Category Archives: Educational Gaming Brownbag

Gaming Brown Bag: Interactive Fiction

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged for several reasons that I won’t go into here. But I’m hoping to get back to this. Today, I attended a session by Brett Bixler on Interactive Fiction (IF). I felt like I was going back into the history before graphic and media intensive text-based games. Brett laid out the progression as well as showed us tools that can be used to create these games. Let’s start with a definition of IF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction. During the session we played a classic game called Adventure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction#Adventure. Β It was an interesting exercise to talk with the group and try to figure out what we should do next. There was a prompt and we could use a terse sentence to direct the game on where we wanted to go. Later we played a game that Brett had put together using the following site: http://textadventures.co.uk/. Many of the engines that Brett proposed using are free. Sometimes, it is necessary to download free software to create games. Other times, it is possible to work in the browser. Here are a few suggested tools from the talk:

After Brett went through the meat of the content, he challenged us to think about how we could apply this to courses. Here were some thoughts:

  • Language learning
  • Scavenger hunts
  • Ways to teach elements of a game
  • Interesting way to teach a concept like surgery
  • Diagnostics – detective work
  • Problem-based learning
  • Simulations

Ultimately, this a low-cost way to introduce games and allow for them to get in the hands of students. Definitely something worth pursuing further.

DevLearn 2013 Day #1

They say that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. This doesn’t apply for an experience like this one. I’m so excited to have the chance to attend DevLearn 2013. Here are my thoughts on the first day.

Opening General Session: Things started off with David Kelly recalling his DevLearn 2012 which he spent battling Hurricane Sandy. After explaining some of the specifics about how the conference would operate, David turned the mic over to Jeremy Butsche who energized the group talking about how to Exploit Chaos. Here are a few items mentioned by Jeremy that resonated with me:

  • questions don’t change, just the answers
  • we are in a time where we are no longer selling product, but experience
  • it’s important to know your customers
  • culture beats strategy – fulfill, adapt, motivate
  • there is no point in innovating if you think you already know the answer – be open to possibilities
  • 3 ways to exploit chaos – viral creation, viral mediums, well-packaged story
  • portray your product as average and that’s all it will ever be
  • challenge: describe what you do in 7 words or less
  • to make message stick -simple, direct, supercharged

Expo – impressed by the crew that I interacted with.

Gamification on the Go: This session was about a topic that has been on my mind for awhile. But there is something that bothers me about the idea. While I can see that there is a chance to accomplish more by using gaming techniques, it seems almost subversive in its approach. One item that reinforced what I have been learning is that status in the community is more important than getting rewards for learners.

Redesigning Learning Design to Meet Today’s Challenges: This was an interesting session. I liked the layout. It was clear what was going to be covered. I took this session as a challenge to rethink learning design to think beyond ADDIE. Here were some of the suggestions to research:

  • HPT (Human Performance Technology)
  • BPR (Business Process Re-engineering
  • Six Sigma
  • Lean
  • Agile
  • CMA (Critical Mistake Analysis)
  • SAM (Successive Approximation Model)

There was alot of conjecture about what has happened over the past 40 years in e-learning. While most of it resonated with me, I’m not completely confident that society is going in the right direction and that we don’t play a part in the problem.

One thing that has bothered me lately is the speed with which we are trying to put together courses. In order to do this, there needs to be some give and take. From my end, I have come to terms with the fact that the initial product will be unfinished and unpolished. But the problem is that it cannot stay that way. It is important to continue to address issues as the course progresses to fit learner needs.

Back to the challenge that Lance Dublin issued, he would like us to think about how we can take the different models and create a new model or a combo model that helps to better address design than our old friend ADDIE. I have thought this for years. When I went through school at Philadelphia University, we as a cohort were almost anti-ADDIE. I remember doing an assignment in Dr. Russ Pritchard’s course where I amassed my own ID model to glowing reviews from him. It inspired me to consider my philosophy. This session helped to further reopen my investigation. I’m so glad that I have been reflecting on the Clark blog. Now I need to keep going down this road by looking at an overall framework that we can use to better address course design, development, and growth.

The Real Power of Games for Learning – This was my favorite session of the day and sparked conversation afterwards with my good friend and colleague, Kent Matsueda. Ian Bogost helped to lay out the differences between Game Design and Gamification. He did a tremendous job, & I will be forever grateful for his efforts on this.

He started by making a statement about games as an underdog. This was of note to me because I don’t see it that way from my perspective. At least I didn’t until I heard Ian explain his position. To me, games and sport are ubiquitous and drive our society. By Ian is not talking about sport, necessarily. He is talking about games which often are associated with youth, violence, and sloth. It gave me a new perspective which I needed.

