The most popular game at UNCC during Free Time is Roblox. Similar to Minecraft, Roblox uses Lego-like figures to move around thousands of games. These games range from “Work at a Pizza Place” to SpongeBob and everything in between. During the past couple of months, I (Hailley) have been working with them to create accounts. This allows me to talk about how to create a clever username and a strong password. I also make sure to keep a record of their account information in my field notes notebook, because we all know the memory span of K-5 isn’t always the most reliable. We hope that over the next several weeks, we’ll move to more of a notecard system where a student writes down their user name and password; that way the cards are kept at UNCC and the kids can get on their accounts even if I’m not around.
On Thursday, when I was talking to the students before leaving, we came up with the idea of having a Roblox Friday. Where during Free Time, we would try to get as many kids on the computers to play Roblox. That way, we could exchange info on the best games to try and add their peers to their friend list (Roblox has a Friend layout that is reminiscent of the days of MySpace profiles with “Best Friends” and the blue and white color scheme). I was happy the kids were gung-ho about doing a group lab.
When I got to UNCC on Friday, I got out our whiteboard and let everyone know it was Roblox Friday.
It was a fun day indeed. The lab was full and most of the kids played Roblox. A bunch of 3-5th grade boys teamed up to play in the same game and while their voices got a little loud at times, they were sure having fun. I encouraged students to use each other as resources when they got stuck. The older kids stepped up and helped the younger ones find games, add friends, and solve a problem in the game.
I watched one kindergartner spend his entire free time on one particular game, the Super Fun Easy Obstacle Course (let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. So. Much. Lava.) But this kid was bound and determined to finish it. No matter how many wipeouts he had, he was ready to try it again when the character re-spawned. I was impressed at his patience. The game challenged him to strategize and learn from previous mistakes. When he finally finished the whole obstacle course (right before Free Time was up) he was quite proud. Many high-fives were exchanged with lots of smiles.
The other thing a few of the older students attempted today was building and creating their own games. This proved to be tougher than expected; the software isn’t as straight-forward as it could be. Roblox also doesn’t seem to have any more detailed templates; users can either chose a baseplate (just a gray slab) or a flat terrain (big green space). This showed me that a workshop is waiting with the Roblox Studio; much could be said about how to create a world and how you could set said world up. More research needs to be done before I commit myself and the students to a workshop like this!
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