7 May 2014

Dear Portfolio Reader:

Reading and writing haven’t always been my strong points. In actuality, I almost failed out of the first grade because my peers could read better than me. Even though I was at a disadvantage, I still ended up in the passing and by the time I made it to the sixth grade I reading at a high school level. Most would say this is because of the school’s curriculum but I believe that it is due to the own perseverance and the support of those around me. I also believe that these two factors also effect my writing skills every time I write a paper. I never used to spend hours writing, rereading, and sometimes thinking about what exactly I’m going to write about but I’ve noticed that it is more common since I started this semester. I’ve also noticed how after each paper, the time required to complete these tasks is shortening with each attempt.

I entered my College writing class this semester already knowing what my weaknesses and strengths were. Although I have good organizational skills I have a problem with my grammar. Even though I can increase the length of any paper I write to a desired amount, I have to keep making sure that I don’t drift off topic. Professor Pappas has helped me tremendously as I progressed through the class. Being immersed in technology everyday, I decided to make that my theme. This was not the best choice for some of the papers I had to write.

My research paper was not very challenging to me. Technology and research went so well together that is was a trivial matter to find a subject to talk about. Finding the right information and formulating the proper thesis was a bit of a hassle. You know that saying “Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.”? Well having such a compatible paring with research and technology, there were so many topics to write about. Even when I found the topic I wanted, there were so many angles to write about it from that it’s hard to just choose one. I chose to right about how bringing technology into these younger student’s lives would improve their chances in the 21 century.

My Ethnography was a personal favorite to write about. I am currently working on becoming a game designer. I called it “Playing in the League” because of the experiences while playing the heavily competitive game League of Legends. The paper I wrote showed the fast paced game play and quick decision making needed to play the game. I interviewed a young man who showed me how he lived, played, and his plans for the future. This was the most helpful paper in terms of self improvement because I had to gather so much detail on the game, player, and their environment. Now that I’ve done it, the next ethnography will be much quicker to complete.

The Memoir was the most difficult to write about because not only was it from when I still a child ,but it was the only thing I’ve ever written that held such a strong connection between me and my father. The paper goes along as my dad teaches me how to use computers from a young age all the way until I start working on them my self. It also focuses on how he has drifted away from technology as I’m making my degree and entire life around technology. I felt that if I had written the ethnography first that this paper would have been better all around.

I still have a long way to go in terms of experience and knowledge. I want to continue to improve my writing skills before I graduate so that I am better prepared to be a game programmer. It is a booming field with many opportunities and a lot of competitiveness. Being as competitive as it is, I want to make sure that I can learn as much as I can and be as prepared as possible. The game industry is becoming bigger everyday and is practically one of the only fields not as effected by the economy. I feel that this class and my future classes will help ad me as I move along .

Sincerely,

Anthony Sanes

Did you know that the studies of the editorial team at EdTechReview shows that very year at the college level, 70% of students take notes on digital devices and that 78% feel that using the aid of various technologies help them study faster. Not only that but 86% of students believe that tablets could be the universal textbook of the near future and that 3/4 students believe that tablets are more useful tool combining their text books and notes into a single compact device ( “Positive Impact of Technology” ). These same positive statistics could be applied to younger children too. Websites such as  guaravhardikar.com believe that while technology benefits students in multiple ways it is also significantly decreasing our learning aptitude from grades 4-12 compared to peers in other countries. They feel that teachers will lose jobs, students will feel more ample to plagiarize, and that the technology will be used for meticulous things such as texting, social media, and other non educational actions. Students should have access to technology in multiple forms during school in order to give them the best form of teaching possible to increase their learning abilities.

If you look at most school in other countries you will notice that as the year increases, their student’s grades also increase. Countries Like China and Japan are within our relative area when it comes to Kindergarten to grade 3. Once you get to grade four, American students start to fall. How could this be? Are the students being distracted? Are they not receiving the proper instruction? Those answers could be a definitive yes. But is there a way to increase this and bring these students out of depravity? The answer is most definitely technology. More specifically the answer would be tablets. With this tablet the student would have interactive learning aerials at their disposal. Calculators, books, word processing, informative curriculum provided over the internet. The students could both receive their homework and turn it in over the internet. They could receive specialized training and extra help over the internet via websites and online tutors. But the big question is cost.

