Journal 14

Trying to do the taxonomy of learning theorists is pretty interesting, but using mind meister is pretty annoying. I've hit the table in the library at least 5 times while trying to use it. The thing that sucks about it is trying to move your entire (lets call it a tree) tree to where you want it to go without deleting everything! It should not work that way! Anyway, it is cool to see connections and inspirations that other learning theorist connect to an use based on your learning theorists! Everything is built upon everything else, which makes me realize how easy it can be to build an idea off of an incorrect idea and then get stuck in a place that seems impossible to get out of... one might say that is what happened with our education system. Someone that I have never heard of, but agree with some of his theories is Carl Roberts. I like how he states that a person cannot directly teach another person, but facilitates their learning. Pretty interesting way of looking at teaching.

I also like how he thinks that we should give people a chance to prove themselves before assuming negative assumptions onto them. I am working with one of my kids on that right now! He always assumes I do not know facts he knows. When it comes to animal facts, which he is a rockstar with, he is most likely right, but he is learning that he does not know what I know, or not. Now he knows he should ask me first instead of saying "I know you don't know this." This also goes hand in hand with my job because we probe and reprobe things to see if they are generalized, or not. Meaning if he already knows the skills and we do not have to teach it to him. If we assumed he knew nothing because he is autistic and hasn't worked with our company before, then he would get bored, not improve, and we would not be doing our job.

Journal 13

For my taxonomy project I chose the learning theorist Piaget! You caught me, I do know a lot about him because of my background in Psychology. I actually forgot how much I actually knew about him until I started researching him! He believed that children could only learn certain things during certain stages in life, not before the stage, only within. He focused on maturation as the key importance for understanding new skills. I call bull #*@&. One of his main ideas is adaptation, which is adapting to the world around you through assimilation and accommodation. Kids are learning to adapt constantly and different kids can learn and adapt at different rates. Some can comprehend faster than others. I do not believe that learning certain skills or mental realizations can be confined within a certain age or all humans. I do agree that with maturation comes more understanding and that there are certain ages that reflect certain understanding more than others, but I think those boundaries do not pertain to everyone. The fact that this was used pertaining to the way school is structured is understandable, but maybe if students were put in classrooms with older students, it would prove that children can gain understanding of skills earlier because of the collaboration that would go on between the young and the older students. Children who have developed skills faster than others, which does happen, will get bored and be unmotivated to learn. The fact that some children skip grades proves that Piaget was wrong in saying that any child no matte how bright cannot move on mentally until a certain age. Also if that was the case, then everyone would have the exact same skills as everyone else, and no one would ever move ahead. Everyone would be considered equally knowledgable at those ages.

Journal 12

I remember a few weeks ago in Design class Paul asked if we agreed that they best way for children to learn was to hand them something and let them figure it out. Saying that the student will fail until he finally figures it out, but I do not entirely agree with this. I do think that spending time on a project or learning goal and failing is a way to learn and really comprehend what one is learning, but it definitely is not the only and best way to learn. Dewey pointed out in the first few chapters of Democracy in Education that without learned knowledge from elders the children would die and that would lead to the end of the human race. Children need to be taught language and other skills for survival. They can learn these skills in different ways, but it is our job as the elder to prepare the child to be able to survive. Without communication and other basic skills, survival would not be possible. In my job, working with autistic children, if we tell the child to do something and they have never accomplished it before, there is very little chance they will achieve their goal without assistance. They have to be prompted in what to do, just like extremely young children. Without prompting, or help from others, the child may never understand what to do or how to communicate and they will fail indefinitely. We need mentors for success.

Journal 11

Alright I have a huge problem with the way that scoring is done in some classes at UCSD and I feel like this is exactly what is wrong with education and grading. My girlfriend is a student at UCSD and told me that in all of her writing classes the teacher tells them ahead of time that only 10% of all the essays turned in will get an A. Even if the paper is an A paper! Are you kidding me! Great way to set students up for failure and unmotivated them to try, or care at all! I reviewed her latest essay and there were check marks on every page showing that she showed complete comprehension as to what they teacher wanted the students to learn from the assignment. The only comment that was made was a yes after a strong point in the argument. There were no red marks, or comments pertaining to something that she did not cover in the essay and should have. She had an A paper and at the bottom of the paper was an 84%! I want her to go to her teacher and ask why she received an 84%, but who knows what excuse the teacher will come up with. I really do not understand knocking a student down for no reason. What does that say about the education system other than "hey lets make this completely unfair to the students, that way the will become unmotivated or think they will never live up to grade A standards. Then they will never reach their full potential and it will be all our fault! yay!" Maybe they think it will push the students harder... highly doubtful. Congratulations UCSD you have turned learning into an impossible standard.


In other words.... GO STATE!

Journal 10

This is the first blog that I get to connect with what I have learned in this program with my job as an ABA Tutor! Yay so exciting! Dewey talks about the General Learning Method and Mastery. Dewey states that mastery is accomplished by the learner through becoming a master of shared experiences. Learning how to become a successful ABA Tutor has everything to do with shared experiences! Of course I was hired to work with children with autism because of my background in Psychology, but I also had to go through a few weeks of training to become a master of ABA therapy. I was given so much specific information to read on autism and how ABA therapy works. I observed the ABA supervisor, and joined in when asked. Even though I could now talk the talk and I understood the concepts, it was time for me to walk the walk. The only reason I now have a full understanding in what I am doing is because of my shared experiences with my supervisors and my kids! I would run an entire session by myself with the support from the supervisor if needed. I learned what triggered behaviors by experimenting with different techniques with the kids. That way I learned what to do and not to do after failing he first time if I caused the child to have behaviors. I learned how to use extinction not only be observing what to do with the supervisor, but actually having to deal with the behaviors without the supervisor. I learned how to take data more efficiently by readjusting my organization due to the child's reaction, or suggestions from the supervisor. I learned the most when it was just my child and I. Without all of the shared experiences with the children and the supervisor I would be able to tell you how to handle autistic behaviors, but if I was thrown into the action I would not do as well. Learning by failing, or doing something wrong has also increased my ability of doing my job well.

