Author: ldouglas2

Books as Video games

 

Videogames are a way of incorporating learning by introducing knowledge that isn’t commonly known. Incorporating a method for a student to learn and adapt to situations is a way that isn’t commonly done. So, if you were to incorporate reading various genres into an art form you would see an increase in class participation and for students to engage and understand a difficult text. According to a study done Thirunarayanan Vilchez said that “The use of video games in education has been increasing in the American educational system” (Cjs Journal). The use of video games has been seen for example action video games have been seen to modify spatial attention. Meaning that it’s allowing students to be able to focus on a specific field of vision on which they selected their attention. The use of videogames has come forth as the best educational tool especially in the high school environment. For videogames, one of the fundamental benefits of using them is that facilitate learning and they improve cognitive skills. The use of videogames in school has helped teachers with their students to promote learning and increase their interest in learning compared to the traditional method of teaching. Video games have evolved in a way that they aren’t just for recreation they can stimulate brain function and it aids in nurturing children’s creativity.

By introducing videogames into a form that students can learn for example the novel Frankenstein, the play Romeo and Juliet even the epic poem The Odyssey. A novel can be defined as a type of fictional narrative that is often as long as a book which includes fictional characters with some sort of action and plot. For example, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is a novel that includes fictional characters with a focal point with some sort of climax throughout the story. Then at the end of the novel, there is a lesson to be learned often found in novels like this. While a play is a form of literature that written that has a dialogue between characters which is intended to be performed rather than just read. Romeo and Juliet is a play that is made to be performed in front of an audience rather than just being read to get the full experience of the characters in the play. Then an epic poem can be defined as “a long narrative poem telling of a hero’s deeds” (Vocabulary.com). The epic poem The Odyssey is a long poem focusing on the deeds of the main protagonist in the poem Odysseus on his journey back home. This epic poem is showing the life of a particular hero and the adventure they are experiencing. For students, these three different genres of literature are often used in the classroom to persuade and teach on different topics of literature. These texts are often not that easy to understand because of their difficult use of language throughout them. When teachers are given these particular texts for their students, they are found to have a resistance reading them because students find them to be too long or uninteresting for a student to read. So, incorporating text into a form that would greatly increase the way students learn would have a great impact on the way students learn.

Students usually don’t really have the time and or patience to sit down and read. On average teens spend roughly about six and a half hours each week in the United States (Lime Light). For the age range of students between the ages of eighteen to twenty-five-year-old students for about this range spend about 7 hours playing videogames (Lime light). The average amount of time to play videogames that are considered a long time. During this time students could be learning and taking in new information from their school work. They can stimulate their minds by learning new material and having knowledge that they didn’t know before. For my technology including various genres of novels, epic poems and plays into a videogame it would be a way that stimulates students minds, encourages their way of learning. Including these numerous tales that are often read in high school and at the college level you would see an increase in the manner of class discussions in students in regards to students participating more in class.

These various different genres have distinct forms of syntax and diction that could often be difficult for a student to understand. This item would focus on the age range of young adults in the age range of 18 to 30 years old. Around this age, the types of literature that are being given to read in high school even at the college level can be quite tricky and difficult to understand. So, by incorporating various genres of literature into videogames into a source of technology that is used in high amounts; you would see an increase in the way young adults follow along and read in class. This product would work with any current game console that we use in today’s modern age (i.e. Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo switch, etc.) It would be manufactured like a normal video game it would be sold places where can be purchased at. For example, video games will be sold online for steam users to access.  These games will be also sold in local stores, for example, Walmart and Best Buy and any major retail store that sells videogames. They will be a reasonable price that’s affordable and not too overpriced so students don’t have to break the bank to gain access to this technology.

The video games would be a third person perspective where you control the character and learn as you go throughout the story. For example, with Mary Shelly Frankenstein you would play as Dr. Frankenstein and you would go throughout the whole narrative as the main protagonist and learn about the character an on ways that the character goes throughout the story. This method of learning is more than just you going through the narrative and experiencing the book. You will learn and experience the life of the characters in the book.

