More than an ordinary class.

When I compare this class to any others, it's obviously different than many other courses we've taken.  And I'm not merely talking about the fact that weget to play video games.  No - the social aspects this class has afforded me (among others) the chance to build stronger friendships that otherwise been only to the extent ofmeeting in class every Wednesday.   I've visited the Second Skin viewing hosted by Andrew, Megan, and Billy where others shpwed up as well. I've gone on the D.C. trip which is no doubt going to be a fond memory, having the chance to spend the day with most of my classmates.  Furthermore, I've attended a WoW party put on by Bethany where we all had a lot of fun interacting in the real world while simultaneously being in the virtual world.  And lastly, the 300 viewing Teang and Heather orchestrated has brought a lot of us together in a social setting outside of class that likely wouldn't have been done otherwise.  That characteristic of the class I am thankful for having available to us.

When it's all said and done, was it worth it?

Recently, I've been pondering whether or not my time spent in the World of Warcraft has positively impacted my life in anyway or not.  At the beginning I thought having to play WoW for twenty hours was going to be burdensome and a hindrance to all the other work I would have to accomplish this semester.  Obviously not.  Last week when I checked my time played for the first tie I had logged nearly eighty hours.  At this point I thought back to McDonigal's Reality is Broken when she mentions gaming can lose its effectiveness once the player exceeds the window of opportunity.  And with her four defining characteristics games embody: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation, I felt I may have been exhausting the feedback system.  I arrived at the point where I no longer felt the benefits of the reward system.  Before each player level, talents unlocked, dungeon achievement, and so forth completed I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride.  But when it started becoming prioritized over other work I needed to get completed, and I couldn't readily pry myself away from the game, but continued playing despite the guilt trip my conscience was giving me. 

However, one day, like the spur of the moment feeling when an individual decides to randomly quit smoking, I stepped outside of the addictive personality I'd hitherto been assuming.  Fortunately, I knew from past experience that extensive euphoric binges must end eventually.  The longer a one-track idea is pursued without accounting for the lack in other areas of one's life, the harder that person will crash.  I'm reminded here of the few clips of Second Skin we've gotten to see in class.  The man who held his piss in, or used his 2-liter soda bottle as a urinal, that could've been me if I didn't have decency to uphold in a household with others! 

Also, when I aimlessly searched on google for WoW related material, I came across www.wowdetox.com, which really helped you see others who have been in the game and spent enormous amounts of time in the game world that no longer was conducive to their lives.  On this site I read about others who had top-notch gear, did raids all day long, were in some of the top 10 guilds, etc., and then I wondered to myself, I've been playing this whole time excitedly with the notion that I would somehow reach this ultimate goal at the end with a lvl 85 character and then suddenly become happy and feel I have accomplished something.  But when I read the players' blogs that posted on wowdetox, I understood then that this game never really ends, it could be pursued as long as one wishes.  Apparently for a lot of people, the game doesn't even get really good until you reach lvl 85!  Idiomatically speaking, I was chasing the dragon to no definitive end.  And therefore, I hope to return to WoW only when the time is appropriate and I don't have any obligatory projects to accomplish beforehand. 

Lastly, I just want to reflect back to last week's class where we talked as a class when technology becomes problematic in the social sphere.  And I believe we used the example of having a cell phone out at the dinner table, whether it's at a restaurant or at the home.  My thoughts are, there is a general shift in our society where technology is becoming more accepted in settings where they once before would've been deemed unacceptable.  For instance, in High School classrooms nowadays, it wouldn't be unlikely to find a class that utilizes online assignments and test taking, and hence, students are permitted/required to submit answers from their cellphones to the online database Blackboard to be recorded.  Certainly something like that with our generation would have been unfathomable for us and our teachers (hopefully no one had a preexisting heart condition that was going to be told kids could freely use their cellphones in the classroom!)  But I digress (I hope some of my audience is still here with me).  And to wrap this all up and relating it back to WoW, I think technology is of legitimate use when it's not abused, which I think is a really hard idea to consider in today's times, but used accordingly there is obvious perks that better facilitate learning in the classroom and as a way of progressing our advancements for civilizations, too.  However, taken to extremes like the direction I was heading with WoW can be detrimental when it's no longer providing a positive feedback system.  My little WoW escapade eerily reminded me of Victor Frankenstein's obsessive pursuit of science beyond a point of it no longer being a worthy cause, which consequently led to his demise..

For the Horde!

I've been asked by a few classmates on how I got to the level I am at so quickly (currently lvl. 50), so I figured I'd lay out all the methods I used in a blog post.  Let my clarify first by saying that I'm far from anything significant in this game and for the most part a newbie like many others in the class are.  Therefore, by having a newbie such as myself explain faster modes of leveling in layman's terms - the only way I know how when regarding WoW - my descriptions should come across more clearly than some of the guides you may stumble across when looking for information on the web - some I find being esoteric despite being labeled as a "beginner guide."

