Research Proposal

Introduction

Video games have had plenty of bad press in recent years. Many have said that the only way to get rid of the video game “problem” is to ban all video games out right. However, there are many benefits to playing video games. This project will be looking at those pros and attempt to prove to you that videogames are a beneficial source for teachers to use to improve with their students learning. I will be doing this by asking a number of questions: What do video games help with learning? What are the pros and cons of using video games over traditional methods? Are there benefits you can get from playing video games that aren’t part of a school program? It could be that video games could help the U.S. get back on top for education.

Review of Literature

The sources that I have found so far fall into one of three categories. To begin, I will talk about sources that show a positive correlation between school work and video games. “Mind Games,” by Alan Gershenfeld, from Scientific American, talks about how using video games as an educational tool helps with student learning by increasing their interest in continuing school  as well as how the community on how violent video games affects individuals is split on whether or not playing violent video games effects you long term. Another article, “Gamification in Libraries,” by Eric Phetteplace and Kyle Felker from Reference & User Services Quarterly, talks about how libraries may be improved by using gamification, and thinking about the problem like a video game, to have more patrons who learn more than they normally would. Another article, “Practising Arithmetic Using Educational Video Games With An Interpersonal Computer,” by Vagner Beserra and associates, talks about how arithmetic is taught better when video games were used versus the standard methods of teaching. And finally, “Media And Attention, Cognition, And School Achievement,” by Marie Schmidt and Elizabeth Vandewater, talks about how the kind of material that digital media produce affect how children do in school.

The next group of sources I will talk about are sources that link video games to beneficial attributes to the body and mind of an individual. “Playing An Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences In Spatial Cognition,” by Feng Jing, Ian Spence, and Jay Pratt, talks about how playing action video games helps female minds with understanding spatial thinking to such a degree that there was no difference in how male and females think about different spatial problems. Meanwhile, another article, “Positive Association Of Video Game Playing With Left Frontal Cortical Thickness In Adolescents,” by Simone Kühn and associates, talks about how playing video games as a young child increases the child's ability to think and reason, especially when it come to strategically planning. An article by Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger Engels, “The Benefits Of Playing Video Games”, talks on the benefits to playing video games as a whole, looking at all of the areas of the brain that video games affect and how they are affecting them. Another article, “Reasons For Playing Casual Video Games And Perceived Benefits Among Adults 18 To 80 Years Old,” by Susan Whitbourne, Stacy Ellenberg, and Kyoko Akimoto, talks about how people of different ages get different perceived benefits from playing the same game, such as improved memory.  

Finally, this last group of sources are just those that don’t fit into the other two categories. “Three Questions About the Internet of Things and Children,” by Andrew Manches, Pauline Duncan, Lydia Plowman, and Shari Shabeti, talks about how the increase in different forms of digital media is affecting how children are growing and learning. Another article, “Deciding to Defect,” by Brad Sheese and William Graziano, talks about how playing violent video games reduces the ability, of those who participated in the study, to be able to work well with others.

Plan to Collect Information

In addition to the sources that have been collect up to this point, I will be looking for more sources through the online databases provided by Olympic College to add to the amount of information that I already have. I will also be looking through different online sources that will provide me with more relevant information about this topic so that I will have a comprehensive understanding of my topic.

Project Timeline

This coming week, I will be finishing collecting enough sources for my annotated bibliography, which must be in by the 11th of February. After that has been turned in, I will begin the literature review on the 12th and work on that till the 17th, by which time it will be ready to hand in on the 18th. From the 19th to 3rd of March, I will be working on a draft of my paper, as well as a rationale and abstract. From the 5th till the 12th of March, I will be working on polishing the essay so that on the 13th, I will be able to turn it in.

Works Cited

Sheese, Brad E., and William G. Graziano. "Deciding To Defect. The Effects Of Video-Game Violence On Cooperative Behavior." Psychological Science (2005): 354-57. Print.

