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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Kenneth Powell

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Statements - 19 views

started by heinrosie on 15 May 14 2 follow-ups, last by cydney johnson on 15 May 14
  • Kenneth Powell
    #3 Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    Well for me I would have to say that with technology becoming a driving force like it is, people have had to find better ways to learn through all of the highly distracting amounts of information being driven in to their brains, not only by social media sources, but also by finding a way to keep kids entertained while learning. It's too easy to become distracted, or even fall asleep to the old ways of teaching/learning.
  • Kenneth Powell
    #4 Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    Due to the highly distracting nature of technology these days, literacy can only be taught using these technologies. James Paul Gee believes that the people going through school today "are learning a new literacy" which does not exclude reading and writing, but expands upon it by including problem solving. Gee believes that video games are the perfect driving force for just such a change. (http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/08/the-literacy-of-gaming-what-kids-learn-from-playing215/) If we stuck with the current way of doing things, learn without mistakes, we won't truly learn how to fix a problem, just know how one person tells us to fix it. It's this stagnant learning that video games give a change to, rather than learning one way, maybe there's another way, and if you fail, you get a chance to try again, and our society learns best through trial and error. (http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/08/the-literacy-of-gaming-what-kids-learn-from-playing215/) With traditional education you don't receive the opportunity to exercise decision making, or even true critical thinking. (http://portlandtribune.com/wlt/95-news/129445-video-games-help-promote-literacy-) With video games Gee states that "immersive nature of digital games occurs" and "the body and mind are fully engaged in making meaning both by 'reading' the game and creating components or actions ('writing'). What he's saying is that people who play video games are doing the equivalent of reading and writing just by playing the game. (http://www.beyondliteracy.com/gaming-as-a-literacy/) These ideas have inspired many to begin creating ways to use games as a tool to teach. Jane McGonigal who is giving life to the ideas of gaming as a new literacy. While she is creating games to help us think of ways to fix current problems, the University of Washington is exercising this new way of thinking by creating a game called Foldit. This game allows players to help figure out different protein structures and different diseases that have come to the forefront of medical history. ([Sorry, I used wikipedia for this.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foldit)
  • Kenneth Powell
    #5 Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    Let me know if you need me to do anything else!
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Beyond Literacy | Gaming as a Literacy - 1 views

www.beyondliteracy.com/gaming-as-a-literacy
shared by Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14 - No Cached
  • gaming is different but it is still embedded in the construct of alphabet or notational literacy.
  • “If we think first in terms of semiotic domains and not in terms of reading and writing as traditionally conceived, we can say that people are (or are not) literate (partially or fully) in a domain if they can recognize (the equivalent of ‘reading’) and/or produce (the equivalent of ‘writing’) meanings in the domain.” Video games, “situate meaning in a multimodal space through embodied experiences to solve problems and reflect on the intricacies of the design of imagined worlds and the design of both real and imagined social relationships and identities in the modern world.
  • The immersive nature of digital games (think of virtual reality generally or something like Xbox 360 Kinect in particular) occurs the body and the mind are fully engaged in making meaning both by “reading” the game and creating components or actions (“writing”).
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  • While Gee has established digital games as a new literacy, Jane McGonigal has taken that idea and begun to develop the canon, the literature, of this new literacy
  • games as a tool to solve substantial problems and effect profound change.
  • McGonigal thinks of games as a tool and a grammar to articulate ideas and to generate and communicate new ideas. Her games, like Evoke or World Without Oil, are alternate reality games designed to engage diverse and distributed players in gaming modalities to explore difficult problems and propose (and model i.e. play out) potential solutions.
  • These are games, not merely as entertainment, but as a toolset (an alphabet) to create meaning. Perhaps the most intriguing of these is Foldit; a game created at the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington about protein folding, a highly complex problem.
  • Playing the game creates new solutions. Playing the game repeatedly refines those solutions, assists others, and furthers the research group’s knowledge and the number of useful outcomes. Rather than host a conference or set up a lab or publish a series of papers, these researchers initiated a globally accessible game and then simply watched what the participants came up with.
  • While the gaming experience is powerful and the effectiveness of games as a means to understand and be understood is undeniable, it is not sufficiently separate from its foundation in alphabetic literacy to qualify as a post-literate or emerging post-literate modality. However, the immersive and hypnotic nature of games suggests the kind of experience that might be a feature of post-literacy.
  • Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    Last one let me know if there's anything else
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Foldit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/Foldit
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  • Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    info for my statement.
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The Literacy of Gaming: What Kids Learn From Playing | Mediashift | PBS - 1 views

