Annotated Bib and Game Updates

Annotated Bibliography is done! I had some colleagues look it over and they said it was pretty good. I may make a few changes and I may be asked to fix a few things, but I think it turned out pretty good for my first one.

The game is going pretty well, however I still only have one school for testing. If I don't hear from anyone by the middle of next week I'm going to start making school visits to meet with principals. I should have done something that could be used by college students and forced it on my EME4406 class. ^_^

My IRB was resent out with compensation and assent. We'll see what happens with that.

Gaming IRB + Gaming Class EME6931

I got my IRB for the gaming class back and I just have a few minor changes to make to it.

1. Include compensation in the informed consent.
2. Need assent script (an assent is what you will say to minor
participants in age appropriate language). If you need an example there
is one provided for you on our website.

In other gaming news, I've started working on the story and created a few maps for the beginning of the first level. I still have no ideas on the introduction however. I'm hoping Swords and Circuitry will help me with that.

I presented on RPGs and other games in Secondary Education for my class as well as teaching some basics of RPG Maker XP and I think most of the class enjoyed it. I had a few of my classmates tell me that I did a great job. I wasn't sure as I was doing it, but I'm more confident of my performance now.

Just as with my Foundations course I'm hoping a To Do List will help me with the rest of the work for this class as well now.

Finish Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning by Monday: So far really enjoying the book especially about digital immigrants vs. digital natives. It's interesting because as much of a digital native as I am, I can already feel myself in certain aspects becoming an immigrant and being surpassed by those younger, not in many areas of technology, but there are definitely some.

Pick a second book to read and review: I have a few books I'm thinking about for this. The first is my RUBY book, and the second is the second book that I have on Interlibrary Loan about Storytelling and Character Design in RPGs. I'll have to discuss it with Dr. Ferdig on Monday.

Gaming References: I don't think we've started these as a class, and I haven't kept strict records of websites or articles of interest, but I have links all over the place and I'm going to make it a point to start using Delicious more or search for a bookmark program that works for me because as much as I like Delicious, I need more. ^_^

Create RPG: Now that I've messed around with RPG Maker XP enough, it's time to start working on the actual game.

Create Pre and Post Test for Study: Since I've found out that there is no such thing as FCAT Explorer for History Dr. Ferdig has suggested that I create a Web based history test with questions that would be similar to an FCAT based on the historic periods that I use for the RPG.

Test RPG: Still no word from Lincoln Middle School or Kanapaha. I'm going to start emailing some more principals this week, as well as sending my IRB to Lincoln and Kanapaha.

Paper (Make a Headline!): After testing comes the paper of my findings. Before I write it, I have to read some other papers to get a feel for the format, layout and language that I should use.

EME5054 Confusion Untangled

So I think I've been a little bit confused over the assignments, so I'm using this entry to clear up and plan out each of them.

Weekly Weblog: I've been blogging although I feel like I've fallen a little bit behind in it as well as commenting on other blogs. This is one of the things I will catch up on in the next few weeks. The blogs that I do have, incorporate multimedia so I'm ahead with that one.

Positioning Yourself in the Field: My final product will be the RPG from my Game Theory Class along with reading the book Swords and Circuitry and a list of ideas from the book that I've used in my game.

Authentic Technical Development: I've been working on learning RPG Maker and the RUBY Programming Language which is used in RPG Maker for advanced features, but is also the up and coming web programming language. I'll be posting my contract tomorrow as well as printing it out for class tomorrow.

Personal Progress Toward My Degree: Next Tuesday I'm going to start looking at my Plan of Study and complete some of the paperwork as well as email Dr. Dawson and Dr. Ferdig about times that I can meet with them about my Plan of Study. I also want to talk about what I would have to do if I wanted to apply for my PhD or EdD. I haven't decided on anything yet, but I'm having such a great time with my graduate studies so far and feel that continuing my education is definitely an option. I've researched a few jobs and will continue to, but I think my RUBY technical professional development will greatly aid me in job searching when it comes time.

Contribution to the Ed Tech Program: I'm working with Bryan on writing a letter to accepted graduate students to give them a more personal experience and help them decide on a graduate program. So far no progress so I have to talk to Bryan this week about it.

Group Project: Based on chapter 6. My assignment is to explain Constructivism in 5 mins, and add to the wiki at http://eme5054.pbwiki.com

Other assignments and self assigned projects: Although I'm not required to at this point, I'd like to start using RefWorks and make it a point to remember to use it while researching for this class as well as others. Also as I am thinking about going for my Ph.D or Ed.D if I have time this semester, I'm going to do a book review like the rest of the doctoral students.

I think that about wraps it up for EME5054 Foundations. To be continued for my other two classes as well as things that I have to do for the class I teach.