User:Rcowley
From WVWiki
Statistics: This user has uploaded 26 files, and made 178 total edits.
Personal Information:
- Meaning of your name: king
- School you represent: Kasson Middle School
- Role in Globaloria program at your school: teacher
- Favorite food(s): yams
- Favorite music: pop/country crossover
- Hobbies and things you like to do outside of school: reading, chess, walking, computer programming
- Educational or Social issue(s) you are passionate about: making teachers professionals
- Favorite technology 'gadget' and why: computers -- puzzle-solving and opening new worlds
- Describe when you started using computers: 1979
- Describe what you like to do on the internet: research
- In what ways have you used computers in your teaching, previously? student research, skill development, puzzle-solving, grading, etc.
- What do you hope to achieve in Globaloria this year, personally? to understand the programming
- What do you hope for your students to achieve in Globaloria this year? to gain experience and develop self-confidence in programming
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http://www.myglife.org/usa/wvwiki/images/f/f1/Lesson1.swf
http://www.myglife.org/usa/wvwiki/images/9/98/Lesson1.fla
Check my blog at
http://awordtowise.blogspot.com
Progress Report:
Please update this table with a progress report on your work.
| Topic | Date(s) | Time Spent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 07-13-08 | 1 hour | I completed my info page, adding a photo of the Philippi Covered Bridge. |
| World Wide Workshop | 07-15-08 | 8 hours | I participated in the workshop. |
| World Wide Workshop | 07-16-08 | 8 hours | I participated in the workshop, starting a Flash game with my group. |
| World Wide Workshop | 07-17-08 | 7 hours | I participated in the workshop, further developing a Flash game with my group. |
| Online Workshop Survey | 07-28-08 | 1 hour | I completed an online survey about the World Wide Workshop. |
| Flash Development | 08-5-08 | 3 hours | I finished reading Flash 5 to give me a background in Flash. I started redoing my game hall for my group project. |
| Flash Development | 08-11-08 | 3 hours | I spent time learning more about Flash and working on my hall in our group project. |
| Flash Development | 08-14-08 | 4 hours | I completed work in Flash on updating my hall in our group project. |
| World Wide Workshop | 08-19-08 | 9 hours | I participated in the Charleston workshop. |
| World Wide Workshop | 08-20-08 | 8 hours | I participated in the Charleston workshop. |
| Week 1 | 08-26-08 | 1 hour | Thirteen students signed up with me for Globaloria. I had about ten minutes for class. I assigned computers and passed out parental permission sheets. I also have another teacher who will assist me. |
| Week 1 | 08-27-08 | 30 minutes | We had a short class due to some scheduling changes. I lost one student. |
| Week 1 | 08-28-08 | 1 hour | We took care of consent forms. We had difficulty getting gmail accounts and stopped for the day. We viewed the Earth Without People website to see a Flash movie. |
| Week 1 | 08-29-08 | 2 hours | I signed each student up to a gmail account during my time to make sure they worked. We filled out most of the survey in class and then ran out of time. |
| Week 2 | 09-02/05-08 | 3 hours | I continued signing up email accounts on my own time due to the slowness of the lab and age of the students. The students tried and made written evaluations of Flash games on Wiki and newsgaming.com. |
| Week 3 | 09-08/12-08 | 3 hours | I worked on getting students wiki accounts. The computers at the high school where our school is presently located is very slow. The students finished evaluating Flash games. |
| Week 4 | 09-15/19-08 | 2 hours | I completed getting the students their wiki accounts. We have 10 students. Students finished their personal accounts. We started brainstorming game ideas. |
| Week 5 | 09-22/26-08 | 1.5 hours | I e-mailed student IDs and worked on setting up a time to install Flash. The students learned how to design game backgrounds on Paint and upload them on wiki. They also practiced downloading them to add graphics to them. I completed and sent in the Progress Report. |
| Week 6 | 09-29/10-3-08 | 1 hour | Have students use the first four tutorials on Game Design Topics: Playing to Learn, Social Issue Games, Imagining Your Game, and Paper Prototyping. I spent some independent time researching these. |
| Week 7 | 10-06/10-08 | 1 hour | The students began their paper prototypes. We discussed the flow of a good game. I spent one hour preparing materials and supplies. Flash was installed by Lee. |
| Week 8 | 10-13/17-08 | 1 hour | The students are learning to use Flash in designing a park and a moving vehicle step by step. I spent some time working on three stations where Flash was not installed, probably because of Deep Freeze issues. I emailed Lee about the problem to get the correct serial numbers. |
