Teacher, Writer, and Overall English Engineer

I'll be at the Gameful Learning conference this summer between July 23 and July 25. I will be also hosting a session on Twine  and ways we can effectively use it in the classroom for learning at the conference. The abstract of my workshop is copied below. Hopefully see you there! Cheers, Greg Title: “Constructing Twine in the ESL Classroom” Abstract: How can English as a Second Language (ESL) pedagogy help with implementing gameful learning materials? To provide some perspective, current ESL pedagogy can be summarized into three guiding principles: 1) learning should be defined using concept questions, 2) learning should be seen in context, and 3) learning should include follow-up activities that practice the learned material. A concept question is a teaching device used for foreign language learning; for instance, if a learner were learning the vocabulary ‘bedsit’ some concept questions might include ‘is it a room?’ and ‘are there any other rooms in the house?’.

I just couldn't resist the Interview with a Vampire  parallel in the title, although I am sure it's too subtle for anyone but myself to actually catch. If you haven't seen it, of course I'm right about now going to endorse it. (Go watch it).  I was recently interviewed for National Poetry Month (that's this month, btw). I kind of blabbered a bit. http://www.gyroscopereview.com/2018/04/national-poetry-month-interview-series-interview-with-poet-greg-w-lyons/ I would like to thank Gyroscope Review for the opportunity and the platform! I particularly like this nugget that fell out of my mouth, "   Poets aren’t bedrock, they’re rain." Not the least of which because I used the correct "they are", but it sounds so certain, confident, and entirely subjective.  Do you agree with this metaphor? Do you have one of your own? Feel free to share in the comments. 

Greetings! My newest project "Interactive Elements" has been released on the Unity Asset Store. You can find it here, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/interactive-elements-script-solution-c-113657 Want to add some interactive environmental elements to your game like what  Don't Starve  or other similar survival games have? Here's a package to get you started!  This package includes a scripting system that allows  4 element types  to interact with each other:  -Fire   -Water   -Ice   -Wood.   The element type is defined by a base script, and the base script can be added to  any  Unity3D gameobject! That's it,  everything can be customized via the inspector , no coding necessary!  Interactions include:   -Fire sets Wood ablaze  -Fire propagates across Wood objects  -Fire evaporates Water  -Ice freezes Water  -Fire melts Ice into Water  -Ice or Water can extinguish Fire 

The tools for creating videogames are more accessible than ever before. The most advanced game making tools require a bit of coding while others can be done by just clicking buttons (e.g. Construct 3 ). It's a crazy good time for people who want to make videogames. In preparation for this game creation revolution, I've started a YouTube series that introduces coding to people with absolutely no coding experience. By combining my foreign language teaching experience and my knowledge of C# and Unity3D, I believe we can and should teach Unity3D like a foreign language. The introduction to the series along with a short video that explains why I think we should teach newcomers Unity3D as if it were a foreign language are now available on YouTube. I have had the idea for this concept for a while, but my technical knowledge has been an easy excuse to delay creating the series. Often times I would watch YouTube videos and want to emulate the professionalism of some of them, b

This year's Global Game Jam (GGJ) was my first and the theme was Transmissions  and boy was it enlightening. For those of you unfamiliar with Global Game Jam , it's a yearly international event that asks people from all walks of life to join together to make a game in 48 hours. If you're interested in what goes into making games, then jams like GGJ provide an opportunity to lend your skills to the development of the game, whatever your skills may be: artist, audio, writing, coding, designing, and so on. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) provided a location so people in the area could meet like-minded individuals and have a collaborative working space for these 48 hours.  I went as a volunteer for Tech Valley Game Space and also participated in the event by teaming up with mostly RPI students, and in many ways it was an enlightening experience to be reminded why undergraduate students are hesitant to work in groups. As I mentioned earlier, the theme for this year

Recently, I've been updating my lessons with Twine , software that allows a person to create interactive narratives in storybook form. Basically, think of it as software that allows you to create your own 'choose your own adventure' stories. To get used to the software, I used a familiar lesson plan about simple English sentences and incorporated it into Twine. I wanted to learn about the software and understand its limitations and possibilities for teaching and learning.  If you would like to try it the end result and provide feedback, the Twine story can be found here: http://philome.la/GregoryWLyons1/a-simple-english-sentence I have also updated my original post with the new Twine lesson as well, here.  https://gregorywoodrowlyons.blogspot.nl/2016/05/a-simple-english-sentence.html I think these lessons in short story form can improve engagement for students, but I am uncertain if there are other tangible benefits over in-person teaching and learni

I have been featured at Playcrafting! Check out my feature here . https://www.playcrafting.com/greg-lyons/