September 26th, 2011

CPDConsolarium: GBL and Technologies loan service for Scottish schools

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, CPDConsolarium, game based learning, games based learning, gaming
 : Categories GTC

Over the past few years the Consolarium team has invested in a variety of technical/digital equipment that it wanted to explore in relation to how its effective and innovative use could impact favourably and positively on teaching and learning contexts in settings from 3-18 years.

We have been thinking how best we can utilise this ‘cupboard of super stuff’ and how it can be out in schools helping teachers teach and children learn rather than not doing that! After some thought we came up with the idea of establishing a loan service that Scottish teachers could access via Glow – this is what we are now calling CPDConsolarium. Based on the excellent leading work of Con Morris and the CPDCentral team we have designed a community of practice that aims to act as the focal point for teachers to share their experiences, successes and challenges in using GBL, game design and other technologies in their practice.

We have an inventory of over 220 assets that can be loaned by any teacher that joins CPDConsolarium. Before they do this they must first of all join the community by filling in the online membership form. Once this is done they can then browse the searchable catalogue and see what resources are available and when they can loan them. If a resource is free then a bid is submitted. This is an important part because we are asking teachers to begin to reflect on how they plan to use the resource, what impact they anticipate on learning as well as what it means for their own professional development in relation to how the Standard for Full Registration is being addressed by their work in this area. Once submitted it goes through an approval process which can involve e-mails, phone calls to the school or Twitter DMs  by myself to the bidder in order to iron out any problems and to get the resource out to schools.

However, any bid that is accepted comes with a blank wiki page dedicated to that teacher and the resource that they have loaned and an expectation that the developing narrative of their experience will be documented and shared with everyone else. Without agreement to this no kit is sent out.

Some of the kit that is available includes:

• Sets of Nintendo DS, PSP and a wide variety of games
• 25 Nintendo Wiis and a wide selection of games
• 20 Sony PS3s with a wide selection of games
• 15 Microsoft XBoxes with a range of games
• 10 Macbooks with I Can Animate & I Can Present installed
• 10 Graphics Tablets
• 3D mice
• Class set of iPod Touches
• A number of sets of 20 PC Xbox360 controllers for Kodu
• 2 sets of licences for RPG Maker VX
• Arduino kits
• Lego Wedo kits
• Set of GPS devices
• and much, much more!

Already the community is growing and we have already approved quite a number of sets of kit.

This resource is here for any Scottish teacher who can access CPDConsolarium with their Glow account. It is our resource, for us to use and to help inform each other of our developing practice. Come and join and empty my cupboard of superb stuff!

August 10th, 2011

The Land of Me at Port Ellen PS: A visit from the King of The Land of Me 2/5

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: cfe, Consolarium, game based learning, games based learning, The Land of Me
 : Categories Argyll & Bute, Early Years

The team at the Consolarium first saw The Land of Me when it was being presented at a game based learning conference in London. We were quite enchanted by the resource and felt that it could be something that, if used appropriately, could work well to support and enhance learning with younger children. We managed to meet up with James Huggins who is the CEO of Made in Me, the company that make the software and let them know that we would be interested in running pilots when the resource was ready to go…

Discussions continued with James and his team and eventually we managed to get things on the move. However, this was not where things stopped in terms of partnership with Made in Me. Very keen to see for himself how things had been going on in Scotland he asked if he could accompany us on out visit to Port Ellen PS to see for himself how his resource was being used in a teaching and learning context.

Once Janice McRae heard that James Huggins was coming to visit she began to think how she could best exploit this event to have further impact on the chidren’s learning…and in so doing she came up with an idea!

The King of the Land of Me comes to Port Ellen PS.

Janice’s idea was to ask James Huggins to act as the KIng of The Land of Me when he came to visit. That meant that the children could write letters to the King telling him what they know about his fabled land. James was in agreement and soon enough a batch of hand-written letters found their way to the KIng of The Land of Me’s postbox. James took time to to respond to all the children’s letters and duly sent them back with a promise that he would come to see them in the classroom.

This was the catalyst for great excitement and following on from the Royal Wedding this year plans were put in to place to ensure that things would be ready for the Royal visit.