Journal 9

Ok so I have been thinking about generalized self expression on the internet and I have mixed feelings about it. Generalized self expression was mentioned in Wenger's book, and Shirky's by a way of publishing as a form of acting. I completely agree that expressing your opinions on the internet and making a fb page about it can definitely make change and cause actions through coordination, but I it is kind of annoying at the same time depending on the rant/cause. For example the guy in the first chapter of the Shirky book that made a huge fuss about his friends phone and got a bunch of bandwagon followers to help him "hate" (yes I just used slang) on that 16 year old girl for a phone that was left in a cab until he got it back... ridiculous and annoying. Just let the phone go dude! Is giving people this type of voice making them feel entitled to make others feel humiliated or angry?  This kind of thing happens on fb all the time! It drives me crazy if you cannot tell. If someone uses Facebook as a soap box and someone who reads it does not agree apparently when hiding behind a computer people feel entitled to be as rude, harsh, or just plain mean.

Don't get me wrong I believe there is so many great things that come out of being able to have a voice on the internet, but I wish it was more positive on specific social media like Facebook. Will having blogs and other types of social media soap box bring people together, or tear nations and cultures a part? You can argue both sides, but I think it is a question that needs to be asked.

Journal 8

So I probably should have blogged about dewey before Shirky, but better late than never right?! I love Dewey's points about active learning verses passive learning. Active learning has to be something you comprehend, which means there have had to be a reflection on what you have analyzed. Teachers giving out notes and having students memorize them is not an active way to learn because the students cannot reflect on what they have memorized. All they know is that blank happened because of blank, or this war happened and this time, but unless you really understand why something happened, or works you aren't learning anything. You can learn more by asking yourself why? Without reflection, there is only memorizing, not comprehending. This was my biggest problem in school. I am a fantastic memorizer, and I definitely used that to my advantage! All of my tests were mostly multiple choice due to the amount of people in my class. I could memorize everything in 2 days and pass with flying colors. If you asked me to retake the test a few weeks later without revisiting my notes... I most likely would do worse, which meant I didn't learn anything. When you reflect and comprehend something, forgetting does not happen. Now my memorizing talent got a little shoo-kin up when it came to science classes like physiology because you needed to really understand how one part worked in order to understand how the next part was going to work. Even in my Anatomy class though a lot of it was memorization. There was so much memorization packed into the class in a semester that passing the class with full understanding of the human body definitely did not happen. I believe that when reflecting you also come up with things that you were unaware that you understand, or learned.

 In conclusion, active learning > passive learning. Reflection is key to comprehending which is the key to learning.

Journal 7

Reverting back to "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky, and continuing to talk about the recent effect that media, specifically social media is changing the way the world receives knowledge and the way that actions are being taken due to the received knowledge. Clay talks about how media is also a site for coordination. One of his examples for this was a bank in offered UK graduates interest free rate checking. When the students went on summer break the bank decided to start charging them a bunch of money instead of sticking to their free interest rate. Some of there student customers changed banks after this, but one was extremely angry and set up a Facebook page to stop the bank from ripping the students off and to give back the free rate that was promised. This caused students to come together even though they were dispersed in different areas of the world. The Facebook page created social coordination between the students. Some of the students shared easy tips on how to change bank accounts, and some started protesting. This led to more media attention and more protesting. In the end the bank decided to reinstate the original promise of interest free checking because of all the bad media and protesting that occurred.

No a days we live, breathe, and eat social media because it gives everyone a voice. It creates ways to coordinate globally and make things known, which causes actions, which cause change. Social media has become increasingly dangerous for the government (in my opinion) and awesome for the bringing problems and solutions to problems to the people. As discussed before in clay's book, it is crazy to see how social media has become a place where social injustice to one person can all of a sudden become social injustice problem all over the world. If you really want to make a change it seems like social media is the way to do it.

Journal 6

The book Digital Habitats by Wenger starts off talking about communities of practice, which in my opinion is the same thing as a club for all ages, especially involving adults. Wenger puts a community of practice (coP) as a group that has a shared interest in a certain area, there is shared basic knowledge, teaching new comers, communication among members, building understanding in the group, if there is a known leader, and if there are any references to outside sources for creating their standards of practice. When you think about it, there are so many standing communities of practice! While deciding what to do my project on I had so many ideas, but then would hesitate because it seemed too easy! I thought about doing a soccer team that belonged to a specific soccer club, or fantasy football because my friends are obsessed with it, but there wasn't a lot of teaching the new comers how to pick a draft, so I chose Camp Pendleton Marine Base. I work at the base twice a week, so it was a perfect choice. Even a school is a community of practice, or a church. It is almost hard to think of something that may not be considered a coP.

Something that stood out to me later on in the Wenger readings was the realization of our class being a community of practice. We all have shared interests in education,  there is a shared basic knowledge of education and technology, we all look to Paul, Valerie, and Bill for our masters of knowledge, we are teaching each other about different perspectives on books and teaching new technologies to some. Brian helped me understand some basic knowledge of adobe pro, and Simon unknowingly introduced me to keynote where I was able to add my voice to a power point. Using the knowledge of the people around you may be your "richest resource" is what Wenger says.

Journal 5

I have been slacking on blogging for the past two weeks so I have to get all caught up! We have been reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. The first incident he writes about in his book is how a man named Evan went above and beyond using social media to retrieve his friends phone that was left in a cab. His friend ended up getting a new phone and somehow pictures of the person who found the phone in the cab and was now using it for her own benefit, showed up on the new phone. When Evan reached out to the finder of the phone she was no way about to give it back to Evan's friend. In response to not getting the phone back, Evan kept trying to convince the young girl to give the phone back and when she was reluctant he started a website about what was going on. The site talked about the injustice of how this young girl would not give the phone back and people started to jump on the bandwagon and overreact. People were able to find the girl's myspace page and started posting photos of her to the site and writing about how horrible she was for not returning the phone. Evan got so upset that he saw justice was not being served he tried to get the NYPD involved and when there wasn't really anything they could do the followers of Evans website started to take this incident personally. In the end, Evan's justice was served and the NYPD retrieved the phone.

