Mr. Dorsey's Globaloria Blog

Reflecting on My Research

2010-07-26T09:41:00.003-04:00

When my game partner, Neale, first suggested oil spill cleanup as a game topic, I was very eager to demonstrate how complex an issue it is. In a society of quick-fixes and instant gratification, the big picture is hard to see. Though the news networks give fair coverage to the story, I wasn't sure that most of our population cared as much about the complexity of the issue as about the oil blobs on the beaches. Also, though I do hold BP to blame for the disaster, everyone seems surprised that they just can't go in an fix everything and be done with it.

In doing research, I have found it to be more complex than even I understood with a background in zoology and environmental science. For one, I didn't know that another threat to the brown pelicans is that oil in their nesting grounds can soak into their eggs. We only see images of oiled pelicans being cleaned and released into the wild.

Though very complex an issue, I found a video that sums it up very nicely. The image above is a still from SPILLEDOIL.COM, click here to see the clip. Also, check out the MAKE website who created this animation and re-released it to the web in response to the oil spill.

A Deeper Understanding

2010-07-09T06:36:00.002-04:00

After the end-of-day discussion led by Dr. Idit Caperton, I started to think more about the purpose of our game idea. I wanted to get a real feel for the "what" and "why" of Mission:Impossib-oil. It is very easy to get excited and wrapped up in the Flash skills that we learn and use to create a socially responsible game a a learner. As a teacher, though, Dr. Caperton was right when she posed the questions about what idea in our games was hard enough for the audience to comprehend that it required a creative approach to teach or model.

When my partner, Neal Garvin, suggested the idea of oil spill cleanup, our research lead us to the Environmental Sensitivity Index (E.S.I.) as the "what." This is the practice of prioritizing cleanup and prevention based on three criteria: shoreline type, human resources, and natural resources. This was a practice that was going on all the time but, even as a science teacher, I didn't know anything about it. This leads me to the "why."

The reason I see this as being a hard subject for the audience to understand is that it involves interests that not everyone completely understands or appreciates. Most of us have been watching coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf and are inundated with images of tar balls on beaches, oil-covered wildlife, and "The Whale." Experts and laymen alike all have suggestions on how to fix it. Put the picture is so large, the options so fraught with pros and cons, and the interests involved are so varied that the big picture can be difficult to filter out. That big picture is that there is no perfect solution and no easy fix.

The Best of The Beatles

2010-07-08T08:51:00.006-04:00

In my opinion, the Best of the Fab Four has to be.....RINGO.

I chose Ringo Starr because of the Beatles, he was the one I always felt was the most fun in his career and he didn't take himself too seriously.

It also didn't hurt that my first impression of Ring Starr was the movie, Caveman.

He even invented music as seen here in this clip...

In a close second as my favorite Beatle....Herbie, The Love Bug!!

New Kids On the Blog

2010-07-07T23:02:00.004-04:00

After reading several of the new educator's responses to "Who is your favorite Beatler", I was very impressed. In Jennifer's blog I found a good sense of whimsy and word play in combination with the photo she chose. In Becky's blog, I saw a great combination of research and blogging through the many links she included. http://mrrosssblog.blogspot.com/,shared a good take on the Beatles as the original Boy Band through his own very personal story.

These were very good examples of people jumping into blogging feet first. They all show the inclusion of self and effort that help to make blogging a healthy, helpful, and hearty part of a Globaloria class. I think I can take what I learned from all three and use it to push my own blogs even further and model good blogging techniques for my students.

"MOTIVATION" by Bill Dorsey

2010-01-15T22:22:00.004-05:00

When given the opportunity to brainstorm about student motivation, I had to ask what motivation meant to me and what I envision for my classes. I decided to take a step back from being the teacher and to take a simpler, yet creative approach that we use in education. I wrote an acrostic poem. This let me use the letters of the word "motivation" to inspire thoughts that would help create and encourage a drive in my students to succeed in their class and in their game design approach.

So look out literary world, here it comes...

Make sure to meet both the students' and the class's needs.
Ownership of the projects, rubrics, and expectations belongs to the students.
Take time to provide honest and constructive feedback to students.
Illustrate what can be done through modeling Globaloria as a teacher.
Voice - encourage each student to develop a digital point of view.
Allow students' creativity to guide their work.
Try new things as often as you can, the students will follow suit.
Individually address each student, their successes, strengths, and goals.
Own your struggles and successes, it will help the kids accept their own.
Notice even the student's smallest successes, the big ones will follow.

After I wrote the poem, I realized that all I had to do was think about what people have done to motivate me. I'm no different than any of my students when it comes to basic human needs. All I have to do is do for them what the great people in my past have done for me. If I can manage that, then who knows, my students just might inspire and motivate me to bigger and greater things.

