Archive for month: October, 2014

I decided to look into Bioware’s vision statement as they have made some of my favourite role playing games ever and they essentially laid the groundwork for future rpg’s with their classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights.

Their vision statement is as follows:

BioWare’s vision is to create, deliver, and evolve the most emotionally engaging games in the world.

I believe their vision statement is short, sweet, and fitting. Roleplaying games are all about feeling immersed and the critical component to that is to be emotionally engaged. BioWare does this by making you, the player, care about the story, the characters, and your decisions in their world. With their statement then they make it clear what their focus is and effectively what the secret is to their success. Achieving such a lofty goal though can be difficult, especially now a days, as a great deal of game companies have unfortunately traded in substance for pointless eye candy or have simply chosen to churn out another game title that is no different than the others out there. Instead by sticking to the most emotionally engaging games in the world BioWare sets themselves apart. Thus they deliver what they promise and they do it with flying colours as evidenced by their numerous critically acclaimed titles.

In last weeks class Julian informed us on how to write a paper in APA style. He explained to us the common mistakes students make when they write their paper this way we would be aware for when we have to write our papers. I thought this was very helpful because this is the first time I will be using APA. In one of my other classes our teacher gave us a crash course in APA which was also helpful because now I feel a little bit more confident when I write. After we talked about the difference and similarities in the Hurtado and Torres articles. Then we numbered off and got into small groups to talk about our experiences in relation to the questions. In my group all of us were Latino so many of our experiences were similar. It made me very happy to have people understand the experiences I’ve been through and to hear the experiences they’ve been through.

In the GAO Report  article it talked about what they found which was that disability students were represented as the 11%  of all post secondary students in 2008. They later talked about the challenges of having students with disabilities who are unaware of their rights. There are accommodations that are provided for them that students need to know about that way they know there are resources that can help them. Different support systems were shared in the article as well as a lot of background of students with disabilities and how it was handled before. A lot of the information I read about in the article was a refresher because I took a special education course in my community college. This article I felt went very in depth with the information which I enjoyed because it gave me more of insight on the problem.

The Ableism article I found very interesting especially the Disability Oppression Theory. When I first read the title ableism I was not exactly sure what it meant but when I read that ableism derives from a set of rigid cultural norms that promote specific and narrow standards of beauty, rules of logic, and conceptions of value it really helped me understand the article better. The Disability Oppression Theory advocate for people with disabilities and are opposed to “fixing” or “correcting” people. I absolutely agree that there is no need to “fix” people because there is nothing wrong with them they can do everything everyone else can do they just need special assistance.

The McCune and Bryan and Myers article I thought were similar because they talked more about different scenarios of students with disabilities and tied it back to diversity. I was talking to a friend about this article and he told me that even though his diabetes is not a disability he sometimes feels isolated from others because he is treated differently. I have two roommates who have disabilities and you would never know that they have disabilities if you did not know them well because on the outside they look perfectly fine but there are things they struggle with.  I think there needs to be more awareness of the different types of disabilities that way we can educate ourselves and make policies to help others that need it.

The reason I chose this image is because its true IT STILL WORKS just because it works differently does not mean we throw it away. As the fork seen above it still functions its just missing a part.

For me, technology is a double-edged sword. It contributes a great deal to society and has opened so many doors, but in many ways detracts from society as well. I try to have minimal screen time every day, but want to be knowledgable in technological practices as well because technology enhances our lives and technological skills are vital to function in society. So, I think there’s a balance and I’m sure I’ll be continuing to try to maintain that balance for the rest of my life as technology continues to rapidly progress. As an educator, I want to learn and practice a smart and effective use of technology.

This blog is the result of an EdTech class I’m currently enrolled in at Cal State Channel Islands. In this course, we are exploring the role technology plays in education. What have I learned so far?

• Twitter is not useless.
  • I never thought I would be a tweeter. I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts a while back for several reasons, but mostly because I found social media to be a time zapper. Most of what I encountered on social media was trivial and I figured Twitter would expose me to the same junk. I was pleased to discover, through this course, that Twitter can actually be used as a powerful educational tool. I started tweeting about a month ago and am slowly building my PLN (“Professional Learning Network” -new term for me). I love reading about the latest news in education and being able to hear from educators across the country, especially as we are undergoing a major shift with implementing Common Core.
• There are endless possibilities for effectively using technology in education.
• Technology has the potential to enrich my classroom and connect my students with the outside world.
• I know far less about technology than I thought.
• How to effectively use Twitter as an educator:
  • I found this video by Alec Couros helpful. He discusses how to use Twitter effectively in education and argues that as an educator, you will become irrelevant if you are not engaged in Twitter because it connects you to the best and most recent practices.
  • Develop a PLN over a long period of time: find ppl to follow: leaders, administrative people, subject area specialists, and fellow teachers!
  • Although tweets can only contain up to 140 characters, they can lead us to articles, diagrams, videos and more!
  • Join chats (i.e. #edchat #kinderchat)

On this show of survivor, episode 2, things between the tribes started to get more intense.  Things got emotional after Nadya’s sister found out she was kicked off the island, she was left feeling alone. Her tribe supported her and made her feel better, and as a group thats what you do, you support eachother. But as the challenge continued, athlete John was put to battle against  his girlfriend. The battle was a bit complicated but his girlfriend end up wining, and he got sent to exile island. Jeremy was sent to exile island with John. Them two made a deal since they were both in the opposing team with each others wife. Jeremy offered to protect Johns wife if John agrees to protect Jeremy’s wife Val in return.   After coming back from exile islands, both tribes were faced to compete with eachother and some with their love ones. Things got emotional when Baylor battles against her own mother. I feel that her own mother felt bad for hurting her daughter so she lost on purpose. I noticed that when i comes to battling, they put aside their feelings and fight for their tribe, in this situation Baylor’s mother lost for her daughter and for her tribe.  At the end Val and Baylor are both in a tough situation off getting voted of the tribe, Val for not having a immunity piece and Baylor for pretending to  alliance with the girls. At the end Val was the one sent home. Referring back to this week chapter, Baylor was just trying to be liked in her tribe, she tried becoming the favorite when in reality she just wanted to be in the safe side with everyone.

“As the largest voluntary health organization in the United States, the American Cancer Society is passionately committed to saving lives from cancer. We’re working to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays – a world where cancer never steals another year from anyone’s life. We combine our relentless passion with the wisdom of nearly a century of experience to make this vision a reality, and we get results. We save lives by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures, and fighting back. Thanks in part to this work, more than 14 million cancer survivors – and countless others who have avoided the disease – will celebrate another birthday this year.”

The American Cancer Associations is there to find support and resources for those affected by cancer. They help fight back.

Their vision statement helps establish an image in which through the help of the volunteers they help fund their research to fight back. They also help establish a mental image in which someone gets to celebrate one more year. They value the importance of everyone who is a part of the organization. Their statement also makes it very clear what they are fighting for. It allows those that are involved to see that their involvement in the organization will hopefully allow someone who is fighting against cancer to celebrate one more birthday. The challenge behind this is that the fight is not easy. It is not easy to find a cure or raise money to fund the research. But the organization establishes it as a possibility and not as something that is impossible.