. Ah Jesus Christ. Not at all. ”
Tuesday, Yang broadcast her class on Twitch on Twitch to an audience that includes his readers – and a bunch of anonymous online travelers who put out similar viewers. That's not a huge audience by Twitch standards, but it's much bigger than a typical Youngs room full of game designers need. Yang (who, full disclosure, once taught classes that my partner took her) had no choice but to teach her class online; NYU Game Center, as a growing number of universities nationwide, has switched to remote format in the hope of helping to contain COVID-19, aka the coronavirus. This poses a novel challenge for many professors, who never get their students involved in class while they are separated by miles. However, while NYU made extensive use of a conferencing app called Zoom to close the gap caused by the epidemic, Youngs students suggested a trip to Twitch instead.
"Another student joked that we should teach Twitch, because the class is about Twitch," she told Yang Kotaku by telephone. “I thought it was a bad idea, I told her that. But then I realize that sometimes bad ideas are fun and informative and interesting. So I thought & # 39; Yes, and I can try it. & # 39; ”
Jang, who is usually broadcast on his Twitch channel, comes in expecting an altercation. The classes fostered a different, more deliberate kind of discussion than showcases the madcap fireworks and Twitch chat ideas, and she quickly realized that students were not as much involved as they were doing in class. Instead, some viewers – familiar with Twitch's wireless audio – became more prominent in the session.
"Students in the class stopped paying attention to the conversation, they stopped paying attention," Yang said. “It was kind of me trying to get involved with myself and put the information in their heads. However, there is a free exchange of ideas and ideas … So I guess I predicted Twitch's weakness, and it definitely happened. ”
However, he has found that the flow of dollars for robots that go straight to his online classroom helped to attract students in unexpected ways.
"I think it's always fun for students when they see people outside the university or academics interested in what they are learning," Yang said. “All of a sudden, it reduces the sense of humor or busy work. It's like & # 39; Oh, maybe people are interested in this. Maybe this applies to the real world. & # 39; There is a lovely blood flow from the outside world to the classroom. Some power, I suppose, felt. ”
This case study comes from a book called Watch Me Play: Twitch and Rise of Game Live Streaming by MIT professor T.L. Taylor, but it also emphasized Twitchersers "underclass" that doesn't get viewers, Taylor's neglected book allows for the study of larger, more effective broadcasts. Each week, Yang asks her students to broadcast on their stations, usually to a small or no audience. This makes them very similar to the underclass, with stars such as Imane “Pokimane” Anys, Turner “Tfue” Tenney, or even a young broadcaster who recently became a Twitch partner.
Another part of the Yindlelas Twitch classroom centers around watching and discussing videos for students' latest broadcasts. Usually, only Yang and her students review their new broadcast. This week, it was Yang, her students, and 50 non-fiction viewers from Twitch. This meant that many students were getting the first showing of the Twitch audience, unlike one made up of friends, family, or no one else.
"That's about 99 percent of Twitch users: having little or no audience," Yang said. So they really struggle with that – what does it mean for them. Is it a reference to their personality? Does that mean you are a failed artist? Does that mean that no one cares about who they are or what they donate? … I think it was legitimate for some (my students) to look at their work. "
However, Twitch's audience is not known for pulling bars. Yang did her best to download any Twitch viewers could find on her students' line with the banner below her stream that read "This is a real college class; be good." But she also wanted her students to be prepared, especially because the conversation was moving so fast. It was impossible for him to balance everything while he was lagging behind in conversation and trying to fix everyone's opinions.
"If you follow these real people I am put in charge of their teacher, I will totally ban you," said Yang of the announcement in her broadcast. “But the kind of signal goes both ways. (For my readers), it was like & # 39; Okay, make yourself a bell. This is not because I feed you in a positive and calm way. This could be someone who says something that you might not really like. & # 39; ”
Another student, Ren Hughes, commented on Yawn's criticism of Twitch's conversation as a discussion. However, he was "happy" to receive a response to his broadcast and said he had found Twitch's followers after the session. Overall, he doesn't think Twitch could work well as a regular course, but the large, 101-lecture classes would probably find a place to spread the still-growing Wild West.
"NYU is a great university," he told Hughes Kotaku in an email, “and if you had one of those 101 seminars with 400 people all just watching one talk, that's fine I guess. And, (it's about giving you a free education in dollars. "
In general, Hughes loves the class.
“Getting home lessons is difficult,” she says. "It's really hard to focus, especially because instead of being offered to everyone who reads the same thing, you're in a room with a family that doesn't focus on that, and can really get away from it. I'm happy to continue to get my education, but hopefully we'll get back to real classes soon. That sounds real."
