Final Project

My students finished up their final project of the year last week and I was proud of the results.  While some games were more advanced than others everyone put in a lot of effort and showed real growth.  For the final project I wanted to do something that combined multiple skills, showed competency of the overall subject matter, was interesting, and gave the students flexibility.  I decided on a final game that would be done quickly (four weeks total) with required documentation to back-up their overall process. The required documentation included: timeline of deliverables, storyboard, architecture chart, design document, marketing materials, source code document, test cases, and the final executable. 

The first step of the process was having the students set their own timeline with due dates for each deliverable.  All students had the same date for the final executable (last week) but all other deliverable dates were set by each individual student.  The students were then able to determine which pieces may take them longer or shorter than others and tailor their time management appropriately. I think it is important to give the students just enough information to jump right in while not spoon feeding them into complacency that requires no real thought.  The project was a success and it was fun to see what they came up with since they got to choose their own themes, backgrounds, and assets.  The students were required to use quite a bit of coding instead of "drag and drop" buttons which can be a trial and error process when debugging so it was great to see what the students did to solve errors they got.  Click here to see some of the samples of student's final games.

As I head into the summer I plan on working on several new lessons, projects, and videos students can use to personalize their learning even more next year.  Working on things like updating my website, finalizing grades, and ensuring I am prepared for the new courses I'll teach next year will keep me busy but also energizes me for what's to come.  I can't imagine a job I could possibly enjoy more. I get to work with so many amazing learners who make me look good through their hard work and effort. 

I'm proud of myself...

The words "I'm proud of myself" should be what every teacher strives to hear from his/her students.  As my students finish up their final culminating game build I heard those words a few times and nothing could make me happier.  Not because I felt like I did a good job or I taught them well but because it means I allowed the students to take charge of their own learning and do things for themselves.  Had I of given the students step by step instructions and a strict guildeline I don't think I would have heard those words.  After all- handing someone answers doesn't mean they'll ever be able to do it for themselves; let alone feel pride in what they accomplished.  Working through issues, getting stuck and turning things around, problem solving, and coming out with a viable product fosters pride.

I'll post a dropbox link to some of the students games soon but those words "I'm proud of myself" make me proud to be a teacher.  I don't need validation of my teaching skills or for my students to think I am all-knowing (because I certainly am not) but I do need to know that my students feel comfortable, proud, and confident in my class.  While I cover standards and follow certain rules none of those are my ultimate goal.   My ultimate goal is to know my students are thinking for themselves, making their own conclusions based on facts, and keeping an open mind to new learning experiences. All in all I'd say this school year has been a success on all those counts.

Final Exams

It's that time of year again and final exams are coming!  While preparing my final exams it is important to me to test actual learning and not my students ability to make a guess based on four possible answer choices (i.e. multiple choice questions).  I am designing my finals around project based learning just like lessons.  No standardized testing will be used as I don't believe you can can judge a goldfish on its ability to fly.  It is however important to ask- what have my students really learned this year?

Students will need to demonstrate overall game design knowledge by creating a game on exam day- similar to a quick game jam.  Students will have choice in the theme and type of game with several options to choose from.  I am also having students choose one area to show me advanced learning in which needs to be game related and based on their career interests.  Students can choose things like creating 3D models in Blender, 2D models in Photoshop, concept art using digital tablets, coding samples in notepad ++, business requirement and architecture documents, etc.  There will be a few question based items as well that require the students to think like game designers.  I am hoping for successful exam days and wish all the students good luck! I am excited to see the differences in what students come up with which will hopefully all display learning- just in different ways.

Doctorate and Gamification

Obviously there's been a delay in posting for a long time but I hope to be able to post more regularly in the future!  Yesterday I successfully defended by dissertation "Examining the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® Model Use by District Managers Responsible for Sales".  I have a few pieces of paperwork to send in and my editor is finishing up final edits before we can publish but I am within a couple weeks of earning my Doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Management.  Anyway back to the topic at hand- personal learning!  

I am very excited to completely re-work my class for next year and I have enlisted the students to help me.  Next year we will still have a gaming class with the amazing culture that we've built this year but in addition we are working towards complete gamification of the course.  I sought out the students input along the way because, as always, I want to hear their input.  The students created the "game mechanics" and badges that would be awarded and we worked together to build a gamification process to motivate students to go above and beyond.  It is important to note that the XP and badges they earn will not be for completing regular course work.  You only get awarded XP and badges for going above and beyond which allows me to post the leaderboards for motivation.  Students do of course have have the option to "opt out" of the leaderboard if they do not want the other students to know how much XP they have earned.  Next post I will go into more detail about the usefulness of gamification but here are some of the things my students and I came up with for next years game!

