Oliver Batchelor

This entry is about my gaming experience with Undertale­­­ and its unique characteristics that make for an especially satisfying experience. Despite my inconsistent and somewhat diminishing video-gaming habits, I have always had a fondness for role-playing video games (RPGs) and spent significant amounts of time playing them with my brother after elementary school. I discovered Undertale through social media in 2016 and felt determined to give it a try. Although I had an enjoyable experience, I was forced to abandon the game due to increasing professional and academic responsibilities and made a mental note to try it again when the…

In The Form Of A Question: Jeopardy! World Tour For iPhone This entry is about my gaming experience with Jeopardy! World Tour for iPhone. In order to enhance the depth of my gaming analyses, I decided to select a game with more interactive characteristics such as competition with other players and a broader range of skill development (i.e. something more complex than completing a crossword puzzle). I have always been an avid fan of Jeopardy and (to the chagrin of my company) take pride in my vast amount of seemingly trivial knowledge. Despite my broad exposure to Jeopardy, I am…

Stuff I read: Stevens, R., Satwicz, T., & McCarthy, L. (2008). In-game, in-room, in-world: Reconnecting video game play to the rest of kids’ lives. The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning, 9, 41-66. What I think about it: The impact of video games on child behavior has prompted strong reactions in people (re: Parents). For several decades, the potentially adverse effects of playing video games dominates focus of the debate while paying relatively little attention to the potential of these games to serve as effective tools for learning. In the article “In-game, in-room, in-world”, the authors set out to research…

Brief Intro: INTE5320 is broken down into 8 two-week cycles. The first in the series, titled “Introducing Games & Learning”, focuses on content easily predictable by the title. Here is the return of “Stuff I Read” and I will continue to post these updates on a bi-weekly basis. My posts will also be more focused on one particular article in the form of a scholarly critique (or more, as called for). Stuff I Read:   Toward an Ecology of Gaming by Katie Salen (2008)  Situated Language & Learning by James Paul Gee (2004) -Chapter 1 & 5 Jeremiah Kalir (2016), Conclusion:…

This play journal is about The NYT Crossword Puzzle iPhone Application (henceforth referred to as “NYT Crossword”) and my interactions with the game as a learner/player. A crossword puzzle (print or electronic) consists of a series of enumerated connecting boxes that run across and down. Each numbered box corresponds with a clue for what word/letters should be filled in the box with topics ranging from academic disciplines to news to popular culture. As the player attempts to solve the crossword puzzle, they are required to employ knowledge from several topics and spelling skills.   1 Down: ……… 2 Down: …………

New term, new course. I just started the first week of INTE5320 – Games & Learning and am very excited. The content of the class is very theory heavy and will be primarily based on writing and academic texts. It will require a fair amount of writing and reflecting so I will be updating my blog at a greater frequency. Some of what to expect: Stuff I Read & What I Think About It– Don’t miss the new season. This is an old favorite of mine. Basically, I just write about the things I read for my course on a…