Education project offers global connection

By Paul Darst

Before this past January, Andrew Coad had never written a computer program.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Clay County High School senior demonstrated a Web game he designed as part of a class project.

“I didn’t think I would get mine done, but I did, and I think it’s pretty good,” he said.

Now he is considering attending DeVry University to earn a degree in video game design. Coad is one of more than 300 students who took part in Globaloria West Virginia this school year. The pilot program has changed the minds of students and educators alike around the state and the country. The plan is for Globaloria to be adopted statewide by the 2010-11 school year.

The Globaloria program is about much more than just designing video games, Coad said.

“This has helped me in my other classes,” he said. “It involved a good deal of math. You have to use coordinates and graphing to plot where you want things to be.”

21st Century Learning

Globaloria is a pilot education project that uses a social network for learning Web-game design and simulation production, said Idit Harel Caperton, founder and president of the World Wide Workshop Foundation, which developed the Globaloria concept. She also is an education researcher and the wife of former Gov. Gaston Caperton.

Globaloria is a platform that includes several social networks, Caperton said. Students on those networks learn to build interactive video games by working together in the virtual community.

“The Globaloria model is more intense in the use of technology,” she said. “This is a demonstration for why we need high speed Internet in our schools.”

The program uses Web 2.0 tools, Caperton said. The first generation of Internet tools were not interactive: Users would visit Web sites where they would gather information. Web 2.0 is interactive. It includes wikis, or online Web sites to which visitors can contribute, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, blogs and other interactive tools.

Learning how to program Adobe Flash is a basic part of the curriculum, she said. All of the video games use Flash.

Having the skills to use Web 2.0 will be vital for students long before they enter college or the work force, Caperton said.

“Actually, they need it now,” she said.

But Globaloria goes beyond simply learning to use advanced technology, Caperton said. While developing their game projects, students seek advice and help from others in their network. That kind of social interaction is beneficial because it exposes students in West Virginia to those in other parts of the country and world.

During the pilot project, researchers will evaluate the network, curriculum and tools to improve the program from year to year, she said. All aspects of Globaloria are experimental.

Globaloria has several platforms, and more are planned, Capterton said. Each platform has its own network, themes and active communities.

“My G Life is the basic one,” she said. “It’s the biggest in West Virginia.”

The “G” in G Life stands for global issues. It focuses on everything from reading and math to science and social issues.

My H Life, which has been piloted in summer camps, focuses on health issues. My S Life deals with science.

A Lot to Offer

The Globaloria West Virginia project started at seven schools with 89 students during the 2007-08 school year. For the second year, the current one, it expanded to 14 schools and 332 students. Next year, the final year for the pilot phase of the project, it will expand to 20 schools and about 1,000 students.

“We’re studying the timing, too,” Caperton said. “We want to take it statewide, then nationwide, then worldwide.”

Once the pilot project is complete, the plan is for the West Virginia Department of Education to become the administrator for Globaloria and expand it across the state, Caperton said.

The Globaloria team has been working with the department to make that happen. The program fits well with other initiatives already under way at the state level, said Steve Paine, state superintendent of schools.

“As part of our 21st century learning model called Global21, West Virginia public school students are focusing on core subjects, as well as performance skills like critical thinking, self-directed learning, collaboration and creativity,” he said. “Globaloria supports this 21st century learning environment with alignment to the public school curriculum and technology standards.”

Clinton Giles, principal at Capital High School in Charleston, has witnessed how Globaloria can prepare students for the 21st century.

“It can be utilized across the curriculum,” he said. “It lends itself well to facilitating the development of 21st century learning skills. The whole concept emphasizes communications skills.

“The kids are able to communicate. The kids develop interpersonal skills. They are able to establish goals, establish objectives and systematically work toward achieving their goals.”

During the pilot project, Globaloria has included schools of every type from every corner of the state, Caperton said. It has included urban schools, such as Capital, and rural schools like Clay. Marshall Community and Technical College also is part of the program. And it has involved a variety of students as well. It is not just for students who make the best grades or have an interest in becoming video game designers.

“This is a program that’s good for everybody,” she said.

Competitive Learning

Caperton and other members of the Globaloria team spent much of May traveling to schools around the state to see students present their video game projects. During those presentations, the team evaluated the projects and asked for feedback from the students and faculty.

At Clay County High, Coad demonstrated his game about bullying.

“I myself used to be a bully,” he told the class. “Being in detention hall wasn’t much fun. You can make more friends by being nice to people.”

Although the Clay students worked together, they each did their own projects. Students at Capital High worked in teams. Each team gave a PowerPoint demonstration outlining how they developed their games. They included the successes for each team member and the frustrations they encountered.

One team created a game in which players could practice throwing kunai, which are knives used by Ninjas. Another team developed the WVU Pittbreaker trivia game. It involves using a paddle to bounce a ball and break University of Pittsburgh bricks. That was an idea some school officials thought might be marketable.

At Clay High, John Moore developed a game called “World of Gray,” which teaches users about art.

“I’m passionate about art,” he said. “... I thought it would be an interesting topic.”

But Globaloria involves more than just high school students. Ingrida Barker, an eighth-grade teacher at Sandy River Middle School in Avoldale saw big changes in her students during the course of this year, she said.

“My students have been grouped to work on the games since the very beginning of the course. When the time came to choose the topics, I gave my students some latitude in picking the topic of the game,” she said. “I did not influence their decision-making process as long as the topic they have chosen was on a global or a social issue.”

Game topics in her class include recycling, anthropogenic influence and terrorism, Barker said.

“It has been fascinating to watch these students take on the issues they felt passionate about and do a lot of research to teach about these issues through their games,” she said.

Transforming Students

Those projects have changed the students in a lot of ways, said Barker, who taught Globaloria for the first time this year.

“Throughout this year of Globaloria, I have seen my students develop true collaboration and communication skills,” she said. “The students have learned not only how to work together but also to depend on each other to accomplish tasks. They have learned to take charge of their learning and seek help from other students, teachers, as well as Flash experts when needed.”

Using Flash has opened the students’ minds to the wide range of options they will have outside their home county and West Virginia, Barker said.

“Of course, the students have become more comfortable with technology, with some of them even embracing the provision of help to the teachers struggling with technology,” she said.

“Even the students who were the least comfortable using Web 2.0 tools have become proficient and have more fun working with any type of technology in any class.”

One reason Globaloria aims to start students using advanced technology at a young age is because they have an easier time learning it now than when they grow older, Caperton said. Barker has seen that in her class.

“I think many students used social networking sites, such as MySpace, and were familiar with the concept of a wiki,” she said. “However, blogging, Skyping or working with Flash were the technology skills none of them really encountered before. Thus, this aspect of Globaloria took longer to become comfortable with, but the students did it in a shorter amount of time than any adult would.”

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