Video Games

I guess I am not completely sure on what we are suppose to blog about; however, it says video games in the syllabus…so I am thinking it is in regards to our initial readings in Gee’s book. I have to be honest, when I first saw the book we were reading I thought to myself, “what does video games have to do with teaching”. I didn’t think there was anything I was going to learn. On the contrary, I have already learned a lot about teaching and learning after just 29 pages. I am surprised that I understand and can see Gee’s correlations with video games and learning. One claim Gee made was that we all read and think differently based off our semiotic domains. Gee states, “since reading and thinking are social achievements connected to social groups, we can all read and think in different ways when we read and think as members of different groups” (3). Although this is a claim I have not totally thought about on my own, I guess it is something I know intuitively and would therefore agree with this claim. Another claim made by Gee was video games are a way of learning. I am pretty anti-video games for kids yet when you really think about Gee’s quote, you can see his stance. He states when talking about the challenge of video games, “wouldn’t it be great if kids were willing to put in this much time on task on such challenging material in school and enjoy it so much” (5)? An interesting point when you think about how video games are very challenging and it can take many many hours to pass each level and finish the game. Often in the classroom, teachers tend to dumb things down because they are now being forced to “teach to the test”. This is an interesting claim made by Gee and one where I can surprisingly say, “yes, I agree”! In conclusion, I am intrigued to continue reading thru James Paul Gee’s book, What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy, and I am interesting in learning what Gee has to teach me about this new concept/theory.

What I am learning

The main thing I am learning right now, besides academics, is being a wife. I was married over the summer and I have had to make some significant adjustments going from fiancé to wife. One thing I had to learn was “the system” in order to change my last name from Bechtel to Robertson. There are many steps one must go thru in order to make this change and it needs to be done everywhere, i.e., bank, insurance, social security, passports, Chico State, etc. The other thing I am learning is to put someone other than myself first. That does sound like I am normally selfish, when I am not, but it is different having to check in with someone about what you are doing and when you are going to be home. Almost like being in high school again. I am also learning about managing our finances, making dinners, grocery shopping, laundry, etc. Although I’ve done these things for myself for the past years, it is different adding someone else’s stuff to your daily duties. I know my role of wife will change over time as our relationship grows and changes. Right now, it’s still pretty fun as newlyweds and I’m enjoying this learning process.

My first posting

This is my first posting to my blog page for English 333.