GameMaker Studio Standard FREE until 3/2 (and I'll teach you how to use it!)

DOWNLOAD the FREE Standard Version of GameMaker Studio NOW!!!

If you know me, you know I am a HUGE fan of GameMaker as a tool for teaching game design and development. GameMaker studio makes game creation easy thanks to it's intuitive drag and drop approach.  However, as an introduction to computer science, students grasp the concepts in a concrete manner that is true to the coding constructs represented based on the required syntax. Students learn key programming concepts including conditional statements, variables, and loops.   The logic involved translates seamlessly to any programming language, including the built in GameMaker Language (GML).  Some students will stay with the drag and drop approach, but others will slowly (or quickly) gravitate toward the use of code.

I can't encourage you strongly enough to download GameMaker Studio while it is free.  This is the standard version ($49.99 value).  There is a free version that will remain available after this promotion, but the free version limits the number of resources you can use in your games.  This becomes a limiting factor for sure.

Learn GameMaker - I'll help!

I teach video game design and development at the middle and high school level.  Along my journey, I have created a number of resources that should help you to learn GameMaker.  The resources take you from the very basics into Intermediate concepts.  Mark (Garlic) Suter and I have been developing content and working with Indie developers to create a wide array of tutorials and sample projects for the Learn section of the yoyogames website.  Our content will be available there soon.  In the mean time, please enjoy some of our resources in their current form.

Resources:

• GameMaker Studio Tutorials
• GameMaker 8.1 Tutorials and 'how to' example files
• A Peek into my video game design and development classroom
• Garlic's Sir Clicks a Lot step by step video tutorial with game files
• GameMaker Resources - Diigo Group

Enjoy the resources and we can't wait to play your first game!

edSurge Tech for Schools Summit: BRILLIANT! #edtechbridge

Play. Explore. Listen. Share

If you've been reading my blog or following me (@mr_isaacs) on twitter, you will know that bridging the divide between teachers and entrepreneurs is close to my heart.  Well, edSurge is creating an amazing opportunity for teachers to meet with and interact directly with developers.  The Tech for Schools Summit focus on the edtech entrepreneurs that local teachers want to collaborate with.  There is a voting process and ultimately a number (around 30) ed tech companies are selected to attend.  Talk about a win-win!  This is not a conference, not a sales pitch, not a workshop.  Rather, the environment is created to allow for real authentic community building.  Teachers can try out products and provide the valuable feedback that will help developers create products that meet educational needs.

This weekend I will be attending the Baltimore event.  The event is free to teachers as well as invited school leaders.  The summit is co-sponsored by a number of local school districts as well as the Maryland Society for Educational Technology (MSET).  I'm excited to participate as a Brainpop Educator and interact with educators and entrepreneurs.

Look for future edSurge Summits.  Hopefully, one will make it to a city near you in the near future!

For more information on this weekends event, please visit the event page at: https://www.edsurge.com/guide/baltimore-edsurge-tech-for-schools-summit

If you'll be there, please stop by and say hello to us at the brainpop display.

#edtechbridge survey responses (part 1): What would you like to see us accomplish?

SXSWEdu is quickly approaching and Katya Hott (@katyamuses) and I (@mr_isaacs) are presenting a problem solving session, Bridging the Teacher-Entrepreneur Divide.  The goal of our session is to work with participants to create an artifact that can live on after SXSWEdu and provide a community space for EdTech Entrepreneurs and Educators to collaborate in order to better meet the needs of our students and create effective products.  

In preparation of our session we have created and distributed a survey to recruit ideas and generate interest in teachers and developers who would like to participate in this community.  If you have not completed it already, please take a moment to do so.

As of today, February 20, 2014, we have received 26 responses.  I would like to share the data as it should serve as a great conversation starter as we move forward.

The survey consisted of 15 questions.  I will share the responses over the next few blog posts.

When it comes to EdTech entrepreneur/teacher collaboration, what would you like to see us accomplish as a group?

