Week 3 Jim Gee

I actually provided a link to this video on my blog before this because I found the content so interesting.  I think Gee demonstrated how our view of assessment is changing.  We talk about alternative assessment but in this video Gee shows how this can be used rather than using a standard form of testing.  I really like the fact that he points out that there are schools out there competing for students.  I live in Pittsburgh during the week and see first hand how charter schools and alternative schools compete for students.  Many of the charter schools are completely on-line or virtual schools and the content delivered both in home and at larger central meeting sites.  The charter schools are free for most students with the school district paying the cost of attendance.   I also like his comment that the developers must be successful in teaching the player how to maneuver throughout the game or they would not sell any games.  I never thought about that fact but if a good example of the importance of teaching problem solving and identifying patterns while learning.  I agree we will see two different forms of education and believe that as educators we must be ready.

Garden of Time

I like the fact that the game limits resources and forces the player to make choices and when they choose to use them they immediately see the reaction of their choice.  I also like that the game awards the player for paying attention to where the hidden objects are causing the player to concentrate on the game and build on their learning.  Finally I like that the game takes items that were previously introduced and then calls them by a different name such as a lion named in one scene was then referred to a a king in the same scene when replayed or a horn in one scene being musical and a animal horn in another scene.

Double Entry Journal #1 EDUC 6814 Game Design & Learning

Human societies get better through history at building technologies that more closely capture some of what the human mind can do and getting these technologies to do mental work publicly.  Writing, digital computers, and networks each allow us to externalize some functions of the mind.  Though they are not commonly thought of in these terms, video games are a new technology in this same line.

This quote made me question if I agreed with this statement or disagreed and thought the author was putting too much importance to video games.  I decided that I agree that video games are an evolving technology that does help the human mind practice certain skills.  I agree with the author that video games require the player to figure out the rules, the patterns and also to set and obtain goals within the game.  I think that video games give the mind practice in problem solving and a feeling of accomplishment when goals are achieved by conquering the different tasks or levels.  In FACS goal setting, decision making and personal satisfaction from achieving a goal successfully is a big part of the overall message so this is an important factor to me.

You build your simulations to understand and make sense of things, but also to help you prepare for action in the world.  You can act in the simulation and test out what consequences follow, before you act in the real world.  You can role-play another person in the simulation and try to see what motivates their actions or might follow from them before you respond in the real world.

I think this is a real benefit and a good reason to use video games in education.  I think there is a great benefit from trying different approaches to obtain a desired outcome.  In education role playing has been an acceptable teaching method and now with the use of technology role playing can be expanded.  The video game is programmed to react to each player depending on their actions; the feedback is immediate in the form of defeat or success.  The player can try different roles in the game without permanent penalty and will help the player to develop acceptable behavior or actions that they can relate in real world situations.

The view of the mind I have sketched argues, as far as I am concerned, that the mind works rather like a video game.  For humans, effective thinking is more like running a simulation in our heads within which we have a surrogate actor than it is about forming abstract generalizations cut off from experiential realities. 

I agree that the human mind is always thinking about a situation and running a series possibilities of how to react.  Our mind does this so fast that we do not always recognize what is happening.  Think of a time when you reacted to a situation and after you did thought about how you could have reacted differently and run over the events over in your head.  When we are playing as a first person in the video world the player reacts to situations by making decisions in the form of moves trying to achieve the desired result the same as our mind goes over the facts and decide what actions to take after playing different possibilities in our mind.

Here are two links to youtube videos that I think reinforces the use of video games in the classroom and how they support learning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNfPdaKYOPI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=AH5RKwB8wRQ

Week 1

My name is Lynn Keener and I am currently living between Monongah and Pittsburgh.  I live during the week in Pittsburgh and take care of my father and come home on weekends as often as possible.  I am currently on a medical leave due to a falling accident when I broke both hands and wrists.  I have my MAT from Fairmont State and my undergraduate is Family And Consumer Science.  I teach cooking and nutrition part time at CCAC in the community education program.  I love to teach cooking and nutrition to middle school students and I am always on the lookout for new material and new ideas to use.  The classes I teach are not for grades or credit so I have the luxury of making the class fun and not worrying about standards however I do gear the classes to alien with what they need in their regular school.  I do a summer cooking camp and would like to make a gaming component.  I think gaming helps not only with hand eye but also with goal setting, problem solving and achievement.    I love all types of games both video and in person games.  I play on-line as well as on WII, and X-box 360 and think I have palyed every gaming system that has come along thanks to my son and his friends.  I found an article that gives a good insight into gaming and education.  I may have passed on this article because it is from a gaming organization however the article gives research on the subject and the effects of gaming being used in the classroom.  Here is a link: http://www.theesa.com/games-improving-what-matters/education.asp

Lastly the year I was born is 1953 which proves you are never too old to learn.  Here are three major world events that I found on The People’s History for 1953. First Polio Vaccine Developed, The Korean War ends after three years and one month and Queen Elizabeth II crowned queen of England

First Post

Hi everyone.  I am excited to start this new class.  I think this class may be challenging for me but am looking forward to the challenge and hope as a class we will discover many new ways of presenting required material in the classroom while making it fun.