Category Archives: Gaming in the Classroom

Game Design Project: The Youtube Video Collection

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Our game design website, in which we examine how we used game design in conjunction with writing and science, has a lot of videos embedded in it, as we talked with our students and us teachers about what we were doing, as we were doing it. Our goal was to capture the project in the moment, and then use those videos to share out resources.

A few teachers said they were having trouble accessing the videos (hosted at Vimeo) in their schools. This might be a firewall issue or a Flash issue. I am not sure. But what I did was uploaded the videos onto YouTube and created a playlist for sharing out the videos in that format. There more context within our website resource, I think, but the videos (particularly those of the students) might be valuable for teachers considering game design as a project in the classroom.

Go to the Game Design Project Playlist.

Peace (in the design),
Kevin

 

The Games of The Hunger Games

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Yesterday, I reviewed The Hunger Games and I was exploring the Scholastic book site where writer Suzanne Collins has plenty of interesting videos about the books and her inspiration as a writer. I also noticed a link for some Hunger Game-inspired games, so I figured: I might as well check it out. There are two games on the site, both of which are really just advertising for the book.

hunger games

The first, Trial by Fire, is a Choose Your Own Adventure game, which is kind of interesting since I was just re-exploring that genre last week as part of our blogging series around Mentor Texts for the Digital Writing Workshop. Here, you choose a name and you are the character in the Hunger Games, making decisions as the clock ticks down on you. The music made my heart beat faster, pointing once again to the power of all the multimedia elements for website design. The quick pace and the connections to the story were well-done, and I bookmarked it as a good example of an adventure story with multiple paths.

hunger games2

The second, Tribute Trials, is a quiz-style game, in which you are asked a series of questions on survival, and you are awarded characteristics — such as strength, courage, charisma — that are then tallied up at the end of the game. If you have enough of what you need (I never quite figured that out), you stay alive. I didn’t. I died.

The two games were nicely constructed, with direct ties to the novels. I imagine some of my students would enjoy them. It made me think a bit about how publishers are marketing to young people now, using game theory to spark an interest in the book. I wonder, too, if the games here would have been as interesting if I had not read the book. Would I care? It seemed like the content of the games were designed to tap into what I already knew about The Hunger Games series, but with the movie coming out soon, I suppose eyeballs will be searching the Web for Hunger Games content.

Also, I was thinking: how could I get my students to create companion games for the stories they are writing? What would that look like? Hmmmm.

Peace (in the games),
Kevin

 

It’s Nice to Get Noticed: Game Design

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Yesterday, I shared out my new Video Game Design resource, and it generated a lot of interest across various networks, including Twitter (which I hope translates into possibilities for more students to use video game design in the classroom). The site also got a few mentions here and there on other websites and blogs, which is always an honor. It’s not always easy to stand out in the cacophony of the web world.

First, Richard Byrne at Free Tech for Teachers gave me a warm shout-out. I always appreciate the sharing of resources that Richard does at his site and encourage you to visit Free Tech for Teachers on a regular basis.

View Free Tech for Teachers Blog

Second, the Gamestar Mechanic teachers’ blog also focused on my website. The blog is a place where gaming projects are coming into focus, so to have mine in the mix is a nice honor.

View Gamestar Mechanic Teacher Blog

Finally, I am working with a few new colleagues (mostly from Canada, it seems) to create a wiki resource space around gaming in the classroom. Julie Johnson is spearheading the effort, and it is just beginning, but we hope to have a collaborative site that can be of use to other teachers considering gaming as a possible learning activity. It’s exciting to be part of collaborative adventures!

View Game in  Ed Wiki Site

Thanks to everyone who did drop by the game design site, and gave feedback through my various networks. I appreciate it!

Peace (in the connections),
Kevin

 

Site Launch: Video Game Design for the Classroom

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Video Game Design Screenshot
For the past few weeks, I have been sharing out pieces of a resource around video game design as my sixth grade students have created science-based video games. I often brought along my video camera for the ride, interviewing my fellow teachers and some of my students, and capturing some of the events as they unfolded with the project. I thought I might produce a video. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to keep much of the segments separate, and a website resource really seemed to be the way to go.

So, here it is.

