Just around the corner

Our freshman orientation game is just around the corner. The materials are printed out and packed up in envelopes. We had 30+ freshmen football players test it last week and things went very well. They didn't follow directions all that well, but that happens. There was also a lot of chaos, but that also happens when you do something on such a large scale. The football players came in with a good attitude and thought this activity was much better than what they had. Yeah!

I have to say I can only take credit for the ideas and creating the tracks. My colleague has a more organized brain and did most of the legwork. I threw in a little of my expertise with technology, though the printer got the best of me yesterday when I was trying to print off the iron-ons for our shirts (yes, some of us are wearing clues!).

I will be launching the plagiarism game next week. My testers have really enjoyed the game and it's only taking them 10-20 minutes. They have only had minor suggestions, but I'm still trying to add feedback for the questions and some more sound effects. It will be done by next week, even if it kills me! I will be sending out a survey to the freshman class on Tuesday, then asking professors to help me get students doing the game a week or two after that.

In addition, I'm contemplating a game for the modern language colloquium I teach once each semester. I want it to be based on Carmen Sandiego, but haven't gotten that far. I'm thinking of having the 12 stars on the EU flag stolen, and they can pick up the stars as they work through the activities. I haven't decided if I want to build something in Flash or do it completely analog. I would like to submit something for Computers in Libraries, which is due September 15th, and this is the only idea I have for the moment.