Jacqui+Collins+Journal

1) I do not have a ton of history with video or computer games. I played games like “You don’t know Jack” and “The Sims” when I was a child. I watched my brothers play games like “Spiro” and “Sonic”. I have been mildly entertained by arcade racing games. In my adult life I did get sucked into Farmville for a short while, and I will admit I play candy crush every once in a while. That is really the extent of my knowledge of video and computer games. 2) I am not entirely sure how to answer this question. I have only really played games that don’t need anything put a username, no avatar or alternate identity. The only game I have played like that was “The Sims” and you could create as many people as you wanted. I guess that I always created several “characters” for that game. I never thought of them as identities though, just different characters to add to my town. 3) James Paul Gee’s definition of literacy is interesting to me and the work I do because using different communication systems could be very beneficial to the children I work with. I work with students who are tutored online, and I also work with students who are home-schooled. Gee’s thinking about visual literacy could really help fill in the scaffolding for the different children I work with. 4) I think that the biggest experience I have had is learning how to “read” and find the meaning of the images and gestures of social media sites. When I first started networking on social media on a more regular basis, I had a platform where “liking” and “sharing” and emoticons were a common place thing, and I had to figure out exactly what was happening. 5) This last week I tried “Resilient Planet”, I really like the graphics and the realistic feel. It is an interesting notion, made in the class discussion, about the fact that it is more lead than some people liked. I agree with that, except that for some children that just works better. Maybe if the game were to better utilize two different types of play where one is more of a lead adventure and the other is more free play and explore. I did enjoy the game for the most part, and I did learn some things.