This whole story really bothered me and I could probably blog about how psychologically ridiculous Evan took this whole fiasco as well as the community that he had built revolving the incident. Luckily for you, this is not a psych class, so I won't get too much into it. The crazy thing that I believe Shirky was saying was how technology, the internet, and more specifically social media can bring groups together. Shirky says that "When we change the way we communicate, we change society." It is crazy how the people that followed Evan's site took what happened so personally and wanted justice to be sought out even though they did not know Evan, or his friend. Social media has give the world an opportunity to come together by communication. People can come together and get in arguments with each other, which unfortunately I see on Facebook everyday, or they can come together and fight for a cause. One thing that was brought to mind while thinking about the internet though is the struggle the world is having/going to have to maintain separate cultures. I am worried that soon cultures are going to start blending together and some will be lost forever.

Journal 4

My coworkers and I were talking about how we did not learn enough of what to do in real life situations, such as how to pay your taxes, how to fill out a DW2 form, or understanding of different types of insurance. I always hate filling out DW2 forms because it is never clear to me when to put which number. This also reminded me of when I was a student athlete because eighteen year olds are given scholarship checks, and are not given the tools to learn how to properly balance their money. The fact that an eighteen year old is entrusted with a hefty check every month or so, and is expected to use ti wisely boggles my mind. The only real life issue I remember learning about how to deal with was learning how to write checks in 3rd grade, which has stuck with me my entire life probably because it was related to adult life and was exciting!

In Dewey's book he talks about how it is the teachers responsibility to have the children retain useful data that they will need rather than useless data they will never use. I saw this meme the other day that said "and another day has gone by and I have not used the quantum theory once... If a student knows they need to learn something that will be useful to their future it will interest them. 

Another concept that I agree with is that sometimes work does not coincide enough with play, which causes work to only get done as a reward, or to avoid punishment. This leads to half as work. Learning through experience is a way to make work and play come together. For example I have reentry been learning how to make videos on adobe premier pro, and although it is a lot of work figure out how to make certain things happen, it is really fun for me. I am pleased with my work after my video is done! I am excited that I know how to make an even better video than my last one, and it causes me to want to make more. I take the learning into my own hands by searching for instruction, or accidentally learning something from messing around with the tools. Dewey's main focus on learning seems to be learning through experience and allowing the students to fail and to learn things that apply to their world.

Journal 3

This last week our movie trailer blogs were due and I was pretty confident that I could whip it out really quick, but when I started brainstorming I realized it was going to take a lot of thought to put together. I knew from mind mapping what I wanted to project through the video, but coming up with a short 2 minute trailer was difficult. While I gathered video clips I knew I had something really awesome, but I was worried about how I would make it all flow together.  This was my 2nd video I have ever made and I started to question if I should switch from adobe premier pro to iMovie because they have pre made trailers at your disposal. After checking it out I decided to just see what I could come up with using adobe because I really liked my clips and wanted the content within them to be heard instead of just having the iMovie music playing. I am so happy with my decision! I have learned how to do so much every time I fool around with the program! It is extremely exciting because creating videos was never something I ever thought I would, or could do. Now I want to make them all the time! I keep thinking of things I can film to make a mini movie out of.

I am also extremely proud of the way my trailer came out! When I kept playing it over and over again, I realized that it was actually pretty good! I really enjoyed this assignment. I feel like I am learning so much about what I am capable of in this program. I have already gathered really cool technology skills, as well as understanding how I am learning as I do the reading and the assignments.

Movie Trailer...The Company You Keep

Journal 2

Right after I wrote my last blog I realized that I was actually talking about the Smith book rather than the Dewey book, but then I realized that they both have similar connections and that is why I was cross referencing them! I love the Smith book because it puts what  Dewey says in a way that I can understand it. One connection that I have noticed between the books is that they both talk smack on classical conditioning. This is interesting to me because I have a Psychology Degree and funny enough I completely agree to what both books said! Both books state that classical conditioning has nothing to do with learning, it is just training. I completely agree with this statement. Hitting a child's neck to make him bow to something does not mean he knows why he is bowing. It just means that every time he sees or feels a certain stimulus the child will bow, but he does not learn or understand why he is doing what he is doing, he just does it. While Pavlov was conducting these classically conditioning stimulus the animal is stuck in a cage unlike a human. An animal in a cage will respond a certain way then an animal that is free.

It reminds me of saying the pledge of allegiance in elementary school. We were trained that every morning when we get to school we stand up and repeat a pledge that we are taught to memorize. Just because we memorize something does not mean we are giving meaning to the words we say. We say the pledge because we are suppose to, not because we really know or understand why we say it. I recently got a job working with autistic kids which makes this topic interesting because ABA therapy, which is what is used on autistic kids, is exactly what classical conditioning is. Repeating an act, or word until the child memorizes what it is based on reinforcement. Maybe I can come up with a way that I can help the autistic kids learn without using classical conditioning! That is my new goal even tough it might be the only way they can learn.

Journal week 1

In our cog tools class we are reading John Dewey's book Democracy and Education and to tell you the truth it is such a hard book to get through. It is extremely dense, and I have to reread some parts because I start to notice that I have no idea what I just read. I know I just kind of ripped on the book, but it does have some really interesting points. Dewy talks about how education is focused on what we do not know, instead of what we do know. The teacher is not focused on what the child did correctly, but instead they get there confidence in learning lowered because the teacher is focused on what they did not fully perform correctly. He states that learning is done in an environment in which people learn from others around them that they can relate too. He uses clubs as an example of learning where you belong and who you are. I really enjoyed when he talked about how the most important thing we learn is who we are by figuring out which clubs we can and cannot relate too. It is like the old saying, "be careful who your children's friends hang out with." The company you keep is who you learn form, and who you start talking and acting like. This type of learning is continued and never forgotten.

