Skool Daze

When i was a kid i never saw the point in doing my homework. I was too busy running around with my friends to spend any time as boring as math. While i did read quite a lot in my free time, school was completely separated from the world i knew and lived in. I got on the bus every morning and was transported to a world of boredom, and when i hit puberty awkwardness. Much of modern educational theory focuses on engaging students in activities that challenge their minds but engage their interest. You can't make in education, outside of Florida or Texas, without really working to be creative about student learning.

Personally i had never thought of video games as potential tools for learning but when presented with the information in the article we read for today in addition to some of the lesson plans from the WOWinSchool website i must concede that it shows promise.

Comedians know that a good joke depends on the context in which it is told. The situation is everything. Writers also know that what is appropriate for one audience will not be appropriate for another. Clearly video games have contextual value to teach and entertain depending on the context in which they are presented and used.

Any good lesson includes specific objectives. Take a look at the math lesson objectives and you find standards and objectives with a clear purpose. DPS is a common statistic that people use as part of almost any online game environment to compare the value of different weapons or items. The question of how DPS is calculated will eventually occur to anyone who plays these games long enough. A good lesson will satisfy that curiosity.

How much should you use these tools? It is clear that these tools cannot be overused. I can see this as a laboratory type activity that might run once a week over the entire school year.

Inevitably the questions of violence comes up in any discussion of video games and it may be made more poignant by their use in a classroom setting. Research shows that young kids and teenagers can differentiate between real and imagined violence and that playing games that include fighting does not lead to further violence. While this question continues to rage around the subject, it has a history of being used as a political tool to incite voter rage in rampant censorship of media which threatens our ability to make informed decisions.

While the censorship debate is a topic for another day it is a part of the bigger issue regarding stereotypes of game players and the culture which is slowly being debunked.

For tomorrow please review the video on the front page regarding the Hero's Journey and we'll discuss it in tomorrows forum post.

ethics/gaming

I believe that playing online games can create ethic communities. When people are online playing a game they don't criticize one another about how they look, or who they are. It's not about if you are popular, or wearing the right clothes. You see and play with one another, and help each other out. You play the same game, and you are willing to help others, and they help you. You get to see and understand a little better how gaming can be a little different than school life or other places.

Ethical Communities

With any type of community there will be those who behave in a manner that is not ethical. I believe that online communities do have a ethical basis, but that it's up to the members of the community to conduct themselves in that manner. I think that the same applies to "real" life as well. I think that you see benevolence in many cases online as you don't necessarily know the people who are benefiting from the service. I recently read an article that stated we are much more likely to offer $5.00 to a homeless person than we would be to our neighbors. The reasoning behind this we that we would be offending our neighbors on a personal level that we do not have that fear of offending the homeless person whom we probably will never see again.



In our reading the Ethics are pretty cut and dry so that everyone understands the "rules" to abide by. I think that this is similar to "real" life as well. I think that a major difference would be that in the "real" world we have a checks and balance that i think it would be difficult to have online. In the "real" world we have a penal code and law enforcement officials. In a sense I think it would be more difficult online to have the same sort of "law enforcement."

Avatar Selection and Society: How they Relate

Based upon the reading of the Proteus effect, it seems apparent that avatar choice is an important aspect of online gaming. Ideally, one would think that an avatar would be chosen to represent either a person's personality or be similar to their own appearance. However, the Proteus effect demonstrates that avatar choice can be parallel to social standards.
For example, as noted by the article, correlations are made between being tall and attractive. This is a very common stereotype of American society. However, it plays a part in much of everyday life. Everything from dating to job success are affected. For example, television, magazines, the internet and other forms of media all portray the "perfect" man or woman as being tall and slender.
In relation to occupations, many higher-level jobs are generally held by individuals who are physically attractive. Furthermore, most actors and actresses are usually attractive as well.
As for dating, this is pretty apparent. Individuals are consistently worried about their appearance, as well as comparing themselves to others. In addition to this, those people who are attractive tend to be more likely to find a partner than those who are less attractive.

Ethical communities

In my opinion I don't think that online games can cause ethical groups to form. How can they really just based on ethics isn't it more time and place? Of course there are group of friends that play online games together. Obviously groups and factions are formed on online games but i dont think that they are based on ethics. I do think that the writer has looked to much into online gaming. I do think that when groups battle against other groups there is a ethical conection.

Ethics in gaming

I do believe that the virtual community can help foster ethical behavior and bring people together. Too often people get caught up in differences between themselves and someone else- (he's not cool, she's not pretty, etc) without seeing them for who they are- a human being just like us.

Because games are played using avatars, people can't make judgments about other gamers as readily, because their true identity is hidden.

Also, because we are in the virtual world and our identity in the game is not identifiable, we might be more willing to help people. It is a curious commentary on our culture that we are sometimes unwilling to help others in real life, yet online we are more likely to lend a helping hand.

Rules in these games also encourage ethical behaviors among players, so yes, I would say that ethical behaviors are taught by gaming networks.

Ethics

I think that games can create a sort of community. There are people who know each others skills and they are benefited by staying together. I see nothing wrong with it. I wish that I could join one for the sake of having some help in figuring out the game. I hitnk that rules are a good thing to have becasue while a community is good it can also be bad. Players can take advantages of tohers and they can be very mean. Just like in the real world players can no include others and hurt feelings. In a community there also can be an unfair advantage in fights. To my knowledge everyone has the option to join a guild but it is a choice. Those who choose are held accountable and so there is an atmosphere of prespect. I don't think religion has anything to do with it. It is players coming together to play a game and meet a purpose.