Disaster in Haiti: Response and Reflection

For weeks now we have been awash in news regarding the devastation in Haiti. People all over the world have been amazing in their empathy and response. I am sure that we have also seen how quickly and decidedly our students have responded in our schools. At Capital, the student council has been coming to homerooms on a near daily basis to collect donations. My students have emptied their pockets in response. I think it is equally important to think about humanitarian aid in all its forms.

Money is a wonderful way to help from a distance but not the only method. Another way our society can help is to educate. That is a strength of the Globaloria program: using socially responsible games to enlighten and inspire.

Title screen from Ayiti: The Cost of Life

A perfect tie-in for our students is the game called Ayiti: The Cost of Life, supported in part by UNICEF. This game is set in the rural regions of Haiti and shows just how hard life is in that country even prior to the earthquake. Playing this game has put Haiti's tragic current events in context for myself and my students.

First-year teachers: as your classes come to the "Playing to Learn" unit, direct your students to try playing Ayiti. It will help connect our use of the term social-issue game with an actual social issue that they are all aware of today. Experienced teachers: you can offer playing this game as a suggestion for students who have completed their work for the day.


Please encourage your students to visit the following organizations:
Save the Children
Help Haiti Now
UNICEF
Famine Relief Foundation
Doctors Without Borders
Mercy Corps

Even though this is a terrible disaster with massive damages and loss of life, it is a perfect example of how people from around the world can come together to make a difference.

Let's help our students understand their place in the world and think critically about how they might assume responsibilities as Global Citizens.

Until next time, the soap box is yours.

-Bill

images courtesy U.S. Armed Forces and are part of the public domain

Starting out the Spring Semester

Heather McChesney shares images from her first day of class

From a read of the Globaloria community's blogs, it looks like the spring semester is off to a great start!

Our conversation at the January Academy on student motivation was extremely fruitful, inspiring such insights as Tracy Halsey and Larry Thackett's ideas about relevancy and feedback.

Tracy writes, "One of the reasons I applied to the Globaloria program is because I knew students would be interested and therefore hoped student motivation would be increased. For the most part, it has proven to be true. If you can see a relevancy to your life then you become an active participant. Another thing I try to do is provide feedback to my students."

And Larry resolves, "to help [my students] keep that motivation by:

• Involving them in the learning process by stressing the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Letting them know that their input is important to everyone's success.
• Relating the work they will be doing, and how they do it, to the real-world of work they will face after they graduate.
• Stressing that their success, or failure, is in their hands. I am there to help and guide, but they will have to work to succeed."

Dionne added to the discussion by stressing the importance of getting to know the specific needs of your students:

To foster student motivation, it is imperative that I know my students: their strengths, areas of improvement, and how they feel about school and learning. As I learn about my students, I begin to understand what they need to be successful, and am able to set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals with them and help to provide them with the knowledge base and skills necessary to accomplish those goals. As they see small levels of success, and we recognize their accomplishment, they have an internal sense of gratification, and they continue to work, thus becoming more successful. After all, like success, motivation is continuous.

These insights and more were extremely helpful, and already they seem to be paying off!

A Spring-start educator, Heather McChesney had a great first day, and has already posted some pictures of her Globaloria class on her blog. And Tracy, starting her second semester, shares some gorgeous game scenes from her talented students.

Larry has hit the ground running, exclaiming, "Wow! Just finished my first Globaloria game design class and I am nothing short of amazed!"

It's exciting to see you all applying your new abilities and rejuvenated verve to in your classrooms. Fostering student motivation certainly can be hard, but judging from your accomplishments this week, I have to second Jim Allder's advice that motivating yourself can be infectious:

As a Globaloria educator, I have found that the more I invest myself in self-learning, the more motivated I become to teach the next lesson. It is exciting to share new information. (why do you think gossip shows and magazines are so popular?) And those around us are sure to pick up on this excitement and become more self motivated.

