We'll start by going over the course syllabus. [ Webcast 1A ]

As part of that we'll get everyone registered on Moodle and as practice, add a post to the Interesting Education Experiences forum. We'll discuss the results of your answers in the next class session.

Then, a get-acquainted exercise, Venn Match. followed by a break.

Next, an Introduction to Board Game Design.

[ Webcast 1B | Slides | PDF ]

Then we'll do a Board Game Analysis Exercise, a hands-on exploration of commercial and student-created board games.

We'll also spend a little time introducing Blogger and the EdGames blog associated with this class, as well as the new EdGames Glossary.

Starting now, you are encouraged to contribute to the blog and the glossary as you find new things to add to our communal knowledge base.

For Next Week (two weeks from now):

1. Read pp 1-31 of Game Design
2. Explore: Cardboard Cognition
3. Post a board game idea to the Moodle forum set up for that purpose. Throw out any embryonic ideas you have for an educational board game that is based on filling a need for real learners in a real context. See who else is interested. As part of the process, build on and comment on ideas that are posted to the list, even if you're not personally interested in working on that topic. By bringing all these great minds together, each initial idea will be improved.
4. Contribute two entries to the glossary.
   
   Here are some suggested terms from the Game Design reading that might make good glossary entries:

Senet, Roger Callois' Patterns of Play, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, collectible card game, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Spacewar!, Space Invaders, shmup, first person shooter, Wolfenstein, Quake, Doom, Halo, Battlefield 1942, platform game, Sonic, Don key Kong, Super Mario, Civilization, real time strategy, Sim City, Bejeweled, Brain Training, Tetris.

If you see a particular term that you'd like to work on, stake your claim to it by adding it to the glossary and just putting "coming soon" as the entry. There aren't enough concepts in the box above to accomodate everyone in the class, so feel free to tackle some other term from the domain of this class that intrigues you.