Student Created Badge Examples:

Below is a summary of how rules and descriptions of the overall "game":

Story (fictitious):

Tencent Holdings Limited has left the video game industry and now the remaining companies are vying to control the industry!  Test the strength of your company and individual game development skills to try to prove your company and division is the best!

Rules:

You earn badges for various things.

You can’t be rude towards other players and or not showing sportsmanship. This is for fun.

Each player must cooperate with their division (group) and company (period).

No cheat codes.

Leaderboards:

There will be four different sets of leaderboards. One ranking the companies (periods) as a whole against each other, one ranking the individuals in their respective companies against everyone else in that company, one ranking the individuals against everyone in all three companies, and one ranking the members of the divisions/departments in each company against the rest of that respective company.  You can opt-out from the individual leader board rankings if you wish- see Dr. Kirk to do so.

Leaderboard Descriptions

1.  Companies (periods)

2.  Divisions/Departments (groups of 5)

3.  Individuals (from all three companies)

4.  Individuals (only listed with others from their own company)

The rankings will be based on XP. Each individual’s XP is added towards their division and company. Say, SONY had 200 XP total, and a division in that company had 20 XP, before one of their members, Sharon, earned an extra 5 XP, giving their division 25 XP and their company 205 XP.

Each company’s XP can be raised or lowered at any time if each company does not have the same number of players participating.

Levels:

Level 1 (50 XP) - Entry Level QA Tester

Level 2 (75 XP) – Game Designer

Level 3 (100 XP) - Lead Designer

Level 4 (125 XP) - Project Manager

Level 5 (150 XP) - Creative Director

Level 6 (175 XP) – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Chief Executive Officer is the highest level/title but you can continue to accumulate points.

XP:

The XP earned through the badges will grant the player access to any reward that the card specifies, if specified, plus an XP bonus depending on how quickly the badge was earned and how much XP it was. There shouldn’t be a bonus for a card easily obtained/able to be normally achieved in a day. 

Starter Badges:

Self-explanatory. Players only gain these badges once at the beginning of the game (school year), and cannot be earned later on.

Leader Badges:

The same Leader Badge can only be earned a limited amount of times. The limit depends on the badge itself. If it’s a badge that can easily be exploited by offering max XP (15), only allow each player to earn it three-five times (depending on how difficult it is to earn said badge). 

Mini Badges:

This type of badge can be earned up to 10 times (depending on the badge- only badges 5 points or less). Keep in mind the limit, especially if it offers the max XP (10) to prevent exploitation of the system. Mini badges worth more than 5 points can be limited by the teacher at any time but to start we’ll put the limit at 3 times per year. Participation mini badges (worth 1 point each) can be earned each day.   

Side Quests:

Players can only complete a specific Side Quest once. If the player decides to complete the same Side Quest more than once, they will only receive that badge once, regardless of the amount of XP the badge is worth.  The side quest they choose must be good quality that took time outside of class to complete.

Negative Badges:

Players earn this type of badge which removes XP from their overall XP for ignoring assignments, being a hothead, watching too many hours of unrelated YouTube, being rude, etc.  It pays to work hard and be kind to others!

Boss Level:

Divisions will face against each other in their own company over large amounts of XP. These competitions can range from constructing a specific game to creating the best assets. It’s somewhat like an Olympics. It challenges each division on everything that’s expected in a decent game. The winning division in that company will receive a fixed XP boost and will be able to compete with the winning divisions from the other companies. The overall winning division will receive a bigger XP boost and earn a pizza (or some kind of relatively universally appreciated food stuff like that). The XP earned will not go towards individual scores but it will go to the divisions.

Winning Condition:

To win this game, the player/division/company must have more XP than anyone else. There will be different awards for the winners of each section, but each award will be different, the grandest one going to the player with the highest overall XP.

 

 

Students in Control

I watched a Ted talk today by Willem Jan Renger about games as a way for teaching and learning.  He talked about teachers who are afraid of technology- teachers who need control so put the phones away when you walk in the class and you can get them back at the end.  Teachers who are part of a generation gap when it comes to technology because we were not raised with it and it is true.  Even young teachers like myself have not been using technology as long as most of my students.  I got my first laptop when I was in high school in 2001 and barely used it.  I just started using the internet effectively for learning in the past 10 years when my students have used it since they were very young- maybe even five or six. 

