Comm 101: First Entry

The study of communication is a complicated idea.  Just the word "communication" can be confusing.  There is Mass communications, public relations, interpersonal, intrapersonal, business, and many more titles that the world uses to try and distinguish between the different types of communication.

  

Communication studies is a blend of all of the above and more.  This field of study allows for the examination of how the world works through how people in this world communicate together.  For me, communication studies allows me to view the world the way that most people have yet to. Most problems or situations in this world have not been exhaustively studied from a communication studies perspective.  This allows for a search for answers to questions that breed more questions.  These questions can lead to study in any subject that a researcher, student, or teacher is passionate about.  This freedom of study through a communication studies lens has allowed and encouraged me to embrace what I love and pushed me to share that love with others.

As Deanna told the class, I am a masters student here at SJSU.  This educational opportunity has allowed me to study one of my favorite pastimes, World of Warcraft.  Now before you laugh, know that I am laughing with you.  I never expected to be able to study something that seems so trivial such as a game.  However, the more I research, the more I see a real sense of meaning and importance within a silly little game.  My thesis centers on gamification of the classroom, and I plan on teaching comm majors at either a community college or 4-year university in just a year.  I know that there are many other opportunities besides teaching, such as consulting, but teaching will always be my love and my ultimate goal for my career.

Thesis

     I am currently working on my thesis and trying to figure out language that will help me find method and subject based articles that help back up my proposal.
    I play World of Warcraft avidly for over 6 years, and I have found some amazing connections between the game and the field of communication studies.  I have decided to narrow this view of similarities to the smaller field of pedagogy.  Everyday people all over the world pay money to perform tedious tasks to only receive virtual gains.  This is similar to the classroom where we ask students to do, at times, menial and difficult tasks for only the hope of a "good grade." Either because of the difficulty of the tasks or lack of interest, some students have a hard time experiencing success or joy in the classroom like they would find in a game situation. Applying the concept of "gamification" I will be able to find a way to reach these students, and use the language of questing to encourage learning.  Gamificiation is the process of taking a non-game situation, such as a classroom, and applying game strategies, mechanics or theories to "gamify" that situation.
     I plan on taking three races, one from each expansion, within World of Warcraft.  Leveling a character of a race that I have not leveled before (dwarf, Dranei and goblin) to level 20, I will work through the different quests offered in the different locations within the game.  By taking screen shots, which are digital pictures of a screen a viewer is seeing, I will be able to examine the language used to encourage a player to complete one quest over another.  From my experience, I know that certain quests offer ease of completion, while others offer larger rewards for harder work.  Having the screen shots to analyze, I will be able to decipher what makes one quest more desirable over the other. 
     Using the information that I gather, I will be able to find patterns that encourage quest completion.  Once finding the patterns, I will be able to link these patterns with pedagogy theory to create concrete ideas for a better classroom learning experience at the college level.

EEP!  lets hope this works!