This fall I began to send out monthly newsletters about my work across a wide range of fields. If you would like to receive these (about my work, but there are also ones about my two upcoming books), please sign up here. Below is December’s year-end round up.
DECEMBER 2021 BJC NEWSLETTER
Your tasty update on Barry Joseph Consulting
My Year in Review
In just a few days, New Years Eve will close out the first calendar year of Barry Joseph Consulting. And what is December for if not to look back and take stock on the past year?
I feel so fortunate, during such a period filled with pain and loss for so many, to have had the opportunity to work on such exciting work with so many creative, kind, and generous people around the world.
Across the entire year I worked with the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) to identify strategic opportunities for increasing the engagement and reach of Research Quest, their tool for science teachers around the country to improve students’ critical thinking skills. If you missed it, you can revisit my interview with NHMU about our work together here.
In New York City, with both the City College of New York (CCNY) and Science and Arts Engagement New York (SAENY), I supported their efforts to develop a pathway for NYC youth in low-income communities to explore educational and career pathways into game-related fields. Check out our study on NYC youth and gaming here.
In the summer I worked with creative visionary Alex McDowell and others at Experimental Design to develop a proposal for a groundbreaking interactive and immersive traveling museum exhibit that explored the future of civil engineering and the built environment in the years leading up to 2070.
This fall I worked on a yet-to-be-disclosed project with a South Korean developer focused on an innovative approach to bringing digital learning into classrooms. I hope to share more about that in 2022.
Also this fall I added more Utahns to my client roster! The Utah Education Network (UEN) provides digital educational resources to more than 658,000 thousand K-12 students, more than 225,000 higher education students, and more than 77,000 educators across the state. As with NHMU, I am helping them to refine their success measures and ensure they have analytic tools in place to track them. Across both this and the engagement with the Museum, I am partnering with Mirrorlytics, a fantastic analytics agency that makes data-driven decisions approachable.
Finally, just this week, I finally announced my new partnership with the Center to Advance Racial Equity Policy (CAREP) at the RAND Corporation to produce games about racial equity policy. It was hard keeping this one a secret and I am excited to now be able to share more details.
There IS much more coming in 2022 – some extending the work from above, some with clients whose contracts are yet to be signed, and some with people I have yet to meet (perhaps YOU or someone you know). Thank you for joining me on the journey.
Public Speaking Events
In December I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to present a webinar jointly supported by the RAND Center to Advance Racial Equity Policy and the RAND Center for Gaming: Becoming Well Played – The Impact of Gaming on U.S. Culture (and Beyond). I was quite humbled to be speaking to such an illustrious group with deep expertise. You can read more about it here and, if the video is approved for public viewing, watch this space to get access.
Next year I have my eyes on a few conferences: the return of Games, Learning and Society, the return of an in-person Games For Change, and… well, for the rest, watch and see! Where are YOU planning to go to connect with colleagues in 2022, in person or online? Let me know!
Learn more about 2021’s Speaking Events
From My Bookshelf
On my bookshelf this month I’ve been enjoying William Gibson’s The Peripheral, a thrilling read about time and dimensions and the future of telepresence; Neal Stephenon’s latest opus, Terminal Shock, perhaps his most fascinating cast of characters to date in a story about geoengineering; and catching up on the latest X-men adventures in my iPad’s Marvel app.
On TV, I’ve been fascinated by the creative process on display in Peter Jackson’s documentary marvel, The Beatles: Get Back; just finished the original animated run of the stylish Cowboy Beebop (and still dancing to the soundtrack); and am all set to start the Book of Boba Fett.
Finally, in the movie theaters (and wow, yes, I’ve been back in movie theaters), it’s hard to say which of the following were my favorites: the remake of West Side Story, the retro/future-forward tapestry of Spider-Man: No Way Home, or the nostalgic brain-trip of Matrix: Resurrections. What do they all have in common? Beautiful choreography.
Happy holidays and see you in the new (and hopefully vastly improved) year!
