February 23rd, 2011

Game To Learn Conference

Brian Clark

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: cfe, Consolarium, cross-curricular, exergaming, eyepet, game based learning, games based learning, games design, gametolearn, GBL, Kodu, Learning, LTS, Nintendogs, Professor Layton, Wii
 : Categories Conferences, Consolarium, Glow, cross-curricular, game based learning, games design

The Consolarium in partnership with JISC are delighted to be bringing the Game To Learn conference to the University of Abertay Dundee on Saturday 19th March.

The Saturday Programme offers both a fun-packed CPD event for teachers as well as a celebration of the diverse and innovative practice in games-based learning and game design that has been happening in schools across Scotland. Over the past few years the LTS Consolarium initiative has been working with partner schools across Scotland to help nurture the idea that commercially available computer games, that have been developed for entertainment, can be used to help create appealing, purposeful and challenging contexts for learning.

Game Design also offers learners of all ages to engage with the creative process in an engaging and contemprary way that really can facilitate effective CfE delivery. Throughout the morning seminars and afternoon workshops, delegates will have the opportunity to hear from practioners and their use of game design and get some hands on time with game design tools.

Half of the sessions are already fully booked so book your place now to avoid disappointment.

Sessions that are still available include, but not limited to ….

Game Based Learning in the Lower Primary School With Nintendogs

• Nintendogs in the Classroom. Best in Show?
  Anna Rossvoll, Glow Development Officer, Aberdeenshire Council
• Can Nintendogs Enhance Learning? A Research Perspective
  Dr David Miller, University of Dundee

Read about our work with Nintendogs and the Nintendogs case study

Game Based Learning in the Primary School with the Kinectimals and Professor Layton

• Making Friends with the Kinectimals in a Nursery Setting
  Louise Reid & Judi Regan, Menzieshill Nursery School, Dundee City Council
• ‘Profesor Layton and the Lost Future’ Finds Use in the Classroomn
  Jim Coyle Depute Head Teacher, St Andrews RC Primary School, Dundee City Council

Read about our work with the Kinectimals and our Professor Layton case study.

Game Based Learning in Primary School with the Eyepet and other Games

• Augmented Reality? Real Life Learning with the Eyepet for the PS3
  Brian McLaren, Depute Head Teacher, Clackmannan PS, Clackmannanshire Council
• On a Mission to Engage all Learners with Games-based Learning
  Gerry Munro, Head Teacher, Longhaugh PS, Dundee City Council

Read about our work with the Eyepet and Gerry’s experiences with Game Based Learning, and others’ experiences in the futurelab report

Game Based Learning and the Whole School

This may be especially of interest to languages teachers, active school coordinators, PE teachers, class teachers and deputes from Primary and Secondary schools who are interested in seeing how ‘subject specific’ game based learning projects can impact on the whole school.

• Just Dance and Help the Whole School Become Active!
  Fiona Ferrie, PE Teacher, Doon Academy and Alison Crawford, Development Officer, East Ayrshire Council
• Modern Foreign Languages – A Games-based Learning Approach
  Helene Clark, French Teacher, Firrhill High School, Edinburgh City

Read about our work with Just Dance and My French Coach.

And there’s more …..

Phew! What a start to the day!  Follow up your morning seminar with a spot of free lunch, the chance to talk to industry exhibitors then on to a practical, fun filled hands on session.  Workshops still available include, but again not limited too..

Using RPG Maker VX to Help Tell Stories & Make Connections Across Learning
Mathew Reid, English Teacher, Garnock Academy, North Ayrshire

“If you’re asking, I’m dancing!” – Join Us for the Just Dance-athon!
Fiona Ferrie, PE Teacher, Doon Academy
Derek Robertson, National Adviser, Consolarium, Learning and Teaching Scotland

Purple Mash: Glow Resources and Game Design with 2DIY
Alan Yeoman, 2Simple Software

Playful, Outdoor and Blended Learning Using GPS
Ollie Bray, National Adviser for Emerging Technologies in Learning, Learning & Teaching Scotland

What are you waitng for?  Get your game on now … for FREE!

