Week 6 project

Here is a link to my Scratch project with 3 aspects about me: Scratch | Project | Andys3aspects

• What was your inspiration? I just took 3 aspects of doing homework in my apartment.
• How did you do that? I searched through all the functions until I found settings  I wanted to use.
• What did you get stuck on? How did you get unstuck? I wanted a sound clip so I had to make a script to get it right.
• What are you most proud of? Why? I didn't have to use many commands to get all the information out.

Double Journal Entry #5

Quote:

"Play is ultimately at the root of any learning that may occur through gameplay. Psychologists such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner provide clear descriptions of how such play influences learning. Much less is known about later years." (Lee & Probert, 2)

Response:

I immediately identified with is section of the article because I just completed an Educational Psychology course last semester. I agree with the point that the authors are trying to make about how play is useful in education. I believe that play continues to be useful in education after second grade, because it changes the direction of a class. Play is less formal than lecturing and can spark the interest of students that may be struggling to focus on new material. I believe that the expression," We are all children at heart." has much truth in teaching.

Link:
http://www.academia.edu/258188/Designing_An_Educational_Alternate_Reality_Game

I reviewed my sources in my Educational Psychology course and didn't find one that matched up to this article so I googled up one that caught my attention also in regards to our course. The link is to an article called" Designing An Educational Alternate Reality Game" and has excellent ideas about linking up games and education. It provides me with a good background on this subject.

Reference:

Lee, J. K., & Probert, J. (2010). Civilization III and Whole-Class Play in High School Social Studies Journal of Social Studies Research, 33(1), 1-28.

Double Entry Journal #4

The article, "Video games and digital literacies" by Constance Steinkuehler brought to my attention the disconnection between adolescent boys in reading skills that are based upon their interest in video game themes rather than English class themes. I did not know that there was such a measurable gap and the quote from the reading I selected reflects this: "We have found in our own research that, for some boys in particular, being a gamer works against them in school."(Steinkuehler, 61) Having read the rest of the article I can understand this disconnection based upon the example given by the author. The literacy levels of boys that focus on particular subjects are changed based upon the subjects that they are actually reading rather than those that are part of their instruction. 

I did more research on digital literacy on the internet and found a good website: http://digitalliteracy.us/ . This site has a video introduction and several other resources to understand this subject.

Reference:

Steinkuehler, Constance. "Video games and digital literacies." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54.1 (2010): 61. 

Week 5

I completed the Scratch tutorial and made the project at: Scratch | Project | AndysTutorial

I also completed the 12 cards at a project: Scratch | Project | Andys12cards

I am leaning towards a virtual cash register or store idea for my Scratch game. My nephews are fascinated with money in general so I think that using money rather than violence is a good way to make a game that is interesting for students.

Double Journal Entry #3

I reviewed the article about Quest Atlantis found at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02504859#page-1 and several points caught my attenton. First of all, this seems like a great idea to implement at 10 years ago. The technology was just becoming readily available for a project such as this one. The quote in the article that really caught my attention was based upon the layout of the game, "quests - engaging curricular tasks that are connected to academic standards and our social commitments." (Barab, 2) The term "quest" is mostly associated with hack and slash sword and magic based fantasy games. In fact, the first Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing Game (MMORG), Everquest, was based upon characters completing these "quests" for progression. So I believe that the authors were insightful to use the same style of progress for an academic game as commercial games. The format would be in a way that video game players would understand and take interest. A link to understand the term in a general way for gaming is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_(video_gaming)

Reference:
 Barab, Sasha et al. "Making learning fun: Quest Atlantis, a game without guns" Educational Technology Research and Development 2005, Volume 53, Issue 1, pp 86-107

Week 4 Scratch Game

Link to game: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/UltraJordan/3075144 

I chose this game because it had all the features of a basic 2D jumping game.

Double Journal Entry #2

I believe that Gardens of Time presented these six principles of good games:

Interaction

There is more interaction in this game than I thought there would be when I started playing. Neighbors unlocked expansions to your garden, gave you bonuses if you visited their garden and neighbors could trade items and gifts to help complete tasks.

Customization

Customization is an important part of the game. Options were limitless on what items to place in your garden. After completing quest tasks the player also got to choose which maps to replay for additional resources.

Challenge and Consolidation

The Challenge and Consolidation parts of this game are built well. A new map was challenging but free hints and replays of new maps allowed for players to gain mastery over the challenges.

Well-Order Problems

Since most of the game is numbers-based is was easy to understand how to progress. A score of X accomplished Y task, reputation X and experience Y made it easy to understand where the player was in completing goals.

Pleasantly Frustrating

A new map is pleasantly frustrating because of the hunt for the spawn spots of common items. I was particularly frustrated with the 2 screen compare challenges because they were a change of pace from the easier item hunts.

Explore, Think Laterally, Rethink Goals

I probably spent the most time on exploring options available for me and changing my goals on the fly. I learned that the energy resource is filled at a level up, so I always pushing to get through a level with no energy left for the free resources.

Positional changes from video and presentation

The video "Your brain on video games" presented a variety of information that I had not previously read. Mostly the lecturer's busting of myths of games leading to attention deficit and vision problems.

I also had not seen the "Are video games making kids smarter?" information on the increase in problem solving and IQ gains from video gaming.

I already agree most of the information in the Teens, Games and Civics section. Games can introduce students to new subjects to help in their general knowledge of how the world works. I do believe that the numbers are a bit dated because of subjects like dial-up internet and limited reference to massively multi-player online games (MMOs).

Response to Teens, Games and Civics

3 things you learned
Only 55% of parents screen what games their children play.
50% of students lack basic civil knowledge.
70% of teens play civic style games.

2 things you agree or disagree with.
I believe that some of this information is dated because of the lack of dial-up internet connections in modern households.
I agree that civic style games could better the public's knowledge of government and could help with also understanding the basics of law.
1 question you have:
How were some of the numbers collected?

Response to Are Video Games Making Kids Smarter?

3 things you learned
Gaming helps with multi-tasking.
Problem solving intelligence is helped by video games.
The Flynn Effect is that IQ is rising every year.

2 things you agree or disagree with.
I agree with his video game classroom that learning can be fun and multi-player. Games that require teamwork become social experiences.
I also agree with the lecturer's stance on violent games. Violence has been part of the human experience forever. I "played" guns with my childhood friends and now kids have simulators to do the same thing. Our culture in general needs to address violence - in movies, books, TV etc. before pointing any fingers at video games.

1 question you have
What part of the Flynn Effect is attributed to video games vs. education in general?

Response to Your Brain on Video Games

3 things you learned

Average age of gamers is 33.
Gamers vision is better than non-gamers.
Gamers don't have less attention span than non-gamers.

2 things you agree or disagree with.
I don't like the attention span questions because they are set up like a game, not listening and learning.
I don't like that the lecturer focuses on action games without addressing other genres of games.

1 question you have
Where did the lecturer get the numbers for her facts?