Memorandum

 

To: Game Designers

 

From: Johnny Yang

 

Subject: Game Design Points based on McGonagall reading and class discussion

 

The following are ten points that I have within the McGonagall reading and class discussions that has peaked my interest and lead me to believe can serve a guiding points to the creation of a fun an fulfilling game that may serve whichever purpose a designer may choose.

 

1. The Game would need to encourage game play for with the main reward being that of being able to play the game.
2. The game allows for “trash-talking” as this gives and allows players to take pride in their game-play.
3. Incorporate some sort of “running game” element, where players do not necessarily have to be playing at the same time. (This is a great idea for a larger overall game that can be ongoing throughout the entire course of the other smaller games)
4. Connect the game(s) to the daily lives of the players in a way that players came learn things that goes beyond the game itself. (Such as a player learning where a specific service is, and because of the game the location of the service is known to the player(s) beyond the confines of the game itself should the player(s) need to access the service.)
5. Create an intrinsic value/importance to the game and the player’s relationship. (This allows players to want to spend those countless amounts of hours playing the game(s)).
6. Including and element where players can “self-train” or “train” their friend to become better at the game-play. (This would create and overall enjoyment of the game as a person can improve without the confines of risking loss through playing the actual game itself and or gain the enjoyment of seeing and helping their friend improve their game play to a specific level.)
7. “Forecasting Games” or as McGonagall calls it; “ Massively multiplayer foresight”. I fee that with this idea in mind we can create a type of game that allows players to address real world issues that will or may already directly affect them. As such, this type of gaming is based on such a focus since it requires the collaboration of a number of players to utilize their resources with the assistance of their imagination create ‘out of the box’ solutions to complete assigned tasks.
8. Games that allows failure without a large cost will keep players “optimistic” about their game play, however, should be challenging at a level where the objectives / goals are still attainable although will require more effort.
9. Multimodal game play was a thought that came up during the class discussion, although not explicitly stated the idea was present. The idea is to have a game that will incorporate both technology, and physical and mental efforts to achieve a given task.
10. A variety of game types to address the diverse range of students that can be both enjoyable to play and serve its purpose (each game type would address a specific purpose hidden within the game itself) in a manner that the players would not notice they are working towards a specific goal as the intent of the games would be that the players are immersed in the game itself and worry about the “prizes” after the completion. (The games can also be made to have explicit goals, however, with the goals being known I feel that the students would try to “hack” the game (which would be great!), it is that the thought that if they could hack a game with implicit goals would be more challenging and the end result be more satisfying.)

 

The latter points identified are for the consideration of game designers for the course. I have laid out specific points and ideas with brief thoughts of why I selected them. If it was not obvious, I feel that the points I have selected does reflect the types of attributes of game that I would find interesting and challenging, let alone spend numerous amount of time to complete. The ideas were intentionally left to be broad to give designers the flexibility to re-work in a manner that would best suit their needs.

 

CLASS NOTES for FEB 4, 2015

(short Notes)

Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors

 

 

 

“Tutorial instruction is very different from traditional classroom learning because it introduces into the educational setting a middle person (27)”

• “Teachers perceived as the giver and students as the receiver…tutors inhibit the middle ground (27)”

 

“When meeting with tutors, writers gain kinds of knowledge about their writing and about themselves…(27)”

 

“Not confined to the penalties of asking what is perceived as a “dumb question” (28)”

• Questions being shot down in class; if not by teacher by peers

 

REASON WHY:

1. Tutors seen as below teachers on the academic ladder

 

Tutors gives students freedom to roam in whatever direction the tutor sees as useful to the student.

1. Tutors guide the conversation
2. Tutors help students learn; HOW TO…(proofread, let go and brainstorm, plan writing, etc.)
3. Bridge language gap between teachers and students

 

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

 

“Students want to do their own work…Tutorial interaction helps writers gain confidence in…their writing”

 

 

 

Reading #2

Tutors v group study

 

Tutors may give you advice that is counter productive to what is needed in the class

 

Tutor is there to help guide student to become better writer not just correcting the writing

 

Issue with peer editing group is the sometimes the group is not good, as it takes time to develop the skills to be an effective peer reviewer

• If done properly will help student writing more than aid of teacher or tutor

 

There are benefits for multiple types of support as each has its positive and negative aspects.

 

 

FOR MONDAY:

Questions to answer

What is my role of a writing mentor/ tutor?

Open discussion on Monday to change section and / or swap for different schedule…

 

READING:

Ball Handling Reading (link on website in calendar)

• Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Introduction
  • After page 20 just skim

In the confusion of all of the readings that I was scrambling to complete, I had made the mistake of posting about the wrong reading.  I had just noticed after I was reviewing my post, I have decided to leave the post up to remind myself that no matter how much I have to do, sometimes it is best to slow it down a few notches and make sure I am doing the right assignments…

Therefore….

here is a passage from Rodby and Fox;

“The insight grew out of our repeated observations that x did not lend to y …The basic writing student who had achieved a degree of comfort and expertise in the curriculum, of basic writing (Through short readings, usually multicultural, often narrative, and short papers based on the student’s own life experience) did not bring that comfort and expertise with them to first-year writing (Rodby & Fox, p.88-89)”.

