Week 9

Title: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy

Bibliography:

Gee, James Paul (October 2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. ACM Computers in Entertainment, 1 (1).

Summary:

This article discusses the learning aspects and teaching strategies employed by creators of video games. The author addresses how being pleasantly frustrated is very motivating for some people. The author claims that software engineers specifically design software that comes with the game to build new scenarios, maps, or episodes and suggests that beginning levels of the video games are in fact a tutorial about how to play the game. Then the player must build on already obtained knowledge to face new but sometimes similar problems in order to advance through the levels in the game. The author suggests by looking to video games educators can learn how to motivation is created and sustained.

Reaction:

I thought this article really complimented the article from week 1 in how to reach digital natives. One of the statements in the article that stood out to me is “ [t]he more a player can manipulate a game character and make decisions that impact on the character, the more the player invests in the character and the game at a deep level. To me this seemed to be where we could find the roots of self-directed learning. The more the knowledge obtained affects our lives the more interested we are in obtaining more knowledge. This seems to start the cycle of lifelong learning. The ‘characters’ that adults invest in through higher education is themselves.

Title: Left Out Online

Bibliography:

Carlson, Scott (June 11, 2004). Left Out Online. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 50 (40), A.23.

Summary:

This article addresses those issues that people with disabilities face when trying to complete a course online. The article starts by explaining the situation of Mr. Berry Cuffee; he is a paraplegic looking to complete a graduate degree with a concentration in assistive technology. Next the article talks about how slow progress is being made as far as institutions of higher education making better use of assistive technology even though more adults with disabilities are attending college than in the past. The article then discusses some assistive technology such as voice-activated technology and screen readers. The author of the article makes note that often faculty members do not know how to accommodate students with disabilities enrolled in their course and stresses it is important to have a written policy on how such situations should be handled. Some schools are trying to make their websites more accessible to screen readers, but the author reports that screen readers have a hard time with animated menus and graphics that haven’t been properly coded by web developers. The author feels that strong activism is needed to make other more aware of the issues faced by students with disabilities enrolled in online courses.

Reaction:

I enjoyed this article as I feel assistive technology is the right thing to provide to all students. I am also a big supporter of universal design. Faculty members are hired for their expertise and should be allowed to access departments and disability support services in order to partner with other employees of the institution who what hired for their expertise in making accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

Like this article stated not including people in the policy making process, can end in disaster. e.g. staff work on the policy for two years and the administrations shot it down. I feel in developing the policy it is important that the group developing the policy is diverse. That is it should included staff members, administrators, faculty, community members, and students. Also having group members with disabilities would be beneficial since they could share first had experience of what worked and what didn't work.

As faculty members become more familiar with what types of accommodations can be made, they may find new strategies for teaching all students.