In-Class Assignment : Potato Chips

The British, Japanese and other nations seem to have a wild streak when it comes to the humble potato chip (or crisp as they're called in the UK and, more and more, in the US). Most of the truly madcap chip sensations are British and Japanese but the US and India are moving up strongly. Americans eat 6.3 billion dollars in potato chips each year but we Yanks have always preferred our chips on the mild side, rarely straying outside the safe circle of Sour Cream and Onion, Barbecue, Cheddar Cheese, and a tiny handful of others. But since #1 on our list is an American chip, we are becoming truly competitive in the field of taste bud terrorism.

Well-known for truly bizarre potato chip/crisp flavors is the legendary Walkers company of the UK and Ireland. They recently had a "Do Us a Flavour" contest for the craziest sins to commit against the humble spud. Among the entered flavors (all produced for incomprehensible consumption) were Crispy Duck and Hoisin, Cajun Squirrel, Chili and Chocolate, Onion Bhaji (Bhaji is an Indian dished made of onions mixed with chickpea and gram cracker flour then deep fried ... one assumes the chips taste like it), and Builders Breakfast, a crisp and light little crisp tasting of eggs, bacon, sausage and ... beans? Must be a UK thing. Anyway, the Builders Breakfast was the winner and is now a permanent part of Walkers' mutant brood. Cajun Squirrel and the others are happily no more. Since that was a contest, those flavors have been placed in their own category of weirdness. We're not finished with Walkers yet though. More chip perversion to come.

Beyond those, the top ten weirdest chips:

1) Cajun Crawtator! Our number #1 is American, oddly enough. A Louisiana bayou blend of boiled seafood-ish gastronomical bombast. Straight from Zapp's, it's hugely successful and apparently much beloved by everyone in creation other than this writer.

Now, let us try to make one. Watch and learn. 

CALL Article Review

A. The Article

a. Title: Video Games and the ESL Classroom

b. Journal: The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 3, March 2007.

c. Johansen Quijano Cruz, radiant80@hotmail.com

Centre of Multidisciplinary Studies (Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico)

Link: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Quijano-VideoGames.html

B. Summary

The article is about the potential of RPG video games in helping young generation to learn English language and, the strategies to apply it in the classroom. Video games provide extra motivation for students and also give a platform for educators to enhance course content. Professional organizations have started using video games for simulation and as part of their curriculum. RPG or Role-Playing-Game is the most popular genre in gaming industry. A player can take various roles of character and go through journey of great adventures. Players will be shown a lot of real dialogues, subtitles and written text throughout the game. The games can be used as a catalyst to motivate students to share the learning content they found in the games during class. The nature of RPG games which involves deep characters and storyline and real settings and environment makes it suitable for it to be used in the classroom. In order for RPG games to be more effective in improving students’ speaking and listening skills, it has to be complemented with group activities which involve discussions and exchanging of ideas. Teachers can integrate literature, cultural issues, journal, and character analysis through oral presentation and quizzes. Violence and social content in video games are always an issue. One cannot entirely put the blame on video games when other types of mass media could also play a role in promoting violence. In general, there is no evidence showing video game as the sole reason of violence among youth. Several RPG games that are listed suitable for students are generally Square-Enix’s RPG series such as Final Fantasy and Arc the Lad. In conclusion, video games have more advantages compared to traditional books. Students are more motivated and learned pronunciation faster when they learn language through video games.

297 words

C. Reflection

The main reasons I review this article are because I truly believe in the use of video game as one of the more effective medium in improving one’s language, and I am one of the many successful testimonials of this fact. In order to attract kids and teenagers to get involved more with the target language, we need to use a medium that is close to their heart, something that is part of their fun and interactive life. That is, video games. Ask any kid in the world, they could not live without video games. An avid gamer would do anything in order to finish a game, which requires understanding of the plot and what is going on in the game. Even though the goal is to finish the game off, along the way gamers will come across weird vocabularies and challenging tasks which in return polishes their understanding of English language. Almost all video games are in English, and this in a way forced a player to learn Basic English before he/she can play the game. It doesn’t matter whether the intention of playing the game is to improve one’s English or not as long as it DOES improve the player’s knowledge on English. Although I agree that video games can greatly improve one’s English language, it should not be limited to RPG games. RPG could be a better choice for literature lessons, but for other aspect of English, other genres such as Adventure and Simulation should also be considered. Some video games nowadays are full with violence and social degradation, but I don’t believe that it is the main cause of violence among the youth. For these games, there is nothing we could do to stop them from going out into the market. What we can do is to choose what is suitable and best for the students according to their level of competency and maturity. But if we couldn’t find one, we should make one. Since our country are now in the broadband age, and with all the hype and mushrooming of MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), this can be a starting point for us to produce our own local products, instead of adopting others such as Jin Online, Ragnarok Online, etc. Our educators should collaborate with up-and-coming local gaming programmers to produce educational video games that are fit with our history, culture, syllabus, and educational philosophy. Like any MMORPGs, we could create a server in school to run such games. Since the game is according to the syllabus, all school across states could participate together. Therefore, there will be interactivity between schools, with students’ participation in the forum where they could discuss on how to solve puzzles and quests within the game. Of course, teachers and senior students will be the moderator. The game will replace the old traditional textbook. As such, we should promote and commercialize video games as part of educational tools in classroom’s teaching and learning. Instead of creating video games for the sake of entertainment and profit, we should focus on edutainment. There are many benefits can be gained if we are able to produce our own educational video games. It is one of the fastest growing industries in the market, and it is high time for educators to take gaming industry more seriously like other developed countries. It is time to develop, and be developed.

