This is a very brief blog post to kick off my blog for the Introduction to Digital Game Based Learning module which kicks off on Monday. Since I haven't used the Holyrood Park blogs since IDEL it's going to be quite weird returning here to post updates. (Right now it's also a little challenging - my home broadband has given up the ghost and my new provider/line problems may take a while to correct so I may seem unnaturally shy online for the first week or so since I'll probably still be posting after work from the office.) 

At this stage I'm tremendously excited about beginning the course having started to read through Gee (with Whitton lined up for next week) and having seen all the wonderful nostalgic gaming references in the introductory posts to the WebCT discussion boards. It's been a long time since I played games regularly but for a while now I've been wanting to dust off my thumbs and see what's new so the idea of doing this and learning how to use games for learning seems fantastic. I'm especially keen to find out how I can take learning objectives and training ideas and make those into a compelling and fun computer game so I'm already thinking about possible ideas for the final assignment even if it is jumping the gun a little.

 

1) Don't panic

2) Remember the tips Rupert gave me in handling the paper and creating sharp accurate folds

3) Determine what is required to create 1) Dragonfly and 2) Beetle 

O.K so I have just looked them up and they both require the waterbomb base. The good news is that I managed to create a water bomb base after I had completed the duck, but I had found the instructions difficult to follow and was put off with just creating a whole series of bases. It is like everything though a thorough grounding with the basics allows one to develop, build and blossom. So the plan is to do some fairly simple folds that are used in the book as an introduction. Then create the flapping bird; I will then perfect the water bomb base and after this attempt to make the dragonfly. Once the dragonfly has been achieved I shall review where I am and make a decision on what to do next.

 

I am doing some baby sitting on saturday night so I shall see if I can show them how to make some origami models.

It has been a long time since I did anything with origami. Two things happened 1) I became somewhat disillusioned with what I was achieving and 2) One of my stepsons recently showed me how to create a a flapping bird. Rupert made an interesting observation about the book I had chosen to learn from basically it was not the easiest set of  diagram to follow and even he (with his current knowledge) would struggle to complete the flapping bird from the book. Rupert is fairly competent and feltb that I had given myself too big a target with the Dragonfly (which he can do) and the Beetle (which he can't do). I think the beetle is probably a step too far however the dragonfly will be done.Rupert suggested that I did the flapping bird and then looked at where to go next.

I didn't plan out the steps I was going to take to work methodically to the target designs. I actually thought I would learn all of the bases and then work from there, the problem with this is that you don't get any sense of achievement when you create a base not in the way you do when you have a recognisable shape.

I should have referred to more than one book because since his comment I have found that the way diagrams are annotated to create designs are slightly different and that some of the directions are easier to follow than others.

 

So I need to come up with a plan to successfully achieve my goal.

 

after having quite a difficult time with trying to reconciles the varying ideas and arguments put forward by Rose and others writers such as ....... regarding the perils of  subjectivity I decided to get back to basics and go with the flow...by this I mean 

1 decide which community

look ....just begin looking and have no idea what I'm lookig for

where is this taking me

and lo and behold it did take me somewhere

somewhere intereesting

then refelcteed on what I know about communities

and then came to my conclusion

 

END 

 

 

The experience of using computers gives me the feeling of playing a game; sometimes I win (find what I need, do what I want to do etc.), sometimes I loose (can’t fix the damn machine, can’t download something etc.), but I always enjoy playing and that’s why I am returning back.

I started quoting my own metaphor of using computers only to say that I will try to apply a game metaphor for both VLE’s and PLE’s.

 

VLE (webct, moodle)

A VLE is a massive multiplayer online game. People play with it and accordingly learn from it but they have to stay inside game’s “margins”. When someone “finishes” playing and turns off the computer, the game is still there played by a lot of people; even if some of its gamers are sleeping or working. Accordingly, in VLE’s the discussion board is always open, anyone who is registered can contribute anytime. You can go to sleep or to work, but when you return back something new happened. Despite this, you can still read new posts or finish uncompleted tasks and hence continue “playing”.

In addition, gamers have to follow certain game rules; if they breach these rules they face the potential danger to been thrown out of the game by the authorities. In that sense they are somehow restricted. In VLEs there is always a sense of authority and of course there are always some rules to follow. Gamers can also communicate with each other (through the game or using extra tools; i.e. email-skype) and even structure groups inside the game. Accordingly participants communicate through VLE or/and other tools and they can follow one course or another (in that way they structure groups).

Finally, a MMOG can be a free game or a commercial one (moodle-webct). When it is free usually it is more open; some courses in moodle are open to anyone. Unfortunately, commercial games are usually more “fancy”, so if you like games usually you have to buy one (or more ).

 

PLE (igoogle, pebblepad)

A PLE is one’s game collection. In that sense it can be comprised of miscellaneous games: tableboard, online, mmog, free, commercial. Your game collection is your game story (summative in that sense, like pebblepad), you started with one game, then you proceeded to another, after that you played with some friends a multiplayer game etc. On the other hand, occasionally we try new games; when playing a new game we reflect a lot on that. Accordingly, when something is under development (i.e. a perspective, a thought , an idea) it is there in our PLE to reflect on that idea. Thus, our game collection is not only summative, but it also conceals dynamic. Besides, we must not forget that in every collection we have favorites, i.e. games we usually play; if you look at your igoogle screen you will notice that the links you use most are on the top. Finally, like games a PLE can be free (like igoogle) or commercial and thus glossy (like pebblepad; impressed by flash player, but I consider it redundant ).

