Ayiti: The Cost of Life. It is based around the idea of poverty in Haiti and how difficult it is for families to get past it. I played this game three times, and every single time I lost, my whole family died. I could not get past the 3rd year without having my whole entire family die. I created different strategies each time. The first time, I thought education was so important, so I tried to get the three kids in school for at least 2 out of the 4 times the seasons changed. The family ran out of money, then got too sick to work, and they ended up all dying. The second time, I decided to split up the family, have one child go to school and the other 4 work. This strategy worked a little better, but same result. Last try, I worked everyone and tried to create enough money for the family to live off of, but unfortunately, once someone is sick, you cannot seem to make them better without a few seasons in the hospital, which is expensive. I am interested to see if someone else who plays this gets a different result! Anyways, I thought this game was fun, but frustrating. It really did show how difficult it can be to get a family out of trouble, especially with 3 children, living expensive, health concerns, and education. Since I played 3 times and failed all of them, I would say it is very effective in communicating its view. This game could be incorporated in a unit about social change, human rights, poverty, living conditions in 3rd world countries, etc. Students could play this game and get a broad idea on what it could be like taking responsibility for a family. I think this may be a good introduction to what people in other areas could be facing since learning is indirect.

The Garbage Game: (I couldn't fit this all under Lindsay's comment so I am adding a new sticky note) I agree with Lindsay's assessment of the game not being attention grabbing enough. There is a lot of reading, which many students will get bored with. If the options aren't properly read, the student may just be blind picking or picking from previous knowledge. This limits the interactivity of the game. The images are "cartoony," but I think this is OK. I do agree that it may not reflect the amount of garbage that is produced; maybe give more then just numbers to show the sheer capacity of what is being dealt with. It may be a good supplement, introduction, or even early assessment to see what students have learned in a lesson based around the environment. The choices that were offered in the beginning are simple ways that even young students can help lessen their footprint.

This is type of remixing is new to me. People take common characters, books, animation, cartoons, etc. and create their own stories or twist on characters that already created. This can actually be used inside and outside of the art classroom, for creative writing classes; also adding a visual component to this type of remix could be useful in an art classroom. It takes popular culture and allows for the creator to take charge of the story line and character. It remixes text or visuals into text. I do think this could be taken a step further by allowing images to be included. I would like to see some of the comics and cartoon remixes in a visual!

I enjoy the concept of this site. It is a fun way for visitors to be creative and add their own interpretation of how they can twist and change this idea of creating a sign for this lost frog. It could be used as a great introduction project or as examples of how a simple concept can be turned into so many different perspectives and images. I like how some people created their own images, while other remixed popular media images to fit the overall goal of the site!

This can be a great way to bring in current political issues into the art classroom. It can allow students to study original propaganda posters from a historical stand point, while being critical and allowing them to remix and voice their own opinions and thoughts.

This one also seems fairly obvious. I would assume by the picture and the reference to a husband that a female wrote this one

This one also looks like to be a female since she is putting makeup on every morning.

I think I deleted my note about this one on accident, but I will try again. I wanted to guess a little bit further into the identity of this sender after the reading and hearing about the game. I could assume this sender is a female who is looking for hints about a boss she is also attracted to. I could even probably start making further assumptions about this sender, which I think the reading also responded too. Knowing an actual person and knowing an virtual identity can be two complete different things. This sender could be a complete fake and my assumptions would be way off.