Game Design Exploration - Part 3 - Testing the Games

This is the third part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

_________________

The importance of playtesting and revision - the iterative process in game design

This testing and revision stage of the game design process is essential. It can be fun and rewarding or sometimes very frustrating! It's often the heart of the creation process and it will probably take more time than all other parts combined.

Being so important, students need to see it. With limited class time, though, it is likely you will use it in this activity only provide some exposure to the concepts and a chance to have fun with the designs. Tell students it is important when making any type of game, but remind them to really test and improve their game they'd need to work on it a lot outside of class.

Keeping that in mind, tweak the following outline and resources to fit your needs.

Is everyone ready to proceed?

If a class is working through this design activity, at this point each group of students should have redesigned the simple Roll-n-Flip game. At the very least they should have done the following. (All of this is explained in the second post in this series.)

• Chosen a theme for their game based on the topic studied in class
• Created a title for their game
• Written a short introduction about the game
• Redesigned the 11 cards and changed them on the template found in Part 2 of this series

Optionally, the groups might have designed additional rules and components for their game.

Make the games.

When all the parts above are complete, groups should print and cut out any cards or components they need to play their games. It's best to print the cards on cardstock or at least the thickest paper possible.

Each group also needs at least one die. They need tokens for a pawn and chips too, but a template in Part 2 provided components they could cut from paper if those tokens were not available. 

If the groups added rules for additional cards or components, all of those pieces need to be printed and cut out or gathered as well.

Depending on how much time you want the class to devote to this playtesting experience, groups could make two or more copies of their game so multiple groups could play them at once.

Groups test their own games

Game designers often play their own games first, just to see if the creations even work at all. At this stage, each group should play their game at least once.

After playing, students should discuss these questions:

• Did the game work as we intended?
• Did we find anything (good or bad) that we didn't expect?
• How much do we think other groups will enjoy our game?
• What changes could we make to improve the game?

Depending on how much time you have for this design exploration, students could rework their cards. Simple changes might be handwritten right on the cards. Significant changes might require students to actually alter the cards in the original Google Drawings they made in Part 2 of this activity.Of course, that would require them to print and cut out more components.

If time doesn't allow a students to make all the changes they want to, remind them that they can improve the game as much as they want on their own.

Groups test a game designed by another group

For this part of the activity, each group will play at least one other group's game. Ideally this will be "blind playtesting", meaning the groups will play the games without additional assistance from the game designers.

The game components should already be created by now. Game introductions and possibly new rules need to be printed (or shared through Google Drive) so groups have everything they need to learn and play the games.

Along with these materials, give each group a copy of this Game Playtesting Sheet. It provides questions for before and after playing the game. 

Additional considerations

• Give the groups time in class to read and discuss the Game Playtesting Sheets that test groups filled out for their game.
• Groups could test games from more than one group if possible.
• Students could take their games home and have other people play them to get more opinions.
• Have a class discussion (possibly virtually) at the end of this stage so you and the students can look for patterns on what worked best in the games.
• It would be ideal to get test groups from a class that did not go through the design process themselves. In other words, they would likely be unfamiliar even with Roll-n-Flip, so the whole experience would be new to them. This requires the designers to put a lot more work into their rules.

In the next post (and final stage of the activity) students will reflect on their game designs and the design process.

Classroom Game Design Exploration - Part 2

Recent Update:  There's now a link at the end of the post to some sample student games and tips I learned from playing with them.

This is the second part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

__________

Photo by Mark Strozler

Considering Theme in Game Design

For students to understand this part of the game design exploration, they need to think about the concept of theme. If working with an entire class, you could lead a discussion using these ideas here. Students could provide other examples from game they are familiar with. 

The basic game of Roll-n-Flip (which you should have played in part 1 of this series) has no theme. It's not about anything other than getting chips.

Many other very popular games do not have a theme. Think of Checkers or many card games like Bridge or Hearts. Players are just playing with the components within the game's rules, hoping to win. We sometimes call these abstract games.

Photo by Jon Ross

But in other games like Monopoly or Risk have a theme. It's like a story, in a way. More or less, players are pretending to be doing something other than playing with cards and plastic. The themes are selling property and fighting battles to take over the world. In games with strong themes, the card text and the artwork all serve to remind players of that theme.

It's also important to notice that the rules also should support the theme. The rules of Monopoly are not exactly like buying and selling property in real life, but there are obvious similarities. For example, when you put some new buildings on a property it increases in value. In Risk, a bigger army has a better chance of taking over a smaller army. We expect the rules to support the theme.

For this stage of the game design project, students will design the cards of Roll-n-Flip so it has a theme.

