Our group’s morning session with Jeff was engaging and informative. Before reading Gee’s essay or viewing McGonigal’s video presentation I would have aligned the majority of my opinion on video gaming directly with what Elizabeth expressed so convincingly in the session. When you see the obsessed and entirely absorbed state people work themselves into when watching and playing video games, the whole thing – and from what I have learned thus far, it is a very big thing – looks and feels a bit alarming. When Elizabeth spoke about the effect of gaming on her brother it immediately reminded of my nephew whom I barely spoke with the last time I spent a long weekend at my brother and sister-in-laws. I barely spoke with him because he was for the most part entirely consumed with playing on-line video games. Now, I’m clued-in enough to know that there can be a strong social network aspect to gaming, and that it’s not solely a zombie-world landscape, but nonetheless I couldn’t help noticing that when I did have the opportunity to speak with my 18 year-old nephew face to face, he didn’t have too much to say, nor show much enthusiasm or interest in what I had to offer. The conversation consisted mostly of me asking him questions and getting very little in return. Now I'm also well aware that I can annoy with the best of them with my incessant questioning, but all the same I can’t help feel that there is some validity to the criticism of the debilitating effects of hours upon hours spent in front of a screen isolated and playing out life in a virtual world. It’s simply not a proper surrogate for the real thing. And when you add to the mix all the extremist views and general lunacy available a mere point and click away on the web, it’s scary to think of what kind of corrupt and corrosive societal decay lies lurking for the future. It all sort of reminds me of when I was a kid staring bugged-eyed at my own screen, waiting for Godzilla to awaken and emerge from his cave after nuclear winter and wreak havoc on a screaming populous.
But Gee and McGonigal’s exposés gave me a different perspective and I think even a sense of hope – for the screaming populous. With the right attitude, proper context, and moderation – as RJ thoughtfully pointed out – there very well be much to gain from a technology that is so incredibly popular and evolving. And I think both presenters did a great job of pointing out just what exactly that could be. And thankfully it doesn’t resemble a massive, green-eyed, fire breathing mutant lizard. In fact it just might be more of a Mothra type, a larger-than-life creature with colorful wings that can help lift us up and solve some of the seriously large issues and problems we’re facing in the modern global world. Why not, as McGonigal suggested, turn to the masses and ask them to turn video gaming into a multi-million person pursuit that searches, and reaches, and comes up with solutions to the daunting societal problems of our times, e.g., alternative energy, famine, water shortages and devastating disease? It's a beautiful idea and just might very well be possible. There is, it seems, an incredibly powerful social network in gaming and it may be worth far, far more than the price of any X-Box.
Being a one time horrifically amateur DJ, I also really enjoyed learning how to make a Pod cast under Kristen’s kind and excellent tutelage. I’m trying to come up with ways of how I could use it in my English classes but so far am coming up blank, similar I suppose to my DJ days. Any suggestions would be welcome and greatly appreciated.
I think issues with face-to-face social interaction are definitely a legitimate concern to have about excessive gaming, but I think that it can be surprisingly easy for teachers to address that. I worked for a non-profit that trained high schoolers to interview senior citizens, and through that process the students learned to make eye contact, speak clearly, ask follow-up questions, etc. I think that if we can make interesting activities involving communication skills, teens are happy to learn.
ReplyDeleteAs far as podcast activities go, what if students had to make an advertisement for a hypothetical movie adaptation of a book? Or maybe students could read passages from Shakespeare with different inflections to illustrate how multi-faceted the text is.
Ooo Brianne stole my ideas :)
ReplyDeleteAnother reason for verbal reports is o maybe help students who aren't the best at using the written word as a way of expressing their ideas - I know you are teaching English, but does English just need to be about writing, or is about communication as a whole?
I have ideas for you! To teach about tone, you could look have students read text aloud in different ways (and to different music) to see how tone can change. Also, a podcast would be amazing for teaching poetry, which depends so much on sound and is almost always better heard or read aloud than simply read on paper.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Charles, your discussion of your ability to "annoy with the best of them with my incessant questioning" is particularly funny in light of Friday's lunch conversation :).
ReplyDeleteBut in all seriousness, I think my take-away from McGonigal's talk was the same as yours- if we can harness the energy of this new population of gamers, it might go a very long way in helping us face society's problems. I certainly agree that there are tons of problems with the video game culture, and I have yet to meet an avid gamer who also seems thoroughly interested in the 'real world'. But yes, McGonigal's idea is 'beautiful' and just might be possible...who knows?
I also thought Elizabeth made a good argument, but I do think it's interesting to think about what McGonigal argues, and that is that what looks like a person isolated from other people and stuck to a computer screen is actually a person oftentimes engaged in very social activities that are just oddly sort of invisible to someone who isn't looking.
ReplyDeleteMy brother (who I should note is a charming, sociable, highly socially well-adjusted young man!) plays some online games and he says he plays them with his real-life friends. We made fun of him about it but he said he really feels like it is this unique shared experience that he has with his real-life (and not real-life) friends...
When Kristin and I decided that we would make a significant summer assignment out of blogging, we were thinking about challenging all of you to both think deeply and to articulate those thoughts (or thoughts-in-process). We were also wanted to push explicitly on the idea of listening and reacting to one another. Reading your post, Charles, and thinking about last Friday;s discussions, it's clear that you don't need this assignment to prompt attentive listening. I appreciate the way in which you weave the comments of your colleagues into your own story here, Charles, and your overall reflection is the richer for your articulation of how your colleagues' ideas impacted you.
ReplyDeleteOne more point about admirable intellectual practice...you should take a look at Elizabeth;s latest post, in which she clearly works to take in the ideas of others, even given the strong feelings that she had on the subject in the wake of the reading.
Speaking of your solicitation of ideas for podcasts, you have actually given me one. I was imagining students posting work on a blog, and their classmates react to it (perhaps via podcast) in terms of some guiding questions that you provide. One tool that captures some of this possibility in a very elegant way is Voice Thread where people create stories in a power-point like format, but each page of the story allows readers to attach written or spoken responses. Look for thew BROWSE button to see examples, and if you like what you see, here's a link to a boatload full of resources and examples.