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.

Principle 6 and 24, psychosocial moratorium and incremental learning, and chapter 4

by Dennis Decker

Principle 6 is the psychosocial moratorium principle. This means good learning takes place in an environment where the consequences of mistakes are lowered, so that learners are not afraid to try different things.

In video games this comes through having multiple lives or from being able to save and load a game as often as needed. A non-game example is a brainstorming session, where participants are told there are no wrong ideas so that they feel comfortable contributing to the group.

Principle 24: Incremental learning principle. Challenges or learning tasks are presented so that the learner can draw conclusions that will be helpful in later situations. For example, if I learn that blue doors have to be opened with blue keys, and yellow doors with yellow keys, then when I see a red door I will start looking for a red key.

A non-game example could be in a science classroom, where students learn that ice and water are the same substance arranged differently. Later, when they see salt crystals dissolve into water, they would assume that the salt hasn't disappeared, instead it has changed state.

Chapter 4 is about situated learning. Gee makes the point that all information is only useful if it has meaning in a certain context. For example, in one game he came across a set of numbers that little meaning for him. Later he found an object that required a numerical code to open. Suddenly the numbers had meaning and became useful to him.

He argues that learning in educational situations needs to be situated in the student's experiences. He says it is foolish to expect students to learn abstractions that they cannot relate to their experience--and it makes the students feel foolish as well.

Situational learning also suggests that people start with specific examples and move to generalizations, instead of the other way around.

Principles 5&23, Chapter 4

Principle 5 - Metalevel Thinking and Learning in Semiotic Domains
- Active thinking and learning of the relationship between different semiotic domains. One semiotic domain can be used as a precursor to another domain. What has been learned in one domain can be used towards learning and thinking in a new semiotic domain.

Principle 23 - Subert Principle
- Learning starts in the subert to the real domain. In a video game the first couple of levels are used to get you familiar with the game and how is works - these are the subert levels to the actual game. It is similar to learning the fundamentals before you can be apart of any domain or group.

Chapter 4
-Humans learn from past experiences by making connections and associations to other things. They edit and categorize these experiences according to interests, goals, and values.

-Different forms to present information: Situated, Experiential, Embodied.
-Situated: Signs (words, actions, ) change according the embodied form that they are in. Such things in one game or situation will have completely different meaning to another game or group.
-Experiential: Similar to the scientific method - Probe, Hypothesize, Re-probe, Rethink/Accept. You start by probing, trying different things, figuring out what works and what doesn't. Then according to what you have learned you make a hypothesis of how to move forward in the game. Then you test it - start re-probing. If it works then you accept your hypothesis, if it doesn't work then you rethink your method and try again.
-Embodied: This is used the get the player more involved to create a place where they are able to make the decisions and control the direction of the game. They are given options to "choose their own adventure" in a sense.
-Video games reach humans in a different way than books, or movies can by using these forms to make the player more active in how the story will end.

Chapter 5

Two games are used to discuss Gee's concepts: the first being "Tomb Raider" (and incidentally the first portion of the chapter), the second being "After Shock" (the second portion).

The first portion of the book talks about starting at a basic 'tutorial' level, where the player is protected and is given minimal instructions for how to play the game. Although not explicitly mentioned in his learning principles, in Tomb Raider, the player is encouraged to be deviant from the game's instructions, and explore, as they are rewarded by finding items throughout the level which they wouldn't if they were to adhere strictly to the instructions. Learning is also incremental, as the level of difficulty of each level progressively rises.

A transition takes place where Gee discusses 'transfer,' that is, when one uses their prior knowledge from a different situation and applies it to a new situation. This might be dodging an enemies' bullets (like you would in James Bond GoldenEye) and doing the same in say, Medal of Honor.

The second portion talks about how learning throughout the game is distributed, that is, bits of information are spread throughout levels (such as information kiosks with explicit information). The player then combines this knowledge with prior knowledge of how to play the game and comes up with creative ways to solve the game (which touches on the Discovery Principle).

-Chandler Krynen

Chapter 1: Introduction; principles 8 & 26

What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning & Literacy

Chapter 1: 36 Ways to Learn a Video Game

By his own description, James Paul Gee is an educator and researcher, a "linguist interested in language and literacy," and particularly in how we learn. Observing his young son play a video game with what seemed to be an extraordinarily high level of sophistication, he became fascinated with the multi-strata processes of learning that occur in video games and made it a pet project.

Gee explores 36 different learning principles, with the objective of exploring and revealing the power and potential of human learning in sophisticated digital platforms. He refers to the socio-economic phenomenon that Marx dubbed "the Creativity of Capitalism," to explain that when a game--or any learning environment--is well-designed, the learner is voluntarily (and often intensely) engaged, challenged, and progressing quickly. Consequently, "good" games beget more good games, in a progressive pattern of length, levels, and sophistication. (It's important to note that Gee defines a "good game" as effective in competencies like supporting learners on the edge of their "regime of competence;" good does not imply a moral or ethical judgment on a game.) Education, technology, arts, and free enterprise become powerful partners in digital gaming.


Principle 8: The Identity Principle

Video games inherently present a tripartite identity challenge to participants: These three identities are (1) the player's real world identity, (2) their virtual identity, and (3) their projective identity, and learning occurs in interaction with and through all three.

Gee explains that the projective identity is the most complex of the three--and "projective" can be understood via different meanings of the word project: Project, as in the image and identity that one is striving to "put out there," or also project, as in a something one is working on and developing.


