Though I haven't really narrowed down the scope of my topic for my paper, what I do know is that I want to write about video games and education. I know that there is a lot that video games get right as far as holding one's attention and they actually do teach a lot. I want to talk about video games and learning with specific examples and what can be learned from them.
I know that the staple resource for the paper would be James Gee's What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy and I'm open to other references that anyone might have. And mainly by that I mean Julie of course :)
Pardon the briefness of this post, but beyond that I just can't think of a better way to nutshell it for you until I can think of a way to refine the topic.
This assignment was not to be any shorter or less in-depth than the typical expectations for a blog post. This doesn't give me much to go on, AND is set up as a report ("what can be learned from them"), so instead I will reiterate what should have been addressed. If blog post #9 is rich with details, then I will have the opportunity to help you with my comments at that time.
ReplyDeleteFrom the assignment sheet, some of the general rules for the paper were:
* You must link at least two very general topics (ex: digital divide and the concept of community (virtual or otherwise), gaming and gender representations, personal representation and Internet activism, etc). You're not limited to two, but two is plenty.
* You must include secondary research that both supports and refutes your argument. Including the naysayer's point of view and subsequently arguing why the naysayer is wrong, is as important to making and supporting your argument as including a bunch of research that supports what you're saying.
* The specific rule of most importance is that you must make an original argument with your work. You must have a thesis that includes with it the "so what" or "who cares" aspect of your argument, and that "so what" or "who cares" part of the analysis must be clear throughout your essay.
Also from the assignment sheet, Step #2 says that for this assignment you should "write a paragraph or two that describes exactly what you plan to do, what you plan to argue, and how (in general) you plan to support your argument. Also, indicate why you want to pursue this topic."
Putting those things together, your proposal should have included what you plan to do (including which general topics from the course that you are going to link together) -- this means details and some depth -- what you plan to argue (this could include the argument or the research question in advance of the argument, with an hypothesis of the argument you potentially foresee), and how you plan to support the argument (which theories do you see yourself using on either side of your argument, etc).
All of those elements should be present in blog #9, yet with even more depth than I expected for blog #8, since you will have annotated sources and know how you will be using them in your argument.