Feeling Overwhelmed?

I know that sometimes keeping up with things can be a little overwhelming. I'm no different than most people. When I first started being an intern, keeping up with things (updating my progress chart) was a little difficult, and also finding the time to complete my work as needed. I was able to overcome this. I decide to set aside time from my schedule of being a Father, a Husband, and a Student each week to work on the things I needed to work on and update the documents that needed worked on. I explained to my family and school that I have made a commitment to this and I need to see it through. I planned when to do my homework, and I also scheduled time to be an intern. To my surprise, everyone was very accepting of this. I guess all I needed to do was to exercise my time managment skills. I know somethings in life at times have to become before others, I never forget this. I'm not saying I'm perfect, I still at times struggle to balance these 3 roles I play out, but if people are understanding then things will go well.

I hope you find inspiration in this.

Top 5 tips on managing your wiki

Managing a wiki can be a hard thing to do if you don't stay on it. If you only update your wiki once a week, then you'll have to think back or look at your notes on what you did, upload all the files that need to be uploaded, and after awhile it can be a bit of a headache. But I have 5 tips for you on successful wiki management.

1). "Constantly update" If you constantly update your wiki, you won't fall behind on it. Even if it's the smallest, tiniest bit of content such as a word or a picture or sentence, take a few minutes and just update it. Upload that one picture you have and add it to the page needed. 5 minutes max, even if that.

2). "Organize and Structure" Organization is key. When you upload a swf file to be viewed in the wiki, put it in the right section, possibly with other swf files if needed. Also give it a name or a title if no name or title is appropriate for your file. Pictures can be done this way as well. Give your page or pages some structure. Use categories or sections.

3). "Spelling" If you are unsure of how a word is spelled, use any spell check you can find. If you can't find a spell checker, use http://www.dictionary.com/ . Not only is this good to do anyways, it'll make your wiki look a little better and make people think you know what you're doing. :)

4). "Check out everyone else" If you are using an RSS feed to see changes on wikis, don't hesitate to look to see what changes someone has done. This might inspire you or keep you on your toes. If it's in a class situation, you'll see what you have missed. Seeing what someone else has done may help you out with your own wiki.

5). "Link It!" When you create a new page on a wiki, make sure that the is a link to that page. Don't let it just sit in wiki-limbo. If you worked hard on it and put some great content on that page, make sure that there is a link to it. Also place the link in the correct section (See: "Organize and Structure"), area, or even with an object where it's needed. Maybe near something related.

These are my 5 tips to you as a wiki user and a wiki master. You may have different ideas on managing your wiki, but these topics are key and very helpful. Plus it'll make for good looking pages.

Ideas for games

I've been trying to think of current social issues for games so it I can make it easier for new students to find ideas for their games, but I haven't been able to find a decent topic. It seems right now what the papers are covering is the upcoming election, war, and and tensions between the US and Iran. I want find something new. maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Well, the search still continues.

Paper Prototyping - July Workshop 2008

Daniel had a great presentation on paper prototyping. He showed his video that he produced a while back. He included some audience participation and let one of the educators "play" his paper prototype. I thought that was cool.

WWWS July Workshop Press Conference

This press conference is great. I am starting to understand a little bit better where this program is going. The purpose of Globaloria / WorldWideWorkshop is becoming clearer. Seeing the new schools coming into the program for year 2 pilot, and seeing the look in their eyes, made something in my brain "click". I can't wait to see what year 2 is going to bring. The new schools and students for me to help out. There is a lot pushing this forward and I'm glad to be helping it along.

A Concept to teach

I am in process this week to create a game concept that will help current and incoming students to chose what kind of game to make. Whether it be a game for social change or for educational purposes. I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. A concept that I have in mind is like a poll or a personality quiz of such to help them out. Each answer would add to a total, then after the game was over, based on the score, an out put would reveal to them what type of game they should make. A listing of ideas would then be presented to them. I hope this works.

A possible game

I found this game online. It's called Mencia Madness 3. The game is hosted by Comedy Central and based off of their show Mind of Mencia. The game itself is uneducational but I believe I can do the same thing, but with a purpose. A purpose to teach maybe a health game. I'll find the link to the game again and post it here to show anyone what their game is like. (maybe you all can give me some ideas)