Civic Mirror’s New Year’s Resolution is to help our educators and students keep pushing the envelope when it comes to active, experiential education.

Our team has been so busy developing that we haven’t paused to tell you what we’ve been up to since September. With more and more classes diving into Civic Miror, we realized the need for some major streamlining, and postponed our ‘top secret’ version from 2.3.0 to 2.4.0. Since that decision we’ve kept busy through two minor releases and as of this week, one major release. In fact, in total these releases include 148 bug fixes and 87 features.

We look forward to finishing the 2.3.x versions early in the new year, and can’t wait to get to release the delayed but much anticipated 2.4.x series!  Below is a summary of the great stuff we have developed and released since September:

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2.2.1 (Launched Sep 30, 2012)

2.2.1 Saw numerous bug fixes and improvements for our Educators and Keymasters, making it easier than ever for Keymasters to manage as many Schools, Educators, and Licenses as they need to.

2.2.1 Highlights:

• A streamlined email system to notify Keymasters and Educators of account and license changes or requests they should be aware of.
• A more intuitive system for Keymasters to transfer licenses to and from Schools and Educators, and to see an overview of Civic Mirror usage in their district.

2.2.2 (Launched Oct 31, 2012)

In 2.2.2 we fixed numerous bugs, and set the groundwork for a major efficiency push.

2.2.2 Highlights:

• Support for some IOS Emoji (see this post by our programmer extraordinaire Derek Lam about Emoji support.) 
• Major efficiency improvements, leading to a roughly 50% reduction in file size of each page browsed, and reduced load times.
• Improved help on Trade pages to make trading more intuitive.
• End of Year reports now give Wildcard details when you mouse over them.

2.3.0 (Launched Dec 15, 2012)

2.3.0 brings with it a host of improvements to the Educator and Student experience, as well as various bug fixes and other goodies.

2.3.0 Highlights:

• Account Unification! Educators can now seamlessly move between any of their countries. Whether in the Resource Library or the Discussion forums, viewers can now see who you are and where you teach, with links to your profile page.
• Discussion forums now include links to the country and home page of each poster.
• Improved alerts and messages to help guide students and educators as they learn Civic Mirror.
• A new “Canada’s System of Government” learning module, co-written by Civic Mirror superstar Daniel Ballantyne

Ms. Nina Franklin and Brier Terrace Middle School Students Talk About Civic Mirror

Last year, Nina Franklin, a 7th Grade social studies teacher from Brier Terrace Middle School in Washington state (just north of Seattle), ran the Civic Mirror with her students for the first time.  After the experience, Mel Cooke, Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Edmonds School District, met up with Nina and several of her students with a video camera and interviewed them to determine whether or not the program was educationally worthwhile.

Teachers and coordinators considering the program should watch this video!

Our favorite quote from the video is from Nina Franklin herself, who had this to say when Mel asked her whether or not she would run Civic Mirror again,

“I would run Civic Mirror again because I think students get a depth of understanding with the experiential component. They get to be a part of a democracy and interact with one another.”   – Nina Franklin

A huge thanks to Mel Cooke, Nina Franklin, and the Edmonds School District for producing and sharing this video with us.

The Civic Mirror Team is proud to announce partial support for the various emoji characters that are found on iPhones/iPads and other mobile devices. From Wikipedia: ” … the word literally means “picture” (e) + “letter” (moji). The characters are used much like emoticons elsewhere, but a wider range is provided … ” Up until now, attempting to use these characters could result in forum posts not saving properly.

We initially discovered this problem when we received automatic notifications from the forums, telling us that certain posts were not saving properly. We tried to contact some of the posters to gather more information but in case we missed some, we would like to apologize to all students and teachers that may have encountered this problem. We would also like to extend our thanks to all students and teachers that helped us solve this problem.

There are literally hundreds, or possible thousands of emoji characters out there, so there may still be some that are not yet supported.You may find that after saving your post that some characters are converted to a slightly different looking picture, or a completely wrong picture, or a question mark. You may also find that some characters may appear correct on your own mobile device, but not to other devices and desktop computers. If you find a problem with a specific emoji, please report it here  and follow the instructions.

We encourage everyone with access to a mobile device to try out some emoji the next time you get a chance!!

While our small team is just too busy developing and supporting to comment on how Civic Mirror is actually allowing teachers and students to do all of the things mentioned by the panel of educational experts in this Spark talk (i.e. flipped classrooms; blended and student-led learning; rewarding initiative, inquiry, and imagination in learning; etc.), it’s worth posting here because it’s totally relevant to everyone using Civic Mirror.

Maybe someone in our community could contact Spark and let them know that 100’s of CM Educators are doing all these things already! Students? Parents?

In 2010/11 a fella named Dan Ballantyne started using Civic Mirror. We noticed immediately how involved his students became with their simulated nations. This is usually a sign of a good-to-incredible teacher who is able to capitalize on the many teachable moments Civic Mirror provides. Dan’s a little more than just good.