Anyhow, these tips are reductive, as they should be, but nevertheless should help you out if find that you're still <15 lvl aftering feeling like you've invested many hours into the game.

1.  If you're in place of settlement and see any yellow exclamation marks on your radar/map, you'll want to approach that person because it's likely to be an offer to do a quest.  Once you receive the information for the quest and accept, don't go off working on the quest just yet.  You'll want to see if there are any characters in the same vicinity offering quests and accept theirs as well.  The reason for accepting many at a time in a specific locale is the quests these characters as of you typically involve going to an area where the other quests would have you go as well.  You can confirm this by maximizing your map and seeing the proximity that your quests are located to one another.  Now you can go to that area and possibly complete three or so quests at a time rather than running back and forth to complete one.  Quests offer decent experience, decent gear to equip, and currency.  In addition, a lot of quests ask you to kill a certain enemy on the ourskirts of their post - so if you like slaughtering monsters for the hell of it, you can make it worth your time more.

2.  By following the first step's advice, this will often allow you to explore more regions that your character can explore and find more cities/posts that offer more quests and special incentives for your character.  You'll get a miniscule amount of xp for exploring a new region, but the real perks come with getting opportunities to do quests that offer more experience, better items, and more currency than the previous ones.  And because you'll be leveling as you keep questing, the level of difficulty for these quests doesn't differ too much as long as you are level appropriate - and you'll know you are because the game is structured in a way that won't allow you to enter an unexplored terrority unless you meet the level requirements (clicking on your map and hovering your cursor around regions outside the one you are in usually show in parentheses what level range of characters are allowed in that territory - thus, if you see one that you eligble for and qualify for level needed, by all means, go "explore").

3.  Early on it's also a good idea to pick a profession that suits your taste.  Each profession offers opportunities that benefit you in one way or another in the game - blacksmithing to make your own armor/weaponry, fishing to give yourself health recovering delicacies, etcetera.  The benefits include xp each time you complete a task in your trade and can set yourself up to be more self-relient in the game.  But also, everytime you're trekking across regions in the game, you'll often see mounds of ore, herbs, streams - all of which can supply you with more character xp while you are out exploring or to questing while building up your profession's skill.  Jumping on this early is good because like the territories your character advances to, each trade's requirements are also dependent on the level range of the region you're in.  So if you're in a region that requries a level 50 character level, and you decide then to pick up a mining profession, you'll have to begin mining in beginner areas much like the ones you spawned in when the game started and work up from there.

4.  Following the three previous methods for leveling up your character quickly, you will be able to get to level 15 in a short amount of time.  At this point you can que yourself in a dungeon to do an instance.  To do this, go to the green eye situated on the right-hand side of your icon bar at the bottom.  This is your dungeon finder.  You will see you can ask to be in a que that will find four other players to do a dungeon with you.  And as you'll notice, this random dungeon finder will give you a reward of gold, often a lot of experience, and a bag that contains a rare item when you open it.  Furthermore, the enemies you face in an instance are "elite" and although they are close to your level, you will find their attacks are a lot more powerful and take a lot longer to die than the enemies you come across when doing a regular quest.  For this you will understand why 5 players is usually necessary.  Furthermore, the monsters in the dungeons often give you a lot more xp (especially the bosses) than you would come across when doing quests on your own.  In addition, the items you find in dungeons normally exceed those that you'll find from doing any monster, quest, or vendor.  That's not all.  Within the dungeons you have quests you can do as well, so again you'll want to make sure you visit every character in the dungeon at the beginning that's sporting a large obnoxious exclamation mark above their head.  Now, you will see how you can level very quickly - often a whole level in one dungeon early on.  And when you're done, que up again.  But you will notice when you display your dungeon finder window that it will tell you how many more times you can do a random dungeon and receive the prize goal and bag for doing so.  Once those alloted times are used up (until they regenerate in however many days it designates) you can choose a tab within the same window that says "pick a specific dungeon."  Here you will be able to choose a dungeon that you may not have done yet, and will also display to you which dungeons are available to you.  You simply place a check next to the dungeon you would like and wait in a que - and of course if you check a dungeon that displays a range of levels that are closest to your character's level, you will reap the most benefit from those in terms of "loot" (prizes for killing monsters), gold, and experience earned.

Also, you will notice sometimes when waiting in a dungeon que that it can take anywhere from thirty seconds to fifteen minutes, which creates a perfect opportunity to read McDonigal or McGee while waiting (I read a good bit of Frankenstein while being qued up).  This way when your addictive tendencies get the upper-hand on your ability to pry yourself away from WoW, you can justify it by reading school material for 5-10 minutes before doing a half hour dungeon sweep.  Then repeat.