Hope to see you all on Saturday 19th March 2011

February 15th, 2011

Kinectimals in the Nursery Setting

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, edutalk, game based learning, games based learning, gametolearn, Kinect, LTS, micrsoft
 : Categories Early Years

At the Consolarium we have a long history in trying out games built for entertainment in the educational setting. This has been particularly true of games such as Nintendogs and Eyepet. These games were most definitely built for entertainment but the educational potential within these superb digital experiences is fantastic. As always, we continue to look to see what else can be explored in the games world in terms of its appropriate use in teaching and learning contexts…

The Kinect system for Microsoft’s Xbox360 games console was something that we greatly anticipated, particularity when we saw how the game Kinectimals might allow us to continue the theme of caring and nurturing for a digital creature/pet that was central to the experience in using Nintendogs and the Eyepet. If you haven’t seen Kinectimals then have a quick look:

As you can see we have the most wonderful participative world that has no controller but the player/players themselves! Just what, we wondered, could such a resource bring to the classroom and how it could support opportunities to develop rich learning experiences within Curriculum for Excellence.

Having shared this idea and proposed pilot project with the delegates at the LTS Early Years conference in November 2010 we were approached by Judi Regan from Menzieshill Nursery School in Dundee who said that she’d be more than willing to try out the resource in her setting. This agreed and after a discussion about its possible use we loaned the kit out to the school and let them get on with it. Alas, as is often the case with educational technology in schools, some technical issues presented some small hurdles that had to be cleared before any teaching and learning could be addressed! Issues related to linking up the audio to a pair of old PC speakers were eventually rectified and it was all systems go (apart from a scratched disc that had to be replaced)!

The resource was introduced to the staff by Judi and Louise Reid at last week’s in-service day and this was followed up today by me when I spent all morning working with various groups of children and their workers in order to set up profiles and start them on their journey with Kinectimals. It must be said that initial reactions to the resource from the children varied from bemusement to excitement but with very many of them wanting to know when it would be their turn!

Lousie Reid (Acting Head) and Judi Regan will be sharing their experiences via guest blogposts on our site over the next few weeks as well as through their seminar at the Game To Learn: Take 2! GBL Conference in Dundee on Saturday 19 March. Come along to hear their story and in the meantime have a listen to our chat with Judi about the early beginnings of their Kinectimals project.

Judi Regan discussion transcript

If you are also using Kinectimals in your seting we’d love to hear from you. Watch out for the developing story from the team and children at Menzieshill Nursery School.



December 14th, 2010

WISE 2010: Consolarium meets Marc Prensky

Derek Robertson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Consolarium, digital immigrants, digital natives, game based learning, games based learning, LTS, marc prensky, prensky, wise2010
 : Categories Conferences

Last week we had the great honour of  representing Scottish Education at the WISE Conference in Qatar. WISE is an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, under the aegis of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.

“WISE is based on the practical awareness that the challenges in education are no longer bound by countries’ political boundaries and, therefore, its mandate is international. WISE recognises that the challenges facing the world community have never been greater – that we need innovative solutions not achieved by traditional approaches alone. WISE asserts that the desire to innovate is, in fact, an innate human need to shape and improve our environment.”

At one of the seminars I attended I had the pleasure of listening to Marc Prensky talk about his developing thoughts about ‘Teaching Digital Natives,’ (the title of his new book). I have always found Marc Prensky a good reference point particularly back in the early 2000s when I was in the early stages of exploring the theoretical aspects of games based learning. During this period Prensky’s Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants thesis had just come out and to me it seemed to capture a moment in time where people in education were really beginning to become aware of the mismatches between that of pupil experiences and expectations of tech at home and at school. I found that this concept gave some meaning to my own experiences and to that of very many of my colleagues working in education.

Over the years Prensky’s thesis began to be questioned. People wanted evidence to back his ideas up and I think it is fair to say that it became more and more apparent that although young learners were  more at ease with technology than many of their teachers it was not necessarily the case that they were as ‘able’ with this technology than was possibly being assumed. In my experience one of the main issues about the lack of digital skills of these so called Digital Natives aspect was their lack of ability to access, analyse and synthesise information they found on the web rather than simply copying and pasting it in to a Word document to be then handed in as their own work.

As I listened to Marc Prensky at WISE2010 I tweeted a few comments that were taken from his very short talk. These touched on some of the issues that have been associated with his work and ideas. I was particularly interested on his emphasis on what he described as ‘passion based teaching’. This was described as finding out what each child is passionate about and focusing on some way in on that. The practical application of this approach in a classroom of almost 30 learners was something I wanted to explore further with Marc and some of my tweets touched on this aspect of his talk. Later that evening Marc and I had a chat about perceptions of his talk and the danger of Twitter reducing the message in such a way that one might be misquoted or the message be ‘reduced’. Marc kindly accepted my offer of a quick interview where he could answer some of the questions that many of my colleagues like to explore when his ideas come up in discussion. The questions we discussed included:

1. Is there any such thing as a digital native?
2. What changes have you seen in terms of teachers use of technology in the 10 years since you coined the Digital Natives thesis?
3. How does a teacher practically manage the ‘passion-based curriculum’ that you are currently talking about?
4. What evidence do you have to support your ideas and the methods that you recommend?
5. What words of encouragement do you have for Scottish teachers who have embraced game based learning?