Today, two years later, Dan has run 6+ Civic Mirror countries, has been showcased on our blog for his beta-testing contributions, co-authored two of our newly released learning modules, facilitated CM Workshops in his own district (WRDSB) and others, and has quite likely Tweeted more about the program than anyone else. We’re writing this post because, just the other day, we learned an article he submitted on how Civic Mirror successfully “gamifies” the curriculum was showcased on the TVO website. Definitely check the article out. Excerpt below:

Gamification is currently a buzzword in education and the Civic Mirror exemplifies the best of this trend by harnessing the potential of a game but linking it with sound pedagogy to enable students to meet the majority of the Ministry’s curriculum expectations. What makes it indispensible is that it does this in a way that is centered on student inquiry and problem-based learning; in short, the students are given agency within a broad framework created by the Civic Mirror. As Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown describe in their book, A New Culture of Learning, “when play happens within a medium for learning… it creates a context in which information, ideas, and passions grow” (2011, p.18).

Great article Dan! Thanks for the kudos! Indeed, the group of WRDSB educators using Civic Mirror are a special breed.  We really couldn’t say it any better than @CorbettBall, another WRDSB educator, did when he tweeted:

New ‘Getting Started’ Page for Students

After receiving feedback on how we could improve Civic Mirror for first-time users, several mentioned that having clear steps for students on the Getting Started page upon logging in. Whereas before there was only the CM Basics Video and a few links, now we have clearly outlined the first things students should do upon logging in, in step-format. (image below).

In-Law Family Relations

The other item has to do with the types of relations we allow students to select for their 7 fictitious family members that they have to provide for when they become citizens of their simulated nation. Civic Mirror hasn’t ever ‘pushed’ students to create nuclear families, but we did neglect one type of relation that Caelan, from country “Brandow” (a class from Mississauga, ON), pointed out to us. He wrote:

While creating my family on the game for the first time, I realized that there was no option for an in-law. Many people in the real world have parents or grandparents living with them. You could technically list them as your mother but your mother and your mother-in-law are two very different people.

Not only that, but what if your virtual family had two mothers or grandmothers living with you? It would be confusing to say you had two mothers. Saying a mother and a mother-in-law would be much more informative.

So I believe that you should add the options for in-laws in the family section. In addition to the addition of mother-in-law, I believe adding father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and possibly more in-law positions would be beneficial to the game.

Thanks to Caelen’s comments, our programming team added the various types of ‘in-laws’ that adults all over the world provide for (image above).

Daniel, CM Lead Programmer

Just in time for the start of the school year is the launch of Civic Mirror 2.2.0, with a focus on making life easier and better for the Educators and ‘Keymasters’ in our community.

Registering and using Civic Mirror has never been easier. Whether you’re an Educator just trying things out with a Trial License, or administer a large school district with hundreds of licenses, you’ll notice substantial improvements:

2.2.0 Highlights

• A new easy and seamless registration and setup process – From choosing the Free Trial or Full Program through requesting licenses and creating your first simulated Country, you’ll be guided every step of the way with your progress clearly marked.
• Enhanced security, including encrypted sessions for transmission of all sensitive data.
• For Keymasters – our district officials in charge of distributing licenses – you now have a host of powerful tools to make your job easy and customizable.
• Requesting licenses and setting up simulations is easier than ever: educators can now request new licenses and set up their countries all from the Country Settings page.

Fun Fact: Our web development team fixed 70 bugs and added 82 new features within 2 months time, making 2.2.0 the release with the most issues in the shortest time we have ever handled.

We’re working on Civic Mirror 2.2.1 which will continue the enhancements and fixes from 2.2.0, and then – on to Civic Mirror 2.3.0, whose features we’re keeping under wraps, but can’t wait to show you!

Sincerely,

Daniel Lindenberger, Civic Mirror’s Lead Programmer

This Ted Talk made us think of many Civic Mirror countries and the political problems they experienced as well – can democracy exist without trust? While just a simulation, the number of CM fascist coups in 2011/12 was record breaking. Was a lack of trust always at the core of democratic breakdown? What could prevent this? Check out the video, very powerful.

Daniel, CM Lead Programmer

This is the first in our new series of Developer’s Blogs, where we show you a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes and under the hood of Civic Mirror.

With the recent launch of Civic Mirror 2.1.0 you’ll soon be noticing our new Learning Module platform and soon-to-be-released content. While this is front and center in our new version, there are over 70 bug fixes and feature additions in this update including.

2.1.0 Highlights

• A new Educator’s News page
• Numerous Improvements to the look and functionality of our CM Library of teacher-made resources for other teachers to use.
• An improved Getting Started page for educators with clearer steps on how to get CM up and running in the classroom.
• Better Tooltips (the blue question marks throughout the interface that offer help on various topics)
• Better Mouseover functionality (visible among other places on the Maps)
• Character counts on long text fields (for example, landlords no longer have to guess whether their tenant’s contract description is going to fit)
• A wider possible range for the percentage class in the minority culture.

Many of the changes you’ll see are directly thanks to our Educators and Students – fixes for bug reports get rolled into each version, and the amazing ideas that get submitted to us are discussed at our regular meetings, and often incorporated into our Roadmap (our ‘Master Plan’ for the next year’s worth of Civic Mirror development).

Our team is now hard at work on Civic Mirror 2.2.0, which will include a lot of behind-the-scenes improvements to our code, and improvements to make the lives of our Educators and ‘Keymasters’ better. CM 2.2.0 will also lay the groundwork for an exciting upgrade to the CM Educator experience in CM 2.3.0, scheduled for release for next School Year.

Sincerely,

Daniel Lindenberger, Civic Mirror’s Lead Programmer