Week Eight Reflection Blog

Blog reflection question: Reflect about the information that you have encountered this week, the conversations you've had, and the progress you made in class.  Post a reflection post to your blog that outlines your areas of confusion, celebration, and of interest.  Be sure to share the link to the blog post to this assignment.
Remember that this reflection is due October 22, 2017. Again, provide the link to the post to this assignment.
This week has been full of visual literacy, especially in my Alaska History class.   
Early in the week we viewed a film on the Klondike Gold Rush.  I have a small class and almost all of the kids are on IEP's so some of the readings we have been doing have been somewhat inaccessible to them.  It seems like they took in a lot more information from the film than some of their readings.  I also liked the film because it used period photos and gave the kids a real sense of what things were like.
The second part of the week we started to create a game for the Klondike gold rush.  I had the kids not only looking at visual material from the period, but we discussed the components of game design, including what the game board would look like and how we would convey the journey of the miners from Seattle to Dawson via one of three routes, Skagway, Dyea or the Yukon River.  In doing this we consulted maps online, we looked at online games or game boards and we brought in games to look at the various components that might be used in games for various purposes. We have spent a couple days on the design and next week we will start building the game components and play test the game.  We are stealing a couple features from Monopoly so there will be chance cards that can either help or hinder the gold rush stampeders. Additionally, players will be able to land on spaces that help or hinder.  Those cards and spaces will be one place where we incorporate the historic material we have learned.  I am also hoping to have the kids incorporate some of the historic figures into some of these game components.
The kids were asking about creating the game on the computer, but I really don't have any experience with this.  I have looked into several tools, (classtools.net , yoyogames, what2learn) but I have not been able to find anything that would allow us to transfer the board game concept onto the computer. Part of this, of course, is the ever present problem of having enough time to both learn the software and research the tools.  As I have stated before, one of the things that I feel I REALLY need is someone to curate resources for me.
Create your own interactive learning resources. (2017). Retrieved October 21, 2017, from http://www.classtools.net/
Make your own study game. (2017). Retrieved October 21, 2017, from http://www.what2learn.com/the-game-machine/
Education. (2017). Retrieved October 21, 2017, from https://www.yoyogames.com/education

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