Pen Tool

I used the pen tool this weekend to trace a map of West Virginia. I did not "totally" use it the way instructed but it worked better than the pencil. I tried both ways. It is the first thing in Flash that I have created using the pen tool. Yeah Me.
http://myglife.org/usa/wv/rtcwiki/index.php/User:Dstalnaker/Projects is a link to the image I created. I could not get the insert link to work but if you copy and paste you can go to the image.

Paper Prototype

My students have been working on and completing paper protyping. It is interesting to see their games come to life and you can tell they feel that excitement. Having students do the video to upload, I think, encouraged the students to put more thought into their games. If interested check out the User Gallery--team project pages on the RTC site. There should be a link for most of the videos now.

Starting Flash

Wow

We finally got Flash installed and my students have started drawing. What talent!! I am amazed at what they can do already. We have covered the drawing tools, layers, motion tweening, tracing bitmap, saving, and uploading to the wiki. I am so excited to see what they will do next.

Software

I am really excited because we got the new Adobe Web Premium package for Game Design and the other classes I teach. Problem is that installing takes a LONGGGGGGGGGG time. So far it is on 4 machines and going. After the training last night I am anxious for my students to actually take working in Flash. I have each student fill out a form with drawing, music, programing, basic computer operation and management. Beside each was rating from 1-5 and the students were to rate their skills with 1 being strong in that area and 5 weak. I looked at the rating sheets and put students in groups with a variety of strengths. The first thing I looked at was drawing and put each student who thought they were strong in drawing in separate groups then program/music etc.

I had each group select a name and create a profile for that group. They were to put a picture of the group on the page. I told them to take the chart and other information off the page and put just general information about the group. Under the projects page they were to brainstorm different game ideas in each of the areas. This worked well and it is one of my favorite things to listen to. They were discussing and reason yes or no or that is no appropriate for school. I basicly sat, pretended that I was doing something else, and listened. What fun!!!!

Week 2

Week 2 is going well. The students created their own blogs and were to place the link on their page. As a class we discussed the Participation Guidelines and the students did not want to make changes. We will be starting Learning Game Design today and I am sure they will enjoy the opportunity to play games. I have been observing the students and I am still trying to figure out how to group students. I think I am going to have the rate their skills for drawing, coding, managing, music, etc and use that to determine groups but I haven't decided for sure yet. Most of them want to pick their own groups but I really want to have groups who have a diverse set of skills. Any other ideas let me know.

Starting

So far game design has started out great. I have 20 first year students and 2 second/third year students. There are a variety of levels but they have completed the surveys, set up their email accounts, and are now working on their profile pages. Mac has a program called Photobooth and I had the students take a "normal" picture and a special effect to upload to their pages. They had a blast playing with the program. They also explored some of the games and are excited to try to make "better" games. Also the students enjoyed using the wiki as a teaching tool last year so I created wikis for my other classes. It has been a great way to start them because the students seem excited. They are also blogging. I am going to try as much as possible to have a paperless classroom. I hope everyone is have a great start.

August Training

Seeing the new wiki makes me START to get excited about school starting. I love the new changes. Since everthing is in place to start the new year I think my students will be better prepared then last year.