Can you fathom it?

If someone had asked me the question of whether or not games could socially and educationally improve one's life six years ago, I would have had to think of myself at that time coming home from school only to venture to the computer desk with a bag of twizzlers and a six pack of coca-cola to last me far into the evening.  I thought video games then were the beginning of my demise!  The notion of them providing improvement for people would just seem absurb.  Although thinking back, the accounting class I took with upper classmen during that school year when I was hardcore into video games I got nearly a 100 in the class that stunned all the other students, considering I just looked at the Diablo II barter board the whole time in class.  But even before reading any of Jane McGonigal's book my skepticism was high.  I wondered if she was going to be exerting all this energy only to be proved wrong in the end.  Well then I read the first couple chapters.

I agreed with McGonigal from the onset that video games are "fulfilling genuine human needs that the real work is currently unable to satisfy," which I took as true, but just as another escapist route.  However, she addresses this as being exempt from that category, chiefly because escapist routes typically involve extrinsic reward systems such as clothes shopping or trying to change the appearance of one's body, and other reward systems like booze and drugs are not possible long-term solutions - not that I'm suggesting short-term is either.  For video games to release the same endorphins and dopamine aka pleasure system of the brain made me want to put the book down and fire up the game console right then and there.  Amazing.  And yet (so I can keep this concise and brief so you will keep reading it), McGonigal says every game has the four defining traits such as a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.  The trick is, how can this be translated into the context of humans' everyday lives outside of the virtual reality world?  Maybe we shall know by the end of the book, but I believe if this ever pans out, McGonigal or someone else will be a very wealthy person.  I think a hindrance to people having as much dedication and motivation for video games as they do real world activites - their job, school work, etc. - is because they lack a clear-cut goal, or an appropriate feedback system.  There is a fundamental flaw somewhere that is preventing these people from reaping the same benefits from real life as they do video games.  And, as the author mentioned, it's not because people do not want to put forth the hard work and effort and just be "entertained" all day; it's that the hard work is lacking a goal, the rules aren't well devised, or maybe the feedback system isn't appropriate and it feels like there's too much coercion.  Yes, so of course "why should we needlessly spend the majority of our lives in boredom and anxiety, [if] games point to a clear and better alternative?"  Because deep down, we want the intrinsic rewards from it all - forget all the mainstream bs that tries to convince you material wealth will provide the same rewards.  And I think McGonigal makes her most important point of the two chapters when she states,

 "Satisfying work always starts with two things: a clear goal and actionable next steps toward achieving that goal.  Having a clear goal motivates us to act: we know what we're supposed to do."

Can you imagine how much better our school systems and work environments would be if teachers and employers provided constant feedback and insightful ways of helping one improve, and showing that their work is valued?

How do you all feel?  Is McGonigal onto something big with this or do you think it's a fancy pipedream that looks better on paper than in real life?

Graphic Novels as a medium for learning.

As we've discussed the issue in class, I believe everyone agreed graphic novels can be incorporated as an effective medium for learning in the classroom.  And why not?  They are fun to read outside any formal school setting, too.  Yet in school, I could understand a teacher simply not adding graphic novels into their classroom because of a set curriculum or because it's not relevant to the overall subject in the course - but to say they're  not a mature form of literature that can facilitate learning, that's rubbish.  My notion is, far too many critics out there want to hold on to old, stereotypical preconceptions of the graphic novel as simply a comic strip full of irrational and fantastical action scenes coupled with over simplified language.  Even family members of mine can't be excluded from this hysteria.  After looking at the book peculiarly and inquiring why I have it, their consternation only left them irreparably befuddled.  But the problem is: many critics who slander graphic novels never even attempted to read one.  However, my experience is, after reading graphic novels more often my appreciation only grew more for them. It's a captivating experience to have sequential art (thinking in McCloud terms here) provided with the text to make a unified learning experience.  And it's certainly a refreshing break from textual works once in a while - many high school students I'd assume would think the same, and given they can be consumed in much less time yet leave just as meaningful of an impression that literary works can provide too.  But the most significant part of them is the ability they have to communicate meaning through text as well as visuals that expands learning in more faculties than one avenue alone may lend, especially for visual-spatial learners, or students who don't respond to text alone as well.  In fact, Shaun Tan's Arrival is full of metaphorical imagery that shows how paralleling the images with the text provided can create even more meaning as a whole. Lastly, even though graphic novels should never be considered an absolute in an English class, much like the literary canon shouldn't, they no doubt have a place in the classroom to serve as a medium for learning much like its counterparts.

It's hard to believe it's been three months already.

