As my second year NMPD students move into learning HTML5, I finally had the opportunity to create a participatory exercise I’ve had in mind for several years: Dodgeball HTML.

The rules are simple: three students per side, five red dodgeballs. When a player is hit they move off to the side and grab a printed HTML element or fragment. When enough students are out, a complete HTML page is formed… but the student has to understand where they fit into the document as it grows in order to create a valid document.

The only improvement I’d make to the game – one I didn’t have time to implement this time around – is to print the tags on giant white T-shirts rather than pieces of paper. That, or having the students hunt each other with Nerf weapons through the campus, Hunger Games style. Next year, perhaps.

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