Dewey loves using language as an example because it is one of the ways  that proves that learning is mostly not conquered in the classroom. The way the education system is set up, there is a lot of memorizing, and then forgetting. When children learn new words or skills through there friends, or clubs those words are not forgotten. He talks a lot about language and how children learn a language from observing the company they keep. I am interested to see what the next chapters of Dewey have to teach me about where learning actually takes place.

Video Game Awesomeness Final Post

The other night I watched the Z-boys documentary which made me want to just surf and skate all day, so I thought why not play a skate game since right now skating is all I can think about. My friend dug up his Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 for his playstation 2. I was stoked he only had a playstation because there are less buttons involved and the controller fits in your hand better. I was able to pick the identity of Bam Margera, which I was super stoked about because I've always wanted to know what the day in the life of Bam would be like. I noticed that knowing who my virtual identity was made me way more into succeeding in the game. I was Bam Margera. The game had so many subdomains I should have totally started out this project playing this game. There was a practice level and a free skate level, so you don't even have to play the career mode until you've got some moves down. In the practice subdomain every trick you perform amounts of cash pop on the screen, which I found out is super useful later in the game because you need cash in order to unlock certain levels. There wasn't really a guide on how to do tricks except for the instructions from my friend, so there was a lot of discover learning going on while Bam was in the air.

Something I noticed was that since this game resembled a subculture that I could relate to, I was way more into it. I wanted to do well, and if I fell I would cringe and say ooooo like I could feel Bam's pain. While playing career the game did a really good job of telling me where to go and what to aim for by a stranger on the street that came up to me right away. The career level I played was called college and you got to pick between different cities to skate in! It is really easy to complete your goal, but the more you skate around and practice your ticks the more money you see pile up. Each time I would go up to someone with an arrow on their head, which was my goal, I would collect a letter because to pass the level I had to spell the word skate before time was up. Then they would tell an extremely quick story line instructing me what to do next. The time limit doesn't really give you the stress free freedom to learn how to do trick, but thats why there is free skate and practice subdomains. This game is simple, there isn't enough time to worry about a huge storyline. It's al about skating. I loved in for some reason way more than skate 2.

Video Game Awesomeness Post 11

I went home to Orange County on Monday and played League of Legends with my younger brother for the second time. I decided to play the subdomain tutorial again, that way it was like I was taking a refresher course on how to play the game, and I could learn more about spells. I chose the same character as last time, the blonde girl that resembles me more than any other character. I was using the Identity Principle because I wanted my character to be a surprisingly bad ass chick that could kick anyones ass! I was projecting on the character what I wanted to be like in real life, a chicken tiger! Chicken due to my skinny outward appearance, but a fierce and strong warrior like a tiger. Yes this is something I have been called before funny enough. I started to try and understand the whole spell thing because last time I randomly picked 3 spells and would click the same one every time even though it only worked every 2 minute. A lot can happen in this game in 2 minutes if your clicking s spell that won't work.

This is where the Practice Principle came into play. I would fight the enemy over and over again using different spells until I got the hang of what spell was best to use at one time. Still don't really know what they are called, but my favorite is the blue ball thing where light escapes from. This made my weapon shoot out 4 lasers and kill multiple of my enemies at once! My brother got tired of watching me play the tutorial and made me continue to playing the actual domain.   I still was the worst player on the team, but at least I wasn't running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I died the most often, but I did contribute in killing the enemy and destroying some of the purple towers. What I noticed about League of Legends this time around was that the game uses a lot of text to tell the player what to do instead of symbols. There are symbols in the game, like the power up symbol, but a lot of the insight or instructions are via text. Also the chat box that allows the player to chat with the other players is constantly going off, and I have no idea how people are chatting while playing the game. They must play this a lot!

Video Game Awesomeness Post 10

So inappropriate is how I would describe Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Funny thing is, its the game I've decided to do my final project on. GTA is a game that teaches you how to play through a story line, which I have figured out is the kind of game I like playing. Really looking at the game in depth for my project has shown me how video games teach the player how to play. The game starts off with a background story of the character the player is about to virtually become, Carl Johnson. The game teaches you a different skill through a story line, and then you are set free to practice that skill and complete the mission. The game puts the player in a specific situation to practice this skill so it becomes generalized. Then the skill will be more beneficial to the player later in the game. This is referred to as Gee's Incremental Principle. The next principle that teaches the player how to play the game is the Bottom Up Basic Skills Principle. Basic skills needed to p;ay the game are taught before more complex skills because the basic skills are needed throughout the entire game, and are mastered while continuing to play through out the domain. The basic skills like stealing a car, getting on a bike,  or punching someone are the first skills needed to get anywhere in the game. Some of these skills were learned through discover learning. When I entered the domain I pushed every button to find out which button made Carl perform which action. Probing was huge when I played the game because I was constantly driving, or running around trying to follow the map, getting lost, stealing cars and getting shot at, or running into the police. I had to figure out how to resolve all of these problems, but one problem in particular was that I tried to steal the car of a gang member and I didn't know how ti tell when the car was filled with gang members or civilians. I stole a few cars and figured out that the cars with people covered in a color different than green (my gang color) was a gang car. I stole enough gang cars that I started getting hunted down like crazy!

The last principle I think teaches you how to play the game is the Identity Principle. The Identity Principle involves taking on and playing with identities is such a way that the learner has real choices and new opportunities to meditate on the relationships between new identities and old ones. In GTA the player is free to choose what Carl does, doesn't do, when he does it, and who he does it too. Also the more the player takes on the role of Carl, the better they will understand the domain, and fulfill the missions. If the player plays into the culture of the video game, and identify with Carl, the quicker they learn to play the game. I feel like people might think it was weird or inappropriate that I am choosing GTA for my final project, but I just felt like was a great game for the topic of how the video game teaches you to play. I think thats why it is so popular. It does a great job teaching you skills and preparing you for what is coming next.

