Share your stories!

Without a class this semester I find myself looking for topics for this blog. But then yesterday something came to me that I would like to share. As we all know the Globaloria program is an incredible opportunity for our students and a remarkable chance for us as educators to be on the cutting edge of 21st century educational development. So, you and your students know how great Globaloria is. All of us involved in the program know. But who else does? Certainly administrators and others that receive the quarterly newsletter and Dr. Capperton's news releases. But what about the parents of your students,  or the local community?
What I am getting at is that each of us should be sharing our programs within our communities. How, you ask? Why not contact your local newspaper and let them know about your programs, or write your own news release, add some images, and submit it yourself to the paper. Are there any radio or television programs that highlight community events? Contact the stations, ask around and find where you can get some air time. Volunteer to give a presentation to a local civic group like Rotary or Lions Club.
Let the big, wide world outside of your classroom know that you exist. Share those amazing stories about your students and the program. Go forth and publicize!

New Beginnings!

Hard to believe that the fall semester is getting underway. Seems like yesterday is was May and we were doing game demo presentations. Ah well, time marches on.
We will not be having a game design class at WVNCC this fall, but rather will be doing one in the spring semester. I will certainly miss the Globaloria classroom for the next few months, but I will have the pleasure of working with three local (relatively speaking of course) schools and their classes: Weir High School, Cameron High School, and the Middle College on the Wheeling campus of West Virginia Northern Community College. All are off to a great start! You can check them out at the links above.
To everyone - best wishes for a great and productive semester!

Calculus, who needs it?

Here is a mathematician with a different concept on how we should teach math.

Memories are made of this . . . Beatlemania!

An interesting question was posed as our first blogging assignment of this Globaloria academy - who is my favorite Beatle? This one certainly brings back some memories. I can still, perhaps somewhat vaguely, remember sitting with my parents and sister in front of our small black & white TV on that Sunday night in Feb 1964 (I was of course just a little tyke) when the Beatles made their U.S. debut on the Ed Sullivan show:



What's the significance of the Beatles? In 1994 Dan Rather of CBS did a news story on the 30th anniversary of that first appearance:



Let me leave you with some Beatles' trivia:

• There were originally five members of the Beatles and included Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums). Stuart and Pete would leave the group and be replaced by Ringo Starr (Paul would play bass).
• Their original name was the 'Quarrymen'
• In 1962 Decca records rejected the Beatles by explaining "guitar groups are on the way out"
• The audience for their initial Ed Sullivan performance was 74 million, which represented 40% of the U.S. population at the time.
• They are the most popular and best selling musical group, ever.
• They stopped touring in 1966 and did only studio albums until their breakup in 1970.

My favorite? Not possible. They were the Beatles, a group of four that was one for a brief, magical moment.

As the song says " I believe in yesterday"

We begin again . . . yea!!!

It's great to be here at the summer academy that marks the beginnings of a new Globaloria year! Lots of familiar faces, but even more new ones. Looking forward to a great year, which is certainly getting off to a great start!!

The End . . . maybe not!

We had our game demos on Friday (5/14) morning. In attendance were David Lowenstein of Globaloria, Bill Jones the Wetzel County Schools Superintendent, Debbie Bennett and Bob Gibb of our New Martinsville Campus. It seems like we had just begun the semester and then here we are at the finish. Wow!
But, it may not be the end. Several students want to continue to work on games over the summer and asked if they would be able to use the Globaloria HelpDesk. The answer was, of course, yes. One of the students has suggested a Game/Flash club to keep everyone's skills current while waiting for Game Design II, next spring.
It was really great to see all the enthusiasm from the students. Their presentations certainly impressed those in attendance. I must admit that even though I have been working with them all semester, a couple of the presentations really surprised me with what they had accomplished.
So, congratulations to all for a great semester!

The Journey to Our Destination, Almost There!

Our destination, game presentations, is within sight. This begins our final week and teams are working hard to get as much done as they can. Each will be sitting down with me to review and see exactly where they are, how their presentations are coming along, and what final problems or challenges they need help with.
It is truly amazing to me that we are near the end when it seems we've only just begun. It's been a great class and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching as everyone progressed from not knowing a blog from a wiki to creating games and documenting and sharing their trials and tribulations through their now familiar blogs and wikis.
Congratulations to all and let the game demos begin (on Friday)!

Let the Games Begin!!!

It was almost like you could hear the Olympic anthem in the background as the ever increasing sound of keystrokes filled the room. Yes, the games have begun! Everyone is off and rolling on their game building while watching tutorials, searching for answers on the web, and working together to solve their Flash coding challenges. A lot remains to be done, but their is genuine enthusiasm and excitement about all this new 'stuff' we are doing. Stay tuned for more from the olympics of Globaloria at WVNCC!