After the Academy

2009-08-13T10:46:00.001-04:00

Its the day after the August Globaloria Academy and I am so stoked! I am really looking forward to mentoring my fellow teachers, I have several ideas for my own class, and I think I have a good idea for revamping my own game. Thanks to all the members of Globaloria and the WWWF tea for reawakening that!

A VERY BRIGHT FUTURE

2009-08-11T22:25:00.002-04:00

Hey Globaloria Gang! Just wanted to post how thrilled I was at all of our presentations today. I had expected the more experienced users to shine in their talents, skills, and presentations (and that definitely happened beyond my expectations) but the best was the presentations of the self-titled "newbies." Looking and listening to their presentations was amazing and uplifting. I can remember the first year of Globaloria and the presentation we made. These guys blew us out of the water. It is great to see such wonderfully devoted and talented people joining in on Globaloria. How can this project do anything but succeed with such an assemblage of educators. WE ROCK!!

The Insights Provided by Blogging

2009-08-06T09:05:00.003-04:00

A piece of sad news this morning provided a reminder of the great opportunity blogs give us to see inside each other's minds. George Sodini, the man who entered an aerobics class in an LA Fitness center and shot and/or killed several members of the class before killing himself, had apparently kept a blog. According to the new reports, the Mr. Sordini's blog mentioned his own date of death (the same as the shooting) and even mentioned loaded guns as early as January , 2009. As teachers, blogs give us an opportunity to see life through our students eyes. Even if it is through the construct of a class like Globaloria, we should take the time to read our kids posts sincerely. Apparently no one was reading Mr. Sodini's blog. Hopefully, all the blogs that we read will be of a much lighter note but even so, just reading and commenting on our students' blogs is one way of showing our support on their sense and feeling of importance in a world that presents some of them with more than their fair share of pain, shame, and loneliness.

Be the Turtle!

2009-08-05T21:24:00.003-04:00

PBS' Nature has another game that I really thought was a good match for Globaloria. Its the Turtle Voyager Game. It has great yet simple graphics, good user controls, goals that reflect a strong social statement, and multiple levels. Not quite sure if its Flash but it has a great and strong Flash feel. Give it a try.

Some inspiration to kick off the new school year...

2009-08-04T23:11:00.003-04:00

Hey guys, just thought I would post some information about a game that falls right along with Globaloria and science. It is dear to my heart as I have recently been made very aware of the plight of the genetically-challenged cheetah population. The name of the game is Toki's Survival Challenge. This is a great illustration of a game with key control of a character, challenges per level, and a social issue. I can see something like this being created by our students. Enjoy!

Arrays and Randomization

2009-07-02T13:27:00.002-04:00

Had a lot of practice with arrays latey. I was even trying to make a nested array with movie clips to be attached in a random order, but, that was taxing my mind just a little bit to start off with. Though I am enjoying the control that arrays give you with just a bit of code. If anyone has good information on using arrays to randomly project movie clips, it would be appreciated. Check out Our Lunch Tray. It is a work in progress but needed to test the coding out.

Folders, frames, and clips OH MY

2009-06-29T10:15:00.002-04:00

A real quick blog today, but I learned more about using folders to organize everything you are creating in Flash. I have just been building the skeleton of our redo on The Ultimate Lunch Tray game and have used Folders to organize different sections of the game and already I feel more comfortable in the programming aspect.

If you haven't used them before, try out some Folders in your games.

Recovered and Renergized

2009-06-27T10:06:00.002-04:00

It's saturday morning, cartoons are playing (yes, still a kid at heart), and I feel very rested. After the third day of our June 2009 Globaloria training session, I sat down very tired friday evening. That was when I realized just how much we had done and learned. We didn't do physical labor, break a sweat, or lift a finer for much more than typing and eating the incredible meals over the past three days but we had really worked our brains, imaginations, and our mental limits.

This morning, like I said, I woke up very rested and refreshed. Not that it was over but in the way that I felt ready to take on the digital world again with even more gusto. I woke up thinking about what I needed to do for our virtual team assignment and not with dread but excitement.

Thanks to everyone on the Globaloria team for helping make that feeling possible.

A Memorable Learning Experience...

2009-06-25T22:14:00.002-04:00

When I found out our home blogging assignment was to write about a meaningful learning experience in our past, my first thought had nothing to do with school. Don't get me wrong. I learned a lot in school, but it alwasy came easily to me. The most meaningful learning experience I had came as an adult and was very much performance based.

As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, I was very active and was eventually honored with membership in an elite group. Part of the ceremony surrounding that elite status was tending a fire all through the night. I had been working as a waiter and trainer for Chi Chi's Restaurant at the time and had to go to camp the next morning after only 3 hours of sleep. Needless to say, I was dragging all that day prior to the ceremonies. It was so bad I even drank coffee, yes that foul and bitter concoction that everyone else in the world seems to thrive on but forsome reason remains an anethema to me.

