BBS Interviews Dr. Caperton

Dr. Idit Caperton was interviewed by the BBC about Globaloria. Here are the details.

BBC's "CULTURE SHOCK" -- Philip Dodd and Martin Raymond of the Future Laboratory discuss new ideas, inventions and trends.

In this edition (27 minutes-long):

1. Canaries for the Age of Terror
Using cockroaches and genetically modified fish as biosensors to guard our homes against chemical and biological agents: Austrian designer Marei Wollersberger explains why she designed a bio-safe home.

2. Internet Reputation Defenders
Worried that what’s written about you on the internet might put off potential employers? Don’t want your new partner to see those embarrassing pictures of you and your previous girlfriend on Facebook? Michael Fertik’s Reputation Defender offers to spruce-up your internet image.

3. 21st Century Games (last segment, starts at about 16 minutes into the show)
Forget computer games for kids. What they really want – and what might also give them a chance to get a decent job - are computer games that they design themselves. Idit Caperton's new internet project MyGLife teaches kids from deprived backgrounds how to build web 2.0 games and the value of collaborating online with people from other countries. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/culture_shock.shtml

It will be broadcast live from Monday 14th January worldwide. Here is a tool to find out how you can listen wherever you are http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/worldservice/psims/ScheduleSDT.cgi

You can listen online for seven days after the 14th ( and download it ) : http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/culture_shock.shtml

Game Developers Conference

The Game Developers Conference or gdc is an annual conference for the gaming industry held at the new Moscone Center West, in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA district. The event brings together over 12,000 people who design, develop, and sale games for computers, consoles, or over the internet.



For Globaloria, this represents the more formal gaming industry. An industry took in about USD$7.4 billion in the US in 2006 (ESA annual report). That's Billion with a B. While the knowledge and skills we are learning can certainly apply to almost any industry today, there is a gaming industry and they are looking for talented people to bring energy, creativity, and talent to the next generation of games.

Excitement About Game Presentations

I am really excited about the next two days for Globaloria. I will be visiting sites and actually watching presentations from our students. There has been a lot of effort in design, planning, and producing games and I am going to be able to check out the fruit of that labor, effort, and creativity.

Hopefully, I will have some things to share when we get back.

What does a Globaloria Classroom Look Like?

So if you are considering joining the Globaloria program, you may be wondering what the environment looks like. So when I was in Elkins this week I grab a photo and short video with my poor quality cell phone. So check them out.



Take note of the sweet iMacs. Wow. I want one so bad.

Now check out this video. The students are trying to wrap up their games for their presentation next week on the 15th. They are needing to add audio. As you will note in this video, there was a long script that had to be written and actors were hired and of course there is always some danger involved in game development. You will see the observers move to a safer location.




So as you can see, a Globaloria classroom is a little bit different then a 'traditional" classroom. They are engaged, talking it out, working together, and some of them have really cool iMacs.

Games that Rock: RTC kids make incredible Flash Games

OK. I don't have time for a long post tonight and I don't want to give away a lot before there final presentations, but I had a chance to see the RTC games today and they were amazing. Interaction, story, gaming, the works. It's all there. I am going to be watching their final presentations on Jan 15th. I can't wait. If you can't wait either head over to their wiki and check out current progress.

Much more soon!

The Kids are Back in Town

My RSS Reader has indicated the game developers are back at it. That's right. I saw in my Globaloria folder the RTC and Capital High students are back at work reading through tutorials and making comments on the wiki.

How cool is that.

Just a note for those of you who are new to RSS. I subscribed to the changes in the wiki as I described here. So I wasn't out surfing the students wikis, with over 8 in the project now that would be CRAZY. I was just checkin' my feeds.

A Comment on Comments

So, why would I want to comment on a post in this blog?



1. Ask a question.
2. Get a clarification.
3. Check on your own understanding.
4. Correct a fact.
5. Have an opinion.
6. Vent.
7. Introduce yourself.
8. Point out an error or omission. (I think I am getting insurance for that.)
9. Provide a new resource.
10. Promote your own blog. (BUT DON'T SPAM)
11. Declare the authors obvious authority. (You might want to.)
12. Post a link to your new Flash file that has nothing to do with the post on this blog. (Go ahead it's OK.)
13. Tell everyone how special your kids are.
14. (Finally) To express your delight in the hiring of Coach Stew and your dismay in how Georgia could be #2 after beating Hawaii and WVU is #6 after beating Oklahoma.

Any comments?

Collaborative Documents

I was asked this question via email today...

Do you recommend google documents or wikispaces or another free service? I would like this website to enable us to upload documents to share and collaborate on, revise with most recent version available, see a history of saved documents, organize documents into folders...actually sounds like what the Globaloria Wiki site enables us to do.

My Reply...

There are a couple of options. Google Docs and Zoho.com allow collaborative documents. They are not in Office format by default, but you can "save as" into a Word file. Both keep a copy of every version, organize by folder.

They both require that you have an account with their service i.e. a gmail or Zoho account.

I recommend Google Docs (I use it for most things.)

A wiki will allow you to collaborate on an html page in a public or private space. It is meant for public or open editing and maintaining artifacts. It is probably less functional for collaboration on word processing documents, although can be used for that.

Does anyone else have any specific thoughts on a service they use?

Welcome Back and Creative Kick Start

I realize that many of you involved in the MyGLife project are just getting back from the holiday break and from the winter storm that passed through last week. I just wanted to say welcome back and I will be watching for those new and creative game ideas that I can spotlight on this blog. If any of you know of some great work that is happening that I haven't shared on this blog, LET ME KNOW!

Also, I just had to share these two videos... A few years back was privileged to be a participant in a workshop by Ben Zander. It was totally incredible. When I found these videos I thought it would be great to share with anyone looking for a creative jumpstart to the new year.

Working with Youth



Presenting on Transformation

The Line Game: It is so cool!

You have got to try this Flash-based game. Check out the interface and the controls.