What would it cost to supply a over 1000 students with iPads? It would cost roughly $300,000. It seems alarming at first but when you look at it, the cost of books that have to be constantly updated can be cut to a minimal fraction of that price. The supply of notebooks, crayons, pencils, and other school materials would be needless. The time and energy that is takes to complete work and turn in paper assignments is gone. The students would have everything on their tablet. Now another thing that brings money into mind. The teachers. Where would the teachers be placed in terms of teaching?

Teachers would be used as more of a catalyst for the students. The teacher would instruct on how to best use these tablets and the internet in order to gain the information they need. The teachers job just got extremely easier and more interactive. Teachers will now have the ability to connect outside sources to their curriculum to make a more rounded out learning experience. The students will be able to learn with much more ease now that the teacher is forced to be extremely hands on with them. ( “Technology and Education” ) This will lead to more individual learning, which in turn will improve grades. These students need an active role in their own learning so that they can more efficiently improve their interactions. One of the most important things of our culture is the demand of technically advanced people.

Experts in the education field such as James Paul Gee, a professor of literary studies at Arizona State University believe that technology is the future of our schools. Most children are interested in video games and elated technology because they give you a vast amount of problems to solve. How do I complete this? Where does this piece go? Those students love to complete these challenges and assignments because it is satisfying. Applying this work ethic throughout the rest of their school career and also into their work life after school can be the foundation for the rest of their lives. Through technology these students are learning that if they fail, they try again until the succeed. When they succeed, they move on to more difficult and interesting problems.

There are minor problems when it comes to converting from a non technological school, to a educational environment that is heavily involved with technology. The shift from passive observers to active users is the main transition for these students. An interesting note is that adding this technology will not always improve learning. It is meant to act as a gateway for the students. Its important that these students properly use the this technology to improve themselves. Its the desire. The students must want to improve themselves. These tablets and vast amounts of information aren’t going to do things for them. These pieces of technology will provide the perfect catalyst for the students to improve upon.

The road to a technological learning environment for all is going to long and vigorous. Not everyone can see how influential and helpful technology can be to the aspiring student. Some teachers believe that old fashioned learning is the best for students. There will always be an opposing side and sometimes, they’re partially right. For some communities and learning environments, the cost is just too much. To take a great leap and switch over from a controlled system to a new system is a dangerous act to make without thinking out every possible outcome. Not everyone will want to explore uncharted waters, but for those that do the prize at the end of the journey is well worth the effort.

Work Cited

“Technology Integration in Education.” Online Posting. Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.

Brahmbhatt, Sonali. “Technology and Education.” Online Posting. Technology and Education. Team HashtagSwag, 2012. Web. 07 May 2014.

EdTechReview’s Editorial Team. “Positive Impact of Technology on Education.” Online Posting. Positive Impact of Technology on Education. Eduvative, 28 June 2013. Web. 07 May 2014.

Koebler, Jason. “More High Schools Implement iPad Programs.” Online Posting. Us News. U.S. News & World Report LP., 07 Sept. 2011. Web. 07 May 2014.

Playing in the League

Video games are a popular form of communication and pleasure shared between players that use them. But what about the people that play them? How do they differ from regular everyday people that play more sports or are more business orientated? A better question would be how are they similar. There are so many people out there that share the love of video games that the same person who works in a accounting cubical might actually be a royal knight who fights dragons along side his online peers. Throughout this ethnography, we will focus mainly on the players in the game League of Legends.

Specifically I am observing a young gentleman by the name of Bill. For the sake of Bill’s personal information, I changed his name. Bill is a 5’9” 20 years old Portuguese male that works at a local supermarket. He has a medium build, brown hair and bluish eyes. Occasionally you will see him wearing dark slacks with a kaki button-up (his work attire) and his silver rimmed glasses. Bill lives at home with his parents, saving until the day he moves out on his own, building his work career and financial portfolio. Bill is also an avid video game player. I asked Bill if I could observe him for about an hour to two hours while his casually played his games. I explained to him that after my observation I would then ask him a few questions.

