Adding Navigation

Yesterday my students started Adding Navigation. Some students were ready and some were not so I did small group demonstrations at my desk. I then had them work together to do a sample one with two buttons to practice. They then had to upload the practice to their project page. The most in any group was four. Some needed additional help as they worked on the practice. Josh thought it was pretty easy but a couple of other students are still confused. We are going to do some additional practice before moving on because there is confusion. Also some students did not finish their drawings so did not start Navigation. I think this will be the hardest part and once they understand this concept the sky is the limit.

Beginning Flash--Take 2

My students have started their first lessons in Flash. I had a good group last year but this year the art ability of my students is something else. I wish I could draw they way some of them do. One students even asked to bring in her drawing tablet from home because she was used to using it. I told her no problem and she has been using it. It also lets the other students see other items that are available that we do not have. Paper prototyping really helped them establish strong game ideas and I think the students are more focus and organized then they were last year. There are a few students that I am having trouble moviating to keep on task and that is the only problem for now.

Below are links to a copy of pieces of work--more are coming
Brandon
Jesse
Clarissa
Alex
Sharle

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.