This comes a little "back to the basics", but I believe the best way that I can motivate others is by being prepared and learning the skills myself. In music, this involves studying scores, listening to professional recordings, in some cases communicating with the composer, and researching the story behind the composition. In Globarloria, it is accomplished by taking on personal flash projects, finding tutorials, looking for things to blog about, and keeping up the wiki.

Through this preparation, we make ourselves more confident, proficient, and MOTIVATED. This type of motivation is sure to rub off on others.

Keep up your self-learning as the year progresses, and don't hesitate to reach out to your peers, mentors, or the Foundation team for support when you need it!

Good luck!
-Rachel

Rewards of the Journey

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
-Confucius

Scaling a mountain begins with a small step and ends with a great accomplishment. Sometimes the target at the end can seem so far away that we neglect the milestones, which make the journey worthwhile. To help keep you and your students fresh and excited, make sure to celebrate the "footholds" along the way. Each step, no matter how painful or stressful, brings your classroom a little closer to your goals.

It's the week after our January 2010 Academy, and it's clear we are really reaching the peak. You can especially see this in the Spring-Start educators' fantastic game demos. Their game ideas, presentations, and Flash skills represent less a small step, than a giant leap!

Another accomplishment is the community we have established. We look to each other for encouragement, advice and collaboration. From mentors to mentees, educator peers to educator peers, teachers to students, students to one another and the Foundation staff to us all, the Globaloria community is truly a united support system.

Transferring this ethic of support to my classroom is my goal-- and just as challenging as it can be to really hone my abilities with the Globaloria program and platform, I am gratified that my students are taking their own small steps forward right beside me. Together, our achievements (be they footholds or peaks) offer deep and lasting rewards.

Never forget: the hard-earned steps of your journey are as important as the destination.

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

Fostering Student Motivation

Greetings Globaloria Educators and welcome to the January 2010 Mid-Year Academy!

As Bill has pointed out, it’s the New Year and time to make our resolutions; not just for change in your life, but positive change in your Globaloria classrooms. Many of you have been extremely proactive in responding to Bill’s challenge on your own blogs—and it's been remarkable to see how many of you have “resolved” to give your students exactly what Bill has given you: motivation.

As leaders of a program designed to foster the power of self-learning, you know that student motivation is a key component of success. But it's not always clear how best to generate a culture of passion in the classroom, and (harder still) how to sustain it through the many challenges students and teachers face in the process game-creation.

Your overnight blogging assignment tonight is to reflect on your own struggles with student motivation (in Globaloria and throughout your teaching career) and share strategies you've developed to ignite passion and channel it into productive learning.

Good luck, and happy blogging!

-Rachel

New Year's Resolutions

It's early January and time once again to make our resolutions. We all have different goals: to spend less, to save more, to eat healthier, to live fuller, and to break a sweat at the gym--knowing all too well that our success will vary. The fact is, it's a struggle to make lasting changes in our lives; but these resolutions are made year after year because we know that whatever the outcome, the most important thing is to keep trying.

Luckily, we in the Globaloria community have a special advantage. As teachers, we make changes all the time. We try to change the way students learn, to turn indifference into passion, to broaden views of the world; and in some cases, offer support in the classroom when there is none at home. As many of us know first hand, a dedicated educator can change lives.

Globaloria is a resolution too: to change the way we teach and learn in the 21st-century. Through successes and setbacks, our classes have surprised and inspired us with all we've been able to accomplish. So here we are in January 2010 and the school year halfway over, but as those of us who have been here before know, it isn't all downhill from here. There are plenty of Globaloria challenges--and rewards--to come. This halfway mark is a great opportunity to reflect, adapt, and aim higher.


In fact, I think I'm going to make a few more resolutions:

I resolve to think about what I've done well and figure out how I can perpetuate my successes in the Spring semester. I will not feel defeated about the struggles I've faced. I will take on old challenges with new perspectives. I will commit to helping my students, my school and my community leap into the digital age. Finally, I resolve never to forget why I became a teacher in the first place--to make change.

I propose a blog prompt for all Globaloria educators: Update your blogs with your own Globaloria resolutions for next semester. I extend the challenge to our new Spring Start educators as well. What are your goals for Globaloria in your classroom?