On arrival at the school James was asked to wear a crown and a cloak so that his persona as the King of The Land of Me could be as true as possible for the excited children. He readily went along with this and was somewhat at ease in his Royal role! As he entered the class he was given a guard of honour by the children who were acting as animals from his Kingdom. A red carpet then led to his classroom throne where he was then met by his loyal and admiring subjects.

I spoke with James later that day about what he had seen and what he thought of the way that his resource was being used. His first reaction was to say that he was ‘speechless’ and that “we could not have created a better example of why it is we made The Land of Me or how we’d like it to influence learning!”

You can hear our conversation below:

The craft of the teaching and the way in which contexts can be created to help learners suspend their disbelief is clearly in evidence here.  Yet again we see how young learners can respond in such a positive fashion to this methodology and how the thoughtful and imaginative teacher can create the environment in which rich learning can happen and thrive.

August 8th, 2011

GBL in schools: A slow and steady approach or REVOLUTION? What say you?

Derek Robertson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: compas, Consolarium, David Shaffer, epistemic games, futur en seine, game based learning, games based learning, GBL
 : Categories Consolarium

When we first began the Consolarium initiative way back in 2006 its main aim was to explore and share ways in which the use of computer games and game design could have a positive impact on teaching and learning and support Curriculum for Excellence in Scottish schools. Over the years this aim has remained the same and our reach across the country has been quite a success. Many of the ideas, approaches and methodologies we employed as well as many of the challenges that we faced in growing this practice became of interest to educational colleagues in England and further afield and this led to a number of invitations to speak at many conferences and other professional development settings. This wider recognition from colleagues outwith Scotland has played some part in affirming Learning and Teaching Scotland’s (now Education Scotland) ambitious and somewhat prescient decision to invest in and commit to such a venture back in 2006.

One of the invites that we were able to accept and honour recently was from the Digital City events (part of the Futur en Seine Festival) in Paris. As part of a three part seminar programme organized by Le Group Compas, Cap-Digital and Microsoft we were asked to deliver a keynote talk about our work in leading game based learning in Scotland and also about what we have seen in terms of impact on learning.

The session was to be shared with Professor David Shaffer from Wisconsin University. Prof. Shaffer is the author of How Computer Games Help Children Learn and he is the person behind the Epistemic Games website.  It was a delight to share the session with such an eminent GBL leader and as it turned out although we shared the same belief that games can help children learn, how we should go about this was slightly different…

Our main thrust in relation to games in schools has been to use commercially available games (COTS) that have been built for entertainment and not for education. Our reasoning behind this is embedded in James Paul Gee’s take on Semiotic Domains and the fact that so many computer games present challenging, demanding, complex and culturally appealing contexts for learning that schools can undoubtedly employ to great effect. Some examples include using these games in schools:

• Guitar Hero
• Nintendogs
• Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training
• Eyepet

We have also worked closely and carefully with our Local Authority Education partners and schools in Scotland to ensure that our endeavours are always wholly based in sound pedagogic principles that would fit in with the established practices and workings of a classroom to some degree but that would also begin to challenge established mindsets regarding the nature of technology in learning, valuing and exploiting what children value in their own cultural domains and how effective learners can be independent of adult intervention.

Prof. Shaffer’s work with Epistemic Games focuses more on making bespoke games that would enable players to be professional people. This definition of Epistemic Games is offered on his website:

Epistemic games are computer games that can help players learn to think like engineers, urban planners, journalists, lawyers, and other innovative professionals, giving them the tools they need for a changing world.

In epistemic games, players see what it is like to live in the world of adults. They learn ways of thinking that matter in the digital age, and have a chance to imagine the kind of person they might someday become.

In essence Epistemic games such as Nephrotex, Urban Science, Digital Zoo and Sodaconstructor are designed in such a way that to play successfully the player has to situate themselves within the real life context of the job of being an engineer, urban planner or animator thus learning about AND applying the skills directly related to these positions.

Prof. Shaffer established a thread through his presentation that questioned the effectiveness of schooling in respect of learning being detached from the context of application of newly found and developing skills, knowledge and understanding. School needed to change to help learners reach their full potential and the application of Epistemic Games should be central to that change.

