Red Beards Response to others

Through the week of April 16th to the 20th we have been able to view other classmates presentations on what they were going to write about for their final paper. The two projects I decided to write about were the ones by Caleb Brougher and William Conn. The topics of their paper are about interactive video games and the singularity.

Caleb decided to write about the benefits that video games play in the rehabilitation of those who have been injured. This can be used to get people moving again. If a person had a head injury and lost use of a limb or even just broke that part of the body a video game can help in getting the use of that body part back. In some cases people could not move a hand or an arm. Then they used a virtual reality game and the person was able to gain movement in that limb and use it again. Caleb also talked about how video games helped people with critical thinking. This is mostly in strategy games where people need to think through situations. These games are beneficial to either people trying to expand their thinking ability or even a person with a brain injury. He also talked the use of games for the help of PTSD. This is a major issues for our heroes returning from war and some are not able to make the transition back to civilian life. Mainly this is just used to calm the soldiers down and help them adjust back to normal life. My opinion on Caleb’s presentations is that it is eye opening. Many people do not think of benefits of games and he did a good job showing the benefits.

Bill decided to talk about the singularity between technology and man. He talked about Moore's Law of exponential growth in technology. This just says that the intelligence of technology is growing at an exponential rate. This growth will not stop until totality is reached. He also talked about Ray Kurzweil's law of accelerating returns. In this Kurzweil talks about how that if the advancement of technology meets a halt from an issue that this issue will be overcome by new technology. Some predictions made about the singularity is that it will happen by 2045. In this case after the singularity there will be no distinction between humans and technology. Another prediction is that we will obtain immortality through the uploading of our consciousness. On the other hand some people such as Theodore Modis and Jonathan Huebner say that the advancement rate is actually decreasing. Paul Allen says that the more advancement that are made in technology only make it harder to have more advancements. My opinions on Bill’s presentations is that he did well with being able to tie research for and against the singularity together. I believe his report will be a good one based on what his presentation was.

Lexi's Response to Essay Exhibit

Paige Meduho's Presentation

I thought this essay exhibit was a great idea and it was a fun way to see my classmates' ideas and talk with them and make suggestions that you might not have thought of before. I wasn't sure what to expect and I was kind of nervous about going the first day but it turned out better than expected. I am doing my final essay on video games so I chose to write about two other video game essays that my classmates were doing because they brought up some good points and ideas that I can add to my essay as well.

The top picture is a presentation on Prezi from Paige Meduho about the effects of video games. Paige did a good Prezi on what topics she was going to talk about in her final essay and what to expect like the difference between women and men playing video games. Another topic she talked about were some examples of positive and negative effects they have on people with evidence to support her information. She also gave me a good suggestion about doing a survey when people went through my slides and answered my questions that I proposed as my main points. 

         

Anthony "Tony" Pavia's Presentation

The picture to the left is a presentation on Prezi similar to Anthony "Tony" Pavia about video games too but about different topics'. Tony did his main topic about how video games can have positive effects on teaching children with learning disabilities, how it can be used in physical education, and how to implement it in general to benefit children in Elementary, Middle, and High school.

Overall, like I said before I think the essay exhibit was a really good and unique idea to share with my other classmates' because I really did learn a lot from it. I wish more of our professors' did something like this instead of a traditional learning style of taking notes all the time.     

Paige's Response to the Essay Exhibit

Our classroom essay exhibit was a great way to learn about my classmates’ final essay topics, and it made me dig deeper into my own topic. It turned out to be much more useful and informative than I anticipated. Everyone's Prezi and Powerpoint presentations had a lot of information, and they all seemed like they will be great final papers. I noticed that there were very few essay topics on electronic literature, one or two on singularity, and a vast majority on video games. Even though there are a lot of topics on video games, everyone's still seemed to be very different and unique. It was interesting to see the different ways that my classmates are analyzing video games.

Lexi's Prezi

One presentation that especially caught my eye is about video games by Lexi Thompson. She is specifically focusing on how playing video games make people feel. For example, she is asking people if they feel ashamed, proud, or indifferent about playing the games. During the essay exhibit, Lexi surveyed our classmates and asked them for their personal opinion on 3 different questions. I like the idea that she is using her own sample and incorporating it into her essay. I am looking forward to reading her results!

Screenshot of Jeremy's Prezi

Another presentation that I enjoyed was also on video games by Jeremy Barber. He is concentrating on how video games impact individuals and society. Jeremy expanded on some positives and negatives that come along with playing video games. The positives include potentially helping memory, attention spans, and mental disorders. The negatives consist of possible addiction and affecting individuals with a weak disposition. He also included some information on how video games could be considered art in today’s society. I liked all of the content in Jeremy’s presentation, as well as the look of it!

In total, the essay exhibit was very enjoyable and educational. Seeing new topics, talking about my own topic, and socializing with my classmates all helped gather my thoughts for my final essay. I most definitely benefitted from this assignment.

Jeremy's Response to Essay Exhibit

     The essay exhibit opened my eyes to a lot of different ways of viewing a lot of topics in Digital Humanities. Although, a lot of the essays exhibits were on video games, it still was interesting to see how many different lenses video games can be seen through. Two in particular sparked my interest.