Examples of Themes for the Roll-n-Flip Game

I have already created two other games based on the Roll-n-Flip game. Those games have themes and they are: 

• The Game of Christmas Cheer
• All Around Mackinac Island

The themes of those games are apparent from their titles, their boxes and the text on all of the cards. As you might guess, the first one is about Christmas. The second is based on a popular tourist spot in my home state of Michigan.

To make sure players remember the theme on every roll of the die, we don't refer to the chips as "chips". In the Christmas game, they are called "cheer" and we call them "fun" in our Mackinac game. 

Likewise, the cards don't have generic names like the ones I used in Roll-n-Flip. Instead, the Christmas game has "Stressed Out" in place of the Mix-Up card. The graphic on that one shows a person who obviously is overwhelmed with the holidays.

In the Mackinac game, I made that card "Tourist Rush", since a busy day on the island can be a hectic experience.

Really good things also are found in the cards' names. One card is "The True Meaning of Christmas", for example, and it can bring in a lot of chips (cheer) for a player. And in my other game, the best card is Fudge. That's because everyone who visits Mackinac Island knows about the popular fudge shops.

__________________________

Adding a Theme to Roll-n-Flip

After discussing themes in games and looking at the examples above, it's time for students to add a theme to Roll-n-Flip. The theme will be based on the lesson topic they've studied in class. 

The special Game Design Planning Sheet linked below will guide them through the process. Here are some things to keep in mind before assigning the planning sheet:

• The students will choose a theme that's related to your topic. The lesson might be about a book they just read, like The Outsiders, or maybe it will be about a historical event like the U.S. Civil War. While they could use those entire topics as the theme, they also could choose a specific part of those topics. For example, they might focus on a climatic scene of the book or a particularly interesting battle of the war.
• The planning sheet will require them to name each card as something from their theme and to rename the chips. 
• The document has a link to the components for Roll-n-Flip in a Google Drawing. If students click it, they will get a copy of that Drawing. They can type their changes onto the cards and print a copy of the game.
• There are optional ideas listed on the second page of the planning sheet for a more advanced re-design of the Roll-n-Flip game. Use them as appropriate for the age of your students and the needs of this project.

Click here to access the Game Design Planning Sheet.

And click here to see my post that includes some samples from games the students made.

Simple Game for the Classroom and Explorations in Game Design

This is the first part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

____________

How to Play Roll-n-Flip

This is a simple game of chance and pressing your luck. Played with these simple rules, it could entertain students in ages 8 - 12. Remember that the goal of the project is to entertain your students, but to redesign this game. Older students would play it so they can fully understand the basic game first. They'll see it can easily be modified to be more enjoyable by older players.

This video (just under three minutes) is probably the best way to see how the game works. 

After watching the video, read the full rules.

In order to play, you will need these components for each set (which works for 2 - 5 players):

• This Google Drawing contains the cards for the game. Ideally you'd print this on card stock, but paper will work if necessary. Cut those 11 cards out.
• 10 chips per player - These can be poker chips, bingo chips, plastic coins or any small tokens.
• 1 Six-sided die
• 1 Pawn - This can be any small piece as long as players won't confuse it with their chips.

If you can't find chips and a pawn, this Google Drawing has some squares you can cut out for these purposes. (Ignore the additional cards on that template for now.)

Coming soon: Tips for redesigning the game for use in many subjects

Simple Video Presentations with Google Slides and SnagIt

Update 12/2016: Since TechSmith stopped supporting SnagIt, I now use Screencatify to do the same thing. A more recent post about this is here.

One of my most popular posts has been this process of making a digital slideshow using Google Slides and WeVideo. It's my preferred method, since it works on any computer or Chromebook and it's a good introduction to video editing. The only downside is the tech can take more than its share of the time from the lesson.

Here's another method that can be done much more quickly. It is an informal recording, with no opportunity to edit. So what it saves it time, it may lack in polish. It's a great next step from traditional slideshow presentations, though.

First, this is an example I made to show what the finished product might look like. Notice that the recording will capture the act of starting and stopping the presentation.


And this next video is a tutorial of the process. It really just involves just three steps:

• Create the slideshow with Google Slides (or any other tool you prefer on a laptop or Chromebook).
• Practice what you'll say and when you'll advance each slide.
• Record it with the SnagIt Chrome extension.

I worked out this process with another teacher at my school about a year ago for math tutorials. Then last summer I found this great overview of the process from Jonathan Brubaker on the FreeTech4Teachers blog. See his guest post for other details and options. He also includes some good examples from students.

How to Create an Audio Recording on a Chromebook Using Twisted Wave

I created this short tutorial to show students how to record "podcasts" on a Chromebook. We used Twisted Wave to record, edit and save their audio skits as mp3 files. Twisted Wave can be installed on the Chromebooks as an app or the students can just go to TwistedWave.com.