He went on to describe the 7 differences between Game Design and Gamification while adding examples and infusing important game design principles into the talk. Here are those ideas:

Game Design Gamification Underlying Game Design Principle
Complexity Simplicity Modeling
Context Isolation World Building
Conditions Authority Emergence
Transformation Engagement Role Play
Relationship Reward Kinship
Discourse Quantification Deliberation
Understanding Compliance Process

I liked how Ian clearly laid out his points in a way that he wasn’t attacking gamification. He has a strong opinion, but he wasn’t trying to shove it down our throats. He explained his view in a coherent and transparent way that opens up a discussion that he need to have.

I get the feeling that many would rather move forward with gamification and not worry about the impact of the movement. To me this is not wise. We are going to impact our craft and our learners, so we bettter know if this is something that is good for them and society in general before fully committing to this strategy. To me, this is the time. We finally have a dialouge started. Thanks again to Ian for starting this dialouge. I look forward to participating for the betterment of the appropriate use of games in teaching in learning.

Reflection 9/30/13 – 10/4/13


Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
  • Fall ’13 revisions/developments
    • IST 220 (Giacobe)
      • Received materials
      • Upon further inspection, there wasn’t much done with this materials. Hopefully, everything will stay on schedule.
    • IST 402 (Jansen)
      • Meeting set up by Amy S for 6/12 to discuss new topic around Jim Jansen’s f2f 402 “The Google Online Marketing Challenge”
      • Sounds like a good idea from several perspectives:
        • student engagement via competition
        • marketing to students in other majors for minor
      • Few possible obstacles
        • Not enough students from other majors with complementary skills
        • Large need for synchronous meetings
        • Large time commitment
      • Email sent on 6/12 to Jim to set up meeting for June 24-28
        • Meeting planned for June 24 from 3-4
          • Looks like lots of captivates
          • Need to put together a process to share with him to make this streamlined
          • Need to have a drupal space created
          • He probably won’t be able to get me product until August 1
      • Put in request to IST Helpdesk to create ist402gomc site for Jansen’s course
        • received notification on 6/26 that this was done
        • sent a footprints request to set up the site on 6/27 to Ranjani and Will
        • Will overlayed template on the course
        • Allison enabled a few pages for course information & made a template syllabus
      • Amy S contacted Jim on 7/30
        • Jim got right back & asked about videos from the course, specifically screenr
        • after consulting with Will & Allison decided b/c of the changeable nature of the course that screenr process to mp4 to embedded in the course would be the best way to go
        • Jim sounded hesitant about process after I laid out the steps, but it is b/c he’s never done this before. Reassured and asked for feedback to improve process
      • Note from Jim on 8/8 about where to put content
        • Repurposed Saab’s 402 for Jim to use
      • Also asked by Jim about one lesson a week format
        • Told him to put things together using a topical approach, and we can figure out timing later
      • Received materials on 8/12 but it needs to be parsed out, added to the couse space, and send feedback to clarify expectations
      • Got this going and sent a note. Plan to meet f2f when he comes to the building on Wednesdays
      • First meeting was this Wednesday at 1:30. Went well and felt like I got through about the need to complete things asap
      • Updated info for WC on Monday 9/16
      • Sent a note on Tuesday 10/1 about needing to get materials.
      • Jim responded that he would dedicate the weekend to getting materials into the ANGEL dev space
  • Fall ’13 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Garbrick)
        • More questions about the exam
    • IST 210
      • Sec 002 (Liz)
        • WC Helpdesk ticket about student
          • Liz took care of this
        • Question from Liz about getting instructor access to Cengage site
          • Take care of by Cindy Bierly
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Mike)
        • Note from Mike about labs
        • Talked to Amy G
        • Take care of but we need another solution for this.
      • Sec 002 (Lee)
        • Asked her about labs and things look good
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fonseca)
        • Question about recording lab solutions
          • Plan is to talk next week
          • Sent an email outling the process
        • No grades in gradebook
          • Spoke with Fred
          • Found grades on Friday
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001 (Jan)
        • Note from WC Helpdesk about technical issue that she will need to resolve about CATME
    • IST 873
      • Sec 001 (Clark)
        • Helped Shawn with Adobe Connect
          • Nice note from him thanking me for help. Definitely felt good πŸ™‚
  • Spring ’14 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Secs 001 & 002 (Jan)
        • Sent a note on Tues 10/1 about populating her sections for Spring ’14
      • Sec 003 (Borge)
        • Spoke with Marcela informally on Monday at Hispanic Heritage Lunch and she was okay with me copying over materials
      • Sec 004 (Garbrick)
        • in Blackboard
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Aebli)
        • Sent note about putting mateials in his course space
          • Still hasn’t received approval to teach
      • Sec 002 (Gary)
        • Sent note about putting materials in his course space
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Lee)
        • Sent note about putting materials in her course space
      • Sec 002 (Mike)
        • Amy S sent note about new strategy to make courses more fair
          • Mike replied that he doesn’t even know that he’s approved
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fred)
        • Planned meeting next week hopefully shores things up to populate his space
    • IST 420
      • Merged Sec 001 & 002 (Hill)
        • Based upon our discussion from last week, I populated the course with Fall ’12 materials
          • Required some unpublishing of materials

