About Me Scratch

My inspiration was my favorite things. I love to read, dance, and most of all, spending time with my dog. It was easy getting my sprites to move; however, coordinating the sprites and the backgrounds all at the same time was difficult. It was the alignment of activity at the right time is what was challenging. I had to play the scratch several times and adjust timing and wording before I got it all to line up. I'm most proud of being able to overcome my challenges, especially when my computer froze and I had none of the assignment saved. I was able to recover my project successfully!

Double Entry Journal #4

Quote:

“At the most basic level, video game play itself is a form of digital literacy practice. If we define digital literacy as it is framed by O'Brien and Scharber (2008), then game play might readily be considered one particularly good case in point. Gaming is the production of meaning within the semiotic resources of the game (Gee, 2007). Gaming is a narrative, hewn out of the "verbs" made available within a game design. Unlike television, books, or any other media that came before them, video games are about a back and forth between reading the game's meanings and writing back into them. In effect, games are narrative spaces that the player inscribes with his or her own intent. From a more contemporary vantage point on literacy, then, games are digital literacy practice through and through (Steinkuehler, 2006, 2008).” (Steinkuehler, 2010)

            I never realized how games could be considered as digital literacy. This paragraph definitely surprised me. I thought that maybe this article was going to discuss how video games could be used for literacy, instead of video games being a form of literacy. It’s a different take that I had not considered. Video games are a way for players to write meaning within the game by the actions and decisions they make. I’m still unsure of how video games could improve literacy, besides the reading they would have to do within the game.

            On a side note, I’m tired of the tiny print or half-cut-off words that video games and shows are now displaying in order to accommodate the few viewers that have large flat screen TVs that are at least 40” in size.

Steinkuehler, C. (2010, September). Video games and digital literacies 54.1. Journal Adolescent & Adult Literacy, p. 61.

 Other Resource:

The following article, Literacy throughGaming: The Influence of Videogames on the Writings of High School FreshmenMales, discusses the parallels of classic literature and video games’ stories. This research took nine high school males and asked them to write a narrative based on the plot of a known video game. (Harushimana, 2008)
  

Harushimana, I. (2008, August). Literacy Through Gaming: The Influence of Videogaming on the Writings of High School Freshmen Males. Journal of Literacy and Technology, pp. 35-56.

 

Scratch Game Ideas

I think I want to create a trivia math game. Each time the player gets the right answer, the character moves closer to the finish line (like a race). They have to answer so many questions in a certain amount of time. If they don't answer fast enough, the other character wins.

The second idea I have is to make a puzzle game. Something like "magic squares", where each column, row and diagonal equals a "magic" number.

Double Entry Journal #3

“In terms of inquiry-based learning, there is broad consensus among educators and psychologists from a variety of fields that students learn best when the learning process involves inquiry as opposed to the memorization of the facts and principles that result from someone else’s inquiry.” (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2013)

                This quote reminds me of the Project-Based Learning and student-centered learning we have tried to incorporate at North Marion High School. In our school, we present students with problems and let them discover the concepts and procedures to solve the situation. This motivates students to learn instead of regurgitating information that has been forced upon them. I believe that this quote adequately says what I believe has worked for my students. Students don’t have a problem with learning, they have a problem with senseless learning.

  

Barab, S., Thomas, M., Dodge, T., Carteaux, R., & Tuzun, H. (2013, February 7). Making Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, A Game without Guns. Retrieved from Springer Link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02504859

  Other resource:

     I found this video on Youtube that explains the concept of what is happening at North Marion and how instruction is presented to our students. This video is from the Buck Institute which is one of the leading promoters of PBLs and student-centered learning in schools.

Buck Institute for Education. (2010, December 9). Project Based Learning: Explained. Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8

Scratch Game

This is the game I found, which I would like to create something like this to use in my classroom. It incorporates many math CSO's in a puzzle game.

