Hi Ben- Enjoyed your prezi! It was nice to control the pace of the presentation so I could jot down the important parts :)

It sounds like anyone who has prior knowledge and understanding of the game and willingness to learn would be considered an "insider" within the forum-based community. Do you think that people with no prior knowledge but willingness to learn could succeed within the space?

It sounds like you are pretty familiar with the game and didn't take too much time lurking around. Most of your contributions were around deck building, spoiler alerts, and trading cards. What would you think is the most popular topic in the space? Deck building?

I understand that one of the biggest strengths of the space is that is really fosters a sense of belonging within the community, which it's an important social aspect of the game. What do you think are the limitations?

I think the features of affinity spaces you chose make sense and are appropriate for the community. The variety of topics, roles (lurkers and aficionados), and skill / strategy level show how important it is for participants to want to keep learning. The sharing and critiquing support growth, which could not happen by oneself (or at least it would take a lot longer!)

Great job!

Hi Kait- Loved your creative approach to your affinity space presentation! It really gave me a nice feel for the game Vampire the Masquerade.

Based on the information you provided in your presentation, it is very important for players to remain in character, not cross the 4th wall or, the human and virtual worlds, and never hijack a storyline. Since this is a roll playing game, I can understand why this is imperative to the overall success.

Since you have been gaming for quite some time, you're contributions to the affinity space (email and FB group) started out strong. I admire the strength of your character and ability to develop and maintain the storyline.

You also mentioned that this affinity space is a way for players to gain social skills and cultural competencies that are necessary for participatory cultures, tying it back to Jenkins. I think these are also necessary skills for everyday (real) life!

I agree with the aspects of affinity spaces you chose from Gee and Hayes and especially think the connection to porous leadership works great here.

Great work!

Hi Mike- Great overview of Terraria and it's affinity space Terriari.org! I appreciate the comparison to Minecraft as I now know what that is after watching 2 of our peers presentations on it :)

This is the first presentation I've watched where visitors / guests can access the community forums though there is a membership option. Great way to describe the developers who run the site the "insiders." I don't know if I would have made that connection on my own.

Your hesitation to contribute is something I'm sure a lot of people feel. For people who prefer to lurk in the background and consume, putting yourself out there can be challenging --especially when you aren't that knowledgeable in the subject matter. Kudos for working through it! Sounds like all newbies should spend some serious time in the getting started wiki page.

I agree with your strengths for terriria.org in that it is most definitely the place for players to get information directly from the source: the developers. It's a site with, as you put it, credibility.

I agree with your selection of Gee and Hayes's features of an affinity space. It's obvious from your presentation that participants are all there to learn and share knowledge about Terrari, the space does not segregate by age and participants, whether members or visitors, all share the space.

Great work!

Hi Melanie- I enjoyed watching your affinity space presentation on Reddit. It sounds like you were able to make some strong connections with our course reading and make it applicable to you as a professional.

Thank you for explaining how the community works by your analogy of "teachers help teachers." I understand that your affinity space encouraged collaboration, feedback on lessons, and answers to math education related questions.

I appreciate your methodical approach to participation: observing first then commenting and finally posting a question to the crowd. It is obvious how the space helped you grow your confidence as a participant as well as a professional. You put it best when you said that no one knows that you are only a 2nd year teacher-- everyone has something to contribute!

I especially liked how, even though you felt lost at the beginning, you were able to relate your experience to games and learning by way of engagement. Playing through engagement helps make information stick, which I think is incredibly important for people learning math.

Your chosen affinity space features by Gee and Hayes seemed appropriate for your purpose, especially the one that calls out all ages are welcomed. This is important for both novice and seasoned teachers as we all have something different to share.

I completely agree with you that the best way to learn is by interacting and communicating and I really liked when you said content is transformed through interactions.

Best of luck to you as you move forward into your new year as a teacher. I hope your affinity space continues to be useful to you!

Hey Brian- I enjoyed watching your affinity space presentation on the World of Warcraft forum. I'm sure going into your space having so much knowledge and experience about the game differed from many of us who chose a space at random(ish). I'm glad you were able to connect the dots with how affinity spaces behave as an effective learning resource.

Based on the information you shared, the forum is easy to join, once you have your battle.net login, and participants range from developers to WoW players, newbies to seasoned players, and age doesn't really matter. Forums are moderated tactfully and sarcasm isn't all that usual among members.

I really liked that you asked participants their thoughts on learning through WoW play. What better way to investigate ways WoW forum supports learning than to ask and get real feedback. It was interesting to see the breadth of responses (from transferable skills to reaction time to encouraging failure) and how learning through play is different for everyone.

WoW forum depends on a wide community / fan base. As you mentioned, networked individuals creating and sharing ideas and information, forming nodes of interest and knowledge, and continuously learning and evolving within a larger digital organism not only empowers but supports a broader environment to learn. For a game so complex as WoW, a space limited to say, 30 people in a more traditional learning environment like our Canvas discussions, wouldn't get the same experience. Participants would eventually need to pull in resources from outside sources.

I agree with your connections to our semester readings in that this community absolutely consumes and produces knowledge. It's what keeps the engine running. To your point though, this type of participation requires a huge time commitment. Something I found with my space too. But, as you mentioned, your affinity space is more than becoming an expert player, it's teaching people how to collaborate, become comfortable with failing, and improves the digital literacies often lacking in our educational institutions.

Great work!

I'm impressed! I played for about 5 minutes :)

Really appreciate the simple prompts. They helped guide me to where I needed to go (or not go) to get those pages.

How many pages do players need to find? I collected 3 and then got stuck in the bathtub.

