Games in Education

Games in Education video created by Mark Wagner and Michael Guerena of the Orange County (CA) Department of Education's Educational Technology group. They have given permission to post.

Discussions abound regarding new classes. I will not mention the organizations until things are finalized. Two Singapore Community Cenetrs, however, are finalized. I am happy to start with these two CCs.
This way I'll be able to get a sense of the level of the students and can get a better sense of what can be done in the allotted time.
The following is a bit of Q & A brainstorming....

Q. The classes are for what ages?
A. There is no easy answer for this. Four year olds have made simple worlds with the CDK- and university students use the CDK to create games. Whether the student has no experience with PC games or is an avid gamer, there is something to learn and enjoy. Every effort will be made to make the classes the same level as possible.

Q. How long are the classes?
A. The classes are 3 hours long.

Q. What is covered in this lesson?
A. First, the Monja Kids Creative Development Kit (CDK) is introduced.Then, students are taught how to create 3D Worlds. As the CDK contains hundreds of models, students not only can create a unique world, but learn how to use a wide variety of models including dinosaurs, robots, spacecraft, houses, cars, airplanes, submarines etc.
Finally, the programming for a very simple racing game is taught. In this final section, commands, checkpoints and Artificial Intelligence are introduced.
At the end of the class, the student will have at least made their own world and a very basic 3 point racing game in which a car moves by AI.

Q. Can students play the games they make at home?
A.Students can only play games they make if they have their own CDK. So unless a student buys a CDK, they can only play their game in the Community Center. However, buying a CDK means that you can make your own games and send them to your friends-if they have a CDK.. Is the CDK only for making driving and shooting games? NO! We realize that many students will want to make these kinds of games, so we do provide suitable models, such as tanks, airplanes and cars.However, it is our hope that students will be inspired to create stories, educational games and virtual worlds that are fun and exciting in different ways than shooting and driving games.

Q.Can I put my own pictures in the CDK?
A.Yes! The CDK is great for customization! You can paint models and wrap them with your own drawings. You can put a picture of yourself inside of the CDK-even a short video!

Q.What is the background of the CDK?
A.Research on the CDK began over ten years in Hong Kong. Since that time it has been and tested in schools and universities in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Myanmar and Okinawa. The official premier of the CDK was the Planet Games Exhibition, held at the Science Center in October 2004.

Q. Artificial Intelligence? Commands? Checkpoints? This sounds too technical.
A. Although these concepts are the same concepts which form the basis of Playstation, XBox and PC games, the CDK does not require a programming language to be learned. The CDK allows users to use basic English to create and execute complex commands.

Q. Can students play the games they make at home?
A.Students can only play games they make if they have their own CDK. So unless a student buys a CDK, they can only play their game in the Community Center.
However, buying a CDK means that you can make your own games and send them to your friends-if they have a CDK.

Q. Is the CDK only for making driving and shooting games?
A. NO! We realize that many students will want to make these kinds of games, so we do provide suitable models, such as tanks, airplanes and cars.
However, it is our hope that students will be inspired to create stories, educational games and virtual worlds that are fun and exciting in different ways than shooting and driving games.

Q. Can I put my own pictures in the CDK?
A. Yes! The CDK is great for customization! You can paint models and wrap them with your own drawings. You can put a picture of yourself inside of the CDK-even a short video!

Q. What is the background of the CDK?
A. Research on the CDK began over ten years in Hong Kong. Since that time it has been and tested in schools and universities in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Myanmar and Okinawa. The official premier of the CDK was the Planet Games Exhibition, held at the Science Center in October 2004.


Q. Can I take more than one class?
A. Yes! There are endless possibilities for making games with the CDK.

I am now creating a course on how to use the CDK.
As the majority of users are interested in games, this is the area where the course outline will be focused.
Ultimately, as the number of users continues to increase, I hope there are people who want to create non-gaming experiences experiences, projects which perhaps explore movie-making, educational ideas or showcase their model creations in new ways.

As I have found the range of users' experience and knowledge to be very wide, I am starting very simply. The following is what I have presented to the class of 13-15 year olds I am presently teaching.

In addition to hands-on world building, the first class covered the following basics:

What is a game?
A game is an exchange of ideas and skills based on trust, organization and acceptance. There may or may not be points and there may or may not be an audience. Examples: solitaire, chess, soccer, NFL Football, Warcraft or The Lord of the Rings game.

What is the CDK?
The CDK is a collection of tools to help the user build worlds, experiences and games.
ADMINISTRATION and TEAMWORK are the backbone of good gamemaking.The successful use of these concepts increases efficiency and creates a game in which the talents of many people are all given the opportunity to develop fully.

The following is a simplified record of the jobs and procedures associated with a simple game.

SCREENCAPTURE
Team:
Name of Project
Started:
Finished
Briefing:
Objective/ /Description:
Producer: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Scriptwriter: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Programmer: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Art Director: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Sound Technician: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Music Director: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Model Maker: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)
Marketing/Sales: (ONLY USE INITIALS OR AN ALIAS)

Producer
Keeps the project on time. Listens, helps and keeps all members of the team informed and working together.

Scriptwriter
Creates the story and concept of the game: character descriptions, storyline, description of levels, etc.

Programmer/Coder
Uses technology and the contribution from all members to create the game.

Art Director
Creates the reality of the world by using style, colors, research and creativity.

Sound technician
May record sound or produce sound effects. Adds realism to the project by giving it sounds. May record and prepare speech for models. Makes sure that the programmer is given the music in the proper type of audio file.

