What if you had the students spent one afternoon researching classes? There are a LOT of forums out there where they could find information on them. Or - find a group of students at the school who already play WoW (peer group, hint! hint!) who are willing to present the benefits of a class to the students. Or maybe do some crazy personality quiz thing - like "Which WoW Class Are You". Look at the ones I found just googling it - QuizFarm and Quiz.wegame. There were a few more, but they are blocked at my work. BTW - I'm a druid, lol.
Peggy Sheehy: Excellent discussion - I want to add that forming a guild between schools right offf the bat is probably a sound move. One server, One guild- multiple races and classes - but make sure that they are fairly well distributed - and I would also have the teachers roll new level 1 toons to accompany kids initially knowing that they can switch out to their higher level toon when really necessary. In my opinion, we want the kids to have the complete experience - figuring out the economy and how to make gold, buy armor, participate in a guild, choose and level professions etc. Let's get a list of schools who will definitely participate in September and a number of accounts we will have available....wOOt!
Today, Helga Brown and I had an impromptu discussion about the logistics of this project (at least as I hope to implement it) in an ongoing Skype Chat that tech facilitators and teachers have set up in our state. This is the foundation for an ongoing discussion of all sorts of ideas about what using WoW in a school might look like. Let's talk about bringing this community together for a similar chat at some point in the near future.
Here's the log:
(from May 27th, 2009)
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[12:56:09 PM] Lucas Gillispie: @Helga - Help me think through this idea... Using World of Warcraft as described at http://wowinschool.pbworks.com but also allowing interested teachers access to those accounts...
[12:56:22 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Professional Learning Community Through Gaming?
[12:56:37 PM] Helga Brown: Hmmm...so sharing accounts or having some teacher accounts?
[12:56:45 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Sharing
[12:57:09 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Students use at the after-school program... Teachers use at home on their own time
[12:57:52 PM] Helga Brown: Hmmm...I'm not sure how that would work - because the students should bond with their avatars....and they might feel uncomfortable with someone having access to it. Plus, there is the virtual persona they will create. What about putting teachers on another server?
[12:58:39 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Well, I thought there would be separate avatars one is the student's another is the teacher's even if they're on the same server.
[12:59:12 PM] Lucas Gillispie: I'd like to have both on Sisters of Elune, I think... Though, that's not required.
[12:59:15 PM] Helga Brown: But how would you keep the student off of the teacher's avatar? Will you be assigning students and teachers accounts? Like Joe Smith has the Pender001 account and Mrs. Jones shares it?
[12:59:25 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Yes
[12:59:32 PM] Lucas Gillispie: And students won't access at home
[12:59:33 PM] Helga Brown: That would be more managable.
[12:59:41 PM] Helga Brown: Are you sure they won't?
[12:59:49 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Well, we could track.
[12:59:50 PM] Helga Brown: If they download the free 10 day trial they might be able to access it.
[12:59:54 PM] Helga Brown: Ahhh, ok, that makes sense.
[1:00:19 PM] Lucas Gillispie: In the first iteration of this project I want a great deal of control.
[1:00:40 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Then, from what we learn, if we continue it, we could adjust it.
[1:02:19 PM] Helga Brown: Do you think a lot of teachers would be interested in playing with free accounts?
[1:02:42 PM] Helga Brown: How do you plan to finance the game (in world)? Will you gold farm?
[1:02:45 PM] Lucas Gillispie: At this point, I doubt it... But I've been surprised in the past by "my teachers"
[1:02:58 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Well, my DK is almost 70... :P
[1:03:12 PM] Helga Brown: LOL - ok...so if you don't buy any mounts or repair any armor... LOL
[1:03:35 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Humph! Dailies and Herbalism are Cash-Cows!
[1:03:42 PM] Helga Brown: Herbalism! Oh yeah - that is true.
[1:04:02 PM] Lucas Gillispie: So, if students need "in-world" money, I can provide it, but remember, we're all starting at level 1
[1:04:03 PM] Helga Brown: You should be giving a "Farming Period" during the day at work. ROFL
[1:05:23 PM] Helga Brown: Do you envision the students all playing together, thus leveling together?
[1:05:34 PM] Lucas Gillispie: That's my initial vision.
[1:05:35 PM] Helga Brown: given* a farming period...sorry
[1:05:51 PM] Helga Brown: Ahhh, then that makes sense. You won't need a lot of gold for that.
[1:06:10 PM] Helga Brown: And you will be advising them, I assume, on game play and what to spend gold on and such?
[1:06:22 PM] Lucas Gillispie: And their play time will be limited in what you can do for about an hour or two a day after school for (3-5 days a week).
