Photo Analysis

In my opinion this is the photo of President Obama that gives me the most faith in his ability to lead this country. On of the first things you notice is his open arms and palms give us the impression that he is being open and honest with us. You also notice his confident demeanor in this situation, like he is a man with a plan. The sleeves of his shirt are pulled up, giving us the impression on a man working, and taking his job seriously. In the background the two things that stand out the most is the response map behind him, and the American flag, instilling in us a sense of patriotism.  The camera angle appears to be on the same level as the president, giving the impression that he is not any better than anyone else.

I believe that this photograph is posed, as these are two very important people seemingly explaining the situation, when someone of a lesser stature could be doing that. The fact that the American flag is in the background also leads me to assume that the photograph is posed. The photograph is meant to instill confidence in President Obama’s leadership abilities during a time of crisis.

Something that might change my opinion of Obama's leadership ability is if he looked more stressed, or angry in the picture, as that sort of situation might dictate. It would show that he is not to the more difficult challenges that you must face as president.  

My views on Video Games and Learning

            After watching the videos on how video games help with a person’s learning abilities I believe that we should be trying to find ways in which to incorporate the games into our curriculum and into the classroom itself.

As shown in the videos some things claims the back this are that students are shown to have better decision making reaction time,  video games help people with learning by constantly giving them new scenarios, which help make brain matter, and there is an environment where kids can fail, and learn from their mistakes without adverse consequences.

Here is a link to Professor Leonard A. Annettas, an Assistant Professor of science education at North Carolina State University, view on video games in the school system.

Video Games and Learnig

You’reBrain on Video Games

            The main argument of the video ‘You’re Brain on Video Games’ is that playing video games, such as violent first person shooter games, helps with your over health. People who play video games more than non players have shown to:

·         have better eyesight

·         better decision making reaction time

·         are able to better keep track of objects

·         are able to switch back and forth between tasks with ease

It tells how you can’t compare two completely different forms on media tasking, such as video games and multimedia, because the effects of both are completely different. The presenter ends by reiterating how, in small dosages, video games can help with a person’s learning, and that we need more games that have more in them to help with that learning.

AreGames Making Your Kids Smarter?

      The video ‘Are Games Making Your Kids Smarter’ also gives support to the idea the having children play video games is good for them. The presenter lists the following:

·         people who are able to multitask many different things in the video game world, while also dealing with the outside world

·         video games help people with learning by constantly giving them new scenarios, which help make brain matter

·         video games are made to be pleasurable to people, thus releasing dopamine, thus having the person keep going back to the video games looking for new scenarios

He also describes how games are going into other aspects of our lives, and that in a few years, will dominate the way we live. He also says that we need to stop fighting the gaming trends an become one with them, so that we are closer to the children who are playing them.

BigThinkers: Katie Salen on Learning with Games

            In the video ‘Learning with Games’ Katie Salen describes how helps build skills used in the 21^st century. Some of those skills include:

·         collaboration

·         team building

·         problem solving

·         take on new identities/new way of acting

·         an environment where kids can fail and learn from their mistakes without adverse consequences

One of the things she wants to do is close the gap between learning and games. She says that is hard to do, because we don’t always see the learning that is going on when we see people play games, because we normally see games as leisure time. She also says that she believes the reason students seem to be so successful at games, and not in the classroom is because they know that the game has been designed for them to be successful, and they don’t always view the classroom like that.

Picasso Head and Learning Styles

My Picasso head painting is meant to represent an MI of Musical Intelligence. In the picture I tried to convey the image of someone listening to music and being at peace with the world.

A learning style is a student's consistent way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning. My views on learning styles are that they should be used on a one on bases with a student, and not with an entire group or class of them, as they all have different ways of learning and processing information. As Stephen Downes said,

“There is no good understanding of learning styles as it stands. But it certainly does not follow that we all learn the same way—the senses may well work in concert, but (as someone with thick glasses, I can attest) some senses work more or less well, meaning that each individual may combine the senses differently.”

Some people, such as Harold E. Pashler, a professor of psychology at the University of California at San Diego, believe that teaching styles should not be used at all, because there is very little evidence that teaching in one certain style will adversely affect a student that doesn’t have that learning style in the long run, if at all. He states,

"We were startled to find that there is so much research published on learning styles, but that so little of the research used experimental designs that had the potential to provide decisive evidence."

It is my opinion that learning styles can be used with students to great effect, by only on individual bases.