Feng, Jing, Ian Spence, and Jay Pratt. "Playing An Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences In Spatial Cognition." Psychological Science (2007): 850-55. Print.

Marie Evans Schmidt, and Elizabeth A. Vandewater. "Media And Attention, Cognition, And School Achievement." The Future of Children (2008): 63-85. Print.

Kühn, Simone, et al. "Positive Association Of Video Game Playing With Left Frontal Cortical Thickness In Adolescents." Plos ONE 9.3 (2014): 1-6.Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.

Beserra, Vagner, et al. "Practising Arithmetic Using Educational Video Games With An Interpersonal Computer." Journal Of Educational Technology & Society 17.3 (2014): 343-358. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Phetteplace, Eric, and Kyle Felker. "Gamification In Libraries." Reference & User Services Quarterly 54.2 (2014): 19-23. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Manches, Andrew, et al. "Three Questions About The Internet Of Things And Children." Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning 59.1 (2015): 76-83.Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Gershenfeld, Alan. "Mind Games." Scientific American 310.2 (2014): 54-59. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Granic, Isabela, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels. "The Benefits Of Playing Video Games." American Psychologist 69.1 (2014): 66-78. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Whitbourne, Susan Krauss, Stacy Ellenberg, and Kyoko Akimoto. "Reasons For Playing Casual Video Games And Perceived Benefits Among Adults 18 To 80 Years Old."Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 16.12 (2013): 892-897. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Chapter 3 of The Bedford Researcher

The third chapter of The Bedford Researcher, titled Developing Your Research Question and Proposal, is divided into two halves. The first half of the chapter goes into details about how to develop a research question. It begins by telling you (as the reader) to reflect on your writing style and to then generate some potential research questions, giving some different ideas for questions to ask, such as what assumptions have been made, what information is known about a topic, and what has been done about this topic in the past. Then, this section has you begin crafting questions that reflect the writing situation you are in, and after making those questions, has you select and refine what questions you are asking based on what you are trying to write about.

The second half of this chapter goes into how to make a research proposal. This section begins with having you identify the topic and different issues posed by your research question, and then write down a summary of what you find. Then, this section goes into having you specify how you will collect your information for your project, having you identify relevant types of sources, appropriate search tools, and research methods. After this, the section has you develop a project timeline, make a working bibliography, and then has you clarify the original proposal so that it is easier to understand what the project is about, what challenges will arise, and gives a budget for how much it will cost to complete this project.

Chapter 7 of The Bedford Reader

The seventh chapter of The Bedford Reader, titled Avoiding Plagiarism, is split into six parts. The first section talks about what plagiarism is, and splits up plagiarism into two different categories, intentional, and unintentional. This section also talked about how to share credit in a group project. The next section talks about research ethics. This section basically came down to accurately representing your sources in your project as well as the info that those sources contain, and by doing this, readers will take your work more seriously. The third section talked about what common knowledge is, and how anything that is considered common knowledge does not need to be cited or have a source.

The fourth section of the chapter discussed what fair use of a source is and when to ask for permission. Fair use came down to what a random person is allowed to do with copyrighted materials, such as allowing criticism and teaching, while not allowing a person to publish anything based off of that material without asking for permission from the author first. The fifth section talks about how to avoid plagiarism and what goes through writer’s head when they plagiarize, such as the writer running out of time or thinking that they are no good at writing. The final section talked about what to do when accused of plagiarism, basically saying to look through your document to see where the problem areas could be and bringing in notes to show your thoughts form the sources thoughts.

Chapter 5 of The Bedford Reader.

The fifth chapter of The Bedford Researcher, which is titled Evaluating Sources, is split into two halves. The first half goes into extreme detail about what to do to evaluate an article from a peer reviewed journal. This section begins with making sure that the relevance of the source, it’s helpfulness to the audience and yourself, and then goes into many other details to check about the source to make sure that any and all information that is in the source will be helpful, such as who the author is, who the publisher is, when  the article was written, what genre the source was written in, how comprehensive the source is , and the amount of evidence provided in the source.

