Laptops at the table..and recent research showing how bad it is in education..does it carry over to gaming?

[Lwaxy]

Is it really that hard to get a diagnosis of Autism in Europe? It isn't in the UK, so I'm surprised to hear that. As for self-diagnosis, there are so many problems with it that it's a whole other thread in another forum. It does as much harm as good, that's for sure. Being aware of conditions like Autism or dyscalculia (which are not connected, particularly, I note - though ADD/ADHD is connected to dyscalculia) is quite different from deciding you have them and going around telling people that you do. Avoiding diagnosis (usually by finding excuses, in my experience) is detrimental in that it prevents you from being provided with access to a lot of really useful stuff (whether tools, medication or other forms of support - particularly in Western Europe, where non-neurotypical stuff isn't stigmatized as much as the rest of the world).

Complete tangent but I think one particular issue with self-diagnosis in the last five-six years is that a lot of people who had no real Autism symptoms beyond "poor social skills" self-diagnosed, made it part of their identity and so on, and as they get older, at least some of those people are realizing that they just had, y'know, poor social skills (and now have better ones, as age often brings), but are now in a situation where they announced to everyone that they had a very specific disability... Not great for anyone involved.

There would be a waiting list longer than 3 years for a diagnosis from one of the 2 or 3 "qualified" psychatrists. Recently, they opened up 2 more places not too far away, but even there, you need to wait for months. And that is bad in more than one way, because myself, as many Aspies, I can't plan that far ahead. I have trouble scheduling ahead for conventions and game meetups, or for work needing to be done in our house, or even my cancer followups. If I have issues with stuff that's fun for me or is something I really want or need done, I can't in any way manage to keep track of stuff that is that far ahead and does not really help me that much.

What my doctors did was to just enter it in my file and not bother with all the hassle. To anyone who knows about it, it's very obvious I'm on spectrum. The only issue with not having an insurance-official diagnosis until now is not getting single rooms in hospitals without raising trouble. They comply once they find no one can bear living in the same room with me, or when I get a breakdown. Which unfortunately always happens.

I've had to self-diagnose several things, for me and others. Not once been wrong. But then, I don't just buy into checklists online. I find out what it is and then ask a doctor to confirm I think people who follow the latest fashion in disabilities have some other problem altogether. I've not met any of them yet, at least not that I know but I bet they are plenty out there.

As to tech in education, my niece told me today that in the two classes she has where everyone is using a laptop now, no one ever seems to look at the teacher anymore, and she finds that rather disturbing. some of her classmates don't even remember who of their 3 or 4 teachers for those classesdid the actual lesson. I'm not a fan of that, either. Glad not to be a student in today's world.

 

[Janx]

Same experience here. We had one player crocheting, one folding paper flowers (actually her way of being able to focus at all - heavy ADD issues) and one making beads. All of them never lost where we were in the game.

not to be sexist, but were they all female?

as a stereotype, women seem able to watch TV and knit at the same time.

Men can't hear anything else but the TV when they watch.

It's a focus thing, often described as multitasking. But the gist is, men hyperfocus on one activity, women don't.

So I'd bet most of the instances of crocheting and playing are women. not men.

 

[Blackbrrd]

That's ok, we also don't allow books at the table. If something comes up, the dm makes a decision and we check it in a break or after the game.

 

[Razjah]

If something comes up, the dm makes a decision and we check it in a break or after the game.

Does this actually work for you group? That must be awesome.

For my group this idea fills me with both glee and dread. I can picture time and arguments being saved and more gaming happening. But I also picture a few people in my group who would make arbitrary decisions and if the problem happens again, it would be a new decision.

 

[Campbell]

We don't allow laptops at the table, but smart phones and tablets are kosher as long as they lay flat. Laptops at the table were primarily an issue because having the screen between you and the other players had the tendency to increase social distance, and our game is primarily social. Note: we also require that gaming books need to lay flat when referencing them. GM screens are in area where were sort of split. Half the GMs in the group use them. I don't, but that's primarily a mobility issue - I like to get up and move around to address different players directly. When I run games I keep my notes and materials either on my tablet or on a series of organized note cards.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Does this actually work for you group? That must be awesome.

For my group this idea fills me with both glee and dread. I can picture time and arguments being saved and more gaming happening. But I also picture a few people in my group who would make arbitrary decisions and if the problem happens again, it would be a new decision.

Earlier we usually pulled up books and checked the rules during the game, but that's just slowing down the game. We ended up saying that it's ok to play with an ad-hoc ruling for a session just to keep the game moving*. We would check the rules afterwards so that the next time, we knew the actual rule.

*This actually meant we had a TPK-looking situation a couple of sessions ago. The rule we would be looking for is at page 219 of PHB2. We probably wouldn't have found it anyway. http://community.wizards.com/forum/4e-rules-qa/threads/1957936

 

[Lwaxy]

not to be sexist, but were they all female?

No, the bead maker was male

 

[Janx]

No, the bead maker was male

thats cool. stereotypes are like statistics. there are exceptions.

 

[Umbran]

It's a focus thing, often described as multitasking. But the gist is, men hyperfocus on one activity, women don't.

So I'd bet most of the instances of crocheting and playing are women. not men.

Confounding bias, dude. Gender-role enforcement in our culture does a better job of explaining why you'd be finding more women crocheting.

And, some quick searching around seems to indicate that while there's a popular idea that women are better at multitasking, actual evidence from studies is not particularly conclusive. Humans, even women, are not good at multitasking.

My wife crochets at the table - she says she can do that because it is a repetitive physical task she's done so much that she doesn't really have to think about it much at all, so that it isn't a multitasking issue. She would not be able to knit at the table as effectively, because she knits only rarely, and would need to actually think about what she's doing.

 

[Janx]

Confounding bias, dude. Gender-role enforcement in our culture does a better job of explaining why you'd be finding more women crocheting.

And, some quick searching around seems to indicate that while there's a popular idea that women are better at multitasking, actual evidence from studies is not particularly conclusive. Humans, even women, are not good at multitasking.

My wife crochets at the table - she says she can do that because it is a repetitive physical task she's done so much that she doesn't really have to think about it much at all, so that it isn't a multitasking issue. She would not be able to knit at the table as effectively, because she knits only rarely, and would need to actually think about what she's doing.

it's less about crocheting specifically, more about the succesfully crocheting while doing another activity. As a stereotype, a man would be less likely to pull it off because he doesn't pay attention to things the same way a woman seems to. When a guy watches TV, he's watching TV. ain't a whole lot else going on up there.

You'll note I didn't call it multi-tasking either. Ain't nobody on the planet can type on 3 keyboards at once, and if you ain't doing that, you ain't multi-tasking, you are task swapping.