I’ve created this website called Video Game Design as a way to document our learning adventure around game design, science and writing in hopes that you might also consider the possibilities of video games in your classroom. It was quite an interesting project, which continues to unfold even now (some of my students will be revising their games for the National STEM Video Game Challenge). I’ve tried to show how the project touches on a lot of curricular areas, and connects with the Common Core initiative. And I have attempted to show how engaged my students were in their creation of a video game project.

Most of all, I want to emphasize that my young gamers moved from the “players” of other people’s games to the “creators” of their own projects, with a real audience (we used Gamestar Mechanic, which I highly recommend for this kind of project) and a real purpose. While there are areas I see in reflection that could have been done better, there is no doubt in my mind that this project transformed learning practice for a few weeks. It’s been a bit difficult to get back to the regular curriculum, to be honest.

I hope the site is useful for you. Feel free to pass it around and if you see things that need to be addressed or have some general comments, I would love for you to give some feedback here.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

 

Student Podcasts: Reviewing Video Games

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Norris Gamers Icon
As part of our work around video game design, my sixth grade students were also assigned to play and review a video game. The game could be on any platform (and there was a wide range — from iPods to Wii to Xbox Live to web-based games) and the criteria for the review would be along lines of design, challenge, media and other elements that we have been discussing. What they didn’t know was that they were learning persuasive writing techniques, and use of rhetorical stance. They just thought they were able to play and write about video games.

This assignment was inspired by an online friend, Julie, who shared with me her own graphic organizer around game reviews. I adapted her organizer for my own needs, but I was grateful to have a starting point. If you need a starting point, here is the link to my own graphic organizer.

I wanted to give my students some voice, too, and so we used our iPod Touches and Cinch to record podcast versions of their video game reviews. I was impressed with how they came out, and have now pulled them together into a single folder of game review podcasts. Feel free to share with your own students, and let me know if you do a similar assignment. For me, this was yet another writing component to our video game design project.

Oh, and something interesting emerged, too, as the owner of a website called Gametrender kindly offered to provide publishing space on his website to feature our young writers. (He later told me he is a former teacher and sees the opportunity to nurture future journalists. You can read his post about it here.) I told my students this was an opportunity to publish to the world (the site gets a lot of traffic) in a meaningful way, with authentic readers. They were pretty excited about it, and I sent forward about  a dozen reviews to be published there in the coming days and weeks.

Take a listen:

Peace (in the review),
Kevin

 

Connecting Video Game Design to the Common Core

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I’ve been spending some time thinking about the ways in which our science-based video game design project connects with the Massachusetts English Language Arts Standards, which were built off the framework of the Common Core. I created this chart to help me make the case (to myself, if no one else) that the project does indeed connect in a number of areas around reading, writing (or better, composition) and science.
Video Game Design Connections to Common Core
Peace (in the connections),
Kevin

 

A Student in the Gamestar Mechanic Spotlight

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Wesley Spotlight
One of my student’s science-based video games is in the prime “Spotlight” position in the Gamestar Mechanic community, which means lots of players are now playing his game. It is one of the better games that my students have created. He will be happy to see that all of his effort is getting not only recognition, but also playing time by many players. There are still things he can do to make it better and we will be talking about the revision process after vacation.

What? You want to play it? Give it a try.

 

Peace (in the game),
Kevin

 

Inside Look at Student Video Games

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If you have been following my posts the past two weeks, you must be curious about the video games my students have built in Gamestar Mechanic. I’ve been playing them in order to assess them, and captured a few on screenshot, and then loaded them into Animoto as a fun way to share out a quick view of some of the games.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

 

Considering Assessment for a Game Design Unit

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My science teacher colleague and I have been struggling with the assessment part of our Geological Game Design Unit. We ended up with a checklist that focuses in on these areas:

  • Scientific knowledge
  • Story format
  • Writing Mechanics
  • Gameplay elements
  • Game Design

As we begin to play through their games, we will be determining if the projects met the expectations we set out for students or not. But it feels a bit wishy-washy, and the assessment tool will clearly have to be refined and worked on more if we are to do this project again next year. I know assessment of digital work remains a tricky area, but we need to have rich tools at our disposal to make sure the learning is transparent and assessable as much as possible. It’s not enough to say “it’s cool” or “they’re engaged.”

I don’t think our assessment tool does much more than that, but it is a starting off point.
The Geological Video Game Project Assessment Tool

Peace (in the reflection),
Kevin