Download the episode here.
Episode 39
This week, I look at Marvel’s mobile game, Marvel Strike Force, and what we can learn about collaboration and how to use it in class. Plus, news and updates from Google and the Department of Education.
News & Updates
Department of Education
- U.S. Education Department Releases State Plan Template for the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
- Two-thirds of the funds have already gone to states
- The final third will be released when state plans are approved by the dept of Ed
- Nearly $122 billion toward safely reopening and sustaining safe operations as well as addressing the impact of Covid on students
- Education Department Announces State Allocations of $800 Million in American Rescue Plan Funds to Support Students Experiencing Homelessness
- The department sent a letter to states urging them to focus funds on identifying homeless youth, provide services for them in light of the Covid impact, and provide assistance to enable homeless students to attend and participate fully in school activities this spring and summer
- Reminder: Classic Google Sites is going away
- Classic Sites need to be transferred to new Sites by the end of the year
- Starting May 15, you won’t be able to create a classic site
- Edit details in line with Google Tasks on the web
- Add additional information to tasks without having to click “Details”
- Rolled out April 26, so you should see it
- Email threads with recipients outside your organization will be labeled “External”
- Yellow tag in the Subject line
- Reminder to treat external emails with caution
- Started rolling out April 29, up to 15 days to see it
Treasure Chest: Google URL Tricks
- Go to the address bar and the document’s URL
- Look for the final /
- You’ll see edit and a bunch of stuff behind it
- Erase it all and replace with one of the following:
- /preview to see the document without all of the editing stuff around it; just the document and a black background
- Good for distraction-free reading
- /copy to force a copy; they’ll see the blue copy button
- /template/preview to see a preview with the option of making a copy
- /export?format=pdf to download a pdf of a Doc or Sheet
- /export/pdf to download a pdf of Slides or Drawings
- /present to show a Slide deck in present mode
Boss Battle: What Marvel Strike Force Taught Me about Collaboration
About MSF
- A Marvel mobile game where you unlock Marvel characters and fight in teams of 5 to complete missions, quests, and so on
- In the game, you can join alliances and work with other alliance members to complete other objectives as well
- Two main modes connected to collaboration: Raids and Wars
Raids
How it works:
- Goal: Complete a series of battles and try to complete all of the battles as a team
- Join a group (4-8 alliance members per group, 1-3 groups)
- Battle through a series of your own team fights of roughly the same difficulty
- You can use the same team multiple times, so you can take your strongest team and breeze through some of the fights quickly
- Raids last for 24 hours, so timing is imperative
- Fights use up energy, so you can’t just go through all of your fights in 20 minutes
- Either wait for energy to recharge or buy more energy
- There are different paths to go down, and you can’t go backwards
- If two people go down the same path, the team can’t 100% the raid
- There is some coordination necessary for this
- Rewards – everyone gets the same rewards based on the percentage of the raid completed: 30%, 60%, and 100%
- There’s an incentive for all members to be active
Lessons Learned:
- Learn to find ways to take those things that are routine and mundane (quiz, homework, etc.) and up the ante by making it a team challenge where each student must complete the same type of task
- Placing the right time crunch can really enhance focus
- Find ways to get students to hold each other accountable
- Throwing in optional “paths” can get students to communicate and strategize better
War
How it works:
- Goal: Outscore the other alliance by defeating teams and destroying rooms on the opponent’s helicarrier
- Set up a defense by selecting a room and occupying 1 of the 2 slots in that rooms
- Add up to 8 teams
- Defeating a team earns points; defeating all 16 in a room and destroying the room earns even more points
- Each character can only be used once; you can’t use characters that you’ve put on defense
- Individuals have to strategize how to use your characters on offense and defense
- You have to plan out how to use your characters
- Alliance leaders can strategize coordinated attacks by the alliance by marking rooms to focus on
- Sometimes multiple attacks are necessary to take down really tough teams
- Your attack may be solely to take one character down to allow someone else to clean it up
Lessons Learned:
- Set up groups, or even classes, for friendly competitions
- Students can create the questions to pose to other classes
- Differentiate by difficulty to challenge all students
- Collaboration doesn’t always have to be “equal”
- Set limits to how much each student can answer, creating an opportunity for collaboration and strategizing
- Get students to recognize their strength and weaknesses to help the team
Crew Members’ Board (#8BitCrew)
QOTW: How can you add collaboration to your classroom?
Use #8BitCrew on Twitter, tag me @comicsocks, or post longer stories in the comments section here.
Get connected
- Twitter: @comicsocks & #8BitCrew
- Web site
- Youtube
- Email: 8bit.instructor@gmail.com
- Support the show on Patreon.
Check out my Google Classroom Udemy course.
Credits
Music by David Fesliyan (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/)
- Intro/Outro: “Retro Platforming”
- Boss Battle: “Boss Battle Rock”
- Crew Member’s Board: “Pirate Dance”
- Wrap up: “Game Over” by Patrick de Arteaga
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links to products or services. I may receive commissions or bonuses from your actions on such links.
The Educator's Quest 