DREU Blog: Week 2

Today I moved into my apartment. So, first thing in the morning, Professor Rodger took me to get checked in. After getting sent around to different building and different offices, I was eventually told that check-in was between 12-4. So I came back to my office and did another Alice tutorial and read and summarized a paper. Then, I went back to the office at noon, hoping that I wouldn't have much more hassle to go through. Thankfully, all I had to do was sign one piece of paper and I got the key to my apartment. Then after lunch I moved in. It didn't take very long since I only had two suitcases and a few bags of things I bought at Target a few days ago. After that I did another tutorial. Then I started working on creating my own tutorial on how to create a game. Professor Rodger said she wanted another game tutorial since the Pinata one was a little long and complicated. The game I am making is a simple game of catch. The player can control the glove with the arrow keys and must try to catch it when the ball comes. I finished making the game. Right now I am working on the PowerPoint explaining how to make it.

Today I mainly worked on my catch tutorial. After I finished writing the tutorial, I started my world over to create the game from scratch using the tutorial. I made note of all the things I need to change to fix it or make things more clear and started making some of the changes. It was kind of frustrating when I had figured out exactly what amounts each object needs to move and then when I re-create the world from scratch those numbers are all different. But at least now I am learning how to write the tutorials instead of just writing the code. I will make the rest of the changes and maybe add some screen shots tomorrow. I also need to come up with some extra excercises to add to the game. I also read an article about a program that is used to change peoples attitudes towards computing. I made a small change to my blog so that each week is on its own page.

Today I started thinking about an educational area I want to focus for making Alice worlds and tutorials. Lana, the CRA student last year, did math. I looked at the worlds she made to see what kinds of worlds I should make. I also looked at a website with the curriculum requirements for North Carolina K-12 schools. I am thinking about either doing Math or Spanish. I think Spanish sounds like it would be fun to do but I can only think of a couple different things I could do with it right now. Plus, I would have to brush up on my Spanish because I only know what I learned from my classes in high school. That might be ok though since the worlds will be for middle or high schoolers and Dr. Rodger said I can order a textbook to get ideas from. If I did math, I think there are a lot of different things I could do. Also, I am a math minor so I think it would be easier for me to create the worlds.

I did a lot of editing to my Catch tutorial. I am mostly done with that now. I looked at the requirements the CRA has for participant websites and noticed a few things I was missing so I added those. Then I submitted my link so they can tell me what they think. The fire alarm went of this afternoon which was acually a nice little break from working. After that I thought of several ideas for Math or Spanish lessons and did some more editing to my powerpoint.

Today I finished editing my catch tutorial and added some exercises at the end. I uploaded the tutorial to the website. It took me a long time, once I thought I had done everything right, to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Liz helped me do that so eventually I got it figured out.

I also started making a Spanish example world. It will be for students learning food vocabulary. It will be set up like a cooking show and as the directions are given (in Spanish) they have to click and drag the correct ingredients over to the bowl. After I finish that world, I will probably make a Math world. Then I either will choose which subject to continue with or continue making worlds for both.

Those are the two main things I worked on today. I also read one more article and a few pages out of a report Professor Rodger gave us.

Today I spent most of the day working on the Spanish cooking show world. I am mostly finished with the main part. I decided I am also going to add another part at the end where the player has to set the table. That way more vocabulary can be used for other foods and for dishes and silverware. It will be written very similar to the recipe part. When I am finished I will probably make a tutorial on how to create a simplified version. I uploaded a finished catch world to put with the tutorial. I also uploaded a powerpoint of a tutorial that I modified. Liz finished the first part of a tutorial that she is working on so I went through that and gave her some suggestions.