My picture for PLEs can be illustrated somehow by one game only: the snakes and ladders. It is summative (our story in the game) and there is a dynamic and reflection (we can choose whether to follow a ladder or not or we must return back sometimes due to a snake).

 

 

 

Just about to start recording my thoughts about my chosen community when have just heard on the news that  young person found dead on Monday evening meeting up with a man she met on facebook! This is really shocking and terribly sad for the families concerned.  What makes a young person meet up with a total stranger? 

the fact that this stranger was a virtual 'friend' initially is probably crucial. there was likely to have been a series of friendly chats in the first instance, chats whereby the girl felt as if she had got to know the other person.

I might be controversial in my views but I don't think keeping young people away from facebook or any IM/social networking site will stop this kind of thing happening. It needs to be about educating the children and young people surely. I believe this awful situation would have happened even if the young person had met her killer in a cafe.  

This predator won't be wearing a badge or have horns he will be charming, otherwise the young person would not have agreed to meet him in the first place. So there needs to be more education of young people to be less trusting of strangers no matter what. I have no reall answer but I do feel that the social networking available to young people can have more benefits than disadvantages.

  will come back to ethnograhic ramblings later - on way to hosp!!

The next things to learn were same basic bases, a waterbomb base and a blintz base. I managed to make one of each but they were pretty tatty. I only tried to make them using the large paper squares. I decided to give up wilst I was winning and have another go tomorrow.

I have become a little fed up with not quite being able to follow through the diagrams and instructions. I therefore spent some time going back through the beginning of the book to make sure that I understood the symbols and what they stood for. After I had done this I tried to create a basic duck with the large paer. This was successfull, I tried again and it seemed as though things were falling into place so I tried to create a basic duck using smaller paper. It worked, so I tried some more. After a few more successes I decided to go back to making them with the larger paper and the next one was to become a base for a complex duck.

                      The pictue here shows some simple ducks that have been made out of small and larger paper squares.

 

So I started to create the next basic duck and found that at the stage where I was to make the first fold to create the ducks neck that I had folded it in the wrong direction which meant that when I tried to fold the neck it tried to develop in the wrong way. I managed to find where I went wrong by comparing a successfull model with the one I was having problems with. I also used the pictures to compare the folds and saw my error. Once idnetified the error was very easily corrected. I created an almost perfect basic duck. I then went through the diagrams and suddenly saw correctly how the folds should go and how it all fell into place. I put this all down to the time I spent making sure I understood the symbols and could relate the diagrams to the actual folds.

I found that after all of the initial hassles that I was able to create a complex duck. The first one had a slightly wonky tale but was a much better effort than any I had previously done.

After I made another with the larger paper and it was almost perfect. I then tried with a smaller piece of paper and was really happy with the results. In order to reinforce the process I made several large and small complex ducks and was pretty pleased wit myself as a result.

small basic ducks

 

a mixture of small and large complex ducks.

 

More detailed pictures 1) Large ducks of each type 

Small complex ducks in more detail 

 

Why on earth did I take up this challenge? I continued with the simple/complex duck. I made an attempt at the complex duck - a stage on from the simple duck and felt good. It wasn't quite right I seemed to be misunderstanding the final step. I then tried to do it again and found that I was struggling to complete a simple duckl. After four pieces of wasted paper I decided to give it a rest.

 

The positive that has come out of this is that I am feeling confident handling the paper to complete the kite base it feels as though I know what I am doing. It is very straightforward and to be honest I should be feeling confident by now as I have completed this stage a number of times. I am just hoping that I will be able to achieve more tomorrow.

contemplating cyberculture, dystopia vs utopia and some of the arguments presented in the rading I can;t help but feel the need to ask  myself the question is it really possible to have evolve a cyberculture. I can't help but thin that whilst I sit at my computer posting inofrmation and files and blogs and working with a variety of programmes what am I really concerned about from a cultural persepcetive that is.  I can only think that what seems to be important is that I follow certain protocols and rules that would enable my informatio to reach its destination.

initially, I could not get into the filem festival videos , I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking for, and was not feeling anything, had no intuitin about what was actually going on. however it was not until the final two videos that it really struck me -even the blue fairy cannot work miracles. what are the miracles? making the boy feel and be human.

this seems to be the themes running through the videos. human senses , sadness, joy, shame..... etc cannot be felt by digital creations no matter how much music we attach to the videos

 music evokes feelings in us that can make us think these digital creatures are experiencing human emotions but surely we must fully appreciate that the creations cannot actually feel .

would we feel the same way viewing the videos wothout music....it is likely you might watch faces more closely looking for an expression which indicates an emotion. or you might look at the eyes - as with the cyberpunk. searching for a clue as to whats going on emotionally and make a judgement.as to what is going on.