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The Final (Or Only because I'm lazy) Rant
Posted by Evisersia
on
4:46 PM
So, here it is, my long awaited final post to this blog for the semester. You have no idea how overjoyed I am at the prospect of this. Tomorrow evening I'll be giving my presentation thing, so tonight I'm making sure everything is in order to go. I won't say that this semester hasn't been interesting, though I think a better word for it is entertaining. From BSing answers to questions on the wiki, to getting an introduction to flash its been a bit of a ride. I kind of look forward to seeing the things my classmates will come up with to say tomorrow night.
This course has been an interesting, but somewhat failing lesson in collaboration. At least, I hope collaboration was the point of all this blogging and wiki-ing we've been doing. In reality, very little collaboration has gone on outside of the classroom making the blogs and wikis seem to be very useless. I see the point in this kind of work, but don't agree with the way its currently being implemented.
The way things are working, as I understand it, is the class is focusing more on blogging and wiki-ing than it is on the actual game creation process. By just looking at some of the blogs I found links to you can see this focus. They are more personal journals, filled with random comments such as sport scores, or what the author is doing that day. Even the ones that are more on topic (including my own) are rife with simple entries of "Today we _______." The end. This isn't collaboration, this is parroting to get a grade.
I feel that too much emphasis has been placed on the quantity of posts instead of quality. Where's the sharing of neat bits of code you found while trying to figure out how to make your character move? Where's the actual work you did in class? The source files? Where are the comments? Where is the proof that someone else is reading these posts?
Along this quantity train of thought, there's the question of equality. How can you hold a college level student, who meets in the lab once a week for a little over two hours equal to a middle or high school student who meets for an hour and a half or so daily for five days a week? The same teaching patterns really don't seem to work with the two groups. I wonder why?
The point of this is, while I think the class has a good idea to it, I don't believe it is a good use of time (and in a college student's case, money) in its current format. If you're going to put such a great emphasis on collaboration, then make sure there's collaboration. Inter-campus groups via skype or the blogs or the wikis for little projects, or something. At least some communication through a medium other than the course instructor! Otherwise, leave me alone and teach me flash, that's what I came for.
This course has been an interesting, but somewhat failing lesson in collaboration. At least, I hope collaboration was the point of all this blogging and wiki-ing we've been doing. In reality, very little collaboration has gone on outside of the classroom making the blogs and wikis seem to be very useless. I see the point in this kind of work, but don't agree with the way its currently being implemented.
The way things are working, as I understand it, is the class is focusing more on blogging and wiki-ing than it is on the actual game creation process. By just looking at some of the blogs I found links to you can see this focus. They are more personal journals, filled with random comments such as sport scores, or what the author is doing that day. Even the ones that are more on topic (including my own) are rife with simple entries of "Today we _______." The end. This isn't collaboration, this is parroting to get a grade.
I feel that too much emphasis has been placed on the quantity of posts instead of quality. Where's the sharing of neat bits of code you found while trying to figure out how to make your character move? Where's the actual work you did in class? The source files? Where are the comments? Where is the proof that someone else is reading these posts?
Along this quantity train of thought, there's the question of equality. How can you hold a college level student, who meets in the lab once a week for a little over two hours equal to a middle or high school student who meets for an hour and a half or so daily for five days a week? The same teaching patterns really don't seem to work with the two groups. I wonder why?
The point of this is, while I think the class has a good idea to it, I don't believe it is a good use of time (and in a college student's case, money) in its current format. If you're going to put such a great emphasis on collaboration, then make sure there's collaboration. Inter-campus groups via skype or the blogs or the wikis for little projects, or something. At least some communication through a medium other than the course instructor! Otherwise, leave me alone and teach me flash, that's what I came for.