Tuesday, October 27, 2015

#20PercentTuesday: Week 3 Reflections



Today marked week 3 of our 20% time / genius hour project.  The learning space was a buzz during my three 8th grade game design and development elective courses.  Kids are settling into the idea but it is still new to them so class starts with a bit of confusion until everyone is actively engaged in their project. I see this diminishing already and anticipate that over the next few weeks kids will come right in and get started without knowing whether or not I am even there :)

It's very interesting to truly put the learning in the students hands.  There is an inclination for students to want (dare I say expect) a lot of attention when they don't know exactly what to do.  The true humor (after the fact) comes in watching them fumble because they cannot figure out how to turn on the TV or set up the right input on the TV to connect to the device they are working with.  It literally took a pair of students 20 minutes (and a few hints from me although I was VERY stingy in giving assistance) to get the raspberry pi connected and showing up on one of the TVs in the room. Ultimately a third student came to their aid.  It was little things like the TV input, needing to take the HDMI cable out of the Xbox360 to use it with the pi, but the best was the fact that they tried to plug the mini usb into the Ethernet port in the raspberry pi and wondered why it wasn't powering up. This is one of those moments when you really want to help them but need to let go and embrace the learning that is taking place through the process.  After all, if these kids got a raspberry pi in the mail they would be sure to figure out how to get it hooked up at home without my assistance.



Some of the happenings around the room included students making progress with their watch it build it projects.  To get oriented to the chosen technology or tool, students were tasked with finding a tutorial (video or print) to guide them to use the tool to recreate something.  There were kids programming in project spark to get dragons to fight back if attacked by their player.  That was pretty cool to see!  Other kids were building worlds and racetracks in Disney Infinity.  Several teams using the raspberry pi (once they got it connected to the TV) were programming in python and celebrating the fruits of their labor.  Anyone who programs can attest to the fact that it is pretty gratifying to see "Hello, World" displayed on a screen when you were responsible for typing and executing the code.  Other students were working with MIT App Inventor, makeymakey, XCode, Twine, and a variety of other tools.

I'd like to close today's post with some responses to a reflection question posed to the kids.  When students were choosing the tool they would like to use, they were asked to respond to the question:

What do you think about the idea of extending your learning on your own in order to truly take learning into your own hands?

Most of the responses were great.  I will share some now and continue to sprinkle them in here and there through the year...

Extending learning on my own is important. It teaches students to be resourceful and test and look for solutions on their own. Taking learning into my own hands means that there are no guidelines I must follow, and it gives me lots of creative options to pursue as I learn on my own. There are lots of possibilities for learning when it is directed only by the creator's mind, and two people who both have similar ideas in the beginning may have different creative directions and different final products.
The idea of extending our learning on our own is exciting because then we can work at our own pace and not be held back or left behind.  
It is an interesting challenge. It requires you to be motivated. You will also need to be more creative than just following instructions.  
I think that doing so will help us learn responsibility and it will let us take things that truely interest us and will motivate us to continue working and give it our best effort.

I'll stop there for now.  I hope you are enjoying following along on our journey. I am a huge proponent of choice / passion based learning and see this project as a great opportunity to empower students in the process


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

#20PercentTuesday: Week 2 Reflections


It's Tuesday!  That means #20PercentTuesday in my Game Design and Development classes :)  It's interesting. I've done 20% Time in the past and it has generally been successful but this year there seems to be more of a buzz.  Perhaps I pitched it better last week when I introduced the idea.  Perhaps the catchy title "20PercentTuesday" is helping the cause.

Last week was mostly about students considering what topic or tool interested them.  They explored a blog post about the Empowering Learners in the Maker Age Donor's Choose grant I wrote a while back. Students could choose one of the cool technologies available thanks to the grant or pursue something outside of the products offered.  During class and the week that followed students completed a quest in 3dgamelab called: Play. Make. Learn: Empowering Learners in the Maker Age and submitting the quest involved responding to a few questions:
  • Which product appeals to you most?
  • What do you think you will consider creating using the tool chosen?
  • What do you think about the idea of extending your learning on your own in order to truly take learning into your own hands?
I especially love the third question as it really requires that students reflect upon the process they are about to embark upon.  

Below are a number of responses I received .  Interested in more responses?  Here's a link to a google doc where I am compiling student reflections.  Kids are so insightful!  

Extending learning on my own is important. It teaches students to be resourceful and test and look for solutions on their own. Taking learning into my own hands means that there are no guidelines I must follow, and it gives me lots of creative options to pursue as I learn on my own. There are lots of possibilities for learning when it is directed only by the creator's mind, and two people who both have similar ideas in the beginning may have different creative directions and different final products.
The idea of extending our learning on our own is exciting because then we can work at our own pace and not be heldback or left behind.  
You can learn from experience. It's a thing. I learn better from experience, then from a person lecturing me for forty minutes. I really like the idea... and we might become famous from making an awesome game (hint, hint, me!) You can remember the same learning experience better doing it myself, because it's dug in my mind, and I won't forget it because it's an experience, not a lesson ~summernaru  

The rest of the responses are excellent as well.  I may bring more into the blog in the future, but please feel free to peruse them at your leisure.