Video Game Awesomeness Post 9

Ok after playing so many video games FIFA is by far my favorite, probably because I have played soccer all my life and understand the game. Once the I understood how the controller worked, I have been pretty impressed with the plays I have been making. Funny enough I have been excelling at offense and getting lucky defensively. I find this amusing because even though I was a goal keeper I have always been better offensively at any sport, so for that to show even in a video game is pretty interesting. I do need to improve on my shot though because I either strike the ball too hard, or too soft. How I can improve on my controller skills though is by entering a tutorial domain where it is just me, the ball, and the goal keeper. After reading Gee I have realized that it was extremely foolish of me to just jump into the game with out entering the tutorial sub domain. Going into that domain slowed everything down for me, I did not have to worry about a player attacking me, or the time on the clock. Here I could use the concentrated sample principle as well as the bottom up basic skills principle. In this sub domain I have entered it is very controlled because I am the one controlling everything that happens. I can practice as much as I want, and learn the skills well before jumping into a game and anxiously start pressing buttons at random hoping it works out. Also these skills are basic and once I have the basic skills down , I can engage in more game and be unconsciously open to learning more advanced skills. Something else I noticed while reading Gee and continuing to play Xbox games was that the reason I was improving with the controller, was not due to constant playing of FIFA. I had only played it a few times and was actually pleasantly surprised with how my brain kind of knew what it was doing when I paced the controller in my hand. i improved so much because of what Gee calls the transfer principle. I had transferred what I had been learning about the controller in other games, and it caused me to become much more familiar with the controller so that my skills level in FIFA as well as Call of Duty went up! My next plan for FIFA is figuring out how to improve my defensive skills, and to eventually score a goal against my friend and FIFA opponent Tyler Zell. Once I accomplish that goal there is no telling what I will able to do in the FIFA world next!

Video Game Awesomeness Post 8

Unfortunately James Paul Gee points out that in order to really learn from video games you have to invest time into the game, so I decided to play Call of Duty 3 again. Although I did drastically improve, I still didn't get very far in the game. This time though I tried to get involved in the entire virtual world by listening to the story of the mission I was being sent out on. I knew that I had to try to get emotionally invested with the story plot of the game, or at least my character. Gee talks about how the autonomy of choosing the actions of what your character does has an emotional effect on you because you attribute motives and feeling to the character which allows you to "enter a realm of a world of your own creation." I started to play, but I did not project an identity onto my character. I could see how this would be easier to do if I was playing a game like League of Legends, or a game that is not have to do with constant gun fire. What I did notice though was that my attention was completely focused on the game. If I was't focused at any point I would be shot quickly and bleed out, or I would be stuck in a corner anxiously trying to figure out where I was which ended up with my soldier bleeding out as well.

I was excited though that I was so much more accurate with the controls! I could walk and look to my sides at the same time, and I shot soldiers that were against me instead of just shooting anyone that was around me. I stayed alive long enough to learn how to save my partner, and I consecutively shot 4 bad guys the last three rounds I played! This was due to the fact that my friend was playing with me, which made it easier to learn new tools for the game. We were learning together! Gee would say that we were getting a "taste" of the domain in which the presence of others is essential.

The probing principle also had an effect on the way I played the game because the first few times on a mission the enemy would hide behind a wall and when my teammate would rush threw the hall way, he would be right there to shoot her! Reflecting on these actions, I decided to tell my friend not to rush the hallway until I started to rapidly fire at him and the wall he was hiding behind. My hypothesis worked! He couldn't pop out his head to shoot back because of the flying bullets that would sail through the wall. The last thing I noticed about my reaction to the game was because I kept going on the same mission, I was able to strategize because I knew what was ahead for the most part. What is cool about video games is that even if you accomplish the mission, or beat the level, there is always something new that you have to figure out. A new mission means new abilities, new enemies, and a new virtual field. The learning never seems to stop!

Video Game Awesomeness Post 7

The fact that the game is called "Angry Birds" confuses me because it makes me so happy! It is seriously the most addicting game I have ever played. Angry Birds is a game that allows you to slingshot a bird into stacks of wood and ice blocks. There are pigs placed under different parts of the woods, or ice blocks and the goal is to have the bird cause the tower of items to fall and kill the pigs. There is a lot of problem solving that comes with this game because the higher the level, the more complicated the obstacle of wood and ice gets. Also you are given different colors of birds that have different strengths, so you have to figure out which bird best hits which spots of the obstacle to make it fall. It definitely took me a few tries to figure out my strategy. Angry Birds uses critical thinking and learning because I had to figure out what angle the sling shot needs to be at and how far it needs to be stretched to hit the weakest part of the wall so the wood and ice fall onto as many pigs as possible. I also had to learn each birds strength and abilities, so I could strategize which bird needed to hit which spot on the wall, which meant each bird needed to be thrown at a different angle and speed. I started to look at the game as coming up with ways to manipulate the game in certain ways to achieve my goal. Experiencing new things about the game is what James Paul Gee calls active learning. For example learning that after I let the bird fly off of the slingshot, if I touch the blue birds before they hit the wall they separate into three birds. This gives me a clue that with every new type of bird that comes with a new level, if I touch them before hitting the wall they might have more abilities that could help me succeed. I was forming new affiliations and this prepared me for future learning for the levels to come.

 Another thing that I noticed about the game was the more I failed, the more I learned. When I failed to hit the right spot on the wall, or I aimed the wrong type of bird at the wrong spot because it was too weak to knock that part of the wall down,  I was able to figure out not only how to fix it and make it work consistently. This could be James Paul Lee's principle of psychosocial moratorium because in a video game learners can take risks where real world consequences are lowered. Where there is more room for error, the more learning can go on. Another one of James's principles that definitely applied to my success with Angry Birds was the practice principle. Obviously we all know that practice makes perfect, but when the practice is not boring and I have constant ongoing success, mastering Angry Birds will definitely happen more quickly because of how consumed I am with this exciting virtual world. A game that I played yesterday however, (Call of Duty 3) I did not have a similar experience with, but I will get into that in my next blog. Overall I am learning so much more about how video games are not a waste of time through the Gee book, and I have actually been arguing with people who think the opposite. I may not be turning into a gamer per say, but I am definitely getting on board with understanding why my brother is so into games!

