April 29th, 2010

GBL10 Conference

bmclaren

Comments: 3 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Conferences, Consolarium, cross-curricular, game based learning

As you probably know the Consolarium team was invited to the Games Based Learning 10 conference in London at the end of March. We presented on aspects of our work and if you click on you can follow the links to the videos of our presentations. ( Derek Robertson, Ollie Bray, Brian Clark and Brian McLaren)

During my own presentation there was a bit of a technical hiccup which prevented a couple of the embedded films, produced by teachers Mr Simpson (@familysimpson on Twitter) from Inverurie Academy and Mr Tait (@scotsnick on Twitter) from Grangemouth High, from working properly so I have embedded them here.

PS don’t forget to send in your MarioKart Times!!

April 26th, 2010

Mario Kart Leaderboards

bmclaren

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, Games we have, Multi-player games, Nintendo, SLF10, cross-curricular, game based learning

Dum! dumdumdum! dumdum!

dumdumdumdum!

<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.

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  3^rd 2010.  Qualifiers will be contacted after this date

February 26th, 2010

Digital Games Design Competition @ SLF10

Brian Clark

Comments: 5 Comments » Tags: Tags: cfe, Consolarium, cross-curricular, games design, SLF10
 : Categories Consolarium, Glow, SLF10, cross-curricular, games design

Fancy yourself as a Games Designer?

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.

1. It should be an adventure/platform/puzzle game with a story behind it.
2. The player should be able to control a character and solve a puzzle or collect items to progress to the next level / complete the game.

If you are a pupil at a school in Scotland then you can enter your game in one of four categories:

1. Primary Individual
2. Primary Group
3. Secondary Individual
4. Secondary Group

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

• characters and background that will be used in the game
• music and sound effects to be used in the game
• levels / progression through the game

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 22^nd/23^rd 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 3^rd September 2010

February 21st, 2010

SLF10 MarioKart Challenge

bmclaren

Comments: none Tags: Tags: cross-curricular, Mario Kart, mathematics, SLF10
 : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, Games we have, Glow, Multi-player games, SLF10, cross-curricular, game based learning

Mario Kart Competition @ SLF10

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.

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  3^rd 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.

February 2nd, 2010

Wild Earth African (and Alloa and Aberdeen) Safari

bmclaren

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: African, Park, Tullos, Wii, Wild Earth African Safari
 : Categories Aberdeen, Added Value, Clackmannanshire, Games we have, Literacy, Numeracy, cross-curricular, game based learning

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?

 Can you 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…..

January 26th, 2010

Involving Parents

bmclaren

Comments: none Tags: Tags: games, Parents
 : Categories Consolarium, Parents, cross-curricular, game based learning

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

January 12th, 2010

Happy New Year

bmclaren

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories cross-curricular, game based learning

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.

November 5th, 2009

Highland Tour

bmclaren

Comments: 14 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Highland, Literacy, cross-curricular

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.

July 8th, 2009

Cooking Mama:World Kitchen – a great recipe for international education at Lairdsland Primary!

kaplin

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Cooking Mama2:World Kitchen, games based learning
 : Categories Consolarium, East Dunbartonshire, cross-curricular

I was delighted to have the opportunity to return to Lairdsland Primary School on June 23rd to see how Cooking Mama:World Kitchen had developed as a project in P3/4 with class teacher Catriona Calvert.  I was enchanted and excited by what I saw and heard – quality learning, enthusiastic and confident children completely absorbed in the world of international food and cuisine!
Catriona explained to me that the project had started by choosing four countries; these were chosen to reflect the nationalities of families in the school. The children had then researched these countries and created a fact file. This had given them the opportunity to extend their geographical vocabulary and knowledge of sense of place.
Many contexts and opportunities for writing were facilitated by the game. These included writing biographies for imaginary chefs that were brought to life using Crazy Talk, booklets about the equipment used in the kitchen, instructions for making a chef’s hat and apron and menus for use in the Lairdsland Café (a role play area in the classroom where e.g. goods were priced and recipes costed out).
The class had collaborated to create a ‘Foods of the World’ recipe book and made a profit of £300! The children had written letters to parents appealing for recipes, they word processed the recipes, advertised the book and coordinated the sales including handling the money and keeping accounts. Catriona explained that the preparation of the book had heightened the children’s awareness of different cooking methods, the variety of foodstuffs and different cultures.
Health Week in the school had provided an opportunity for cross sector working – staff and pupils from Lenzie Academy had come and worked with the class and cooked ‘Tortilla Wraps’ with the children.  I had the pleasure of being present at the first screening of the ‘cookery shows’ that the children had made with the help of pupils from P6. This process had involved writing a script, identifying props, accurately weighing and measuring ingredients and adopting the role of chef and presenter in front of the camera. The films had been edited by the P6 pupils and the results were fantastic! Everyone was given a copy to take home as a memento and to share with their families.
The visiting art teacher had explored working with different media with the children, a classroom assistant from Poland had talked to the class about her home country and what it was like to live there and the portraits of celebrity chefs were amazing! Children handled money confidently as they worked through shopping lists and easily navigated their way around the internet as they searched for information about their favourite foods and recipes.