The way that this item will be advertised is by using advertisements that focus on college students and high school students who are looking for a way to make learning a little bit easier. They should make it in a way where it has a catchy slogan to encourage students to read and make it in a way that it would appeal to using this technology. The advertisements could be like pop-up ads that found on numerous ads that could draw the attention of students to look at them see what makes this product so revolutionary. High school and college teachers could recommend the item to their students in a way to get them to try the product for the class and get them to be engaged in the class in a way they find will facilitate their learning. The product would have a test run with a college class and get experience on how the students prefer the product and make sure the product works and will the product be successful then work on any recommendations that could be used to improve the product. With the use of this technology, it will eventually expand to more novels and text that are often difficult to understand.

For example, for the Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. The story of the book isn’t difficult to understand it’s the language and the vocabulary throughout the story. This novel has various references that often not really known for the reader that reference like the bible. For example, “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel…” (Shelly #). The bible isn’t exactly portrayed in the novel it’s more of a symbol this referenced. The monster in the book can be portrayed as Adam, while he can also be compared to Satan as well. Something like this would be a slight challenge for someone to interpret if you don’t really know much about the Bible and Christianity itself. In a way, a student can learn about the different aspects of the bible that often known by people who either not religious and or not keen on the idea that the bible is referenced in the novel. By exploring throughout the game and finding letters what are taken directly from the book and have subtitles underneath the quote so students have a better understanding of what the quotes mean or in a way of having the quote translated in a way that is used in modern English. By doing this method it gets the reader engaged and they aren’t just going through the game and listening to the narrative. They have a way of interacting with the story an being more engaged in the story seeing how the interpretation of the monster that Frankenstein created comes to life on the screen in right in front of you. By also expanding it and taking on the monster’s perspective and learning and imaging how the monster is experiencing certain stimulus that affects him. This is more than just a videogame it’s a game that influences learning, teaching a student on ways that aren’t commonly conventional and make reading a more enjoyable and easier method of doing. Since in this day and age videogames are such a strong selling point that people use them in way of doing anything else.

Overall videogames have been seen to have numerous effects on the way people learn to communicate and take in new information. By incorporating the method videogames into a form that students can learn and expand their knowledge they can greatly influence class participation in a class setting. Students often find it hard to communicate their knowledge of certain topics of difficult novels, epic poems, and plays. Incorporating them into videogames students will be more engaged, and willing to share their knowledge of topics and interest throughout a book. For the example Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, it is not a difficult story to understand it’s the vocabulary in it that makes it hard for students to understand.  Using videogames as a method for students to learn they will be able to possess the knowledge that is often lost because students don’t find these types of novels interesting if they don’t understand what’s happening in the story they are not going to read it. Incorporating something like this will translate the method of reading, so people in high school and college level will be able to understand a novel like this. For a novel, they reference the bible and without an explanation of quotes, people would often miss the references that are relating to the bible. This method of communicating novels, plays and epic poems would be a great way of expanding the knowledge of students minds and ability to understand the text they are reading.

 

Citations

Citations

Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Bible in Frankenstein.” Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 May 2019.

Saghir, Ali. “Influence of Video Games in Learning.” Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences, Aug. 2016, cisjournal.org/journalofcomputing/archive/vol7no8/vol7no8_1.pdf.

“THE STATE OF ONLINE GAMING – 2018.” Content Delivery Network (CDN) Service Provider, www.limelight.com/resources/white-paper/state-of-online-gaming-2018/#spend.

 

Books as Video games

The new technology that I’m creating is by incorporating books into videogames. By introducing videogames because when you think about books and or plays like Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet even the Odyssey. These all have very distinct forms of syntax and diction that could often be difficult for a student to understand. This item would focus on the age range of children between the ages of 18 to 30 years old. Around this age, the types of literature that are being given to read in high school even at the college level can be quite tricky and difficult to understand. So, by incorporating videogames and books into an art form this would see an increase in the way young adults follow along and read in class. This product would work with any current game console that we use in today’s modern age (i.e. Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo switch, etc.) It would be manufactured like a normal video game it would be sold in any store that sells videogames. The video games would be a third person perspective where you control the character and learn as you go throughout the story. For example, with Mary Shelly “Frankenstein” you would play as the Dr. Frankenstein and you would go throughout the whole narrative as the main protagonist and learn about the character an on ways that the character goes throughout the story.