I chose the title of my blog because it feels like such a short period of time ago that I was reading and discussing Wilhelm's strategies in _You Gotta Be the Book_, and now it's almost over.  I think it feels like such a short time ago because every week, whether it was the articles or books assigned for reading, they're fresh in my head.  I attribute all this to how much of the learning and reading I have internalized in this journey so far.  If I had to guess how this class would be without taking it, I never would have guessed I would learn so many diverse perspectives to take when teaching literature.  So much material of importance has been breeched in this classroom that I feel that I would never run out of possibilities in how to differentiate my classroom to initiate learning - and if I do exhaust all the materials discussed, I would learn to always try out a new piece of technology or form of literature in the classroom.  I think this class definitely helped broaden my horizon on how to teach outside of the box in the classroom so certain methods don't become redundant over time, and moreover, that we are willing to take a sometimes unorthodox approach to teaching, because it just may be the hidden key we needed all along but couldn't step outside of our comfort zone.

When I reflect back on Wilhelm's writings, to  the mangas, to articles about activism in the classrooms, and every other reading I had, they all hold a lot of merit to me.  Each piece of literature examined, I thought it held a very important theme that could be adopted in the classroom.  For example, like Wilhelm and countless other educators preach, we need to present our students with material that is relevant to the world in which they live in currently.   Every text we used bared significance on our adolescents - from multiculturalism, to adolescent's identity and conflict, to current trends, and even Shakespeare.  What depends on us bridging that gap between these themes and our students ability to understand and identify their concepts, well, that relies on us, the teachers: the facilitators of knowledge.  We should never give up trying to find ways to help a student make connections and understand a text.  We've read examples of how teachers had classrooms full of low level students and students with English as a second language, and they still dramatically improved their writing and reading abilities by always trying a new approach when something is not working.  That's one of the key elements to me as a teacher, to have my students walk out of the classroom at the end of the day understanding the concept.  If they walk out scatter-brained from the lesson, they that's my fault - I need to look at how I'm teaching the material and find ways to better transfer that knowledge to my students.

Graphic novels, literature circles, texts that can be applied to practical use (which can be any, in my opinion!), I want to implement them all!  If one class could show me how to keep learning consistently flowing while maintaining a high level of fun, it would be this one.  So many strategies to take on when in the classroom and with themes, if taught right, can have a very relevant impact on the student who is reading it.  And lastly, and I'll say it again, if my students are not comprehending a part of what I'm trying to teach, then the fault is on myself.  It only means I must try harder in order for them to succeed.   And speaking from experience as a former student, teachers that always developed close relationships with their students, those were the ones that had the most successful students.  I will always take that into consideration.

My first encounter with Shakespeare.

            How I managed to bypass all of high school and three years of college without having a single piece of Shakespeare’s works is beyond me.  So here begins my delayed introduction.  I first thought I should get some background knowledge of Romeo and Juliet in its original form, rather than just taking my first interpretation from the magna version only, so I checked out a version from the library.  When I started reading the original, I quickly noticed I had to substitute a lot of the “F’s” for “S’s, and “V’s” with “U’s” and so forth.  So stuck, unknowingly, with the most primitive version of the play out there, it made for a very long read, and I often had a vague idea of what was going on.  I thank the magna version for clearing all of those ambiguities up.  And I cannot say much about the magna other than the fact that I really enjoyed it for the effects the illustrations played in supplementing the emotion and pace of the reading.  I thought how useful this would be in the classroom for getting the students acquainted with Shakespeare’s work in the sense that they would be familiar with the characters, plot and so on, and most importantly, having a fun time with Shakespeare.  From there, we could then transition into picking out some passages from the original play for analysis, or if time permits, read the play in its entirety. 

            Given I have so little background about Shakespeare and his works in general, I chose the article, “Goals and Limits in Student Performance of Shakespeare” by Charles Frey, wherein he discusses approaches he found most appropriate for students’ involvement with Shakespeare.  He specifies that conventional methods in teaching Shakespeare only orient students with the task interpreting the work the way the teacher wants them to, or a certain critic.  Rather than letting the students be the recipients of instruction, he structures his semester around having students first learn the bare essentials of the plot, characters, “unusual syntactical groupings . . . complexity of sentence[s]”, and so forth.  From there, Frey then breaks down his class into small groups where each group is designated a particular passage they would prepare to act out.  He finds collaborative efforts make for the best learning, and when students are asked to act out a scene, he finds they are usually passionate about making a genuine performance.  What can I conclude from his approach?  I like it.  I like that he is concerned about a taking the time to have students fully comprehend the grammar and unfamiliar syntactical patterns of words before moving on to a group based project.  And from the small scenes that are acted out, students are taught how tone, emotion and other theatrical conventions are employed to gain a better appreciation and understanding of Shakespeare’s work.