3
May
2010
Year 2: Showing the state what we know – Our Way!
Storyboard of brainstorming ideas - dreams for our game
Well, we begin again! It is that joyful time of year when the state test is finished. In class, we talked about the standardized test as a way for the state to see what we know. But now, we get to show the state what we know our way! And, our way is way more fun! 
We started again on an alternate reality game. Earlier in the year, when we were playing the 1 Destination game that the students created last year, several current sixth graders said that they would like to add on to the game this year. However, when we began discussing the game today, all the current sixth graders were adamant that they wanted their own game.
So, we spent the day playing two different games to get a feel for the genre. The first game we played was the 1 Destination game. We also played the 39 Clues alternate reality game that is available online. That led to a brainstorming session about our dreams for our own alternate reality game. The students have high expectations! I hope my feeble expertise can live up to those expectations!
One of the big take-aways for me is the students stance on the written word vs. videos or other means of communication. I remember last year, students wanted to use video and we made extensive use of it. In fact, even the problems themselves were embedded in the videos. Some of our players last year commented that they wished the problems - at least the problem they had to solve – was in writing so they wouldn’t have to go back through the video again. This year, students commented on the amount of text in the 39 Clues game. They said that they did not want that much text. Somewhere there is a balance between written text and videos. Maybe we’ll find it this year!
Stay tuned!