Do you know if there is a mobile version for students to practice on the go? Or, are you thinking this will be an in-class activity?

For me, someone who is horrible at math and not a fan of games, this would be a stressful experience (especially as a tween!!!) Will it be required as part of a grade or something more like "flashcards" to help students practice. Are you going to reward students for playing?

Congrats and good luck with your new position!

Does the school provide you with resources / training to get you up to speed or is it completely up to you?

I literally just said the same thing in my critique blog! Learning seems to be unique for everyone...

I agree! It has been so helpful in my learning as well. We get perspectives from a handful of folks vs 1 (from literature or professor).

Awesome! Do you find that this motivates you to want to keep blogging?

Appreciate the screen cast!

Do you think this is due to it's alpha stage or part of the design experience? Did you like this?

That's a lot to learn and remember! I would probably quit this!

What is MMO?

Is this common for video games now-a-days? Smart design to offer up personalization for what players prefer.

What do you think is the biggest thing you've learned so far?

I used to watch my bro play this back in the day. As an observer, it was more interesting to watch over some other games. I think I liked the adventure :)

Do you think that the cognitive skills associated with designing civilizations in Civ 2 could be similar to the skills needed to design games in general? Or, do you see these as separate?

If you could change / add one thing about the tutorial to make it more effective, what would it be?

Do you think if the tutorial was better, you wouldn't have felt as overwhelmed by all the icons, status bars, and screens?

Interesting! Do you have a link?

I struggle with TW too and had to deactivate FB because of this very reason. I was finding myself getting stressed out for reasons out of my control and then going down rabbit holes and wasting time where my time could be spent doing more productive things. As someone who works in the social media realm (without any real passion for it), I empathize with you. However, I do feel that it does have it's benefits. It's just finding what works right for you-- that's the tricky part.

Love this!

100% agree. Great connection on how games can improve learning outcomes more effectively than traditional schooling.

Do you think there are instances where Edutopia may not be a good learning tool?

What are the types of social and emotional support you or the students are looking to gain from Edutopia?

Great overview of your affinity space. Are you working with your students in the tool? Or, how are you utilizing Edutopia to deepen your understanding about play, games, and learning?

What are some preconceived ideas that have shifted so far in our course?

Interesting observation. What has happened that made this connection for you? Are these digital or physical games or both? Now I'm curious!

I'm glad that you have found Twitter valuable to your learning. Did you use Twitter prior to this course? What do you love about it / hate about it? I'm curious because I often see the value in Twitter for my coursework but as a general social media practice, it's not my go-to or favorite. It often seems more like a chore to me.

In case anyone is interested, I found a brief video (because I'm a super visual person) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qyt906RL4

This games seems oddly familiar... I don't think I've ever played. Is it like Scattegories? I haven't played Scattegories in a long time so I might be way off :)

Do you think this game would be good in an educational setting or is it more for fun with friends?

Great connection! Do you think that memorization plays a part in this at all? I'm not familiar with the game but have played games like this in the past and it seems to get "easier" because you are learning / remembering what the cards and answers are.

Is this a game that constantly challenges thinking or would you say one could easily get bored after a few plays?

Gosh, this couldn't be more important right now... I've always been weary about the news and the media and now, more than ever, we need to be extra sensitive to what's being said. I never thought about annotations before our class-- what a valuable (and extremely powerful) tool to give people (from all over the world) the opportunity to open up for honest, intelligent, conversation. It encourages us to think for ourselves and question everything media is pushing on us! I'll be interested to see where this goes...

Thanks for sharing!

If you were to offer up suggestions to the game designer on ways to customize the experience, what would they be?

I would have done the same thing... I have to print out everything i read too for school! Do you think younger generations do this? Or, because they are so used to doing everything digital, it's easier straight from the device?

What does FPS stand for?

See-- not a waste of time! Through the game play you were able to make a connection with our reading and how to integrate your reflections and learnings into real life. BAM! I'd say that's pretty useful!

Great connection!

This is way more productive than watching TV ;)

I think you might have the wrong URL here. It appears to link to the 1010! game.

Do you think this was intentional?

Why do you think this was?

I guess this probably wasn't VR then ;)

Virtual Reality simulation?

Are you familiar with the organization, Girls Who Code? I just left a comment on Annie's blog about this very thing. If not, I recommend checking it out. Seems like it might be something of interest to you: https://girlswhocode.com/

Me as well however, my older bro was glued to the TV and his video games. Your critique pretty much sums up my intro to play blog!

Great summary and synthesis!

Great connection! I attended a conference last fall and Reshma Saujani, CEO of Girls Who Code, spoke about this very thing only in the computer science realm. It was fascinating to learn than even open and encouraging parents subconsciously influence girls to steer clear from computer science. In fact, she said that if girls don't take a computer science class in elementary school, they will never take one! As tech jobs become more in demand, it's so important to encourage girls to get involved-- game play could play a big part in this!

Great connection!

Love how you associate games with imagination and play vs video/board games!

Where in PA? I also grew up in rural PA!

Wow!

I've heard about this through an old classmate and, I think we did a twitter chat on it a few months ago through our pedago.me community. Any interest in joining the group? http://pedago.me/join-us/

Great connection! I took the Digital Storytelling course as well and curious at what point in the course did this light turn on for you?

Love the visual! Great post. I look forward to learning with you this semester!

Yes! i'm curious about this too since, I hate games :)

I have a similar experience with my older brother. He would play video games and I would watch over and over and over. But, I don't think I ever felt a sense of belonging because it was more or less a waiting game until I could "try" or watch TV.

I can relate to this 100%