So it has occurred to me that my course is near its end.
I wonder sometimes if I will continue to post on this blog, just because I can.
I might. Maybe if I had a few readers, I would be better motivated.
If no one reads this, it may end up becoming more of an impersonal journal than a blog.
Whether or not I choose to continue posting, and whether this is a temporary break or a permanent sign-off, I bid anyone out there on the internet reading my blog, adieu.
So now that the semester is finally winding down, my final projects in many of my classes have been completed. So what did I spend yesterday doing?
GAMING MARATHON!!!
I invited my boyfriend over and we had an epic Super-Smash-Bros.-Brawl-fest. So over the hours that I’ve been contributing to this game, I had a few thoughts about my learning development.
Have I improved dramatically? No.
Have I improved at all? Yes.
When I first began playing, I was able to beat classic mode (which I have explained in previous posts) on my better characters (Mr. Game and Watch and Toon Link) on easy mode with 5 lives. With any other characters, not quite.
During this afternoon of playing, I realized that I have progressed to being able to win on hard mode with my favorites. Usually. Occasionally I run out of lives and have to use a continue, which reduces your coins earned in the game.
Failure.
There were, however, many characters I tried exploring. Some that I have added to my favorites are Zelda/Sheik, Pit, and Pikachu. I like using Snake for sheer entertainment value. I still find him horribly difficult to use. With these new favorites, I have been able to beat normal mode. That is a noticeable improvement, but not as much as I was hoping to see. Using Snake, I can maybe beat easy mode, but he is such a fun character to use, I play as him anyway.
I found that generally, I have improved by two difficulty levels on classic mode. If I play in brawl mode, which is either timed or the characters are given a limit of lives, I am fairly evenly matched with a level 7 AI, depending on the characters being used or if I am playing a special brawl. In a special brawl, extra handicaps can be added to the characters. These include shrinking, becoming metal and thus heavier and harder hitting, bunny ears for speed and higher jumps, or permanent sudden death, when the characters begin with 300% damage. When I started this project, I could only defeat a level 4 AI, which is so easy to me now that I cannot imagine being that bad at this game.
Perhaps I have been improving slowly, but as I have explored in my last post, there are multiple ways to learn from gaming. Sometimes I feel as if I have faster reflexes or better concentration, but that may just be me searching for improvement.
Picture Bibliogrpahy:
– (3 March, 2008) “Secrets for Continuing” Smash Bros. DOJO!!
http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/various/various29.html
(30 November, 2011)
– (2011) “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” Dedica
http://dedica.la/artist/super+smash+bros+brawl
(30 November, 2011)
I have been spending some time thinking about my learning project. But I thought about this from a different perspective of learning. The improvement of my gaming skills was not the only, singular way I was learning.
Perhaps this is a slightly lateral way of thinking, but in another one of my classes, I was to do a presentation about technology in education. And of course, I wanted to do a piece on gaming in education. While doing my research, I found several ways that gaming improves general academic intelligence. I suppose I was expecting this, but the stereotype of video games being a waste of time made me slightly skeptical. Upon some cautious criticism, I found the articles I read to be entirely correct.
I found that gaming can actually improve things like literacy, problem solving, collaboration efforts and leadership skills. Many young children detest reading but will not hesitate for a moment before reading instruction manuals or tutorials for their games. Not only that, but many role-playing games require a sense of finances in order to purchase things like items or weapons. Numeracy is a part of many video games, whether it is a countdown of experience points before leveling up, saving gold for new equipment, or in my game, watching the damage percentage rise in proportion to the distance the opponent will fly. If the game involves other players, or even an artificial intelligence, then the player must learn to work with the others. These are all skills that are useful outside the virtual world of gaming.
I said myself in an earlier post that I improved much more quickly when playing with another person. Aside from learning academic skills, games can add to a person’s interpersonal skills. Technology can sometimes be limiting to social interaction. Now it is more common to text a friend than to actually talk to one in person. In my game, I can interact with a person both inside a virtual realm, but also in person. If the game is available online, then even global interaction is possible. Perhaps gaming may also develop a person’s intrapersonal skills. Because the decisions made in a game have no consequences, the player may act in a different way than he normally would. Maybe this would be for fear of social reaction, or of the more immediate consequences. I suppose if you see someone playing games that involve violence, could he have a desire to actually do as he does in the game? Maybe logic has suppressed the actions of this person, but this is a common concern of violent gaming. Nervous parents worry about exposing their children to violence in case they actually become violent as well.
Maybe this entire post was a stretch, but I thought it was an interesting strand of thought to explore. Any type of life experience has multiple possible dimensions of learning, and I think I may have uncovered a bit more.
Lately, I have been watching far too much youtube during my free time. This one particular video made my day amazing. This is partially because it talks about a world filled with Spidermen, and partially because I can identify with Ryan. My roommate tells me that I’m weird every day.