The first thing I started to observe was his doorway to his room. It was spacious, had a white border framing the rich blue room. As I entered the room I noticed the environment he played in trying to make out big features and move to smaller features. A town sized bed was facing me in the corner of the room. Next to it was a light wooden colored bureau with six drawers, each with a single engraved metal handle. On top of the bureau was a decent sized black LED television, approximately 36”. Across form the bureau was pale wood desk, with metal legs and drawer. On top of the desk was a laptop. A high end Asus gaming laptop. As he started up the computer and game I looked around at the environment I was currently in and began to log everything that I could.

On the floor there was a over flooded basket with dirty clothes in it. Next to it was a library case with various books, games, and other important documents in it. On the top of the bookcase there was a small M&M dispenser that took quarters. Next to it were 2 model cars. To the left I noticed a large poster of a hockey player on the Boston Bruins and across the room adjacent to it was a model plane hanging from the roof on wires. As I was writing things down he told me that he was ready.

“Which game are you going to be playing?” I asked.

“You said you were going to watch me play league of legends so I’m started it up first.” He replied quickly.

I reviewed my notes for other questions I had prepared and asked him “If you could shortly describe the game League of Legends in a short answer, what would you say?”

He paused for a second to think of an answer, “League of legends is a typical MOBA that is extremely competitive and takes a lot of skill and calculations to take everything into account and win.”
After thanking him for his answer, we started up the game. I quickly tried to write down what the interface of the game looked like. The game had a blue window, there were sales on “champions”, videos explaining current gameplay strategies and a box at the top where players could watch other players play. At the top center there was a decently sized red play button that stood out from the rest of the interface. He clicked it, chose his game type from a few selections and started the que. Based on the size of the game, there are thousands of players being matched up together at the same time based on rank, skill level, and preference. After about two or three minutes, the players had been chosen. He accepted the game and moved into the champion selection phase where players pick the character they would play for the game.

“My favorite champion is Garen because he tanks so much and doesn’t care.”, He told me as he shuffled through champions.

After he selected his champion, he locked in and then started to explain the game mechanics to me before we looked at the game closely.

“The game is pretty simple if you ask me. Since this game mode is five versus five, it’s broken down into 3 lanes. Two champions usually go bottom, once champion mid, one top and then theres 1 that goes into the jungle moving from lane to lane.”, He explained.

“Could you explain this jungler more to me and the roles of these champions?”, I asked.

“Well, the jungled is a very important player because he can tip the scale of the battle. but for basics, I should talk more about the game in general before talking about the Jungler. The game board is separated by lanes. In between the lanes is not only the jungle, but a game tool known as the “fog of war”. This ensures that the player can’t be seen all the time. This is important for the jungler because they move through the jungle in order to secretly attack other lanes. There are also minions that the player must attack. Minions are continuously moving down the lanes that are respective to their own sides. If 5 minions come down the lane from one side, the other side will also have 5 minions that will clash with them. There are also neutral monsters in the jungle that are allied with either side. This is how the jungler makes his money.”, He elaborated.

“What do you mean with the money?” I asked.

“Champions gain money over time that they can spend on new items in order to gain power. They start at level one with 450 gold at their respective starting base. Champions gain around three gold every five seconds. They also gain money by killing minions. Junglers’ gain money by killing neutral monsters and occasionally minions in the lanes. They also gain experience as they kill monsters and minions. A champion starts at level one and works their way to level eighteen. Oh and their are towers that defend each lane. Each lane has three towers. One at the end, one in the middle, and one on the inside of their base. Including those, there are 3 inhibitors that the inside towers defend. Those inhibitors allow the production of super minions. Behind those are 2 more towers and and the final construction in the game, The Nexus. This is the most important structure in the game. If this is destroyed, the game is over. besides that there……. Oh the game started.” He said.

I watched as he quickly purchased items and moved from his starting position to the beginning phase in his lane. As he moved I asked how players know which lane to go to.

“How do you know where to go in the beginning, like lane wise?”, I asked.

“That is decided before hand in the champion selection… Oh the game started.”, He said.

As the game started, there were five champions standing on a platform. The champions visit their respective shop before heading onto the battle field. Bill was playing a roll known as “Mid”. this refers to a champion who is playing in the middle lane. Bill explained to me the main different types of champions as he headed down his lane.