Both our presentations plus an introduction to the session from Julien Llanas, who chaired the session, can be viewed here.

The discussion session at the end of our presentations was particularly lively with an emphasis on some of what we had touched on in relation to metacognition, development of self-esteem and enhanced attitudes to being a learner and learning. Professor Daniel Andler from the University of Paris-Sorbonne was tasked with summing up the seminar session.  As part of this summing up Professor Andler chose to focus on the different approaches that Prof. Shaffer and his team have taken. He compared us to the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks with the Consolarium being observed to be the more moderate of the two in relation to trying to effect change from within established structures and attitudes but with Dr Shaffer looking for educational revolution on a much quicker scale!

Yet again it was a great delight to be able to share the vision and the innovative practice coming from  of Scottish schools with colleagues in another country. We look forward to hearing how people such as Julien Llanas and other interested parties that we met in Paris make progress in the domain of game based learning In French schools as well as learning more about the work of the team at Epistemic Games.

July 4th, 2011

P7-S1 A Glowing Transition with Scratch

Brian Clark

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Consolarium, Glow, Scratch, slf11, transition
 : Categories Consolarium, Glow, cross-curricular, games design

p7-S1 Transition

On the last Tuesday of the term, I was able to talk with pupils from Loriston and Kirkhill primary schools over Glow Meet about their P7-S1 transition project. Along with Charleston and Abbotswell primary schools, all primary 7 pupils studied Healthy Living as the basis of a transition project to Kincorth Academy.  This is a little taster of what went on during the project.  You will be able to find out more at SLF 2011 on Thursday 22 September, 1.15pm at this seminar.

Creating ….

Using a dedicated glow group, pupils from all schools were asked to design and upload a flyer to promote healthy living to a document store.  All pupils had access to these stores and were encouraged to look at others work and leave comments. However, flyers were not the only media that the pupils created and shared.

Learn more about this project

Using Glow

My ex Consolarium colleague, Charlie Love, spent time with all 4 primary schools, giving them all an overview and a few lessons on using Scratch to create games.  They also used the tutorials available in the Consolarium Glow Group, as well as looked at remixing projects from the Scratch website.

The pupils were incredibly motivated and challenged by the this activity and they told me in the meeting that while it was hard to do the programming, they worked through the problems as groups.  If they couldn’t find a solution, they used a forum within Glow to ask for help / get feedback from their classmates / peers in another school / a teacher.

These games were also uploaded to the Glow group for feedback from other schools.  One of the boys in Kirkhill primary school told me that the feedback he got back via glow helped him make his game more playable.  This was echoed by pupils at Loriston primary school.

All pupils found the the online community a valuable source of help and feedback, but would of liked to have Mr Love there in person more often to help out with any problems they had.  However, by not having he expert on hand, meant the the pupils did have to seek alternative help.  As well as the online Glow community, in many cases, some pupils who really got into the game design / scratch projects,  became the in-class expert that many pupils turned to for help.

You can play some of the games online at the Scratch website here, or, if you have a Glow account, visit the glow group and see all games and flyers here.

Within the group, pupils from P7 and the secondary schools were encouraged to use a forum to discuss any questions / fears they may have about coming up to the Academy as well as seek help with their Scratch Projects.

You can find out more about this transition project, its links to CfE, use of Glow and their first experience of Game Design at SLF 2011 – sign up here.

July 4th, 2011

My French Coach part 3

Brian Clark

Comments: none Tags: Tags: app, cfe, Consolarium, DS, game based learning, GBL, My French Coach, Nintendo
 : Categories Edinburgh, Nintendo, game based learning

My French Coach [3 of 3]

Read Part 1 here | Read Part 2 here

So, it’s the end of the school year and Modern Foreign Language pupils at Firrhill High School in Edinburgh have been reflecting on the use of My French Coach on the Nintendo DS in their French lessons. One of the pupils, wrote about her and her classmates experience of the DS in the school magazine, Firrhill Heights.

You can read her article here.

TES Article

Helene Clark, the languages teacher who lead the project is delighted with the impact the game has had on her pupils learning and spoke to Elizabeth Buie at the TES about her experience. You can read the article here.