Scratch | Project | square puzzle

Gardens of Time Post #2

Six principles of good games for learning that are reflected in Gardens of Time:

1.      Interaction—Gardens of Time gives feedback and presents problems, as soon as the player acts and makes decisions. There is a ton of interaction between the game and the player. There are game-represented people that talk and lead you through the tasks.

2.      Well-Ordered Problems—the game has levels, and as you increase in level, the challenges become harder. This promotes motivation, because it is a gradual increase in difficulty which allows players to accomplish a little at a time.

3.      “Just in time” and “On demand”—Gardens of Time gives people hints and information when the player needs it. For example, when a player doesn’t finish a task before logging off, there is a place where the information or task goals are stored. The player can then find it any time they need reminded. Also, while playing the game, there are helpful hints that direct the player if he/she needs.

4.      Situated Meanings—the game brings along its on vocabulary. For example, “neighbors” are the people who play the game with you, and can help you by sending you items you need. Also, “inventory” are the items you collect or find from your neighbors, as well as store items you have purchased but haven’t used yet. “News” tells you a few things that are new to the game, as well as any additional items you can purchase. Moreover, “Reputation” and “XP” help you achieve the next level by completing scenes and quests.

5.      Pleasantly Frustrating—Gardens of Time is doable, but challenging. It is sometimes difficult getting to the next level, because you can use up all your energy trying to complete a scene, and if you don’t succeed then you have to wait until your energy rebuilds in about 20 minutes.

6.      Explore, Think Laterally, Rethink Goals—the game allows players to think laterally, i.e. their garden. The garden allows players to think about creating their own space instead of going on to the next level. Moreover, players can explore their neighbors’ gardens and do activities.

7.      Performance before competence—Gardens of Time lets gamers play before they are competent in the game. The game sets up the player to succeed, by offering prompts and directions during the first level. These helpful guides are still offered in the other levels, but the player has to request them or search them out. As new resources appear, the game displays what they are used for within the scenes or garden.

Double Entry Journal #2

"Lots of young people pay lots of money to engage in an activity that is hard, long, and complex. As an educator, I realized that this was just the problem our schools face: How do you get someone to learn something long, hard, and complex and yet enjoy it." (Gee, 2012)

 

I never thought about this concept before, and it makes me want to start designing video games. I want my kids to think critically and solve problems, and I often have to drag information and reasoning from my students. If students actually put as much determination and work into school and their education as much as they do in video games, the United States would be on the higher end of the educational scale for the world.

"At a deeper level, however, challenge and learning are a large part of what makes good video games motivating and entertaining." (Gee, 2012)

If we, as educators, could channel this motivation and entertainment used for video games and look at the aspects of interesting video games for our own classrooms, then learning can be fun for students. We already present them with challenge and learning in the school system; however, it’s not working. We need more than just these two aspects to encourage learning. So what are we missing? Interaction and application. We can give students relevant problems, but it’s not until they are interacting in trying to figure out the problem that it’s just another problem for homework.

"So the suggestion I leave you with is not “use games in school”—though that’s a good idea—but: How can we make learning in and out of school, with or without using games, more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning principles young people see in good games every day when and if they are playing these games reflectively and strategically?" (Gee, 2012)

I noticed this week, that when I use games, the students learn the material better. I have gone over rules of exponents for my Algebra Support students for the last month. However, it wasn’t until this week, that it started clicking with the majority of my students. Why? I played MATHO (which is the same thing as Bingo, but the kids had to solve problems in order to get their answers on their answer sheets). The second day I cut up pieces like a puzzle and the kids had to tape problems to answers, and when finished, it made a 4X4 square. These games allowed my students to remember the rules for when they took the test. They did better on this test than they had on any other test. I was impressed, and I’ll be using games to review before tests often.

Gee, J. P. (2012, November). Good Video Games and Good Learning. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from Academic Colab: http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf

Other Resource:

Video Games and Learning
This video talks about the separation of educational games and entertainment games.

Floyd, D. (2008, September 8). Video Games and Learning. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s

Week 3—Effects of Gaming on Young People’s Intellectual and Social Lives

In Your Brain on Video Games, I loved how she used the demonstrations of the yellow and blue smiley faces to show the skill levels of video gamers compared to the non-gamer. I definitely believe that video games help students be able to focus on multiple things at once. In most games, if you can’t multi-task, then your character will die often. With the growing technological field, kids have to learn to be multi-taskers, especially when it comes to the work force. I know that in my job, I have to be able to teach, discipline, observe behavior, and answer questions. I have often had to talk to one student, while listening to another student. Classroom management is all about multi-tasking.  I also agree that anything in excess is bad for your health. Everything in moderation

In Are Video Games Making Kids Smarter?, I learned a lot about video gaming. I really liked this video and the only thing I disagreed with was the idea that the world is “too slow” for our kids, which is why they are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I don’t believe that it is bad for kids to slow down and read a book, or go outside and play flashlight tag with friends, rather than playing a multi-player game inside. However, I do agree that learning should be fun and interactive.

In the article Teens, Games and Civics, I disagreed with the result they found that daily gamers are just as likely to spend time face-to-face and communicating with friends as those who don’t game daily. I would like to see the specific data, because I find it very hard to believe. When I was younger, we spent maybe an 5 hours a week on a video game and the rest was spent outside playing with friends. I have seen the effects on most daily gamers with my job. The students practically sleep through all their classes because they stay up all night playing video games. So, I don’t know how these addicted gamers could possibly fit friends into their schedule if they can’t even stay awake for school, where most of their friends are anyway. I also believe it’s sad that only 31% of parents say that they always or sometimes play games with their children. I believe that definitely affects a child’s social life.

Week 3--Are Video Games Making Kids Smarter?

3 things you learned:

1.       The act of learning produced brain matter, which reinforced the idea the multi-lingual people out-perform monolingual.

2.       5 things you can do to increase fluid intelligence (recurring theme in successful video games):

a.       Seek novelty

b.      Challenge yourself

c.       Think creatively

d.      Do things the hard way

e.      Network

3.       Constant and exponential increase in learning with video games

4.       Flynn effect (rising IQ)

a.       Pattern of human intelligence over time. Fluid intelligence has been rising each year since 1990.

5.       Video games release dopamine that gives someone a positive intrinsic value to repeat the experience.

2 things you agree or disagree with:

1.       Disagree

a.       I think that kids are still willing to sit down to read a good book. I don’t believe that our world is “too slow” for our kids today.

2.       Agree

a.       Learning is fun and learning is multi-player.

1 question you have:

1.       What is gamification? Is that like globalization for games?

Week 3--Teens, Games and Civics

3 things you learned:

1.       Ages 12-17, 48% play video games on a cell phone. (I didn’t even have a cell phone until I was a junior in high school—and it was a track phone, not a smart phone)

2.       Boys play more often and for longer duration; younger teens (12-14) play more frequently than older (15-17); Broadband users play more frequently.

3.       Only 31% of parents say they always  or sometimes play games with their children.

2 things you agree or disagree with:

1.       Disagree

a.       The daily gamer is just as likely to spend time face-to-face and communicating with friends as those who don’t.

2.       Agree

a.       Teens encounter both pro-social and anti-social behavior while gaming.

1 question you have:

1.       What are MMOGs?

a.       From the slide it looks something like a multi-player virtual world game.

Week 3--Your Brain on Video Games

3 things you learned:

1.       90 percent of children play video games

2.       Average age of a gamer is 33 years old

3.       People who don’t play a lot of games, or spend time in front of a screen, have normal vision, but those who spend 5-20 hours a week on a game have better vision by:

a.       Resolving small detail in the context of clutter

b.      Resolving different levels of grade

2 things you agree or disagree with:

1.       Agree

a.       Playing video games days in and days out are not good for your health; binging is never good.

2.       Agree

a.       Not all media is created equal. Some aspects of video games are good for vision, learning, attention, etc.

1 question you have:

1.       I would like to know about the games they are making for people who have poor vision, and how it will help them better their eyesight. I would like to see the research on it improving eyesight.