Consolarium

October 26th, 2007

Media coverage of the Consolarium’s work

Derek Robertson

Comments: 3 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Be Very Afraid, Dundee City, Nintendo

The Consolarium’s work in using the Nintendo DS in the classroom has been lucky enough to garner a lot of media recognition this week. This really came about as a result of our invitation to Stephen Heppell’s ‘Be Very Afraid’ event and also our invitation frm ELSPA to present our work at the London Games Festival.

First up we have a video clip from BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning. The focus of the clip was the London Games Festival and in particular the Be Very Afraid event but the background images used were of the boys from St Columba’s playing the game with their Head Teacher, Mrs Andrews, and me hovering in the background grabbing a DS or two to get other people started using it.

We then found out that a computer games based website called Spong had taken great interest in what we did and thery posted an article on their site. This was followed up by a lead piece in today’s TESS. The journalist that I spoke to was very interested in what happened and he even followed it up further than we did by contacting one of the boy’s mums to ask her what she thought about the project. I am pleased to say that Mrs McPherson was delighted with how this experience has helped her son.

Last thing to report in this post is that BBC Education Online have just published an article about the DS project.
There has been a great deal of genuine positive interest about this story and we are really delighted that this story about the possible benefits of games as learning tools has been received in the spirit that it has. We hope to continue sharing many of the other positive stories that are happening with our local authority partners over the coming months.

October 22nd, 2007

What happened at Be Very Afraid?

Derek Robertson

Comments: 8 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Be Very Afraid, Dundee City, Nintendo

What a fantastic day today we have had at Stephen Heppell’s “Be Very Afraid”event at BAFTA in London. After a hectic day travelling we finally managed to get to BAFTA in Piccadily for the pre-event meeting. After that we all headed back to our hotels. The boys from St Columba’s PS in Dundee who came with us to London had never flown before and they had never been to London! The apprehension and excitement in their voices as the plane engines roared for take-off at Dundee airport was heard throughout the plane, and the same happened as we landed at London City! Here is a short video of our time at the event:

Anyway, what an experience today was. Although the Be Very Afraid event was superb and packed with innovative, cutting-edge practice and bright sparky kids I could not help but feel inward glee at the way the boys from Dundee not only conducted themselves but also with how they demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the Nintendo DS device and the Dr Kawashima game they used. Their ability to convey the excitement, value and challenge they experienced during the project to such a wide and varied range of interested parties was a joy to behold. They were articulate, confident and accommodating and I’m sure that a great many people who spoke to them and took the oppoertunity to play the game managed to get a little insight in to what a positive experience this project was for them.
They really were a credit to their school and to the Consolarium’s work in trying to put LTS’ games-based-learning initiatives in the educational mix. Very well done to you both boys and to all the children from St Columba’s PS and the other schools involved for all their work and efforts.

October 16th, 2007

DS case study school invited to ‘Be Very Afraid IV’ at London Games Festival

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Consolarium, Dundee City, London Games Festival

A few months ago Stephen Heppell visited the Consolarium in Dundee and I had the pleasure of taking him to a couple of games based learning projects that were happening in the city. One of those was the Dr Kawashima Nintendo DS project that is featured in our sharing practice site. He was very impressed with and interested in what we were doing with this game and in the resultant gains and impact that it appeared to have. As a result of this we have been invited to his Be Very Afraid event at this year’s London Games Festival. “This is an annual event held at BAFTA in London combining ingenious students – from primary to university age, cool technology, conversations with key influencers, and some remarkable projects – all jammed into a room which is literally bursting with creativity.”

Stella Andrews (HT), myself and two of the P.6 boys from St Columba’s who participated in the case study will be attending and contributing to this year’s event. They will be armed with their Nintendo DS machines, the Kawashima game and tales of their experiences using the DS in the classroom. More information about the event can be accessed via this link but this short paragraph from the London Games Festival website possibly captures the essence of what it’s all about:

“Be Very Afraid” poses a number of questions for policy makers. It is clear that the old “factory schools” who were “delivering” a curriculum into “empty vessels” are disappearing. But what is replacing them is exciting AND effective. Be Very Afraid annually brings us all up to speed with what our children are capable of, when you add inspired teachers, new technology, imagination and a little space into the mix. It has become a major fixture for senior policy makers and for those who care about the future of cinema, television, games and learning. nowadays, they are afraid to miss it!

We have also been asked by ELSPA to deliver a session about the games based learning initiatives that the Consolarium has led this year. This will again be delivered at BAFTA and will be focused mostly on the DS case study and the Guitar Hero case study. If you are in London at this time (Oct 24) then please come along and see what some of the pupils and teachers in Scottish schools have been getting up to with games.

Needless to say we will document the children’s experiences at the event on this blog so stay tuned (or RSSd)!

September 21st, 2007

The Consolarium…every school should have one!

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Added Value, Dundee City, Nintendo, Numeracy, Scotlearnfest07

..so says Stephen Heppell in his Back and Forth article in the Guardian (18/09/07). Stephen came up to visit Dundee a few months back and I took him to see the children that I had worked with on my Nintendo DS Dr. Kawashima project. He was very interested in what had happened in the project and he summarised it this way:

“It will be no surprise to readers that performances got better in some key areas of the curriculum, but new orders of merit also emerged as unexpected performances showed new and unrecognised potential. Being brainy became cool, too, and it has been quite a while since schools students regarded anything related to school technology as cool.”

Full details of the project can be found at the Kawashima Case study within the Consolarium’s sharing practice area.

We delivered a seminar presentation about this project at the Scottish Learning Festival. There was great interest about what happened and added value in terms of the DHT from the school that I worked with talking about how he and the school feels that there has been a longer term affect on the dynamic of the class as a result of the project.

The more I talk about this project the more I am hearing of other teachers talking about using the Nintendo DS in the class. If so what are you doing with it? Let us know.