You can hear the interview with Marc Prensky here:

Part 1:

A transcript of this discussion: Consolarium meets Marc Prensky part1

Part 2:

A transcript of this discussion: Consolarium meets Marc Prensky2

Many thanks to Marc Prensky for agreeing to be interviewed. Any comments about what he has said or about your take on the Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants debate are most welcome.

December 1st, 2010

A Snow Day Resource from the Consolarium

Brian Clark

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: cfe, Consolarium, curriculum for excellence, LTS, Scratch, snow, snowday, tutorials
 : Categories Consolarium, Glow, game based learning, games design

It’s cold out there. Really cold. And snowy.  

With many of Scotland’s schools remaining closed due to bad weather, a large number of teachers, schools and authorities are trying to deliver some engaging snow related learning experiences for learners via Glow.

We have just created a short Snow Globe animation task using Scratch that can be accessed by all Glow users here.  It’s also more than suitable for using with your classes in school too!

Learners with access to Glow will be able to follow the video tutorials to create the animation shown below.  Click the green flag to see the animation!

UPDATE! Tutorial Videos Now On YouTube

The video playlist is embedded below, or you can access on YouTube directly here

November 29th, 2010

Scratch – itching for more?

Brian Clark

Comments: 5 Comments » Tags: Tags: build your own blocks, byob, cfe, computing, Consolarium, curriculum for excellence, game design, games design, GBL, LTS, network games, Scratch
 : Categories Added Value, Consolarium, Glow, games design

Build Your Own Blocks

MIT’s Scratch program has become a firm favourite in Primary and Secondary schools all over Scotland.  It is a great tool to create a variety of interactive media resources such as games, art, simulations and stories.  You are only limited by your imagination!

However, as more and more pupils are experiencing Scratch in their Primary classes or through their own curiosity at home, many secondary subjects that currently use Scratch (usually Computing departments) may be wondering how to build on these skills gained pre-secondary school.

One opportunity for extending the learning opportunities with Scratch lies with the BYOB mod of Scratch.  BYOB has all the features of the regular Scratch program, but has a couple of very exciting extras.  Including:

1. the ability to build custom blocks 
2. use recursion
3. create first class lists and procedures
4. ability to share sprites over a LAN
5. ability to pass variables over a LAN

For the purpose of this post, I would like to demonstrate points 4 and 5 – the ability to pass information between 2 or more computers.  Lets look at an example:

The BYOB software, used in this way, provides us with a tool for learners that immediately promotes, and indeed requires, cooperative working and discussion.  Charlie and myself have been demoing this implementation with Computing teachers at CPD events over Scotland in the last month or so.  We have been delighted to see the discussion and cooperative working that needs to take place in order for learners to create what is,essentially, a multiplayer networked game.

Using the technique above of hosting a mesh and reading in variable data using the sensing option, user can quite quickly create a 2 player tennis style game as illustrated below.

These videos are a little rough around the edges, but I intend to re-do them as a set of tutorial videos to be hosted within our game design Glow group. This tutorial set will take users through the steps to make the tennis game.

Please get in touch if you have already been using BYOB with your classes and share your experience with us.

November 16th, 2010

Happy Birthday Windows – COMPETITION!

Brian Clark

Comments: 4 Comments » Tags: Tags: Competitions, computing, Consolarium, Glow, infographic, LTS, operating systems
 : Categories Consolarium, Glow, Literacy, rich tasks, writing

On 20^th November 1985, Microsoft released Windows 1.0.

This year is the 25^th anniversary of Windows 1.0.  In the 25 years that have followed, Operating Systems have evolved. A lot.  Windows 7 mobile, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Linux are all commonly used Operating Systems today.  And there are many more!

To celebrate this event, we are running a competition for you to create an InfoGraphic about operating systems.  The winning InfoGraphic will turned into a poster and sent to all schools who take part.

Competition Details

Can you create an Infographic to chart the development of Operating Systems over the last 25 years? Here are some ideas….