“Champions have different ways of building. This is based off of the items that they purchase. There are AD, AP, Hybrid, and Tank champions. Traditionally an Fighter, which is amid of tank and AD will go into the top lane, a Tank will go jungle, a AP caster will go to the middle lane, and on the bottom lane you have a ranged AD and a AP support. Almost all champions can be Hybrid which is a combination of AD and AP except for the support which is a AP with crowd control. (AD stands for attack damage and AP stands for ability power.)” Bill explained.

Bill started making his way down the middle lane. He was playing a champion known as Yasuo. Yasuo is an exception to the natural order bill explained before. Yasuo is a lone samurai with a blue kimono tied with a yellow sash. On his left hip there is a long katana and on his right, a gourd for drinking. He has a bushy ponytail and a scar on his left eye. Yasuo is a samurai of the wind. He uses his skills to slash, dash, block and knock up champions with wind. By category, he is referred to as a AD fighter. He is viable in the middle lane because of his ability to block with wind and get in close by dashing. Most other AP kids can’t handle up close fighting and rely mostly on ranged attacks.

The battle started quickly as he faced off against another champion known as Ziggs. gigs is a small furry champion that uses bombs as his weapons. He has bombs in beach hand, a belt compartment with rooms for more, and his signature goggles used when experimenting with explosives. Ziggs uses his placement of bombs as a way to poke down the enemy champion, but also keep himself out of harms way. He can throw bombs, mines to slow enemies, charges that can detonate and blow champions away, and A massive bomb that he uses for a finishing blow.

As the battle starts, zings begins slowly, throwing a bomb here or there to zone Yasuo into a corner and pin him down. Yasuo gives no leeway and pushes back. Slashing through minions to let his own advance, Ziggs is forced to retreat slightly as he is now overextended form his team’s side of the field and is susceptible to a “gank”. As the fight moves I watch both the screen and Bill closely. He is very concentrated and is preforming actions extremely quick. Yasuo has pushed up to the point where he is now overextended. Ziggs takes this into account and lets him push p even more. Unaware of how pushed up he actually is, Yasuo continues forward. From the far side of the screen, Ziggs’ jungler leaps out from the bushes off the edge of the shadow of war. It’s Skarner.

Skarner is a Scorpion made of Crystals. He uses slows, grapples. and suppression to slowly poke down his targets or hold them in place long enough for his team to come up with a kill. Skarner comes in with the determination to do just that. He comes in behind Yasuo and grabs him with scorpion stinger. Ziggs releases a flurry of bombs on top of Yasuo too try to secure a kill, Yasuo notices that his jungler, Hecarim, is now coming to aid him. Instead of running to safety, Yasuo lures in the enemy champions by dashing through them and their minions using wind. He does enough damage for Hecarim who is a half man, half horse headless horseman to come in and suppress both Ziggs and Skarner. Yasuo knocks both champions up into the air and smashes them down to secure a double kill for himself in the middle lane.

The game progresses and tensions are high. a mere twelve minutes have passed by. A team battle emerges on lower part of the map within the fog of war. The ranged AD’s are shooting everywhere trying to secure as much damage for their team as possible. The supports are healing anyone that gets hit, the tanks and fighters are also at the ready for someone to get themselves into a bad position so that they can pounce in. Soon enough the enemy team ranged AD gets caught with a trap left behind in a bush. Yasuo instantly jumps in with his Tank Shen. Shen uses a taunt to hold the ranged AD in place as her team rushes to her aid. Before they can get close enough, Yasuo and Shen begin taking down their team one by one as they flee from the battle. First the ranged AD, then the support, to the tank. The top fighter manages to take down Shen and attempts to flee again only to be caught by hecarim as he flies in at full speed and cleaves him on the spot. Although the fight ended with Bill’s team losing a person, they managed to eliminate everyone on the enemy team. This fight crushed the enemy team’s morale because Bill’s team was missing their tank in the fight. The tank is a vital role in a team fight and they were able to decimate the enemy team with him. The enemy team soon chose to surrender in a 4 to 1 vote. This resulted in victory for Bill’s team.

