Courtnay's+journal

Journal 1 April 7, 2014

My experience with video and computer games is pretty limited. In fact, when I do play them, I’m quickly confronted with the fact that I’m not very good at them. As a child, my siblings and I would play Super Mario Brothers on our Nintendo 64. I was always levels behind them and I never did end up rescuing the princess.

My experience this week playing Evolver was a similar experience. It took me awhile to learn to move the character forward and backwards. I got stuck a few times and needed to practice the jump several times before I was successful. The good thing about that game is that I got instant feedback: If I moved in the wrong direction, pressed the wrong key, or did not jump at the correct time, I saw immediately that I was unsuccessful. This continuous data helped me to learn how to maneuver a bit better each time.

For work I take on the identity of the company’s corporate trainer. I provide professional development classes to employees on subjects like communication skills, change management, and emotional intelligence. I deliver these classes primarily in person but am beginning to provide asynchronous opportunities as well.

Before my current position, I worked as a safety management consultant at the company. My job was to travel to businesses throughout the state and provide occupational safety and health consultation. In reading Gee’s chapter on semiotic domains, it became clear why this was such a difficult area to learn. It was much more than reading OSHA codes. I had to learn how to apply it, what context to apply it to, how it would be received, and how to adjust if my approach wasn’t working. This was similar to my experience playing Evolver. When meeting with a client it became clear if I was getting stuck, headed down the wrong path, or was being unsuccessful. Verbal and visual clues allowed me to change directions until I could find a path that worked.

Gee’s definition of literacy is applicable to my work as a safety consultant and corporate trainer. I have colleagues who have a ton of knowledge. However, they have difficulty applying that knowledge to accomplish a particular task. This is because that are relying on one domain. They lack the situated domains that would help them to be successful. It is not enough to learn an abstract set of facts. That doesn’t make you literate. You need to be able to apply and adapt in order to be truly literate.

Journal 2 April 21, 2014


 * Virtual and projective identities are important in teaching because they create engagement. Students feel ownership of the activity. It also allows them choice which is important. While most classroom activities are highly prescribed, allowing students to create an identity empowers them. It also helps with higher level thinking skills because students must assess which attributes may or may not be successful in this virtual world.


 * I think everyone has aspects of a damaged identity. I feel I am terrible at video games and this affects my engagement and interest in them. I had a 3rd grade student in my class named Stephen. He was very smart and athletic. He was pretty successful in everything he did. He realized this and his identity became someone who didn’t fail. When it came time for the state assessments he was overcome by fear. He couldn’t take the test because he was filled with such anxiety about not being successful.


 * When I worked as a safety management consultant I would meet with businesses and train on particular safety hazards. Often times I wasn’t able to simulate the importance of using a guard on the table saw. We couldn’t practice in real life without endangering a person or piece of equipment. One thing that we could do is share video. That enabled them to create meaning without having anyone get hurt.


 * Recently I was trying to fix a game in PowerPoint. It was set up like Jeopardy with links that took you to certain questions in a particular category. The problem was that the links weren’t changing colors so the players couldn’t tell which questions had previously been chosen. I went through this four-step cycle several times trying to fix it.


 * I also used the four-step cycle several times while learning to play iCivics. As I mentioned earlier, I am not very good at video games so my learning curve is steep. It took me awhile to learn the most basic things, like how to move to the client’s location. I enjoyed this game because I was able to draw off my prior knowledge of the constitution but there were also hints reminding me about the details of a particular amendment.

Journal 3 May 5, 2014


 * **Give an example of 'Just in Time' information presentation in a classroom activity: **A just in time activity would be providing additional information to learners when they were ready for it. At my work we do a lot of work within a database- there are a lot of fields, some of which you don’t use very often. Some of them also have field names that don’t provide you with a lot of cues about what to enter. A just-in-time example would be adding a short piece of text that would appear to tell you want to enter. Or it could be a small question mark that the user could click to get more information if they were stuck.


 * **In a content area of your choice, how might you incorporate teaching in a 'subdomain' of the 'real' domain? **When training administrators on our company’s learning management system, we use a test environment. This is similar to what Gee describes as a ‘subdomain.” Students can practice uploading trainings, running reports, adding students, etc. They can explore and learn without the fear of breaking something or affecting the data. This environment allows them to be more curious and adventurous in their exploration. And it helps build confidence when they move to the real domain.


 * **Describe a technique that you might use to help students 'transfer' early learning to more complex problems. **When I taught 3rd grade we learned about multiplication facts. At the beginning, we would build upon student’s knowledge about counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. They were able to use this knowledge to find the answer, even if they didn’t fully understand the concept of multiplication or have a particular fact memorized. They could also draw a picture to find the answer. They had a lot of experience creating groups with blocks or pictures in earlier grades. Some students naturally did this to solve the problems. Other students needed me to help them make this connection.


 * **Describe a learning experience you've had where one of your 'cultural models' was challenged. **At work we have been doing a lot of education around generations in the workplace. In a couple of years, we will have five generations in the workplace. This is unprecedented. And with five different generations comes a variety of potential communication and work style conflicts. I was in a recent training and the group was discussing a younger employee who brought her cell phone to a meeting. The employee put the cell phone face up on the table and checked the screen periodically. The attendees, primarily baby boomers, were shocked. They felt this behavior was really rude. I struggled to understand the why this was a problem at all. This behavior fit perfectly into my cultural model. However, I was able to observe the attendees in the room, most of who are supervisors and managers. It was clear to me that this behavior was not correct in their eyes. This resulted in a disconnect. I don’t see any problem with the behavior but understood that this was a behavior I probably shouldn’t replicate. In order to solve this uneasiness I would need to weigh the costs and benefits of changing my behavior.


 * **Reflections on any games you played or examined during the week **This week I played Villainy, Inc. This game seems appropriate for middle school students. The game starts by making a joke about homophones (Gulf vs. golf). There is quite a bit of text to read in order to get the needed background information. The goal is clear: Spend as much of the money as possible. Something that I liked about this game is that there are clear directions. For example, in the first activity you are provided with Steps 1-4. Each step is very clear (e.g. Step 1: Read the letter.) For this particular activity you were tasked with finding the area of the golf course. You had to gather data to determine the distance for each side of the rectangle. It was a little unclear how to determine the shape of the rectangle but I kept moving the lines until it said Good Job! There are tools you can use to solve the geometry problem and resources to access if you get stuck. The structure of the game would be good to help students play this independently as the directions are very clear.