If the students have Google Apps for Education accounts, it makes it very easy to sign in and save their files to Google Drive. From there it can be shared with others or turned in through Google Classroom.

I was very impressed with the ease of this process. Students who wrote and practiced their scripts ahead of time finished their short recordings in about 10 minutes. Those who remembered doing similar projects with Audacity in the past agreed this was much simpler. (Though Audacity is an excellent tool for multi-track projects.)

We did run into a few bumps using the process outlined below.

• It seemed to freeze more often if students opened the recorder in full screen. I suggest keeping it in a smaller window as shown in the tutorial.
• When the recorder did freeze, closing and reloading seemed to solve the problem. No one reported that their file was lost. It autosaves frequently.
• Sometimes it wouldn't properly load the window asking for permission to access the microphone on the Chromebook. This stumped me and some students at first, but eventually the recording window would show up with a small icon in the upper right. By clicking that, I was able to grant access and complete the activity.

Six-Word Memoir Photos on a Chromebook

A popular assignment in our English 11 class is the Six-Word Memoir Photo project. In it, students take a picture of themselves, add six words to it that describe them, then the teacher compiles all the photos into a video slideshow.

This year I made a short tutorial that shows how students can complete the entire process on a Chromebook using Pixlr Express. Pixlr Express is my favorite app for editing photos because it works on so many devices. As I say in the video, the process is very similar if using phones or tablets as long as students download the Pixlr Express and Google Classroom mobile apps.



Here's a link to the document that we attached to the assignment in Classroom. It has the links I refer to in the video.

This project is a perfect example of how simple tools let the good ideas, personality and creativity shine through. You don't have to lose a class period dealing with the how-to of the process and students love expressing themselves in this way.

_________________________

I'm doing a challenge this month to post on one of my blogs every day. It's in preparation for my conference session, The Way of the Google Drive. Be sure to follow me on Twitter or on either blog to keep up with the "thoughts and tools to inspire". 

Click here to see all the posts from my Teaching Like an Artist blog with the tag The Way of the Google Drive.

10 Ways Students Can Show Off Their Learning Beyond the Classroom...and PowerPoint is not one of them

Using The Cube to broadcast Geometry presentations

Two newer posts that provide updates to the items below:

• Tech Project Packs - Save time with these compiled resources for tech projects
• Adobe Spark for Narrated Slideshows and Digital Stories

This year my mantra is going to be Show off the learning!

When teachers and students show off the best things they learned, perceptions change and the culture changes. I want to make sure my district is known as a place where important learning happens every day.

I'm a big fan of that final essential stage of project-based learning: Put the final product in front of a larger audience. 

A lot of teachers in my district like hands-on, physical projects and they've struggled ideas for making them public. (How many art exhibits and science fairs can you do a year?) 

I compiled this list so now they have options for even those paintings done with real paint and the science experiment made of food.

Because I made this for the teachers I work with, please keep in mind:

• It is a tool for awareness, not a how-to guide. Teachers in my district would contact me for more help. I included examples and some links to tutorials or tips below, but all the tools will require further exploration beyond this post.
• Most classrooms in my district use laptops or Chromebooks. I didn't include options for tablets with most of the ideas.

I've listed these options roughly in order of how much tech is involved on the part of the students.

1) Live broadcasts of student presentations - Use The Cube. 

• You can broadcast to the internet easily with an iPhone or iPad. 
• Someone from your school will have to sign up and create an admin account at the site.
• Share the link to your broadcast with parents or to the community beforehand so anyone can watch live. 
• The recording can be left online, so people can watch it later if you want.
• When using live video, be sure you have parent permission to post online and remember not to identify students by first and last name.

2) Websites and Blogs - A simple site or blog (created by you or the students themselves) is the starting point for sharing all the other types of project presentations listed below.

• Any final product, even if it’s has no tech involved, can be posted online by way of pictures and text. 
• For websites, Google Sites is a good, simple option. I made this tutorial for my district for making a website with Google Sites.
• For blogs, use Blogger. Here’s a tutorial I made for creating a new one.

3) A PDF ebook - Within seconds anything students make in Google Docs or Slides can be turned into a PDF. From there it can be posted on any blog or website so anyone can open or download it like an ebook.

• With the file open, go to the File menu and select the option to Download as PDF.
• Once the PDF is downloaded, upload it to Drive again and share it as needed.

4) InfoPics - If he didn’t invent this simple concept, Tony Vincent is the one who named it and he sings its praises. This really is just a process of adding notes or other text to pictures that are related to a topic. 

• Here's Tony’s blog post about it (with examples).
• It would be very easy for students to make these and share the images on a website or blog.The pictures could also be shared by a teacher or a parent on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or any other social network.
• The device you like to use will dictate the tools, but I’d suggest Google Drawings for computers or Chromebooks. Pixlr.com is a good tool on many devices if you want to add more effects to your pictures.

