<cue Murray Walker voice>
………….and there goes Mario!
………………and there goes Luigi!
F1 season is well underway and all over Scotland schools are taking up the SLF10 Mario Challenge.
Would you like to race head to head, in front of a live audience and win the title of
SLF10 MarioKarter Champion ?
This year at SLF10 there will be a Mario Kart Grand Prix for Primary and Secondary pupils. In order to qualify you must be in the top 4 verified time trial times.
Teachers must submit a photo of a pupil’s verified Time Trial time. These times will be logged on a leader board held on the Consolarium Glow Group and blog so you can track your position against the whole of Scotland.
At the moment these leaderboards are empty (apart from my rubbish time!) – submit your time now!
The four fastest primary pupils and four
fastest secondary pupils will be invited, with school representatives, to compete in a live race final at SLF10. In order to submit a qualifying time you must run your time trial according to the criteria below.
| The character must be | MARIO |
| The circuit must be | MARIO CIRCUIT |
| The Kart must be | STANDARD KART |
A picture of the complete time trial showing character, kart and time should be forwarded tob.mclaren@ltscotland.org.uk
The four fastest pupils from each sector will then race head to head in the
50cc Mushroom Cup Grand Prix
in front of a live audience at SLF10.
The driver with the most amount of points at the end of the Grand Prix will be the winner and crowned Mario Kart Champion SLF10 and win a Wii and copy of Mario Kart for their school.
Check out the glow group where schools involved will be posting plans, pictures and joining discussions about the game and the work they are undertaking within their class using Mario Kart as a contextual hub or as a subject specific theme.
The closing date for verified Time Trial times is September 3rd 2010. Qualifiers will be contacted after this date
Do you think Sonic is super?
Do you marvel at Mario?
Are you crazy about Crash?
Love Lara?
Fancy yourself as a games designer? Now is your chance to design, create and market your own computer game with great characters and compelling storylines. Your game only has to meet two criteria for your chance to win some great prizes.
If you are a pupil at a school in Scotland then you can enter your game in one of four categories:
Check out some examples and find out more by watching this video.
You can download the high quality mp4 here, or an iPod mp4 here.
When designing and creating your game, and think about
Use any game creation tool to build your game. For example 2DIY, Scratch, Kodu, Game Maker, SimsCarnival, Greenfoot, Flash, Net Radiant, Unreal Development Kit, Microsoft XNA or any other appropriate platform
Send us the complete game in an email, or a link or on CD/DVD. Make sure you let us know what software you used.
Need some help to get started?
Consolarium Development Officers, Charlie Love and Brian Clark, are available to offer you some assistance. They can be contacted via email (c.love@ltscotland.org.uk and b.clark@LTScotland.org.uk ).
The Final
Successful finalists will be invited to attend the Scottish Learning Festival on the 22nd/23rd September to present their game to a panel of Game Developers and Industry Specialists. A number of great prizes will also be on offer including a tour of the studio at game developers, Denki.
The closing date for all entries is Friday 3rd September 2010
The latest edition of the Consolarium podcast is now available. You can subscribe to the podcast from itunes via this link or listen to it via the embedded player.
Super samba inspired learning in schools!
This edition of the Consolarium podcast is solely dedicated to a project that came to an end just before Christmas 2009. Meldrum PS and Slains PS in Aberdeesnhire had been working with the game Samba de Amigo for the Nintendo Wii. When this game first came out the team at the Consolarium thought that this would have great potential in schools and so it was duly purchased. Here’s what it looks like:
OK, I think that after that clip you may be asking, “How on earth can a game that requires the player to shake out samba rhythms help children learn?” Well it most certainly has. What has been going on?
Samba de Amigo inspires ‘relevant and engaging learning’
The methodology that the Consolarium invariably employs in our approach to game based learning involves the computer game being used as the central ‘contextual hub’ about which learning can be situated. We have used this approach with many of our previous projects and it has proved to be a successful methodology. The teachers involved in this project worked together to create a collaborative story that focused on a rags to riches tale about a favela dwelling samba musician who made it to the big time. Accompanying this came the story of a plane, that was carrying the newly created Samba music superstar, crashing in the Amazon jungle and the associated learning about that. Here is some of the children’s work. Here is a news report of that event:
Some people may still be of the opinion that the idea of game based learning is something that does not sit with what school should be about but we would argue that game based learning, if used appropriately, can excite, challenge and create relevant and appealing contexts for learners. Just look at how writing has been developed here”
If you take the time to listen to the podcast about the Samba de Amigo project then you’ll here us talking to a pupil about his experience. If we could have written a script for a pupil to read out about the benefits of game based learning then what he said (without coaching or prompting we may add) would have been what we would have said. He talks about his learning connecting up, about it being exciting and active and how he will rmember this project. Great stuff from him. Here is a brief clip of some boys actively involved in the project and warming up for their Samba music creation lesson.