For example, for the Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. The story of the book isn’t difficult to understand it’s the language and the vocabulary throughout the story. For example, “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel…” (Mary Shelly). Something like this would be a slight challenge for someone to interpret. So, in a way a student can learn is by exploring throughout the game and finding letters what are taken directly from the book and have subtitles underneath the quote so students have a better understanding of what the quotes mean or in a way of having the quote translated in a way that is used in modern English. By doing this method it gets the reader engaged and they aren’t just going through the game and listening to the narrative. They have a way of interacting with the story an being more engaged in the story seeing how the interpretation of the monster that Frankenstein created come to life on the screen in front of you. By also expanding it and taking on the monster’s perspective and learning and imaging how the monster is experiencing certain stimulus that affects him. This is more than just a videogame it’s a game that influences learning, teaching a student on ways that aren’t commonly conventional and make reading a more enjoyable and easier method of doing. Since in this day and age videogames are such a strong selling point that people doing anything else.

Karl Stolley

Karl Stolley skyped with our class and discussed different types of fonts. For most fonts we discussed and that he told us about were fonts that I didn’t really know. Some of the fonts I was common with for example Helvetica and Calbri. Then he told us that for most brands use fonts that I wasn’t common with but, that is how they became so popular. He discussed there are more to just a font, for example, its more than what the words are saying with the font. The use of various fonts can be aesthetically pleasing as well. We use certain fonts because they are skinner and easier to read and they flow in a manner that allows readers to flow with the information. While we use bolder and bigger fonts to say something important or give meaning to something. When Dr. Licastro also included in the visit that uses Helvetica for her emails for people with learning disabilities to help them better read the information was really interesting to hear. Which made we wonder why don’t we use Helvetica in academic papers if there were studies on this font that aided in the understanding and helped with learning disabilities

Zines

Zines can be defined as “A noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specializing and often unconventional subject matter” (Merriam Webster). Zines first started off in the 1930s and were focused on the genre of science fiction. During this time they called them the term fanzine which was was recognized as fan magazine then was then shorted to be called zines. They were self-published and small and they wanted to voice their opinions in a form that wasn’t mainstream media. Zines were often printed in small numbers and they were often underground and were made to pertain to a specific audience. By the 1950s and 60s, there was a rise in the use of zines. By the 1980s saw an even larger increase in usage during the punk music scene. The punk zines were more than just magazines they were a source of aesthetics and were a source that represented the culture that they were pertaining to. An example of these zines during this time would be “Riot Girl” which focused on the ideas of feminism and sex and chaos. Zines gave a voice to people of different backgrounds from minorities, LGBT and woman. They wanted to have a method and a way that people could have their voices heard. Zines have a large variety of genres and themes that focus in on different topics. Now with the growing use of technology and the use of internet the idea of a zine is making them more diverse than ever before. The use of the internet has helped bring young artist together to collaborate and communicate with one another. Today’s zines can be seen in publications like Home Zine. This concept was created by an artist to explore the concept of feeling at home. Zines and the culture behind aren’t dead it’s becoming a revamped form of media.

 

The usage of zines never left today’s media they are still underground and still not as popular as a regular magazine. Zines aren’t made to focus on one particular topic they can be made to talk about anything. They were made and still made as a way of self-expression to persuade and get ones views out there in a way that was graphically pleasing. With the use of zines in modern times they now seem to be more digital than physical. In today’s modern time with the internet not only are zines being found in ways in different media platforms they are much more simpler and can be viewed in a way most people don’t normally do. Creating zines have found new light in technology standards. They reached a global audience allowing a larger audience to see them.

 

Zines have seen an ever-expanding form of media that created a way for an artist to express themselves in a way the mainstream media didn’t allow themselves to be expressed. Zines weren’t meant for one group, in particular, they were a diverse art form that given the right tools to express them on a much larger spectrum. With the initial zines were mainly focused on the genre. By the 1980s around the same time as the punk rock scene, one major zine that was easily distinguishable was the zine of “Riot Girl”. This was so important during the time because it focused on the ideas of life during the time and gave a voice to women and the feminist cause behind it. That focused on the idea woman do have a voice too and the chaos behind a woman being misrepresented was very prominent during that time. Zines also gave a voice to other groups like the LGBT community and minorities to have their voices heard. Not much information on zines can be found since they were such an unground source of media that they weren’t really common known. But with the use of the internet made the zines a thing that we haven’t forgotten about. The use of the internet made it easier to for an artist to collaborate and create zines. These zines can be used to be found across multiple platforms and social media. More zines can be found digitally rather than physically and often seen to be more of a way to show their artistic side of the fan magazine.