I had a wonderful time in P3/4 at Lairdsland Primary school – I saw rich cross curricular learning, facilitated by creative and innovative teacher Catriona Calvert resulting in motivated, enthusiastic and confident children! Cooking Mama:World Kitchen – obviously a recipe for great learning!

July 1st, 2009

Mario Kart revs up the learning!!

kaplin

Comments: none Tags: Tags: games based learning, Mario Kart
 : Categories West Dunbartonshire, cross-curricular

I love watching the Grand Prix so it will be no surprise to learn I also love Mario Kart for the Wii.  I could see an opportunity here for a great context for learning so I was delighted that Head Teacher, Gillian Penny at Gavinburn Primary School could also see the potential and was happy to trial it for me with a P5 class.

I visited on June 18th and class teacher Lorna McNicol had done a great job.  The P5 classroom was festooned with pieces of writing, maths and art work all arising out of the context facilitated by Mario Kart.  When I arrived the children were busy rehearsing advertisements about an up and coming racing championship. Later on these were captured on the computer complete with sound effects and music, ready to be burnt to CD to take home as a memento of the project, all done with the help of a P7 tutor. Nice to see ICT permeating through the learning!

The children had been organised into seven kart teams of four. The teams competed on Mario Kart and a championship had been created out of that. All the teams had names – Killer Karts, Wheels on Fire, Mega Mushrooms – and everyone had their own name badge.  Team logos and pod stickers for their karts had also been designed. 

Writing: Each kart team comprised a driver, a mechanic, a press agent and a manager and they had written biographies about imaginary characters who are drivers, mechanics etc.  The children had interviewed each other in role as their imaginary characters and produced an account of that interview.  They had drafted letters to a company asking for sponsorship and had also written reports about an accident at the race track.  Lorna explained that drama had been used where ever possible to help with the writing process. She said that it had really helped the boys in particular to be immersed in this imaginary world with the visual aspect of the game helping them with a starting point for writing activities.  One boy said, “ I don’t like writing but I liked writing The Accident Report.  We had pictures of a racing car accident and imagined that we were there and of course we have crashes when we play Mario Kart!”

Maths: Problem solving in maths fitted easily into this context with opportunities to calculate fuel consumption, speed and costs.  The children had looked at decimal places for lap timing using a model race track and had also investigated the cost of flights and accommodation to visit a Grand Prix location.

Art and Design: Logos had been designed, karts made from junk material, suits designed for racing drivers and a crowd scene witnessing the crash had been created.

Next week, the plan was to focus on Science and some of the science teachers from the secondary school were coming to get involved in the investigation of friction, air resistance, stream lining and water and fire proof materials in the classroom.  Great – and an opportunity for cross sector working too!!

Lorna is a probationary teacher and this is her first experience of games – based learning and she has been delighted with the enthusiasm and motivation that the children have shown. The children were obviously still motivated, energetic and excited and were producing work of high quality – and there was only a week to go before the holidays!!   Lorna has been enthusiastically sharing her experiences with other probationary teachers which is great news.

Much more had been planned for the project, but the end of term was looming.  Drama, music, animation, web design and a trip to a kart track will all be on the agenda next time they run the project….(and Gillian says they will definitely be doing it again….!)