Video Game Awesomeness Post 6

My 7 year old cousin is obsessed with the game Frisbee Forever. The concept is to follow a pathway by moving the iPad to the left or the right. As simple as the concept seemed, I failed to understand how to not move the iPad with the correct amount of aggression. This was my problem with the Xbox controller as well. For some reason I get really tense during racing games and press the buttons, or the joy stick way to hard. Having the perfect touch takes a lot of skill and practice and was definitely the main discover learning that was going on.

Frisbee Forever had intrinsic rewards with leaderboards and a competitive edge that motivates you to want to keep playing just to get further than the last time. There are a ton of obstacles along the course and each time I would die right before making it through one, I would have to try it again! I had to keep trying until I could solve the problem of how fast the frisbee needed to be rotated.

Wednesday night I went to my parents house and played Backyard Sports! I use to love this game when I was a kid and was constantly competing against my brothers for bragging rights in the house. I played Backyard Soccer and I made have had even more fun than when I played FIFA. The autonomy of this games allows you to draft your own players, pick your team name and color, and strategize your field positions. Strategy is also a huge part of the game as well by allowing you to run your lineup, and even by having plays you can choose from when taking corner kicks. The game also teaches you how to manage a team, and in the game you make all of the decisions that pertain to your team. There are also playoffs which intrinsically motivates you to want to win it all and get the 1st place trophy. Not only does being the champion motivate you, but the chance to move divisions to play brand new teams and get your team name on the leaderboard makes the game not only intrinsically motivating, but exciting.

Video Game Awesomeness Post 5

The game's name The World of Keflings seemed like it had the potential to be a fun and easy game to tackle and it was extremely easy, but fun is not a word I would use to describe the game. There was not a lot of autonomy in the game considering that you could only choose to build a house, a town hall, and a workshop. As you advance maybe that changes, but you don't even get to choose where to build it! A blue square lights up telling you where to place the item. The only thing you had to master was how to chop down wood, or breakdown rocks. Once you had enough wood and rocks the game built the actual item for you. The game's purpose is ultimately to build an entire town where these tiny Kefling people can live. As for a learning purpose, the only thing I can think of is that it teaches you patience, and gets you familiar with the Xbox controller. There wasn't even a leaderboard, or badges to intrinsically motivate me, which just made the game seem pointless and a waste of time.

Hexic on the other hand is a great puzzle game! It is a lot like Spirit Stones where you connect colored dots in order to destroy those dots. Each time the dots are destroyed others fall into the place the previous dots were located. The purpose is to destroy as many dots as possible until you move on to the next level without hitting a bomb. The game is definitely a problem solving game because unlike Spirit Stones you could only connect three dots at once, and the highlighted dots rotated clockwise or counter clockwise depending on which trigger was pressed. You where allowed to move the highlighter around to other sections of the grid, but the hard part of the problem to solve was how to destroy the dots. Not just one dot of the sam color could be touching other dots of the same color, they had to be touching in a triangle. Once I figured that out I was becoming a master of the game! Problem solving was not the only thing Hexic had going for it, but motivation as well. Sometimes when destroying dots, a bunch of other dots would fall into triangles and be destroyed. This made it exciting, fun, and caused me to want to keep going. Another way the game motivated me was that it didn't take long to level up, and once I got on the leaderboard I was emotionally invested and intrinsically motivated.

There was definitely discover learning going on in both of the games, but because I have been playing so many Xbox 360 games, I noticed that I started to have more control over the game controller. I could make assumptions about which button might rotate the triangle, or which button might chop the wood. The controller even felt like it had started to belong in my hand, which made me feel like I just might be starting to master the control buttons. Now that I feel more confident with the controller, my self esteem may have gone up just enough to try Call of Duty Again.

Video Game Awesomeness Post 4

Too bad I didn't play the original Nintendo Mario Kart on "Throwback Thursday", or "Flashback Friday" because those are the perfect words to describe how I felt playing it. I'm really familiar with Mario Kart on Nintendo 64, but the original Nintendo is a different story. The remote doesn't have a tiny joystick to control the direction of the players, which made it harder to control the kart! The resolution of the game was incredibly dull to what video games look like today, and the music is awful. I found it so hard to control the direction and speed of my character and his kart that the game got old pretty fast, so I decided to switch to guitar hero. I will fully admit that when I was in high school I suffered from a Guitar Hero obsession, so I tried to hold off playing it for this assignment until I couldn't take it anymore. I can proudly say that I can even play on the expert level for some of the songs. I played about 7 songs and then decided to call it a night, but if no one can find me tomorrow thats what I most likely will be doing.

It is kind of hard thinking of what Mario Kart was trying to teach me, but two areas it does test me in are patience and bringing out my competitive spirit. It is so easy to become frustrated in Mario Kart if you cannot control your kart very well because the kart will never do what you want it to. Playing it with others, as well as playing against the game can capture your competitive spirit because there are objects you can use to throw the others off, and obtain the lead of the race. It is exciting when the game spins to choose your object because you never know what you are going to get! Guitar Hero also brings out your competitive spirit because after you play a song it gives you a percentage of how well you did. I would always strive for 100% all the time because I would always be so close that missing it by 2% would kill me. Guitar Hero teaches us patience as well because sometimes you have to keep playing a song over and over until you play it well enough to unlock another song. It motivates you to finish a goal by having the only way to play all the songs in the game is to unlock 4 songs at a time. It also increases the quickness between the processing of information of the notes on the screen to the correct button on the guitar. There wasn't a lot of discover learning going on because I had already been familiar with the games, but I did discover how much I missed Guitar Hero!