• You could look at the features that have evolved over this time for a particular operating system
  
• Look at the range of operating systems currently available
• Compare features of 3 common operating systems
• The difference between operating systems for desktop computers and portable devices
• Show how the user interface operating systems have evolved over time, from text based to touch
• Perhaps you are studying computing and want to illustrate your knowledge of Operating Systems
• Or something else that you feel is appropriate
• All entries should be done through the Glow Group

Hold on, what’s an InfoGraphic?

An InfoGraphic is representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics are used where complex information needs to be explained quickly and clearly.  Information is conveyed by graphic elements, including charts, graphs, text, dates and images.

Some examples of infographics are shown here …

Reasons To Get Involved

• Creative commons image searching
• Image file format
• Investigate graphics applications
• Presentation style – contrasting colours, use of font etc
• Curricular links to SG, Int 2 and Higher Computing in timely context
• Opportunity for collaboration

Important Information!

Closing Date has been extended to 17th January 2011

• Winners will be announced early in the new year
• Teachers must register their school on the Glow Page
• Pupils are responsible for uploading their finished InfoGraphic to the entries page in an appropriate format
• Glow Group Short Link – http://glo.li/oscomp

November 29th, 2009

Wee Musicians performing with Wii Music

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, educational games, game based learning, games based learning, LTS, Nintendo, Wii
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, Consolarium, Nintendo

Years ago, when TV was a source for the collective conscious, I remember sitting down with my folks to watch the Generation Game on BBC1. The willing contestants were always presented with challenging and nonsensical tasks to try out and one that sticks in my mind involved handbell ringing!

Somehow a visit to a school in Peterhead last week to see a game based learning initiative that used Wii Music brought that memory back to me as I watched groups of children swing their wiimotes and nunchunks in a campanology stylee but in so doing they  really were ringing the bell for game based learning in schools…

I was contacted by Jonathan Cordiner from the Aberdeenshire Glow team some time ago to be informed about the work that he was doing with Esther Clark and her P.6 class from Buchanhaven PS in Peterhead using the game Wii Music for the Nintendo Wii. Now Wii Music involves a number of games that encourage you to ‘jam’ with the Miis on screen and in so doing play various instruments and learn a surprising amount about music.

When I mentioned the potential of learning about music through this game to some people they did not initially think that standing in front of a screen waving a game controller up and down or side to side could have any real substance or add value to learners experience in this area. Having visited the class and seeing what they have done for myself I can’t help saying just how incredible the skilled and informed use of this resource has been and just what a tremendous impact this has had on the learners in this class.

What have they been learning?

The first thing that struck me when I met the class was just again how excited and motivated the children were to show what they had been doing and to demonstrate their new skills.

For me the educational ethos in a class is so important if children are to be engaged by learning and here we saw a class bursting with enthusiasm, industry, skills and knowledge of their subject. I saw:

• Groups of children accompanying the Miis with various vitual instruments in the game to perfectly perform a selection of songs
• Children learning about the role and responsibility of the orchestra conductor and showing their skills in conducting the Wii orchestra
• Children moving away from the game to play ‘real’ instruments in order to play the songs they had performed within the game
• Children talking confidently and knowledgeably about the range of musical instruments AND musical notation
• Children performing their own ringtones that were created using a pentatonic scale
• Children using Glow to share their work and to engage with tasks set bu the teacher in Glow Learn (and to perform at an international education conference go to 30mins)
• Class displays about various composers and the different genres of music there are

Above all I saw learning happening in a classroom bursting with life. We have videoed a lot of the work that the children have been doing but is just at the edit stage but have a quick look at some of the work that the children have done about the composers that they investigated:

Yet again we see how a game built for entertainment can prove to be such a rich source for learning when used by skilled and thoughtful teachers who know how to use game based learning in order to create the appropriate context and climate in which rich learning can thrive.  There have been many requests to the Aberdeenshire Glow team for the plans that were used for this  project. These can be accessed here:

Aberdeenshire Council’s Wii Music plans

This project was a sheer delight to see and many congratulations must go to Jonathan and Esther for their imaginative and thorough approach, an approach that has made this initiative such a success.

