Chapter 6, Text Principle, Insider Principle

Chapter 6:

Cultural Models

-Images, storylines, principles and metaphors that capture what a group believe to be typical of a particular event or phenomenon.

-Cultural models help learners know how to cope with life and decisions.

-Different cultural groups have different ways of interpreting.

Video games help learners become more aware of their taken-for granted cultural values and help them see how their cultural group views the world, how their group learns how other semiotic groups function, and also reveals how they learn.

Examples:

Sonic vs. Shadow

Good for the group vs. good for the individual

Under Ash

In response to US games post 9/11 where players would shoot Arabs and/or Muslims, this game was played from the Palestinian perspective where anyone who was not a citizen (including US troops) could be shot. Different cultural model that reacted differently to a situation experienced across groups.

War Games

There were two war games; one showed how war heroes should be treated at superhumans and war was glorified, the other showed that war is essentially boring and that “Rambo” actions were most likely to get you killed.

Snake*

This game pushed the author to learn in different ways that he was not accustomed to-instead of going in and shooting everyone/everything he saw, he learned to be more tactical.

Text Principle:

Texts are not understood purely verbally but must incorporate the leaner’s embodied experience. The learner must go back and forth between text and embodied experience to understand the text. Only after the learner has had sufficient embodied experience can they read the text purely verbally. Gee gives the example of reading a game manual-you can read the text but not necessarily understand it. After you have played the game and have had more experience in searching through the manual can you come to a better understanding of the instructions given in it.

Insider Principle

The learner is an insider, teacher and producer, not just a consumer. Their knowledge allows them to change their learning experience and domain/game from the beginning and to the end.