• I would like to see us build a community and an infrastructure for teachers and entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate to create awesome educational products. My particular interest is in game based learning and game design and development.
• I'd like to open up the dialogue about innovative activities districts/schools/teachers are employing in the classrooms. What do teachers want to see? What are the trends? What do teachers THINK are the trends? (this can be very different from the actual trends). It'd be great to springboard discussion on how teachers and entrepreneurs can best work together to further student achievement and engagement. 
• Figure out best practices to connect the two groups so that they can conveniently and effectively work together to create great learning tools/environments.   
• I would like to see more formal and informal opportunities occurring online as well as around the country/world that enable educators and edtech entrepreneurs to more easily communicate, collaborate, and to just be able to find each other in general. In other words, how to we create space and opportunity for edtech entrepreneurs to more easily find educators who are interested in collaboration and for interested educators to find edtech entrepreneurs or startups that are actively seeking educators as collaborators (but not necessarily as employees -- lots of job search sites exist, but I'm an referring to something more along the lines of Match.com but for this type of collaboration)... And also how can we support these two groups with their communication and collaboration skills, methods, strategies, etc.
• I'd love to work in collaboration with teachers to build better learning games.
• Supporting each other in seeing each others' needs and goals, and supporting best communication. Helping to see pitfalls in quick off-the-cuff communication and solicitation
• bridge the divide between educators & ed tech developers -- ensure teachers & students' voices are heard
• Two way street of idea pitching (preventing shovelware)
  Best practices/guidelines (preventing shovelware)
  Events (G+ hangouts and/or physical)
  Collaboration of taking an idea to the market
• Creating a community in which educators provide entrepreneurs valuable insight and feedback into the needs in education and entrepreneurs using this information to improve/enhance their product(s).
• Subverting the dominant paradigm
• Come to a consensus that the ultimate goal is engaged, student learning.
• establishing connections with schools and entrepreneurs who are willing to test ideas. establishing connections with teachers who can give feedback and contribute to the development of better products
• I'd like to see a greater expansion of gamification among administrators, teachers, and students. Additionally, a discussion into new and upcoming technologies would be a great springboard for future collaborations.
• Provide honest respectful space for dialogue and knowledge sharing
• Share Information, see new trends and solutions
• Teacher development in technology and more tech in low-income schools. 
• Partnerships and internship opportunities for students to gain valuable experience.
• Making things affordable for teachers who have to pay for technology out of their own pockets because the district doesn't have enough money to support all the technology we want to use.
• More opportunities to share ideas, collaboration opportunities and partnerships with existing startups, funding/grants for teachers to pursue projects.
• Simple tools even reluctant teachers will use that have room for creative expression.   
• I'd like the group to refine a set of best practices, and help build the reputation of this type of collaboration in both contexts as a valuable contribution to everyone's efforts in the education sphere.
• A few things:
  
  1. Selfish Reason: The way we build better apps is having conversations with educators and being immersed in your world. I want being a part of this group to lead to better apps.
  
  2. Bigger Picture Reason: I would love to see schools continue to shift to prepare students for the kinds of careers we have. This shift would involve focus on iteration, learning as a process (not an event), and just being more production/creation focused in general. I know this is a challenge because there are a lot of external forces (politics, etc) that are pushing against it (standardized testing, etc). I think there is a lot of opportunity here though - the reasoning for these policies is similar (to prepare students for the future). There is just a mismatch between (in my opinion) what policy makers see and what businesses & educators see leading to this outcome. The opportunity is for businesses and educators to get together and plead our case.
• Continuing to bring teachers together. Google hangouts and other online communication is great but doing a grant to get us together in person would be amazing.  

More to come, but I believe digesting the open ended questions one at a time is probably wise.  Writing this post provided me with a great opportunity to really read through the responses.  Clearly, developers and educators want to work together for the right reasons.  That is not the question.  How we can facilitate this remains to be the question.  I am excited to meet with everyone at SXSWEdu, but see that simply as a starting point.  Beyond SXSWEdu is when the rubber hits the road.  There's no doubt that the desire for this collaboration is there.  Now it's time to make it happen in a significant manner.  

#EdTechBridge: A Teacher's Perspective on the Value of Collaboration with EdTech Entrepreneurs

Teachers want to bring innovative and effective technology to their classrooms, and EdTech companies need teachers to evaluate their products from inception to launch. Both parties know it's important to work together to build good tools, but often run into the cultural divide that exists between educators and technologists.  The cultural divide is not intentional on either side, yet it appears to exist and the benefits of connecting educators and developers is clearly mutual.

I often question the root of this issue and as far as I can tell it purely stems from our inclination toward isolation, though, not intentional.  As a teacher, I see how educators are generally absorbed and consumed by their teaching responsibilities.  Likewise, I can only imagine that developers are typically focused on their vision.  However, when this is the case, developers miss out on a valuable partnership with educators that would ultimately result in a more valuable product that better aligns with the intended learning outcomes. There is no reason why this can't change.  