5) Infographics - Students can create infographic images to show facts in a concise, visually appealing way.

• Finished graphics can be posted on social media or websites and blogs.
• Piktochart is a great tool for this.
• Users can log in on Piktochart with their Google accounts.
• Here’s a good article from Matt Smith with ideas for Piktochart in many subjects.

6) Audio Recordings (podcasts) - Students can create audio recordings and share them online in a variety of ways. These can be completed much faster than a video project. Here are a few details.

• Here’s a simple example of an interview between two students.
• On a PC with a microphone (or a laptop) Audacity is the program to use for recording.
• On a Chromebook you can try SoundCloud for recording (if editing isn’t necessary) or SoundTrap. Both work with Google accounts.
• Finished mp3 or wav files can be uploaded to SoundCloud so people can listen to them and even add comments.

7) Virtual books on Flipsnack - This site is a great tool that turns any PDF into a fun virtual book. 

• Important Note: I found out if students sign in using a Google Apps for Education account it uses the first and last name in the URLs. This is not a good practice. Be sure students go to their account page at Flipsnack to change their username when they first log in. It only takes a minute.
• I usually create the PDF in Google Slides or Google Docs first, then upload to Flipsnack.
• Here’s an example I use for a comic assignment.
• Users can sign into Flipsnack with their Google accounts.
• Free Flipsnack accounts are limited to three virtual books at a time.

8) Screen Recordings - Think of these as somewhat informal recordings of something the students show on the screen. 

• These are great for tutorials or presentations.
• Here’s an example from a teacher who has his students use this method a lot.
• They’re informal because editing is usually not part of the process. Students need to practice before recording!
• On a computer with a mic, use Screencast-o-Matic.
• On a Chromebook you can use the SnagIt app.
• Final results can be uploaded to Google Drive or YouTube for sharing as necessary.

9) Digital slideshows - These are a series of pictures combined into a video by using an editing program.

• These are a step up from screen recordings because you can (and should) edit them.
• Students can add audio. It might be just background music or they can narrate the slideshow.
• With narration, these become presentations that present themselves.
• They make a good introduction to video production, but don’t require as much time.
• I present on a method for making these with any laptop or Chromebook. Here is the resource site include my examples and the process using Google Slides and WeVideo.

10) Videos - Producing a good video is the pinnacle of technology integration in most classes.

• Good videos require several technology skills and a deep understanding of class content. 
• There is a huge range of possibilities for complexity. Don’t just tell students they can “make a video”! Know the options and set guidelines that are appropriate for your students.
• Here are my tips for teachers and students for any video project.

Reminding Students that Dreams Matter

I had a great opportunity to help with some music projects in a lower elementary Music class the past six weeks. We wrapped things up with a music video project about dreams.

I talked to the class briefly about why dreams matter to me. I told them how I had two big dreams as a teenager. I wanted to have a band and I wanted to make movies.

Both dreams came true, sort of. They didn't reach the scale I had envisioned some 30 years ago, but I do get to play music with my kids in church every week in our worship band and I get to make videos with students on my job.

So dreams definitely matter! I assured them their dreams might look different as they grow older, but the dreams in their mind now are there for a reason.

For the project the teacher and I had the students draw pictures of their dreams. I asked my daughter (16 years old) to write a simple chorus about dreams for the young students. I took her lyrics, fleshed out a couple lines and added the music.

We taught the song to the students and recorded them singing. I used GarageBand to add the rest of the arrangement and I edited everything together with Corel VideoStudio.

If you want to use the song, here are the notes and chords.

Here is the full video we finished with one class. I worked with them for three class periods and spent a good amount of time during the weekend putting this together.

How to use the Google Slides mobile app to make comics from real life photos

A lot of teachers have been using my process for creating comics with Google tools. I was thrilled to find it can now be easily done using the Slides mobile app! The best part of this is now you can bring in the real world pictures very easily.

If you haven't seen the general process and possible final products, you can read all about it on this page from my Education On Air presentation from a few weeks ago.

That process starts on a Chromebook or a computer and it uses either Google Drawings or Slides.

Now you can start in the Slides mobile app. I did this on an iPad, but the Android app will be similar.

First, start a new Slides presentation.

On a blank slide, click the + sign and select Image.

Choose to get the image From Photos or From Camera. Notice that if you use the camera, this is an amazingly simple way to immediately bring the real world into your creations!

Crop, resize and move the image as necessary.

To add comic elements, click the + again and select Shape this time.

Select Callouts and scroll down to the three comic elements. Choose the one you want.

From there, it's just a matter of placing the thought or word bubble, dragging the point to the character who is speaking or thinking and then entering the text. Here's my sample taken from a game I was playing with my son.

