In September 2017 I gave a talk at the Pacific NorthWest PHP conference (PNWPHP). "Using PHP and JavaScript to Design a Better Board Game" The board game I discussed was Strengths and Troubles.
Meet Pup, the PHP-Women elephant I was given at the conference.
Recently, I was interviewed by the magazine for a php[architect] podcast episode. You can listen to the podcast here PHP Architect Podcast Episode 14. If you're not a PHP geek you may want to click here to hear my interview only. They really let me go on and on. My interview runs about 28 minutes.
Own Your Skills
One reason programming is so deeply satisfying is that it's creative.
The fact that programmers are creative is lost on most non-coders. There was a widely held idea that our main job was to add a line to a form for a bank or other client. Graphic artists are supposed to be the creative ones. The app explosion demonstrates programmer creativity although many believe that's just about making millions. My main point in my presentation, the article and the podcast is that having skills like PHP, MySql, JavaScript and HTML5 or any other languages allow you to be creative on your own personal projects.
Suppose a skill you possess is knitting. Do you wait around for a paid knitting gig? No. You think about the striped socks your girlfriend's been wanting and get to work.
I was a bit of a rebellious student in the fourth MITx class on educational technology: MITx: 11.133x Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technology.
This course was less interesting to me than the previous two on educational games because it focused on traditional classroom management and government school administrators and evaluators. I'm not that hopeful about trying to enhance the current system with technology. And, I'm biased against central planning. I'm more interested in the use of technology to allow kids to do self-directed learning.
Anyway, I watched all the video lectures, did the readings, did some assignments and participated in the student discussions to see what I could glean.
Much of the material seemed irrelevant to my interests. And, I saw evidence of many things I already knew: Technology is not a magic bullet. Change is slow and painful in U.S. government school systems. Childrens' curiosity and initiative get squelched in schools.
But, I was surprised by some new information. Also, I participated in specific discussion groups on game design, math teaching and homeschooling. Beyond these groups, I was delighted by the many intelligent viewpoints and projects of the other participants who live all over the world. Many of them were dedicated teachers.
My top 10 tidbits from the course:
10. A new position in some U.S. schools is "Educational Technologist". An Educational Technologist helps teachers find good technology to help them teach and checks to see that it will work with the school's computers and connectivity. This position is often held by the geekiest teacher in the school for no extra pay. They may also be responsible for maintenance and repair of the equipment.
9. In the state of Massachusetts (for example) there are hundreds of entities that must sign off on any technology proposed to be used in the public schools.
8. A computer game for use in a classroom doesn't have to be very well designed for kids to want to play it. As one prof said, It just has to be "better than jail".
7. Homeschooling parents are actively interested in computer games and debate their efficacy.
[The four above affirmed my focus on the consumer market for my games.]
6. My questions about the development of logical thinking in children may be better answered by Vygotsky than Piaget. We'll see. I've acquired two thick books to study. And, the reason I'd never heard of Vygotsky when I studied development psychology in the 70s? He was considered "Soviet" at that time.
5. You-tube is a fabulous technology for learning just about anything.
4. The public library is probably a better place to facilitate self-directed learning than the public school.
3. In a case study a grant-funded iPad learning app needed to be tested in preschools. So it was put in the iTunes Store for free. The kids (inner city) mainly had iPads and so did their teachers. But, the preschool teachers couldn't download the free App because they didn't have credit cards, which are required by iTunes. [This speaks to the advantage of easy access to HTML5 games on the Web]
2. There's nothing new under the sun in educational technology.
I've been taking the next edX MIT class in the game design series. This one is "Design and Development of Games for Learning".
For this class, I've prototyped a game that will be part of a series of logic games I've been thinking through for some time.
This one is a Venn diagram game called "Marble Factory". So far, I've coded two levels for Marble Factory. I've worked through several prototypes, done technical testing and some play testing with classmates online. Now I'm ready for some user testing.
I want to get feedback from as many testers as I can. I plan to make adjustments to the game based on that feedback. Then, I'll continue with the next levels of the game.
Please note: Due to limitations in the MIT Gameblox language, the games don't work on touchscreens yet. You'll need a mouse and keyboard to play.
What is this supposed to teach?
Because I always tried to help my young math students become logical thinkers, these are my learning objectives for this game:
1. Observation of attributes, similarities and differences of things (in this case some marbles) then, in the next game moving on to the attributes, similarities and differences of numbers.
2. Introduction to set theory including cardinality, intersections and empty sets.
3. Gaining clarity in the logic terms: and, or, both, neither, not.
I'm moving from Gameblox (MIT's game editor) to HTML5 for future iterations. And, that's where I'll be making changes based on your feedback.
In their final form, these games will be playable by two people, playing cooperatively. The player's conversation about planning and strategy will provide powerful reinforcement for real learning.
Thanks for your interest and for testing Marble Factory!
I'm coding my new project, Gothic Windows, in HTML5. As usual, I'm not using any editor or authoring system or even loading special libraries (so far).
I'm old school.
I plan to thank people and Websites that have helped me directly or indirectly.
Thank you #1 goes to Simon Sarris
Here are some comment lines from his HTML5 canvas shapes code, which was a great tutorial for me on canvas, animation and even object oriented programming.
// By Simon Sarris
// www.simonsarris.com
// sarris@acm.org
// Free to use and distribute at will
// So long as you are nice to people, etc
// Now go make something amazing!
That last line inspired me. And I did make an amazing HTML5 interactive mapping program, with database for a client. At least I amazed myself.
Next I hope to amaze others.
Simon's JavaScript methods guided my work on Fleximap and now on Gothic Windows. So, thank you, Simon. And, thanks for your kind attention. Marcia
Since I'm currently working on a project I expect to release soon, I'd better get started on this blog.
I've been putting it off until I had time to "design" the blogger page.
Oh well.
Quote from an email from my son today: "Perfect is the enemy of good."
Absolutely right, Devin.
The project? Gothic Windows. Stay tuned until it's perfect.
Just kidding.
I'll make progress reports here.
Thanks for your kind attention.
Marcia