Over the past few years I have become quite involved in social media, particularly twitter.  It took me a while to warm up to social media as a professional tool, so I can see why others may have missed out on this opportunity.  Once bitten by the social media bug, it became widely apparent that this is where all the others who have left hibernation are hanging out.  I have made wonderful connections with developers from companies including BrainPOP (@brainpop), e-line Media (@gamestarmech), Kodable (@kodable), Hopscotch (@hopscotch), MinecraftEDU (@minecraftedu), TechSmith (@techsmithEDU), 1st Playable (@1stplayable), and many more.  This has led to opportunities for Skype sessions with my students (Thanks to Mike Wantanabe from brainpop, and Caitlin Keleher (Storytelling Alice / Looking Glass), field testing of software (QCraft, Looking Glass, Portal 2, Real Robots of Robot High), guest blog post (Brainpop Educators, TechSmith Education), Speaking engagements, and much more.  Getting connected has provided awesome experiences for me and enhanced my professional life immensely.  As I have seen it, this applies to both teachers and entrepreneurs.  On twitter, many have connected, so to discuss bridging this gap purely on twitter is akin to preaching to the choir.  This leads me back to the question... How do we bridge the gap outside of this group who has obviously chosen (or stumbled upon) this opportunity to connect?
I should point out that twitter or other social media channels alone are probably not the be all end all solution.  We can certainly create other opportunities to join forces.  Conferences and unconferences provide a good opportunity for initial connections to be made.  However, this might point to one key element in the divide.  As a teacher, it can be difficult to attend conferences as release time is not always available and travel expenses, not to mention registration fees represent another concern.  This may be an issue for developers on occasion, but it seems as though the culture and job responsibilities are more likely to embrace attendance at conferences.  Furthermore, some conferences seem to attract more teachers, while others more developers.  Granted, developers display their wares at teacher oriented conference, but this is typically their opportunity to promote a final product with the intent of selling it. So, this brings us back to the original question, how do we best foster collaborative relationships during the development phase?

This March, Katya Hott (@katyamuses) and I (@mr_isaacs) will be conducting a working session on this topic at South by Southwest EDU (#SXSWEdu).  The goal of our session is to work with Entrepreneurs and Educators to create a living artifact that can facilitate the collaborative process and build community.  If you are attending SXSWEdu, we hope you will join us.  Whether or not you will be in attendance, please take a moment to complete our survey and join our growing community of people interested in bridging the gap between Educators and Entrepreneurs.  Clearly, everyone involved stands to benefit from these relationships.

I hope you will join us in developing an infrastructure that will make it easy for EdTech Professionals and Educators to connect and collaborate.  Education has so much to gain through collaboration throughout the process of development.   

Quest Based Learning: A Model for the Flipped Classroom

Forty minutes of class time per day can be very limiting. It certainly does not provide an opportunity to teach everything and support students while working on their projects.  Furthermore, it limits the possibilities for students to extend their learning based on their interest in the content.  The ideal of differentiating instruction within this framework poses another challenge for sure. Over the past few years I have heard more and more about the 'flipped classroom'.  I think it's common to think of the flipped class model as having students watch a video or read the course content prior to a lesson so that class time can be devoted to discussion or work with the guidance of the teacher.  This is certainly one approach, but I am becoming increasingly aware that my classroom is flipped in a different way.

My course is conducted through 3dgamelab, a quest based 'learning management system'.  Essentially, students are presented with available quests that they can complete for experience points (XP).  The XP approach coupled with the achievements, badges, and awards provides a gamified layer which is appealing to many students.   More importantly, however, the quests provide what Jane McGonigal refers to as 'blissful productivity'.  Students are excited to complete a task, receive credit and feedback for it.  Often this leads to the next quest in the quest line which provides a nice approach to scaffolding the learning. 

I teach video game design and development.  I like to provide opportunities for my students to extend their learning as there are so many wonderful tools and learning materials available online.  This works beautifully in a quest-based classroom as students tend to work on these 'side quests' outside of class and they earn points which ultimately contribute to their grade.  It provides students with choice in the learning process.  This is great for differentiating instruction as well as allowing for extension activities for students who would like to continue the learning beyond the course requirements.  