A few things to consider:

• While the tools are easy to use on the app, you might prefer to just use the app to bring the pictures into the Slides presentation. Then you (and any collaborators) can open that presentation on a Chromebook or computer for easy editing. 
• See my two-minute tutorial on creating the comics using a computer. The first steps are now replaced by the import process above, but the rest of the video shows the details of adding and editing the comic elements.
• You can change the background color of the slides by editing the presentation on a computer or Chromebook at any time.
• See the Projects page of my website for possible end products we make such as PDFs, virtual books or videos.

How to Create a Narrated Slideshow on a Chromebook Using Google Slides and WeVideo

I've had a few teachers ask for a project somewhere between a PowerPoint presentation and a full blown video project. I have been suggesting what I call a narrated slideshow and I made a tutorial to show them how to do it on a Chromebook.

This process uses Google Slides and WeVideo. I really like how the whole thing can be done on one device.

I recently updated the final video below to include:

• Correct terminology for the final step in WeVideo.
• Steps showing how to turn it in through Google Classroom.

Some of these steps are specific to the Chromebook, but the great thing about these tools is that you can use them on any computer as long as you have a microphone.

First, here's an example of what I mean by a narrated slideshow:


In part 1 I show a brief overview of creating the presentation and how to download the slides as image files.



In the second stage I show how to import the images into WeVideo and how to build the video presentation. (WeVideo was recently updated, so some screens won't be identical to what you see in this video.)



In Part 3 I explain how to record your narration. (WeVideo was recently updated. It looks like they fixed the problem I refer to in the video about showing the preview while recording.)


In this final step I show how to finalize the project as a video saved in WeVideo and Google Drive. I also show how to turn it in through Classroom.

Note: Be aware that the free version of WeVideo is limited to how many minutes of video you can export each month. If the students keep these under five minutes there shouldn't be a problem, but they need to be sure their work is as good as possible before exporting. Multiple exports of even short videos could end up exceeding the limit on free accounts.


Note about first four videos above:
The first four videos were recorded on a Chromebook. I normally make my video lessons on a PC with Camtasia. Here I used the SnagIt Chrome app and extension. I edited in WeVideo (using some premium features as part of a free month trial). I am happy with the results using the free tools, but they are not as polished as other tutorials I have created.

Reflection assignments from the Mini-Documentary Project

A few weeks ago I posted resources from our mini-documentary project from our high school Communications and the Media class. As we were finishing the project, I realized the students needed time to reflect on all the learning that had taken place. I created these two assignments for this purpose.

This first short assignment was given when they collected most of the content for their videos, but before they finished editing.
Reflection Assignment 1

When the videos were completely finished, we gave students this longer reflection.
Reflection Assignment 2

Live High School Video Announcements

I've been working with our Communications and the Media class at our high school to produce live video announcements. We're only doing two a week right now, but we're working up to daily announcements. I love doing the announcements for so many reasons. Most importantly:

• Anyone can find a place to use their talents.
• Learning is happening on so many levels--technology, communication and collaboration skills especially. (Our studio was funded with career education funds.)
• The announcements are a great way to highlight what's working in your school.

Ever since video equipment became cheap enough for home use in the late 1980's, I've been playing around with it. This studio was my first step into professional level equipment, though, so it took me a long time to get it set up. I'm not an expert, but if you have any questions about how we do our productions, I'll be glad to go into more detail. Here are some basics.

We write our script in Google Docs and share it with all involved. When lines are sometimes changing moments before going live, it's the only way to keep the whole crew on track.

We use High School Cube to share our production with the classrooms, and really to the whole world if anyone else cares to watch. It's amazingly easy to do a live stream there using just an iPad with a WiFi connection. We've used that method, but normally we work from our studio. It took a lot of time to get that process up and running. Now that we've got a routine, though, it's proven to be very reliable. And did I mention it's free?

To get our stream to High School Cube, we use Open Broadcast Software (also free!). I learned about the software on the High School Cube site, but there were not specific directions for setting it up. It took a lot of experimenting, watching tutorials and guessing, but it's been working well for us

Our studio itself is a relatively low budget setup. (I was impressed with it, but when I told one retailer what I had to work with, he said we were really on the low end!) We have:

• Two HP computers with a lot of RAM.
• Two Panasonic AG-HPX 170 video cameras
• A Datavideo SE-2000 switcher
• CG-350 character generator software from Datavideo
• A couple Blackmagic video cards
• Corel VideoStudio 7x Pro video editing software
• Various mics, lights, cables, etc.

I'm actually not thrilled with the Datavideo switcher and character generator software. It does the job, but I had a hard time adjusting to both components and many times I feel they hold our creativity back. They were suggested to us based on our budget, so we do the best we can with them.