Work Cited

“The Resurgence of Zine Culture and Why It’s So Important.” Study Breaks, 17 May 2017, studybreaks.com/culture/the-resurgence-of-zine-culture-and-why-its-so-important/.

 

Elizabeth, Marcia. “To Zine or Not to Zine? – The Cultural Significance of Self-Publishing.” Bubblegum Club, Bubblegum Club, 7 Nov. 2017, bubblegumclub.co.za/art-and-culture/zine-not-zine-cultural-significance-self-publishing/.

Wright, Fred. “ The History and Characteristics of Zines.” Zines, E-Zines: The History and Characteristics of Zines, Part I, www.zinebook.com/resource/wright1.html.

Mosaic: Not the art style

When you think about the internet you easily know the URL bar search bars and various websites that are used in our day to day lives. The use of the internet didn’t start there. The first workable prototype for the internet was in the 1960s and was called ARPANET. This invention allowed the use of multiple computers to communicate on a single network. By the 1970s two scientist Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf worked together to create TCP/IP also known as Transmission Control Protocol and internet protocol. With this invention, it set how the use of data could be managed and used across multiple networks that not only helped create the idea of the internet. By 1990s the internet had a real form and could be recognized. It was created by computer scientist Tim Bernes-Lee. With it allowed us to communicate in ways that way that we couldn’t before. Communication was much faster, and we didn’t have to rely on in-person contact or sending letters. Tim felt as though prior to the creation of the internet he said “In those days there were was different information on different computers but you had to log on to different computers to get at it. Also sometimes you had to learn different programs on each program on each computer” (Web foundation). So Tim went to work and on a way to solve that problem and make it easier to connect in a way that didn’t require multiple computers and different programs to learn. By 1990 Tim created the first Webpage “WorldWideWeb.app” and the first web server “Httpd”.

 

When thinking of web browsers you commonly know about Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. These weren’t the original browsers that we know and love in an advanced technological world. We can define web browsers as “A software program that allows a user to locate and access and display web pages” (Techopedia). Mosaics wasn’t the first web browser that came out in the 20th century. Web browsers can date back as early as the 1980s which led to the creation of WWW the World Wide Web. These pages consisted of HTML required to program in order to access a page. With the release of Mosaic, it did away with this idea of entering HTML to access to the web and made it more graphically appealing idea of the World Wide Web. Mosaic became a tool that was reliable and easy to use. Mosaic was fast and allowed people to see images within pages. Compared to other browsers prior to Mosaic where could only show images in separate windows and it popularized the use of bookmarks and icons so it was more user-friendly. During the time there were other web browsers but they were for Unix machines and those machines were rather expensive. When it came to having access to the web it was mainly for the use of academics and engineers who had access to this form of technology. The creator of Mosaic Marc Andersen created Mosaic in a way that it was easier to use and was graphically and aesthetically pleasing. With the invention of Mosaic, it introduced the invention of a hyperlink. Previously hypertext links had reference numbers that the user typed in so they could retrieve linked documents. With the invention of the hyperlinks allowed users to simply click on a link to retrieve a document. In 1993 when Mosaic has released it immediately became popular more than 5,000 copies were being downloaded each month. With the ever-expanding Mosaic, it’s growth was so great that it made it to the front page of the New York Times.

 

Tim Bernes Lee creation of the internet not only set a stepping stone for how we use the internet in today’s standards so did the use of Mosaic. Mosaic was a revolutionary tool that is often missed when it comes to the modern form of the internet. Tim Beres Lee invention of the internet is always recognized as a major factor in a source of communication. With Mosaic, we were now able to look at text and images on the same page. Browsers prior to it couldn’t do that. The design of the web browser was more user-friendly and was much easier to use. This tool also introduced hyperlinks allowing a user to click a link and being able to retrieve a document from it.