Hopefully the podcast and this brief blogpost will give you a flavour of just how good this GBL project was. A fuller account of what was done and how this GBL context impacted on learning will be released in the near future. In the meantime can we just say thanks to all at Meldrum PS and Slains PS for working with us on this project.
Calling all Jenson Button and Lewis Hamiltons of the future.
Would you like to race head to head, in front of a live audience and win the title of
SLF10 MarioKarter Champion ?
This year at SLF10 there will be a Mario Kart Grand Prix for Primary and Secondary pupils. In order to qualify you must be in the top 4 verified time trial times.
Teachers must submit a photo of a pupil’s verified Time Trial time. These times will be logged on a leader board held on the Consolarium Glow Group and blog so you can track your position against the whole of Scotland. The four fastest primary pupils and four fastest secondary pupils will be invited, with school representatives, to compete in a live race final at SLF10. In order to submit a qualifying time you must run your time trial according to the criteria below.
| The character must be | MARIO |
| The circuit must be | MARIO CIRCUIT |
| The Kart must be | STANDARD KART |
A picture of the complete time trial showing character, kart and time should be forwarded to b.mclaren@ltscotland.org.uk
The four fastest pupils from each sector will then race head to head in the
50cc Mushroom Cup Grand Prix
in front of a live audience at SLF10.
The driver with the most amount of points at the end of the Grand Prix will be the winner and crowned Mario Kart Champion SLF10 and win a Wii and copy of Mario Kart for their school.
The closing date for verified Time Trial times is September 3rd 2010. Qualifiers will be contacted after this date.
Have you thought about using MarioKart in your class as a contextual hub or topic? Check out the Consolarium Glow Group for ideas on how you might do this. You might also want to think about how you might use MarioKart in subject specific lessons also. Share your thoughts on the Discussion Board at the Wii, Mario Kart section of the Consolarium Glow Group.
We also have a small number of MarioKart kits (console, software and controllers) available on loan until SLF10. If you are interested in receiving one on loan send us a summary of how you would use it and what you feel the impact would be upon your pupils. Our team will get together and examine all bids and decide upon the lucky applicants. Please send bids to b.mcmlaren@ltscotland.org.uk and ensure all bids are with us by Monday March 8th.
Quite a lot of big projects going on at the moment, so a lot to juggle and loads of very interesting, positive findings coming out of the work being undertaken. Our MangaHigh pilot will be coming to end within the next few weeks. We will then have some data to examine and measure the impact of it’s use across a number of secondary schools in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Should be really interesting. Great to see Cleveden, Lochend, Knightswood and Jordanhill in the top ten scorers for this round and well done to Jordanhill, Lourdes and Cleveden who are also in the all time top ten league.
I am heading back up to Highland to visit schools in Castletown, Dornoch and Alvie who along with Dingwall Primary have been undertaking GBL topics using a range of games as part of the Highland Literacy Project. Initial reports are very positive and I am very much looking forward to getting reacquainted with the children and schools over the next week or two. Hear some of the initial thoughts from Dingwall and Alvie below
This week will also see me delivering to a range of Dundee City teachers at a CPD event run by Louise Henderson and the team from Dundee City (check the Glow Group for links to the work they have been undertaking) and then Brian Clark and Myself are heading to Dundee University to show a range of students the kinds of experiences GBL can offer.
As an aside I have also undertaken my Glow mentor training so hopefully the Consolarium Glow Group will continue to improve. Why don’t you check it out and get yourself involved in some of the conversations or start one of your own.
This edition of the Consolarium is now available. You can subscribe to the podcast from itunes via this link or listen to it via the embedded player:
This edition of the Consolarium podcast consists of the following:
Scottish Action Plan for Child Internet safety
The Consolarium team discuss the Scottish Action Plan for Child Internet Safety and how this also relates to the world of games and children.
Sony Eyepet for PS3 at Gavinburn PS
Ollie Bray interviews Gillian Penny, the headteacher of Gavinburn PS from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire. Mrs Penny has become a real ally and asset to game based learning having carried out some tremendous initiatives in conjunction with the Consolarium over the past year or so. Ollie talks to her about her involvemt with the Eyepet project that is being carried out by the Consolarium.
AOCBGBL
In terms of internet safety Charlie Love recommends thinkuknow.org and Ollie Bray recommends the National Education Network’s e-safety site.
Another useful site to help keep teachers and parents informed about safer game play is askaboutgames.com
Yesterday the Scottish Government announced the launch of an action plan and marketing campaign to improve the safety and of children on the Internet and also to promote responsible use.
Part of the campaign is the development of a national competition to design a national resource to help others learn about on-line safety and responsible use.
