Our culture centers upon a basic literacy that is expected and necessary to get along with everyday life.This video clip emphasizes that fact that despite it being so, literacy is lower than it ought to be.One woman makes the effort to enter the classroom and expose young students to books by reading to them often, starting at the age of one.Once reading is a part of their lives, children can be inspired to continue with education and will altogether benefit from such a program.
However, not just young children struggle with literacy.The video clip also focuses on adult students who have yet to master the skills needed to live in America.Often, this includes non-English speakers who have a passion to learn and grow in their knowledge.
What really struck me from this clip is the fact that no matter what age, people are filled with a desire to learn how to read and communicate, especially as they are faced with needing to function out in the real world.The gift of literacy offers the chance of improvement and hope for the future.
Are video games harmful or beneficial? In the article concerning semiotic domains, the author, James Paul Gee, insists that video games teach literacy. Personally, I’ve always felt that such means of entertainment could be considered a waste of time and truly had no impact upon an individual scholastically. There’s a lot about video games that seems either nonsensical or useless, and in some instances, they are even violent and gruesome. What benefit can be observed in those games? But after reading this article, it made me stop and think. Can video games serve a good purpose after all? The points Gee provided, especially in light of dealing with everyday problems by placing a mindset learned by video games to work, altered my thinking somewhat. Yes, there are negative effects of video games in some way. But that’s just life. A technology can span all realms of the spectrum from the positive to the negative. Books, for example, can serve multiple purposes. They can educate and instill morals and ideas that are beneficial to the development of a person, yet they can also preach evil and violence or be filled with the trashiest, most useless content possible. Some could just be in the middle, neither building up nor tearing down. Likewise, video games can exist in such a way. Content varies, but it’s the processes and skills used that can help a person. Like with the ability to read, a new literacy is being developed. It’s been said that today, technology is rampant, especially among the medical field. Surgeries are performed with intricate, controlled robotic devices that are controlled by the surgeon. Older doctors have trouble adapting to these types of mechanisms, but the younger generation thrives because they have been raised to master the skills acquired through the use of control panels in video games. That is a new literacy.Those younger doctors are able to perform invaluable surgeries because they grew up spending their free time playing games people consider useless.
So maybe video games aren’t as negative as I once believed.After all, they’re even becoming popular in teaching children educational concepts.It’s more of an issue of conforming the technology to our society and the world in which we live, making it work as productively as possible so that the fullest advantage can be garnered.
As we had a discussion in class about internet privacy, I looked up videos on YouTube to see opinions of other students. This one video I felt like I could relate to as they discuss Facebook and how others have the freedom to post pictures of you and how students can record a simple video of you on their cell phones. I personally think people trust the internet so much, until it proves you wrong or sends out your personal information. It’s understandable that you can’t help your information being out there, but people should be more cautious for what information is out there for others to see!
In the article, “Semiotic Domains,” the author states that the ‘grandfather’ idea is believed that video games are not teaching people “content.” I disagree with this very much. As a child or adult plays a video came, they are taught codes and techniques that are shared among their own video game world. In their own sense, they are learning content.I agree with the author that people who do spend time playing video games learn new experience of the world, collaborating within groups,and working with problem solving in semiotic domains in which video games are related.When acting within the semiotic domain, you began to work with critical situations that are dealt with in video games.I personally believe it’s a good way to value the world. It’s a new way to look outside your every day norm and build characteristics within other groups. By video games you also encounter new situations and techniques.However, getting the correct amount of critical thinking may depend on the amount of time is spent on a game or which game is chosen, by design or quality. I personally don’t play video games, although my boyfriend enjoys the whole sport thing. But I’ve noticed it’s a different world to him, and he learns his own kind of interest through these games.
