Link to Infographic SDA here!
Reflection Questions:
1) What did I do to succeed with this task?
I did all the research quickly and earlier in the assigned time to complete the SDA prior to putting the infographic together in its entirety. I also tried to make the infographic more succinct because I was struggling with a lack of space and clarity for my infographic to breathe and not be too hard to read through.
2) How did I overcome the challenges I faced?
I overcame the challenges of lack of time and lack of specific examples for what I am studying by changing my question slightly when I was researching. Instead of just looking for how games affect the brain, I looked for statistics on doing repetitive tasks and how specific stimuli affect the brain as well to supplement.
3) Did I meet my own standards for a quality product?
I believe that I did! The SDA, while concise, conveys a lot of important information that I think gets across (both general concepts and scientific information such as the names of chemicals/processes). The infographic makes a dense topic like brain cognition in the context of gaming something more accessible and even entertaining.
4) What do I still need to work on?
I need to work on narrowing down my questions to things that are less broad. When faced with a broad topic and question, I start to spiral and not all of my information is clear (nor does it contribute to the bigger topic at hand because I go on research tangents).
5) How might I do it differently?
I would do the infographic differently by maybe mapping out where in the brain specific activities take place.
Gergen’s Questions:
Did you find that the studies overall leaned one way or the other?
The majority of them displayed positive information about games’ effect on the brain (I actually chose to look for some studies that portrayed sides of gaming in a negative light). However, that same majority tended to call for moderation and awareness for the player concerning gaming habits and topics addressed within games
Where do you stand?
I stand on that middle ground - I think, when harnessed correctly, games can be incredibly beneficial to both the brain and to the learner. There is something great about the repetition that contributes to the growing efficiency of decision-making in someone’s brain, but there is also something equally great about being able to look back on a learning experience as fun and simultaneously productive. It contributes to a factor I didn’t do much research on (but one I find more important than all the rest) - a love of learning.
What questions (new or old) do you have going into Jan?
I want to look a ton more into both social interactions and how those shift and change within a game (both the cooperative type and the type where players work against each other - planning to do some sort of board game experiment with some EMC-ers?) and I also want to look into the cognitive differences between board games and video games.
This has long been a controversial topic. Wondering if affects a certain type of person negatively and other positively? Like are there markers to help determine whether one will benefit from game playing or not? How does one know? Trial and error? And by then would it be too late?
A ton of questions all in one. I assume that gaming affects different people in different ways, similar to the way drug addiction works. After all, there is gaming addiction. Also, things like violence and sex being addressed in games will affect people differently not just because of anything genetic but because of how one’s family addresses said topics or perhaps past traumas/incidents concerning those topics. While games can lead to risk behaviors, they can also provide a sense of catharsis - some relief in the omnipotence and omniscience a player has who can try again without repercussions.
Killing off mass numbers of troops during a Risk game - is it the same as rpg or realistic video games? (leading into video game studying)