The team at the consolarium are committed to the safe and responsible use of new an emerging technologies for learning and will be developing a number of resources to support teachers and parents over the coming months.
Details of the competition are below:
INTERNET SAFETY COMPETITION
The internet is a vital part of modern life. When you log on at home or at school, when you use your mobile phone or i-pod, when you play online games – the internet opens up a world full of fun, new information, and new friends to meet and socialise with.
But with all the opportunities that the internet brings, it’s also important to know how to stay in control when you’re online, and what do to and who to go to if something goes wrong. This could be anything – like someone stealing your password and getting hold of your personal info; being bullied over text or social networking sites; or chatting with someone online who isn’t who they say they are.
That kind of thing can happen whatever your age. And as well as keeping yourself safe online, it’s important to help others feel confident about using the internet in a responsible way – people like our friends, parents, brothers and sisters.
That’s why we want you to design a resource that would help teach other people about what they should think about and do to make sure that they stay safe online.
The competition – design an original resource to teach others about online safety.
The competition is about how you would teach others about online safety, and it’s broken down into three main categories:
A. Resources for primary school-age children
B. Resources for secondary school-age young people
C. Resources for parents and grandparents.
There is also a special category for adults, like teachers, youth workers and even parents, to enter a resource that they have developed to help teach children and young people about staying safe online.
D. Original resources for children and young people
What do I have to do?
First you need to think about who needs to know about using the internet safely, and what kind of risks they might come across on-line. You could also think about the things that they might enjoy about the internet. What your younger or older brothers or sisters will need to think about will be different from you and your friends, or your parents and grandparents.
So think about what you would want to tell them to keep them safe, and then think about how you could best communicate that to them. There are 3 main ways that you could choose to do this:
1) Artwork - you could design a poster, create a game, compose a photograph, or do a sculpture or painting.
2) Creative writing - you could write a poem or song; a rap or a story.
3) Performance - you could direct a short film or animation (5 mins max); write a play, or drama script; or choreograph a dance.
Think about how other people would be able to use what you have created. Do you need to write instructions to help them understand what to do and what they should think about when they are using your resource?
What could make a prize-winning entry?
We are looking for entries that could easily be used by other people to help raise awareness about internet safety. Something that is innovative, and original, and that help get people thinking about what internet safety means to them, and what they can do to stay in control online.
There is also a new digital code – Zip it, Block it, Flag it (www.clickceop.net) aimed at helping you remember how you can stay safe. So you may want to include that message into your resource in some way.
Who can take part?
Anyone under the age of 16 can enter categories A, B and C. You don’t have to enter the category for the group that is the same age as you – in fact, it would be better if you thought about how you would teach someone younger, or older than you about what they should know about online safety. For example, if you in secondary school you might want to develop a resource for primary school children; or if you are in primary school, you could think about how you would tell your grandparents about internet safety.
Adults working with children and young people can enter category D and submit an original resource that they have developed to explore issues around online safety.
When is the deadline?
The deadline for all entries is Thursday 1st April, so there is plenty of time to get involved. Winners will be notified after the Easter holidays.
How do I enter?
Just post us your entry to the address at the bottom of the entry form, making sure that you attach the form to your submission. Make sure you clearly mark what category you are entering, and whether it is a group or individual entry. Please complete an entry form for every individual submission.
What are the prizes?
The winners from each category will receive digital video cameras. Their entry will be posted online, and may then go into a resource pack for people teaching others about internet safety.
Where can I find out more information?
If you are a young person who wants to find out more, call the Young Scot Info Line on 0808 801 0338 or email info@youngscot.org
Alternatively, please email CPRP@scotland.gsi.gov.uk , with the title ‘Internet Safety Competition’ in the subject heading.
You can find other contacts and resources to do with internet safety on the Scottish Government’s website – www.scotland.gov.uk/internetsafety
I remember when I first took on this secondment thinking, will I ever be able to fill my diary? I had loads of time to play a range of games and think about their application. Kim Aplin, the previous DO had left me a range of useful contacts and Derek pointed me in the direction of a few others but time was my friend and I felt a little insecure about how much work I would be able to generate and how much interest there was in GBL nationally.
Looking back now I can hardly believe I felt like that, and how naive I was. Now I look at a Diary that has almost no free time until the start of April, the Consolarium Glow Group is attracting more and more traffic and comments, a number of local authority partners are on board as well as individual schools and clusters doing some fantastic work not to forget an Education secretary quoted as saying
“Computer games are often perceived as solely a distraction to learning, however, alongside traditional learning aids, they can help make learning more engaging. And parents and teachers across the country are starting to see the benefits they can have.”
