Kaylee's+Journal+1

I would not consider myself a “gamer” and I don’t feel as though I have much experience with video or computer games. My education incorporated the use of technologies though not often in game format (though I do recall once playing “lemonade stand” for a class). My family did have a Nintendo 64 for a few years, after other consoles had made it seem outdated and less cool of course, but my siblings and I enjoyed Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat. In college, my roommates and I played many “party” games like Garage Band, Mario Party, or the newest version of Mario Kart. I haven’t played nearly as many computer games as I have video games.
 * 1 - 7/5**

I would have to say that the virtual identity I most take on is within the Mario Games and my preferred character is Wario, because I find his mean comments and evil laugh entertaining in such an absurd semiotic domain as the Mario Universe. The real identities I take on in my life are numerous and ever changing. I have recently repossessed the role of student. I am also a barista and coffee enthusiast. I am a dramaturg and literary artist.

I connected to Gee’s definition of literacy immediately, because I already believe in different intelligences and different potential uses for these intelligences. The ideas discussed in this book remind me a great deal of a book (__Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility__) that actually pertains to theatre but that discusses thought processes in similar ways as Gee does with literacies. This pertains to my teaching goals, as I want to create a collaborative classroom environment where all students’ different literacies can be expressed, shared, and taught to one another.

Though the term “semiotic domains” is new vocabulary for me, I have long been dealing in the different worlds created by literature, what we in the theatre world deem “microcosms” is the exact same idea as “semiotic domains”. One of my jobs as a dramaturg (literary theatre practitioner) meant that I must become an expert on whatever “semiotic domain” existed for the play that we were producing. This meant not only learning about the realistic and historical contexts in which some plays are based but also learning about the rules the playwright has set up for the world of the play. Just like in video games, characters in plays also have certain powers or capabilities that allow them to easily (or not so easily) progress through the world.

I played Fair Play for about 30 minutes and Resilient Planet also for about 30 minutes. This game was a virtual reality game that had the gamer take on the role of a black graduate student. While trying to navigate through the world, complete goals and assignments, your character is faced with social issues that require gamers to make choices. I actually lost the game because my character helped another student with an assignment and then that student turned in my work as theirs. The character claimed that my character had cheated and my character was kicked out of graduate school. This game was very interesting as it tested the gamer on real life situations that stem from actual biases.

I also played Evolver, a Pre-Algebra game that functions more like first person shooter game where you inhabit one character. This character travels through missions and must use math to solve puzzles, gain access to areas and defeat enemies. This game made me realize that I lack a lot of patience for “story” games because I care less about the exposition of the game and more about the action of playing the game.


 * 2 - 7/11**

Virtual and projective identities play various roles within a school setting. In the world of school, I would take on the virtual role of teacher and my projective identity would fuse together the character objectives of the educator and the philosophies of the real-world Kaylee. I am hoping to teach high school English and virtual and projective identities are important in this context. In my classroom, my students will have the pre-applied identity of “student” and their projective identities will consist of a combination of their real-world identities and the learned roles and behaviors of the “student” identity. The projective identity of student/human indicates a core basis of rules that apply in the world of school, yet allows for incredible diversity in identity and behavioral choice. To me, this relates to and argues for differentiation within the classroom because when we adapt our teaching methods to better meet individual needs we are able to recognize the identities with which our students are engaging and vice-versa. This promotes a more holistic approach to teaching. The “holistic teacher” is a virtual identity with which I hope to engage in the future.

The subject of language arts provides many avenues for the exploration of virtual and projective identities in the classroom. As text comprehension can be easily accessed through gamification, I plan to utilize my experience with drama, and any skills I will learn in this class, to create lesson plans that encourage students to adopt or engage with virtual identities. Reflective assignments can further students comprehension of the identities at play within specific semiotic domains.

A “damaged” identity refers to an identity that requires repair. The person with this “damaged” identity doesn’t feel comfortable navigating in the existing semiotic domain. Recently, I volunteered as a one-on-one tutor for high school students from immigrant and refugee families. Many of these students have what I would consider “damaged” identities, especially as pertained to the virtual identity of “student”. A simple example would be the student who refused to do their writing assignments because English was their third language, and they had difficulty writing in it. This student had a damaged identity of the student-writer. Eventually, with much convincing and practice, the student improved and felt less anxious about writing.The reading discusses the anti-literacy sentiment of urban black children due to the resistance of the virtual identity of student. This shows similarities with the children that I tutor, who don’t envision their future selves adopting the real-world identities of college student, and so do apply the virtual identity of learner now. In this case I am finding that personal connection to school curriculum helps to repair a “damaged” identity.