WorkCited

Andrews, Evan. “Who Invented the Internet?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 18 Dec. 2013, www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet.

“History of the Web.” World Wide Web Foundation, webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/.

Dalakov, Gerogi. “NCSA Mosaic of Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina.” History of Computers and Computing, Internet, Internet Conquers the World, NCSA Mosaic, history-computer.com/Internet/Conquering/Mosaic.html.

Carlos Hernandez

From my experience from hearing Carlos Hernandez talk about the world of digital media. He’s a smart educated Cuban American who has a background in various aspects of Hispanic culture and Americanized culture. Listening to him speak he’s a very knowledgable man. He introduced himself with a portion of his poem about his abuela. His poems are more than words to him they are closely related to the aspects of his life. He is very knowledgable on digital media. He said when it comes to managing white space on a regular page it can be very costly and expensive to produce because you have to worry about the white space that is taking up the page. Compared to producing works in the digital field you don’t have to worry about that aspect. With his long poem, he showed it was a lot of white space on the right hand of the page. He said that was less costly when to price because it doesn’t cost much produce work digitally.

Another aspect that was very interesting to hear was the thought of being published. He said, “You get better by getting rejected. By producing work and submitting it to the major publishing companies that’s the only way you can get better. I believe that’s very interesting to hear because with your work the only way to get better is to be rejected. So by getting your getting your work out now, you can eventually get the opportunity that you were looking for. Listening to him was very interesting and intriguing to hear.

Journal Entry

McLuhan is emphasizing the idea of electric circuits in the book when he says “Electric circuitry profoundly involves men with one another. Information pours upon us instantaneously and continuously” (McLuhan 63). McLuhan is trying to say that with the use of technology we are always taking in new information and we may not even realize it. I would agree that with the use of technology we are like a sponge we take in new information all the time. McLuhan then says that “As soon as information is acquired it is very rapidly replaced by still newer information” (63). McLuhan whats to say that we will take in new information and we will immediately forget the old information like our brain will do wipe to make room for the new information. A prime example of that would be for when people are studying for exams they remember enough information for the first exam but when it comes time for the next exam all the information of the previous exam is hard to recall because people don’t remember any of it. I would agree that would be true because I personally would say that happens to me. I’ll remember enough information to take the exam then I’ll remove all that information from my head without even realizing it.

 

Career Services Meeting

Lawrence Douglas

February 14, 2019

From my intentional understanding of digital publishing and how it would correlate with the field that I’m interested in that there wouldn’t be much of a correlation. After meeting with the career advisor, I found a new understanding of digital publishing and how it can relate to the field of medical lab technicians. From my meeting, we examined different opportunities and what fields that could use the aspect of lab techs and digital publishing coming together as one cohesive unit.

From the meeting, we explored different companies using digital publishing. For example, the compaines of Lilly and Sano Fi are both pharmaceutical companies that focus on the medical side and publishing side of how they could use it to get information across. In a job, they call a content manager and or creator where they manage and focus on how they can publish information in a form of media. Another way that this field could be used is through medical journals. This method is a way for people to learn of scientific methods in a way that it is not over-bearing and complicated for people who are not in the scientific field. The final method was in pharmacies for example like Cvs and Walgreens. They use the method of advertisement to and methods to encourage people to get flu vaccinations and other information that may not be prevalent to normal customers and makes it easier for them to read

Marshall McLuhan

Lawrence Douglas

“Today’s television child is attuned to up-to-the-minute “adult” news-inflation, rioting, war, taxes, crime, bathing beauties- and is bewildered  when he enters  the nineteenth- century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but  ordered and structured  by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules.” (Pg 18)

 

With modern technology, we often notified and up to date with daily news. The things that adults would notify us of on current events we can find out for ourselves. The age of technology not only has expanded our knowledge of new topics that we didn’t know before. The nineteenth century was the time when technology was just getting started. With the use of technology now we are more adept to common events that occur around us. We can find this source of media anywhere on multiple forms of social media. Technology is an ever-expanding idea that we will continue through our lifetime