Words, symbols, images, and artifacts have meanings that are specific to par-ticular semiotic domains and particular situations (contexts). They do notjust have general meanings
Super important. Things don't have to have general meanings, their meanings can be dependent on context and situation and societal views.
The learner needs to learn not only how to un-derstand and produce meanings in a particular semiotic domain that arerecognizable to those affiliated with the domain, but, in addition, how tothink about the domain at a “meta” level as a complex system of interre-lated parts. The learner also needs to learn how to innovate in the domain—how to produce meanings that, while recognizable, are seen assomehow novel or unpredictable.
Ah, back to a "meta" conversation.
We learn to experience (see, feel, and operate on) the world in newways.2.Since semiotic domains usually are shared by groups of people whocarry them on as distinctive social practices, we gain the potential tojoin this social group, to become affiliated with such kinds of people(even though we may never see all of them, or any of them, face toface).3.We g ain resources that prepare us for future learning and problem solv-ing in the domain and, perhaps, more important, in related domains
Three very important things.
We always learn something.And that some-thing is always connected, in some way, to some semiotic domain or other
This is full of interesting points that I never really put much thought into.
Important knowl-edge (now usually gained in school) is content in the sense of informationrooted in, or, at least, related to, intellectual domains or academic disciplineslike physics, history, art, or literature. Work that does not involve such learn-ing is “meaningless.” Activities that are entertaining but that themselves donot involve such learning are just “meaningless play.” Of course, video gamesfall into this category.
Really good way to describe how some individuals think. Video games are "meaningless" because they are not directly tied into traditional academics.
It is quite a sight to watch a six-year-old, as Captain Olimar, lead a multi-colored army of little Pikmin to fight, build, grow more Pikmin, and explorea strange landscape, all the while solving multiple problems to discover andget to the locations of the spaceship’s missing parts.
Great problem-solving game that promotes creativity and analytic thinking.
Furthermore,and more important, people need to be able to learn to be literate in newsemiotic domains throughout their lives
Again, important, because it is crucial to grow and evolve across our lifetimes.
People need to be lit-erate in a great variety of different semiotic domains.
I think this is incredibly important. It is not good enough to simply be able to read.
the image of across means Christ (or Christ’s death) in the context of Christian social prac-tices, and it means the four points of the compass (north, south, west, andeast) in the context of other social practices
Really good example about how symbols can have different meanings cross-culturally.
On one hand, producers are deeply enough embedded in their socialpractices that they can understand the texts associated with those practicesquite well. On the other hand, producers are often so deeply embedded intheir social practices that they take the meanings and values of the texts asso-ciated with those practices for granted in an unquestioning way.
This is a really good point. This reminds me of conversations that I have with my PhD MicroBiologist sister, who doesn't always do a great job in speaking in laymen terms when it comes to scientific concepts, as she is involved in a world where everyone around her knows what is going on.
You may very well know what every word in this sentence means interms of dictionary definitions, but you cannot read the sentence with any realworthwhile understanding unless you can recognize, in some sense (perhapsonly in simulations in your mind), guards, dribbling, basketballs, open men,and basketball courts
This really shows the importance of visualization and having prior knowledge of topics that aid in your understanding of information given. As this states, even if you can coherently understand the language and words being used, you are not able to visually picture this scenario without prior experience or knowledge about the sport.
Readingand writing in any domain, whether it is law, rap songs, academic essays, su-perhero comics, or whatever, are not just ways of decoding print, they arealso caught up with and in social practices.
This is a point that shows context is key.
We don’t read orwrite newspapers, legal tracts, essays in literary criticism, poetry, rap songs,and on through a nearly endless list in the same way.
This is important because we really do place different emphasis, importance, and appreciation into the work that we are reading, dependent on the context and the form of media. We digest information differently and read and write these different forms of media differently.
In such multimodaltexts (texts that mix words and images), the imagesoften communicate different things from the words.
This is an important aspect to highlight, because it is important to realize that you may need to be able to digest information from both text and images independently from one another and join them together to form the full picture of information.
For ex-ample, being able to “read” the images in advertising is one type of visualliteracy.
This is a really great explanation of literacy and different forms of communication systems outside of language.
build a roleplaying game characterbased on yourself
This is such a fun and creative activity, for individuals already invested in roleplaying games and for individuals who don't have any prior exposure to roleplaying. Very cool!
consider cultural influences on meaningful games
Excited about this assignment already!
your best bet is to turn in your work by the official deadline or—if life has thrown you a curveball—to get in touch with me ahead of time to make other arrangements.
Very fair.
You will complete reading activities by leaving at least one annotation (but preferably more!) for that reading.
I like the idea of annotation, as we can highlight what we enjoyed, didn't understand, found frustrating, etc.
To respond to both of these issues, you will complete Module Participation activities throughout the semester that both:•break the final project down into more manageable steps,and •allow me to provide feedback after each of these steps so that you can course correct as you go!
It is incredibly beneficial to be able to have this separated out into modules that are more easily digestible and not just one huge chunk of a project when we may not know what we are doing. The feedback aspect is very important!
I can explain how the design of a game producesmeaning
It is going to be really interesting to learn more about the meaning and context behind game design.
Building on these skills,you will then learn how to identify the literacy practices associated with meaningful games, meaningful game contexts, and game design activities for youth and/or adults.
Really excited for the focus on identifying literacy practices!
If you feel like you're behind, not understanding everything, or just plain stressed, do not suffer in silence!
Really important! Thank you!
Grad school can be stressful enough during normal times, but it's likely worse during a global pandemic.
Thank you so much for recognizing this and for taking the world situation into consideration. It makes it easier to do our best when we know others are supporting us!