Next Steps….

As a result of the project, Helene submitted a proposal for funding from the PTA at the school in order to buy language based DS games, and other games the Consolarium have used in the past, to be kept in the school library for pupils to borrow in order to improve their French, or indeed get a taster of a new language.  Helene stated:

I managed to purchase 14 games for our school library, as well as 2 DS consoles. The idea is that children will be able to borrow the games as they can borrow books to practice French, German, Spanish and Mandarin at their leisure. I have also purchased a couple of “My Word coach” and “Brain Training” games to show that some games can be used to support literacy and numeracy.

The My French Coach games for the DS have been discontinued, however, Ubisoft have made the game (and others) available on the iPod touch / iPad at a cost of £2.99 from the AppStore, thus making it even more accessible to pupils / departments who have these devices.

June 30th, 2011

Arduino at Braeview: Getting Started

Brian Clark

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: arduino, cfe, Consolarium, dundee, electronics, science, technologies
 : Categories Consolarium, Curriculum for Excellence, cross-curricular

Getting Started with Arduino

I met Fraser Christie, PT Computing at Braeview Academy in Dundee, at a game design CPD event we held a few months ago. During the event, we started talking about various aspects of technology, computing and CfE in the classroom and got on to the subject of Arduino. I have previously written about Arduino here. After our discussion, Fraser expressed an interest in trying out the rapid prototyping toolkit in his school. I managed to send up a few kits from the Consolarium up to the school and last week I managed to grab a few minutes with an S2 pupil, Paul, who had been using the Arduino kits at lunchtime and after school.

Building a Circuit

Paul quickly gave me a demonstration of the Arduino toolkit and managed to very quickly create a simple circuit. During his demonstration, Paul clearly demonstrated a firm understanding of electrical components their purpose. The video also demonstrates the possibility of using Arduino kits to address some for the science experiences and outcomes, such as SCN 4-09c : ‘engineer an electronic system to provide a practical solution to a real-life situation’ and others within the Electricity E’s and O’s.

Coding

Paul later demonstrated how the Arduino can be programmed using the Processing progamming language – again, demonstrating an understanding of the code, in this case, how to change the speed of a servo. This has significant links to the Computing E’s and O’s, in particular TCH 4-09a – ‘By learning the basic principles of a programming language or control technology, I can design a solution to a scenario, implement it and evaluate its success’.
Paul is obviously interested in electronics and computing, and makes a number of references to using online videos to develop his understanding of the circuit making and coding, all in his own time, taking responsibility for his learning. At the end of this video, Paul talks about building a real device – a hidden gumball machine and goes on to talk about the need to not only design/build the circuit and create the program, but to physically build the housing for the device. Within a school context, this could offer links with Design and Technology in order to physically build the object.

Future Plans

I spoke with Fraser after Paul had left us, and he talked about his hopes for the Arduino kits in school for next term. Already he has a rising number interested pupils like Paul who are keen to get hands on with the kits at lunchtimes and after schools, but he intends to use the Arduino kits with his 15 Advanced Higher Computing pupils (pupils are from various schools, but being hosted at Braeview next session) and hopes to inspire them to use the technology as part of their AH projects. He has also made connections with Dundee University and is hoping to work with them next session in order to develop Arduino in school.

More to think about….

It is also worth noting that if delving into the processing programming language seems a bit too much at the start, then there is an alternative. Using the Scratch application framework, the folks over at Citilab have created S4A – Scratch for Arduino. This allows user to use a Scratch like environment to program the Arduino.

June 9th, 2011

Scratch Game Design LIVE on GlowTV

Brian Clark

Comments: none Tags: Tags: cfe, Consolarium, cpd, curriculum for excellence, gamedesign, gaming, Glow, glowtv, Scratch
 : Categories Consolarium, Curriculum for Excellence, Glow, games design

Many of the CPD opportunities Charlie Love and myself have offered over the last 18 months have been based on using Scratch to engage learners and teachers with some hands on game design activities.  Particularly in primary schools.  However, is difficult to work with ALL the schools we are invited to. Enter GlowTV….