“Wow, that entire game had me on the edge of my seat. That was pretty hectic!”, I exclaimed.

“It was a good fight until the end but we crushed them with strategy even thought we were a man down.”, He replied.
“How were you able to successfully win that game at the end? You were one man down, partially injured and out of position.”, I asked.

“It was all about the strategy. My team used that fast that we had been hit hard to lure the enemy team in to where we had more vision and traps laid out. Once we snared them in, it was only a matter of picking them off one by one. That is the power of the fog of war. If they can’t see us coming then we have the advantage.”, he explained.

After that we began talking about the other questions I had for him. He talked about his future dreams on becoming a professional streamer. This is a person who regularly streams their gameplay to a website for other people to watch, analyze and comment on live. He showed me his favorite possession which was his M&M dispenser his grandfather gave to him when he was little. I asked him about how he normally acts around his coworkers, and family compared to how he interacts with people that he meets in the gaming community.

“I like to think that I am pretty polite and respectful both when I am at work and at home with my family. But I don’t always act this way. When I play I feel that the best way to win is to tamper with the enemy team. I do this psychologically. I didn’t do it this game for the sake of your paper, but usually I will taunt, down talk, and antagonize the enemy team into making mistakes and then act upon them. This is a common way to beat your enemy, especially if they are short tempered. Usually a simple in game laugh or a “you suck, uninstall” will be enough to get them riled up and makes it easier for them to make a mistake.”, He explained.

I was shocked that he would use such tactics to beat his opponent. I would have never of thought that from that game that I had just watched.

“Don’t get me wrong though. I also have to prevent the enemy team from doing that to me and my teammates. Periodically I will congratulate my teammates for securing a kill or destroying a tower. This helps build up out moral and win the game much faster.”, He continued.

We wen ton to talk about his Special place that will help him play better or just his special place in general. He told em that his bed was his special place because of his ceiling. I looked up and noticed that his ceiling was slanted and covered with various posters and pictures.

“They are all my inspiration. Every game that has had an impact on me or every character from a movie that i looked up to is on there.”, He said.

Sometimes he would sit there and stare into the posters from his bed just thinking about them. They gave him the tenacity he needed when he played to get through the battle with such high morale.

Our interview gave me a new perspective of Bill. When I watched him play, he seemed like a different person. The game he plays is truly a competitive sport with many aspects and calculations to take into account. He aspires to one day be a professional and play in the major league gaming tournaments. I believe that with the attitude he has along with the strategy he uses both int he game and out of the game, he can make it there. There are many within the gaming community that solely base themselves upon being the best and those who stream their gameplay everyday to thousands of people at a time. It will just take the time to get there.

I have been immersed in technology since the age of three. I don’t exactly remember the day my dad brought home my first computer, but I remember continuously using and adapting to having a computer. Not specific details exactly but the overall usage of it. I remember the first game my dad ever bought me for the computer. It was old school Mortal Kombat III. I have quaint memories of us sharing a keyboard together, me using the WASD keys and him the arrow keys. I can still recollect all the small features from the super chunky monitor and the tannish color of the tower all the way to the way we jumped out of our seats after a fight. It wasn’t just games that helped me integrate into using computers at a early stage, I would learn to integrate programming and art much later in my life.

My dad didn’t stay the same as the guy mentioned above. If you were to look at my dad today, you wouldn’t get the “I love computers” vibe coming off of him. I’ve noticed over the years he has slowly started to stray from computers even though his entire life revolves around computers. He sells Apple for a living. But if you were to directly ask him “Do you like computers?” he would tell you “Yes, but not for fun.” He can build a computer from the ground up, take it apart, tell you everything about it, put it back together, slap a price on it and sell it to you. Those are the skills he has. He went to college for computer engineering, has certificates and degrees in multiple fields involving technology, but I still don’t think he truly loves computers. How could the person who taught me to love what i’m making my life after not love it too? Its because technology has many applications, and the way he uses it isn’t always going to be the same not only for himself across a timespan but to others as well.

My dad thought it was best if I learned as much as I could at a very young age to be able to absorb as much as possible. So eventually he took the first step and started teaching me how to build computers.