Just over the last week and the week to come Brian Clark and myself will have presented to over 300 teachers in Aberdeen, Dundee, Girvan, Glasgow and Grangemouth with no sign of abating and now that Charlie Love has joined us as anotherDevelopment Officer the capacity of the team has increased again.
I look forward to blogging about some exciting work beginning with Argylle and Bute and describing some projects with 2DIY and Kodu software that we have coming up, as well as loads of other work in preparation for SLF10 which you will hear about soon.
It’s always a treat to visit classes where the imagination and creativity of teachers and pupils has driven engaging and effective learning and teaching. But shh! What’s that noise? Can anyone else hear the drums?
I think we had better take a look around, follow me as we climb this hill for a look around. Wow! what a panorama – look at all the animals..
Every child I spoke to was enthused and motivated by their topic, as was every teacher. You want creative and imaginative writing? It’s there, from a range of different characters and viewpoints. Functional writing? How many reports, factsheets, biographies would you like? Listening and talking? Interviews, presentations with movies, audio, photographs….
In mathematics the children were learning about measurement in a range of scales (15o kg of elephant poo anyone?) How tall is a giraffe? If an elephant was 2d what would its area be ? Can we draw it to scale in the playground? If we know that can we work out the volume of an elephant? So many mathematical questions. How far away is the Safari we are going on? How will we get there, will we fly and how much will that cost? and on and on and on; learning in context
I saw a variety of media and tribal art where the visiting specialists were involved in the planning and delivery, music teachers teaching tribal drumming and African chants, Masai warrior dances by children in Masai robes and class made jewellery. I heard abou the significance of the jewellery in the different cultures and at every step the use of a range of technology enhanced and extended the learning going on.
And don’t even get me started on co-operation and collaboration as teams completed assignments together and presented their findings, reports and thoughts together. The desire of the pupils to show their work and explain it’s significance and what they had learned was excellent, not just to me but to other classes and their parents and carers. I saw children explaining food webs to their visitors, anything you wanted to know about a particular animal? Just ask the resident experts…..
This editon of the Consolarium is now available. You can subscribe to the podcast from itunes via this link or listen to it via the embedded player.
This edition of the Consolarium podcast consists of the following:
Reflections on BETT10
Derek Robertson and Ollie Bray attended the BETT10 educational technology exhibition at London’s Olympia. They offer their reflections of how this visit was for them…
Mario and Sonic at the Olympics at Gavinburn PS
Ollie Bray interviews Gillian Penny, the headteacher of Gavinburn PS from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire. Mrs Penny has become a real ally and asset to game based learning having carried out some tremendous initiatives in conjunction with the Consolarium over the past year or so. Ollie talks to her about the planning process involved in leading game based learning projects in a school and they take the chance to focus on how planning for the Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics project is progressing.
AOCBGBL
Brian McLaren talks bout how he is using the lovely www.buildyourwildself.com resource to support his work in schools with Wild Earth African Safari.
Olie Bray recommends an website called www.blabberize.com that allows you to turn images into talking, or blabbering, animations. Very nice!
Derek Robertson mentions a new published book about computer games called Fun Inc. Why Games are the 21st Centuries Most Serious Business by Tom Chatfield
Brian Clark recommends the website www.tutpup.com. Online numeracy and spelling challenges.
I was invited to a couple of Parent Council meetings this week, asked in to explain the role of Games Based Learning within A Curriculum for Excellence and to showcase some of the projects the Consolarium already has underway and potentially what parents could do to support it in their own child’s school.
Many families will already be familiar with the range of consoles and software available and most of the folks I spoke to at the meetings had more stuff in their houses than I had; yet very few had ever played with them and almost none had played them with their children. (Derek Robertson writes a brilliant blog post “Cod Liver Oil and Effective Learning..”on his personal site at HotMilkyDrink which is well worth a read, from a parent’s perspective)
One of the best things about the job is seeing the sparks of enthusiasm and creativity created by the GBL approach and this was evident again as a room full of parents and carers were excitedly discussing the kinds of things their children could be learning. One of the meetings ended with the Parent Council pretty much demanding (in a good way!) that the school take money from them and get out and buy consoles and implement them in their children’s learning straight away.
A positive partnership between parents and school is really important and ACfE provides a perfect backdrop against which these relationships can be strengthened; and the games based learning approach augments this beautifully.
