Summation #2 - Toys, Games, and Media

Through reading the book Toys, Games, and Media one is able to more fully understand how the phenomenon of how current games and media trends have evolved. This book describes the evolution of the toy through history into the use  and cultural understanding of “war toys” during the 1930s-1950s and the evolution of the these toys into the modern day toys being used today.
Through the beginning chapters studies are made to show the ways people interact with toys and how culture and society as a whole perceive and understand the use of toys and their intended audiences. Reading along specific instances about phenomenon such as the Pokémon series card games and the overnight success of children’s heros such as Harry Potter and how these simple yet productive ideas were able to catch children’s attention into making them each a multimillion-dollar success. Then leading on to suggest how toys and games the use these successes to build similar copies that will lead the consumer to be interested and buy into the next big thing. 
            By using direct case studies of some of the more up to date toys and game such as online gaming and video games you are able to better understand the interactions people have with the games themselves as well as each other when a community interaction is put into place.  Using games like first person shooters and then comparing interactions with straightforward games intended for educational use, information was collected from observation and questioning of players on how they use their senses to interact with each other and how both have different ways of stimulating the player.
This is where the most interesting to me was in talking about the different form of stimuli received from playing games.
            “Touch sense arises from stimulus to the thousands of mechanoreceptors contained within the skin and produces tactile perception of heat, pressure, vibration, slip, and pain. Kinesthesia is sensed by end organs located in muscles, tendons, and joints, which are stimulated by body movements, limb position, and applied forces. These contribute to the analysis of weight size, and shape. Cognitive processes analyze the information provided by the sensory and motor systems.”
It is through these stimuli that a player or an interactee can experience understanding of interaction and use of the senses that is not as actively available with standard educational tools used in technology-less schools.

Works Cited

H., Jeffrey, David Buckingham, and Gilles Brougère. Toys, games, and media. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004. Print.

Summation #1 - The Digital Classroom: How technology is changing the way we teach and learn

Through reading the book The Digital Classroom: How technology is changing the way we teach and learn you are introduced to some key factors in how current day classrooms are being integrated with modern day forms of technology and media in order to form a more cohesive and complete form of learning that applies to multiple students different forms of learning. The part of the book review some of the myths surrounding the idea of implementing the computer in the modern day classroom and how it can have progressive or inverse effects on learning depending on how it is introduced to children in the learning environment. These myths are then supported by arguments on how to remedy them and why they are caused. Many of the problems seem to stem from the inadequate training of teachers on how to effectively use the technology then to approximately introduce the use of the technology into the class seamlessly. Some of these methods could be improved with learning courses provided for teachers on understanding the available technology, and also establishing guidelines within all schools on the important and full potential the technology can and will serve.

Further into reading the book goes on to explain the steps that a teacher will follow in order to implement the technology into their classrooms. The entry stage in which the teacher is introduced to the technology and often times this is where many teachers proficiency in using the technology ends. The next stage, the adoption stage, where teachers begin to try to blend technology and learning by using simple programs like word processors and such. The following stage, the adaptation stage, is where the teacher begins to thoroughly integrate technology with more advanced tools such as presentation tools, visual and graphic programs, and other content specific software. Next, the appropriation stage happens, where teachers have full understanding of the access to the technology and wonder how teaching was done as well without it before. Lastly, the invention stage where teachers want further access to technologies they feel could improve the learning ability of students in their classroom even more.

Lastly the book develops ideas and simple plans for managing technology based on the curriculum or subject matter being taught. For instance a sample is given on how to manage tutorial secessions for a math class through online interaction and how to make math problems more clear through organization through word processors and online available software.
            Overall the book focuses mainly as a resource guide for teachers to better understand available technologies and how they are best integrated into the classroom.

Works Cited

T., David. The digital classroom: how technology is changing the way we teach and learn. Cambridge: Third Printing, 2000. Print.

Colorado Article

Read and interesting article about the implementation of teaching teachers directly how to develop educational games and media design for the classroom.

Anas, Brittany. "Teachers Learn to Program Games at CU." Colorado Daily [Colorado] 7 June 2011: 5. Print.

A local paper article about teachers enrolling in a class to learn how to create their own games to educate their students. Learning multimedia gaming design teachers will understand the technology and be able to directly influence the creation of the education materials that the students in their classes interact with.

EasyBib

Created a profile on EasyBib. The site allows me to catalog my annotative bibliography information and allows me to access it from anywhere I have the web.

Click here for my updates on the Bibliography
http://easybib.com/key/e8465a

Minecraft Teacher

This is the blog of a teacher that teaches the game Minecraft in the classroom.
http://minecraftteacher.net/

Interesting relationship to the game world and types of lessons he teaches his students from such a simple yet innovative game as minecraft.

Midterm thesis presentation

 Here is a link to my midterm thesis power point presentation

Midterm Thesis Powerpoint

WIP Outline

Education for use in Middle to High school age bracket has become increasing difficult for teachers to teach and with schools become increasingly overfilled and students becoming less interested in their studies as they grow older, keeping their interest sparked can become increasingly difficult. History is a favorite subject of mine and has become increasingly overlooked at times as students try to cram years of information about their states, countries, and world history over the course of a couple years. I propose that by interacting with them through an outlet which most students use commonly today, the computer, you can establish 3D environments where a student can explore while gaining intense amounts of knowledge that may ordinarily be forgotten or hard to teach within a normal day’s lesson plan.

“The field of instructional technology has witness tremendous growth in research and development of interactive multimedia learning environments in recent years, especially computer based environments.” (Rieber)

Learning is an important part of the development process for any adolescent. It shapes our morals, goals, thought processes, and overall understanding of the world around us. In recent years that has been a steady increase in the number of middle school and high school dropouts (Snyder). Studies have proven that the old methods of “chalk and talk” are not a valid as they once might have been and recent studies have proven that the majority of high school students are kinesthetic learners (Snyder), compared to the traditional learning style which mostly accommodates the auditory listeners. Kinesthetic learners are students who learn mostly by doing directly or by having some form of hands on control of what they are directly learning. In terms of learning history, a extremely hard thing to illustrate visually, this lends itself to the direct use of 3D generated historical environments in which students can explore and with simple tasks, be able to learn lessons by exerting their own methods of learning the material.

Historical Reenactments have been used to illustrate and show history visually acted out in front of a viewer. These reenactments have been generally used throughout time to reconstruct historical sequences for educational purposes. One of the for reenactments being the Passion Play, the depiction of the Crucifixion of Jesus, which started Oberammergau, Germany as a way to stop the Bubonic plague from continuing to destroy their town (Sticca). It now is continued every ten years as tradition to portray the historic event to all of the attendants. Historical reenactments are most common around areas of the United States where the original 13 colonies were established and where major civil war battles took place. Many of the reenactments are funded by the state or city to give educational background to the cities heritage and history. From these Historical Reenactments, educational values can be directly interpreted into a computer generated 3D environment thereby enhancing perspective on historical events and processes while learning through direct visual experience.

By using a 3D environment the user can explore a specific part or moment in history and with simple tasks to keep the user engaged will be learning vast amounts of knowledge about the historical event while have direct control of the events and actions they are making within the 3D environment. In my thesis I will discuss these topics and form a education environmental experience aimed to educate as well as entertain a student anywhere from 5^th -12^th grade.