Running a Game Design Virtual Club in Google Classroom

This week we started the virtual club
through Google Classroom!

I recently got the idea to run a virtual club at our middle school. I posted a survey on our website and let the students choose between three topics. Game design won out over a media production club and computer programming. We started the club this week.

Since most of my experience with game design has been with the non-digital variety, that has been our focus. The goal is to have them make a print-and-play game by the end of the school year.

I run the club through Google Classroom. In case anyone else would be interested in a similar venture, here is some of the content I have been sharing with the students.

I started out with my intro video below. As the it indicates, I think the first step in making games is to learn about as many games as possible. Normally we'd accomplish that by playing them together and discussing them.

Since we only meet online, I have been using videos from Tom Vasel's vast archive of game reviews to introduce them to new types of games. Tom does a great job of explaining the rules quickly and I very much appreciate that I can always trust his content to be appropriate for students.

Along with my video and Tom's reviews, I have posted some discussion questions in Classroom to get them thinking about what makes a good game. Soon I will get them started on generating ideas for their own games.

I also have contacted some game designer friends, all of whom have had more success than I have. I asked if they'd record a brief video answering questions that the students have. Some already got back with me, so I am excited to see how that works out. I know the students will appreciate their involvement.

Here's the intro video that I created. (As I mention in the video, it was early in the morning when I recorded it!) I'll also list the videos I posted to show the students new games.

Dice Tower Reviews from Tom Vasel that I have used so far:

• Worker placement games - Lords of Waterdeep
• Micro games - Love Letter
• Modern abstract strategy games - Yinsh
• Deck building games - Star Realms

Click here to see part 2 in the series. In that step I show students the importance of keeping a game design notebook.

Classroom Creativity Game - The Haiku Game

This post contains a link to the template you need to play this game, but you'll also want to see this post  which explains how to run these types of games with your class using Google Apps.

Many of my most popular posts on this blog are the creativity games and exercises I created and shared about four years ago. I am translating some of those into a Google Slides format, which I hope will allow more people to enjoy it.

When played as a classroom game, this game allows 3 - 5 creative students to compete to make the best haiku based on random words. The class participates by voting on their favorite. I've seen middle school and high school students have a lot of fun with these games.

I also will list a few suggestions at the end of this post about other ways to use the activity, possibly with less time or allowing more students to create the fun answers.

First, here's the flow of the game when used with the whole class.

1. Choose 3 to 5 students to be the contestants in the game. They should sit at the front of the room. They'll need either paper or a computer, depending on how you want them to share their riddle answers with you.
2. The teacher draws two random words.
3. The contestants get two minutes to write their best haiku that contains those two words. Each student shares his or her haiku with the teacher.
4. The teacher reads them and they are entered in the game slide so the students can see them.
5. The students in the class vote on the their favorite haiku (using a classroom response system or possibly Google Forms).
6. Points are awarded to the contestants based on the number of votes they received.
7. Steps 2 - 6 are repeated three or four times, then scores are totaled to determine a winner.

Here is the Google Slides presentation that you'll need to play this game or to do any of the activities listed below.

Click to have a copy of the Google Slides presentation added to your Google Drive. 

Video Overview

This 4 minute video shows how to play a similar game. It's about answering a riddle instead of making a haiku, but the way you carry it out in class is the same. (If you're interested, here's the post about that game.)

Tips and suggestions for other ways to use the activity

• Usually the students make funny poems, but you could require different criteria for the "best" poem.
• Have some things to show the rest of the class while the contestants write their poems. 
• It's easy to change some of the words that I have in the game, or you can just add a few. Pick things from your school, like your football team or the cafeteria. If you're feeling brave, put your name in the mix! This gives students a chance to practice being funny while still being respectful.
• Have the other students write their haiku too. After the vote, have some of them share what they wrote if they want.
• If you don't want to devote much class time to the game, just draw two words at the end of class and have all students make a haiku for homework. You can select your top 5 and have them vote on the best one as a warm-up in a later class.
• Be sure to read my post about creativity exercises that can be used before playing this game.

My Google Drive Quick Tips

Over the course of this school year I created a few "Quick Tips" about Google Drive and other tools for the teachers I work with. My goal was to highlight easy, useful features in under two minutes.

First, a couple general comments:

• Google updates the apps frequently, so even the more recent videos might show slightly outdated interfaces. The general processes are the same though.
• Some of these are very informal recordings done quickly for other purposes. I trust they'll still be of use as a quick lesson.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or send me an email. I'm always happy to help and I'll add to this list as more information is requested.

Navigating Google Drive

Organizing files in Google Drive

Uploading files of any type to Google Drive

How to share files in Google Drive using Link Sharing - It's better than typing everyone's email address in that box!

Inserting images in Google Docs

Adding hyperlinks to Google Docs, Slides and Drawings

Adding comments to a document - This includes tips on doing this without taking your hands off the keyboard. That's really helpful when grading several papers!

Team Building Video Challenge for High School

Here's a team building exercise I created for our high school video announcements team when we started the new semester. I loosely based it on a very fun, creative game we used to play, back before everyone carried around video cameras (and high power editing software) in their pockets.

The details of the challenge are described in the document at the link below. Basically students had to work in groups of three or four to create a fictitious news story. There were other criteria as well, including five random words that had to be included in some creative way.

They had only one class period to make the video, including learning how to use iMovie on an iPad. (By the way, my new approach to introducing tools like this is to simply give them the requirements. Once they know what the tools can do, they figure out how to work them on their own.)

You can get a copy of the challenge document in your Google Drive by clicking this link. Change it as necessary to meet your needs. If you share it, please include the link to my blog that's in the footer.

Here's the video that one group produced. On it's own, it's not terribly entertaining. I think they did an excellent job within the constraints of the challenge, though, and they included all the random words (clock, cup, reward, silence and courage). They went slightly over on the 30 second time limit, but I was very happy with their efforts.

(Note that I had already told them my top tips for video projects and they created one video previously using other tools.)

Using Technology to Amplify What's Working

This post is about a resource I created for for teacher professional development sessions about tech integration. It serves at least three purposes:

• It reinforces the idea that technology should be used for more than just saving time. 
• It introduces teachers to good research-based instructional strategies.
• It provides a common language and vision for effective use of technology.

It's based on the idea that technology amplifies. Like a lever can allow one person to lift more or a shovel can help one person dig more, technology in the classroom can increase the effectiveness of good instructional strategies.

A link to the document is below. As teachers work in pairs or a group of three to fill in the table, it requires them to go through this process:

• Identify and describe a few good instructional strategies - I have been providing these, but teahers could start by sharing some they use or possibly researching them on their own. I like to direct them to John Hattie's work and this page is a good starting point.
• Identify tech tools they have available that can amplify the practice - It helps to give an example here. I use lecture, since everyone is familiar with it, but it's not likely to be on the top of the list of effective practices. As an example of enhancing it with technology, we talk about how video can be used in powerful ways in flipped and blending learning models. It's important that specific tools are mentioned. For example, if the teachers use Chromebooks I'd suggest SnagIt as a great tool for recording the screen.
• Identify (and possibly describe) the ways the technology gives an advantage - This is the heart of the activity. I call these ways "AMPs", which stands for Achieve Maximum Potential. Some example AMPs from my list that we could mention for amplifying the lecture would be:
• Improves the access for learning - Students can watch it even if they're not in class.
•  Personalizes the learning experience for the needs of the learner - They can play parts again or skip ahead as necessary.

I included 10 AMPs in the document, each labeled with a letter to make it easier to complete the table. A description of each, including examples, is on the second page.

Click here to open a copy of the document in your Google Drive.