All of these consoles in homes and all of these learning opportunities. A germ of an idea is beginning to form…………
In the meantime check out the Trailer for Parent Toolkit below
A busy time over the last week or so since my last post. As Ollie mentioned in a previous post I have been toiling away updating our Consolarium Glow Group. In the past this group hasn’t been as successful as we had hoped and it was beginning to get a bit tired looking. I have tried to restructure the way the group works so that you can more easily navigate your way around and find interesting and useful resources. It is still very much a work in progress and you should see it develop over the coming weeks and months particularly with the addition of the Games Design section which will be forming a large part of the work of the Consolarium in 2010. (I am sure that you are going to hear some very interesting things from Brian Clark in the not too distant future about this…)
In order for the Glow Group to be as successful as possible though we really need community involvement. There is so much good practice going on in schools all over Scotland that should be shared and celebrated and Glow will provide an ideal vehicle for this. Join in the discussions, add your own paperwork and weblinks and encourage others to do the same. Let us know what you think about the group, about GBL in general and perhaps some topics you would like to see covered in a Glowmeet.
Other things on the go this week include a visit to Lourdes Secondary to see them using MangaHigh and hearing what staff and pupils think of it and if you follow me on Twitter (@BrianMcL) you will know that I was in Park Primary in Alloa watching some wonderful children drum their African rhythms with an energy and enthusiasm that would have made a Masai warrior proud. I’ll be heading off to Fairview school in Perth and Loch and Calderwood Primaries in South Lanarkshire to discuss the use of GBL as well as a million other things including the next humiliation of the Wii fit weight loss challenge (I am away now to start looking out my lightest clothes to wear for the next weigh in!)
Over the next few months we are going to be expanding the ways that we communicate and publicize the work of the consolarium. We have already made a good start with our bi-weekly podcast where we share what we are up to, ideas, interviews with other practitioners and top tips for classroom practice and professional development opportunities.
We are also working on another few resources that we hope will benefit the whole games based learning community and more information on these services will follow soon.
As part of a bigger project we are working with the on-line service team to audit and up-date the ICT in Education website and the Consolarium pages on sharing good practice. We have a load of other case studies that will be going up online soon and we are just waiting for the interviews to be transcribed.
Brian has also been working hard on the Consolarium Glow Group and again we hope to make use of the new blogs and wiki features of Glow when they become after the Glow refresh in March / April.
Finally, we also now have our own dedicated Twitter Channel (www.twitter.com/consolarium). As well as pulling in the RSS feed from this blog we will also be tweeting from the various conferences and events that we attend around the UK.
The whole of the Consolarium team is on Twitter – we find it a great way to keep in contact, to share ideas and resources. You can find us at the following accounts:
Isn’t the Christmas and New Year break just great. However, getting back to work and attempting to 
fit in to the work clothes can bring one back down to earth with a bump as the two weeks of festive excess appears to still be with you! Fully in-keeping with our Health and Well-Being agenda the team at the Consolarium has resolved to try to shift from their expanded wasit lines the trifle, turkey, mince pies, Black Bun and possibly the occasional beer that they had consumed over the festive break.
The Wii Fit Weight Loss Challenge
We are quite lucky at the Consolarium as we do have access to a variety of exergaming titles. Dance mats have always been popular but we have decided to focus on looking at how the Wii Fit can help us lose weight. The Wii Fit Weight Loss Challenge is now underway! We all weighed ourselves on Wednesday 6th January 2010 and we plan to undertake our exergaming exercise programme over the next 8 weeks with a finish date of Wednesday 3rd March 2010. Here are our initial weights in kilogrammes:
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | |
| Derek |
82.75 |
|
79.90 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Ollie |
94.55 |
|
94.10 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Brian M |
103.00 |
|
102.4 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Brian C |
82.70 |
|
83.80 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Charlie |
85.72 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you would like to participate in the Consolarium’s efforts at getting the weight off then feel free to join us. We are posting our weekly weigh-ins on Twitter with the hashtag of #wiifitweightlosschallenge. Have a go and let’s see if we can make those work-shirts a little less tight fitting!
Stirling Council visits the Consolarium
A recording of us using the Wii Fit board to record our initial weights is part of our second podcast. You can access/subscribe to the podcast via this link. This podcast also contains an interview with our colleagues from Stirling Council, Margaret Cassidy and Joe Shaw. Margaret and Joe have been great partners of the Consolarium and have been involved in quite a few projects with us for example Moshi Monsters, Endless Ocean and Crazy Talk.
AOCBGBL
Our AOCBGBL (any other competent business games based learning) section sees us talking about these resources:
Blue Murder Mystery Files: A narrative driven puzle packed murder mystery game for the PS3. Beautiful graphics, an engaging narrative and real challenge in those puzzles.
Light-bot: Control a robot by giving it commands. Use programmer-style logic for more complex levels that include functions to re-use.
Yudu: A lovely little tool that allows texts to be converted to page turning digital books.
Let us know what you think of the podcast. Your feedback would be appreciated and do feel free to join us in our #wiifitweightlosschallenge!
Well that’s it, Christmas has been consigned to the memory banks and most of the New Year’s resolutions have been broken already (although with one notable exception that we will get to in a minute!)