| Week 9 | 10-20/24-08 | 3 hours | The 11 Flash programs are now loaded. I had to use different computers at times because some erased Flash, even though they didn't have Deep Freeze. The students are becoming adept with vector graphics, symbols, the library, layers, and setting keyframes. I introduced them to action script. First, I had to review the material myself, and now that I know a little bit more than the class, we are proceeding. The action script is causing some delays, but I think it is important that the students have a few common scripts to use and to see what they can do. So far, we are working with stop(); / gotoAndPlay(1); / on(release) { gotoAndPlay(10); }. It will take several days for the class to master these, so we'll work some more on that and tweening next week. |
| Week 10 | 10-27/31 | 2 hours | This week the class worked on getting used to Flash programming. They can make working buttons, make animation, including Tween, and Tween Guide, and write a little action script. |
| Week 11 | 11-3/7 | 2 hours | The class is exploring some more Flash and evaluating their game prototypes. Students are changing what they think won't work and adding parts that they want, using some of the Flash techniques they learned. |
| Week 12 | 11-10/14 | 2 hours | The class began their own games by designing the opening scene. They worked on making stop and goto scripts. I participated in an hour phone/computer Globaloria telecommunications session on Game Navigation in Flash on 11/13. |
| Week 13 | 11-17/21 | 2 hours | The class continued working on their games. I demonstrated the tween guide. The students are experiencing the joys and frustrations of programming, where games are coming alive and then suddenly stalled. Layers get mixed up. Timelines get reversed. Games get saved in different files, instead of one. But there's no turning back. |
| Week 14 | 12-1/5 | 2 hours | I demonstrated the virtues of the transform function. The students are starting to move ahead with their games. There was some backsliding, but we are getting our feet on more solid footing. Some are working on background layers. |
| Week 15 | 12-8/12 | 1 hour | The students developed different layers for certain game elemsnts -- vehicle, background, script, title, obstacles, etc. |
| Week 16 | 12-15/19 | 2 hours | Some students needed to know how to use the arrow keys on the keyboard for their games. I checked wiki but didn't seem to get what I needed. I signed out a library book on Flash Professional, but that still didn't help. While we research this problem, the students are developing their background layers. |
| Week 17 | 1-5/9 | 3 hours | We are still working on keyboard entry action script. During a planning time, Michelle Barb and I teleconferenced with Shannon and Denise. We set up date to have a recording session during class for next week. |
| Week 18 | 1-12/16 | 3 hours | We were getting prepared for the Globaloria visit, when a Wiki message told us to change our passwords. This caused us to loose two days. One student, who is in game design for the second year, forgot his email address. I had to register him again for Wiki with a new email account. I set up the other students with new passwords, since it would take too long to do it in class. Then, on Wednesday, Bryson discovered through his own research how to use the arrow key action script! |
| Week 19 | 1/19-23 | 2 hours | The class was looking forward (with some nervousness) to a planned visit by a Globaloria team on Wednesday. Unfortunately, due to heavy snow conditions, the visit was cancelled. |
| Globaloria Workshop in Charleston | 3/24 | 8 hour workshop plus 5 hours driving time | The workshop was good. Two highlights: starting the idea of a game site on Wiki to showcase student (and teacher?) games and excellent Action Script presentations, including developing Brian's rabbit game. |
| Week 20 | 1/26-30 | 2 hours | I was able to help students infuse their games with Action Script developed during Saturday's workshop. |
| Week 21 | 2/2-6 | 2 hours | Students were getting bogged down with Action Script. A lot of individual assistance was needed. Jesse, among others, helped students who were stuck on some scripts. |
| Week 22 | 2/9-13 | 2 hours | This week we began setting up individual blogs, but it is slow work and takes away time from game development. |
| Week 23 | 2/16-20 | 2 hours | Students are beginning to see significant development of their games. Some require a lot of Action Script. Perhaps, I should have started them on simpler games. |
| Week 24 | 2/23-27 | 2 hours | Individual students, like Jesse and Jules, are taking off in the games. This has encouraged others to dig in harder. |