 

As I read this, momentarily images, intertwined with emotions, thoughts, and a bitterness overcame me as the passages in the latter triggered my memories of my own first-year writing experience… Upon arrival I initially felt that I was ready to take on the challenges of college and all that may come with it…that was until I completed my first assignment and did noticed all of the markings all over my paper.  Never before when I was in high school did I get any markings beyond a grade on my papers, and curious what the scribbles contained, I danced my fingers across the blood red words and through the pages, until it was over.  At the time I was not sure what to do, since prior to college after my paper was returned the assignment was over, however this assignment contained the bold crimson letters, “RESUBMIT”…  Terrified at the thought that I must have done something wrong or even worse, not have done something I was supposed to and needed to for my paper…  out of embarrassment, I crumpled up that paper, and tossed it in the trash, and re-wrote the entire paper.  Although I felt better after, I received the same haunting formation of letters across the top of the first page, “RESUBMIT”, however this time it was tailed with “SEE ME”…

Full of fear, never before have I had a one on one sitting with any teachers, and here I was; negative thought flooded my mind. Freshman year, first writing assignment, and am about to get kicked out… I got to the instructor’s door, collected myself, and walked in… after a twenty or so minutes session, I walked out with a completely new impression about meeting instructors.  My fears had not been realized as well as the important fact that I could have kept my first paper, and if I had done revisions, it would have been fine.

I had been writing the wrong way all along, and no one told me… Strange as it may seem, it was not until I arrived to college did I feel that I learned how to write academically.  Although I understand that my writing has a long ways to go, progress forward is alway better than being at a standstill.  From my anecdote, I learned to use the teacher’s comments and revise my papers.  Simple as it may sound, in high school, I used to turn in only the first draft and it was acceptable.  Taking notice that I did not learn much in high school regarding academic writing, I was surprised I graduated.  It was a long and difficult struggle from there to where I am now, however I feel that I will “keep on keeping on” and who knows? Maybe in a few more years, I will be on the other side of that door waiting to help a student who’s understanding of writing my need a few adjustments as well.

 

 

To start off, my name is Johnny, and I am in this course as part of my degree plan.  The thing is that the title of this course is what drew me into enrolling, as there are a number of other selections I could have chosen. In my own thoughts, I envisioned myself in this class sweating and frustrated, however leaving it with new ideas, skills, and educational methods that I will be using for the rest of my life…Thus, here I am…

A little background information about myself is that I grew up about an hours drive from town in Linda, Ca, and have been in and out of school since I was 18 years old. Luckily, I was able to finish my undergrad and am now a second semester graduate student; part of the TIL (Teaching International Languages) program, and am excited as well as a bit nervous about the semester.  Hopefully as the semester progresses, my nerves will calm and excitement will turn itself into determination, until then; It is a pleasure to meet you all.

 

Passages:

This is more of a term than a passage, although defined I still wonder if my understanding is correct or is in need of being corrected…

The term, “literacy event” is defined as “being and occasion when a person attempts to comprehend or produce graphic signs (Barton, 2007, p. 36)”.  To my understanding in the daily life of (I will assume) everyone in the class, we conduct such events when we text a person from our cellular devices.  Although the “graphic signs” or words/language within the text messages may not be that of standard english, I believe it to be a literacy event.  This belief stems from the notion that the sender selects a set of specific “sign” to convey a message and the receiver replies with a correlating set to notify the sender that either the sender’s message was understood, or seen.  And as Barton stated that there is overlay in the events and practices of literacy; I believe that the set of actions I described is an example of such a literacy event that has become a common literacy practice.

I selected this term for the first few pages of the reading “Literacy; An Introduction to the Ecology of the Written Language” for the reason that I believe that for me to gain a better grasp of the rest of the readings, I must clarify this term in more of a way that I can relate to my everyday life or daily practices.

 

From John F. Szwed’s “The Ehonography of Literacy”,  I found the following short passage to be amusing but true.

“Most of us, when writing notes for ourselves, assume special conventions of spelling and even syntax and vocabulary that we would not use if we were writing for others (Szwed, p.426)”.

 

As I read this, I peered over and looked at the scribbles, lines, highlights and short handed notes I had been taking and thought, “this is very true, I am not sure anyone else would be able to decipher these notes”.  However, the most interesting thing was that Szwed said that we would “most likely be able to  interpret another’s notes with our own procedures (Szwed, p.426)”.  However, I feel that to do this with my notes someone would need to understand the way I think, otherwise the confusion on the the pieces of paper I scribble on would only cause more of a headache than give clarity to a solution.  Likewise, I feel that because I think differently due to the experiences I have had, it would not be very beneficial for me to use someone else’s notes due to the fact that even though the words written can be read, the ideas and meaning behind the words or short handed sentences would be defined differently by my understanding if compared to the original composer.

Overall I found the readings to be refreshing and were not a dry as I had initially thought they were to be.  I look forward to the discussion in class upon these readings.