     Paige Meduho did a Prezi on the effects of video games on the individual. In addition, she focuses on the differences between men and women who play video games. She split the effects of video games on possible positive and negative effects. The positives are that it can help ease pain, improve reaction time, and improve vision. Video games can decrease pain by providing a distraction to pain, changes the individual's heart rate, and allows them to channel their frustrations into the game. The negatives are increased violence, increase in sleeping issues, decrease of exercise, and increase number of cases to video game addiction. 

     Ethan Keefer did a very similar Prezi on the effects of video games on the individual. However, I did not get the link, and the pictures I took of his Prezi are too blurry to be useful. I do remember him focusing on the effects video games can have on soldiers in the military. Showing how video games can help with PTSD and be used for simulation practice for certain situations that might arise. This is a use of video games that never crossed my mind. Moreover, he talked about how doctors can be trained and even preform surgery using video games. They would control a robot with a game controller, and the robot would be the one doing the surgery of the patient.
   
     Overall, I think the essay exhibit was a great idea. However, next time, maybe having each person go to the front to present or at the very least have everyone post the links to their exhibit piece on a shared Google doc. The exhibits still opened my eyes to a lot of things that I would of never considered.

Tribe's Response to Convergence

Henry Jenkins

Convergence is the coming together of the digital and analog world, in other words, it is where old and new media collide. Cultures are always changing, and technology advances practically every day; therefore, new media is inevitable. Old media isn’t going away- it’s just changing and evolving into new media. An author, Henry Jenkins, wrote a book called “Convergence Culture” that expands on the topic. In the introduction chapter, he breaks things down a bit more. Jenkins defines media in 2 different ways. The first way explains that “a medium is a technology that enables communication.” The second says “a medium is a set of associated ‘protocols’ or social and cultural practices that have grown up around that technology.” Examples would include television broadcasting, publishing, Internet, etc. Jenkins makes a point about the changing media by saying, “A medium’s content may shift, its audience may change, and its social status may rise or fall, but once a medium establishes itself as satisfying some core human demand, it continues to function within the larger system of communication options.” There are improved ways of doing things, and they will continue to improve.

For example, just because not many people don’t use record players anymore doesn’t mean music is gone. Individuals use iPods and cell phones for music now. Another example of the convergence of technology is the radio and the television. The demand for entertainment is still around in the world today. In the early 1900’s the way people got their entertainment was with the radio. The television was then invented in 1927. Then, in the late 1960’s the television became a household staple. Most people believe that the television killed the radio. However, radio programs still exist. They just have to now coexist in a world where television takes precedence. Television programs are slowly being overpowered with the inventions of Netflix and Hulu.

With all of the changes happening in media, Jenkins came up with the “black box fallacy.” It is a prediction that all media is going to get to us through a black box in our living rooms or something we take with us everywhere. It seems that everyone has a bunch of black boxes right now, so what are the chances that all of them could combine to create a single black box? As of right now, it seems highly impossible. People have different devices for different actions. Gaming consoles, DVD players, cell phones, laptops, and televisions all have their own purpose. Cell phones, however, can possibly be viewed as one of these “black boxes”. The phones of today have the capability to watch any entertainment, play games, and communicate with others. When someone thinks of it this way, it is not as hard to see that a “black box” is a far-fetched idea.

Tribe's Response to Archives

Books in an Archive

Archives preserve the things that have already happened at some point in time which the common person may or may not know. Individuals could archive text, pictures, and sounds. An archive must include pieces that cannot be found by simply searching the web; this would be called a collection. The word "archive" was only used in libraries. Now that most people have access to the internet, we are digitizing those artifacts so that we can access them anywhere at any time. The digital archives can include more artifacts and are more detailed. For example, a digital archive can easily store sounds, whereas an archive in a library could not.

A great example of an archive is The Museum of Endangered Sounds. The author of this piece is Brendan Chilcutt. His purpose was to preserve the common sounds from some of the earlier technologies that were first used at the beginning of the twenty century. The Museum of Endangered Sounds is very interesting, and it is a unique way to remember the sounds that we used to hear which have changed over the years. Some of the most common sounds that someone today may remember are AOL dial-up internet, the old movie theater countdown, an old-fashioned typewriter, and Pac man just to name a few.

Our tribe came up with the idea of archiving the evolution of Ford cars from 1900s-1970s. The archive will include a digital tour of the car along the the various sounds the car makes such as the horn, engine, and different prices from the 1900's to the 1970's. This archive would be great for car enthusiasts and for the common person who wants to see how cars evolved through the decades. In the archive, there will be interactive pictures of the cars. The user can click and drag to see a full 360-degree view of the car. They can also click on a door to see the interior of the car. The sounds of engines have come a long way since the first car in the 1900s. They are much quieter today. To hear these sounds once you are in the car you can click on the cars ignition to turn the vehicle on. One will also have the ability to click on the horn to hear the horn. The horns are significantly different as well. There is not a place on the web where you can find all of this information together. Combining the pictures of the car with its own unique sounds will be very informative and easy to navigate.