To show some of the work that goes on behind the scenes, I put together the following video to play on our announcements this past week. The narration was recorded on an iMac with GarageBand. The pictures and video were taken on my iPad and edited with iMovie on my iPad.

Mini-Documentary Project for High School

The past week I've been working with Melinda Newcombe, an ELA teacher at our high school. She teaches the Communications and the Media class and we decided this year to do a mini-documentary project.

Eventually students will be making short documentaries or informative videos about something in our school. More than just retelling facts, we are requiring them to tell it through a story or at least to include a story in the video.

We hope this generates a few segments we can use in our regular video announcements. I helped kick things off with a few thoughts and examples in a presentation. I also created some worksheets to aid students in planning. We are still working through the project, so I'll add notes, examples and other resources as they come.

Resources we used are below, but I want to point out first what a huge help the Stillmotion videos on storytelling have been. I used them last year in a similar unit I posted about. I refined that lesson and have used the Stillmotion videos slightly differently, but their information was foundational in our approach.

This is the presentation I used as an introduction. It mostly served to show a few clips of informative videos in different styles. The first is a video I created for our district several years ago when I was completing my master's degree. It was good for catching our students' attention with scenes familiar to most of them. The other videos are more well known, but in all cases I'm sure you could find any number of excellent clips online that will suit your needs.

Note that we are encouraging students to find a story, not just to retell some information. The description of a story (a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it) comes from Donald Miller's books A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and Storyline. I wrote about those ideas at length here.

Students formed groups of three or four and they used this worksheet to review the ideas and plan their videos.
     Documentary Worksheet 1

Then we showed this second video from Stillmotion. I love how the use of keywords can sharpen the focus. This worksheet followed.
     Documentary Worksheet 2

I also created this short video as an example. I was pressed for time last week, so it's rough. That's fine because it gave us something to evaluate. Most importantly, it shows realistically what we can accomplish with technology available to our students.

We will be using this planning worksheet in the upcoming week. 

     Documentary Planning Sheet

Note that this refers to some different options for technology, such as Movie Maker or iMovie on an iPad. We have some laptops available for students, but some prefer to use their own devices. This requires us to keep an open-ended approach to the technology. This, along with the infinite options for documentary topics, is a stretch for both of us teachers involved!

As I said, more details, examples and resources will come as we finish up this fun unit.

Tips for Classroom Video Projects

This is an updated list from a popular post I wrote last year. It's my attempt to compile the tips I find myself repeating to teachers and students whenever I help with classroom video projects.

I have enjoyed making movies and videos all my life and certainly one of the most rewarding parts of my job is getting to share the experience with students who are new to the process. Videos are a great way to showcase learning and I've been having a blast this year as many more teachers in my district are assigning video projects. I updated my previous list and regularly send this to teachers before we work together.

I'll probably keep adding to and refining this over time. If you have any comments or other suggestions, please share them.

If it would be helpful to have this as a single document, I have a Google Docs version here.

For Teachers

Set expectations at the start for requirements and the project timeline. I suggest a one page assignment sheet that answers these questions:

• What course content is required in the video?
• How much creative freedom will students have? For example, can they be serious or silly? Possibly list options for types of videos, such as skits, documentary style, newsroom style, etc.
• How long do you want the videos to be?
• When will each phase of the video (planning, recording and editing) be due?
• Where will these be recorded?
• How will it be graded? If you have a rubric, include it, or at least the criteria, on this sheet.
• What will they have to turn in (if anything) at each phase and how will they submit it?

Keep realistic, tight deadlines. Set the time you want students to use for planning, recording and editing and stick to it no matter what. Many students will take far longer if they are allowed to. Let them know they must work outside of class if it’s going to take longer.

Share the work when students are done. Share the best videos as much as possible. Post them to your own blog or website and any school public pages, etc. Of course, be sure you have permission to share images and video of the students before you post anything publicly.

Read over the list of student tips below and be sure students are aware of the ones you consider important for the current project.

For Students

Be realistic when planning. Unless you’ve created videos before, don’t plan special effects or anything that will require advanced editing.

Use one camera if at all possible. Using multiple cameras makes it harder to get all your videos in one place and file compatibility can be more of an issue. Even better, if you use an iPhone, iPod or iPad, edit right on the device with iMovie. **Note: Record photos and video to the Camera Roll, directly into the iMovie app.

Don’t plan to use music you can’t easily access and legally download at school. Part of any tech project is to learn the rules of copyright and fair use. It is not legal to use someone else’s song in your videos unless they have given permission. Here’s my favorite site for downloading free music. The composer gives permission for any use as long as you credit him in the video as he explains on his site.      
                           http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

When it’s time to edit, bring any USB cables that work with your camera so it’s easy to transfer files. When all else fails, it’s possible to upload your videos to Google Drive, then download them to the computer you are using for editing. This will take awhile if you have long videos, though, so cables are best.