     

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Spring ’14 with known instructors
    • Work on interviews for new ID

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • September 9 Sick Time – 2h in PM
  • September 27 Vacation Time 4h in PM
  • Feb 4 – 4h Family Sick Time in AM

Reflection 4/15/13-4/19/13


Accomplishments:

    • Personal Security MOOC
      • MOOC meeting scheduled for 4/17
        • Worked on quizzes for the course on 4/17 through Module 1
        • Checked in with Nick about badges (Greg and Will can provide some things here as well.)
        • Sounds like this is something that will fall within the scope of his check for understanding project with Peggy
        • Met with Kate M and Trey about MOOCs through Coursera
    • IST 220 (Friedenberg)
      • Meeting set up for 5/2 from 11:00-12:00 to discuss
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • The truth tables are completed
        • Feedback from Kent about video on the page (& in the rest of the course)
          • Would be nice to point students more clearly on where to start the tables
          • Can make the video accessible by ios devices. Here is an evernote on how.
      • Email sent to Larry on 4/9
        • Reply from Toni D; positive about the final product
      • Amy G pointed me to some resources that were available from the past.
        • I plan to take a closer look and share with Larry for possible inclusion in later semesters
    • IST 240 (Fonseca)
      • Looks like Fred will be speaking with Lisa about the course committee and getting things moving toward a revision
      • My understanding is that the curriculum will eventually have 140 leading to 242 for the design & development option
      • 240 will be for everyone else
      • Fred would like to tie activities together a bit more for this course
      • Met on 4/17 about the course with Fred
        • 1st 7 weeks include
          • Minilecture
          • HW
          • Quiz the next week
        • Last 7 weeks are for creating a game in java
        • He would like to have a way for students to self assess during the 1st 7 weeks
        • I introduced the idea of peer assessment as well
    • IST 250 (Bixler)
      • Met with Brett on 1/30 to discuss adjustments
        • Mostly items that Brett will fix
        • He will send me changes to the curriculum as Word docs for me to update
    • IST 302 (Clark)
      • Sent note to Shawn about new text
        • He replied that if the book changed significantly we would have to do a revision
          • I sent a reply back to let him know that it didn’t change much and to see if he needed a copy
          • He said yes, and I sent a request to Kathy W on 4/8
          • Checked in with Amy S about the possibility of revision
          • I don’t think it’s necessary
    • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Spoke with Rosalie about both 420 and 301 for Summer ’13. I moved the reminder to mid-April to allow time for her to finish up a few items
        • Got the okay to merge sections
        • Then got a note to unmerge.
        • Then told to merge.
  • Spring ’13 Courses
    • IST 210
      • Middaugh Sec
        • Jesse sent me a note about the eval
        • Created one for him and his section
        • After several emails, got him access and asked for feedback after implementation
      • All Sec
        • Fred sent a note about a student being confused about the assessment.
        • I’m going to add a quick blurb to make things clearer.
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fred F)
        • Received info on 4/15 & adjusted Fred’s course accordingly on 4/16
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001 (Clark)
        • Received a note about adjusting the settings to allow for students to do the assessment early
        • Fixed the settings for the needs of the instructor and students
        • I sent him a short video to show him what I did for future reference.
  • Summer ’13 Courses
    • Sent note to Sonya L on 4/17 about courses that have been merged and info that WC needed
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Farugia)
        • Emailed Farugia and got the okay to set up the course based upon Spring ’13 version
        • Completed 2/13/13
      • Sec 002 (Newcomer Folkers)
        • Emailed Deirdre on 2/26/13 about course since she will be teaching it.
          • Couldn’t find this email that I thought I sent, probably just forgot πŸ™
        • Sent a follow up on 3/20 and got a reply right away to go ahead
        • Completed setting up the course and emailed Deidre of the changes on 3/21
        • Added video from Summer ’12 upon request
      • Sec 003 (Heberling)
        • Got a note from Gary that his section was available
        • Set up his space on 4/3/13
        • Note from Gary about a font issue in one of the course project pdfs.
        • I updated his section, Deirdre’s section, & dev section
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001 (Folkers)
        • Set up the course based upon SP 13 version
        • Follow up email with Deirdre to let her know that it is done on 2/12/13
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Gary H)
        • Sent Gary an email n 2/21 about what he would like done to populate his section