I strive constantly to keep up on new technology and not be a part of that generation gap and to not be afraid to try out new technology in my classroom.  I don't want to limit my students on what resources they can use.  I don't want to remove tools that could be useful in learning just so I have more control and yes, that does mean that a student may take advantage of it occasionally.  Personally, I would rather give my students more freedom and have 1 student on YouTube watching a music video and 20 students on tutorials learning what interests them than say no one can use YouTube in my classroom.

I want a classroom where the students have control and responsibility.  They get dynamic feedback and are required to use strategic decision making- just like games require players.  I want my students to feel like respected equals who are a part of my class- not students who have no control.  I want my classroom to be ran like a video game which never treats players like players but instead puts them in the game and gives them full control.  We hold students back by assuming the worst will happen if we let them have freedom and flexibility. 

Instead of longer seat time, lectures, and standardized tests we should be allowing students to stay in classes longer when they need help and less when they are ahead of the class.  We need to allow students to apply the things they are learning to problem solving projects instead of filling in multiple choice bubbles.  We teachers need to do better and it will be harder but it is time we take the harder route and do what is best for our students instead of what is easier for ourselves.

To see the Ted talk the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPePpD5kPJo

Facilitation

Last week visited a school in Louisiana- St. Charles Satellite Center.  It is a school not unlike CAS with smaller class sizes, project based learning, and a flexible environment.  Although I get to see the progress my students make every day it was great to see a similar learning environment where students use critical thinking and problem solving skills throughout class.  Talking with those students also made me remember why I love doing what I do.  I felt like I lost site of that (at least slightly) during the rush of the new semester and starting my dissertation but after the school visit I am reengergized and back on track.  Once I returned I had an open discussion with my students about the recent quality of their work and how I wanted them to take even more ownership.

My students are working on finishing up a major game build and I love walking around the room and hearing the conversations they are having; it really engergizes me (well that and coffee).  Fixing issues together, researching coding errors, and learning how to do test cases.  It is amazing what they can accomplish with nothing more than facilitation.

We hinder students when we give them the answers up front.  We sell learners short when we hand them step by step instructions instead of allowing them to discover a process on their own.  It is important to have facilitators to help guide but I hope that is all I am, a guide and not someone who feels the need to control every little thing.

Current Trends

Last week I covered current and future trends in gaming and technology with my students.  We watched YouTube videos and read articles that made promises of virtual reality, holograms, and 3D audio.  The project was a success with student work that included: blogs, PowerPoints, Kahoot quizzes, posters, and sketches with captions.  The students of course got their choice of any project so those previously mentioned were their own ideas and creations.  The perimeters were that they included 10 current trends and 5 possible future trends.

We ended the project on a positive note with a sharing session where students could show their work if they wanted.  We had students present their PowerPoints and give their Kahoot quizzes to their classmates for prizes.  That final day we also played the Wii as students shared their projects and we did our final discussion of what we covered that week.  The purpose of the Wii was for students to try out motion sensor technology that we had talked about that week in current trends.  It ended up being a "Just Dance" battle between students that had them energized and entertained.  I had a lot of fun seeing so many participate in it as well.  It was a great Friday activity that involved the current project, team building, and our sharing discussion we've been doing every Friday.

I remember how hard it got towards the end of the week when I was a student. I'd have too much energy and was cooped up in boring classes all week where we weren't even allowed to get up and walk around without permission.  My classroom will never be that way.  If a student needs to stretch their legs they can get up and walk around without asking, I leave snacks in the back of the room away from the computers so students can take a break from staring at the screen.  I encourage students to take a 5 min break during class to get up and walk around.  I've found that students like the respect I give them and don't take advantage of it. I also like to do active activities on Friday if at all possible to mix with our discussions and get the students moving.  It may not always be possible but even if it is just a walk outside to have our discussion elsewhere I think it helps.

The current trends in education in the United States seem to be hindering our students progress instead of pushing them forward.  Encouraging students to have identical looking projects with the exact same specifications makes it easier for copying and plagiarism.  It also requires little to no critical thinking or problem solving.  As educators we need to do a better job, step outside the box, and challenge to norms.