The NPR Radio’s, “Manipulation”, main argument is to state how our world can easily be manipulated by Technology. This podcast does a great job supporting its agruement by interviewing Tristian Harris. He talks about how manipulative digital devices are, by grabbing peoples attention at the sound of a ding and by controlling the social aspects of their lives. Another argument made in this podcast Is how much fake news is reported through digital media, which hurts our society even more since people tend to believe what’s false instead of what’s true.

I have to agree with the arguement Raz made in the podcast about how technology has strongly impacted our lives and who we are in society. We live in a society where checking our phones every 15 minutes is normal. Which in fact it is not normal at all. I also agree with how manipulating technology can be. I find myself checking my phone when i feel a slight ding but when i check nothing is there. A lot of people have this same problem where they think they got a notification and they dont. This is a form of manipulation since now you checked your phone your most likely to go on it and check through all social media’s.

Can the people change how manipulative technology has gotten or is it a lost cause? How can we change how technology impacts people?

As of right now, I am on the verge of enter the Iron Age. I have been stuck in the Bronze Age for awhile now since i don’t like spending my diamonds on just anything. This game is very time consuming for my lifestyle and thats Particularly why I don’t play these types of games because I really don’t have time to fit it into my schedule. In addition, I try to stay off my phone as much as possible, and as a result I have been in the bronze stage for about a week and a half now. I try to research as much as possible but it takes a whole hour for 1 forge points to be redeemed.

The continent map is easy to read and navigate through, since there are only a couple of options to choose from. My continent map right now shows I have conquered two sets of land. As of right now I am stuck since my army wont win against the other armies. So now I have to wait until I can either negotiate or move into the Stone Age where i can get more materials and army supply.

1. In the Ted Talk by Sherri Turkle, she talks about how mobile devices are so powerful that they change what people do and who people are. Through mobile devices, people can change who they are, they start to remove themselves from the outside world. This starts a norm of people being alone and hiding from people due to this mobile device.The next Ted Talk by Danah Boyd’s, talks about teenagers being upset about there parents invading there privacy. The youth wants to participate in social media, but feels the need to sometimes post items that are not seen by everyone. The last talk by Hasan Minhaj, talks about how there is a dark side to video game industry. The creators of the game is the dark part of the game. These games have become a huge part in society for children. As a result, the workers are put into harsh conditions where they can be laid off at any moment if they are not handling the task given to them. The developers go all day with no overtime pay in order to make the deadlines of the rich CEO’s . In addition, this has created a problem for developers since now they Are seeing developers develop unhealthy outcomes. In “ How Disney Magic and Corporate Media Shape Youth Identify in the Digital Media”, the author talks about how the children start to be shaped and influenced through digital media. In addition, children have access to all forms of media, which allows the corporations to be in control of the media.
2. Growing up in the digital media era, I can notice how corrupt it is to the mind and children. I have not benefited from this technology, even though i was able to have access to all types of digital media’s, i found no importance of it to my life. It caused me to become someone i wasn’t and start to eventually dislike. This type of platform has the power to change who you want to be without you noticing it. I hate how now a days i walk into my sisters room and i see her eyes glued to the phone like it is hypnotizing her. Digital media is putting people at risk for Horrible face to face interactions and what life is like in the real world, not the digital one.
3. There are many pros and cons, but what is one major pro or con that would shift you to one side? Digital media is good or bad?

I have continued playing FoE on my iPad since it is easier to navigate and the display is nicer. I usually just fight people and never negotiate since the icons they show for negotiating are so tiny i cannot read or see what the item is. So i usually just fight and then if i don’t win ill go back to my city and produce them again and then go back and fight once again. I want to start negotiating but i have no clue where the items i make in my city end up at either. For me, I have always seen a game as a game. Never have I once thought it could have educational value until this class. One way I would say this game can have educational value is with social studies. This could show kids what times where like back then, how they had to produce items and how they conquered land. I have gotten pretty far in this game, and yes i have used my diamonds to speed up some of the processes. As for the medals, I have no clue what those are being used for just yet. Also, I like the ability that we have diamonds in the game to speed up processes but I for one will not be putting my own money in it since diamonds eventually cost real life money.

1. Chapter 13, Moral Development through Social Narratives and Game Design, by Vikaros and Degand argues that fantasy play is closely linked to moral development of reasoning and theory of the mind. The authors suggest various ways technology can facilitate moral development. The article Wearing, Thinking, and Moving: Testing the Feasibilty of Fitness Tracking with Urban Youth by Schaefer argues that technology like fit its increase overall health in teenagers. Self tracking allows children to be to monitor there health by themselves and become motivated to improve there health living habits.The Ted talk “The game that can give you 10 extra years of life,” by McGonigal starts off by discussing the top 5 regrets people have on their death bed. She links the resolution to playing Video games since it makes people more comfortable to be more social. These games allows children to be creative and determined to tackle any problems.
2. I think many of these fantasy video games have educational value. From the article by Vikaros, moral development affects children in many different ways. These games can help the children allow themselves to think critically and make decisions on their own. Making your decisions is a huge part of games, it allows you to choose your own narrative without any influence from others. This is huge part of moral development and how children grow as young adults.
3. Would Different subject teachers benefit the same way if they all instilled playing games into there classroom as a learning tool??