        • Copied and completed setting up for Summer ’13 on 2/21/13
        • Sent roster on 4/10
      • Sec 002 (Fred A)
        • Sent Fred an email n 2/21 about what he would like done to populate his section
        • Follow up sent on 3/14
        • Fred said that it would be fine, so I set it up on 3/14 and let Fred know
        • Sent roster on 4/10
    • IST 220
      • All Sec
        • Sent note to IT about roster 1 month out on 4/10
      • Sec 001 (Nick G)
        • Talked to Nick on 2/21 & agreed that moving his section from Spring ’13 and making adjustments to fit the summer makes the most sense. I plan to wait until the end of April to move items
        • Talked to Nick on 4/10, & he requested that I move a fresh version into the Summer ’13 space & adjust the schedule.
        • Spent much of 4/11 trying to fix the course for this summer
        • Took more than half of 4/12 also
        • Emailed Nick on 4/12
      • Sec 002 (Mike M)
        • Emailed Mike on 2/21 about plan. He was fine with it.
      • Sec 003 (Hyunjeong)
        • Contacted Hyunjeong about when she would like me to move her materials over to Summer ’13 section
        • Got the okay, but asked whether she would be okay moving to VHOL
          • She’s meeting with Nick to get acclimated
        • She also requested adding the course schedule which I did on 4/12
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001 & 002 (Larry)
        • Will need to merge the sections for Larry to populate
        • Checked with WC on 3/12 about 2nd section being on my profile
        • Checked on 3/14 and had both sections on my profile
        • Thanked WC for the help
        • Called Larry about merging sections
        • I merged the sections on 3/14
        • He will populate the space from there
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Hal)
        • Contacted Hal on April 8 about populating Summer ’13 section
        • Note from Anita C-G on 3/26 that we will have a student with impaired hearing. Glad we took this into account when we last revised the course.
        • Contacted Hal on 4/8 and got the go ahead to populate the course next week
        • Populated on 4/15 and set for the summer
        • Sent Hal a note
        • He responded with request to move items into ANGEL to avoid problems with keeping everything current
        • I checked the course and sent him a list of items to unpublish and add to ANGEL
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001 (John O)
        • Copied over Spring ’13 materials to Summer ’13 space for John
    • IST 295B
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Contacted Madhavi on 2/20/13 about populating the Summer ’13 section
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001 (Ocker)
        • Spoke with Rosalie
          • Sounded like she would populate her own section
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001 (Clark)
        • emailed on 3/8 that will copy over SP ’13 materials
        • he replied that it sounded good on 3/11
        • set up the section on 3/12 and emailed him
      • Sec 002 (Jesse Bill C if needed)
        • emailed on 3/8 that will copy over dev space materials
        • This section is not showing on my profile since 1st section is not full
    • IST 331
      • Sec 001 (Cantor)
        • Emailed to set up a meeting to discuss changes that need to be made before Summer ’13
        • Bill responded that he would be at UP on 4/8 & 4/9, so we will meet f2f on 4/9 at 3:30
        • Bill followed up on 4/8
          • I mentioned that I need to leave earlier than I originally anticipated
          • We discussed next steps
          • I completed the following in the Summer ’13 section
            • I copied the materials into the Summer ’13 space from your Spring ’13 section. Here are a few highlights:
              • I made the course announcement the same as last semester and have it visible until June 1. Feel free to adjust that as you deem fit.
              • I adjusted the textbook name based upon our discussion yesterday.
              • We haven’t run this course in Summer since the revision, so I took a shot at the adjustment.
    • IST 402
      • Sec 001 (Cameron)
        • Melissa will do this
    • IST 420
      • Sec 001 & 002 (Ocker)
        • Merged on 3/27
        • Rosalie still needs to finish a few things reminder for mid-April to check back in
        • Found out I needed to unmerge. Here is an excerpt from ANGEL help about how to do this: unmerge.png
          • One thing it doesn’t say is that you should copy what is in the section if you have already populated or are in the process of populating the merged section. Luckily, we weren’t doing that
          • It was decided to have Rosalie teach the 2nd section so had to remerge it on 4/12
    • IST 440W
      • Sec 001 & 002 – Merged (JW)
        • merged and populated the course on 3/12
        • had to update the course announcement with BB Collaborate info
        • updated the communicate tab to remove live chat
        • sent email on 3/12 that the process was completed
          • Jim said he’d check when he has time
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Contacted Madhavi on 2/20/13 about populating the Summer ’13 section

