Mysterious virtual worlds...
It has been quite a long time that I've sat and written some interesting education stuff for you. But I have to take my break just to release my mind and body on my amazing vacation. I'm kidding! I did have an amazing vacation with my relatives in Russia for a month and a half but I did not do yoga and zen every day :) Anyway, I just want to take a deep breath and start writing about my experience. I hope you enjoy it.
About 4 or 5 months ago with the guidance of my professor dear Tuncer Can I signed for an online teacher training course created in Guinevere Project. The main goal of the course was to give information about virtual worlds and teach how to create games and also use them at school.
-Unfortunately, I am neither developer nor a participant of this project -besides the online course- so I will leave a link so that you can learn more details about this Erasmus+ Project.-
The beginning of the course was more like an introduction to the project and virtual worlds. In light of this data, we moved on to the practice. The thing I call "practice" is actually a game. I would get a little personal about this subject since I've never played an actual computer game for more than 5 minutes. I know for my generation it may sound weird but I was more into real-life games. Anyway, It was a bit challenging at times but I manage to come this far.
Practise was just to warm up to the actual course. The main goal was to create your own game with its own purposes, goals, and instructions.
The course offered us two virtual worlds. Minecraft and Secondlife/Opensim. The first one was more for the young learners that's why I chose the second one.
In the creation stage, since I am not an actual teacher but a student in a university, I was having a hard time with the people who are actually qualified and great teachers. Because you are developing a game both to enjoy and teach you have to think wisely. I came up with an idea and I worked with Heike Philp (She was a great instructor and savior of mine with a very patient and kind personality during this course).
During the course I learned;
📌What are the virtual worlds and how to incorporate them into my lessons,
📌How to orient myself in virtual worlds,
📌How to create objects and how to use them,
📌How to edit objects and add scripts to them,
📌Create basic games and evaluate them.
I created a forest shaped maze with lots of dark long trees. I hide mysterious objects in the maze. When someone finds and clicks on it they would find a riddle. And in the end with the answers to the riddle, they should create a story. I covered the area with walls so that it would be much more complex to find something.
I inserted an opening sign on which you click and get the directions about the game.
You can see the directions on the notecard when you click on the shiny button!
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You can enter very easily by just walking in. I am so proud of the view of the forest that I created. After you enjoy the perfect scenery you should find hidden objects.
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Once you find something you should click on that and take your first riddle. I try to put easy riddles first and make them more challenging through the maze. And I also put some clues so that it won't be all brain work. |
Once you find all the answers to the riddles and note them down somewhere. After finishing, you click on the burgundy block kinda stripe and it will redirect you to a website so that you can create your own story with the answers of the riddles. Students will be able to find the answers in the description part of the website. I thought about Storybird to create stories.
However, one of the participants in this project came out with an amazing idea. He said that I could make riddles that have multiple answers varying from one person to another. And then I can ask them to create something based on their own answers. Actually, this idea is so incredible and authentic that I was just praying for my brain to think in this way in the closest time possible.
Because I was not able to present my game to some students and play it, I just left my creation on Guinevere Island until the day comes.
Overall, I am very pleased with my game. I think a closed forest maze is a great idea and it can definitely be developed and enhanced for each level of learning.
Here is my dark maze :)
This teacher-training course taught me so many
valuable things. It was the first time that I communicated with so many foreign
teachers online that helped me through miles away. I feel much more confident
about my speaking in public after I presented my game online. I also feel much
more confident about my IT skills =) I learned so many tricks and tips that I
will definitely use in my classroom one day in the future.
Also here is my certificate:
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