Education learning and Games.Do they mix?

Video Games seem an obvious medium for learning purposes.The player is an active participant in the process rather then a passive one who is expected to absorb a hugh amount of information that is thrown at them in quick succession.Why then have educational games not reached their massive potential and been in-bedded into school and everyday life .What and how do we learn from gaming?These questions arose during a discussion in a lecture this past week that peaked my interest on the topic.
Surely with all the advances made in technology over the years significant ground would have been made in this area?In fact learning to master a game requires a strikenly similar learning process to that of most educational activites .A player unknownly studies a games rules,understands and practies to improve the skills required.Norman in … suggests that”There is no reason why the learning and studying required in education should not be as captivating and enjoyable as learning and studying
the game”[1]. In my experience from playing a few educational games over the years this has not seemed to be the case.The root of the problem is the reality that most educational games are simply not fun or enjoyable enjoyable to play .I recall an episode of the Simpsons where Bart is in an arcade playing a game which he enjoys until he realises the game is trying to teach him Geography.At which point he throws the remote at the screen and walks away.I beleive that scene demonstrates the problem in a nutshell.The right balance has not been struck between educational and fun gaming experiences . I recall one experience in my youth that scarred me for many years.One of my favourite games on the PS1 was the first Rayman. The.The game caught my attention with its engaging platforming gameplay and beautiful level and art design.I lost many afternoons exploring Raymans world.One day I was passing a shop and saw what I thought was a new Rayman game which I bought without hesitation and excitedly ran home to play it.When I launched the game on my PC my excitement soon turned to horror as the addictive gameplay and graphics that had made me fall in love with the game were replaced by maths and English questions.In disgust I shut the game down and never played it again.I have not played an educational game since that faithful day.

What exactly do I learn from video games?

I have often wondered why do I remember characters and game worlds in far more vivid detail then college material?Take Assassin Creed for example.Players  get the chance to explore  cities  in different historical time periods from Jerusalem during Third Crusade to Venice during the Renaissance.Interaction with some of histories most pivotal figures and events is a wonderful experience. I recall people such as  Robert de Sable, Rodrigo Borgia and Charles Lee  far clearer then any history lesson.In my opinion the answer is simple ,I was engaging with the gaming experience. When I came across interesting characters,historical events or monuments I would actively seek more information on the subject from both in game and external resources.Something which a  history book has never compelled me to do.

The potential of games as an educational tool can be summed up in one line for me.Assassin Creed resulted in successfully teaching me more about history then any history book has.Albert Einstein once said ” I never try to teach my students anything. I only try to create an environment in which  they can learn”[2] .Sounds Oddly familiar right?

[1]Norman, D. A. (1993). Things that make us smart: defending human attributes in the age of the
machine. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

[2]Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-Based Learning. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. the student takes active control of the learning process

Ludologist or Narratologist

Ludologist or Narratologist?This was an interesting topic that I had never gave much thought to prior to it being disgust in our game analysis lecture recently.

A  Ludologist considers the narrative story of a game to be nothing more then a superfical part of a gaming experience.Their focus is on the gameplay and mechanics of the game itself.In Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern venture into future detail explaining that Ludologists feel narrative is incapable of coexisting with the crucial part of a game ,the gameplay .

” a common ludological position may be that narrative is fundamentally incompatible with agency, a              primary pleasure of games, and therefore is inherently less fundamental to the game experience.”

A Narratologist as you can probably guess takes the opposite stance from that of the Ludologist.The narrative is the most crucial part to a users enjoyment of a gaming experience.Games “are closely connected to stories”( Frasca 2003,p.1).

My stance?

I am a narratologist. I have always felt that the most important aspect of a game  is its story.Without a good story or interesting characters I feel a game is a mindless,unending and a quickly boring experience. Games such as Mindcraft and other MMO therefore do not interest me as  the vast majority focus on gammeplay along.However I do see the merits of these types of games and how they may appeal to other people  but they cannot hold my attention for more then a few minutes. The only game that I  play on a regular basis which doesnt have a story is Fifa.