GlowTV

At 11am on Wednesday 22nd June, we will be running an online workshop on game design with Scratch via GlowTV.  This session is an introduction to Scratch for creating games and will take you through the Scratch interface and simple programming. During the broadcast we will make a fully working game.  You will be amazed at what you can do in so little time! Ideally suited for CfE levels 2 and 3 for both staff and pupils. You can watch the broadcast and build the game along with it if you want.

Support materials for the game we will make on the day will be available via the Consolarium glow group for use during and after.  More details on this early next week.

You will also be able to ask questions during the session and we will try and answer them for you.

Get Involved!

1. Sign up for GlowTV

2. Register for the session – make sure to use the hashtag #glowtv3

3. If you want to build the game along with the broadcast, you will need Scratch installed on your computer.  Download Scratch here for free from http://scratch.mit.edu

We are looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd!  Why not check out the other forthcoming GlowTV events and even think about getting involved yourself!

June 7th, 2011

If you build it, they will come…

Brian Clark

Comments: none Tags: Tags: arduino, cfe, Consolarium, hardware, technologies
 : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, Curriculum for Excellence, Design & Tech

Actually, that should be “If they build, they will come….”

Build what though? Enter Arduino.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

I have been playing around with arduino for a while now and on friday 11th March I had the opportunity to attend an arduino work shop for schools, thanks to Steve Bunce at Vital.

What strikes me about Arduino is the opportunities if offers to link up subjects in the context of CfE.  Not only can our learners be offered the opportunity to learn to program, but can get some physical hands on time by building a device, learning about resistors, actuators, transistors, motors and a number of other electrical and mechanical devices.  There are even soft Arduino components (such as the Lilypad) that allow learners to build electronic clothing.  A quick search on Youtube or Vimeo for Arduino will give you a flavour of the types of projects that can be built.

Make Magazine is a great resource to get some Arduino inspiration and starter tips.

The Consolarium have bought some Arduino starter kits and are working with Braeview Academy in Dundee to see how effective it can be within the curriculum.

June 3rd, 2011

Using Hardware Devices with Scratch/BYOB

Brian Clark

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: byob, cfe, Consolarium, controller, game based learning, games, games design, Kinect, microphone, programming, ps3, Scratch, xbox
 : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, games design

As part of the game design work the Consolarium have been carrying out, we often visit subject leaders meetings and are invited to ISIS days to do some CPD with staff. Recently, I visited a group of computing teachers in Ayr to take them through possible uses of BYOB in their Computing courses as a follow on / extension to Scratch. The session was well received and the teachers seemed quite inspired to take BYOB forward in their schools. However, it was perhaps the use of external devices with Scratch or BYOB that really caught their eye.

Scratch 1.4 and BYOB have the ability to interact with external hardware such as Picoboards through the sensor options. However, it’s not just Picoboards that can interact with Scratch.

Lego Wedo

The Lego Wedo sensors and motors can also be used with the sensors. In particular, the LEGO® WeDo™ Robotics Motion Sensor and the LEGO® WeDo™ Robotics Tilt Sensor can be used to detect the outside world. Note – a Lego Power Functions Extension Wire and Lego USB hub are also required.

What’s really interesting about this in terms of the gaming world is that there is potential for pupils to use these sensors to build their own controller for a game – perhaps linking up with Design and Technology / 3D Modelling courses to design and build their own controllers that could house the lego sensors. I demonstrated about this at a Teachmeet last year.

Kinect

Then we come to the Kinect. Yes, the Microsoft Kinect Motion Sensor can be used with Scratch! Stephen Howell took some time to get the Kinect sensor to interact and work with Scratch as an input device. Watch his demo below:

Scratch and Kinect from Stephen Howell on Vimeo.

Find out how to do this on Stephen’s blog. I have used Stephen’s program and was really engaged and excited by it. I think it would make Game Design with Scratch even more attractive and challenging for our learners.

Console Controllers

If our learners are creating games with Scratch, why not get them to play/control their games with their own console controllers? There are many controller mapping programs available for PC and Mac that will allow users to map their keyboard and mouse presses to a controller. So, if our pupils create a game that uses the arrow keys to move, why not map the arrow keys to the controller allowing the player to use hardware that they are familiar with, that sits within their own cultural domain, to play the game?