I'm inspired by the accomplishments of the Globaloria community so far this year, and can't wait to read about all you plan to do in the months to come!

Until next time, the soap box is yours.

Bill Dorsey

Voices from the Field & The Globaloria Civics Track

The Foundation team is proud to announce a new installment of our Voices from the Field testimonial video series, this time with a special feature on students from RTC in the Globaloria Civics Track! Watch classmates Caleb and Valerie talk about how Globaloria is helping them approach civics learning from an exciting new angle:



The Civics Track, which was first announced to the Globaloria community at the June Academy, is becoming one of the most dynamic initiatives of our program. The games topics developed at RTC alone range from how a bill becomes a law, the differences between political parties, the three branches of government, the Second Amendment, different types of political systems, the judicial branch, public debate, and environmental policy!

Visit the Voices from the Field page to see the whole series!

Comments on Blogs with Templates Installed

A number of you have been having trouble with the comments feature on your student's blogs being disabled once students install templates from the internet.

Matticus, a student in Liz Daigle's class at Greenbrier East High School, has used his masterful tinkering skills to solve this problem and drafted a step-by-step guide for the Globaloria community:

1. After signing in, choose the layout option

2. Click the Edit HTML tab

3. Scroll to the bottom of the window

4. Click Revert widget templates to default

5. A pop-up window will appear, click OK

6. The layout should save and the problem should be solved (I recommend checking this to be 100% sure)

Hope that helps you all! Please contact comment or e-mail me at rachel@worldwideworkshop.org if you need more help!

Your GB,
Rachel

Globaloria WV in 2009: A Job Well-Done (And The Best is Yet to Come)!!

Happy December 1st! As the last month of 2009 begins, it's important that we recognize Globaloria WV educators for all that they accomplished this year. The 23 educators who have been implementing Globaloria in WV for the 2009-2010 school year have created an impressive state-wide learning community. The mentoring, collaboration, and support that our educators provide each other and the guidance they are providing their students has been phenomenal. Globaloria students are benefiting greatly from a united front of seasoned and new educators who are cultivating students' creativity, technical and communication skills, and leading them through the game design curriculum by modeling effective, consistent and collaborative wiki usage and purposeful blogging. I'm looking forward to witnessing the Game Presentations that students give this month at the three colleges and one high school that are wrapping up their first semester courses (http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/mctcwiki/index.ph/Game_Presentations; http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/southernwvwiki/index.php/Game_Presentations; http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/suwiki/index.php/Game_Presentations; and http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/rtcwiki/index.php/Game_Presentations).

An amazing group of 10 new educators from seven new schools went through the Globaloria Academy in last month and will join the Globaloria Learning Community in January of 2010. These highly-skilled and dedicated educators are eager to join the 23 educators who are currently teaching with Globaloria. The ten who will begin in 2010 are already working on their wiki pages, team games, and blogs (http://melinda-spencer.blogspot.com/; http://www.photoglarry1.blogspot.com/; http://rhscordle.blogspot.com/; http://chezglobaloria.blogspot.com/; http://nataschaonglobaloria.blogspot.com/; http://oakglenhighdesigners.blogspot.com/; http://donnateachblog.blogspot.com/; http://natalieellis.blogspot.com/; http://gaming4math8.blogspot.com/; and http://bmsglobaloriajf.blogspot.com/).

Educators in our growing Globaloria WV Learning Community are pioneering innovation in education as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, leading our nation in cultivating STEM skills and fostering computer science learning in today's youth. Our national government is catching on to the importance of the work we do, and the U.S. House of Representatives' recently designated December 6-12, 2009 as Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) in recognition of the transformational role of computing and necessity of rigorous computer science education at all levels.

As 5 of the top 10 fastest growing jobs are in computing-related fields, CSEdWeek will communicate the importance of exposing students—particularly in grades K-12—to robust computer science education if the nation is to truly prepare students for future jobs. Current obstacles to computer science education in the areas of teacher training and certification, standards, and curriculum restrict the number of students who benefit from this coursework. That is yet another reason why it is so important for Globaloria to continue to flourish in WV.