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Summer ’13
    • Started a Fall ’13 google schreadsheet 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • April 1 Vacation Day – 8h
  • April 2 Vaction Time AM – 4h
  • April 3 Family Sick – 8h
  • April 4 Family Sick – 8h
  • April 19 Morning Family Medical 4h AM
  • April 19 Vacation time – 4h PM
  • May 3 Vacation Day – 8h
  • May 6 Vacation Day – 8h
  • May 27 Memorial Day – Holiday
  • June 14 Vacation Day – 8h
  • June 21 Vacation Day – 8h
  • July 4 Holiday
  • July 5 Vacation Day – 8h
  • July 11 Vacation Day – 8h
  • July 12 Vacation Day – 8h
  • August 19 Vacation Day – 8h
  • August 20 Vacation Day – 8h

Reflection 3/18/13-3/22/13


Accomplishments:

    • Personal Security MOOC
      • Meeting on 3/20 to discuss with Gary
      • Set up a meeting for Monday 3/25 from 10:30-11:30 with Brett to discuss badges
      • ID meeting on 3/25 to solidify things a bit
    • IST 220 (Friedenberg)
      • Meeting set up for 3/14 from 1:30-2 to discuss
      • Mark pushed it back until early May
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • Email from Larry that he likes the tables that have been created
      • Sent him a reply that we will replace static tables with the interactive ones and let him know
      • Talked to Greg on 3/12 about updating the course with materials that we created. This the page to be updated: https://online.ist.psu.edu/ist230/node/27. He got sick and couldn’t complete it.
      • Checked on 3/14 and tables were replaced. Now, we need to add the 2-variable examples and make the directions a bit better. Need to check back in on 3/21 to finish the project
    • IST 250 (Bixler)
      • Met with Brett on 1/30 to discuss adjustments
        • Mostly items that Brett will fix
        • He will send me changes to the curriculum as Word doc for me to update
    • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Spoke with Rosalie about both 420 and 301 for Summer ’13. I moved the reminder to mid-April to allow time for her to finish up a few items
  • Spring ’13 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Sec 007 (Jim F)
        • Sent results from mid-course survey that he gave.
        • All appears well
        • Request to send student work and give feedback
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001 (Newcomer)
        • Consulted on student interaction
  • Summer ’13 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Farugia)
        • Emailed Farugia and got the okay to set up the course based upon Spring ’13 version
        • Completed 2/13/13
      • Sec 002 (Newcomer Folkers)
        • Emailed Deirdre on 2/26/13 about course since she will be teaching it.
          • Couldn’t find this email that I thought I sent, probably just forgot πŸ™
        • Sent a follow up on 3/20 and got a reply right away to go ahead
        • Completed setting up the course and emailed Deidre of the changes on 3/21
        • Added video from Summer ’12 upon request
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001 (Folkers)
        • Set up the course based upon SP 13 version
        • Follow up email with Deirdre to let her know that it is done on 2/12/13
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Gary H)
        • Sent Gary an email n 2/21 about what he would like done to populate his section
        • Copied and completed setting up for Summer ’13 on 2/21/13
      • Sec 002 (Fred A)
        • Sent Fred an email n 2/21 about what he would like done to populate his section
        • Follow up sent on 3/14
        • Fred said that it would be fine, so I set it up on 3/14 and let Fred know
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Nick G)
        • Talked to Nick on 2/21 & agreed that moving his section from Spring ’13 and making adjustments to fit the summer makes the most sense. I plan to wait until the end of April to move items
      • Sec 002 (Mike M)
        • Emailed Mike on 2/21 about plan. He was fine with it.
      • Sec 003 (Hyunjeong)
        • Contacted Hyunjeong about when she would like me to move her materials over to Summer ’13 section
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001 & 002 (Larry)
        • Will need to merge the sections for Larry to populate
        • Checked with WC on 3/12 about 2nd section being on my profile
        • Checked on 3/14 and had both sections on my profile
        • Thanked WC for the help
        • Called Larry about merging sections
        • I merged the sections on 3/14
        • He will populate the space from there
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Hal)
        • Will contact Hal in mid-April about populating Summer ’13 section since he has a few items to update
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001 (John O)
        • Copied over Spring ’13 materials to Summer ’13 space for John
    • IST 295B
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Contacted Madhavi on 2/20/13 about populating the Summer ’13 section
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001 (Ocker)
        • Spoke with Rosalie
          • Sounded like she would populate her own section
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001 (Clark)
        • emailed on 3/8 that will copy over SP ’13 materials
        • he replied that it sounded good on 3/11
        • set up the section on 3/12 and emailed him
      • Sec 002 (Jesse Bill C if needed)
        • emailed on 3/8 that will copy over dev space materials
        • This section is not showing on my profile since 1st section is not full
    • IST 331
      • Sec 001 (Cantor)
        • Emailed to set up a meeting to discuss changes that need to be made before Summer ’13
        • Bill responded that he would be at UP on 4/8 & 4/9, so we will meet f2f on 4/9 at 3:30
    • IST 402
      • Sec 001 (Cameron)
        • Melissa will do this
    • IST 420
      • Sec 001 & 002 (Ocker)
        • Looks like a merge
        • Rosalie still needs to finish a few things reminder for mid-April to check back in
    • IST 440W
      • Sec 001 & 002 – Merged (JW)
        • merged and populated the course on 3/12
        • had to update the course announcement with BB Collaborate info
        • updated the communicate tab to remove live chat
        • sent email on 3/12 that the process was completed
          • Jim said he’d check when he has time
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Contacted Madhavi on 2/20/13 about populating the Summer ’13 section

