First off let me start by saying that this semester has been a blast.  I think that I have gotten more out of this class than any other here at csuc. Okay, now on to the actual reflection of what I have learned over the semester.

• There are different ways that people are literate. A person can be facebook literate but not twitter literate. It by no means mean that person is not literate, but literate in different ways.
• Literacy is an ever evolving entity. Literacy is its own being that has evolved over time. Starting from the understanding and practice of reading and writing to computer literacy, social literacy (memes, brands, movies, television, etc), and beyond. Literacy also evolves in the workplace. A person may start a job when they are young and have a certain set of literacy skills and by the time they are nearing the end of their career they have gained different sets of literacy skills, that they can use in and out of their place of work.
• Literacy takes sponsors, both visible and invisible. A sponsor can be a person, an institution such as a school, or the cultural society you are surrounded by. In order to have some of these sponsors it takes privilege. A sponsor that can give you access to ways of literacy that can better your future situation in live takes privilege. . . or luck but I wouldn’t count on that 100%.
• Gaming helps learning and literacy for all people, not just gamers. People really like games. Video, board, real life (sardines, hide and seek, etc), LARP, card games, the list goes on. Through book club I learned that gamers are more inclined to try harder levels, but not necessarily harder assignments in school. Why is that? The education system does not teach in a way that gamers can relate to. Their style of learning, while combined with ways that traditional educators decide to teach, has a different style all together, one that in possibly not fully understood.
• Finally, I learned possible ways to work my future classrooms that can work and engage future students. Seeing how this class was running I can see the benefits of having such a learning space, assignments, and self directed learning in a way that was beneficial to those involved.

 

If you missed a day you missed way too much stuff. Each article group that presented brought a new and different aspect to the study of literacy and why it is important. Here is some of the things I took away from the week of presentations.

1. Adolescent Literacy: One thing i took away was that adolescents are exposed to more forms of media than we may probably realize, and because of that they are often thinking critically of themselves. The group gave us a quiz that I think helped the rest of the group get back into the mindset of an adolescent. If we can better understand the mindset of an adolescent then we can be better prepared to teach them and know what kinds of literacy would be best for them.
2. Hip Hop Literacy: This was interesting. The group was able to show not only how hip hop lyrics are a fluid form of poetry, but how it can be used in a classroom setting in a very open and freeform way of learning. Hip hop is a popular genre of music and any when used in any way hip hop can be universal. The group gave us the assignment to create a rap.  A rap about video games may not be considered universal but it was entertaining and got the group into how the two forms of literacy can be intermixed.
3. Make/Hack/Play: This group reminded me of the gaming group, because when we created the objects it felt more like playing a game. It is also interesting to see how the hack portion of the group worked, and to see how things were hacked to create its own form of literacy. How making, hacking, and playing are all interconnected depending on how we choose to see it.

These last few weeks has been awesome, not just for the simple fact that the class has had a lot of free reign but because of learning about how games and gaming can actually help in the learning environment. This is not just for the student but also the educator. Here are some of the things I caught on to over the past few weeks.

James Gee’s Why are Video Games Good for Learning: The main thing here for me is that we essentially become who we are portraying or talking about.  He gave an example of a scientist talking to a group of people. He was using words like “I” and “you”, putting them in the place of the cells. When people are put into such a position they are able to understand systems better. This is much like how in class we are not student but colleagues, and are therefore able to in some ways dig deeper into what we are studying.

Henry Jenkins’ Can A Game Help Low-Income Youth Get into College?: This is interesting because a group of people came up with a game that helps low income youth become comfortable with the terms and deadlines that associate with the college application process.  The idea came from the fact that there are more students than college advisors and often the ones that do not have access to these people are those from lower income households. This game gets the player familiar with terms like the FAFSA and the deadlines that go with it. It will ultimately make the college application process less scary and gives the student the confidence and knowledge to do it without college councilors.

Reality: Transforming USC Film Students’ Freshman Year Into an Addictive Game: This, honestly, looks like a ton of fun.  A game was created for the freshmen to not only get them out and meeting people and learn skills associated with their degrees. This game is completely underground. An example from the website cited a girl who got a cryptic e-mail a few days before school started, mentioning that if they could decode the message it would tell her where to go for further instructions.  A really interesting way to not only get the students talking to other freshmen but to get them associated with the campus and work together.

Elizabeth Lawley’s Gaming to the Throne: This was about using gaming for tourism. She and her family were living in and around Italy and her son took a picture and posted  it with the caption, “I’m living in Assassins Creed”. From there she designed a tour through Italy called the Assassins Creed Tour of Italy. This could very well be good for tourism and for gamers.  A chance to visit and immerse yourself into a safe version of the surroundings seen in video games.

