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.

#7 and #25 and Chp 5

#7 Committed Principle

When the player is able to connect to character in a certain video game realm, that the players identity is able to connect to the fictional characters identity in that specified realm. Gee cites his connection with character Bead Bead. She is everything he is not (i.e. she is a female he is not, she has long beautiful head of hair he doesn't have as much); though the character is not everything he is it still reflects a part of his identity in a video game realm of his choosing.


#25 Concentrated Sample Principle
Gee explains that Lara Croft is able to gather and learn more sometimes by disobeying what Von Croy has to say. For instance Gee cites his own personal with Lara Croft, the experience of when he is told to jump across the raven and instead fall into it accidentally discovering crystal skull. This principle works in that effect, in which it allows the learner to deviate from the structured lesson and allows them to learn and explore the concept on their own terms. Similar to Lara Croft and her discovery's of the crystal skulls by at times not following her mentor Von Croy.

Chapter 5

Identity of one's player in relation to the player.
Active learning, participation in a certain activity that applies that concept being taught. Gee gives the example of a science class. Stating that some students work well when verbally given instructions as opposed to some who work better in a structured active learning environment.

Principles 1, 19 and ch. 4- Lee Adams

1. Active Learning Principle- The learning environment fcilitates active and critical, not passive, learning

19. Intertextual Principle- The learner understands a text based on the family of texts that it is associated with. The text is only understood in this context because of the embodied experience the learner has with other texts and is able to interpret based off of other previous experiences.

Chapter 4- Situated Meaning and Learning

Gee discusses Deus Ex in this chapter and refers to it regularly

He introduces the concept of embodied experience (meaning the body, mind, and outside experience)

Stories are different in video games. They are a mix of four factors:
1.the designer's choices
2. the players choices tat affect the order in which the storyline takes place
3. the main character's choices within the game
4. imagination projected onto the characters, plot, the world of the story

Situated meaning in the context of the chapter
- the numbers you find in the game are general (decontextualized) and gain a situated meaning once you find out that they are the key code to a safe.

Critics say that it works in video games, but what about real life, like education?
- discussion of concept of democracy: people can use terms in various ways and until the reader is able to situate the meaning, a word is nothing but letters.
-Students are taught general information
-educators say that not every principle needs to be contextualized because not all the information will be pertinent for every student, but Gee retorts that in order for any leatning to take place, it must be embodied in at least some way, if not in the context of a future profession.

Situational Meaning and Embodied experience in real life-
Galileo's principle of motion was taught generally and then with a computer program in which the students were able to modify aspects of the program and thereby give meaning to the principle.

Gee talks about the way video games make us situate meaning
-Probe
-Hypothesis
-Reprobe
-Rethink

Written Text
Teachers were given game manuals and couldn't understand them.
They did not play the game and until they did, they would not be able to situate the meaning.

AXEL-1) SITUATED MEANING PRINCIPLE, 2) AFFINITY GROUP PRINCIPLE, and 3) Chapter 6 (CULTURAL MODES)

1) The Situated Meaning Principle

The meaning of signs (e.g. words, actions, objects, symbols, texts) are situated in bodily experience. The meaning is not general or uncontextualized. For example, the meaning of a word is learned by seeing how it interacts within the text we are reading. We do not look up the word in a dictionary where we get a general, out of context meaning.

2) The Affinity Group Principle

Learners that are part of an "Affinity Group" join together because of shared endeavors, goals, and practices, and not because of shared race, nation, ethnicity, culture, etc. In other words, this is not a Cultural Group, or a National Group, or an Ethnic Group. It is and "Affinity Group" because they share the same goals and accomplish them together.

Chapter 6: Cultural Models

The main term to know about this chapter is what a Cultural Model is. It is a tacit, taken for granted theory or way of thinking that we subscribe to because we want to be like other members of our Social Groups. For example, an LDS member would (though not necessarily), probably subscribe to the LDS Cultural Model that marriage between a man and a woman is the correct marriage.

He talks about the Sonic the Hedgehog game and explains that video games challenge us to think about our Cultural Models. In the Sonic game, you are able to play as the Good Sonic, or the Bad Shadow Sonic. His son made the comment, "In this game, the bad guy is the good guy." The point was that the bad guy becomes the protagonist and the player need to momentarily adopt the Cultural Models of a bad person who wants to destroy the world.

He also talks about Under Ashes (I think that's the name) where you play as a Muslim militant fighting against Israelis. Normally, you find Mulsums as the bad guys in video games, but this game challenges our Cultural Models. We come to think differently about things (it creates a conflict of Models within us), and we are likely not to be able to kill Muslims in video games in the future without thinking about it.