564 words

Side Info (Games I’ve Played)

One RPG game that I would like to promote is Baldur’s Gate series. It integrates almost all elements of an English language, be it vocabulary, written texts, riddles, pronunciation, journals, and even cultures albeit some of them are fictions. The game is based on R.A Salvatore’s best selling Forgotten Realms Series. Playing the game is almost like reading the novel, if not better. Video games like these can substitute novels without losing the touch of the author and the elements in the novel. It is like immersing oneself to the main character in the novel.

One great example of an adventure game is Lucas Art’s Monkey Island series. It has an interesting storyline, incredible humor, beautiful graphics, stirring music, and voices of talented actors.

Another great example of educational adventure-simulation game is Eco-Nightmare. Through this game, one will be exposed to many scientific terms related to green house effect, deforestation effect, and simulation of scientific experiments. It was produced by Discovery Learning, a subsidiary of Discovery Channel. These games are old but still great and more importantly; they are clean and suitable for any age

CALL’s Hot Potato Reflection

Inpotatoduction

It has been 3 weeks since I started using Hot Potato. I really enjoyed a lot in using this software because creating it is as much fun as testing it. So far I have learned how to use JMix, JMatch, and JCloze. To me, it is one of the simplest web-based teaching exercise around, since I can do many types of web-based exercise within a short space of time. Before this, it would take years for me to do that silly html coding thingy. Then came this new breed of potato. Of course, it is not easy at first, but with the right guidance from the lecturer, it is as simple as baking a potato. There are three basic things in this potato, which are questions, answers and responses. Once done with these three things, it’s time to make it pretty and interesting with colors and pictures. So simple.

As a student, we are used to do online exercises from websites, but making one is a different thing. It is like a gamer who had the chance to create his own game. As in the common tagline in pc gaming industry, ‘For Gamers, By Gamers’. To be able to create a good game, we too need to be in the game. I think HotPotato as one kind of a game, since it is interactive and fun. Anything which is interactive and fun, is a game for me. Of course, having the freedom to mash the potato into our own mould is an extra motivator. I never knew that I could make one of my own, after years of eating it in KFC. But why the name is HotPotato is beyond me. Probably because the company’s name is halfbaked software, and they could not find any other ingredients that can be as easily mashed as potato’s. Potato is the staple food in many countries anyway.

Potatospective

Before this, we used to create exercise and worksheet based on the free templates and samples found in books. This time, we could see and relish the fun in making it from scratch through a computer. We can create many kinds of potato, whether it is wedges, mashed, french fries, etc. It is fun because we have the freedom to design our own colorful layout, put background pictures, and even media objects such as flash and music, according to the theme that we want. This will make it more attractive and can assist users in understanding the theme of the exercise. In short, this potato allows us to exercise our creativity to come up with our own original recipe and masterpiece.

Of course, not everything is perfect and simple. HotPotato has its own potato blight at times. It is not as non-linear as what I would want it to be. Although its crossbreeds such as JCLoze, JMix, Jmatch, etc. do make it a bit non-linear, we are still limited only to these types of exercises. But I guess it’s pretty much suffice for a newbie like us (my classmates of course). Although it is not that perfect, it is perfectly perfect for people who are newly exposed to educational courseware design. I couldn’t ask for more, although I know I could, but then of course I need to pay more for a more sophisticated one. I should be grateful to get this software for free.

Apart from the non-linear issue, some other blights come from our lack of knowledge in HotPotato and basic HTML. Firstly, the JMix. Just nice with its name, it can easily mixed up word structure and convert it into an exercise. With resounding affect, it also mixed us up while creating the exercise. We had to be very particular in linking one exercise to another, especially when involving more than 4 html files. We did get it right at the end of the class. I wouldn’t say it as a drawback though. It is more to our careless mistakes, and that’s all.

Another frustrating problem that my friends encountered was to get the pictures to load in html. I know how they feel, especially after putting tons of pictures and later knew that it failed to load. It usually happens after exporting the html to the online hosting file. It is either due to incorrect URL, or they thought everyone in this world have the exact same pictures in every computer, or they thought the pictures is already embedded in the html (no separate files). So, in order to use HotPotato, it is essential to have some basic knowledge in HTML. But HotPotato, in a way, indirectly taught us how to make it work, after lots of trial and error.

Importatotance

Since everything has been broadbanded online, including education, it is high time for next generation of educators like us to be exposed to this kind of software. It is a good preparation especially with regards to smart schools and virtualization of education. Instead of adopt and adapt other people’s work, why not create our own? With HotPotato, everyone can make a web-based teaching exercise of their own. Let us liberalize education!

My JMatch

You can download my JMatch here!