Creating situated meaning would be very easy in a language arts classroom. A go-to method is connecting class material to popular entertainment. For example, if studying rhythm in poetry, teachers can frame the material through the lens of popular music like hip-hop. Another example would be interactive games.

Recently, I had to develop a critical question for a research study. The process began with probing as I engaged in reading regarding the specific subject. I formed a critical question or hypothesis based off the reading I’d done. After re-researching with this specific question in mind, and further delving into sources, I once again re-wrote my critical question.

This week I played the ReDistricting Game and Quandary. The ReDistricting Game had players recreate boundaries on a map with specific objectives and requirements. After your map is complete, the game gives results as to whether your map would be voted on or denied and why. This game takes learners through a step-by-step scenario of redistricting. Quandary is a logic game that tests ability to reason through story. Players are posed with a problem and various possible solutions and outcomes to each. Players are rewarded to connecting reason to logic and answering questions correctly. Neither of these games really sparked my interest.


 * 3 – 8/1**

1. The ‘Just in Time’ principle gives the learner explicit information when the learner needs it or it can best be understood and used in practice. An example of this in a classroom activity would be within a reading activity. As part of reading comprehension, an instructor may release specific information regarding the text so as to guide students thinking to a particular theme, idea, set of rules, etc.

2. As a language arts teacher, there are many opportunities for teaching in a ‘subdomain’ of the real domain. As a teacher, I might create a class newspaper that students could work on and publish. This would allow students to experience journalism within the safe environment of school. By treating the school paper as though it were a professional publication, students are able to learn and practice basic skills that can be transferred to a real life journalism situation.

3. A technique I would use to help students ‘transfer’ early learning to more complex problems would be to help them form connections between what I am teaching in the classroom and other relative subjects. For example, I would engage students in new and challenging work by asking them to connect it to subjects they already hold interests in. The students will likely have prior knowledge regarding the subject and will transfer this knowledge with ease, while learning new skills. As an English teacher, I may want to teach the kids about formulaic plot structures, but I could do so by asking them to bring in their favorite movies, books, plays, etc to exemplify these structures.

4. This is a hard question for me. Recently, I’ve found much challenge in my ‘cultural model’ surrounding public transportation. I moved to Oregon from NYC and find that the common rules for riding the trains that exist in New York are not necessarily true here. Yet, I get frustrated because I think they should be true. For example, in NYC train riders have certain agreed upon rules and responsibilities like not really looking at one another, standing up for the disabled or elderly, not standing in the doorway, moving quickly to allow others to also move quickly, taking off your backpack so as to squeeze three more people on an already over-crowded train. These are common rules to the NYC transit system. ALL of these rules were challenged when I moved here to the PDX metro area. Oregonians are so polite that it’s completely ineffective for time. An overcrowded train here is a joke compared to NYC, yet people still stay in the doorways and refuse to stand near the people sitting. Since moving here, I have had to adapt many of my behaviors and attitudes towards riding public transportation simply because the cultural models at play in PDX is completely different from NYC.

5. This week I played “Villany. It was a funny cartoon game that sent you on little missions that involved some algebra in order to undermine the arch nemesis character. The point of this game is to use your math skills to cost the arch nemesis the most money in building his golf course on the Gulf of Mexico. I found this game somewhat funny and full of puns, but kind of boring to play. The game was quite short and I won it fairly quickly. I didn’t feel it was very interactive and required a lot of reading. I also played “After the Storm” a game where a hurricane occurs in a small town and you are the editor in chief of an online publication. The game begins in the aftermath of the storm and everyone looking to you for answers. Because this is a journalism game, there was a lot of reading. A small tutorial starts you off, before you follow step-by-step directions, completing tasks around the virtual office. This game was a little dull to play, and again contained a lot of reading. I did enjoy the tool of the cell phone in the game because it looked an operated much like an iPhone, which I thought was a cool aesthetic.