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Summer ’13 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • MOOC Jan 4 – March 15 called Introduction to Genetics and Evolution
  • MOOC Jan 14 – Mar 4 called Fundamentals of Personal Finance
  • March 4 Vacation Day
  • March 5 Vacation Day
  • March 11 Prof Dev: Voice Thread at PSU: Hands on Training Session
  • March 15 Out for the day
  • March16 TLT Symposium
  • March 18-22 IST Startup Week
  • March 18 WAH from 2PM
  • March 20 March Gaming Brownbag on Currency Exchange
  • March 29 Vacation Day
  • April 1 Vacation Day
  • April 2 Vaction Time AM – 4h
  • May 3 Vacation Day
  • May 6 Vacation Day
  • May 27 Memorial Day – Holiday
  • June 14 Vacation Day
  • June 21 Vacation Day
  • July 4 Holiday
  • July 5 Vacation Day
  • July 11 Vacation Day
  • July 12 Vacation Day
  • August 19 Vacation Day
  • August 20 Vacation Day

Educational Gaming Brown Bag: Currency Exchange

I was very impressed by the presentation given by James Laurie and Mary Ann Mengel. It was a thorough presentation and showed both their implementation and research before starting the process.

One resource that I need to read is The Gamification of Learning & Instruction. Just added it to my google book library to read.   

Based upon their reading and research, James and Mary Ann mapped their learning objectives. I noticed that their objectives were found on higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Definitely an idea to adopt.

A great point made by Mary Ann was that games work great for situations where there are multiple factors. In this example, there were several factors that influenced profit. Making a game was a great way for students to study the effect of these factors in a way that they were able to make choices or be at the whim of circumstances in order to better understand the concepts presented.

As James and Mary Ann spoke, I could tell that there were many team members involved Team approach, constantly checking with multiple experts to make sure the game made sense. They also shared their timeline.

Curr_exch_timeline.JPG

It took awhile to get this going, and that is because of all of the additional responsibilities that each team member had to accomplish besides this project. Also, they were handling the whole process from scratch. It would be nice if we had more easily accessible templates in an engine that we could leverage to cut down the timeline.

As I mentioned earlier, the team working on this project did much analysis and design based upon research. Here is a slide that they shared about their analysis and design.

Curr_exch_analy_design.JPG 

 

With the proper ground work and team established. They were able to move into storyboarding. Here are a few slides on storyboarding.

Curr_exch_storybrd_intro.JPG

It may be difficult to see, but this above slide starts the process of determining scenarios for the game. It lists different cases for round 1 and reasons for decreases in sales price.

Curr_exch_storybrd_r1.JPG

Once an overall storyboard and ideas have been developed, it is time to drill down into each component. This is a slide on storyboarding for round 1.

Curr_exch_storybrd_r2.JPG

Here is another slide, this time for round 2 of the game.

Mary Ann talked at length about accessibility. An unanticipated event that happened in the middle of this project was that NFB had filed a complaint against Penn State. This complaint encouraged them to think about how to make the game more accessible. If they would have known about this, they would have taken a different approach from using flash.

Curr_exch_access.JPG

 

At the end of the discussion, Mary Ann talked about the benefits of gaming relating to skill sets that matter to workforce and mapped what games help to develop. Here is a slide on game dimension aspects of games. They went into detail on what elements were highlighted in their game.

Curr_exch_game_dim.JPG

 

Interesting to think about implementation. Should this be prefaced with instruction or considered as an anticipatory set that will lead to more engagement before introducing a topic. Sounded like the latter worked well this semester.

Reflection 1/21/13 – 1/25/13


Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
    • MOOC on Evolution
      • Finished the 1st graded quiz without issue
      • Instructor is saying this week is more difficult
        • from my experience so far, I agree.
        • I’ve decided to take the quiz before watching lectures, then I will work on making adjustments after watching a lecture based upon what I’ve learned
    • MOOC on Game Theory
      • Haven’t started this, yet. Starting to wonder if I should unenroll and try later.
      • May have bitten off more than I can chew right now
    • MOOC on Personal Finance starts 1/14/13
      • I originally signed up for this course then unenrolled. But I’m interested in what this course entails. It almost seems like advice you would get from a financial planner. It would be interesting to see these type of self-help courses become more ubiquitous.
    • Attended Educational Gaming Brownbag on Bagdes by Brett Bixler
  • Spring ’13 revisions/developments
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • Larry says that he will take a look and let us know
    • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Have readings for the course & need to get someone to create pdf’s – delegated this to Audrey
          • Double checked to make sure this was okay with Amy G, & it was
  • Course Committees
    • Attended IST 210 on 1/22
    • Attended IST 220 on 1/24
  • Spring ’13 Courses
    • IST 210 – Note from IT about making sure students know how to login to database for the course. The wording is already in the labs.
      • Sec 001 (Gary)
        • Note from Gary that Elluminate Live is now Blackboard Collaborate.
          • Didn’t hear this from WC.
          • Need to update info in the course. Placed a reminder on my calendar to do next week
      • Sec 003 (Marc)
        • Several requests to update grammar on assessments
        • Updated lab
        • Met f2f to take care of issues
    • IST 220 –
      • Secs 003 and 004 (Hyunjeong)
        • request to provide accomodations.
          • did this for one assessment and provided video
      • All Sections
        • working through labs that Nick is reworking
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001
        • Worked through an issue with Blackboard Collaborate
    • IST 402 TIE-
      • Sec 001
        • Tested scoring rubrics and sent request to WC Helpdesk to see if this needs to be pushed to ANGEL Support
          • Reply mentioned that Rubrics or Scoring rubrics most likely work independently but Supplementaly may work with the other options.

