Done!

I have finaly finished my dissertation which will be handed on on friday the 14th. Apart from all this hard work into the essay i have been keeping myself busy with other various ideas and projects. I have been looking into Perler beads of creating models from a Pixel point of view which has been mentioned in my essay. I have also been discussing what the best options are to enhance Pixel me and I feel as though a website needs to come together hopefully with the help of a someone who is specialized in that area. I am also going to work on a new game design within Pixel me to strengthen the concept. Finaly im helping out on Tuesday and Friday with 1st years as its about character creation and how to make your own rules and consequences to make a unique game idea.

Creating the bead work

Complete model once ironed

Yoshi

Update

Hi, just to let everyone know I'm still cracking on with the disseraton. Most of the research and main body is how technologies and creativity influence learning through education such as: teaching structures, how the likes of art attack has influenced teaching units and how toys can be utilized to help promote creativity through the imagination, active playing and story telling. Currently at the moment I'm looking into the communication within education and how that can benefit kids and the first area is pen and paper games and how that can be used as a  learning tool.

Any way just a quick update what I've been looking at and still lots more to come.

 

Bits and bobs

After taking in the dissertation brief and tutorial session, I have decided to have a think about a short introduction and overview to give me a basic idea of what I intend to do.
I have recently started my topic creativity and starting to look at a few books, films and websites to help me strengthen my research. I have just started right a small paragraph on how creativity can be applied.
I have also had few very brief chats with  a primary school, high school and university lectures on what methods and skills they look for within students and also what exercise they do to make it fun while learning. I have managed to grab hold of a pre school to primary creative curriculum   for the new year of 2012 - 2013 which shows me what types of creative developments they are looking for to enhance their learning.

overall i think im heading down the right track its just backing up with quotes, comments and how they measure in a debate and how they affect my work and what can be taken from the discussions to make my pixel me product better

Dissertation

After a quality day at Joshes house. I have decided the direction i want to go with my dissertation. after the crit and feedback from Josh and other peers I feel that creativity within education and learning environments is my strongest point and hope to discuss the importance and relevance or creative and imagination via games and activities and how this can be used to help both students and teachers and hopefully by the end this will help me develop Pixel Me further. these are the following chapters.

Introduction
overview
Creativity
Technology
Communication
Knowledge
The audience
The market
Conclusion
bibliography

Fulwood College

After rescheduling the workshop I decided to take Squiggle Me down to Fulwood. We had a group of about 10 of us and again I just told them a bit about myself and what I've done, Then got straight down to Business. This time I decided to set a theme around the Guild 2012 and so the participants had to draw related people, buildings and stories to incorporate that into the squiggles. examples; P.N.E, Tom Finney, Tight rope walker, B.A.E, cotton industry, Harris museum and many more. Then once all the drawing was complete we decided to get into pairs and create a story via the cards we made and once finished we all go up in pairs and told our own stories related to the guild.

Overall The session went really well and again I tried a different approach of having a theme which made boundaries, One thing was brilliant and that was one of the pairs decided to make a poem which again another way of presenting squiggle me. I also instead of a group story individual ones and it was great to see other peoples thoughts and ideas. At the moment synopsis and literature done. going to look at dissertation brief and experimenting with the 3rd game idea with different types of grid papers. 

Guild Drawings

Cutting out

Discussing stories

 

3rd Game possibly?

First of all I went to the workshop at Fulwood college to get the student involved with squiggle me but in the end I had to reschedule because only on student turned up and so doing this on Tuesday the 19th. Anyway I thought Id take a trip to the uni having a few ideas on board and what i wanted to get across to the tutors was I want to create a game that lets you draw consequences or helping you as you go along and most important at has to be simple. so at the moment I'm just looking into different types of graph papers what works well, what size and how many rows there should be. the basic rules will be start any where and you have to get to the other end of the board but the other players can block. At the moment it might be bit hard to take in so when i have some pics ill put them up and show what I mean and also I think I've finished the literature and synopsis so need to get checked again. :)

Blaze Group

Yesterday I went to the blaze group to a place called Nelson near Accrington. It was only a very small group but the night went really well and the people taking part were really enthusiastic which was brilliant. First of all I did quick talk about me and my ideas then they got me and Jenny to play a game which was about ninja poses, its a bit long to explain here but the main thing is that it  got everybody involved and engaged. Once that was done I got Pixel Me out for everyone to start drawing their characters and then got straight into playing the game. My intended ideas was for me to start the game off and then me to step out and get the group as a whole  to decide on their own rules from the basics of GET STEPH!

It was really great to see what the group came up with and it was brill because not just duels were going on but they decided to incorporate other toys as blockades, so you needed a certain number to get across. There were also bases at each end and shapes within a toy at the center which had shapes and if you got an even you collected one and needed to head back to base a bit like capture the flag.

Overall the feedback was positive, everyone enjoyed them selves and took their models home great night. 

Drawing and cutting

Jenny's monster

Towards the end of the game all or nothing