I feel there are some educational properties to this game. Time management and organization are major components to education. It is very hard for students to stay on track, Forge of Empires is a game that teaches you time management and how to stay organized. There are many features where there is a time wait in order to do the next step. This teaches the children they have to plan according so they can be efficient in the game. Organization is another skill this game teaches you, you have to build your city in a certain way in order to make sure the people of your town are happy. The happier the people the faster you can level up. After downloading the app on my IPad I have noticed serval differences. For one, I find the app much easier to navigate compared to my laptop. It’s nice to be able to use my iPad and be able to use my finger to click on everything. Second, the multiple buttons are brighter and have more details making the game more attractive to players. Comparing both of them together, I would have to say I will be using my IPad for playing now.

The main argument for the “Critical Media literacy is not an option” article by Keller and share is the importance to think and learn about literacy through various forms of media.The article “Teaching Social Studies with Video Games” by Maguth, list and Wunderle argues video games are the greatest tool for teaching social studies subjects in classrooms. The next article “Political Internet games- Enagaging an audience” by Neys and Jansz, is about the political issues that are in video games. The last article “Creating Critical Play” by Flanagan argues how game developers create games that go over social, political, aesthetic and educational topics.

Do you think social media can be a great way for teachers to share educational topics and ways to use digital media in classrooms?

I find this game very interesting. As I have noticed for all online games, they start off with a tutorial showing the players tips on how to navigate through the game. The one thing the game forgets to tell the players about on the tutorial is how to fight other people and level up. In my opinion, I haven’t learned anything that connects to education. For me, the game is more of a check on from time to time to see how many coins I got and the other tasks I need to do.

For my avatar, I did not know we could choose what avatar we could have until I was playing around with all the buttons. Luckily, the random one I received is the only one I would choose as my avatar to represent who I am outside the game. There are many avatars for people to choose from which is a very good quality of Forge of Empires.

For the GUI, the game is very easy to navigate through. The cursor allows for you to hover over the buttons to allow you to read what each one is without having to actually click it. The game doesn’t come with good instructions on how to become a quality player on this game. I seem to get lost on what to do next on the game once I have collected the coins and did all the fighting I could do. Overall, this game is very fun and easy to use but is more of a game I would personally participate in as a last option.

My experience with the set up of FoE was rather fun. I never thought I could have so much fun setting up a user name, following the introduction instructions and designing my own city. I got to learn about all the different items the game had to offer. Me and some of the other classmates found it also really cool when we figured out we could maybe attack each other and become friends to help each other’s cities. I decided to make my user name Slauss13. I choose this user name because slauss is a different way to spell my last name and the number thirteen is my favorite number so it seemed right to make it my user name for this game. The world the game put me in is Us27 and and my city name is Slauss13, which I play on changing in the future. I had such an exciting day in class, who new games online could create such connections with people in the class and outside.

1. The “Awakening Teachers Capacities for Social Justice With In Arts Based Inquiries” article also focuses on the importance of having art incorporated in the classroom. The study is trying to determine if art has any affect on how the students learn by observing through activities they give the students.The main argument was that artistic approaches in education can give a various amount of benefits to the students. The graphic novel Real Life was a very interesting comic for me. The book is about a female character name Anda, she starts playing a game online where she meets a boy who lives in china. Throughout the book she learns about him earning money for his family, while she’s just playing the game for self confidence. This comic focused on the idea that people all over the world are different in a lot ways and the situations they face in life. Video games is another form of art and this book is showing readers how two people can find each other and have a connection but both be in different places in their lives.
2. I am someone who uses art in my free time or even for education use. There has been many times where I have study for test by drawing items out so I can view the information in a different way. Art has a way of showing ideas to students in a more engaging way. For instance, while being here at Uc Davis I got the chance to take a class with Professor Bautista. This professor had a artistic approach to every lecture by discussing by biology and physiology in art form. Every lecture this teacher drew out on a piece of paper while he explained the material for the day. This benefited me in the classroom since I was about to see him draw while also thoroughly explaining the material. This approach benefited my learning since I learn better through art and drawings other than lecture slides.
3. Do you think if people had the choice of learning a course through a artistic way they would choose to take it over a generic lecture slide class?