Ongoing Projects:

    • Amy S editted google spreadsheet for Summer ’13 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • None

Back Burner:

Important Dates:

  • Jan 1 Holiday
  • MOOC Jan 4 – March 15 called Introduction to Genetics and Evolution
  • MOOC Jan 7 – Feb 11 called Game Theory
  • MOOC Jan 14 – Mar 4 called Fundamentals of Personal Finance
  • Jan 7 WAH in AM
  • Jan 8 Dental Appt (3 h)
  • Jan 14 Dr. Appt (2 h)
  • Jan 17 Family Sick in AM – 4h
  • Jan 18 Vacation Time – 8 h
  • Jan 21 WAH
  • Jan 21 Family Sick – 1h
  • Jan 23 Education Gaming Brown Bag: Badges? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges!
  • Jan 23 Family Sick 1h
  • Jan 24 Family Sick – 2h
  • Jan 25 WAH in AM
  • Jan 25 Vacation Time – 5.5 h
  • Jan 28 Family Sick Time – 1.5 h
  • Jan 31 WAH all day
  • Feb 4-6 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting in Denver, CO
  • Feb 18 WAH in AM
  • March 4 WAH in AM
  • March 6 WAH all day
  • March 18 WAH in AM

Reflection 09/17/12-09/21/12


Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
  • Fall ’12 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Grade discussion with Marcela on 9/18
    • IST 220
      • Still seeing emails from students and instructors about vhol. Confirms my thinking that it would be best to think about textbook labs
    • IST 240
      • Updated assignment 2 and contacted Hal about it
    • IST 250 
      • More edits to make
      • Answered a question by Don on Elluminate and how many participants can be handled by providing my insights and ccing Gary
    • IST 402
      • drupal implementation is working well but now information is not collected by voicethread since it is embedded. Checked drupal and can see that students are using it and made Rosalie an admin so she can check too
      • she created the latest overview in ppt with audio
  • Fall ’12 revisions/developments
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • Working with Greg, Will, & Toni on interactive pieces
        • Larry is going to supply some problems to work on
    • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Spent time on 9/17 finding and adding videos to the dev space
        • Still awaiting Rosalie’s decision on which direction to move text or articles
    • gamify.JPGIST 402 (Saab)
        • David is working on adding content
        • Meeting on 9/21 to talk about gamification was great
          • David went through items in his mind map
          • Chris mentioned his ideas about leveling up
          • Brett had a great idea of allowing students to plot their plan through the course
          • Plan to meet in two weeks
  • Spring ’13 Course Prep – Mapped out on my outlook calendar courses to work on so that I’m done by the first week in December. Going to be difficult since we have to go 1 section at a time. Plan to start the 1st week of October
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001
    • IST 210 – Hyunjeong and Mike M are teaching in Spring
      • Sec 001
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001
      • Sec 002
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001
    • IST 260W
      • Sec 001
    • IST 295A
      • Sec 001
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001
    • IST 402 TIE-
      • Sec 001
    • IST 421
      • Sec 001
    • IST 440W
      • Sec 001
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Spring ’13 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • None

Back Burner:

    • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

Days off / Conferences:

  • September 3 – Labor Day
  • August 27- October 5 Gamification MOOC
  • September 10 Brown Bag with Brendaly Drayton, Ph.D. (Diversity)
  • September 19 Educational Brown Bag
  • September 19 Bringing Gaming into Online Learning
  • September 20 MS-Office Training for Accessibility
  • Nov 1 AM Sick time for Dental Appt

Educational Gaming Brown Bag: Turning an Astronomy Course into a Mission to Mars

Glad to have the opportunity to see a demo of ASTRO 101 for the future. The idea of the course is to move the course into a 3-D environment. The course started as a text-based course made through WCLD to a narrative course. The course has been so popular and profitable that resources were available to create the current version. It still includes narrative, but it allows students to learn concepts by participating in 3-D games/sims. Some of the activities have been created in house while others are available and open through other universities and government agencies like NASA. The idea was to have half made in house and half outside.

Jane Charlton started out by saying that it would have been impossible to accomplish what they had unless the programmers and artists had been astro majors. To her, she would rather find someone with content knowledge that may have outside interests and skills (i.e. coding skills and artistic skills) to create the objects and activities in the course.

