Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wes Fryer

Category: games

  • Deep Work and the Race to Minecraft

    Last Thursday was the last day of our second trimester at school, and therefore the end of my second opportunity in 2019-20 to teach Digital and Media Literacy to 5th and 6th Graders. As classroom teachers, one of the things we quickly learn is how different the dynamics of separate classes can be based on…

  • Podcast460: UCO and OCCC Concurrent Classes, GitHub in CompSci, and Elementary Coding Lessons

    Welcome to episode 460 of Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer, from March 13, 2018. This podcast features a series of three recent interviews, and opens with a recommendation to try the newly updated Anchor.fm website and Anchor mobile app for podcast creation and publishing. The first interview is with high school…

  • Code as Poetry in 4th Grade Scratch Club

    The highlight of my Mondays now is getting to co-facilitate an after-school Scratch Coding Club with my wife. Today one of our fourth graders discovered a wonderful Scratch block that simplified a much more complex set of blocks I’d showed him a few weeks ago, and created a simple shooting cannon / animated cannon. I…

  • Podcast459: Highlights from OETC 2018

    This podcast features three different recordings from the 2018 Ohio Educational Technology Conference, which was held in Columbus, Ohio, February 12-14, 2018. The first is an interview with high school students who have learned how to create interactive games using Scratch software. They also have created DIY game controllers using the MakeyMakey and supplies like…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Mobile Media Scavenger Hunts with GooseChase

    Thanks to Peggy George (@pgeorge) sharing GooseChase* (now also available as GooseChaseEDU with discounted educator pricing) my wife and I have helped lead three different mobile media scavenger hunts this summer! All three have been very successful and met with rave reviews from participants! Like “The APPmazing Race” at iPadPalooza each year in Austin, a GooseChase…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…