The second half of this chapter focuses on other kinds of sources that are not written for a peer reviewed journal. This section begins with telling the reader that checking the relevance and credibility of digital sources is key, especially when the information you are getting is off of a blog or social networking site. especially in those cases, checking who the author is will show whether the information in the post will be helpful to you or not. This section ends on talking about checking the relevance and accuracy of any field sources, such as interviews and surveys, to make sure that they can be used in your project.

The Ten Sources

1. Sheese, Brad E., and William G. Graziano. "Deciding To Defect. The Effects Of Video-Game Violence On Cooperative Behavior." Psychological Science (2005): 354-57. Print.
2. Feng, Jing, Ian Spence, and Jay Pratt. "Playing An Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences In Spatial Cognition." Psychological Science (2007): 850-55. Print.
3. Marie Evans Schmidt, and Elizabeth A. Vandewater. "Media And Attention, Cognition, And School Achievement." The Future of Children (2008): 63-85. Print.
4. Kühn, Simone, et al. "Positive Association Of Video Game Playing With Left Frontal Cortical Thickness In Adolescents." Plos ONE 9.3 (2014): 1-6.Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Jan. 2015
5. Beserra, Vagner, et al. "Practising Arithmetic Using Educational Video Games With An Interpersonal Computer." Journal Of Educational Technology & Society 17.3 (2014): 343-358. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
6. Phetteplace, Eric, and Kyle Felker. "Gamification In Libraries." Reference & User Services Quarterly 54.2 (2014): 19-23. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
7. Manches, Andrew, et al. "Three Questions About The Internet Of Things And Children." Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning 59.1 (2015): 76-83.Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
8. Gershenfeld, Alan. "Mind Games." Scientific American 310.2 (2014): 54-59. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
9. Granic, Isabela, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels. "The Benefits Of Playing Video Games." American Psychologist 69.1 (2014): 66-78. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
10. Whitbourne, Susan Krauss, Stacy Ellenberg, and Kyoko Akimoto. "Reasons For Playing Casual Video Games And Perceived Benefits Among Adults 18 To 80 Years Old."Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 16.12 (2013): 892-897. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.

Chapter 8 of The Bedford Researcher

The eighth chapter of The Bedford Researcher, titled Searching for Information With Digital Sources, talks about looking through different online search engines and databases to find the information you require. This chapter is split into five sections. The first section goes into how to prepare your searches. To do this, the section tells us that we must review the research plan and proposal and look for key words to help decide what are the key words that must be looked for. This section also talks about how to put those words into a search engine to get favorable results. The second section talks about searching for sources with a library catalog, mentioning how using just a keyword or an author may not be effective, and that you may need to combine terms to get results.

The third section gets into how to look through different databases to find sources, and gives  a list of question to ask yourself about your topic to help narrow the search. The section also gives a list of different databases, such as Citation Indexes and Media Databases. The fourth section looks at how to use different web sites to get sources for your topic, including blog sites and sites like Google. Finally, the fifth section talks about how to search for sources that are not written sources, such as videos, pictures, and audio files.

Chapter 6 of The Bedford Researcher

The sixth chapter of The Bedford Researcher, titled Managing Information and Taking Notes, talks about how to take notes, and how to save those notes and the sources those notes came from. This chapter is split into four sections. The first section of the chapter goes over ways to save and organize any information that you have collected from your sources. This section specifically goes over how to save both physical and digital sources, and gives a number of ways to get information into a format that you can use. The second section of the chapter talks about why notes should be taken, saying that taking notes helps the reader understand the source better as well as lets them keep the information close by.

The third section gets into how you should take notes. Overall, this section just gave a number of ways to record specific quotes and told the reader that if you take notes, you should find a way to record the data that works for you, and then stick with it. Towards the end of the section, it began to transition to labeling your sources in some way so that you know what information that source provided. The fourth section talks about how to create a bibliography, and mentions that annotating a bibliography can help with keeping track of what information came from which source.