Reflection: From a personal stance, this makes sense to me. I’m a mathematician/scientist/educator at heart. The technology and accompanying skills are tools that I use to complete my job. But there are a large group within the community of learning design who feel that we are interchangeable.

Jane mentioned an interesting fact that undergrad gen eds at Penn State are supposed to be Middle School level. For this reason, she plans to share out what has been created to MS around the area.

Jane also shared that she felt like programs should have a plan to make courses narrative based take revenues and ramp up to ideas like the one that will be implemented in Astronomy.

Enjoyable session! Thanks again to Elizabeth and the crew for providing another example of gaming as it applies to education.

Reflection 04/16/12-04/20/12


Accomplishments:

  • Spring ’12 courses running
    • IST 110
      • Met with Jan, Ankit, and Alyson about 110 Peer Evals
      • Had a good grasp on how to grab the data and manipulate
      • They are going to filter by team and export to excel
      • Received note from Jan about making adjustments to the form that I mentioned that she can make
      • Received a note from Jan about helping LA to get screenr to work, I pointed the LA to screenr technical support
      • Asked another question from Jan about srte’s that I replied that I don’t have access to these.
    • IST 230
      • Added a ppt for the problem of the week for Lesson 6
  • Spring ’12 revisions
    • IST 210 (Heberling)
      • Gary will be adjusting Labs and Team Project
        • Asked for the template to be able to add to the dev space
        • Gary will be going through the assessment questions to see what should be removed from the banks
    • IST 220 (Bertin)
      • Need to try the labs myself
      • Found out today that the version of the Getting Started with Virtual Hands-On Labs that I received was an earlier version
      • Updated the document to reflect what should be done
    • IST 240 (Smith)
      • Plans to send me materials by Friday the 20th
      • Didn’t receive materials
    • IST 402 (Cameron) – I’ll be assisting Melissa when needed
    • IST 402 (Saab)
      • Meeting planned for April 30
    • IST 421 (Hill)
      • Meeting planned for Fri April 20 for final run through
  • Madison proposal
    • Received confirmation that I have been selected to present for the 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, WI in the lightning session format. The session title is “An overview to providing accessible videos using free tools.”
    • Tentatively completed the summary on 4/18
    • Deadlines
      • May 4 – Upload required paper for Conference Proceedings and Resources publication
      • June 4 – Register for the conference (instructions will be sent)
      • July 4 – Upload session handout(s)
    • Worked on my sections for April 18 meeting
      • Made all of the necessary adjustments and added references sections
      • We rearranged the content of the session to make it a bit more intuitive
      • Next meeting planned for Friday April 27
  • Here are a few reflections on the blog from Clark that I did this week:
  • Here are a few reflections about a Gaming Brownbag that I attended on 4/19
  • Summer ’12 Course Prep
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
      • Sec 002
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
      • Sec 003
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
      • Sec 204 Pearson Pilot
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
    • IST 111S Followed up about which section to import/export from
      • Sec 001
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
        • Plan to remove course schedule from the syllabus since she already places the course schedule under the Lessons tab in ANGEL
    • IST 210
      • Met via Google+
      • Discussed the sequence of the course
      • Determined that we’ll use Vision instead of providing the option of gliffy
      • Discussed how to break out grades
        • Assessments (20%)
        • Labs (50%)
        • Team (30%)
      • Discussed teaming and the possible use of Yammer to improve teamwork
    • IST 220
      • Met with Amy S, Lisa B, and Abbi D to talk about the course
        • Emailed John F to add Abbi to the lab environment
      • Sec 001
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
      • Sec 002
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
      • Sec 003
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 & 002
        • Held section huddle but only Hal attended
    • IST 295B
      • Sec 001
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening
    • IST 301
      • Rosalie set up HBR articles and provided me a link
      • She’s also going to populate her spaces
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001
        • Completed all items for Summer ’12 opening

Ongoing Projects:

  • Updating google spreadsheet for Summer ’12 &  Fall ’12
  • Working on Summer 2012 courses: 110, 111S, 210, 220, 230, 240, 295B, 301, 302, 420 EA (Melissa), 421, 495
  • IST 260W content added in drupal
    • I need to check it with the WC offering
      • Began the process but looks like there is a reference to an old textbook in the content

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

  • None

Back Burner:

  • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

New Decisions/Directions

  • A few years ago, I decided to switch from IE to firefox. This week I finally decided to switch to Chrome since used Google+ for some work on the Madison paper. It has been working well including the formatting of the wiziwig editor. For some reason in firefox, the editor didn’t work as well. I often found myself moving the code into dreamweaver to make basic adjustments

Days off / Conferences:

  • April 10 – 4 hours vacation
  • April 13 – 8 hours vacation
  • April 16 – 8 hours vacation
  • June 11 & 12 Web 2012 Conference
  • June 22, 25-29 vacation days
  • July 10 AM Sick time for Dental Appt
  • August 8-10 Madison Conference