Many of my quests include video tutorials that I have created (or curated) either during lessons in class or specifically for the purpose of demonstrating specific skills.  This allows students to work at their pace and review the content as many times as they need to rather than being expected to comprehend everything the one time it is presented.  This also solves the age old issue of re-teaching topics for a student that misses class for any reason.  

Generally speaking, my students have 3 large projects throughout the semester.  These are the main quest lines and during class this is what students typically work on.  However, to the observer, the learning environment looks more like a studio than a classroom.  I devote most of the class time supporting students as they work on their projects.  When I think of the goal behind the flipped classroom model, I believe this approach exemplifies the philosophy.  Students could complete the three main projects and succeed in the course, but most embrace the opportunities to complete side quests that are either related to the main quests or not.  Typically, I allow students to work on any quests they like on Fridays, adopting something similar to the google 20% time approach as it allows for student driven learning and often sparks interest for students to continue the extension activities outside of class.

One of the things I like best about the Quest Based learning environment is that there is a growing library of available quests through 3dgamelab that can be cloned and edited to suit your needs.  There have been many occasions where I have adapted some of the quests graciously created by others to offer additional learning opportunities for my students.  Likewise, I like to think that I have contributed a great many quests that can be used by others. On a similar note, once you put the energy into developing a quest or quest line it opens up new learning opportunities for students moving forward.  Last week was Computer Science Education Week featuring the Hour of Code challenge.  My students all participated, but the spirit of the hour of code should not only be celebrated during that one week.  My students can continue to complete the quests for XP and these quests are now already in place for my future classes adding to the value of my course moving forward.  

Scaling the course becomes intuitive due to the quest setup which enables the use of prerequisites to open up new quests.  You can set a quest to open after another quest is complete, based on a certain number of XP earned, etc.  One of my long term goals is to scale the game design and development curriculum down to the elementary level and up to the high school level.  Quest based learning lends so well to this as you can develop quests and break them up into different courses or have one course that is scaled based on working through the quest line.  If an elementary school student were to engage in the course and work through quests in order to reach higher level quests, why hold them back?  Likewise, from the standpoint of differentiation, it works well to allow students to start with quests at a level that they can handle.  

I hope that more educators start to see the value in this approach to teaching and learning.  Aside from teaching all of the skills and concepts in my curriculum, I believe that the opportunity for extending the learning will help cultivate a love of learning and demonstrate to students that they can continue learning out of interest rather than obligation.  After all, isn't the development of lifelong learning an esteemable goal in teaching?

What experiences do you have with a flipped class model?  Have you experienced quest based learning as a student or teacher?  I'd love to hear your feedback.  

Are you interested in learning more?  I got my start in one of the 3dgamelab teacher camps where I was able to be both a student (following the tracks that interested me) and an instructional designer as one of the tracks guides participants through the process of understanding quest based learning and creating quests for class use.  

Hour of Code: Student Reflections

As the hour of code continues, I am continually blown away by the accomplishments and enthusiasm of my students (and my 10 year old daughter!).  I teach video game design and development and provide a quest based learning environment using 3dgamelab.  When students complete their quests, they submit the quest, often with a reflection on the activity.  Following are a number of reflections that I pulled out to share.  I will say that the overwhelming thing I am hearing is something to the tune of, "I thought programming would be hard, but...".  If that doesn't sum up the value of the Computer Science Education Week hour of code initiative, I don't know what does.  I am beyond thrilled that so many students across the world are engaging in activities this week to demystify computer programming.  I truly believe this is a game changer in terms of people's attitudes and perspective on computer science.  I'm sure the interest will sustain in many, but regardless, it is raising awareness and understanding in such a HUGE number of students (and teachers).

Before I share the reflections, I want to note that my 10 year old was practically begging us to purchase the full version of the lightbot app after participating in the lightbot hour of code activities which were free.  At $2.99 I think we'll invest :)





Reflections from students:

"I learned a lot about computer programming in this quest.  I thought that computer programming was difficult and complicated all the time, but it can be easy if you really try to comprehend it."

"I learned that the 4 steps of computational thinking are decomposition, pattern location, abstraction, and algorithms.  I had some challenges when a new block was put in like the "repeat until" and "if path" boxes." ~female, grade 8

"I learned how to use the repeat block which I had trouble with at first.  I think it's really cool but challenging to program." ~ male, grade 8


"I am getting to learn more complex programming that actually makes you think through all the steps, compared to before where you just guessed and checked.  I did have trouble choosing some of the blocks and figuring out the number of degrees to use in a couple of places."

