Week 9 - Brainstorming a Game

The game that I am going to create is going to be a trivia game. I am the adviser of the FBLA club at my high school - I currently have two students going to State Competition for a Game Design category - because at the time I did not have enough training in game design I taught my students how to create a Jeporady Trivia game using Power Point  I want to experiment with the trivia game so when it comes time for projects next year I can successfully teach my students how to use the scratch platform to create a trivia game for their competition. 

1. There will be a character in the game that represent the person playing the triva game. The character will complete some time of motion if the answer is correct and another type of motion if the answer is incorrect. These motion will remain the same for correct and incorrect answers throughout the entire game. 
2. There will not be any enemies as this is not really a battle game but rather a trivia game. Using a variable for the score is the most important feature in this game. Correct answers will add points to the score while incorrect answers will deduct points from the score. I might even try to learn how to do a highest score variable. 
3. The player will have the opportunity to select the answer from an option of 3-4 answer choices. These answer choices could be images or text boxes containing textual information. 
4. By answer correct answers the player can stay in the game - by answering incorrect answers the students score will be reduced and could even end the game. I haven't finished deciding if there is going to be lives in this game or if the player can just finish with a negative score. 
5. There will be a instrument based music playing in the background - something that is not to intense and helps the students remember they are on a time limit and must answer the questions quickly. 
6. The main character is the player so the personality can change. 
7. The story line is going to be based on random facts concerning technology. I am currently building a question basis. I am seeing if there are more ways I could create a story line for this game or even possibly if they character answers the question right they move to the next screen if not they will have to go back a scene or try again (and lose points). 

Journal Entry # 7

Quote:

Players engage in a transactional process, a process between readers, text, and context (Rosenblatt, 2004), to use their prior gaming knowledge and experience for meaning construction. For example, through the feedback from game-generated dialogues, players critically analyze textual information and bring their prior failure gaming experience to generate new strategies to overcome the challenges presented in the game. (Hsu H-Y., Wang S.-K., 2010)

Response to Quote:
I selected to use this quote because of the argument it gives. I currently teach in a school that has a very "experienced" teaching staff. Now while there are a great deal of younger teachers (Below the age of about 35) many of the teachers have a traditional teaching style. With that said, I would like to clarify that these teachers still use a traditional teaching style but they do make attempts to incorporate technology such as the use of computer (when able to reserve a lab) and the use of a projector. However when we consider these forms of technology - these even seem like "old" forms.

In many eyes games are bad, they have no educational value, and they turn your brain to "mush". I just found out that I will be teaching Game Design I this year - and I am very excited about the new course; however some on the administration and other teachers feel that this is a pointless class with no educational value. They think that students are going to walk into the class and play video games all day. It is important that I clearly explain the educational values of game use and game design in the educational setting to the staff at my school.

This quote clearly explains how game playing and game design is meeting the literacy needs of our students and the complex thought process students must go through in order to play these games. I think that it is important to teach these students these thought processes - because this is how you deal "with life after high school". It will help us to better prepare our students for the future experiences.

Article Citation: 
Hsu H.-Y., Wang S.-K. 
Using Gaming Literacies to Cultivate New Literacies 
(2010)  Simulation and Gaming,  41  (3) , pp. 400-417.

The resource that I have provided is a YouTube video about a National Game Competition that I have been looking into providing my students the opportunity to enter. This allows students to create games and compete with their designs and it is a National Project! Game Design is being recognized as a motivational factor and a contribution both to society and the educational environment. Check Out This Video - National STEM - Video Games for Learning 

Week 8 - Pac Man Tutorial

Check out the Pac Man Tutorial I made in Scratch!


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Journal Entry #6

I decided to post the above quote because it so closely related to what I was saying in Journal Entry posting #5.

This quote really hit home with me. As a computer teacher I have my students on the computer and using technology everyday. I use sites like Edmodo and other free sites that provide media instruction and interaction for the students. I see that many other teachers do not do this. The other 2 teacher in my school that teach business, have a full class of computers and rarely use them. I also look at other high schools around me that are 2 to 1 for computer vs students and are hoping to be a 1 to 1 school by next year. These schools are preparing to have a laptop or ipad for every student in their school to be used in school and out of school on a daily basis. Then I look at my school and we are about a 1 to 20 school and not even close to that - and yet our county is not focusing on this. I am working to improve this and we now have a TIS that is very passionate about this and hoping to find grants to improve this issue. But ALL of our schools need to be moving toward the effort of making technology available to all of our students during all classes so that we may use these aids to improve the learning environment  Again I am fortunate to be a computer teacher and have all of these advantages at the edge of my students fingertips.

Week 7 - Activity 2 Catlib Project

Try my Catlib out!


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Journal Entry #5

I selected the above quote because it says something that is so critical in our students' education. Our job as educators is to prepare our students for the world. And as much as I hate to say it the technologies that we teach them today will be outdated by the time they reach the real world. We are trying to prepare our students for a future that doesn't exist yet. With that being said we have a responsibility to make sure that we are teaching our students with the latest methods and technologies. Too many schools are still focused on traditional methods. This quote explains why we should be using video games because this is the students' generation and we really need to be teaching them the digital components that they will need in this digital age and the even more digital age that they will soon become a part of.

Week 6 - About Me Project

Check out my About Me Project. 

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What was your inspiration?

I watched the intro to Gaia Project. I liked this project compared to the others because there was more motion and it was more personalized using a photograph of her. Additional things I liked was how the pictures were related to her and represented something about her. 
How did you do that?

I did a remix of Gaia's Project. At first I attempted to create the project on my own - but then  I thought wait, why I don't I down load Gaia's Project and modify it to fit my needs. We did learn about this "remixing".

What did you get stuck on? How did you get unstuck?

When I was trying to build it on my own I got stuck on the variables and understanding the set to busy command. To get unstuck I started to look at Gaia's project and see how she made everything work - then I remixed that project. 

What are you most proud of? Why?

The completion of my project and using my own images to tell a little about me. This is so neat that I was able to create an animation - and I can not wait to use this in my classes with my students. 

Journal Entry # 4

I have selected the above quote from the reading. If we think back in past generations we think the form of entertainment was reading books, from that we moved to television, and currently we are in the era of video games.

Books and television are a one way method of communication or literacy. There is an audience that receives the information from the words in the book or the visuals and verbal communication - but the audience has no way to communicate back. In the video game the game provides information on which the audience must react to - due to the communication method provided back from the audience the game then reacts. This process continues over and over again - a back and forth communication. It becomes even more complex as you introduce the gaming communication where you are interacting with other people playing the game though the Internet. Now not only are you communicating with the game but now you are communicating with the game and another player.

Thus video games are clearly a more complex and better use of literacy practice than other forms of media.