November 1st, 2009

Game Based Learning in Scottish schools survey

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Consolarium, game based learning, LTS
 : Categories Uncategorized

As part of the work that the Consolarium has done in the field of game based learning and more importantly the significance of the reference to games design in the CfE Technology outcomes LTS is in the early stages of an initiative that aims to develop the capacity for the development of a games design community via Glow. As part of this work are carrying out this survey that we hope will help us outline the current landscape about the use and spread of games based learning in Scottish schools. To this end we have worked with Scottish Screen and the Abertay University to create two questionnaires: one for teachers and one for pupils. We are hoping that responses from both questionnaires will give us a clearer picture of the spread of games based learning and some attitudes to it.

Teacher questionnaire
Closing date for this questionnaire is Friday 20th November. It should not take more than 5-10 mins to complete.

Pupil questionnaire
Closing date for this questionnaire is Friday 11th December. It should not take more than 5-10 mins to complete.

There is the added incentive for pupils to participate by the possibility of winning a Nintendo DSi. The following link also contains text that addresses the issue of safety in relation to children’s participation with this survey.

We fully appreciate that GBL in schools is hapening in many places outside of Scotland but this survey is aimed only at Scottish pupils and Scottish schools.  We would greatly appreciate as many responses as possible to so please share it with as many people as you can.

Our results will be shared with the wider community once we have had time to collate and analyse them.

Thanking you in advance for your participation and support with this.

August 25th, 2009

CANVAS: Scotland’s first schools based virtual world for learning

Derek Robertson

Comments: 21 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, LTS, open sim, Second Life, Second Places, Virtual Worlds
 : Categories Virtual Worlds

As part of the ongoing remit to explore emerging technologies and their potential application within teaching and learning contexts Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium has been exploring Virtual Worlds.  Virtual Worlds present players/learners with a computer-based simulated environment intended for its players/learners to inhabit and interact via avatars. The most famous virtual worlds would include World of Warcraft and Second Life. Although World of Warcraft is of great interest to us we are not yet looking at this due to reasons that include the time required to spend ‘in-world’ and the unprotected nature of the environment in terms of knowing who is engaging with young learners. However, the world of Second Life has been of interest to us and this is an area that we have been considering. Our ongoing discussions with various industry partners led to a meeting with an Aberdeen based company called Second Places. They make bespoke virtual worlds for clients and have worked with organisations as varied as BP, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,  and even the comedian Jimmy Carr! Discussions between us led to the germ of an idea that would make the concept of the virtual world in relation to teaching and learning something that would be attainable, accessible and relevant in the modern Scottish classroom. This idea is CANVAS. (Full presentation of CANVAS’ design and planned implementation will be available at a seminar at SLF’09 & HHL’09)

What is CANVAS?

In essence CANVAS (Children’s Art at the National Virtual Arena of Scotland) is a virtual art space where Scottish pupils can exhibit their still or moving image art. Access to CANVAS will be through Glow (full Shibboleth Authentication) and with this comes the opportunity to exhibit pupils’ work, in a safer and securer environment, to the huge audience of pupils and teachers throughout Scotland. Not only will pupils be able to exhibit their work but they also will be able to appear in-world, represented by a virtual character called an avatar, so that they can talk via a chat facility to gallery visitors who come to visit and view the art works on show in CANVAS.  We believe that the participative nature of the design will offer a context in which young learners experiences, thoughts and understanding of their own work and development can be enriched and enhanced by the proposed opportunity for dialogue and discussion that the world offers. The exhibiting pupils will not be able to appear in world all the time so we have also built in the functionality that would allow the artist to record and embed a short video that can be played by gallery visitors when learners/artists are not in-world. This in itself is also another rich learning experience in terms of ICT but also in relation to the drafting and recording of a focused and succinct piece that would tell the viewer all about the artist’s work. To further add to this collaborative environment is the function that enables gallery visitors to leave formative comment about their experience and what they have thought about the art that is on show. Each separate artist will have their own forum where comments can be left for them to consider and reflect on.

What is the technology that is used?

Although the world looks and feels like Second Life it is actually made using an application called Open Sim. This has allowed us to create our own bespoke virtual world that can be hosted on our servers so that we have full control over whom we allow in to view and interact in the world. In order to view the world there are some technical issues that need to addressed. These include

•    some ports require to be opened in firewalls before schools can access the world. Local Authority partners have been very helpful in addressing this issue so that the integrity of their networks is not compromised
•    A CANVAS client will require to be installed locally to any machine that will be used to view the world. Again, we are working with Local Authority partners in order to find solutions for the delivery of this resource across managed networks
•    Quicktime must be installed on any machine to be used to view CANVAS (in order to view videos within the world)

It seems that innovation does not come without its challenges and this project has certainly not found itself short on challenges. We would like to comment on the dedication and ‘stickability’ of Second Places and in particular Mark Duffy who has faced a series of what appeared to be never-ending hilltops! We are almost at the top!