"I liked this challenge because it taught me how to make functions and use them." ~male, grade 8



"I felt it was really cool that you could repeat actions.  It is really cool how computer programming works because it's not like how regular life works." ~male, grade 8


"I felt that this quest was easier than the others.  I like this one because the new blocks, the "while" block and the "if" block were really helpful.  I did not have any particular challenges completing this quest." ~female, grade 8


"This was where it got a bit challenging, but eventually through trial and error I figured out the problem and completed the quest." ~male, grade 8


"I really enjoyed this quest.  It was a fun new experience for me creating drawings compared to what I normally do, programming robots.  It was straight forward and showed one of the essential lessons of programming - no matter what you do with programming trial and error is key."

"In the second part of code, the Artist level was a little harder than the first.  I learned more though about algorithms and how computers work and make tasks easier.  A few particular challenges I had were drawing a circle and drawing a snowflake shape on level 18. Overall, it was enjoyable." ~ female, grade 8

"I learned about repeating.  Computer programming seems to work by taking the problem, coming up with a solution, breaking the solution into simpler parts, and finding the best, fastest, and easiest way to accomplish all of these." ~male, grade 8

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.  I think it's an incredible initiative and am so pleased to see so many kids exposed to coding.  Hopefully, the day will be sooner, rather than later, that coding is taught throughout the grades.

Please share your experiences.  I find it inspiring to hear what others are doing and how students are responding!

Code-a-rific! Embracing the Hour of Code Challenge.

Hanukkah has passed.  Now we are anxiously awaiting Christmas and Kwanzaa, but hold the presses!  It's Computer Science Education Week!!!  Feels a little like Christmas to me.  The highlight of the December 9 - 15 festivities is the Hour of Code Challenge.  Students across the world are committing to code for an hour this week.  From my experience, it seems like the hour of code is turning into the many hours of coding.  Regardless, everyone who participates is getting an opportunity to be exposed to coding and essentially demystifying Computer Programming.  This is a wonderful opportunity as hearing the words coding or programming can be very intimidating.  The activities offered this week are surely proving otherwise.

There are a number of heavy hitters involved in helping promote the event including, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Elena Silenok (Clothia.com), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Gabe Newell (Valve), Will.I.Am (The Black Eyed Pees),  Chris Bosh (Miami Heat), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Barack Obama, and many others.  These influential folks have been kind enough to help create instructional videos, public service announcements, etc. to help promote the event.

The point of entry to participate is quite simple.  Organizations like Code.org have set up turn-key opportunities to guide students through hours of coding including online and offline activities.  You can sign up as an individual student or as a teacher.  Teachers can provide students with the course code so that it is easy to manage their progress through the activities.  Students earn a certificate from many organizations based on completing an hours worth of coding activities.  The code.org activities use activities created in blockly, a programming environment developed by google that is based on Scratch.

Tynker, also based on Scratch is offering a variety of activities for students in grades 1 through 8.  Tynker also allows teachers to set up a class with a class code for students to join.  Again, this helps greatly with managing student progress.

Lightbot is a puzzle game that teaches programming and procedural thinking.  They are offering activities for the week that come with a certificate of completion as well.  My 10 year old was up pretty late last night 'playing' lightbot and learning coding without knowing it!  Lightbot has an app available at the iOS app store as well as the google play store.  This is definitely a great option for students in elementary school.

One of my favorites is Codecademy, which really does focus on true coding (opposed to the drag and drop block approach) but in a very systematic fashion that makes following and learning to program easy.  Codecademy offers tracks in JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, and other programming languages.  You could create a full semester course (or more) using the Codecademy environment.

There are certainly other companies and organizations offering their approach.  Please visit the Computer Science Education Week site for more ideas and lesson plans.

While I'm at it, here's a pearltree I put together a while back to highlight coding resources for grades K - 12.

Code.org and the associated sponsors are even offering prizes for students who earn the 27 available trophies.  So far, two of my students at William Annin Middle School have reached this goal.  Prizes include a choice of software titles (Sim City 4, Portal 2, Fifa 13), $10 gift cards (iTunes, Skype), 10gb dropbox storage, etc.  One school in each of the 50 states will receive a classroom set of computers for having every student participate.  All teachers who have a class participate will receive 10gb additional drop box storage and several lucky schools will receive a guest skype session from one of the industry 'titans'.

Well, what are you waiting for?  Join in the celebration.  and Happy Computer Science Education Week!

Code on!!!