This is an insightful video about a high school class designing a video game for a fifth grade class. The programming might be a bit complex for most classes to take on, but the ideas behind the project are wonderful and fascinating. You can see the elements of audience, project management and the game design process (including the iterative revision process) underway with these high school students. The video is part of the Teaching Channel site.
Peace (in the game),
Kevin
I used a screen capture to show the maze game that I created with a new tool (still in beta) that allows you to create a maze, which turns into a sort of 3D maze (which, to be frank, is the perspective of so many video games these days).
I could not figure out how to share the game I created, so I decided to play it and record it. This is an easy tool for students to be using to create a simple maze and learn a bit about video game design (where to put the rewards, where to put the monsters, how to layout a grid, etc.)
Go to PurpleMash’s 2DIY 3D maze making site.
Peace (in the game),
Kevin
This video playlist of three case studies of teachers integrating gaming into their classroom is worth a look if you are still wondering about the benefits of video game design. One teacher talks about using Minecraft; another, about how her traditional use of board games and design naturally shifted to video gaming when her school began to get computers and technology; and the other works at the Quest to Learn school that has a philosophical base built on gaming.
You can also check out my video game design resource, which maps out all of the work we did earlier this year around designing and publishing video games with a science-based theme.
Peace (in the game),
Kevin
This TEDx talk by Paul Anderson about using game design concepts to re-conceive classroom design for better engagement is pretty fascinating.
Peace (in the room),
Kevin
I love these presentations from the DML Conference from my NWP friends Peter Kittle and Chad Sansing.
First, Chad talks about gaming (check out his sketches that complement his talk).
Second, Peter talks about memes (and how ideas now get mobile quickly in this networked world).
Peace (in the shift),
Kevin
I’m weighing the possibilities of having my sixth grade students join in a new gaming challenge called The Lure of the Labyrinth, which is an online math-based video game challenge that I learned about from an email newsletter from Fablevision. The gaming challenge for middle school students runs through June 15 and is described this way:
(The Lure of the Labyrinth is a) collaboration between FableVision Studios, the Education Arcade at MIT, and Maryland Public Television, Lure of the Labyrinth is a compelling online game that requires students to use mathematical thinking skills. The challenge invites groups of students to work together in a teacher-moderated environment.
And, as for what the game itself is:
Lure of the Labyrinth is a web-based game where middle-school students are immersed in a compelling storyline in which an underground monster-inhabited world comes to life. Players plunge into a shadowy factory on a mission to rescue their missing pet using mathematical thinking skills to progress through the graphic-novel story.
In the Challenge, Labyrinth is played in teams of 4 – 6 students, and was designed to give all students a chance to learn and succeed. A safe, educator-moderated game-embedded communication device allows players on the same team to exchange ideas and game strategies, and encourages collaborative game play.
Lure of the Labyrinth is intertwined with standards-based curriculum designed to improve math and literacy. Sections of the game correspond to typical pre-algebra curricula: fractions, proportions, ratios, variables and equations, and number and operations. Within each section, there are puzzles at multiple levels that the students must solve as they move forward in the game.
It appears to use a graphic novel story interface to move the student along into challenge areas (which reminds me a lot of Gamestar Mechanic).
I’m intrigued by the math concept of problem solving and am wondering if some sort of collaboration between myself and my math teacher (similar to what I did with my science teacher) might make sense. All this might have to happen after our next round of state testing. Our math assessment comes in about two weeks. But I can also imagine the pockets of students who would just jump at the chance to do this kind of complex, puzzle gaming competition (there are some prizes, which can be a motivator for some students).
I do like that there are teacher guides and connections to national learning standards and lesson plans and even a handout about the classroom teacher’s role in the whole adventure. I wonder about the collaborative element of the project (and how I might set up collaboration across all four of the classes I teach somehow … interesting).
What do you think?
Peace (in the game),
Kevin
I know every day should be a day of recognition for women in all fields. But it is nice to have today designated as International Women’s Day around the world. I try to do my part in my classroom by countering the gender biases that my sixth grade boys are already beginning to develop (just the other day, this happened when we were using a Time for Kids magazine that featured women pioneers) and to remind my students of the inequities of history, where women were often forgotten or shunted aside.
Google has a cool Google Doodle today.
And I wanted to share out (again) a video game that I made for my students about Women in Science.
Peace (in the recognition),
Kevin
In December, my students worked on an entire unit around science-based video game design. They created and published their own video games. It’s more complicated than I can explain here (but we did capture it on our website about the gaming project). Many kids are still working on revising and improving their video games long after the project ended. One of them has almost 1,000 plays of his game in the Gamestar Mechanic community.
Yesterday, I helped a handful of students achieve a goal of theirs. We submitted their science-based video games into the 2012 STEM Video Game Challenge.
I have no idea how they will do on the national stage against other middle school game designers, but they were very excited to get all of the application completed and to know that their video game creations (which are excellent examples of gaming, science and writing, if you don’t mind a very biased opinion) are in the mix for a national award.
Me? I am proud of them for sticking with it and having the confidence in their abilities as game designers, and I am very glad that we seemed to have gotten everything done that we needed to get done for moving their game into the challenge (as far as I can tell. To be honest, the application process is not as clear as it could be).
![2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge [image courtesy http://www.stemchallenge.org/].](http://www.cccblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/logo-stemchallenge-application-form.png "2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge [image courtesy http://www.stemchallenge.org/]."){kind=logo}
And now, we wait until May, when the winners are announced. But we will still be playing and building games. That never stops.
Peace (in the game system),
Kevin
In preparation for a workshop this morning around game design and the new Common Core, I put out a call for friends in my various networks to add to a Wallwisher about the possibilities of gaming. There are some great ideas on this wall! Thanks to everyone who added a thought to the project. I appreciate it.
Peace (on the wall),
Kevin
We spent a good part of the month of December, working on our science-based video game project. But yesterday was the first day I have had a real chance to chat with my classes about what I saw when I was assessing their projects and to give another overview of the STEM Video Game Challenge. My teaching colleagues and I have identified about 15 projects (out of more than 50 video games) that we think, with some revision and more work, might have a chance. We haven’t shut the door to the others but I wanted to encourage students whose games really did rise up above the others and reflect interesting game play and integrated science themes.
We had long conversations about STEM, and what it is, and why that is the push of this challenge. They were most interested in considering how science, technology, engineering and math are going to be much of the focus of the employment world when they head off into the marketplace (in 10 years or so).
So, they are now going to review their games (made on Gamestar Mechanic) and consider if they want take the next step. I have given them about four weeks to make their decision. This work will involve game revision; writing a short narrative overview of their game; and then going through the registration process, which I have promised to help walk them through.
My guess is that we might have 8 to 10 games that move forward before the March 12 deadline.
This is the first year we have done game design at our school (and probably in our entire school district), and this is the first year anyone from our school will enter the challenge, so I am hard-pressed to know how it will go. But, there was a lot of excitement as we talked about the competition and our games, and whether our work would stack up against other middle school game designers in the country.
I think they do stack up, and they will be very competitive as game designers.
Peace (in the STEM),
Kevin