The Consolarium received an invite from Morag Giblin at the University of West of Scotland, Ayr Campus to come and kick ot the B.Ed4 Contemporary Isses in Education module. We were asked if we could deliver three sessions that would involve a presentation exploring the rationale and practice of using games in the class and also a brief touch on other ‘new technologies’.

Having recently worked in teacher education I was heartened to see that these prospective teachers were  very much willing to debate the issues and to consider a number of the points that I made about the importance of relevant and challenging contexts for learning. Here are some photos of the day:

The main points I asked the students to consider and reflect on were:

•  What impact, if any, is technology having on today’s young learner?
•  What does this mean for their pedagogy?
•  How can they continue to grow and adapt to the changes in technology in terms of its impact on their teaching?
• What place can ‘commercial off the shelf games’ have in the classroom?
• Are they willing to  take informed risks?
• How can they embed educational theory in the rationale and methodology of how they plan to teach?
  
• How can they help take their colleagues in school forward in terms of the application of new technologies?

I finished by stressing to the students that the children in their class have them as their teacher for the whole school year and that it was incumbent upon them to ensure that they offered the best experience possible for these learners. The importance can never be stressed enough.

An excellent day with a group of enthusiastic and open-minded students who also did pretty well at Guitar hero, Trampolining with Sonic and Mario and Brain Training!