Jordan's+Journal

Woot, I like games! I just want to start off with that. It is my general feeling when I am aware of anything video game related thing in my general direction.

color: #ef1f1f;">Week 1 **
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Describe your background and history with video and computer games? --Where do I start?! My first exposure to video games was PAC-Man in 2nd grade day care when they had a PAC-Man machine in the corner. I played that thing for hours and I was the only one interested in it while everyone else played the Super Nintendo games. That same summer my mom bought an original Game Boy at a garage sale for $30 and I never let go. I played Super Mario Land for days, weeks, and months trying to beat it. As some may know, there were no save points in those days; you had to beat it in one play through! After many wasted hours I gathered up 15 extra lives and got to the last level, just to lose all those lives against the boss. To this day I have yet to beat that ridiculous little game! I bought more games for my Game Boy, including the ever popular original Pokemon game! I upgraded to the Game Boy Advance and got some more games for that. I saved up my money to get the Game Cube, 2 years after it released! Still have it and play it on occassion just for Mario Party. Went to college and found a Playstation 2 at Goodwill for $40 and it worked great, 6 years after it's initial release...I'm really behind on the times. Bought tons of games and got sucked into Final Fantasy 12, Resident Evil 4, and Guitar Hero. Saved up some gift cards and bought a Nintendo DS which within the first 2 days had purchased 12 games for it, mostly Mario related games. Graduated with my Bachelors and used some gift money for a Xbox 360 which is my most used game console. I usually play Call of Duty Black Ops, Skylanders with my wife, Assassins Creed, and now Batman Arkham City! This doesn't even cover the 2 dozen computer games I've played and have like Portal, Magic the Gathering, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, and Lazer Arena. I'm pretty sure I've spent more of my free time playing video games than doing anything else in my life other than sleeping. Games are my way to socialize with other people since before college I was completely antisocial. Games helped me break out and be more outgoing...if I can meet people online and be friends, I can do it in real life! Though I was a 3 sport athlete in high school, I never tried to make friends because I didn't need them in real life at the time. Fortunately I made an effort to make friends and am pretty social now.

What are some of the real and/or virtual ‘identities’ you take on? --Real world is easy. First I am a husband, then friend, teacher (soon), and son. All of these things make up my real identity as a whole but I have an identity within each category. Virtually I take on a few identities. Facebook is one of them and it is an accurate representation of my real world self. I still try to sensor some things that I don't want up there (embarrassing things like Falling on my head after attempting a cartwheel). The second is my Internet forum indentity. I usually look at and post on sites that are related to hobbies to give my opinion or share some news and on some sites I actually am respected as a good resource or a nice guy or even a good player if it is game related. I have actually befriended some of these people and met them in real life so they can see the virtual me and the real me. Lastly, I take on the identity of the main character I am using in the game. When playing Resident Evil 4, I try to think like a person who has zombies all around and quickly determine the quickest way to escape, what I need to accomplish to get there, and the most efficient way of killing zombies. I try to take on the identity to better predict what to do or just to immerse myself into the game further.

What impact might James Paul Gee’s definition of ‘literacy’ have on your teaching? --I tend to think he will impact my teaching in a unique way. I feel students should learn more than just the basic skills and tactics to a sport. So I am currently trying something new that could be very exciting. Instead of a typical lecture, drill, game situation I have students divided into teams. These teams stay the same the entire unit, basketball, and each student has a role. One is coach who leads the teams in warm up and practice drills, assistant coach who works with the coach on game plans and takes over if coach is absent, a statistician to record shots, makes, rebounds, and turnovers, scorekeeper to run the clock and scoreboard, and referee to officiate the game when their team isn't playing. This has worked very well so far. First the students do what they are supposed to, second all the students respect their coaches and listen to them, and three the kids are having more fun. All this is great but the best part is I can teach the coaches what exactly what I want them to do in a meeting before class starts and they are able to flawlessly teach it to their teams. This allows the student to develop leadership and interpersonal skills. The stat keepers are learning the math behind sports, the officials are learning the rules of the game better, and score keepers are focusing on basic math skills and game management. When the next unit comes along, the students stay with their team but take on new roles. Granted each student doesn't get a chance to do everything in a given sport but I feel this improves the literacy of the students much better than any other form of PE.

What experiences have you had learning in new ‘semiotic domains’? --A game I find very enjoyable is Heroclix which simply put is chess but with superheroes and superpowers. There is a vertical learning curve to this game because there are so many rules, strategies, tactics, and nuances that I was confused how to play the first 3 months after being introduced to the game. There are many different literacies I needed to even win a single game. I studied the rule book front to back making sure I understood the basics, looking at all the example images to help. I studied the powers that superheroes can have and what colors were associated with what power. I even took the superheroes and looked at all their statistics and memorized every little detail about them, including the exact combat values and powers each of the 5 different superman figures I owned had. Being literate in each of these areas is hugely important to play the game for fun or in a competitive tournament...yes, they have those. This is just one of many examples of my experiences; this list would never end if I included all my sport experiences!


 * This week's gaming experience: this weekend was my birthday weekend so I brought my PS2 with Guitar Hero games (all of them for that system) to my parent's house to play with bunch of friends since they all live in that same town. We played for hours just having fun trying to unlock new songs or beat old high scores. When we first started out, my aunt who was also there wanted to learn so I taught her the basics of the game and how to play the fake guitar. It took her a few songs but after being thrown to the wolves in the game she got it down quickly. She enjoyed the game and saw why it was so addictive. I really enjoyed playing some of my favorite songs, especially the Van Halen and Aerosmith version of the game. I got into a good rhythm and stepped up to the next level for a few songs. Though I usually play on medium, hard was a nice challenge and I did pretty well. It was hard for me to give up winning easily for a challenge but I enjoyed being able to improve my skills and do better than I had before.