The learning experience involved NOT having everything come easy. Try as I might I had the most difficult time in maintaining my campfire. It had rained earlier so everything was soaked. My placement was at the base of an old camping road with wind nearly constantly whipping down the hillside. No matter what I did, I could not keep a steady fire. I would try time and time again with what kindling I could deem dry enough. Even when I got the fire to a point where I thought it would continue to grow, the wind would race with greater force down that old road and snuff it out.

What I learned was hard, it was that success is not always in the result but in the effort. I had the misfortune of never having to learn that as a child, but am glad I learned it as an adult. That has replaced my expectation of success with one where I can truly learn from all my experiences, without any fear of failure.

These are a few of my favorite blogs...

2009-06-25T07:05:00.005-04:00

As part of my homework assignment, I have added a few blogs to my blog roll. The first is the Invasive Species Weblog. I added this as a way to show how organisms interact with their environment, especially when they don't belong there. We too often see animals that we take for granted and don't realize they don't belong. Pigeons, starlings, and house sparrows we see everyday. The most we ever think is that pigeons are nasty. We don't always see that they were brought here by wealthy colonists who missed them and now they all run amok, taking over niches of wonderful creatures who don't know how to cope with these new neighbors.

The second is the Bird Treatment and Learning Center. I want students to see this blog as a way of understanding how humans can interact with a wild species in a positive and healthy way. We all too often see animals, especially in our youth, as cute, cuddly, and forever. This is a good site about stewardship.

The last blog I want to talk about is Global Biology. In the process of transitioning from an afterschool HSTA program to an onschool time Biology class, I have decided to create a fresh blog. Please make sure to add that as my new Globaloria blog to your own rolls. I have already added several sites to Global Biology's blog roll, including those mentioned above.

As you can see, the blogs listed reflect pieces of who I am. I am a zoologist by training, an educator by vocation, and an ecologist by heart.

GLOBALORIA TRAINING Part III

2009-01-25T17:35:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,

Its been a while since I posted. Been a really busy semester with these new classes. Well, just finished our third Globaloria session this weekend and as always I had a blast with everyone. These always help to remotivate and energize me. I really appreciated the trouble shooting and suggestion sessions as well as the tutorials that we were given. I can't wait to show some of these to the students and it makes me feel even more that I will be able to incorporate into a classroom next year.

Thanks again,
Bill

Two Weeks In...

2008-10-04T12:08:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, sorry its been a while. Its two weeks into the after school program or so and things are picking up. We are still having some difficulties with other afterschool activities not being that permissive about attending for some of our students but we are at the "playing to learn" stage. Some have already writtend their reviews. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of game ideas they come up with this year. I am working on getting them to keep track of their hours on the wiki so hopefully will see that improve shortly.

Have a good week all,
Bill

Crazy Week Going On

2008-09-09T18:29:00.002-04:00

This is a crazy week. I was hoping to start the after school activities, but ended up only having Tuesday available. This is thanks to having an Early Out Day on Wednesday and Open House on Thursday. No one showed up after school today. I anticipate that it was just hard to get out of after-school practices this early in the year or could be still that initial getting them back in the habit kind of thing.

Another Possible Fit

2008-08-26T22:38:00.001-04:00

Started the school week with kids and had another discussion with a teacher about Globaloria. Mr. Mullens teaches Forensic Science. We discussed the possible fit of that course with a PBL approach such as the one Globaloria uses. He seemed interested.

Also, I spoke with Alexia and Qianna, both seem really psyched to get back to the game design, try out the new curriculum, and even do some research.

Hope everyone else is having as good a start to the school year.

Bill

First day back at school

2008-08-21T17:09:00.002-04:00

Today we started back as educators at Capital High School. I found out that I will be teaching one Environmental Earth Science class. Since I think this will be a great fit for a PBL approach, I have began a discussion with my Curriculum AP and the other Environmental Earth Science teacher about the possibility of fitting it into a Globaloria setting as well.

Everyone seemed very open to the idea, now just to see how it can be mapped out with CSOs.

Gearing up for school...

2008-08-19T15:43:00.002-04:00

The countdown is getting short, just 2 days til I start back at school. We have limited amount of prep time in our rooms but I feel very confident. I have already laid out a tentative calendar of events, activities, and labs for both my advanced biology and dual credit biology classes. I am very excited about that as well as starting fresh with the new Globaloria syllabus, it looks amazing and so much better for my students. I even have started my own game design project for this year called The Econauts: Invasion of the Living Sludge.

Globaloria Training Session

2008-07-16T16:48:00.002-04:00

During this second day of the Globaloria summer conference, we were able to model many of the acvtivities that the students would be going through in class. This allowed me to experience the activities as a learner. That way, even activities that I am already well-versed in, such as drawing in flash, tweens, text in flash, and layers were seen in a new refreshing way. It also gave me time to practice and try to improve those skills. Overall, as all before it, this summer session has been very enjoyable, educational, and a time well spent.

2007-10-31T15:10:00.001-04:00