Music director
USES MUSIC WITH PROPER KNOWLEDGE OF COPYRIGHT. May find music or hire musicians. Makes sure that the programmer is given the music in the proper type of audio file.

Model Maker
Uses software to create models-working with the art director and the programmer.

Marketing/Sales
Creates excitement for the product so that the public is informed and ready to buy the great game!

TESTING/FEEDBACK

Alpha testing
personnel
Comments:


Beta testing
summary: COMMENTS FROM EVERY MEMBER: suggestions, problems, good points, bad points

Internal Test Report:

Bugs noted:

Bug repair schedule:

External test Report

Today's installation got off to a great start.
Last week we realized a little fine tuning was in order. It is common practice for schools to install under administration/install. The students then sign in under a student account. This is to make it "impossible" to delete the installed software.
Well, last week we realized that we could make the process easier for the system administrator.
Today was the day we checked our improvement. So, it was nice when the first installation worked beautifully. It was not nice when the second installation acted strange and froze after installing 36% of the editor and it was terrible when the first machine also suddenly froze.
The system administrator and I scratched our heads in the hot room with no air conditioning. He noticed that the box mentioned firewalls and Direct X are often troublesome.
I said "Oh yeah"....
He upgraded the Direct X to Direct-X9.0C.
Everything then worked fine.
Outside, a tuba player from the high school band started oompa pa-ing the song called Tequila and the rest of the installation went just fine.

The pamphlet from the Singapore Science Center. This was the first open public display of the CDK. We were in the "Future" Section.
I spent nearly every Saturday and Sunday at the booth, explaining and demonstrating.
The youngest user was a 4 year old girl , who seemed to really like the CDK, though she was disappointed because we didn't have horses amongst all the models we DO have.
The oldest user(excluding parents) was a 13 year old boy who immediately went to the command section and began to start checking things out.
The most surprising experience involved the boy who asked me if cars could fly. I said yes, but to do that you need to go to the attachment section and that, because the CDK makes every attempt to be true to the laws of physics, it would take some trial and error to get the wings positioned properly...

He shrugged and I ran off to make a phone call.

When I came back, he had placed three islands in the air, one above the other. He started his game on the uppermost island, and then drove off of it...and the car flew! He landed on the next island, drove around and then flew through the air again!

I should conclude by saying that my demo was 30 seconds. Literally.
The 4 year old girl who was making a 3D world and wondering where the horses were only had a 30 second demonstration.

As the CDK has an important relationship with models, I have learned a bit, not just about models, but how important the communication is between modelmakers and the CDK programmer.
I have started this list as a means of allowing the modelmaker and the programmer to identify differences before they become a problem.

It is not complete, by any means, for high-end games with huge budgets and many teams.

However, I hope it is a starting point for CDK level projects.
I look forward to hearing suggestions.

MODEL MAKING PROJECT SHEET
Company:

Project name:
Project number:

Project leader/Project team/contact info
Model name:

Model(s) to be completed by:

Model use:
Description:
Drawings/sketches/photos:

First importation test:
Trials:
Debugging schedule:
Detail: hi, medium low:
Texture/Skin/Mesh information:
Polygon count:
Engine to be used:
Operating system:
Engine supports vertex color: yes/noModel making software to be used:
Drawings/sketches/photos

First importation test:
Trials/ debugging schedule:

Detail: hi, medium low:
testure/Skin/Mesh information:

Polygon count:

Game engine to be used:
Operating system:

Physics engine to be used:
Programmer/Modelmaker testing schedule:

Engine supports vertex color: yes/no
Model making software to be used
Who is responsible for editing model parameters?
Contact info:
Model interacts with other models?
Notes on editing parameters:

Who is responsible for animations?
Model interacts with other models?
If so, please describe interaction:
Number of animations:
Animation to be completed by:
First animation test:
Animation trial/debugging schedule

Who is responsible for editing model parameters?
Contact info:
Model interacts with other models?
Notes on editing parameters

Who is responsible for animations?
Model interacts with other models?
If so, please describe interaction
Number of animations:
Animation to be completed by:
First animation test:
Animation trial/debugging schedule

Scaling issues
Examples
Finished models belong to:

Notes

Please look at the time of this post and compare it to the the previous post. This image was completed completely from scratch since the last post.
The actual time is shorter as blogger was being a bit difficult.
In this case I applied the alphabet to the semitransparent media boards. I also added a couple of dinosaurs.

I hope someone will give me the opportunity to show how fast the CDK operates. Send me a jpeg and I will create a scene in the CDK as fast as I can. If I cannot get your image in the CDK and online in less than 15 minutes, I will give you a CDK!
So, step 1. Email me at blacksteps@gmail.com. Say that you want to challenge me to put your jpeg into the CDK and then online in less than 15 minutes. I will email you and we can determine a time for you to send me the jpeg. At the determined time, I will expect your jpeg. Once I recieve it(verified by the reception time on my email) I will put it into a virtual world and post a snapshot within 15 minutes!
I will only do this once! I am sure the CDK will be fine but blogger or the net might slow things down....
(I just checked and originally this post went up about an hour after the previous one!
Also, I should mention that Addle is the character's name.)

Blacksteps is happy to announce a new add-on, an alphabet designed by David Severn(www.davidsevern.cjb.net).
The alphabet enable steachers and students to immediately create signs and names. As more CDK users become familiar with the 'command' section, it will be interesting to see what sort of new word games can be created.