Another student, Adam Goren, thinks there might be something to the idea of teaching a part-time class over on Twitch.
"Robert seemed to believe that teaching Twitch was a bad idea for conservatives, but I think that's worth it." Kotaku in the email. “While the class was less efficient than usual, I don't feel like it's a bad experience or a waste of time. I think this would be an excellent platform to showcase student & # 39; s work to visitors & # 39; who can come in and give ideas, as long as they are well used. ”
Aside from Twitch's wild ways of talking, one non-student viewer who was a little talkative, critical and occasionally Kotaku Assistant Nico Deyo, thanked you for this time.
"It was a bit bizarre and less ambitious as the college classes were with me when I was studying, but I really appreciated using the medium to find a way to work with students (and) to learn, and (I) found learning to compliment," he told Kotaku on Twitter's DM. "Of course I started to think more about how broadcasting works from a theoretical perspective, which bothers me as someone who studied PR and media as a major academic force."
You've also noticed, but it's not a great place for a class not because students can get distracted or distracted, but also because "unwanted" dialogues are common on Twitch. "A lot of people need a lot of focus or attention, a space for questioning and reaction, and Twitch is probably a very small, untested and full-fledged community," he said.
In some ways, Yang has found that broadcasting and teaching are not at all different. Paying attention to Twitch's conversation, translating it into spoken places, for example, didn't take too far away from what he did when students had discussions in the classroom. The difference is that, on Twitch, no one stands around for someone else to talk. It never stops. Jang called the process “stressful.” He felt more pressure due to Twitch's central role as part of the entertainment. As a result, he said he changed his personality to "120 percent" during the class, not 90 percent in his regular studies, and back 60 percent in his regular studies. He also pointed out, however, that teaching is more of a function of broadcasting than you might expect.
“You learn quickly to put a teacher in charge early,” Yang said. "Otherwise, if you don't have that teacher, you will just be destroyed. You will either take things too far, or you will lose some patience. So I think teachers are just as familiar with making a certain kind of person in front of an audience, even though we usually don't think of teaching as effective."
He also thinks that perhaps teachers who are bored in their homes due to COVID-19 can take some clues from video gameers and YouTubers, who have found a way to encourage viewers for hours on end while talking mostly on unfamiliar topics. He thinks that, compared to what professors are doing now to communicate with their people, a small way to earn money can be a better bet.
“Zoom has these amazing tools where students can rank. Then, based on their position, they turn to this simple voting that tells you exactly when they say & # 39; yes & # 39; or & # 39; no & # 39; or "go faster & # 39; or & # 39; go slower." So you have to pay attention to all the different channels. It's a 21st century teaching concept … It's like a professor has to plan a wedding, or have a party, or create an entire world that covers everyone or something. ”
It's tricky as they all come out, in other words. Broadcast on Twitch is usually just a broadcast and a game. The ones they talk about might not have anything to do with the game, but the combination grabs people's attention. Similarly, people on YouTube often post videos in which they watch an important lesson of more than 30 minutes while videos from an unrelated game are playing in the background. It's all kind of video. Obviously, there is something to it.
"I think the reason why the video game broadcasts have been shut down – why (Twitch's predecessor) Justin TV didn't first appear but Twitch held it – is that games allow you to express some type of performance or personality, but without focusing entirely on your face or your IRL body, "It's your body, but not your body. It's like a whale. We're watching everybody make a small platform for us. Maybe that's what we want: talk to the radio, like, a game of gossip."
Joseph A. Howley, professor of teaching in Latin, history, and humanities at Columbia University, has also been coordinating the communication between teachers and equipment transfer staff while teaching his students at home. He, too, thinks there is a basic lesson to be learned from the basic broadcast presentation that can be used in teaching.
“We are looking for everyone to make theater for us. Maybe that's what we want: talk to the radio, like, a game of gossip. ”
“Radioers do this fun thing when you watch and watching them do something, as they both talk, ”she told Howley Kotaku on Twitter's DM. “Watching Robert take advantage of this pedagogy has been very exciting and has shown a tendency for me. Something as simple as having a text file opened on the screen that it was writing and explaining and editing made me realize that I was doing something similar. Usually at our meeting we look at the text on our pages and talk about it, but I can put that text in a Google document and explain in real time with the students as we talk about it, and then we have a note that you can go back. That is a trick that would never happen to me without broadcasting, and it led me to create a very useful resource that I would never use in a gym class. ”
As for Jang, while teaching at Twitch was a struggle, he wasn't about to do it again in the coming semester, especially his paragraph about the speaker.
“Maybe it will be a tradition,” he said. "It's a bad tradition."
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