We are starting on Flash!

This week was quite hectic with WESTEST 2 field test being taken at school. We managed to have classes for the most part, even though they were shortened. However, we got most of the students' presentations taped and even started on Imagining Your Game unit!

While waiting for Flash installations, we asked the students to respond to a questionnaire so that we could group them correspondingly. Thus, we ended up with four groups: The Alliance of Super Tr33 Stumps (don't ask why "e" became "3"- something out of the teenage lingo:), The Fourth Column, Guitar Heroes, and Gamavision. The students brainstormed their ideas and spent some time getting ready for mini presentations. We informed them that they would be videotaped, so that their presentations could be placed on their group wiki pages. That made them nervous (at least, most of them- Josh, "the muffinman", enjoyed the whole process so much, thus becoming the creative guru of his group), but being nervous helped them work more productively and come up with great game ideas and presentations.

However, Flash is installed, and we have started on the first tutorials in Flash. The students are very excited about starting on Flash and are already helping each other with it! I have warned them that I am as much of a learner in this process as they are, so they have to go through tutorials very thoughtfully and ask experts and their friends for help when needed. I know I will always be there for them, but I will probably learn as much from my students as they will from each other. I am very worried about this part of the course as I am not as comfortable with Flash as I am with working on the wikis and blogs. However, everybody keeps on telling me that I need to give more credit and freedom to my students and believe in their ability to learn from each other and provide help to others in what their strenghts are.

Just trucking along...

Well, this week has been devoted to social games design unit, which helped many students to start identifying the topics for their future games. I was surprised (and very excited and pleased at the same time) as to how many of the students feel passionate about the issue of global warming and its consequences on the lives of the peoples of the world. I am very proud of these kids who will take on researching more about what is happening in this world today to teach about that through their video games.

Being nosey, I looked at RTC's wiki pages to get some ideas to utilize in our classroom. I will definitely go and update my news page as I did not think about putting the necessary assignments for the students to accomplish for the day. I am certainly having tons of blond moments recently! This weekend, I will definitely devote time to catching up on my own learning and going to Flash to try and figure that pen tool out! Plus, I need to sit down and play more games to finish my own units of evaluating the games!

It's certainly not a "smoothly-flowing" blog, as it is a weekend, and September has been quite busy for me: getting into the schedule, getting my Spanish students all lined up and ready to go, as well as taking on tons of "paperwork-y" responsibilities as I go through the weeks. I cannot wait for my one-weekend vacation in Shenandoah, which, I know is an interesting way to get a break-in the midst of all the beginning craziness:)

Finshing Game Design

Today is the last day of the learning game design unit. The students had a lot of fun playing the games, but some needed more nudging to start thinking about the game reviews as well. Processing the game from the developer's point of view was probably the most challenging part for them because they never really thought about it from this standpoint. I could easily associate with them because I was puzzled tremendously when I played some games before starting to work on the Success Elevator. Now I can do it easier and can spend more time with the students helping them understand the concept of understanding the game design from different perspectives. Of course, the class is slowly getting divided into those who get stuff done easily and early and the ones who lag behind. However, this challenge opens tons of tutoring opportunities and learning from each other, which provides help for all the kids at all times and helps Sara and me not to spread ourselves too thin. Tomorrow we are going into the next unit, with some students still having to spend time on the current unit because of the various reasons (being absent during one of the days, having PE 5th period, etc.). I am expecting the students to acquire different paces at some point without too much lag in between their activities.

Wrapping up the getting started part

Today we have finished the getting started part and discussed the participation guidelines with the students. During the discussions, we realized that we have indirectly shared these guidelines with the students during the first stages of course introduction and setting up a profile and a blog. However, when talking about sharing with each other, one student pointed out that he wanted the guideline for not taking the game ideas from each other. That raised some questions in my mind. I understood what he wanted to say but did not know how to render it to the other students. The wanted to make sure that, in this environment of sharing, nobody steals his idea for the game. But, how can you tread between sharing selflessly and abusing the privilege? How do we entice creativity without letting students use each other's ideas for the particular game? We ended up not putting this item on the list for the guidelines because so many concerns come into mind. Anyways, tomorrow we are starting to work on game design topics. That should be fun! The students are already excited about this part of the course.

Finally, the first week is over...

Now I can take a breather, as this week involved a lot of running and lots of lack of structure in my day. However, now the students are feeling more comfortable with the wikis and have started conquering the world of blogs. And they are not doing too bad! I was impressed with their ease of communication about their beginning life in Globaloria. I am also learning alongside the students. We have introduced them to creative commons, which I am still quite confused about. Do we use any images we can find through that site or need to be picky? I migh sound like a food for wondering about that but I'd rather ask. Yesterday I spent considerable amount of time putting the profile links on the wiki user gallery- I am getting more and more comfortable with using the provided templates instead of shying away from adding something new or something I don't know how to add to the wiki. I might even become comfortable with Flash before the year is over:D

You live, you learn...

Today was an interesting day. Our students have finally gotten to experimenting with their profiles and finding the pictures to add to their pages. Well, that was a huge learning experience for us! Obviously, the students use tons of stuff from Photobucket, but that stuff is copyrighted and cannot be put on their profiles (thank you, Maitreyi!), so tomorrow is going to involve tons of explanation and learning about copyright, as well as exploring http://creativecommons.org. I am kind of glad it happened because it presented a good teaching opportunity for the students. I thing, I cannot get over enough is their constant collaboration. When one finds out how to do stuff, he or she goes over to their friends and shares. As long as they get their stuff done, I am welcoming it!

The first day of school

Today was the first day of school for the students, which, as always, proved hectic and full of running around without accomplishing much. BUT, the one class that went as planned (for the most part) was Globaloria! We managed to talk about Globaloria, explain the essence of the program, and get the students to take the survey. During the class, we also had students sign up for gmail to be able to set up their blog easier later on.

To my mind, the kids are very excited, puzzled, and intrigued. We have quite a mix of abilities and talents, but all the students can work well together, which is a key. We will probably need to slow down the curriculum, as some of the students are taking more time to do explore the content or set up an account, being more scrupulous than the others. However, it remains to be seen, as they may up the speed as we go along and they get more comfortable with all the components of the course. As for now, testing their gmail accounts, they have already added each other to their contacts lists, so really communication comes naturally for these digital natives.

Once some of the faster ones finished, Sara and I let them explore the games and the avatar gallery, which was such a hit! I honestly did not think they would get so excited over it! We'll see what tomorrow brings, but we are planning starting the course overview, getting their profile started and setting up the blogs. Should be fun!