Video Game Awesomeness Post 3

Ok I finally gave in... I played League of Legends, and I didn't hate it! My brother loves playing League of Legends. A lot of what he does all day is sit in his room and play it, which for some reason caused me to stir away from the game. The whole fantasy realm of these types of games has never really appealed to me, but when I started playing the first thing I said was "This is like Lord of the Rings...but cooler!" I started off playing the tutorial just to get an idea of what was going on. My brother also told me the gist of the game too so I felt pretty comfortable after playing for ten minutes. Then I decided to play a real game and saw that I was playing with other people online! I had a mild freak out and said, "I feel bad because all of these people on my team seem really into it." I died frequently and then I started paying attention to the magic spells at the bottom. I had two "go to" spells I started to use, and my brother would keep reminding me to level up when the golden addition signs popped onto the screen. Unfortunately I continued to die frequently, but I helped destroy the last glowing purple diamond in the last tower! I got so excited I continuously yelled, "I helped! We won and I helped destroy the purple thing!" I really liked how no matter how many times you die, you are never completely out of the game. I helped me learn about the game quicker and caused me not want to just stop playing because then I would let my team down. There was a lot of discover learning going on because it was my first time playing, especially when it came to the spells you can use. Social learning theory when I started playing with others online because I would fallow the other characters around, falling back or moving forward whenever they did. I really believe that the more I play and understand the game the more I will get out of it. From what I've seen while playing all of the games are mostly behaviorist, and Constructivist learning theories. Most of the learning that happens involves others, so there is a lot of communities of practice, social learning, and social development. League of Legends even has a chat bar on the side to talk strategy, or just communicating in general so the players can all help each other into victory.

Brain wars is my potty game of the week and I really enjoy it because you play against another person thats online, and it's not intimidating! Mostly because you will most likely never talk or see this person in your life, which makes the challenge less emotional. There are categories of games that you choose to play like concentration, speed, accuracy, ect. Each game is only about 20 seconds long and keeps your score at the top so you can see who is wining. At the end of the 3rd game the scores are tallied and the winner is shown. It's pretty cool because it shows you your strengths and weaknesses and you can continue to improve on your areas of weakness! This game helps you improve on memory, math, and quickness, which I think is more of a cognitive development learning approach. You have to really process and understand the directions of the activity, or else your score will be extremely low and you will be beat by your opponent.

Overall I will definitely be paying both of these games again and League of Legends definitely got me in the mood to watch Lord of the Rings again.

Video Game Awesomeness Post 2

The sentence that flew out of my mouth after the twelfth time I died playing Call of Duty 3  was WOW, can I please go back to the days of Nintendo 64! To my expense, Call of Duty was my next single and multiplayer game pic. To play Call of Duty you have to use every single button and joy stick on the controller at all times. Needless to say there was a lot of discover learning going on the first seven minutes. I went into the game this time without any instructions on which button caused what action and the game was pretty overwhelming the first four times I died. The hardest part for me was having to do multiple things at once. For instance, using the left joy stick to walk while using the right one to move my vision from up and down, and from left to right. For me moving the right joy stick would work the opposite way I naturally assumed it would. If I moved the stick up my soldier would look down, and if I moved the stick down my soldier would look up! This was so frustrating and would be the main cause of my death almost every time. I did start to get the basics down after a while, but I never made it down the street without dying. I am also not positive if the people I shot at, or killed were actually on my side or not... 

Call of Duty is super intense because there are so many stimulants going on in the game that it made me a little bit frazzled. You really have to focus on your goal, which for me was crouching down, moving forward, moving my head side to side, and sort of aimlessly firing my gun. I was really proud of myself when I could run from one car to another firing my gun, and then getting low and popping back up to fire it again! Unfortunately though the more I played sometimes I would do worse than the time before. It was fun for a little bit trying to figure out how the game worked, but once I just kept failing over and over again without making a difference in the game I threw in the towel. I understand that the only way to continue to get better at this game was to fail, but there was not enough positive reinforcement to keep going. It just got really old really quick. I learned to play the game by discover learning, acceptance of failure to improve, and the cognitive process of filtering and integrating information very quickly. 

When I played the game with others I just felt even more lost. They kept trying to help me, and some times I would get excited when I did something minuscule, but I mostly felt discouraged because I was not able to help with the mission. I learned to play the game by discover learning, acceptance of failure to improve, and the cognitive process of filtering and integrating information very quickly. Playing the game with others also showed me strategy, teamwork, and communities of practice. To accomplish a mission there needs to be somewhat of a leader to strategize the next move, or to voice when to attack. Without the help of your teammates you have a much higher chance of dying, especially if you are new to the game, which brings me to communities of practice. Everyone learns new maneuvers, or strategic methods from the other players. Some have more skills than others and the passion that comes through in wanting to be successful at the game gets the players to work together.

Lastly the "potty" game I played and am now semi addicted to is Fruit Ninja! It is the most simple game and it entertained me for hours. It had all the correct stimulus motivation with the cool swiping sounds as you splice the fruit in half, to a crazy explosion if you accidentally sliced a bomb open. The  game taught me patience, quickness, and it is definitely strengthening my left hand! It also helps with hand eye coordination and I am determined to beat my high score even if I get frustrated! I get so excited when I think I am doing well its comical, but the game motivates me to keep going, which is what gamification is all about!

Video Game Awesomeness Post 1

Video and computer games have never appealed to me probably because it is hard for me to sit still for a long period of time, especially when I have no idea how or where to even start. My brothers are really into computer games, but from a distance it seemed like a waste of time compared to being active and outdoors. I knew this assignment would be hard for me to warm up to playing something like League of Legends, so I stuck to what I know, sports! For my first multiplayer game I chose FIFA 2011, and for my single player game I chose Skate 2. I was shown the basic control buttons for both games and just dove right in. Playing without any knowledge of the Xbox controls, even though I was informed on "what button did what," Discover learning played a huge role when it came to figuring out how to kick the ball with more force, or to pick up speed on the skateboard so I could jump onto a rail. Basically I had to press a bunch of buttons that gave me positive, or negative results to remember which buttons to use at specific times. 

Classical and Operant Conditioning also played a huge part in all 3 games I've played, the third one being my "potty" game, Spirit Stones. I quickly learned in Spirit Stones that even though there might be more dots of a certain color to get rid of, the dots of warriors with the lowest points needed to be attended to, or else they would soon be attacked. When I kept paying attention to the points each of my warriors had my team would get rewarded by being able to defeat the monsters faster and I could move onto the next level. In FIFA every time I hit the strike button, the ball would fly over or around the goal with way too much force, and not always in the direction I would think I was aiming. I started to press the strike button more quickly and with less force, and that solved the problem. Also every time I would go to slide tackle the opposite team, I would get called for a penalty. I knew I had to figure out a way to tackle the offender without getting a penalty, so I discovered that if I kept running alongside the player and then lightly pressed A, I would be successful! I have never used the slide tackle button since, unless I felt it was necessary. In Skate 2 I had a similar experience, every time I hit a random button when I was up in the air and I didn't fall, I was positively reinforced by the sound of the board sticking the landing, the points racking up, and the announcer yelling that I had completed a really awesome move! I would keep doing the same trick over and over until I could land it 7 out of 10 times.

