Monday, April 1, 2013

Blog 14: Research Analysis Draft


Derrick Robinson
Professor Chandler
Research Analysis

            In socializing and conversation and interpersonal qualities, everyone has their own personalized identity. Within each person, there is certain qualities that can alter a way conversation is handled holding Big C conversation. The different qualities- or for better words identities to satisfy this research-between each person show the qualities that form their personas.
Everybody has their own identity. A good way to see the differentiating qualities in someone is by interactions. When seeing conversation being held by two people, you can see the different traits that set up their identity. The way they talk, their personality, the subtle social cues all show the different characteristics that shape the way that they are or what they stand for. Sometimes the conversation can go well or sometimes it can pose a problem as the identities conflict with each other. Inside the gaming literacies transcript, we see two people show their personal identities through means of conversation. We see how each interacts or makes statements. Different moves in the conversation show how each assume. Everybody has their own identity.  When people with different identities have a conversation, the way they talk will show their identity.  Inside the gaming literacies transcript, we see two people with different identities and we see how their identities interact. This will be my main example of conversation and how each identity will change the interview.
            So the question that could be asked in this paper is-what are the differences in identities between Dr. Chandler and Bryan who is being interviewed? How do the different identities shape the conversation? What are the subliminal influences that mold the conversation? What language moves change the way others assume each others identity? To answer these questions, we will have to break down the coding inside the gaming literacies interview and build evidence on the assumed identities of both people.  By analyzing the questions being asked and how they are responded to follow by the reaction from Dr. Chandler and Bryan, evidence can be conducted from these by dissecting the coding. After finding the evidence throughout the interview, I can thus build support to aid my answers.
            The first question to be answered is what are the differences? First, we shall break down Dr. Chandler’s identity through the text. While also being an interviewer, what must be taken into account is that Dr. Chandler is also a professor. As we can see every question that we can see is to find out more about Bryan, but also trying to connect his experience/identity to academic perspectives. She gives direct questions and re-states the answer given by Bryan while also connecting her response to the next question she is about to ask.  One move we can see her academic identity is in line 3 when she asks: “So it’s interesting, games aren’t really considered software are they?” Dr. Chandler begins the interview with this question to see where it will lead and ultimately set up for her next question.  Another move we can see where her identity as a teacher shows substantially is when she connects Bryan’s experience with games back to academic items. After hearing Bryan’s answer on his experience on gaming and academic software, we see the move where she responds to his answer by connecting his experience in games to academic applications. “Ch- that's literacy - you have the basic tools, the right basic set of assumptions for how to read, understand, interpret a program.  And so what I'm looking for is the connection between all the gaming experience you have and your ability to do that with the applications - the academic applications (Line 10).” Even when Bryan defends his views on gaming, Dr. Chandler still kept connecting how his experience can carry over[l1]  .
            We now go over to Bryan’s identity to figure him out. What has been previously said in the dissection of Dr. Chandler’s identity, is that Bryan is a gamer. Where Chandler stands in academics, he stands in technology of the leisure kind. We can also see that he is very adept when it comes to gaming and technology. “-I just have that knack, no other way to explain it.” We can see that from this example that he does have the confidence, however with his confidence he does not really claim it significant, but rather common knowledge. When Chandler asks him about software that he knows he downplays it, while also subtly showing cockiness. “these a simple things everyone knows, I guess the only reason I can pick up learning a program is that I just have that knack, no other way to explain it.” Another example from the same excerpt in whole shows downplay that everyone should know certain software, but also showing cockiness because he knows that not everyone knows the certain software he deems as common knowledge. Since this interview is about his experiences, one could see how he might show some confidence when it comes to his mark of trade, which gives him space to boast about what he has done. Given this, we also see how he assumes Dr. Chandler’s identity as not knowing how gaming software is.
            Since Dr. Chandler’s identity is known, we have to take into consideration the values that are here as well.  As a teacher, Dr. Chandler knows that video games and respects his identity. What she is trying to display to Bryan is that all his experience can be connected back to the academic field. The topic of the interview is video games, but she wants to see how his experiences helped him with academic applications. As Bryan still tends to keep away from her connections of gaming software and academics, she still finds a way to bring his experiences back to her values. An example of this would be is when Bryan is talking about how you can customize the game your way just by fooling around , she brings it back to the literacy standpoint of understanding and reading and how this could be carried over as she did in her statement in line 10. “OK so all those things - same kinds of processes, same kinds of moves - so navigating menus is something you learned from games that can carry over - anything else?(line12)”