It took me most of the article to begin to understand the concept of “semiotic domains.” It was interesting to read an article from the unique perspective of video games being beneficial for youth. I can see the author’s points about “facilitating later learning in and out of school” (pg40). I don’t think ALL games are getting kids actively involved in learning (well, maybe they’re getting some intensive motor skill training in there…), but I do agree there are many problem-solving strategies involved and employed in certain video games. I guess I never thought of gaming as such a complex “system” of images and words and actions and symbols and all the other things the author describes as essential to “learning experiences.” I only played video games when I was very young (they just never kept my interest), but I do remember a few experiences where I felt like I was learning and recalling how to think and act and what to do in varying situations. I would play the same levels repeatedly, learning after mistakes I had made where the character “dies” and I usually kept trying to “beat” the level I was playing. I guess that counts for some sort of persistence. Absolutely, I can see the effects of memorization and patterns that occur during gaming. Maybe I would have been more successful in conquering math had I played more Nintendo. However, I really don’t think Mario did geometry.
This website has some very interesting ideas for incorporating and encouraging reading within an elementary school curriculum.One of the activities that I really think would be successful within the classroom is 4R, where the teacher takes a complete short story and “cuts holes” in it, posting the missing lines on opposite sides of the room.The class is divided into groups of four, one being the writer and the others alternating as runners, who must run to the missing line, read it, remember it, and come back to recite it to the writer, clarifying any grammar or spelling concerns.The team which comes closest to the original text wins.There were several comments on this posting, all which were positive.I think there’s a definite advantage to this activity because it fosters an enthusiasm in reading and writing, as well as the “remembering” process.There’s a reason why it’s called 4R (Run, Read, Remember and Re-tell).Reading is incorporated into an exciting game, and regardless of the activity, this is definitely a necessary ingredient to successful teaching of reading.Students must be inspired and taught that reading is fun and interesting, and organizing games, activities, and rewards such as what are posted on this website are a good way of doing it.
These two final readings really brought out the teacher prospective behind writing and reading. As I am taking a class entitled “Literacies In Today’s World”, I have spent a lot of time this semester discovering the different layers to literacy. Just today, we had a guest speaker in the class explaining and demonstrating how her art is a visual literacy. Ergo, it is very easy for me to accept video gaming as a practical way to impart knowledge as James Paul Gee explains. I have always had the belief that students learn the best when they are most interested in what they are doing. Teachers who can take a boring lesson on the solar system, for example, and incorporate some fun activity to get the pique the students’ interest will get them more involved in the lesson over all. Therefore, I agree with Gee’s assessment in the second chapter from his book What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. The fact that reading in general is based on symbols (letters) which are representative when combined to form what we know as words, which is interpreted during reading to be words, as McCloud outlines in the second chapter of his book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. It is easy to take for granted all of the different ideas that culminate to create what we know as reading and writing, and the different literacies that are practiced every single day. Even someone who is not able to read and write (the dictionary definition of literate) is still literate in some way, maybe with common sense or street smarts. Undeniably, the ability to read and write is most commonly associated with literacy, and, in fact, spell check does not recognize the plural form of literacy, however, our world is comprised of an indefinable amount of different literacies. Many times, they go unseen, or are taken for granted as a valuable resource for learning, such as video games. It is the job of the teacher to think outside the hypothetical box, and find wants to get their students involved in their lessons, and incorporate other literacies into the classroom.
In response to Rebecca Moore Howard’s Understanding “Internet plagiarism” . . .
I think this author is right on target. Plagiarism is a major problem in schools, both in high school and college, and the computer makes it that much simpler for students to access and use. The abundance of material and simplicity of it all makes plagiarism extremely tempting to those who are on a tight schedule and under stress, or even for those who just don’t care and want to skim by without expending any effort. It’s a shame, but it’s true. Before the computer, students had to physically research for a paper by going to the library and searching through books. If you wanted to plagiarize, you would have to turn in a paper than had been written by an “accomplice” or else you would have to make the minimal effort of choosing from various books and simply rewriting what is among the pages. Today, the only tool you need is at the tip of your fingers (and in the back of your wallet!). I loved the example that Howard gave about a website that would “write” a paper about the evils of plagiarism. How hypocritical and ironic is that?! The worst part is how people are manipulating their “freedom of speech” so that they are able to post and make money off of things like this. Yes, it is a right that you are granted as an American citizen, but at the same time, it’s also a privilege, and a privilege is something that doesn’t have to be. Respect it! There’s nothing honorable or right about using cheating as a money-making scheme.
