Social issues class

So the whole, "Take a picture with my phone and upload it to the blog immediately, which will make me head to the blog and write a post actually talking about what is in the picture" idea hasn't been working lately (as evidenced by the previous two posts which sport pictures but no real text. Unless, of course, I retcon and go edit them.)

This is my Social Issues class plus a couple of auditors. It's a rambunctious group that not only likes to discuss stuff, but likes to challenge how I grade things and why I do things the way I do them. I welcome the challenges. I find the hardest thing is not to let them (or me) go off on tangents, and not to let the whole class degrade into a bunch of smaller conversations.

Overall they're a good group. Even the guy who talks all the time knows he's talking all the time and doesn't begrudge it when I ignore his raised hand to call on some other people who haven't spoken yet.

Actually, the hardest part is guiding the discussion so it actually reveals something about the text or subject being discussed. I think we all enjoy the discussion, but I'm not always convinced that any real learning happens until we all walk away and think about some of the things that've come up.

WPI GameJam

The WPI GameJam came a week after IGDA's Global GameJam. That meant we had all WPI students participating, and no outside schools. Ah well.

Over the weekend, groups started and worked on games for the Mass Game Challenge. 38 Studios sent designers, artists, and programmers over to talk to the teams, review their ideas, see what advice they could give, and provide pizza. We webcast the whole thing almost live (about a minute delay for technical reasons, not about censoring anything) which led to a strange call from Chuck Rich where he was talking to me on the phone and watching my answer about a minute in the past. He was giddy with excitement, which is always fun to be a part of.

During a lull in the excitement (aka, when everyone was actually working), I sat playing my DS and overheard Rich Gallup talking to one of the kids and suddenly it clicked (because I was just listening to him instead of talking to him directly)-- he's the Rich Gallup from Gamespot who's podcast I used to listen to! So I told him so, and we had a weird moment of not quite fan meeting, because I hadn't said I liked the podcast, only that I listened to it. And, of course, the one thing I remembered about him was that he recorded the whole thing standing up while everyone else sat down and made fun of him for standing up. Again, it wasn't exactly, "Hey, I liked your podcast," but it certainly proved that I actually listened to it. I mentioned that he left before the whole Gerstmann-gate thing blew up, and he said he was still in touch with all those guys, and then we kind of paused...

And then one of the other 38 Studio guys called him away and we never mentioned it again.

Awkward.

For the record, when Gallup left the Hotspot, it was pretty much the beginning of the end. I eventually stopped listening to it because the guys were so demoralized after Gerstmann-gate that it was a little sad to listen to, as they each got jobs elsewhere and said their goodbyes.

And Rich and all the guys were great to show up, and I know the kids thought it was great to have them there whether they were helping or distracting them.