I got my grades finished up on Monday. I haven't submitted them yet because I want a chance to look them over one more time. I'm not happy about grading student performance -- I think there is a fundamental conflict of interest between having someone both trying to teach and assess. Still, it's something one has to do, given the existing structures of the educational system. That said, I'm relatively pleased with the measures I use in the class: some individual, some group, some in-class, some take-home, and all as focused on performance, metacognition, and understanding as I can make them.
After finishing my grades yesterday, I came home and tried to update the software on an iMac at home. The slot-loading CD-drive is flaky and it's so expensive to get it replaced that we just got an external firewire/USB CD-R instead. But it wouldn't readily boot the installer on the USB CD drive. So I used the internal drive. It got half-way through a flaked out, leaving the machine in an unusable state. So I tried again to get it to boot off the USB drive. After much struggling, I got it to recognize there was a bootable image and to start booting, but after 5 or 10 minutes, it would fail: the gray apple would become a "prohibitory sign" (I discovered it was called that after checking the Apple Support site). After some experimentation, I found that the internal drive flakes out less when the machine is cold, so I left it off while I was gone this afternoon and then booted it directly to the internal CD and started the installation over. I've got my fingers crossed.
I've just about figured out how to create the whole DoggyMups adventure. I've been spending way too much time on this, but it's fun and the kids really seem to enjoy it. I was having trouble with catching DoggyMups. I created a verb "catch, the would make the DoggyMup run away, but then I found that, although you couldn't "catch" DoggyMups, you could just "get" or "take" them. So I tried locking them, but then they couldn't run away anymore. I was stuck. Then I figured out how to modify the key properties. So I've now created a "Magic Leash" which, if you have it, sets the key to the players ID and then moves the DoggyMup to them. Otherwise, it figures out where it wants to go, sets the key to that place's ID, and then moves there. That way, it is always locked, but locked the right way! I was quite pleased when I figured that out. Now I'm working on a Transmuppifier that will transform the DoggyMup into other kids of DoggyMups given the right kind of treat (like Magic Hot Dogs).
Enough kids have expressed interest in programming that I think I may run a programming workshop for the kids in the BCRC. It's interesting how quickly the kids independently discover all the underhanded, sneaky things you can do in a MOO. One them renamed himself to a name a lot like mine and got one child to think he was me. Another child figured out you could make a message that made it look like you had left the room, while you were, in fact, still there. Sneaky. Pretty soon they'll figure out you can create items that can say things. Then then "fun" will REALLY start. Sigh... I'm glad I'm doing this, because I think it's a great learning experience for the kids, but I can see that it is going to really wear on me.