 

I found this book to be informational and entertaining.  Gee uses a lot of gaming references and examples to show his points, which were helpful and kinda made me want to try out these games.  Though a lot of the games are considered old in comparison to how quickly games are being produced and graphics wise.  Looking back on my own gaming experience I had to see if there was anything similar to the many principles of learning Gee describes in the games I played.  Alright Cherie, get ready to be aged video game style

• Pong- Atari
• Super Mario Brothers -NES
• Duck Hunt- NES
• Toe Jam and Earl- Sega Genesis
• Mario Bros- Gameboy with headset
• Tetris- Game boy
• Alex Kidd in Miracle World- Sega Master
• Sonic the Hedgehog- Sega Master/Sega Game Gear
• Mortal Kombat- any system it was on
• Super Mario World- Super Nintendo
• Donkey Kong- Super Nintendo
• Mario Kart 64- Nintendo 64
• Mario Party- Nintendo 64
• Tony Hawks Pro Skater- Playstation
• Any wwe game no later than PS2
• Midnight Club Street Racing- PS2
• Tony Hawk Underground-PS2
• a sad attempt at Halo
• some random xbox games.
• Some random Wii games
• Driver- PC
• Tycoon games- PC
• Sims- PC

So as it can be seen, my gaming chops are a little out of date. In my heyday of gaming I just made a goal to get to the castle, and hoped i jumped high enough on the flag to get some extra points. It seemed less like learning and more like memorization. I would remember how to defeat certain things. It was all trial and error, no introductions on playing. If you died it sucks to be you and you started from either the beginning or the save point.

I think that in the end that is a big thing in gaming. The gamers are making goals to gain enough knowledge and experience to get past the area they died in.  Perhaps it is the goals that keep gamers gaming, and they don’t realize they are the ultimate goal setters  [Possibly connected to Principle 13. Ongoing Learning]

Gamer’s don’t see themselves as learning when it comes to games, and maybe that is something future teachers should look at. I find that when i don’t feel like i am learning i learn the most, or can at least remember an area of a book where i saw the information.  Even young children learn through fun and play and then things change. Maybe that is the problem. People a being forced to learn in a way that is not natural for us to do so.  WE NEED GAMES!

What is literacy? In the five weeks of readings, discussions, and pod brainstorming there is no one answer as to what literacy is. There are multiple ideas and concepts that makes up a vague definition of what literacy is. Even though I have realized that literacy can not really be defined since literacy is always changing, literacy in this state has so far compiled of these things.

1. Literacy is more than reading and writing. Everything the readings has suggested in some way share in this idea. Literacy can be in form of symbols for example. A symbol can be drawn but not written (if going by the idea that a person can only write words and the symbol is not a letter) and a symbol can not be read with tradition words. The understanding of what the symbol means is there, and because it can be identified and bring people together it is a form of literacy. Similar to the memes of the current generation, and the symbol used to describe the artist formally known as Prince.
2. Literacy piles up and spreads out. I am going to use this in the public sphere. Take any popular book series out there, for this example I will use The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins, this is the base. The Hunger games has spread out in the forms of screenplays, movies, and an official instragram page to name a few. The piling up is a bit more interesting literacy speaking. Some of those who are fans has created fan fiction. Others go to sites to roleplay as their favorite characters. (Think using a character, or even a made up character in the world created by Collins, and writing pieces of stories back and forth to each other. Stories that did not happen in the book series that the fan thinks would have been interesting.)
3. It builds upon itself. For this one I will keep this one in the private sphere. If we think about Brandt’s pieces, in life we will acquire a literacy skill. When we get into a line of work, we will have to build on the skills we already have. When we get a promotion, once again we will build on the literacy we have. The worst happens and we lose said job. We already have a good foundation of literacy skills, and it may help in finding employment elsewhere, but odds are the job will not be exactly the same. So yes your literacy skills will be built up again.
4. Literacy comes through sponsors and communities of practice, though access to this comes from privilege. The Library is the first sponsor and community I can think of. Growing up I knew what a library was but the only one I had access to was at the school. It’s not that I didn’t want to go to the public library, but no one was willing to take me there if I already had one I could go to five days a week. There is a difference in going because you want to and going because your teacher says you have to.  I had to find my own sponsors and growing up my only community of practice was school.
5. Literacy is not in crisis but is an ever evolving entity. Traditional forms of literacy says only knowing how to read, reading books, and writing consist as literacy. If you think about it, what all do you read in a day? E-mails, text messages, calendars, subtitles, books, pamphlets, shirts, prices, bumper stickers. Every time I finish a section I re-read this to make sure it sounds okay, flows well, and to check length in this case at the very least.
6. Finally, literacy is one of the many acts of life we perform every day. I added this one in because a good point was made in class. Our use of literacy differs depending on who we are communicating with.  Just like how we act depends on who we are around, we show different literacy skills based on who we are with. It is a way of adapting to the situation in a split second.

 

The world is a stage and we are merely performers who don’t get paid for the job we do.