Principle 26: The "Bottom-Up" Basic Skills Principle

This principle illustrates that basic skills acquisition in video games is not a matter of practice drills and conscious, deliberate repetition. Repetition in skills acquisition exists in video games as well, but in a well-designed digital gaming environment, the basic skills are learned in an immersion experience, starting from the "bottom-up" and building on one skill set with another. Basic skills in video gaming belong to the genre of game. Gee points out that by the time a gamer becomes aware of what the basic skills required for a particular game are, he has already mastered them.

326 Midterm, fountain of knowledge

Chapter 3: This chapter focuses on Gee's experience witht he game Arcanium. He played as a character called Bead Bead a half-elf female who had several abilities such as intelligence and persuation that made her different than the other characters in the game. Gee spoke about three forms of identity: real, virtual, and projected. Real indentity refers to his identity as James Gee, in the real world as a video game player playing as Bead Bead. His values, memories, and personality are all part of this identity. His virtual identity is that of Bead Bead, the half-elf female. Her abilities and the way she interacts in the virtual world in which she dwells is her identity, yet also it is Gee's virtual identity as this magical creature. The projected identity that Gee speaks about is the link between his real and virtual identities. Although he does seem to lose himself in the virtual identity of Bead Bead, his real identity can't help but project itself on the motivations and actions of the virtual character. Gee is trying to arrive at the point that when we play video games, we are never separate from outselves in our virtual worlds. We may have a character that we act as, but we are still ourselves and our identities will be translated onto that character. Thus, Gee sees the virtual world of gaming as something we attempt to lose ourselves in, but can't ever truly do so.

Design Principle- Learning about and coming to appreciate design and design principles is core to the learning experience. This principle focuses on two aspects of semiotic domians: Design grammars in both the internal and external sense. Internal design grammar means the principles and patterns in terms of which one can recognize what is and what is not acceptable or typical content in a semiotic domain. External design grammar is the principles and patterns of which one can recognize what is and what is not an acceptable or typical social practice and identity in regard to the affinity group associated with a semiotic domain. Ex: modern art and what counts as modern art= internal. The social practices of those who are in the field of modern art would be the external design. Being able to identitfy games as first person shooters is internal design grammar, yet the social aspect of discussing the games themselves and the public’s understanding of them in the external design grammar.

Multimodal Principle: Meaning and knowledge are built up through various modalities (images, words, symbols, interactions, designs, sounds,) not just words. The multimodal principle is concerned with the fact (clear in all of the discussions about video games in this book so far) that, in video games, meaning, thinking, and learning are linked to multiple modalities (words, images, actions, sounds) and not just to words. Sometimes, at a particular point in a game, multiple modalities support each other to communicate similar meanings, sometimes they communicate different meanings, each of which fits together to form a larger, more meaningful and satisfying whole. For example, the sounds that the game produces indicates the danger of a situation along with what is seen and the emoitons you connect with the moment. Learning is not simply achieved through words and description but with the connection made to the moment of interest.

Jared's Contribution

14. Regime of Competence Principle -- This principle deals with the idea that video game players or learners in school are playing or learning at a level that is at the edge of what they are capable of. Many times, advanced students coast in school because what the are asked to do is so within what they are capable of that it requires no effort. Other times, students are asked to perform at a level that is so beyond what they can do at the time that they fail. In both cases minimal learning takes place. This principle is about being challenged, but still being able to succeed. In good video games this happens and the players enjoy the challenge and learning through discovery that takes place.

32. Cultural Models about Semiotic Domains Principle -- This principle is that in video games and in learning our cultural models with respect to a certain semiotic domain can be challenged or questioned without making us feel bad about our beliefs or abilities. As a result, we can consider different cultural models outside our own.

Chapter 6 -- Principle 32 comes from this chapter in the book. This chapter deals with cultural models. Remember the quiz we took in class where we made the distinction between a group model and a more general model? The chapter talks about a kid playing Sonic and when he is the dark, bad Sonic, named Shadow, that character becomes the good guy to the player. That is an example of a group model because you are working on the side of Shadow and the bad guys and you feel good when you are successful for that group. It is not about general principles of good and bad. The chapter also talks about video games where you are a young mobster and are trying to earn your status within that group. Although crime is generally bad, for that group it is good.

This chapter also discusses cultural models, which are how we look at the world. Cultural models are based on things and experiences out in the world. They are not just in our heads. They are based off of the different groups we are a part of, like church, school, family, socioeconomic class, country, culture, and profession. They are not right or wrong. We can be exposed to them and even adopt them in games without having to adopt them in real life. They can be good because they allow us to interact with the world, but they can be bad if they cause us to denigrate ourselves when we otherwise wouldn't. An example of this is an working class American who believes in the American Dream and since he is not wealthy believes that he is not working hard enough or is not smart enough. In another cultural model, he may not feel this way.

This chapter also talks about how schools use cultural models. In science, we are taught that in ideal circumstances an object will not move or it will move at a constant speed. However, the world is not ideal. It has friction and gravity, resulting in objects that do not keep to this ideal. the same thing happens in economics when we make models showing what will happen assuming consumers act rationally. However, consumers do not always behave rationally and as a result modifications have to be made to these models.

That's the point. These ideal models serve as a starting point and then we can make modifications to them. Our cultural models also serve as a starting point for the way we look at the world an then they can be challenged by the models of others and we can decide whether or not to modify our own model. This is the basis of principle 32 -- that our models can be challenged in a non-threatening way in both video games and learning.