Game Academy - Week 5
Last week was one of the better weeks so far. The kids are continuing to work on their own projects, and making great progress. I hope to be able to post their work next week. JStall presented to the rest of Avetec and the president of Central State, the college he attends. Everyone seemed super excited about what we were accomplishing. Perhaps when this is over, and Jeff and I look back, we too can share that excitement. But now we are tired.
Missy was much better behaved this week. She started animating on her own, and created some pretty cool little animations. One was a worm squirling around and then splattering into a wall. The other as an eye crying, then a heart thumping. I hope she saved them so we can showcase her work. But seeing her finally find something she enjoys was rewarding and energizing.
Kyle is almost done with his spawn. He only has the face and cape left. You know, the easy parts… Right. I really hope he finishes it. The twins are also beginning to fight less, or at least fought less last week. Kody finished his chess set and is now working on texturing it. He is struggling with figuring that out a little bit, but I think he will get it all textured up by the end of the Academy.
It seems the best way to teach them something is to get them started on a project and let them explore. But getting them to work on a project multi-day/week without ever working on anything for more than a few minutes is very hard. They will only learn what they need to learn. They don’t seem to store tricks in the back of their head to use in the future. That gets frustrating when Jeff and I try to teach them something they need, they don’t listen, then when they need it they ask us to reteach it.
Once we were able to let them explore and discover on their own they seemed to learn a lot and were much more motivated. But it took us about 4 weeks just to get it to the point where they would rather work on a project than play XBOX. Playing went from a necessity to something to do during a break. Seeing that transition was also rewarding.
I think the main reseaon these kids were so resistant to learning was they just didn’t know how fun it could be. They hadn’t ever really asked the question, “How do they do that?” let alone know any of the tools existed. Now they have the tools and are starting to ask the question, and are able to figure out how they do it.
I guess my expectations were a little high. But I don’t think it was unnecessarily high. Perhaps the education system is failing them. Failing to create curiosity. Failing to encourage questions. Failing to teach them how to answer their own questions. But its very hard to do that. It took Jeff and I, teaching the coolest thing we can think of to them, more than 4 long and exhausting weeks. And we had about a 1 to 1 teacher to student ratio. And Springfield thinks making one big school is will help them educate the youth. It won’t. It will hinder the education. It was just the cheapest solution. But that is another issue, I just feel bad that the twins and Missy might not be able to find what they are most interested in so they can pursue it.
I hope this last week can be rewarding enough to continue the program.
Tags: education, game academy, games