Santa was particularly generous this year bringing both a Wii and a couple of Dsi s for my children so if we add this to the hardware I use for work and my own stuff, my house now contains
2 x Wii 1 x PS2 1 x PS3 1 x Xbox 3 x DSi 1 x DSlite 1 x PC 2 x Notebook 1 x Macbook
And a selection of software for each of them. Is this too much? I see it as a level of my commitment to the job 
I am very excited by the work that is being taken on by the Consolarium team this term. For my own part I am looking forward to watching how the trial of Mangahigh pans out across nine schools in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh. My colleague Brian Clark and I will be meeting all of these schools, teachers and pupils collecting thoughts, feelings and data.
Wallace High School in Stirling is running a very exciting cross curricular interdepartmental topic for S1 using Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Maths, Geography, Art, English, Music and ICT departments are all involved and being coordinated by a very enthusiastic 
Maths teacher, Suzanne Harris
If you can believe it, the planning for SLF10 is well underway and the Consolarium team has some very exciting things planned for this year. Follow our blog and podcast and get your school involved. We will also continue to instigate, develop and support a huge range of work across Scotland, if you are undertaking work in the area of GBL and games design please get in touch and let us know.
And as for the only resolution left. The #wiifitweightlosschallenge. Last week was the inaugural weigh in, oh dear! There is nothing like a bit of public humiliation to provide some serious motivation. Follow our progress on the podcast and if I am visiting your school over the next couple of months please hide the biscuits.
LTS in conjunction with 4ip worked with SixToStart to create and pilot an iPhone/iTouch App called TapTale. TapTale’s primary goal is to promote literacy through the reading and writing of tales using the tap, tilt, shake and swipe functions of Apples touch screen devices.
When creating a tale, pupils are asked to write chapters using the touchscreen keyboard on the device. In order to progress from chapter to chapter, the reader must use one of the tap, swipe, tilt or shake sequences. It is up to the author of the tale to decide what action must be taken for the reader to see the next chapter.
Once a tale has been created, users can upload them via the device to the taptale website. This allows other registered user to download and read their tales directly on the device. Registered users can provide feedback on any tale via the website using a ‘fridge magnet’ style form. Anyone can read the tales created directly from the site, but of course the tapping and tilting functions are not possible in this view.
This App looks really promising. I really like the idea of pupils incorporating the device’s actions in their tales. For example, each chapter could provide clues to what action is expected for the reader to progress.
Chapter : “… Anum waved goodbye to John …”
Expected Action – Shake
Chapter: “… heard a knock at the door …”
Expected Action – Double tap
Encouraging pupils to read and write, provide and receive feedback using interactive and relevant technology should not only improve literacy skills but digital literacy skills.
Needless to say, I am delighted to be involved with the forthcoming pilot and am looking forward to seeing the impact it has.
The Consolarium team would like to invite you to listen/subscribe to our fortnightly podcast or alternatively have a listen.
Now that we have an extended team at the Consolarium we are all looking forward to sharing with you the wide range of teachers and pupils in schools across Scotland who are using game based learning and other emerging technologies in their classroom practice. In episode 1 you will:
Over the last wee while I have been visiting schools to see the impact of some ongoing projects. I visited Tullos Primary in Aberdeen where a class of primary 6 children have been undertaking a Wild Earth African Safari. I popped in to see a primary 3 class in Dingwall Primary working on a Nintendogs project and then off to Alvie Primary in Kincraig near Aviemore where a composite p 3/4/5 were taking on their own African Safari.
In Tullos Primary the teacher undertaking the project spoke about her experience at an InService day and the rest of the staff were so impressed by the potential that they will be purchasing gaming technology of the
ir own so games based learning can be extended throughout the school.
In Dingwall primary the children have been using their Nintendogs to enhance and improve literacy. Both management and class teacher have been amazed by the impact and how the desire to write and reach an audience outside the school, through their blog, has moved the learning of all the class forward.
From Alvie Primary the teacher has tied the whole experience together as an enterprise Activity and will showcase the work for parents in a Safari afternoon. She also reckons that when the wii is returned to the Consolarium it will have a whole class of children attached to it who will not let it go!
In all classes I was met with enthusiasm and engagement and a joy about learning. In the Guardian newspaper last week Professor Stephen Heppell comments that ,
“Play is something that ICT has been bringing into learning from the very beginning. ICT in learning holds the potential to bring back playfulness and engagement…”
The Games based learning approach taps straight into this potential and, for those of us working in the Consolarium, we are lucky enough to see practical examples of the impact of this everywhere we go. Share the joy! If you and your class or school are using games based learning then please let us know and share your good practice.
