From the desk of Mr. Walters

Okay, I'm going to need you to bear with me while I rant a little bit, whine some, and cry out for help and advice. Engaging Middle School students is hard, even in the computer lab. Most of the garbage out there that is marketed to teachers, particularly in the technology department, is not only teaching antiquated skills, but is also incredibly " edukitschy ". Every once in awhile you find a gleaming diamond in the rough that is awesome and free. This rarely happens for teachers, and when it does, it becomes all the more heart-breaking when it suddenly goes away. Sometimes we only get to greet these things at a distance, and due to our circumstances never get to enter the promised land before the world has moved on.    Project Spark Project Spark was a game creation / simple programming environment for Microsoft Windows 8.1, 10 and Xbox One, which was the very beautiful child of it's homely parent, Kodu. Kodu is a visual programming tool which builds on i...

New post on the Gamestar Mechanic Teacher Blog: STEM Video Game Challenge: A Quick Start Guide Go check it out!

21st Century Skills... why game design? I've been using game design for the last couple of years to increase the application of " 21st Century Skills " in my class. The actual curriculum of my course is focused on the ISTE NETS , my official standards, and the Pennsylvania  Computer Information Technology Standards for grades 6-8 . My goal in teaching and assessing those skills, though, is to provide a context including as much STE[A]M focused content as possible and as many opportunities as I can for students to practice the  21st Century Skills . Game Design is concerned with studying the concepts behind the basic elements of a game, and how the balance of fun and challenge in games creates flow. It is also concerned with the iteration feedback loop and how games are a complex system designed around creating a satisfying user experience. Game design is a great jumping off point for introducing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learnin...