mfarbo's blog

It all began when I went to download the application and had to download another plug-in that my computer was missing. Once I finally got all the downloads configured and set up an account, I logged in and began playing. I vaguely knew what to do from the video in class the other day. 

The first thing I tried to do was gather wood--I went up to a tree and punched it A LOT and got nowhere. I went online and watched a YouTube video and it showed punching the tree. I returned to the game and tried punching the tree. Again, continuous punching and NO wood. I went to another tree and FINALLY it worked! I got one block of wood. I continued punching the tree and couldn't get any more wood. At this point, I had been playing for about 25 minutes and was yelling at my computer. I had to stop because I was so frustrated. 

I may go back and attempt to continue playing but right now, I'm too annoyed. I'm unclear on the purpose and focus  of the game. I know that when you pause there is a bar for achievements but what is the ultimate goal? I'm hoping that the panel on Tuesday will help enlighten me on 1) how to play and 2) the purpose of playing and 3) the ultimate goal. 

Although the age difference was only two years, I feel like I'm a different generation than the panel from today. They were exposed to technology at a much younger age than I was and for a different purpose. I'm sure it's frustrating to have more technological knowledge than their teachers (because I've felt that way with my parents) but at the same time, they should look at the teacher's perspective--the teacher is in charge and perhaps doesn't like reading online and does better with an actual printed copy. These kids are so incredibly smart and I'm sure they will someday create a super comupter/do really amazing things!

Instead of blaming the computer for why technology has taken over our lives, perhaps we should pause and take a moment to figure out how we can change the comupter so that it betters a human's functioning capabilities. In this sense, we should find a way that a comupter can benefit taking up a human's time. For example, I worry that all of this technology is hindering children from learning social interactions face to face so let's just say that the problem is lacking face to face interactions, and don't blame the computer for causing this. Rather, figure out a solution using the human--social interaction on facebook or twitter or blogs might just be changing what social interaction means. People are still communicating, just in a different sense, they don't need to be face to face but they are still sharing their ideas and thoughts. Similarly with what we talked about in class-children aren't learning cursive anymore because they can type. At first that seemed terrible but it seems much more efficient because typing is faster and often, more legible.