Plan in detail. It's more fun to start recording, but poor planning will result in either lots of frustrating editing or a poor final video. Good planning includes a detailed script for all dialogue or narration and a storyboard showing the basic camera views for each shot.

Make sure you are recording files you can edit later. This means you have to record with a camera, phone or other device that creates a file format compatible with your editing software. I recommend doing a quick test with your equipment first. Record a short clip and try to edit it with your editing software.

Hold your camera, phone or device in the landscape position. Not only is this a pet peeve of mine, if you get this wrong it immediately makes your video look amateur. Shoot with YouTube and the big screen in mind so your possibilities are not limited. The graphic below is one I made based on one I found from another teacher on Twitter. I don't know if this site is the original source of the image, but I found it here.

Think about what the viewer is seeing and break up the scene accordingly. Does it make sense to stand back with the camera and just record the whole scene as if it were a skit? Or would different camera angles throughout make it more interesting? Would close-ups of certain action help tell a better story? Is there anything in the background that will distract the viewer from what is most important?

Listen before recording. Is there background noise or bad acoustics that echo when actors talk or make other sounds? Choose a quiet location.

Listen carefully when you are recording too. Be aware that a distracting noise (squeaky chairs, doors closing, etc.) while someone is saying a line can't be removed later. We often block these things out easily when listening to someone in real life, but when watching a video they are impossible to ignore.

Speak clearly when being recorded. Probably everyone involved in the video knows the script and knows what is being said, so everyone understands the lines. The viewers don't have that advantage. Pay attention to how fast you talk, how loud it is and whether or not the words are distinct.

Record too much rather than not enough. Start recording several seconds before action will start. If someone will say, "Action," or otherwise alert everyone to start, be sure they wait at least a second after the camera has started before they cue the actors. It is so easy to trim a few seconds off the start or end of a clip in editing. Compare that to the case when the camera person turns off the camera immediately after the last line or the actors start talking as soon as the camera starts. Those make for bad edits later.

If you have the time, get two good takes of each shot. You can overdo this, but generally if everyone finally gets a good performance once, the next one will be even better. During editing it can help a lot to have a couple choices for the take that will end up in the final video..

When acting a scene, don't look at the camera or the people behind the camera. It is very common for actors to look to the person working the camera as if to say, "Did we get it right?" Those looks can ruin an otherwise great take and sometimes you won't notice them until editing later.

To sum it up, remember you will have a much better final video if you…

• Plan carefully.
• Pay attention when recording.
• Always consider what the viewer will see and hear.

Three Simple Tutorials for Creative Project Based Learning

I'm preparing for a P^3BL session I'll lead this weekend and all that work is filtering into my Teaching Like an Artist blog. I didn't realize I hadn't updated this one in over two weeks!

Here are three tutorials for short digital projects that are worth pointing out:
Narrated Image Slideshows using Pixlr and Videolicious on iPad - These make great ways to present spoken poems or short stories.
Narrated Image Slideshows using iMovie and GarageBand for iPad - This is another method for creating slideshows. By using Garageband for the narration it also allows the opportunity to make up simple music too.
Quick Songwriting with UJam - I have created other tutorials for UJam on this blog, but this one shows the simplest way to turn a short tune into an mp3 of a fully arranged song.

Perimeter and Area Song - Teacher sample for math music video project

Here is the current version of The Perimeter and Area Song that Crystal Owen and I created as a sample.  We will show this to students next week, then begin working on their original songs and videos.

Our project is funded by a grant from MACUL and you can read about the process and other examples on my Music Creation in the Classroom page.

 

Website Design Lessons for High School Digital Media Class

We started some basic website design lessons this week in Digital Media class at the high school.  We use free accounts at Weebly.

These lessons get the students thinking about the area of interest that they will focus on for the site.  They will get a chance to write some initial content, but the idea is we will continue to develop the sites as a place to show finished products as the semester continues.

The first three assignments are:

• Creating graphics for the site - We use GIMP.
• Writing the initial content
• Setting up the three main pages of the site in Weebly

If you're interested in modifying those documents, let me know and I can share them with you in Google Docs format.

Student examples will be posted in the weeks ahead.

Videolicious Updated App - Great features for the classroom

I wrote earlier in the year about the Videolicious app.  Even though it was limited in some ways, I loved how it could be used for a quick news story.  They updated it this month and now I absolutely love it.  It could be a wonderful tool for digital storytelling and I can't believe it's still free.  It's for the iPhone, but it works great on the iPad 2 that I use.

A sample video is below, but here are the good points...