What I learned when playing the multiplayer game, FIFA, was that there was a community of practice and strategy. When I wouldn't make a very good pass, or would miss someone wide open, my friends would tell me different tricks or buttons to press to make my pass better or more complete. Once it worked I would keep playing the same through ball every time I received the ball. Also when picking your teams you have to work together to come up with the best lineup against the lineup of the opposing team, which my friend are really into and I am hoping as I get better so am I.

I really enjoyed playing all three of these games! I may be getting a tiny bit addicted to Spirit Stones, and FIFA. It was definitely hard at first, especially with how fast paced the Xbox games are, but I enjoyed myself. I really like the multiplayer games, its fun watching how other people look view the game of soccer and it definitely teaches teamwork, skill sets, and the flow of the game. I am exited to see what else I discover in the gaming world.

Cadre Camp Reflection 3

Yesterday we had an overview of the action research section of our program, as well as what we needed to set up for the rest of the year. We were given options of different bog websites we could use, divided tasks such as social planner, and downloaded video software to our computers. We worked on the lego project as a whole, and Brian taught Channel and I how to edit videos into a movie. The lego project took most of our time and almost worked all the way through a few times!

I was extremely tired when every time we did a test run and made adjustments to the robot. My mind was exhausted from the entire week and got a little frustrated as well as delirious. I noticed that I would get extremely tired and then when the clock struck 9, I would be wide awake. When in the group circle that happened everyday after camp I became very fidgety if someone was talking more than what I thought was the appropriate amount of time.

Fidgeting around was due to the lack of interest that came over me after being in the same room for hours with unsuccessful robot test runs. My brain was so tired from being extremely frustrated that the lego man would only sometimes work, and fall down the wrong side of the shoot more of the time. I needed to do something active to take my mind off of the failed attempts, which is why I would be wide awake around nine. My mind was tired, but my body was restless.

Cadre Camp Reflection 2

Today we programed a computer maze using scratch as the project editor. we were shown very rapidly how to use it, and then paired off into twos to create our own. we were given two hours and then had to stop…but I did not stop because my partner and I was not finished and everyone else was. In the afternoon we met together with our groups form yesterday and were instructed to build a lego robot that was suppose to transport a lego man through an obstacle course. We worked on the robot for about two and a half hours and my brain felt totally fried. Our robot had to catch the lego man, drive up a ramp, an then shoot the man down a ramp. 

The programing activity was extremely hard for me. I have never done anything with computer programming before and either had my partner, which made things a little frustrating. The group across from us kept understanding the programming and every time they would figure something out they would get extremely excited, which made me even more frustrated. When we were suppose to stop and travel around to each table to play other groups games, ours was not finished and I stayed seated to frantically try to finish our maze. When we started to build the robot i started building the base and connecting the wheels to the base. Sometimes it was frustrating, but mostly had a lot of fun! The time flew by, and before I knew it two and a half hours had passed.

Reacting the way that I did to the programming exercise was mostly due to my brain being extremely worn out an tired. When I get really tired mentally, I tend to get frustrated really easily and want to take things into my own hands. I always resort to trying to do it myself because I think I can figure it out more efficiently myself, which is not always the case. I kept working on the maze instead of stoping when I was suppose to because I can get very competitive and I felt embarrassed that our group's was the only maze unfinished. I really enjoyed the lego assignment because after feeling defeated about the unsuccessful maze, I am excellent at building and being crafty. At first no one was listening to me, so I started working on the base myself, and then the rest of the group started to build off of what I made. At the end of the day, our collaboration made a very impressive robot, but I could not have done it alone!

Cadre Camp Reflection 1

I walked into the Cadre Camp room and immediately had 30 eyes staring at me while I took the first open seat I could find next to the first Cadre I met named Melissa. We were introduced to Bill as well as two student service representatives. Next we formed 4 groups of 4 based on a colored dot that was on the back of our name tag and were given an assignment to make an introductory video based off of the movie trailer The Goonies. After the videos we were given a carrot, a garlic clove, an onion, and some basil with very vague instructions on different ways to cut each item. Luckily Brian knew what most of the instructed words meant. Our last task was to draw a portrait of ourselves that involved our hobbies, or anything that we think describes our personality.

My first response to all of the eyes staring at me in the Cadre room was realizing how many different ages of Cadre there were and that the two boys at my table seemed very intelligent. This made me feel very nervous and a little inadequate for this program. When we got into out groups, I felt much more relaxed because my other three group members were very friendly and comfortable with themselves. This feeling continued and even began to grow during the video introductions as well as the cooking segment of camp because of how we all seemed to click and have a similar sense of humor. During the portrait drawing I was a tiny bit nervous to fully draw and explain some of the most influential and special parts of myself with people outside of my group, but I courageously decided to go all out and really show who I was.

The feelings of being inadequate and nervous came from not knowing if I had anything in common with the technology pros, and elementary teachers that I assumed made up the entire class. I assumed that I would be the youngest person in the Cadre, which also made me nervous that I would not be taken seriously. When I looked around the room and saw all of the different talents, ages, and personalities that surround me I felt a lot more at ease and became more confident that I could be apart of this program. I started to love my group because they made me laugh and it was so easy to talk to them, which is why I felt more comfortable drawing my portrait around them. When everyone was presenting their portraits I repeatedly when back and forth on how much I was going to reveal about myself because I was scared of how some of the Cadres, or the Professors were going to react. i feel good though about how much I revealed and how I still left some mystery for the Cadres who really wanted to get to know me could pursue.