The CSEdWeek Web site, www.CSEdWeek.org, will launch the week of Dec. 6^th to be a hub for computer science education resources and social networking, through sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The development of CSEdWeek is a joint effort led by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) with the cooperation and deep involvement of the Computer Science Teachers Association, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, the National Science Foundation, the Anita Borg Institute and the Computing Research Association and with the strong support of Google, Inc., Intel, and Microsoft.

The World Wide Workshop Foundation is a proud partner with ACM in this national effort.

It is extremely gratifying to be involved in the Globaloria West Virginia program, to see the impact we're having as a state-wide team that is informing the nation on how to harness innovation in the formal learning environmment.

It is an honor to prepare today's youth for full engagement in our emerging cybercivilization. And it is a joy to be working for and along-side the World Wide Workshop team and such an incredible group of educators, principals, superintendents, government leaders, and private sector and foundation partners.

Thank you for making 2009 such a meaningful success for Globaloria WV, for the students, and for each other! I look forward to making 2010 our best year yet!!

Yours in appreciation,
David Lowenstein
State Director, Globaloria WV

World Wide Workshop

Being Thankful

Coming up on the end of or Thanksgiving Break, I found several things that I wanted to give thanks for and share with you all.

I am thankful for everyone at the World Wide Workshop that helped to bring such a forward-thinking program as Globaloria to our state and our schools. We have so many wonderful people who offer their guidance and support. Idit has an energy that is contagious to the point of making you feel you can accomplish anything. Shannon and David juggle more things on their plate to keep us going than most of us could handle. Rachel's insight and positive outlook is always a breath of fresh air. And we could not have asked for a better technical support staff than we have had with Maitreyi, Brian, Jeff, and Meredith.


I am thankful for the great mentors I get to work with who help inspire me as well as their own mentees. Patrick and Denise led the way with this program last year and always provide me with great insight and inspiration. Ingrida is as new to this process as I am but has the drive, positive outlook, and approach that I admire and hope to live up to as well.

I am thankful for our mentee groups, who help to keep us on our toes. Our mentees, in seeking help fro us, often help us to continue our own growth in directions that not only benefit us but our own students as well. Thank to all of the mentees. Each new round of educators helps keep the Globaloria approach fresh, strong, and invigorating.

I am thankful for all of the students who are taking what we have to offer and building on it. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully creative our students can be when provided with the proper tools and inspiration. Our students will always be what makes the extra work and effort truly worthwhile. Here are some examples from EGMS, Shepherd University, RTC, and Sandy River Middle School.

So, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Holiday that reinvigorated you for the remainder of this semester. Until next time, the soapbox is yours.

A Glimpse of Our Students' Futures

While channel surfing sunday evening, I stumbled on 60 MINUTES doing a story about James Cameron's upcoming movie, Avatar. After having seen many movie trailers and commercials about the film, I decided to settle in an watch the interview with Morley Safer and am very glad I did.

Not only did the story focus on how much time and energy Mr. Cameron put into getting every detail just right on his dream movie, it showed a great example of what we want are students to experience. During one of the interview clips we are shown the director and his staff tweeking a CG animated scene in the film. Not so unusual or futuristic you say? Well, they were modeling what we tell our kids the future of the workplace will be like. People in two different locations were both watching the same video feed of the animation and collaborating virtually.

We are still just on the cusp of this business approach's commonality. Sometimes this makes it hard for us to really drive the point home to kids who are just used to the interface between them and a television or computer screen. Where kids often do not see the usefulness of communtication technology beyond tweeting and status posts, this was a brief glimpse of the future. You know that when a director is willing to bank over $400 million on the success of a film created in this collaborative manner with nearly a competely digital medium, it must be the new ticket to success.

We really are on the brink of an amazing change. The challenge I want to post to us all is to find one example of producton utilizing virtual collaboration to share with your fellow educators and students. This could be a documentary, news show, or interview.

For my example, check out a clip from the interview below. I invite you up on te soapbox now to show examples the rest of you might find.

Bill


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