I started each class period today with attendance and had students respond with the topic or tool they have selected for the project.  It was very interesting to see a shift where each class seemed to have a different personality evidenced by the choices.  In two of my 8th grade sections the majority chose Project Spark, Disney Infinity, with a few choosing to work with the raspberry pi.  This led to creating a schedule where students will each get a different day to work on their project to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to work with the product they chose.  In the second section of the course.  Interestingly, my period 6 group had very different ideas.  That group had students interested in working with MIT App Inventor, Twine and other tools to create text based adventures, the Oculus Rift, and MakeyMakey with a few people deferring to Project Spark and Disney Infinity.




After talking about the project they would work on students began to research tutorials to help them with the next step of learning the particular product or technology.  This got exciting as students found things like a mod to link the oculus rift to minecraft, ways to use google sketch up and Unity to create an area to explore in Virtual Reality, in addition to many different projects involving the wide variety of other tools.

Some students had already completed this step and started working directly with the technology.  It was exciting to see students get up and running with the raspberry pi and coding in python within minutes.  Likewise, students started to dig in to Project Spark and Disney Infinity with much enthusiasm.



This all sounds great and trust me, it is.  However, I should share a little more to paint the complete picture.  We are only in week 2.  There is still a bit of confusion and this is not an approach to learning students are accustomed to in school.  It can be messy and appear disorganized.  You quickly see how some students are incredibly independent and self driven and others require a lot more attention.  This will be part of the process and while it left my head spinning at times I believe it is an important growing pain to endure. I have a policy where students with questions must put their name on the board. They may want help immediately but I am only one person and prefer to give my undivided attention to each student as I am working with them.  This is not ideal for some students that want the answer and want it now.  Forgive me for saying so, but TOO BAD.  It's a great learning experience in what to do while waiting.  And waiting idly is never the answer.  My course is quest based.  Students waiting for help can continue to try to solve the problem (my preference) or can continue working on another quest until I can assist them. Again, part of the process.  I called this a growing pain because early in the project it certainly is.  I am willing to bet that in a few weeks students will walk in and get right to work and when they have a question they will put their name on the board and wait a little more patiently.  This is all part of the learning process.  My goal is that kids leave this experience with increased confidence that they truly can guide their own learning based on their interest.  The responses received by students indicate that they absolutely appreciate the idea.  Now we all just have to get used to it and make magic happen!

Thanks for joining us on this journey.  More to be revealed.



Tuesday, October 13, 2015

20%Tuesday!

I received an email from Valvoline with the subject, "Tuesdays just got 20% better!".  Somehow that stuck with me.   I had every intention of going to get a 20% off oil change today but that didn't actually happen.  However, today "20%Tuesday" was born!



Over the past few years I have provided students with the opportunity to engage in 20% time to pursue passion projects.  In fact, I had two Donor's Choose grants funded to support the project.  The project highlighted in the grants was called 'Empowering Learners in the Maker Age" and the items purchased included an Xbox One, Playstation 4 with Little Big Planet 3, Disney infinity, a number of MakeyMakeys, raspberry pi, the Ouya gaming console, and resources to support the use of some of these items. To make matters even better, our PTO was gracious enough to fund a wishlist grant for 3 large LCD TVs for presentation and game development.  My vision is to create a studio inspired learning space that feels more like a tech startup than a classroom.  My goal is to provide a variety of resources for my students to provide great choice and inspire them to drive the learning based on interest and passion.

We hadn't officially started the 20% time idea yet this year and the email from Valvoline made me realize that I couldn't wait any longer.  20%Tuesday would start today!

I spent some time introducing the idea.  I shared how google popularized the idea of 20% time, but credit really should go to 3M.  Who knew the Post-it note was the product of an early company's understanding the value of giving employees the opportunity to explore innovative ideas.



In 1974, 3M scientist Art Fry came up with a clever invention. He thought if he could apply an adhesive (dreamed up by colleague Spencer Silver several years earlier) to the back of a piece of paper, he could create the perfect bookmark, one that kept place in his church hymnal. He called it the Post-It Note. Read more about 3M and 20% time. 
The conversation with my students continued to discuss some of google's products and how 20% time is part of their work culture.  We talked about google glass, google cardboard, gmail, google expeditions and more.

I shared some examples of projects students have completed in the past.  You can find many of them on our class youtube channel.

As I explained the project eyes started to light up.  Questions started to come at me.  Can I create an MMORPG? Can I use the raspberry pi? If I make an app can I sell it and make money? Can I create a visual novel? The questions kept coming.  The answer was essentially the same.  Yes, accompanied by the caveat that I did not claim to know how or where to start.

So, how will the 20% time project work?  My class is quest based and there is a quest line based on the Empowering Learners theme.  Students will start by reading a blog post about the donor's choose grants and the idea behind the project.  They then consider what they would like to pursue for their passion project.  Students respond to the first quest with a general idea regarding what they would like to work with and how they feel about the learning being put in the students' hands.  I am big on reflection and want the kids to consider why (or even if) they see this as a valuable proposition.

Next, student are tasked with a 'watch it build it' quest where they search for resources (tutorials, etc.) that teach how to use the product, tool, or technique they have chosen.  They share the tutorial that they plan to recreate and this provides them with an opportunity to seek out and start the learning on their own.

After completing the watch it build it activity, students decide on an original project they want to complete and write a design plan to share their vision.  Then it's time to create their original project.  It's pretty awesome to see kids follow their interest when it comes to learning.  Recently, I have become increasingly excited about the idea of passion driven learning and leveraging how kids really learn and allowing their interest to drive the process.  I hope you share in my enthusiasm.