Microphone

Finally, what about other modes of control? The sensor blocks in Scratch have a loudness command. Could we challenge our learners to create a game that responds to noise levels? For example, consider this:

Using the loudness sensor we can control the left / right movement of the rocket.

Overall….

While Scratch and BYOB are not specifically deigned to create games, they are often used for this task as they offer a friendly, easy to use environment. However, by using additional gaming hardware, we can create a learning environment that should hopefully resonate with our pupils and encourage them to engage with the game design process further.

May 31st, 2011

3/4 Driving learning with Mario Kart: The parents’ perspective

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: cfe, Consolarium, game based learning, games based learning, Mario Kart, Nintendo
 : Categories Early Years, Renfrewshire

In the early days of the Consolarium a big part of our work in promoting the practice of game based learning involved addressing many of the concerns that teachers had about using such resources and contexts in their schools. Informed reference, we hope, was made to the many folk devils and moral panics associated with games back then but one major concern that was invariably thrown up by schools was – what might parents say about children ‘playing computer games’ in school when they should be learning?! Our experience over the past 5 years of promoting this work has been that parents have been more than pleasantly surprised at how GBL contexts have worked for their child/children. This ‘evidence’ in the parents eyes of good learning experiences may also be complemented by the changing nature of how computer games are now placed in family life. When we first started out the games console was still seen as something that kids did in the shadowy solitude of their bedrooms but haven’t things changed now? How many families do you know that have a console in a main living area and who will use this as part of family play? How many dads out there are red hot at FIFA11, how many mums have a Wii Fit or Zumba game as part of their keep-fit regime and how many grannies have Scrabble on their DS? Times have changed have they not? Are computer games still the folk devil of a few years ago?

At the recent Mario Kart open afternoon at Bargarran PS I saw just how far the practice of game based learning has come in relation to how it is being perceived by children’s parents and guardians. At this event I witnessed a classroom packed with mums and dads, grannies and grandads all buzzing with excitement about what the children had been learning. Some of them were also more than keen to have a go at the game and get their name on the parents’ leaderboard!

I took the chance to chat with some mums and dads at the event to try to get their honest views of the use of a games console in classrooms and what impact the experience of the Mario Kart topic was having on their children.

Have a listen to my chat with Mrs Mavers who has a son is in P.2

The first parent that I interviewed was Mrs Mavers, a mum who was very keen to get the No.1 slot on the Mario Kart Parents’ leaderboard.

As you will have heard Mrs Mavers is of the opinion that this experience has been great for her son. Here are some of the points Mrs Mavers raised:

• my son has been learning about Italy and other cultures which is a good thing.
• my son is not the most enthusiastic about school normally but he has been really enthusiastic about this which is good
• the topic has led to good experience of homework that involved using Google Earth to look at Italian landmarks. This is something we wouldn’t normally have done
• anything that motivates children should be used as a tool for learning…why not pick up on things that children love and bring it into the school environment?

Have a listen to my chat with Mr & Mrs Brown who has son is in P.2

I took the opportunity to chat with the parents of a P.2 boy who were keen to let me know just how good an idea they felt the Mario Kart topic was and how it had had such a positive experience on their son. Have a listen:

As you will have heard Mr & Mrs Brown are also of the opinion that this experience has been great for their son. Here are some of the points Mr & Mrs Brown raised:

• since the school brought in the Mario Kart topic his (their son’s) behaviour has improved dramatically
• it’s had a positive impact at home because he’s doing stuff at home like building cars from junk models to bring in to school
• he can’t wait to get to school when he knows he has topic related work that day
• their son is very very keen to learn about things linked to the Mario Kart topic. He’s even learning Italian words!
• the school has monitored the learning and have managed to crack getting that fine balance between learning and playing the game

In my discussions with the class teachers it was clear that they see links between the school and the home as very important. They set out in the initial stages to ensure that good channels of communication were set-up and maintained and that the opportunity to celebrate and share the children’s learning with their parents was built in to the programme. All of this, coupled with the focused way that the Mario Kart resource has been used has again shown just how good teachers can use good resources to effect good teaching and learning. It’s great to see the parents supporting such practice.