Here comes Fall....................love all those magnificant colors!

Blog #3

WHAT VIDEO GAMES HAVE TO TEACH US ABOUT LEARNING AND LITERACY

Gee: "So I was killed. Whenever you die, you can come back to life, but you lose experience. I came back to life at level 44-so I lost two levels. It had taken me about 12 hours of playing the game to gain those two levels. It would take me 12 more to get them back. I was very upset. I was mad...." (184).

Sloven: I do not know Gee-talking about getting killed, coming back to life - way too much of a fantasy world for me; not a good idea for children to think they can die, kill others and come back to life. Also, all that time spent playing a game and what did it get you-mad and upset. I do not see any worthwhile learning in this.

Gee: "He plays in a team with others. His team is part of a much larger group to which he belongs. The 15-year-old regularly chatted with these professors, while playing, both in the context of their in-game fantasy roles and their real-world identites" (187).

Sloven: Sorry, Gee, but this presents a huge problem for me. How do you know these people were professors? I would not want my 15-year-old to chat regularly with an "unknown" person claiming to be whatever he/she wants to be. I certainly would not want any child of mine to reveal their real world identities to anyone on line. The internet can be a very dangerous place for chidren-too many nuts out there.

Gee: "So we humans often think in terms of patterns. Pattern thinking is very powerful....it allows us to think and reason by using the experiences we have had in life" (190).

Sloven: Finally, we agree on something in this chapter. I try to incorporate my students' experiences in my class lessons. I try to discover who my students are in the first few weeks of class by randomly asking questions about their lives outside of school. This way I can relate to their lives and maybe create a pattern that we can all understand and remember sort of like a learning tool.

Gee: "Affinity groups are groups wherein people primarily orient toward a common set of endeavors and social practices in terms of which they attempt to realize these endeavors" (196).

Sloven: Gee, when I read your definition of affinity groups, I immediately related it to school. At New Dorp, the entire staff is working toward one goal across the curriculum and that is to make all of our students better writers. The administration has changed the Freshman curriculum so that everyone will be on the same page with regard to writing skills - every subject teacher is working towards this goal.

Gee: "We can learn evil things as easily as we can learn moral ones. To make good learning moral learning requires that learners are participating in a moral community-and that requires looking beyond ames and software" (216).

Sloven: I agree with you about learning evil things just as easily as learning moral ones. However, if you are spending all of your leisure time in a video, fantasy world that is filled with violence, what are you really learning?

THE NON-DESIGNER'S DESIGN BOOK

Williams: "A centered alignment is the most common alignment that beginners use-it's very safe, it feels comfortable. A centered alignment creates a more formal look, a more sedate look, a more ordinary and oftentimes downright dull look" (34).

Sloven: Thanks, Williams, I have just discovered that I must be dull and boring because I seem to lean toward centered alignment. LOL - I do not believe that I am dull and boring but I do like to be safe and comfortable. I will try to be more experimental when I do design my web site.

Williams: Lack of alignment is probably the biggest cause of unpleasant-looking documents. Our eyes like to see order; it creates a calm, secure feeling" (41).

Sloven: Yes, I totally agree with you Williams (not that you care). I like my live to be in order and definitely calm and secure.

ARTS OF THE CONTACT ZONE

Pratt: "Like many parents, I was delighted to see schooling give Sam the tools with which to find and open all these doors. At the same time I found it unforgivable that schooling itself gave him nothing remotely as meaningful to do, let along anything that would actually take him beyond the referential, masculinist ethos of baseball and its lore" (1).

Sloven: I am sorry, Pratt, but I have to disagree with you. School did give Sam something - the ability to find and open doors in search of what was meaningful to him alone. You have to spark interest, have a hook to bring them in so that once you have them, you can move on to bigger and better things.


Pratt: "If a classroom is analyzed as a social world unified and homogenized with respect to the teacher, whatever students do other than what the teacher specifies is invisible or anomalous to the analysis" (5).

Sloven: Again, Pratt, have to disagree with this statement. True, I attempt to specifiy what I want my students to learn. However, I am not a dictate and allow my students to express themselves, to be creative - not all learn the same way.

AMERICAN ORIGINS OF THE WRITING-ACROSS-THE-CURRICULUM MOVEMENT

Russell: "These workshops treated writing (and teaching) as a serious intellectual and scholarly activity intimately related to disciplinary interests, not as a generalizable elementary skill..." (16).

Sloven: First, Russell, let me start off with telling you that your article was long, and at times, difficult to understand. I was in high school in the 1970s and I learned how to write (at least I think I did) - who knows, maybe it was because of those Catholic nuns. With regard to the above quote, the way I understand it is that writing should be in every subject area and not just the responsibility of English teachers. All teachers should be involved in helping their students write well.