Tech Tip: Google Map

I enjoy completing these Tech tasks each week as it allows to to learn valuable digital technology skills! 

Here I have just leant how to embed a google Map within blog post. I chose the State of New York because I plan on living there one day myself in the future.

The link to try out his tutorial can be found here!

  

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Doing Research Work

 

This week’s reading involved collating a list of research topics and using different methods to evaluate the reading and asses the suitability if the text.

One thing I learnt from this week’s reading is the importance of active reading over passive reading.  In previous research assignments I would often collate my sources in a passive method by just accepting the text and sources that were found, I had never really taken the time to analyse the work and to question the validity of the text or the paper.

 

For the research portion of this week’s reading task, I managed to collect several credible sources relating to my topic of “Gamer Psychology”. I included each article found relating in my topic in a review matrix, at first, I found the layout of the review matrix to be a bit confusing, but after a couple of read- through’s I was able to tailor it to my advantage and structure it in a way that was simple for me to use. Whist filling out my review matrix I used the three-pass reading method. Something I like about using this method for the research papers is the thoroughness of the method, and how each step of this method is a driving force for whether the next step will be completed.

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Sample Review Matrix attached here for reference.

Links to the readings I have completed

Understanding Gamer Psychology: Why Do People Play Games?

Understanding serious gaming: A psychological perspective

The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning 

Unity Tutorial 02- Decorating the Game World, Game World Interactions

This week’s unity tutorial involved building on the 2D game that I started last week.

The tutorial had two parts, part one involved decorating the game world and part two involved game world interactions.

I learnt quite a lot of useful skills from this week’s Unity. One skill that I was able to practice more on was the design and creative aspects of game design, being able to practice this especially by using tile maps and positioning tools within unity was quite useful, it also useful as it allows me to brainstorm the type and style of game world that I would want to create for my final game project.

The second part of the tutorial involving world interactions was a good refresher from the skills learnt from last term. This was my favourite part of the tutorial; I enjoy learning about making the game world realistic in unity especially where the physics element is involved. I believe that this small sector is something that I now have a good knowledge in and I can definitely say that I am becoming more confident in this section.

One thing that I found difficult and that I am continuing to find difficult is the scripting aspect of unity, I am able to work through them and follow the tutorials, but I still lack much understanding and would find it difficult to compile one on my own. However, I am looking forward to learning more throughout this tutorial and eventually getting to that stage and skillset.

Source: screenshot from Unity Hub

Unity Tutorial 01

 

The first unity task of this semester involved downloading unity assets and preparing the set up for a new 2D game.

This Tutorial was useful as it allowed me to go back over re-learn unity skills and be able to reapply them. Something that I found difficult whilst completing this tutorial was the initial setup of the 2D game, I found it quite difficult to obtain the assets and to download the current 2D file to setup the game, this was due to an old unity version, once I was able to update the unity hub, these issues then became resolved.

One thing I am liking about the Unity Tutorials this term round is the detailed step-by-step Instructions for this tutorial, I am finding it very useful to learn more in depth information about using C# scripts and each function, from moving horizontal and so on. I'm also enjoying the creative aspect of unity, this involves creating game worlds and structuring the game using unity assets.

 

Something that I am looking forward is completing the 2D game tutorial, improving my unity skills and seeing the final game output, I’m also looking forward to creating my own game with my newly learnt and more refined unity skills.

Source: screenshot from unity work hub

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

This week Tech task involved browsing through several blog templates and choosing an appropriate one to upgrade to.

After looking through the several templates that where available on the blogger site, I eventually decided to choose the dark theme, which is currently applied right now.

I believe that this theme is more suited to this module as the dark theme is synonymous with a lot of games and gaming styles. The layout of this blog is larger, and it provides a full and more clear sidebar menu of previous blog posts which can now be easily referenced as opposed to the last design. I also like how the dark colours provide a sleeker look to the blog.

Old Blog Design 

Writing Planning

The first task of this semester involved reading and preparing our research topic for the book that we will be writing as a class. After going through this task in detail I have split my approach into sections.

Section 1

This section involved evaluating my selected research topic.

I have chosen the chapter titled “Why Humans Play Games”, I chose this chapter because I was drawn to the title and I myself wanted to delve further and understand the scientific and psychological reasons  behind this.

 

I was then tasked with delving further into this chapter by narrowing down this broad topic, identifying an intersection and relationship in the topic that can be further discussed and then defining the section that I will be choosing to engage with the most.

The intersection I have found and will further develop is called the immersion component. This involves creating and customizing a character to play in the unique story of the game as well as wanting to create an escape from real-life. More about this component and other components can be read here

 

Section 2

This section involved creating a search strategy

When it comes to researching information, it is important to have multiple keywords and buzzwords to use when research. I’ve learnt that it is simply not enough to directly enter the research question into the search bar. Instead, it is advised to use synonyms and identify keywords in the question, using search strings can also provide useful.  Another useful tool I learnt is looking at the reference list of articles related to the chosen research topic because oftentimes they will provide more resources that can be used. An example of how I implemented this in my research is by rephrasing the chapter title. Instead of using the original phrase of “Why do humans play” I Rephrased this in two ways “ The psychology of games”  and “Reasons People Game” by doing this I was able to access a broader range of results that that I would have if  had just used the original chapter title.

 

Section 3

This section involved citation management

I had very little knowledge of citation managers prior to this week reading, I often stayed away from them because I often found the idea of using them daunting and complicated.

I have now learnt that there are many advantages to using them, some of these included time management and saving time as it will be quicker to cite sources, particularly in long documents, it can also allow for consistent referencing throughout the work.  I have started completing tutorials and improving my knowledge of the reworks citation manger.

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Growth Mindset: What I have Learnt from Other Students

The Growth Mindset challenge for this week was to learn from other students. These students posted their thoughts on their student Growth Mindset Padlet.

below I have picked out two quotes which caught my eye and also give me a new perspective to look at when it comes to understanding the growth mindset.

Trying New Things

"Trying new things and exploring new paths is the only way to true growth, and I intend on growing into my best and most well-rounded self I can. "

I like this quote as I can apply it to both my everyday life and also studying in this course, prior to this course I would not have considered myself a gamer , nor did I have had any interest in games and game history, but implementing and learning about the growth mindset has allowed me to be more open when it comes to learning new things in this module and also more open receiving feedback not just from this module but from other aspects of life, allowing me to grow and become my most "well rounded" self.

G.R.O.W

"Go Rip Open Windows = GROW
Sometimes in order to grow, you have to seek out opportunities.  You have to force the window open.  This resonates with me because I'm a pretty passive person, so I don't really look for opportunities too often. I need to remember to look for opportunities to grow."

This student quote caught my eye because it relates to me quite well, something I want to achieve more this year is seeking out more opportunities, particularly where my studies are involved, I want to seek out more learning opportunities and partake in more extra curricular and extra credit course tasks, I believe by seeking these out it will not only benefit me as an individual , but it will help with personal everyday life growth too.

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