NSF Awards: 1312240
This video segment will showcase an innovative NSF funded project in which 6th-9th grade students and their teachers engage in interactive after-school Game Design Clubs. The iDesign project is a collaborative effort between Hofstra University and ten schools in suburban Long Island and New York City, all motivated to use rich new learning methods to improve their students’ STEM understanding. A key motive of the iDesign project is to introduce minority students to the culture of information technology early in their education, before they lose interest, in order to prepare them for fulfilling opportunities for future study and careers. The iDesign project moves students from playing computer games, to examining the design of existing games, to collaborating with their peers to design their own games, to sharing their games with others in the community. The iDesign team has developed four modules, each focusing around a specific game design platform. Each module contains multiple lessons, including the structure of games, game mechanics (space, goals, components and rules), altering popular existing games, and creating new games. As students progress through the curriculum, they document their work and collaborate through an on-line management system called Playbook. In addition to showcasing the iDesign curriculum that is implemented throughout the iDesign clubs, this video will highlight the kind of collaboration the iDesign team must take part in to sustain and facilitate a positive and successful learning environment.
Brian Drayton
I am interested in the final line, “consequences of action taken in real-life situations.” Could you say a bit more about the connection between the curriculum and the “real world”? Is it primarily through the students’ choice of game subject?
Carolina Milesi
Senior Research Scientist
I wonder how you have recruited students and how intense is the iDesign club. How many weeks or hours do they participate in the club?
Tamara Moore
Associate Professor
This project sounds really interesting. My questions are related to where you go from here.
I am interested in hearing about what you hope your larger impact might be? How many students do you hope to reach? How will you scale up?
Dacid Lustick
Associate Professor
iDesign sounds like an important and worthwhile project. How could students not be interested in developing video games? However, the video left me wanting more. What do the games look like that the kids create or ‘remix’? What kinds of problems do the students solve? To what extent do students collaborate on games and problems? What kinds of instruction are provided to help students learn about working in a collaborative fashion? Finally, does the project use a culture that is relevant and common to a group? Or, if the groups are culturally heterogeneous, how do you use the range of cultures represented in the learning experiences?
Rachel Older
Could you provide some examples of how cultural knowledge and frames of reference inform the game design strategies of students in this program? Does the emphasis on cultural relevancy primarily refer to the content of the games these students develop, or the game development process?
Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.