[1:06:47 PM] Helga Brown: So probably just a lot of questing for the first two or three weeks.
[1:06:50 PM] CSample: @Lucas-FB and other social networking blocked in Currituck
[1:07:03 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Both I and the one other teacher I've pegged in the district to help out.
[1:07:15 PM] Helga Brown: Sounds great!
[1:07:18 PM] Lucas Gillispie: @CSample - thanks!
[1:07:47 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Can you imagine playing in a computer lab with one projected at the front of the room? ...Awesome!
[1:08:37 PM] Lucas Gillispie: One other thing I've been pondering is race/class selection by students.
[1:08:53 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Balance and Location for grouping issues...
[1:09:19 PM] Helga Brown: That would be AWESOME Lucas :)
[1:09:38 PM] Helga Brown: You may have to assign races/classes....since the starting areas will differ.
[1:09:54 PM] Helga Brown: Wait - aren't there two starting areas for each faction (not including BC races)?
[1:09:56 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Thought about that... But then, there's the ownership/bonding issue
[1:10:42 PM] Helga Brown: What if one teacher was in charge of the Durotar group and one was in charge of the Barrens group and then you guys all met up in Orgrimmar? I'm using Horde as the example because that is the group I know best.
[1:10:48 PM] Helga Brown: Wait - Mulgore - DOH!
[1:11:03 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Heh... That's a thought!
[1:11:06 PM] Helga Brown: Silverpine too - DOH!
[1:11:15 PM] Helga Brown: But that would limit it less, though, right?
[1:11:56 PM] Lucas Gillispie: I also considered structuring it so they could level to a point in local groups or on their own, and then if needed, I could escort, as my DK, them to a central location.
[1:12:03 PM] Helga Brown: Have you thought of parent volunteers? If you had a third or fourth adult to help (and they wouldn't have to log in necessarily) you could support a third or fourth starting area.
[1:12:32 PM] Helga Brown: I think having them all convene at a central location is a good idea. You could have them all set their hearths there.
[1:12:40 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Well... There's also the idea of bringing in other schools in even other states... I think Peggy Sheehy is going forward with it too...
[1:13:09 PM] Lucas Gillispie: <looks around the rest of the ever-quiet chat room wondering if everyone else is totally geeked out>
[1:13:16 PM] Helga Brown: That is awesome! If you set up a guild you could just have all your educator volunteers be officers. So the others would know.
[1:13:37 PM] Helga Brown: Did you want to go to a separate channel?
[1:13:57 PM] Lucas Gillispie: Nahh... Maybe we can rope someone else here into it... :P
[1:14:02 PM] Helga Brown: LOL
[1:14:27 PM] Helga Brown: I have lunch duty in 10 minutes...so I'll have to go soon. WOOT! Hooray! I <3 Lunch Duty.
[1:14:32 PM] Lucas Gillispie: But we may need to repeat this conversation. I'd like to bring the wowinschools community into a discussion like this.
[1:15:12 PM] Helga Brown: Sure, that is a great idea. You know a chat is better than ventrillo because you can go back and read over it and reflect. Plus others can look at it and provide feedback.
[1:15:20 PM] Lucas Gillispie: So, I was thinking that educators should be officers at the highest level but for the most part not participating as such. I'd like the student-players to elect a guild leader.
[1:15:24 PM] Helga Brown: And that has nothing to do with me being shy in Vent :)
[1:15:30 PM] Lucas Gillispie: :D
[1:15:45 PM] Helga Brown: That is a wonderful idea!!!!!!!!! I love it!
[1:16:01 PM] Helga Brown: Electing Class Officers (excuse the pun) would be great, too!
[1:16:02 PM] Lucas Gillispie: So, we could structure the guild so teachers have "admin" rights, but the students should organize their own guild.
[1:16:29 PM] Helga Brown: I like that idea. So teachers would hold a certain rank and the students would populate the rest of them.
[1:16:49 PM] Lucas Gillispie: What a laboratory this could be... If it works, imagine watching this unfold.
[1:17:02 PM] Helga Brown: I have to admit I'd love to be there :)
[1:17:19 PM] Lucas Gillispie: I'll video, and blog, and tweet, and chat...
[1:17:23 PM] Lucas Gillispie: ...excessively.
[1:17:55 PM] Helga Brown: Moar Pix! Moar Pix! :)
[1:18:01 PM] Lucas Gillispie: :D
[1:18:48 PM] Lucas Gillispie: OK... Going to Copy/Paste what we've chatted here into the Wiki... Maybe we'll get something started.
[1:19:15 PM] Helga Brown: Okie doke. I'm going to start heading down for duty. Nice chatting with you. Sorry to everyone for hogging the chat.
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