New features:

• You can control the timing of the images while you narrate!  Lack of control on timing was the biggest drawback to the original version.  (Now the only potential problem is you can't control panning of the pictures.)
• It adds some filters.  I haven't tried them all, but it's a nice touch.
• You can import a "story" rather than recording yourself at the moment.  This is a great addition as well.  It essentially lets you record a video, then overlay pictures or clips over it as you control the timing.
• You can also just skip this, which amounts to showing your pictures or clips with some background music.

As someone who has worked with home video equipment for over 25 years, I am amazed at how simply this app can turn out a polished video combining narration, music and images or clips.  It's actually for the iPhone, but it seems to work great on the iPad.  Check it out for any of these possible uses in the classroom:

• Commercials for your classroom projects or the start of the school year.
• Project highlights from students after they complete their work.
• News stories for video announcements.
• Any type of digital storytelling.

Here's a video I put together to show the basic features.  The app won't help with bad narration or a shaky hand while recording!  I tried to do this as quickly as possible to show how easily one can create a video.  It's an overview of my Pegged game, which you might also find useful for a lesson activity this school year.

Programming with Stencyl - How will it work in the classroom?

Update 2/2/2014:  I recently posted a review of a book that will be great resource for learning Stencyl:  Learning Stencyl 3.x Game Development. If you are considering using Stencyl in class or if you are just learning the program, I recommend the book.

Last year I tried to use Stencyl to program some Flash games for a graduate project.  It promised to be a flexible tool for making many types of games and several examples were offered that proved even teenagers could use it.  Like Scratch, App Inventor and GameMaker, it simplified the task of coding by using blocks that snap in place.

Unfortunately I was so confused by the application that I gave up.  I had some success with App Inventor prior to this, but Stencyl made no sense...until I came back to it this summer.

In version 2.0 they introduced Events as an element of programming.  Previously everything was done as Behaviors and I couldn't make those work.  This summer I gave it another try and the Events made sense to me.  I'm sure I'm programming very inefficiently at times, since I completely ignore Behaviors (which I guess are reusable sets of Events), but I am able to make games.  I'm happy.

I got lost for many enjoyable hours this summer while creating this Flash version of What's It to Ya?.  I felt like a kid exploring my old Commodore VIC20 thirty years ago.

But my own interests aside, the big question I need to answer is whether or not I would use this in the classroom.  I will be working with some digital media courses at the high school and middle school levels this year.  I know many of the students will want to make games.  Is Stencyl going to make that possible?

The short answer for me is not yet.  I simply have not figured out how to introduce students to complex programming tools like this.  In the past, when I taught very simple computer programming, I would provide some projects to get them started.  In this case, though, much of the learning would have to be done on their own.  After a few weeks of exploring they will be beyond my own skill level.  Knowing the students that we generally get in these classes, their desire to make video games will far exceed their logical reasoning and patience for learning about, building and debugging programs.  I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that many will not be disciplined enough to proceed on their own.

(As an example of complexity, the What's It to Ya? game I programmed was very simple in the fact that it had just a few Scenes and movable objects.  I didn't have to concern myself with things colliding or animated characters.  Still, figuring out how to calculate the scores for a round really taxed my brain.  I admit I'm out of practice on programming in general, but even once I figured out how I'd do it with other languages I had a very hard time putting it into Stencyl.  After a few frustrating hours I had to admit that I only know of two or three students I have taught in 18 years who would have worked that hard to learn something new.)

If a few students are capable and moving ahead in the class I would start with Gamestar Mechanic at the middle school level instead of Stencyl.

At the high school level...I'm still undecided.  Scratch seems like a good starting point for actual programming, but most examples I have seen make it look like it's aimed at a younger audience.  I need more experience with GameMaker to be able to help them or to decide if it clearly is easier to learn than Stencyl is.

A quick search for Stencyl in the classroom has turned up a few leads about how other teachers are putting it to use.  I also just came across CodeHS this morning, which calls for all students to learn programming.  Obviously teachers are accomplishing good things with tools like these, so I have some research to do.  I want to offer students the possibility of making games, but at this time I am far from being ready to offer this to all students in my computer classes.

If you have suggestions for where I can find more ideas to get started, I'll be glad to hear them.

Epic Mythology Videos - GoAnimate with high school students

Melinda Newcombe teaches Mythology at the high school in the district where I work.  She asked me a couple weeks ago if we could pilot GoAnimate4schools with her class.  It ended up being a great project, definitely one of the best of the school year.  I was extremely happy with the engagement that I saw from the students at this point in the school year.

Here's a video that sums it up.  I also have the resulting videos embedded below.  The folks at GoAnimate have asked me to write an article for their blog and you can find the post here.


The Myths...
Persephone


Odysseus and Polyphemus


Ceyx and Alycone


Pyramus and Thisbe


Achilles and Hector