I remember those special times where me and my dad worked together plugging in sockets and completing circuits, connecting a mother board to its components just to create our own device. Its amazing. The first time my dad ever really let me help him build one was a pretty exciting time for me. Rather than him doing all the work he would supervise me and assist me as needed. Yes, he let me plug in little things here and there but this time I had most of the control and I loved it.

We went online that day and started purchasing new parts. The usual stuff, a motherboard, power supply, graphics card, ect., and the extra components like fancy IR sensors and bluetooth receivers. By the time they all came in it had already been about 2 week, but the magic was about to start. I loved looking at motherboards. I used to look at them and think they were little metropolises because they looked like cities. Connecting the wires together reminded me of bridges where people from the cities came and went. The processor always reminded me of City Hall, and the cards that plugged into the side were like longs buildings with narrow streets. The I didn’t understand the important numbers and calculations when I was younger that I do now. My dad did most of that for me, but now I realize how important the little things are.

I liked the look of a fresh tower. Nothing inside of it like a barren waste land that was soon going to be a bustling hoard of boards and wires.

When we started it, my dad asked me, “Do you know exactly where to start?”

I would tell him, “Yes, you start by putting the motherboard on the inside of the computer” Even though I was wrong this is how I always start off building a computer even to this day. I like having the tower as a stable place to operate.

While shaking his head my dad replied, “No. You connect the processor to the motherboard first to you don’t have to struggle with small pieces.”

My dad showed me where to connect the pins from the processor into the motherboard and how to lock down all the clips so that it wouldn’t move form its place. After that my dad had me connect the power source to the inner frame. It was really bulky and had what looked like at the time, a hundred wires sticking out of it.

“The back of it looks like snakes dad.” I told him.

“It looks like snakes now because we haven’t cleaned up our work area yet.” ,He replied insightfully.

He let me screw the adapter in place strap the motherboard to the side of the tower. After this I got to connect the adapter wires to the motherboard to get the power connected.  After connecting the power, he let me unwrap everything from the graphics card to the HDD’s and get them prepped for installation. Again I got to place almost all of it inside.

While I got them all prepared, he started connecting the main wires. He let me connect the “tower power wires”.

“Dad? Where do these little tiny wires go?”, I asked.

My dad ducked down and pointed towards the 6 little holes at the bottom of the motherboard. “Thats where they go.”, he replied.

After almost bending the wires he told me to calm down and try it slowly. After a few more failed attempted he said, “Here, let me help you with them.” My dad held my hand as in pushed towards the motherboard. Making sure to line up the prongs with the socket, we glided the wires almost fully into place. I feared that I might break them, but he reassured me that this is when we had to use some force. With a quick push, the wires locked into the socket and made a secure connection.

He then started sorting out the rest of the AC adapter cords. After all that, I started plugging in the graphics card, network adapter, firewire card and started to connect not only them but also the HDD, CD drive, and LED lights. With everything connected, we tested it promptly and began to spruce the insides up with zip-ties and black electrical tape.

The sight after we had finished was incomparable. After working for a good hour and a half, it was finally done. All that was left to do was to connect the LED cover to the AC adapter, close the cover, screw it together and power it on. Seeing the fans spin wildly and watching the blue glow from the inside gave me goosebumps. It was so cool and I made it. We made it. It was a sight to behold that I still have to this day. Little did I know that this would be the last time we would ever get to build something this spectacular like this together.

I’ve never had a child before but to me its probably the closest thing. After you put all that work into it, you want to keep it well maintained. You treat them with care because they’re delicate and fragile. I can’t count how many times I’ve cleaned my computers form top to bottom just so they’d be in tip top shape. But we did work hard, and it was an enjoyable time. Building computers with my dad are me who I am today. It is also probably what got me into art as well. Now that I have both sources at my disposal I have learned to combine the too, which in turn has fueled my aspirations to become a game designer. My dad moved further and further away form the computer engineering side of the guy I knew over to the salesman side I was growing to know. I didn’t stop learning though. I wanted to learn more and more. I’ve made a few computers and tampered with countless others since that time. I’ve grown to love it, not only because it is a fun hobby, but also a personal link between my dad and I. Everyone has that something they can do with loved ones, even tough they may not do them together anymore. Everything is possible as long as you have the will do do it.