Consolarium

I find myself in my hotel room in Sinapore looking out of my window as I type this blogpost. I’m on the 12th floor of the Orchard Hotel on Orchard Road in Singapore and I am amidst high rise flats, offices and building sites. This really is a futuristic looking city and very very busy.

I have been lucky enough to have been asked to present the work that I have been doing via the Consolarium and with local authority partners throughout Scotland at the ICET 2007 Conference. This opportunity came about as a result of Laurie O’Donnell’s visit here a couple of months ago. He met up with officials from the British Council and he suggested that the work that we have been doing would be of interest and helpful to people in Singapore as they determine how best to approach games-based learning strategies in their schools. As it so happens they have already made inroads into this and have almost put in place two bespoke games that will be installed on PCs in all schools in Singapore. You can find out more about these here.

I gave my presentation yesterday and I decided to make a real effort to slow down my speech. This has come about as a result of the difficulties that I have experienced with the voice recognition on the DS and as a result of being asked to slow down my speech before a presentation in London last month! The lyrics for the Proclaimers song ‘Throw the ‘R’ Away’, come to mind here…although like Worzel Gummidge used to say, “You need different heads for different occasions.”

My presentation was very well received and many teachers waited behind to ask me more about what we have been doing, how we have managed the projects and how we managed to get the ideas and the resources to try such projects. Quite a few schools have expressed an interest in following up our initial discussions so I think there could be opportunities for collaborative games-based-learning projects in the future.

I met with Eunice Crook OBE and Sandra Bodestyne from the British Council this afternoon. My trip was sponsored by them so we had a debrief session about how things have gone. I must report back to colleagues in Scotland that your imaginative work has caused quite a stir here. Both Eunice and Sandra commented on how positively the work that we have been doing was received and they were very interested in the imaginative and creative ways in which we have been applying games in teaching and learning. There could be the possibility of future collaborations between us as they are very keen to learn how we do what we do.

I look forward to establishing a healthy link between LTS and the British Council in Singapore and to a relationship that both parties can benefit from and grow. I would also like to thank them for sponsoring my trip.

Tomorrow is my last day so a few more blogposts and then I’m off to Raffles for a Gin Sling.