sumrbrzejournalweek1

March 28, 2011

**Week 1 Journal Entry**
Reading Journal Assignment:

Questions: 1. Describe your background and history with video and computer games ;

I admit, I have very, very experience in playing video games or computer games. I have never had any of the Nintendo, or xbox or anything, only seen them played in person a handful of times. Computer games have been just a few, Oregon Trail and Myst so the and eye coordination and basic game concepts are new to me this year. The most I have used them recently is I joined Second Life (SL) about 4 months ago.

Within SL, I am learning quickly how to use the directional arrows on my keyboard, and it is hard to ride a motorcycle on a curvy road without a wheel, and learning how to maneuver around in the virtual realm. I admit, I am hooked. It is fascinating to me the multiple levels of participation/engagement that occur here and the variety of things I am able to do. Learning how to ride horses, water ski, skydive, drive jeeps and aircraft (ok the plane I crashed a lot at first), and hike mountains has been really fun. The social element of SL has become a fascinating study in psychological and sociological interactions.

This week I have started learning and playing in a few of the games listed in this class. World of Warcraft and Wolf Quest. So far in Wolfquest I can move around now using the maps, I have eaten an Elk..(YUCK), and tried to catch rabbits but failed. No interaction with anyone else yet in the game, just busy trying to chase traces of scent to find others. In World of Warcraft I am completely in over my head. I have made my avi, journeyed to level 3 in the first character and now have no idea what is next. This is a lonely game so far, lots of people playing but not able to talk with anyone still but the journey of learning here continues!

2. What are some of the real and/or virtual "Identities" you take on?

I am pretty much myself so far in any of the identities in RL or in a virtual realm, it is me making the choices, actions and conversation. Wolfquest is the first time I have been an “animal” in a game so trying to put my head into the survival mode here seems like play acting a bit. In World of Warcraft this is a huge stretch for me and I am not comfortable yet in the 1st avi I made. She is human….but the role playing she has is violent so far and the choices have been driven by the desire to be part of the team eventually so I stay in the game and keep going back to help…

In SL, I have created two avi’s…one for work and educational roles and one for me to be me and just explore and learn about this virtual realm. Currently the 2nd avi for work and educational activities has been parked and barely active while I spend my time exploring new places to discover.

I am still me in both roles but the active character is doing things I have not had a chance to do or don’t make time to do in my real life. She comes across much more confident and carefree, of course since there is no housework, bills, money concerns, kids to take care of, etc.... so I have a chance to wear outfits I never would in RL, talk to people from all over the world, see ‘virtual replica’s of places I will never get to visit, etcc….

3. What impact might james Pau Gee's definition of Literacy have on your teaching?

I am enjoying learning about James Pau Gee’s perspective on learning, his interpretation of literacy and how the context and culture enhances how we learn. Embracing the social and cultural experiences and how they impact our meaning of social literacy is important.

Within the World of Warfare I am not literate and barely able to produce any results. Since I am still learning my focus is only on immediate goals to survive, not yet able to plan what is next and how I would accomplish the next goal. The learning is from repetition actions, helpful hints I gain from observation or reading notes, and from negative reenforcement. I have died about 10 times in the first level so I am learning from loosing. THe social aspect of this game is very low, in the first week of playing it feels isolating, lonely, and violent. I have not experienced enough to see the "content" generated,d ebated or transformed or understood any of the "distinctive ways of thinking or talking" Gee discuss as vital to the learning.

It has shown me though how vital those pieces are to the learning occurring in the classroom and as professionals developing in our career's. I can see a comparison between my SL experience and World of Warcraft, time and experience learning the social practices, the culture, the environment has created a more active learning environment in SL with more critical thinking happening in regards to the social interactions i participate within. I can recognize the learning and personal growth here on many levels.

In helping to develop online learning environments, especially online classes, creating an atmosphere of learning where insight into the community culture of the class, terms, and basics about working within a the online environment would be really important. Creating an opportunity where participants can build on the classroom community connections while engaging in the learning activities. Some design group projects, threaded discussions, small group discussions into the online classes and this can help. Make me wonder how else we can build in tools to help develop the feeling of belonging within the class.

4. What experiences have you had learning in new "semiotic domains? My past experience working in the Law Enforcement area was a fast study in the different culture of a police department, the language and symbolic meanings alone takes a while to embrace and understand. The LE community is a whole different social group of people to work with than where I am currently in education. Both groups have many abbreviations and terms that can have very different meanings within a different type of group.

SL has also been a new semiotic domain, the culture is in many ways very different especially because it blend in people from all over the world who come with different life experiences and they are seeking new fantasy experiences.

World of War game is the most extreme different semiotic domain I have experienced in gaming so far. I am totally lost, don’t get it yet at all and scared to talk ….. I know this will change with time.

** How might virtual and projective identities be important in your teaching? **
Although I am not teaching in a K12 environment I can see an advantage in using "games" which provide a virtual environment which is sometimes a "safe place" to experience a different identity. Some games focusing on history provide a chance for students to role play and have to survive within the confines of the role and status. If a student has to role-play a slave the learning might be very different than if they just read about how slaves were treated. The idea of allowing students to role play and project themselves on who they might be or what they might do would be great. Imagine the kids who cant see themselves as a teacher or doctor....in some educational games they have the opportunity to try out many options.


 * Describe an experience you’ve had in teaching a student with a “damaged” identity.**

My experience here is from years ago when I was working with adult students who were Math phobics, hated math and most experienced very bad math teachers in school. Trying to help them see they could learn some math basics in pieces.... and how it related to things they do in everyday life helped them to gain confidence in trusting they could do math. It took time and involved helping them see themselves as smart enough to learn because they were already handling mathematical situations, they just didn't recognize it in that way. It was building confidence and skills for themselves.


 * Give an example of a situated meaning in your content area, and describe how you might help students gain a more embodied understanding of it.**

I am trying to think of a similar situation I can use in online learning or advising students because I am not teaching in a content area. What comes to mind is the term online learning. It takes on a different meaning when I am trying to explain to someone this week how our class was going to be online together in SL, setup like an online classroom, all meeting together for sharing online the entertainment game we had been learning. The term online and how we typically view the idea of an online class begins to be different in the context of being in SL. I had to first explain SL (which is not easy to do for some folks), then explain within that online environment we were meeting as a class. ....and so it went....took a while to get the right terminology for the explanation.

Instead of using a recent example of trying to live longer than 5 min in World of Warfare game (this has been full of this cycle for learning), i will use what I am doing in trying to make some updates to the website for DEP and not really knowing how to fix a few of the problem areas.
 * Describe a recent learning experience that involved using the probe, hypothesize, re-probe, and rethink cycle.**

When i don't know what is causing the problem of the form I had setup, I needed to go into the scripts, probe for where I found either a missing piece to a script and then try and fix it...testing if it worked, try it out, then when it didn't fix it I went back in and tried the next option. I found some of it was resolved by trial and error, and some by thinking thoughtfully about how it should work, where we might have missed a setup step, try it with the changes, and then keep going. The hypothesize and re-probe ended up resulting in me learning and finding the mistakes instead of fixing it by chance and not knowing why it was fixed.