Creativity in the Globaloria Classroom

Recently in a sixth grade Globaloria class at East Austin College Prep Academy, I heard one student muse aloud ‘but how is that like a game?’ The students were doing some research about social issues, which are central to the Globaloria game concept process. He was reading about ocean pollution. It was interesting to him but it struck him that it was NOT fun in the way you might expect a game to be. That day, the student answered his own question with an idea, which quickly drew a comment from another student, who was a sudden collaborator. A spark caught and quickly led to the bright light of their discussion.

This excitement and spontaneous creativity is happening before with kids even begin to make their game. Students know there is a big difference in this class. I think most kids haven’t given the difference a name yet. To be sure, they know there is much more to come.

What sparks have you noticed in Globaloria classrooms?

Laura Minnigerode is research manager for Globaloria in Austin, Texas.

Eastern Greenbrier Middle School Students Recognized

Two Eastern Greenbrier Middle School students were recognized for their Globaloria games they created in Mrs. Melanie Sheppard's class during the 2009-10 school year. Malachi received a laptop and Adobe Flash software for his grand prize game. His classmate, Ryan earned a digital video camera for his game.

Ryan (left) and Malachi(right) spoke to the audience in a crowded (standing room only) board room. They complemented their educator, Melanie Sheppard, for "making them work hard" and spoke quite eloquently about their Globaloria experience. Both students are in Jennifer Hayes' Globaloria class this year at EGMS.

So, the final awards have been presented...and the new school year is off to a fantastic start. I am looking forward to the new competitions added to the realm this year. Good luck to all Globaloria students (and their educators) in creating games this year.

Yours in Education,

Monica Beane

Sandy River Middle School Students Awarded Laptops

Sandy River MS students, Kaitlyn and Billy, are all smiles with their laptops in hand at the McDowell County BOE meeting..also pictured are Ingrida Barker (Globaloria educator), McDowell County BOE members, and Superintendent Jim Brown.

Tuesday, I traveled to Welch, WV to present laptop computers to Sandy River Middle School students Kaitlyn and Billy. Their game entitled, "The Race to Justice" was selected as the winner of the first Civics Games Competition.

In front of a packed board room, Kaitlyn and Billy, members of the team "The Fox Racers," demonstrated their game and responded to questions from Superintendent Jim Brown and McDowell County Board of Education members.

I was very impressed with Kaitlyn and Billy's communication and presentation skills in such a crowded room full of high school students and adults. About 20 members of the Mt. View High School HISTA organization were in attendance as well. The look on their faces when Kaitlyn and Billy received their very own personal laptops was "PRICELESS"...and when I asked how many were interested in Globaloria, hands raised across the room.

The final presentation of laptops will take place next Tuesday in Greenbrier County...more blogging to come...

Monica Ann Beane, NBCT
WVDE

Raleigh County Students Awarded Laptops

Wow! It was very exciting to be part of a historic event for Globaloria in WV. Last night, David Lowenstein and I were privileged to present laptops to the winners of the first Globaloria STEM Games Competition. Madison Meadows and Celia Laverty, students in Mrs. Tracy Halsey's game design course, were presented personal laptops as their reward for designing the winning game in the competition that was chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Being honored in front of the Raleigh County Board of Education allowed these students the opportunity to tell about their experiences with Globaloria as well as demonstrate their winning game to members of the board and others in attendance.

I look forward to co-presenting Malachi McCutcheon, a student in Greenbrier County with his laptop on September 14. Malachi's game "Math Runner" tied with Madison and Celia's game "WV Animal Rescue Squad" in this inagural competition.

2010-11 is going to be a great Globaloria year!

Yours in Education,

Monica Beane, NBCT

Sandy River Middle School Team on iCivics.org

"The Race to Justice", the winning game in the 1st Annual Globaloria Civics Games Competition is now featured on former Supreme Cour Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's iCivics.org. Click here to play.

Designed by Sandy River Middle School Team, The Fox Racers, this game teaches you about civic law in a fun game-play setting, where you have to race to the courthouse to argue your case.

The front page of the iCivics website reads,

Civics and the World Wide Workshop Foundation are proud to present The Race to Justice, a student-designed game about civil law. The Race to Justice is the Grand prize winner from the 1st Annual Globaloria Civics Games Competition. Game designers Kaitlyn and Billy are incoming 8th grade students from the Sandy River Middle School in Avondale, West Virginia. They came out on top in a field of 25 teams from middle and high schools across West Virginia who researched, designed and programmed their own original civics games, using the Globaloria platform and curriculum.

Congrats to our winners, and to all the competitors in a truly excellent field!

We second that congratulations! The bar is set mighty high for next years' Civics Games contestants. We can't wait to play them!

Starting the new school year off "the Globaloria Way"

As the 2010-2011 school year begins this month, 50 Globaloria educators throughout the state of West Virginia are delivering their content standards and objectives in highly innovative and engaging ways that students across the nation have been waiting for.

Globaloria educators and their classrooms are equipped with flip cams, laptops, web voice and video conferencing capabilities, and skills that were sharpened at Globaloria’s July and August Summer Academies at the West Virginia Center for Professional Development. The trainings at WVCPD, which were lead by World Wide Workshop staff and Globaloria mentor educators, provided both beginner and returning Globaloria educators with on-going teacher professional development to engage students in harnessing Web 2.0 tools to research, report out on, and produce digital artifacts that demonstrate subject mastery.