The last, perhaps most important point is the one about teaching at school. Because students taking physics have, through their own experience, subscribed to the Cultural Model that things that move in this world are being propelled by something, find it hard to understand Plato's theory that what is in motion stays in motion without any force acting upon it whatsoever. He makes the point that a good teacher will not tell students that they are stupid for not understanding, but that they should understand that their Cultural Model does not work for physics and that they need to be open to learning other Models.

Chapter 5 first half and Principles 12 and 30

The first half of chapter five talks about Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. The principles that are discussed are ideas about overt information vs. self-discovery. Basically, Gee talks about how people need both to have information given to them, and to have the opportunity to learn on their own. If we do not give students some information, it is like asking them to re-discover geometry, something that early mathematicians didn't even have to do on their own.

Gee also discusses the idea that they start out in a tutorial type of learning in a game and then they gain a set of skills that they can use throughout the rest of the game.

Learning Principle 12: Practice Principle

This is the principle that students can learn in an engaging environment (such as a game where learning is fun and they experience constant success) and they spend a long time on task.

Learning Principle 30: Converting our World Models

This is the principle that our current thought patterns (or "models") can and should be challenged in learning and that this can be done in games where we can overcome certain patterns of thinking we've become used to. One example is when Gee was playing Lara Croft and he follows everything the doctor says, until he messes something up and discovers it is actually better for him to disobey the Dr. That makes him more like Lara and more successful in this certain situation. He learns not to just listen to everything someone says.

Principles 9 and 27

Principle 9: "Self Knowledge Principle"

This states that as we play a game, we come to learn more about ourselves by playing that game.

Principle 27: "Explicit Information On-Demand and Just in Time Principle"

This principle states that bits of information are provided throughout the game precisely when they are needed, as well as being obvious. For example, a player might need to know how to jump over a hole, and at that moment, instructions are given for how to do it (say, press the 'x' button). The author uses this in relation to After Shock, where information kiosks are dispersed throughout the game, each having information immediately pertinent to where the player is located in the game.

-Chandler Krynen

Chapter 5. Principle 14 & 31.

Here we go!

Chapter 5 "Learning and Doing"

Chapter 5 is the Lara Croft Chapter. Although there are other games mentioned, most of the principles can be applied to Lara Croft.

You are given background information at the beginning of the game. In the first episode you are challenged to learn basic concepts through different learning principles. The professor gives instructions it what may seem like a foreign language but when applied to controllers or computer keyboards the player can understand how to run, jump, or attack within the game. Even though the professor has told Lara to stay close the player cannot meet Lara's full potential unless she deviates and finds the skulls. By deviating she learns skills she will need to use later in the game.

Tomb Raider shows that learners need to be given easier tasks in the beginning in order to grasp the basic tasks and key strokes. The chapter also discusses the advantage to learning in context. By using the subdomain of the first chapter the player learns how to control Lara within the context of the overall domain. The learning process is all within the domain. For example students cannot learn from textbooks alone. In a science class the students will learn from experimenting with trial and error. This concept leads to the idea that the instructor should not leave students to learn on their own. This causes students to make generalities that may lead to many failures. Without guidance students then get frustrated and give up. Students learn best when guided to learn new things. Guidance enables them to see fruitful outcomes.

The transfer method is also discussed within this chapter. By using his own experience with Shock 2, Gee discusses how he defeated a harder target to kill by using techniques from other games. Transferring knowledge from one domain to another enables learners to experiment with learning. A method of defeating in one game may not work in another game but by trying you discover new methods. He explains that it was when he was trying to transfer one method in he discovered a hiding place in the game. The ability to quickly change your strategy and be flexible will also allow players to create new modes of learning.

Bottems up! The chapter discusses the method of learning controls in games in the first episode. This is where the player can be with in the domain but comfortable enough to learn new things. As the game progresses the player begins to receive more difficult tasks and can change their method to fit the need of the challenge.

Concentrate. No not orange juice. The first episode has a concentrated amount of learning. Tasks are repeated for better understanding and there are different ways to accomplish the same task, this enables the player to learn in different ways and learn by repetition.

Just in time. Another way of learning, included in this chapter, is being given information just as it is needed. This allows the player/learner to incorporate the information just given to them and use it in a situation immediately. Instead of learning the how to accomplish a task you won't use until the end of the game the player is given instructions and then is to use them as their next assignment/task.

Principle 14
"Regime Competence" principle
Students need to learn within their ability to accomplish the task but on the outside edge. By staying too far within the students ability they become routinized and are not flexible to learn new things and methods. By staying outside of their ability the student will continually fail and then give up. By staying within, but on the outside edge, students learn to use any failed attempts as learning possibilities and are able to stretch their learning capabilities.

Principle 31
Cultural Modality about Learning Principle
Here learners are functioning within their culture and are comfortable to learn new things. By doing this they are learning and may not even know it. Even though the student is failing they are learning new strategies and when they do not know they are learning the task becomes fun.