Data-based decision making | Technical | Cognitive | Communication | Interpersonal | Principles, Theories & Models | Processes | Systems
Systems: Board Game -- EUREKA! Race Through California's History (EDTEC 670, group project)
Context
We created a board game for Exploratory Learning Through Simulations & Games with Bernie Dodge and Karl Richter. Our group (myself, Mario Jacquez, Kim McCain-Correll, and Karen McKelvey) gradually arrived at this idea of basing our game on California history after first considering math skills in a playground setting. As we sought to go deeper than skills practice, the idea evolved of traveling through periods of California's history, using a cross-section of a sequoia tree with rings to represent the periods. We would require players to face and respond to realistic dilemmas to complete each time period.
Standard -- Systems: Understand that we live and work within systems of cause and effect in which actions may have multiple origins and consequences.
The content of the game addresses this standard, as does our process in creating it. Within the game, players' decisions have outcomes which align with real cause and effect events from the state's history. For example, an Indian living near a mission has to decide what to do upon learning of a plot by Toypurina to attack the mission priests. The player has three choices, each with a different outcome within the game. These dilemmas reside on a companion website. Throughout our game creation process, we adapted to new situations that arose. We depended on one another to proceed with tasks as other jobs were completed. For example, our graphic artist often had to wait for the rest of us to complete our tasks (writing facts, drafting rules, etc.) before she could apply her artwork to our products. Like the players of our game, our actions and choices had effects which altered the progress of the game's completion.
Opportunities Disguised as Problems
In designing our game for publication by TheGameCrafter.com, we foresaw that the manufacturer had constraints within which we had to operate. One was a limit on the size of cards included with the board game. The card size would be perfect for our game's fact cards, but our dilemmas would not fit in such small spaces. At the brainstorming stage of our process, I had suggested a website to go with the game, but we dismissed the idea and only revisited it during a conference with Bernie Dodge, our professor. When we told him our dilemmas would not fit on the cards available, he asked us what other options we had. He approved the website idea, and we proceeded immediately. This is just one example of how we had to customize our game to work within the manufacturer's limitations -- or find another solution. Another problem we encountered was that two of our team members contracted H1N1 during this semester. This meant that they were unavailable to complete their assigned content creation sections, and the rest of the team had to assist.
My Strengths
One strength I possess is an excellent grasp of the English language. This became very important as we reviewed and revised the multitude of content within our game. The design document, the rules for the game, fact cards, and dilemmas had to be written precisely, and also needed to be consistent in the language they used. I edited many of these. My web design skills became crucial when we decided to create the companion website. The site itself has over one hundred different pages (for the dilemmas, the responses, the outcomes, and a glossary) and required a lot of time and patience to design and populate. I spent countless hours on the website alone.
What I Learned About Myself in Educational Technology
Due to factors already mentioned, this product consumed a lot of time. I found that I put more time into it than some other members of the team, simply out of necessity because I was determined to see an excellent product rather than an acceptable one. I learned that I am driven. I already knew that I work very hard and only like to see excellent products come from my efforts, but this project tested me. I had no more hours in my day than anyone else; I just used more of them for this project, as the deadline neared, because I had become completely immersed in this board game's future. So I learned that I can throw myself completely into a project, but I also learned that I can't operate in this manner all the time. I was REALLY glad when this project was done so I could go back to normal.
Artifacts: Design Document
Game's Sale Page on TheGameCrafter.com
Companion Website for Eureka game
Schell, J. (2008). The Art of game design: a book of lenses. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman Publishers.
We created a board game for Exploratory Learning Through Simulations & Games with Bernie Dodge and Karl Richter. Our group (myself, Mario Jacquez, Kim McCain-Correll, and Karen McKelvey) gradually arrived at this idea of basing our game on California history after first considering math skills in a playground setting. As we sought to go deeper than skills practice, the idea evolved of traveling through periods of California's history, using a cross-section of a sequoia tree with rings to represent the periods. We would require players to face and respond to realistic dilemmas to complete each time period.
Standard -- Systems: Understand that we live and work within systems of cause and effect in which actions may have multiple origins and consequences.
The content of the game addresses this standard, as does our process in creating it. Within the game, players' decisions have outcomes which align with real cause and effect events from the state's history. For example, an Indian living near a mission has to decide what to do upon learning of a plot by Toypurina to attack the mission priests. The player has three choices, each with a different outcome within the game. These dilemmas reside on a companion website. Throughout our game creation process, we adapted to new situations that arose. We depended on one another to proceed with tasks as other jobs were completed. For example, our graphic artist often had to wait for the rest of us to complete our tasks (writing facts, drafting rules, etc.) before she could apply her artwork to our products. Like the players of our game, our actions and choices had effects which altered the progress of the game's completion.
Opportunities Disguised as Problems
In designing our game for publication by TheGameCrafter.com, we foresaw that the manufacturer had constraints within which we had to operate. One was a limit on the size of cards included with the board game. The card size would be perfect for our game's fact cards, but our dilemmas would not fit in such small spaces. At the brainstorming stage of our process, I had suggested a website to go with the game, but we dismissed the idea and only revisited it during a conference with Bernie Dodge, our professor. When we told him our dilemmas would not fit on the cards available, he asked us what other options we had. He approved the website idea, and we proceeded immediately. This is just one example of how we had to customize our game to work within the manufacturer's limitations -- or find another solution. Another problem we encountered was that two of our team members contracted H1N1 during this semester. This meant that they were unavailable to complete their assigned content creation sections, and the rest of the team had to assist.
My Strengths
One strength I possess is an excellent grasp of the English language. This became very important as we reviewed and revised the multitude of content within our game. The design document, the rules for the game, fact cards, and dilemmas had to be written precisely, and also needed to be consistent in the language they used. I edited many of these. My web design skills became crucial when we decided to create the companion website. The site itself has over one hundred different pages (for the dilemmas, the responses, the outcomes, and a glossary) and required a lot of time and patience to design and populate. I spent countless hours on the website alone.
What I Learned About Myself in Educational Technology
Due to factors already mentioned, this product consumed a lot of time. I found that I put more time into it than some other members of the team, simply out of necessity because I was determined to see an excellent product rather than an acceptable one. I learned that I am driven. I already knew that I work very hard and only like to see excellent products come from my efforts, but this project tested me. I had no more hours in my day than anyone else; I just used more of them for this project, as the deadline neared, because I had become completely immersed in this board game's future. So I learned that I can throw myself completely into a project, but I also learned that I can't operate in this manner all the time. I was REALLY glad when this project was done so I could go back to normal.
Artifacts: Design Document
Game's Sale Page on TheGameCrafter.com
Companion Website for Eureka game
Schell, J. (2008). The Art of game design: a book of lenses. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman Publishers.
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Copyright ©2010 Diane Main. All rights reserved.
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