www.pbs.org/...hat-kids-learn-from-playing215
shared by Kenneth Powell on 14 May 14 - No Cached
  • Play games. Otherwise how can you have meaningful conversations about them? Not learning how to play games would be akin to talking about “The Lord of the Flies” without having learned to read.
  • Play games. Otherwise how can you have meaningful conversations about them? Not learning how to play games would be akin to talking about “The Lord of the Flies” without having learned to read.
  • Play games. Otherwise how can you have meaningful conversations about them? Not learning how to play games would be akin to talking about “The Lord of the Flies” without having learned to read.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Play games. Otherwise how can you have meaningful conversations about them? Not learning how to play games would be akin to talking about “The Lord of the Flies” without having learned to read.
  • When people learn to play videogames,” according to James Paul Gee, “they are learning a new literacy.
  • They are learning a new interactive language that grants them access to virtual worlds that are filled with intrigue, engagement and meaningful challenges.
  • As our commerce and culture migrates further into this emerging digital ecosystem it becomes more critical that we develop digital literacy, of which videogames inhabit a large portion.
  • Gee, a linguist and professor of literacy studies at Arizona State University, thinks we should expand the traditional definition of literacy beyond reading and writing because language isn’t the only communication system available in today’s world. And there is no better example of a new form of media that communicates distinctive types of meaning than videogames.
  • Games are fun, but their real value lies in leveraging play and exploration as a mode of learning the literacy of problem-solving, which lowers the emotional stakes of failing.
  • This doesn’t mean that game-based problem-solving should eclipse learning content, but I think we are increasingly seeing that a critical part of being literate in the digital age means being able to solve problems through simulations and collaboration.
  • Mistakes are how one figures out what doesn’t work and provides the impetus to zero in on what might.
  • Conversely, the game of modern education revolves around right and wrong answers. Now this kind of learning may be appropriate in some instances, say, when you want a student to remember the capitals of countries. That method is important, but it can only take you so far. It certainly can’t penetrate more sophisticated, and I would argue, more important questions, such as: How does geography shape culture?
  • Yet if we are not prepared to be wrong than we won’t be able to come up with anything creative or solve complex problems. Videogames, on the other hand, embed trial and error into the foundation of gameplay.
  • “policymakers interested in preparing students for success in the 21st-century economy would do well … to appreciate how skills developed through navigating virtual environments might pay off in the workplace … [and how] the new skills and dispositions of the gamer generation will transform the workplace. The gamer generation will push for work environments to incorporate more virtual aspects in fields, such as market analysis, and social and economic modeling. Gamers, for example, have abundant experience making big decisions, coordinating resources, and experimenting with complex strategies in game-based simulations.”
  • Although videogames have great potential to be powerful vehicles for learning, there is no guarantee this will happen
  • Play games. Otherwise how can you have meaningful conversations about them? Not learning how to play games would be akin to talking about “The Lord of the Flies” without having learned to read.
  • Connect games to books, movies, TV and the world around them. By thinking about games beyond their boundaries we can cultivate pattern recognition across media platforms and parlay the problem-solving of gaming into the real world.
  • Have your students or kids collaborate with other peers to analyze and interpret games, as well share strategies
  • collaboration and networking kids can learn to enhance their own perspectives, ideas and, perhaps, contribute to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
  • Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    and another one down
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Video games help promote literacy - 0 views

portlandtribune.com/...o-games-help-promote-literacy-
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  • Believe it or not, video games help promote literacy, a skill which encompasses not just reading and writing, but also the ability to understand maps, body language and spoken words
  • Video games help exercise decision-making and critical thinking skills that a person doesn’t necessarily get from passive entertainment.
  • Players are taken through these famous stories and are required to problem solve and work together to get to the next level. These games are filled with goofy humor and are loyal to their source material.
  • Kenneth Powell on 15 May 14
     
    Important parts of this article are highlighted yo!!!!!!
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