Howard mentioned that teachers are spending more time on using Plagiarism detecting services than on teaching the pedagogy dealing with the wrongs of plagiarism as preventative measures. That shouldn’t be. In my opinion, the PDS should serve as the supplementary material, used when suspicion is aroused but not on an everyday level. Students should be taught the difference between right and wrong in the first place so that when the time comes that they consider plagiarism, they will have already been instilled with the values that would prevent them from taking such action. My eleventh grade teacher did this. She had a class one year where one of the papers was plagiarized, but instead of immediately failing the person, she decided to give him a second chance. She announced to the class that one person had plagiarized, and if that person came to her by the end of the day about it, she would grant an opportunity to re-do the paper. Nearly every student in the class approached her that day, fearing they might have accidentally plagiarized. Students are conscious of the wrong involved, but it was the one student (who, by the way, did come and talk to her) who had deliberately done so and hadn’t considered the consequences. Personally, I believe that students ought to have a more rigid curriculum expressing the violations involved in plagiarism early on. The computer has made it so easy to trick teachers, and unfortunately, it’s something that a lot of those in the teaching profession will have to encounter during their careers. In my opinion, the best possible defense is a combination of education concerning plagiarism and teacher education of what they are up against and how to respond. The times are changing, and we’ve got to change our strategies to go along with it.
As I was reading the article, “Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business,” some good points came to me. The author states about all the things we complain about, and how expensive things are getting. But in reality things are getting cheaper as they age. Look at laptops, it’s predicted that over the years, we can afford a laptop for under a thousand dollars. However, as things progress, newer laptops can become a couple thousand dollars. Globalization makes such a difference for our country. Our country is handed more food, clothing and substances that may not be needed. As the author also states about how a T-shirt is cheaper than a cup of coffee, but charity used to be the big hype forty years ago. It’s amazing to me how things change so quickly in this world. For people in different countries, they have children working too many hours in sweatshops making the clothes on our backs, and sometimes all were worried about is the price we might be paying for them. Hunger was once also a problem and now our society suffers from obesity. It seems as everything becomes more available to our country, the price goes down. But is the real problem that people in other countries are suffering for us?
When I was looking up the homework, I was exploring the website, and I came across a link to a blog called the Leukemia Letters, which really caught my attention. What I found when I clicked on that link surprised me. I explored it for a while, and it appeared to be a blog that was originally posted by a husband and wife concerning his fight against cancer. By the end, the posts were solely his wife’s. I found it on Monday, and the posting, “Sad Days but Love Surrounds,” reopened some old wounds for me. It reminded me of when my own father was losing the battle to cancer, and I sympathized with the woman writing it. I remembered the haggard breathing and the sadness. But what I don’t remember is sharing the experience so publically. Most people in my high school didn’t even know about it, yet here’s someone who’s posting about it on the internet. I just checked it a few minutes ago, and the man, John, died last night. Still, Anna is faithful in writing the blog. At first, I couldn’t believe anyone would even want to do this, but then I realized the benefits and the reasoning behind blogging about such an experience. When you write, there’s a healing quality in the expression, and it was obvious that many people responded with sympathy to the postings. Perhaps they acted as support or were themselves supported through such a medium as blogging. I know that telling people what’s going on, constantly repeating everything to keep friends and family informed, can cause additional pain at the persistant rehatching. It did for my mom. The blog allowed it to be expressed once and is out there for everyone who cares to access. This was the first example of a blog that I have seen (though I haven’t seen many) that had merit in my own eyes, and when I read the last posting for today, it actually made me cry. Perhaps there’s more to this blogging thing than meets the eye. There’s a greater connection within it after all.