| Week 25 | 3/2-6 | 2 hours | The class had a visit from Maitreyi. She was impressed with the artistic work of the students. She gave some suggestions, including a common class blog and developing the My Projects files on the student profiles. |
| Week 26 | 3/9-13 | 2 hours | The class has added their games and comments on their My Projects files. On Wednesday, the class started a common blog. This was much more successful than trying to have individual blogs. |
| Week 27 | 3/16-20 | 2 hours | Students are showing more progress with their games. We set a date of May 15 to complete the games. Some students are rethinking their games to streamline them. |
| Week 28 | 3/23-27 | 4 hours | Students are using Action Scripts in developing their games. Kasey is doing her own in her maze game. I am working with Bryson to get elements of his game in sync with Action Script. |
| Week 29 | 3/30-4/3 | 2 hours | Students are adding to their My Projects file. Jules has finished his game, but needs to improve his spelling and some minor things. Jesse and Jules may present their games at a school board meeting next week. I have put together the third Globaloria Progress Report on Tuesday. |
| Week 30 | 4/6-8 | 4 hours | This was a short but busy week. On Monday I made a presentation about Globaloria and our game design class to our Board of Education and parents and students. Two of my students, Jules and Jesse, displayed their games and answered questions. The presentation was well-received. On Thursday, I participated in the Webex teleconference about evaluation rubrics. I had difficulty getting on, but my principal, Michelle Barb, and mentor, Denise Stalnaker, got me straighened out. |
| Week 31 | 4/15-17 | 2 hours | Students worked on their games. Jules and Jesse worked on completing their My Projects sections. Kasey is near completion of her game. We are working on Action Script for developing interactive sequences for Bryson and Samantha. |
| Week 32 | 4/20-24 | 2 hours | Students continued working on their games. They completed another blog on the class blog site. Kody is getting closer to being done. He needs to correct some Action Script mistakes. Courtney is also working on Action Script for her game. The Action Script is beginning to work in the games. |
| Week 33 | 4/27-5/1 | 2 hours | Samantha and Bryson are getting their games in gear. The Action Script is starting to gel in their games. Jesse, Kasey, and Jules are well along on the Power Point presentations. Kody is finishing his game. |
| Week 34 | 5/4-8 | 2 hours | Students worked on filling their My Projects sections. They also worked on their PowerPoint presentations. Most presentations consisted of ten slides with writing and screen shots from their games. |
| Week 35 | 5/11-15 | 6 hours | Students worked on their presentations and completing elements of their games. I spent a lot of out-of-school time on fine-tuning the Action Script, especially for Samantha's game, which involves a moving background of buildings and obstacles. Her main character is a skateboarder trying to get through ten levels. On Friday, Maitreyi, Denise, and Michelle came for presentations. We hooked up on WebEx. We were only able to get through four presentations: Jules, Dylan, Jesse, and Courtney. After the class, we had a discussion, mainly about my not being able to continue with Globaloria next year due to a new class load. I'll continue teaching a game design class, but with different software. We decided to try to complete the class presentations next Friday. |
| Week 36 | 5/18-22 | 3 hours | This was the week of WESTEST and activities. I did not have the game design class meet the whole week. I tried to hook up on WebEx on Friday, but did not have the email invitation. I emailed Maitreyi, and she wrote back that she would set up the invitation, but that I needed a cell phone. The principal was not in school, and I couldn't get a cell phone. The students were watching a high school musical, but were able to get to class if the presentation was able to be done. However, time ran out, and unfortunately the presentation was not able to be given. I removed all the Flash installations on the computers in the high school lab. |
| Week 37 | 5/25-29 | 1 hour | Kasson School moved from the high school to Kasson. We did not have classes on Memorial day, Tuesday, and Wednesday. There was no Internet available at the school. The students designed a possible title screen for next year with button areas. |
| Week 38 | 6/1-5 | 5 hours | Students worked on their possible new game titles, adding sound and animation. Once again, there was no Internet, so they could not complete updating their My Projects sections of their Wiki profiles. I spent a lot of time on my Fourth Globaloria Progress Report. |