And I LOVE it 🙂
This week we were asked to create an about.me page. I thought this was an interesting way to compact our many digital identities into a single space. I placed three different tags on the website, but I may add more if I start using the other available websites.
Check out my page at http://about.me/lindseychow
Thanks!
Is anyone else starting to feel as stressed out as I am? Particularly any other first year students?
Exams are only about 2 weeks away, and I feel like I still have so much to do! On top of the workload, my high school exams were never worth as much as they are here. So with last minute assignments, huge group presentations, piecing together term papers, attempting to start studying (emphasis on the attempting), and yes, LOTS of caffeine, I feel like I could really use one of those squishy little stress balls.
I don’t think I cope well with stress. So far, my sleeping habits have definitely taken a hit. Perhaps having eight cups of tea in the evening was a bad idea. It seemed brilliant at the time.
At bedtime? Not so much.
How do you cope with stress? Do any of you do the typically recommended exercise or slowed breathing? Do you sleep less like I do? Or do you manage in a less conventional way?
Picture Bibliography:
– (December 29, 2009) “Stress Ball” Fereej
(November 20, 2011)
For this week’s assignment, we are to choose a specific outcome from the Saskatchewan curriculum and create plans using smartboards to meet that outcome. I chose a Grade 1 mathematics shape and space requirement (SS1.4), as the visual aspect of the smartboard will be useful in the students’ learning:
“Compare 2-D shapes to parts of 3-D objects in the environment.”
I think the lesson plans involving smartboards for this outcome would be more interesting and engaging for the students than learning from a textbook. I think the teacher could use a move to reveal type of slide to “make the shapes 3-D”. For example, a simple flat circle could conceal a ball, which is a 3-D version of that shape. Or a square could be removed to reveal a toy block.
Use this in order to conceal...
This! The 3-D version!
A second way to use smartboards for this would be for the teacher to do a similar exercise in reverse. Instead of showing the 3-D version on the 2-D shapes that the students are accustomed to as the answer to the question, the teacher could instead show the 3-D object first, leaving the students to identify the corresponding 2-D shape. I think putting the result in white writing and then having a colored block placed over top of this answer that reveals it would be an interesting visual for the students. When the answer “magically” appears, I think the students will be engaged and excited. Or, similarly, the teacher could use a pull tab to drag the answer from off-screen, which is also an interesting way to reveal an answer. I think that the students will enjoy this learning when there is a visual and sometimes magical aspect to it (but the magic is all in the technology.)
Picture Bibliography:
–Â (February 9, 2011) “Line as Value” 130 Hannah Allgeier
http://hcallgeier02.blogspot.com/2011/02/line-as-value-6.html
(November 14, 2011)
– (2009) “Stability Balls” Fitness Source
http://www.fitnesssource.ca/fs/accessories/stability-balls.html
(November 14, 2011)
I feel like I’ve been neglecting my learning project lately. I’ve been spending a lot of time on my other classes, so it’s been hard to find the time to play my game. Today, I spent a couple of hours playing as Meta Knight. I was surprised with his useful skill set in training mode, so I played through classic mode a couple of times using this character. Because I’m still not very good at this game, I played on normal difficulty (but as a notable improvement, I could only win on normal mode with a select few characters before) with 5 lives.
Super-Adorable Meta Knight Bento Box! (I wish I could make this...)
On my first attempt, I ended up running out of lives fighting against Metal Pit. Most of the lives I had lost were from my lack of knowledge as to how to use Meta Knight. A lot of his attacks make him airborne, but afterward, he can’t continue jumping, so I end up falling off the stage. By my second round, I started to get the hang of his attacks, and ended up just winning with a single life remaining. I couldn’t get my airborne dodging timing quite right when I was fighting the final boss, Master Hand. This made the final battle quite close, actually.
Picture Bibliography:
– (July 29, 2009) “bento #59: Meta Knight” Anna the Red
http://www.annathered.com/2009/07/30/bento-59-meta-knight/
(November 7, 2011)
For this week’s task, I was to add a information sharing widget to my blog. I decided to add twitter, because I had not added it yet, and maybe putting it on my blog would motivate me to use it more often. I got a twitter account for this class, because I used to think it was a place for bored people to write about whatever happened to pop up in their brains. Every time I heard someone mention twitter, it was to giggle at the boring or weird things that people would tweet about. For example:
“I just ate a sandwich. It was amazing.”
“Just finished my workout and I felt the buuurn!”
“My personality test results came back. They’re negative.”
Did I really need to know about any of this? But then there are people that actually write about things that are relevant and not just the fluff that they crop out of their speech that they decide has to be published on the internet. Twitter can be useful and informative depending on the people you follow. I’m starting to see this now.
http://www.twitter.com @LindseyChow
I was going through my computer this week and I found this old video I made with some friends in grade 9. It was for my english class, but it was a lot of fun to make.
lindseychow 