Claim OwnershipThe Kingdom of Diddorol behind-the-scenes Podcast
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Description
The Kingdom of Diddorol is a fictional kingdom that serves as the setting for all English Language Arts activities in Barrington (NH) Middle School's Room 244. It is the geographical component of the storyline of a game overlay, which presents and contextualizes all the usual ELA content in an alternative way. Each of the six provinces in Diddorol have a corresponding area in the classroom. Each province also symbolizes one of the Six Traits of Writing, and has a "mythology" of its own.
In this podcast, I'll share about my experiences in using a game overlay to change my delivery of the standard public school curriculum. Insights into what is working, and why -- as well as what is not, and how I'm coping with that -- will be explored, in the hope of encouraging other educators to experiment with this teaching method. A tip o' th' hat to Lee Sheldon, author of the text "The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game," the rulebook I used in developing Diddorol.
In this podcast, I'll share about my experiences in using a game overlay to change my delivery of the standard public school curriculum. Insights into what is working, and why -- as well as what is not, and how I'm coping with that -- will be explored, in the hope of encouraging other educators to experiment with this teaching method. A tip o' th' hat to Lee Sheldon, author of the text "The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game," the rulebook I used in developing Diddorol.
12 Episodes
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Time flies when you're having fun. Or for that matter, when you are busy. I was far later getting to this, the last podcast about the running of the Diddorol game overlay pilot, than I had intended or hoped. I finally had an open moment and seized it, in order to share some of the lessons learned and to share feedback from the students (ie, players).
I did include a few images to go with some of the statistics mentioned, so if you are interested in visual aids, you may want to run this with pictures enabled.
Contact me: [email protected]
Visit the Kingdom website
(which, at the time of this
writing, is going through a
refit for the coming school year): www.diddorol.org
A lot has happened in the Kingdom since Lo'Ni, from wild chickens falling from the floating city of Lumina to a cave-in at the word mine in Rocklor. I try to summarize the plot--and the actual underlying academic standerds that are driving it--in this episode, recorded 3/18/2012.
The January 2012 issue of NEA-NH's "Educator" publication features Diddorol on the front page...and page 3...and page 10. It is a long, accurate, and detailed profile of the game layer I'm using. See scans of the article here.
I give a few details about what happened during the Kingdom's winter holiday analog, Lo'Ni (Longest Night), and I mention a brand new blog set up to share completed writings by players. See the new blog here. (There isn't much in it at the time of this posting, but it does have two "histories" of the first trimester, aka Run One.)
Main site: www.diddorol.org
Having gotten a sense of what was working and what was not, I have begun to revamp elements of the overlay to improve overall performance of the game. Meanwhile, the newest storyline involves a winter holiday in the Kingdom, and students and parents are offered an opportunity to provide feedback about the experience so far.
Now that the first trimester is coming to a close, I have a better sense of how and where I was successful and unsuccessful in the initial design. Most of this episode talks about this.
That's not where I begin the podcast, though. News of this pilot project is spreading, and I first talk a bit about that. Note: Forgive the redundancy at the beginning of this episode. I am rushed for time this weekend (as mentioned in this podcast, I've a lot of leveling-up and planning to do), and hadn't remembered that I'd already talked about Vicki Spandel's blog post in episode 7!
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