{"id":724,"date":"2013-04-03T21:24:48","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T21:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=724"},"modified":"2014-06-25T06:15:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T06:15:59","slug":"7-lessons-learned-from-teaching-students-to-propose-an-idea-for-kickstarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/7-lessons-learned-from-teaching-students-to-propose-an-idea-for-kickstarter\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Lessons from Teaching a Kickstarter Class"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2F7-lessons-learned-from-teaching-students-to-propose-an-idea-for-kickstarter%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/kickstarter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-161\" title=\"kickstarter\" src=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/kickstarter.jpg\" alt=\"kickstarter\" width=\"480\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/kickstarter.jpg 480w, https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/kickstarter-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\" target=\"_blank\">Kickstarter.com<\/a> helps creative people and makers bring their projects to market.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are going to create something new like a music album, a new video game, or a movie, you need funds to pay for labor and resources.\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\" target=\"_blank\">Kickstarter.com<\/a> provides a platform to enable creative individuals to share the story about their project and ask the community to help fund it.<\/p>\n<p>In my professional work, we have looked for ways that our software development team can support deeper learning in higher education.\u00a0 \u00a0Through collaboration with <a href=\"http:\/\/engineering.mercer.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mercer University School of Engineering<\/a> and the Technical communications department, our <a href=\"http:\/\/merc-mercer.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">research center<\/a> was given the opportunity to help mentor students. \u00a0\u00a0We are very thankful for the professors and leadership of the Technical communications department enabling us to mentor students from the proposal writing classes.\u00a0\u00a0 While the students learned various aspects of technical writing, the professors designed their classes in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edutopia.org\/project-based-learning\" target=\"_blank\">project based manner<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 This was a perfect environment for the challenge we would offer to students.<\/p>\n<p>Our software team had the opportunity to mentor two semesters of students.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We challenged the students to design an educational video game that would delight college students.\u00a0\u00a0 The games were designed to maximize fun while helping student gamers to \u201clearn by accident.\u201d \u00a0 By co-developing the project ideas with students, we hoped to conduct research with them while also funding future internship opportunities for the students.<\/p>\n<p>So&#8230; Why should we teach with games?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; We learn by doing. Student learning increases when they can immediately apply their knowledge.<br \/>\n&#8211; Games can be a platform for teaching systems thinking (i.e. the Sims, FoldIt! )<br \/>\n&#8211; Games can inspire large scale collaboration (i.e. Wold of Warcraft)<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"font-size: 1.17em;\">Lessons Learned from teaching KickStarter and <a href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?cat=7\" target=\"_blank\">Game based learning<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u00a0 <strong>Learning creativity:<\/strong>\u00a0 The students who selected the Kickstarter game design challenge utilized thoughtful creativity to draft their educational experiences.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Students explored almost every genre of gaming including social games, casual games, first person shooters, MMO\u2019s, and other virtual environments.\u00a0\u00a0 Their subjects ranged from math, personal finance to history.\u00a0\u00a0 The imagination from the students was very inspiring.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0<strong>Learning the art of persuasion and marketing: <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0When I learned technical writing in college, I have to confess that it was very dry.\u00a0 I really enjoyed seeing how the teachers shared the craft of writing with the students through proposal writing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The students had to learn to share their visions and scope with written and visual clarity.\u00a0\u00a0 The project proposals considered needed to address planning concerns of cost, schedule and scope.\u00a0\u00a0 By developing a Kickstarter proposal format, the students also learned the craft of engaging the community by sharing a clear vision of why their proposal can benefit education.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Leadership and working as a team:<\/strong> \u00a0Drafting a proposal that inspires leaders and the community to care about a cause is very challenging.\u00a0\u00a0 The teachers of the class organized the students into project teams.\u00a0\u00a0 Through this process, the teams selected leadership and organized the various phases of the project:\u00a0 letter of intent, requirements drafting, story board drafting, drafting budgets, and video recording.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0<strong>Building high level requirements for programmers:<\/strong>\u00a0 To help keep the students organized in communicating with our software engineering teams, we mentored them in creating <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mountaingoatsoftware.com\/topics\/user-stories\" target=\"_blank\">user stories<\/a> for their ideas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 User stories are a light format for documenting software requirements.\u00a0\u00a0 Through this process, the students learned to prioritize their requirements and focus their product designs so they have a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Minimum_viable_product\" target=\"_blank\">minimal viable product<\/a> that is more likely to be funded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0<strong>Estimating budget: \u00a0<\/strong>Students worked with a software engineering team to scope and estimate a budget for their project.\u00a0\u00a0 Using the user stories\/requirements the students created, the software team treated the students as customers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The programming team offered potential implementation ideas, offered coaching on having a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gogamestorm.com\/?p=125\" target=\"_blank\">clear elevator pitch<\/a>, and making sure the students considered all the design elements required for a game.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What\u2019s the objective of the game?<\/li>\n<li>What are the rules of the game?<\/li>\n<li>Why would I play?<\/li>\n<li>How does the player receive feedback about progress? (scores, badges, visual space)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0<strong>Introduction to game based learning:<\/strong>\u00a0 I really enjoyed seeing the students share their final presentations.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Game based learning is a relatively new concept in educational technology.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was exciting to see these undergraduate students propose new ways of teaching using gaming.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0<strong>Story telling using video:<\/strong> To conclude the proposal process, some students created draft videos in the \u201cKickstarter\u201d style.\u00a0 During this phase, the students drafted their video messages using an outline or story board.<\/p>\n<p>My team and I really enjoyed our opportunity to serve as mentors in this technical communications proposal class.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 During the closing presentations, I realized that we had transformed these student teams into teachers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The students were passionately advocating for their idea that can help enhance student learning and make it more fun.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To be honest, some students were more engaged than others.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I, however, enjoyed the process of mentoring these students in creativity, planning, and communication using our mash-up of Kickstarter and project based learning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Entries:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0<a title=\"Want to build team collaboration, communication, and productivity? Make work visible!\" href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=706\" target=\"_blank\">Want to build team collaboration, communication, and productivity? Make work visible!<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Creating Authentic Learning Environments using Project Based Learning and Scrum\" href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=702\" target=\"_blank\">Creating Authentic Learning Environments using Project Based Learning and Scrum<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Teaching like a game designer\" href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=500\" target=\"_blank\">Teaching like a game designer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"How video games are changing education (infographic)\" href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=474\" target=\"_blank\">How video games are changing education<\/a> (infographic)<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Kickstarter games that teach math, programming, language, ecosystems, economics\" href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=160\" target=\"_blank\">Kickstarter games that teach math, programming, language, ecosystems, economics<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 2px; line-height: 0px;\">\n<div id=\"attachment_1531\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/gbl.png\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1531\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1531\" src=\"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/gbl.png\" alt=\"Game based learning\" width=\"550\" height=\"3135\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1531\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Game based learning<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2F7-lessons-learned-from-teaching-students-to-propose-an-idea-for-kickstarter%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kickstarter.com helps creative people and makers bring their projects to market.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are going to create something new like a music album, a new video game, or a movie, you need funds to pay for labor and resources.\u00a0\u00a0 Kickstarter.com provides a platform to enable creative individuals to share the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,4,14,7,11,3,8,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1530,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/1530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}