In 2008, Susan Falconer – Computing teacher at St Augustines High School embarked on a Games Design project with S1 pupils using Neverwinter Nights. Judy Robertson from Heriot Watt University took the Neverwinter Nights game and lead the development of the Adventure Author and Fridge Magnets plugins.
Using the fantasy adventure theme in Neverwinter Nights as a contextual hub for learning, pupils engaged in a 6 week, interdisciplinary task involving a number of departments. The following departments contributed to the project in the following ways
The 2008 S1 cohort, now in S2, are continuing the Games Design theme with more subject areas taking part. Susan and the rest of the team are planning to roll the project into S3 next year.
This small slide show will give you a taste of the project.
I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Susan about the project.
Tell us about the project objectives
The aim of Curriculum for Excellence is to enhance pupil learning. By engaging pupils through the use of computer game modelling software, this projects aim was to inspire their work through an interdisciplinary approach, initially in Computer Studies and English, bringing relevance of aspects of their learning in the different departments to pupils.
In order to promote literacy, you engaged with the English department. Can you tell us about that particular link?
In English, the focus was on narrative devices used in story-telling, particularly in the Fantasy genre, improve their appreciation of the writers skill and improve their own imaginative writing. In particular, to look at setting, characterisation, plot and dialogue.
The focus in the Computing department, was to further develop their ideas and create a fantasy game with Neverwinter Nights using the setting, characterisation, plot and dialogue written in English as inspiration and guidance. Pupils developed a rich variety of new skills and enhanced their ability to learn from each other.
What was the impact of the project?
The pupils loved it. They worked without realising it and were inspired.
Attainment was raised
The pupils experienced a variety of familiar and unfamiliar challanges
What makes the project special?
We put learning and fun hand in hand. Pupils were given a worldly business experience where they had to create a product from inception to marketing, linking disciplines from many departments, showing the relevance of each.
The cross curricular project was highly commended in the recent HMIE inspection and is a fantastic example of how Games technology can really enhance the curriculum and engage with the CfE outcomes.
Look out for a more detailed look at the project, including videos, in our sharing practice section.
We spend a lot of time in the Consolarium discussing new and emerging technologies for learning. Recently we have been talking a lot about virtual worlds, how they can be used in education and the safety issues associated with such environments.
We believe that it is unlikely that younger children (early years and lower primary) will ever grow into the same sort of social networking spaces that older children currently occupy. The reason for this is that most modern social networking spaces are very ‘text’ driven but the social networking spaces that younger children currently occupy are 3D immersive environments. They include places such as Club penguin, Moshi Monsters and Lego Universe. 3D immersive universes provide powerful opportunities for learning but in parallel it is vitally important that we teach young people to behave responsibly and how to keep safe in such environments.
We have a lot of exciting virtual world projects planned for 2010 but our current flagship project is CANVAS (Children’s Art in the Virtual Arena of Scotland). Derek has already introduced this project in an earlier blog post. The great thing about CANVAS is not only will it provide place for children to showcase and discuss their artwork but it will also include an Internet Safety Pyramid. The pyramid will provide a place to teach about responsible use and behavior within 3D worlds in a safe and secure environment.
Anyway, we are very proud of what we have achieved so far with CANVAS and we were delighted to hear that the project is up for a 2009 edublog award for the best use of a virtual world. If you think what we have created is worthwhile then why don’t you pop over to the edublog award site and vote for us now!
If you are a school in Scotland and doing any exciting work with virtual worlds we would love to hear from you.
John Donne espoused that we are all connected and I think that we are all the better for it. Having connections whether familial, social or professional enriches all that we do and extends, supports and challenges us.
I have been thinking recently about the way my learning has changed now that I am no longer in a school setting and how much I relied on the people in my school staff to bounce ideas off, to rant to, to use the experience of and to laugh with. Now that I no longer have a physical staffroom to use I have found myself using the skills and knowledge of a different set of people in a very different way. I have a virtual staffroom, open 24hrs a day containing a set of people from all over the world, with a huge array of skills and experience which I can tap into, and who generously share their learning. I use Twitter. There, I’ve said it and it doesn’t make me a bad person!
One of the first people I was in contact with in my very early days of twitter was Caroline Breyley, the headteacher of Burravoe Primary School on the Island of Yell, the second largest of the Shetland Isles.
She and her class were considering the use of Wild Earth: African Safari for the Wii and wondered if it would be a worthwhile context for learning. Through the work they have shared with me it is clear that they have been involved in a very engaging, motivating and successful piece of learning. I had the great privilege of meeting the children online at the tail end of last week. We set up a Glowmeet and through the use of this technology children over 400 miles away, including at least one flight and a ferry, could share the fantastic work they had done with me in real time and get immediate feedback. Go and visit the Burravoe Primary School blog, read about life in their school and read the “Brilliant Story” by Charlotte in p3.
