Category: games
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Developing Computational Thinking with Scratch Coding (webinar video)
Last night I had an opportunity to present a free, evening webinar for the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s Educational Technology Division, as part of a series they hosted to prepare teachers for Computer Science Education Week. The title of my presentation was, “Developing Computational Thinking with Scratch Coding.” The webinar recording is 1 hour and 11…
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Minecraft Halloween Challenge: Lessons Learned
Yesterday Dr. Glen Emerson (@emerson_glen) and I, along with four other teachers and my Minecraft-guru daughter, Rachel, facilitated an evening “Minecraft Halloween Challenge” for students at our school. We had 61 students sign up and 59 participated, in two different sessions from 4 – 6 pm and 7 – 9 pm. The kids had a…
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More Minecraft Learning: Enchantments and Desert Temples
Over our last snow day / ice day weekend I setup an older, inherited Mac laptop as a home Minecraft server and resurrected a collaborative survival world Rachel (our 7th grader) and I started a couple of years ago with our younger cousins over the Thanksgiving holidays. My own Minecraft learning curve had flattened out…
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Student Voice, YouTube, & Digital Citizenship: Rachel Fryer on the TEDx Stage
TEDxWallerMiddleSchool was one of only 22 TEDxYouth events hosted worldwide in 2016, and the only TEDxYouth event held to date in Oklahoma. This was the second time students and educators at Waller Middle School in Enid have hosted a TEDx event. Last year all the speakers were local, but this year a few outside speakers…
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Using 8 Bit Games and Humor to Present Serious Political Messages
The website and political game project “GOP Arcade” (@GOParcade) offers telling insights into not only the issues of the 2016 election in the United States, but also the ways media and gaming can be used to influence voters and communicate serious political messages. The site features 8 bit online games (that means they have very…
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Create a Maze Game in PBS Scratch Jr
Scratch is a wonderful, FREE, block-based coding language and website students around the world have used since 2007 to create over 16 million projects. “Scratch is used in more than 150 different countries and available in more than 40 languages.” Learners of all ages have created a diverse array of animations, games, interactive art projects, music and dance projects, stories, and…
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Scratch Camp Facilitator Workshop (April 2016)
This Saturday, April 16, I’ll be leading a “Scratch Camp Facilitator Workshop” from 9 am to 1 pm at the Casady School in Oklahoma City. This FREE, hands-on workshop for educators is sponsored by The Div (@thedivorg), a non-profit based in Edmond, Oklahoma, focused on providing coding experiences for students. If you’re interested in attending,…