More than twelve hundred students in 41 West Virginia schools will participate in Globaloria this year. They will be taught by 50 education leaders who teach a plethora of different subjects in a variety of different settings. The diverse Globaloria-WV educator community consists of professors who teach game design courses at community colleges, educators who lead classrooms at alternative education centers, and teachers in WV public middle schools and high schools who lead classes ranging from Math, Drafting, Language Arts, and Digital Imaging, to Social Studies, Music, Biology, Chemistry, and Earth Science.

These diverse classrooms have a common--but significant-- link. They are all made up of West Virginia students who will be creating blogs on the subjects they are learning about, conducting on-line research, making multi-media presentations on their findings, producing educational video games, and creating wikis to collaborate, share code and work in teams with other Globaloria students from around the state, just as their educators did this summer. They will do things "the Globaloria Way."

By David Lowenstein, State Director, Globaloria-WV

Ripples and Stones

Throw a stone in a lake and watch the ripples as they spread out and eventually fade.

Take a moment this year to really look at what you have accomplished. When you look at your students' games in the Game Gallery, don't think about if they got as far as you wanted them to or how you are going to retool your approach for greater success. Think instead of the students' struggles at the beginning of the class. Don't look at the grade they received, see the creativity of their work and great effect you have had on every single student in your class.

Toss a stone in a lake and eventually the ripples will go away but the lake is forever changed by the presence of the stone. So no matter how great or little the change you saw in your student's work, your stone has caused a change that they will carry for the rest of their education.

Until next time, the soap box is yours.
-Bill

Introducing: Alessandro Le Porta, New Foundation Team Member

Greetings Globaloria Educators! I'm very excited to introduce Alessandro, the newest addition to our team here at the World Wide Workshop Foundation.

 As has become a tradition, find below Alessandro's entrance interview:

Rachel: When did you join the World Wide Workshop?

Alessandro: I joined on March 1st, 2010.

R: What is your role here?

A: I am an Assistant Programs Coordinator, currently responsible for helping to update the Globaloria curriculum. 

R: What are you most looking forward to in working with the Foundation and the Globaloria community?

A: Honestly, the project is so awesome and rewarding (and I myself don't have any one specific skill I tie myself to), so I love working on whatever needs to be done. If I have to choose, though, working on the way in which students will learn the material we present is really interesting to me, because it requires me to put myself in their shoes and analyze how people think. Thinking about the process of thought is something I have always enjoyed, and it's no different here.

R: That's a very "Globaloria" attitude! You're going to fit in here great! Where are you from?

A: Thanks! I already feel at home here.

R: Where are you from originally?

A: I am from the middle of nowhere in upstate New York, about five hours by car away from New York City.

R: What are your hobbies?

A: Listening to music of most types, playing video games, cooperative storytelling of all forms (story circles, tabletop RPGs, live-action roleplay, improv acting), martial arts (swordfighting, shotokan karate), dance (ballroom mostly).

R: A man of many talents! RPG games are definitely great examples of social gaming. What would you say is your favorite game?

A: Final Fantasy VI. It has a wonderful storyline full of excellent characters, is fun to play, and covered many adult and interesting topics long before video games were thought of as a medium where you could do that sort of thing. What is the most interesting thing about you?

R: What would you say is the most interesting thing about you?

A: I think in references. Whenever I learn a new thing or have a new experience, my mind joins nodes of thoughts together, building tons of connections in a graph that stretches out to all the concepts I've ever encountered. Because of this, I find little happy moments in all sorts of thoughts, simply because they connect me back to something I enjoy, even though perhaps the content of the two thoughts is completely different. It makes life incredibly interesting and full of wonder.

R: What message do you have for the Globaloria community?

A: I know it's crunch-time in your Globaloria classrooms, but from what I've seen, you guys are doing amazing work! Keep looking up! Globaloria--like life--is full of wonder and happy experiences, and if you keep yourself positive and keep an open mind, you'll do just fine. :-)

Adding Navigation in Flash

As you know, one of the most important elements of creating a functioning game is learning how to add navigation in Flash. To help you master this key skill, Meredith has made some great demo videos. You can find them listed in the Resource Bank on the Educator's Wiki and embedded here below:

Demo 1: Buttons and Button States (3:20) 
Assignment: Create a button with three states: up, down, and over. 



Demo 2: Create a Game Demo Skeleton with Three Scenes (5:22)
Assignment: Create a game skeleton with three scenes each on a different layer. Create a layer for labels, and put labels on the first frame of each scene. Create a layer for ActionScript and put stop();s on the last frame of each scene. 


Demo 3: Add Buttons to the Game Skeleton (5:55)
Assignment: Add a play and an about button to the intro scene. Add "back to intro" buttons to the play scene and the about scene. 


Thanks Meredith!

Looking Towards the Goal, Not the End

Its official, we have hit the home-stretch towards summer. Sports are picking back up for some students, the weather is prompting outdoor thoughts, and everyone is starting to plan for vacation.

Teachers are no different.


As I have pointed out before, it's important to focus the process and not just the end result. We can't count our chickens before the hatch and we can't count our semester over until our students present. Check out the Globaloria format for evaluating presentations and this excellent example.

I like to think of this as a well written essay. You have to plan for your topic, decide what you are going to present to the audience, present that information, and then remind the audience what has been presented. Now is the time to prepare them for the "closing paragraph" of this great and wonderful essay we have been part of this year.

What are your goals for the students to close the year? What should be the focus of their presentations? How will your “essay” end?

The soapbox is yours,
Bill