So I feel like I’m replacing Nick Saban or Steve Jobs or Amy Sherman Palladino (bonus points if you can identify all three).

Nick Proctor invented the position of Chair of the Reacting Editorial Board. He shaped the REB and its role, shepherded game after game after game to publication and became friends with almost everyone in the Reacting community.  

But now Nick has moved on to a new challenge-that of succeeding Mark Carnes as Executive Director of the Reacting Consortium. You can see his vision elsewhere in this issue.  In his place, I’ve assumed the position of Interim Chair of the REB.  

What will this mean for the REB? In one sense, it won’t change anything at all.  The REB will continue to work with authors to move their games up the ladder to publication (stay tuned to the facebook lounge and other channels for information about submitting and reviewing games in development).  We’ll work to ensure that Reacting games remain extraordinary vehicles for student learning.  And we’ll continue to reach out to you for ideas, input and creativity.

But both Reacting and the world have changed since Nick formed the REB.  So my hope is that we’ll also spend the next couple of years extending Nick’s vision in new ways  and wrestling with new challenges.  Several of these are too ‘inside baseball’ to spend time on here. But others are important for the entire community. 

Working with UNC Press
First and foremost, we will be working closely with UNC Press to provide as much support as is possible to authors as they near publication. I’m thrilled that Andrew Winters, the point person for reacting at UNC, will be with us on the REB.  UNC-Press is an excellent partner. But what Andrew and his colleagues do differs somewhat from what Norton’s editors did. Our goal is to create structures and provide support to maximize the opportunities UNC-Press provides authors and instructors.

Diversity on the Reacting Editorial Board
Second, and equally important, we hope to increase the diversity of backgrounds on the REB.  This has been a long-standing goal of Nick’s and one we will work toward in the next year or two.

HELPING STUDENTS RESEARCH AND UNDERSTAND TEXTS
Thirdly.  Anyone who has paid attention to the Facebook Faculty Lounge will have seen the large number of posts concerned about students’ ability to do research and understand complicated texts.  Some of this is Covid-related.  But some is not.  We need to think hard about how to create game materials that are accessible and valuable to a wide variety of students and institutions.

SCAFFOLDING MATERIALS IN A POST-LITERATE AGE
Finally.  We are moving into a post-literate age.  Anyone with a teenager knows that.  So we’d like to think about that means for Reacting.  It does NOT mean that we eliminate core texts or Gamebooks.  But it does mean considering how we might create video and audio materials to supplement the texts and consider more carefully how to scaffold game materials and primary texts.

So that’s my agenda. No one ever accused me of dreaming small. I suspect it will be the agenda of whoever follows me in this position.  But for now, this will work.

Kelly McFall
Interim Chair of the Reacting Editorial Board

Read Nick Proctor's post here. And watch Kelly McFall and Nick Proctor talk with Beth Wightman here.