Through the use of technology available to those in Scottish Education our children have access to an immediate national audience for their work, Glow groups, glow meet, CANVAS and a host of blogs allow our children the opportunity to share their work and receive feedback . We should all be sharing our practice and seeking feedback on the work we do and providing constructive feedback on the work of others. We cannot afford to be islands.
Years ago, when TV was a source for the collective conscious, I remember sitting down with my folks to watch the Generation Game on BBC1. The willing contestants were always presented with challenging and nonsensical tasks to try out and one that sticks in my mind involved handbell ringing!
Somehow a visit to a school in Peterhead last week to see a game based learning initiative that used Wii Music brought that memory back to me as I watched groups of children swing their wiimotes and nunchunks in a campanology stylee but in so doing they really were ringing the bell for game based learning in schools…
I was contacted by Jonathan Cordiner from the Aberdeenshire Glow team some time ago to be informed about the work that he was doing with Esther Clark and her P.6 class from Buchanhaven PS in Peterhead using the game Wii Music for the Nintendo Wii. Now Wii Music involves a number of games that encourage you to ‘jam’ with the Miis on screen and in so doing play various instruments and learn a surprising amount about music.
When I mentioned the potential of learning about music through this game to some people they did not initially think that standing in front of a screen waving a game controller up and down or side to side could have any real substance or add value to learners experience in this area. Having visited the class and seeing what they have done for myself I can’t help saying just how incredible the skilled and informed use of this resource has been and just what a tremendous impact this has had on the learners in this class.
What have they been learning?
The first thing that struck me when I met the class was just again how excited and motivated the children were to show what they had been doing and to demonstrate their new skills.
For me the educational ethos in a class is so important if children are to be engaged by learning and here we saw a class bursting with enthusiasm, industry, skills and knowledge of their subject. I saw:
Above all I saw learning happening in a classroom bursting with life. We have videoed a lot of the work that the children have been doing but is just at the edit stage but have a quick look at some of the work that the children have done about the composers that they investigated:
Yet again we see how a game built for entertainment can prove to be such a rich source for learning when used by skilled and thoughtful teachers who know how to use game based learning in order to create the appropriate context and climate in which rich learning can thrive. There have been many requests to the Aberdeenshire Glow team for the plans that were used for this project. These can be accessed here:
Aberdeenshire Council’s Wii Music plans
This project was a sheer delight to see and many congratulations must go to Jonathan and Esther for their imaginative and thorough approach, an approach that has made this initiative such a success.
10 Glasgow schools pilot an exciting Games Based approach to teaching maths and numeracy skills with http://www.mangahigh.com. With activites suitable for P7 - Higher, and a user interface that wouldnt look out of place on miniclip.com, it should provide a rewarding experience for pupils.
Over the last 3 days I have been visiting schools in Highland Region with whom we will be working over the coming months. The enthusiasm and hospitality from everyone I met was brilliant and nothing, I’m sure, to do with the hardware and software that goes with the project!( although one school did take great delight in calling me “wii man”)
My journey took me just over 600 miles and 3 days from Castletown, just outside Thurso to Alvie, just outside Aviemore, via Dornoch, Dingwall and Merkinch in Inverness. Every school was different in many ways (in fact one school had almost twice as many primary sevens as another had pupils) and served a wide range of catchments; but everyone showed a real commitment to embracing technology to enhance learning and teaching and were in no doubt to the impact it might have on their children. I am really looking forward to working with the schools over the coming months and will post regular updates on our progress.
As part of the work that the Consolarium has done in the field of game based learning and more importantly the significance of the reference to games design in the CfE Technology outcomes LTS is in the early stages of an initiative that aims to develop the capacity for the development of a games design community via Glow. As part of this work are carrying out this survey that we hope will help us outline the current landscape about the use and spread of games based learning in Scottish schools. To this end we have worked with Scottish Screen and the Abertay University to create two questionnaires: one for teachers and one for pupils. We are hoping that responses from both questionnaires will give us a clearer picture of the spread of games based learning and some attitudes to it.
Teacher questionnaire
Closing date for this questionnaire is Friday 20th November. It should not take more than 5-10 mins to complete.
Pupil questionnaire
Closing date for this questionnaire is Friday 11th December. It should not take more than 5-10 mins to complete.
There is the added incentive for pupils to participate by the possibility of winning a Nintendo DSi. The following link also contains text that addresses the issue of safety in relation to children’s participation with this survey.
We fully appreciate that GBL in schools is hapening in many places outside of Scotland but this survey is aimed only at Scottish pupils and Scottish schools. We would greatly appreciate as many responses as possible to so please share it with as many people as you can.
Our results will be shared with the wider community once we have had time to collate and analyse them.
Thanking you in advance for your participation and support with this.