The beginning of the Globaloria program here at Greenbrier West is off to what I think is a good start. I introduced it to my Computer Assisted Art class, some of whom were in the class last year. They came into the class with the expectations that they would mainly be working on creating videos using high-end cameras and editing equipment. They also knew that the plan is to create a live news show each morning when we can get our wiring problems worked out. This is something that will eventually take place but I decided to take off running with the Globaloria program first and then introduce the new students to video later on.
So when I told the students what we would be working on they were very excited. Video games, wow! Some of them had sort of unreasonable expectations, thinking about games that are more 3-dimensional than what we will be able to do, but I would rather have them be too ambitious than not ambitious enough.
We only have about 45 minutes in class each day and several students have already been through some illnesses that have kept them out of school several days so our pace has not been the greatest – I have to rein myself in sometimes when I expect too much from them in a short amount of time. We did spend quite a bit of time on the concept of social issue games and for the most part, the students have “got it” I think. A few are still not taking it as seriously as I think they should.
When it came time to begin planning out the games, I decided to put the students into teams of two and let them choose whom they would like to work with. I asked each student to write down on a piece of paper their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice of who they would have as a team mate and told them that I would have the final say so on who they would be working with. I stressed the fact that they needed to look for someone that would be a complement to them; that is, someone who might be good at writing while they themselves would be good at drawing, for example. Since they didn’t have time to discuss with each other who they would be choosing before they wrote down the names, I was absolutely thrilled and shocked to find that everyone chose the partners with the first name on their lists. They also chose whom I would have chosen for them so it worked out really well. I truly believe that the more choices you give students the better it is in the long run. They are learning how to make intuitive, reasonable choices on their own after begin given the information on what will be required of them.
As to their blogs, I can’t say too much, since I haven’t done too well on that myself. However, I do give them a grade on what they writing in their blogs and their worklogs on their wiki pages because I do give them time in class to write in them. I am trying to encourage them to write more about the problems they are encountering or their concerns about the process.
Technology wise, it was a waiting game for the laptops and software for those laptops. We are fortunate that there is a computer lab next to my classroom that we were able to use for the first month of school until the laptops arrived in our classroom. There are still a few glitches that we’re trying to work out – the wi-fi isn’t consistent so sometimes students have to go outside the room to get a good signal and we have 12 students and 11 laptops. I am very pleased that we have our flash software installed; that was a very long process in getting it installed since it took 45 – 60 minutes for each installation. We worked it out because the students right now are working on their paper prototypes (we plan to begin filming those presentations tomorrow) and I have one student who has already worked ahead and is using a trial version to work on learning Flash on his own. He will be a very good resource for myself and the other students.
Concerns: Am I asking enough out of the students? Do I need to set more rigid guidelines? I don't want to be to rigid because then I am doing the thinking for them - I want them to increase their creative problem solving skills, to use more higher order thinking skills and to learn to work as a team.
Overall, as I said at the beginning, I think we are off to a good start, a little bit slow but I believe that once we start in flash the students will be so excited that things will accelerate.
