End of Enrollment – Tying up loose ends

Enrollment Update:  We have 823 students, 33 teachers, and 3 professors across 8 time zones participating in GiverCraft!!!

I sent a last call for rosters and tracked down teachers to submit their rosters and with assistance from Dr. Lee and Thomas was able to get them added to the WikiSpace.  Yesterday we had a large number of rosters to add and I sent several team members some rosters to add in hopes of getting them all added by today.  We need to complete all enrollment tasks by tomorrow so that we can get teachers oriented with all the tools. 

I also had to cancel enrollment for several teachers:  one school would not be able to repair and update their computers in time, a teacher realized she couldn’t commit the time needed, and one school was not willing to revert back to an earlier Java version to accommodate our MinecraftEdu client (this would jeopardize other programs running on their computers).

I created a Google Sheet for each class roster; once the usernames and passwords were created, I added them to the roster and shared it with the teacher.  I added Dr. Lee and Amanda to each sheet; Amanda will be using additional sheets in each roster to collect assessment data.

Many teachers had problems downloading and installing the MinecraftEdu client;  I spent time this week emailing back and forth with teachers and talking on the phone to resolve their issues.  The issues included:

• not being able to access the download link
• not being able to unzip the file
• incompatible Java version
• school firewalls preventing access to our server
• using school MinecraftEdu (different version) to access our server

In prep for the teacher handshake meeting, I also forwarded a Doodle poll from Dr. Lee for teachers to sign up for a meeting time.

For the Teacher Challenge in MinecraftEdu, I sent a secret word to each teacher and reposted instructions as a PDF in the Google Group as well as sending it by email, so that teachers could be prepared.

Several teachers wanted to change their class times so I had to rearrange their times in the schedule.  We have a teacher who has 4 classes participating but only 3 classes were going to be able to use our MinecraftEdu client due to their schedule.  The teacher was planning on having the 4th class use their school MinecraftEdu but after several classes cancelled their registration, we were able to add them to the schedule.  Several time slots are full and with many classes overlapping in the schedule, it will be important to stress that teachers have their students log in and out of the client within the time frame they have been assigned in order to avoid problems logging in.

My loose ends:

1. Finalize the GiverCraft Schedule – I only have two teachers who have yet to submit their roster; if they don’t send it by tomorrow, they will be dropped from our list.  I am finalizing a schedule that will include teacher information and class sizes; this will be a shared document for GiverCraft teachers and our team members.
2. Add Wiki pages for remaining class rosters.
3. Assign Zones for each class – now that our schedule is more or less completed, I will finalize the zones that each class will be in during the game and add it to the GiverCraft Schedule.
4. Create memories in house of memories – I’d still like to contribute some memories to the House of Memories.
5. I’d like to hear from every teacher by the end of next week whether or not they have been able to test MinecraftEdu.  I have a list of teachers to check-in with about their progress.

On a personal note, I’m grateful to be honoring military Veteran’s this week!! I am thankful for all the family and friends that are veterans as well as those that support them.  Thank a veteran this week!