What is the role of local Authorities in making CANVAS work?

Initially the idea behind CANVAS involved the use of only one exhibition space. This space would allow a local authority to exhibit pupils’ work for a three-week period. However, this would have meant that some local authorities would need to wait almost three years before they could participate and showcase pupils’ work from their schools. This was not acceptable to us. Further discussions led to the extension of the world so that there were 32 separate rooms so that all local authorities can choose to maintain and refresh their own gallery in a manageable way. The refresh timescale of the exhibition is down to each local authority. There is also some discussion still to be had in relation to what each gallery would exhibit. We are leaving this open to local authorities so that they may choose to have something along the lines of:

•    an exhibition that focuses on a particular theme
•    a focus on a school to showcase their pupil’s work
•    best of Secondary
•    best of Primary/Nursery
•    a moving image special
•    a focus on a particular style such as Impressionism, modern art, portraiture

We still have the main exhibition space but we are currently in discussion about the role that this will play in the future. Should we make this somewhere that displays the work from a selected local authority as first envisaged or should it exhibit a monthly selection of art from the 32 local authority galleries? Might this main exhibition space showcase art of a particular theme from schools across Scotland or can it also show art from galleries not connected with school or maybe even art teachers work? These are questions that we are currently discussing but at this stage we still envisage using this main space to showcase pupil art from selected local authorities.

Management of the CANVAS environment has been made as accessible as possible for users. We aim to give ‘god’ accounts to the people within each local authority who would be willing/responsible to manage the collation of the artwork and the subsequent uploading of this to CANVAS. They will also need to work with the exhibiting schools/pupils in order to arrange times when the pupil will be available to be ‘in-world’ so that they can interact and engage with visitors to the gallery.  LTS are more than willing to support local authorities in the use of CANVAS so that they can take ownership of it at as early a stage as possible.

There will also be some requirement to moderate the comments that are submitted to the formative forum. We do hope that this will not be too onerous a task and as we know the identity of everyone in the world is (via the Shibboleth authentication) then we can trace any inappropriate comment, delete it and then, if appropriate, suspend the offending person from the world. This is an issue that may cause us the occasional headache but we believe that we have the mechanisms in place to address it if it does arise.

Taking this forward

We understand that there are have been some unfortunate stories linked with Second Life over the past year or so. We wish to stress that we are not using Second Life but an application called Open Sim that has enabled us to create out own world that we have complete control over in terms of who can access it. We would also like to stress that this project has been carefully considered with CfE and AifL clearly in mind and has been developed in conjunction with a range of ICT, Expressive Arts, AifL and school partners. It has the potential to be a significant resource and is another example of how we are exploring emerging technologies that have become embedded, for good or bad in contemporary culture, but with a clear focus on teaching and learning. Finally, CANVAS has such a low technology skills threshold that we believe that it will enable the vast majority of teachers to use it without any fear of its technical aspect.

We believe that CANVAS has the potential to be a transformational resource and that it will enrich learning in art & design for Scottish pupils

September 25th, 2008

Dr Kawashima extended trial summary results

Derek Robertson

Comments: 7 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, Derek Robertson, games based learning, LTS, Nintendo, SLF2008
 : Categories Nintendo

LTS Dr Kawashima Summary Report

As a result of a small scale intervention that we carried out in some classrooms last year we managed to fund an extended study to explore further the findings that we identified in relation to mental maths attainment and academic self-concept as a result of playing Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for the Nintendo DS in the primary school.

As a result of this extended study, carried out by Learning and Teaching Scotland in partnership with the University of Dundee and HMIE, we now have some concrete evidence of learning gains that can be attributed to the use of a games console in the primary classroom. But it has also raised a series of questions in our minds; there is a lot more we need to learn…

Although our research does indicate significant gains by the Nintendo group we feel that two things are particularly important for those with an interest in Scottish education. The first is that even the control group children showed measurable improvements in performance; this reflects very well on hard-working Scottish class teachers. The second point is important when thinking about the implications of our findings: because of the research design, we can feel confident that these findings are likely to be typical of what we can realistically expect across the board in Scotland.

We attach a summary paper that gives an outline of what we have found. We intend to submit a fuller paper for full academic review hence the summary nature of the information that we are sharing with you. The results will be discussed and shared with a wider audience for the first time at the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow.