James Paul Gee on Video Games, Learning, and Literacy

I am glad that Dr. Beedle is introducing us to the people we are learning about in our chapter book.  It is always good to put a face to a name.  I will briefly touch on subjects that Mr. Gee talked about in his video on video games, learning, and literacy.

I agree with the subject of attention spans in learning and teaching.  It is sometimes hard to keep someone's attention in most areas of life, especially with learning.  I was working with a student today and she was learning how to get information from charts and graphs and use it to answer questions.  Her attention was focused, until reaching vocabulary words that she did not know how to pronounce.  She is a second grade student attending a public elementary school.  She repeatedly said, "I give up!" but I would continue to push her, telling her she was doing a good job and she could do it.  This is mind-puzzling to me, the fact of keeping a student's attention while learning.  The program this student was using is animated and it even reads the passages to her.  I believe if I was not there to edge her on, she would have given up.  But I showed her how to take her time, pronounce the words slowly, and to keep going until she reached the goal of answering the questions correctly.  So this leads me to the question of what can we use as facilitators to get and keep a student's interest in learning.

I have noticed from a young age that trouble-shooting and figuring out things with hands sparks interests in students.  I remember once during a Christmas holiday, my younger brother received a remote controlled racing car.  Instead of him putting batteries in the remote and racing the car, he decided to break down the car, completely.  He did not stop there, he actually, after taking the car completely apart, put it back together.  That was the highlight of one of his Christmas presents.  I had always thought that he would take that new found interest and use that to fuel a desire of career.  I believe if he had someone that would have paid attention to him and motivated him, he would have went on to a career of car building or mechanics.

I agree that students need an opportunity to apply what they learn from school.  I appreciated and gained more knowledge from courses that were hands-on than a lecture course.  Learning about the Legislative Process and the inner workings of Congress was an interest of mine.  I researched a Member of Congress and also learned how to write up a bill and go about getting it passed.  But if we did not get the opportunity as students to do this activity actively, it would have been a bore being told to me.

This brings me back to the question of what can we use as facilitators to get and keep a student's interest in learning.  I know that life is evolving towards technology.  People of all ages use some sort of technology, whether it be a cellular phone or computer.  Technology has the attention of the majority of everyone.  Tutorials, blogs and forums, and video games help with teaching and learning.  Technology helps us stay in touch.  And why not use technology to stay in touch with our students, young and old, and keep learning and teaching vibrant and engaging.

The Sims 3: First Incident

I have been playing The Sims 3 during my Fall Break from school.  I played all day Saturday and while I was playing, the game started to freeze and move in slow motion.  This is the first time this semester this has happened.  I was wondering if maybe it was due to leaving the game in my laptop.  So when this happened Saturday evening, I logged off and gave it a rest for a while.

Sunday's play time is better than the day before.  My cousin came over to my apartment and we talked about our Sims experiences.  She has a newer version of The Sims that I have never heard of.  I asked her a few questions about my experiences so far.  She said she has  never glitches in her game.  So I suggested that for future references, I will take the game out when I am not playing it and put it in its case.

I also asked her about activities that my Sims have been assigned and I have not accomplished them yet.  She explained to me where to locate the objects and how to achieve the assignments.  So I am looking forward to doing them now.  There were a few other things we discussed about the game.  She told me during her play time with her Sims games, once she reached a certain amount of money status, she would delete the game and start a new one.  She told me she has reached the $300,000+ margin before a few times while playing The Sims 3.  I have barely scratched the $100,000 mark.

I did say that I was going to allow my teen Sims to get a part-time job while in school.  But I have noticed that between his homework, interacting with his parents and friends, and maintaining his household duties, a part-time job is out of the question right now.  Controlling three Sims at times become difficult.  And now they have moved into another home and had another child, a girl named Nissan.

This is a home they moved in temporarily to accommodate having a teenager.  But after finding out the house is tied with other homes, as far as the swimming pool being a community pool, they decided to move.  The purpose of moving into a larger home was to make Chevy's living more convenient for him, having his own bathroom.  The reason that is important is because if a Sims has to go into a room, i.e. to use the bathroom or take a bath, if there is a Sims occupying a room, another will not enter.  

This is a screenshot of the new home they moved to.  It is a three bedroom, three bathroom, three story house.  I am learning to maneuver  around this house with three stories.  There is always something going on on each level, each angle.  My cousin advised me to find an angle where I can see everything and take care of the needs of the Sims.  I am looking forward to more play time.  

The Sims 3: Next Phase

Today has been a long play day for me.  My Sims characters have moved to a new home, married, and had a child.  The male Sims also achieved his lifetime goal in his career and now has a promotion that is paying more than the female Sims.  This is an okay home, but I think I am going to create one from the ground up like I mentioned in a prior blog post.

It has been pretty easy controlling two Sims, but a third has been giving me a run for my money.  I really have to pay attention to detail.  It seems as if the needs of the three Sims are speeding up.  The baby Sims is the hardest to keep up with.  I do not have children, so I can sympathize with parents.  It is easier with two Sims taking on the load of feeding the baby Sims, changing his (it's a boy named Chevy) diaper, playing with him, and maintaining their household.  

The graphics are amazing in this game.  The Sims had their wedding at home and the detail the creators put into this game are truly visible.  The controls help with moving the camera view and angles to take great pictures for posting.  I am able to zoom in and capture good pictures.  

I am looking forward to the progression of my play to see how little Chevy grows up and starts school.  He will also have a part-time job and soon move into a blossoming career.  He only has two traits so far, so that will be a part of the deciding factor of what his career aspirations will be.  

I have been looking over the options for this game which are included and found out things that I was confused about.  I did download a new town as an add-on, but I have not been able to see it during my play.  I was able to download this add-on when I logged on and signed up for the Sims community.  It was okay to play online, but after awhile, I prefer to play offline.  I will give it a try again later on in my play.  

The Sims 3: Next Phase

I have been playing my two Sims characters to build up their status' at work and at home.  My two Sims have now become engaged to each other.  My goal is to get their income up so they can move to another home or build a new one from the ground up.  I have aspirations of building my own home when I become successful in my future career(s).  So this is why I am focused on doing the same for my Sims characters.  My male Sims has started getting more income, so he is contributing more to the household now.  I also added a room to the home they are living in now so he would be able to workout more to improve his skills in his work trait.

It was fun adding on to the home.  It took about an hour to come up with a simple floor plan and color scheme.  I just chose the most basic concept as possible.  I would like to create a home for them once they get married.  I would do research on floor plans of homes to get an idea of what I would want for them.  Right now they are in a two bedroom.  Later on in this game they will have children, which will call for more bedrooms and extra activities for them, such as a swimming pool, study for homework, and larger living room for  family time.  The controls for adding this workout room were easy to use.  My main concern was looking for colors and changing graphics in the tile on the floors and for the walls.  

I am going to log on to the Sims website and see about gaining free items for my current game.  

Will Wright and the Creation of Spore

I have a new look at the video game Spore.  I was given the pleasure of playing Spore during this course.  I also learned some background information about the creator of Spore, Will Wright.  I learned that Will Wright takes topics that he is interested in and research them.  After much research, he then turns what he finds into "toys."  I agree with Will when he talks about learning from the Montessori method of teaching.  I agree that trial and error develops better learners.  I like the idea of incorporating games for learning in schools.  Video games are viewed as being so interesting that a person would be thinking about their next moves even when they are not playing them.  The research that Will used in creating Spore shows in the video game.  I believe Spore would be a great resource for teaching students about evolution.

Chapter Five Blog

The author Kurt Spire has made reasonable points about video games and learning thus far.  In chapter five, he talks about using games to teach and redesigning video games for educational purposes.  He collaborates with new colleagues to come up with great ideas that have been successful.

One that stood out to me while reading this chapter was the point of entertainment products being reappropriated for learning. Video games being played on student's leisure time has proven to be a source of sparking interests of school subjects.  I have a friend that played around with computers as a child and teen ager for fun and turned it into a successful business.  He also researches and utilizes many forums and blog posts that pertain to keep him afresh with what is evolving the world of electronics and technology.  With that being said, who knew that hobbies could turn into something so magnificent as professions and learning tools.    Playing the Spore Galactic Edition video sparked an interest in me about Science that would have been a big help during my undergraduate years studying Biology.

Using games to teach takes research.  I agree with using multiple prototypes for testing game ideas.  This way the creators can send them out and get as much feedback as possible.  When creating games for multiple use, there have to be many hands-on involved.  This shows where money should be spend and scaled back.  We also should consider what catches the eye.  Art is constantly changing and this is vital when coming up with concepts for new games or shifting things around in old games.  And it is always good to test things out before producing a final project.

I learned from reading this chapter that we have to move with the times.  We need to be involved and accept input from all angles.  We should be open to criticism (good and bad) because it at the end of the day, helps improve situations, and with education, it will help with teaching and learning.  Criticism helps teachers know how to handle certain students, and with students, it helps them be able to relate to where their instructors are coming from.  Like Kurt mentioned in this chapter, we learn from play and use, like the designers of social media sites learn how to change layouts and functions of them to best suit their users.  And the more we use something the more we find ways to make them better.  We need to continue to come up with ways to keep learning fun.

Budget Buster Game

The Budget Buster game online taught me some things about myself and some things I already knew.  It gave a different outlook on the decisions our government has to make dealing with the budget.  I learned about how the budget impacts debt, the budget bust, and the size of government.

I already knew that I am good when it comes to budgeting and making decisions for myself.  It was a huge task having to make decisions for an entire country.  The decisions I made pertaining to some of my beliefs did bring the country's debt down by a large margin.  My three main focuses were

1. Safety Net

• Helps the needs of the people

1. Efficient Government

• Trim the federal spending

1. Energy Independence

• Wean dependency from foreign sources of oil

My policy choices helped accomplish some of my goals.  Something that I have learned about this game is making a difference in the lives of dependent citizens takes time.  I also learned that the government should make decisions for the good of everyone, not just a specific group or class of people.  I would like to continue playing this game.  I would have also liked to have known about this game during my career as a Political Science major.