On the other hand games with strong,focused storylines and emotionally engaging characters that grow through the course of the narrative  are what got me into playing games in the first place.The Last of Us and the Telltale games are examples.  I became fully immersed in its world and attached to its characters that as a result events that transpired during the course of the story carried a far more significant weight.I would lose track of time as I followed the main characters Joel and Ellie struggles throughout.I would marvel at the beautiful living world created by the developers,sometimes even stopping completely and taking the virtual sites in.Even when I think of the games I am excited  for in the future a good narrative is the first thing i look for.

Besides FIFA of course.Not according to football fans would argue that every football match tells its own story ..

Craps: Basic instructions.

Craps is a game based on the outcome of two dice.The player(shooter) bets the table minimum before the first roll of the dice.Craps is played in rounds consisting of two phases : come out and point. A pass line bet is betting with the dice while a don’t pass bets against.

At the beginning of a round the shooter makes a “come out” roll.There are three possible outcomes from the result of the dices.

1.A 2,3 or 12 results in the round ending and the shooter losing.

2. A 7 or 11 results in a win for pass line bets .

3.A  4,6,6,8,9 or 10 in that number becoming the point and the beginning of the points phase.

In the point phase if a player rolls a point number the pass line bets win.If a seven is rolled the pass line bets lose and the round concludes.

Prezi advantages and disadvantages

Prezi is a web cloud based presentation software.it uses a ZUI(zooming user interface) which differs the standard linear fis ormat seen in Microsoft PowerPoint and Google docs.ZUI is a graphic user interface which zooms into areas of interest and therefore zooming out of areas no longer of interest.Like every other piece of software Prezi has its own advantages and disadvantges.

Advantages 

1.Prezi is a completely web based application.That means it is easy to share your presentation for anyone to watch  and give feedback on.There are no worries about  possible compatibility issues on different computers .It is also possible to collaborate live on a project with  people in different locations.

2.When using Prezi the user starts off with a completely blank canvas.There are no restrictions like in PowerPoint where you are given templates and are forced to work in a box.You have complete create control over your presentation including where everything goes and is formatted.Presentations can become a lot more creative as a result.

3.The software is also free for us students.

4.Presentations can be saved for offline viewing.

Disadvantages 

1.Being a web based application also comes with possible issues.An internet connection is required to create Prezi presentations.

2.Can cause some viewers to feel sick and nauseous from zooming and spinning functions.It can cause some people to feel dizzy to such an extent that they cant view the presentation,even if the content is excellent.

3.Audio cannot be added to Prezi presentations.

4.The presentations are not printer friendly.Handing out copies of the slides can be very difficult.

How to create a twitter account

I will present the steps for creating a twitter account in bullet points in order to keep this post straightforward to follow.Afterwards I will explain the purpose and use of hash-tags on twitter .I will assume that the user is not already on the twitter homepage.As a prerequisite I have assumed that the person following these steps has an email address.

• Open a browser of your choice(Google chrome,Firefox,internet explorer etc) and either enter https://www.twitter.com into the address bar or type twitter into your browsers search engine.
• On the twitter homepage there is a box titled ‘New to twitter.Sign up’.Enter your name,valid email address and your chosen password.
• Click the sign up button.
• On the next page you will be asked to create a username.A username is a unique identifier that your followers use when sending replies,mentions in a tweet and direct messages.Twitter will check if the username is available.

•  Then double check your name, username and email address.When you have done this click ‘Create my account’.
• Next go to the email address you entered on signing up and click the link in the confirmation email sent by twitter to activate your account.

Hashtags are a concept on twitter that helps categorize tweets to help them show more easily in a Twitter search.The hashtag symbol # is used  before a user chosen keyword or phrase with no space in between.The hashtag can be placed anywhere in a tweet When clicked twitter will presents every other tweet  with the same keyword .For example a tweet as such as’Any FYP ideas #fyp’ would be categorized under fyp.That way the user could click on the hashtag and see what other people tweeted about this topic,