            Bryan’s values that come along with his identity are that he likes the gaming software for fun and wants it nothing to do with academics. As Dr. Chandler keeps making the connection between academics and his gaming experience, he tries to push against it. In line 13 we can see this in his reply after Chandler’s statement that all his experience can be carried over to the literacy standpoint. “I think that is the main thing, I can't connect a First person shooter with Microsoft word, that would be a real stretch.” Another language move to try to separate gaming and academics is when they talk about how Bryan messed around with his step-father’s computer and Chandler brings up how it was trial and error. “I wasn't being graded - there's no - all right man, let's pass this class you've got to.(line 19)” With the different examples of language moves he makes here, we see that he wants to keep Dr. Chandlers academic identity away from his gamer identity because of the fact he does not want to feel like his gaming is like going to class.
            Within this interview we see the subliminal influences between the identities and the values behind them. Many of the examples show how the language moves create sort of a rift between the interviewer and the one that is being interviewed. Considering that Bryan wants his experiences away from education, we can see how he tries to shy away from it by using downplay and his confidence. When Dr. Chandler tries to connect his software usage to literacy or software that we use for academics, he uses downplay and confidence to relate that it is common knowledge for anyone to know the educational software or tools used for without having to connect it to games.
Another use for the language moves used by Bryan is to use his experiences against the interviewer. The assumed identity towards Dr. Chandler is that she does not know anything about gaming or has less knowledge than he does. Basically, he knows Dr. Chandler’s values for education by the questions she asked, and uses his cockiness in his trade to try to talk down to Dr. Chandler. Yet again, as Dr. Chandler in line 10 refer to his experience as a connection to literacy, he uses common knowledge to combat what she said. “Well like a lot of games, in the beginning, there's menus.  You don't just start playing. (Line 11)” We can consider this a subliminal attack against him because of the statement. As he tries to downplay this, it seems as though he is trying to teach the interviewer about games. This statement could be assumed that he was trying to say that gamming software is not just a turn on and play. There is more complexity than to what may be seen in a video game.
            Another subliminal look into the transcript is that even though Bryan is trying to keep a distance his gaming from education, he is actually agreeing without completely agreeing.  As Dr. Chandler asks questions about the video games and his background with them, she always finds a way to connect it with education, as much as Bryan wants to keep them in two different sectors.  Line 10 through 13 is a great example-as it has been throughout the analysis-of how even though Bryan doesn’t want their two identities connect, he still agrees that just like with academic applications, gaming applications still have the concept and similarities. It is the language moves by Dr. Chandler in which whatever question she asks to try to connect, she always adapts to the situation and subliminally pushes the conversation to her favor.
Throughout the transcript, it is understood that there is a little struggle between the two, but as the transcript progresses we see how each other actually come to an unspoken agreement. At this point, it feels as though both of them understood each others identity. The constant rift between the two started to come together and agree mostly in Dr. Chandler’s favor. Take for instance in line15 and 16 where before Bryan said you could not connect a shooter to Microsoft Word. Chandler brings up the point about how games have file systems and everything just like other applications. “Ch -how about file systems and gaming spaces?” “B -you know, you're right, because the game, the games are still software, and they're still files, so there are certain organization of a game that is different from regular files.” As you can see, Bryan does humble himself after the question to agree with Dr. Chandler. It took until end of the transcript to finally have an agreement built between these two. Even though the values between them did not change, there was a brief instant where Bryan realized that Dr. Chandler had more knowledge than he thought she had in the beginning.
To conclude this analysis we have seen the different language moves such as downplay, persistence, cockiness, and confidence that influenced how the conversation would go. At a point where the interviewer and the subject seemed to can’t relate, in the end they were able to agree but disagree all in the same instance. Where Chandler’s teacher values conflicted with Bryan’s gamer values, it was the subliminal influences that formed the conversation when they figured where each other stood and their values. This transcript is a prime example of how different identities and values can mold a conversation for better or for worse. Sometimes people can connect and relate to each other and sometimes there is no common ground at all. It is all about the different traits brought into the conversation to determine how it will go.


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