Consolarium

September 25th, 2008

Scottish Schools Guitar Hero ’08 Champion

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, Guitar Hero, LTS, SLF08, SLF2008
 : Categories SLF08

Congratulations to David Whyte from Baldragon Academy in Dundee who yesterday swept all challengers aside to become the Scottish Schools Guitar Hero for 2008. Congratulations also to Craig Davidson, Shaun Caldwell and Lewis Bayne for making it to the semi-finals and for giving such a spirited and skilled performance at the Gamezone Challenge.

David thoroughly impressed the viewing delegates at the conference with his expertise at the game. Whilst playing the song: When We Were Young by The Killers he managed to hit a 500 note streak on expert level. Superb!!!

Thanks to all who supported this event by either participating over the course of the last month or by coming along to the venue to support the boys and to support the unusual addition of something like the Gamezone Challenge at an educational conference.

Thanks also to Microsoft and Nintendo for the donation of prizes for the competitions that we are running in the Gamezone Challenge.

September 24th, 2008

Dr Kawashima Challenge at SLF’08

Derek Robertson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Consolarium, LTS, SLF08, SLF2008
 : Categories Glow, Nintendo, SLF08

As part of this year’s Consolarium inspired Gamezone Challenge at this year’s SLF we have the DR Kawashima Challenge: How fast can you do your sums? Delegates are invited to take the x20 challenge within this game and see if their score gets on the leaderboard! If a score features in the top eight by 3:30pm on the Wednesday or 2:30pm on the Thursday then the talented delegate will be invited to take part in the x30 download challenge to see if they are the fastest sums expert in Scotland! This title will come with 15, yes I said 15 Nintendo DS plus Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for the DS.

August 15th, 2008

Games based learning at SLF ’08

Derek Robertson

Comments: 5 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, LTS, SLF2008
 : Categories SLF08

Established in 2006 The Consolarium was Learning and Teaching Scotland’s initiative to explore the potential, worth and manageability of games based learning in nursery, primary and secondary classrooms. Last year’s Scottish Learning Festival allowed a number of these projects to be shared and celebrated and it is with great delight that I can say that this year’s event, SLF ’08 has given us the opportunity to show what has continued to happen in Scottish classrooms.

What’s on then you may be asking? A full Games pathway brochure is available but as a quick ready reckoner here’s what’s going on over the two days:

Wednesday 24 September

11:30am Please Miss, my Nintendog needs fed! Cross-curricular learning in P2 with virtual pets: Anna Rossvoll, Aberdeenshire Council Education Village

12:30pm Using the Sony PSP as a learning tool in the primary classroom, Tess Watson & Alicia Macfarlane, East Lothian Council seminar code N1B

1:30pm Scotland’s Got Game: How Scotland has embraced games-based learning: Derek Robertson, LTS seminar code N1C

1:30pm Thinking out of the Xbox: if a picture really did speak a 1000 words: Ewan McIntosh, LTS seminar code C2C

4:00pm Consolarium Challenge: Derek Robertson, Education Showcase

Thursday 25 September

9:30am Can Nintendo’s Dr Kawashima impact on mental maths? An extended study: Derek Robertson & Dr David Miller, LTS & University of Dundee seminar code N1F

10:30am Get in training for the Mario Olympics on the Wii (and get enthused about writing too!): Jo-Anne Bell, Dundee City Council seminar code N1G

12:15pm Wiimbledon, anyone for tennis? Using Nintendo’s Wii Sports as the contextual hub for a cross-curricular project: Vicky Mackenzie, Lairdsland PS Education Village

1:30pm The Winning Game: Can a computer game contribute to the development of a culture of success and self-improvement within a school?: Jim Scott, Perth & Kinross Council seminar code N1G

3:00pm Consolarium Challenge: Derek Robertson, Education Showcase

We hope to see you there and at as many events as possible. They promise to be very interesting and I’m sure worth your while.

August 15th, 2008

Turn it up to eleven at SLF ’08 with the Guitar Hero Challenge!

Derek Robertson

Comments: 4 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, games based learning, Glow, Guitar Hero, LTS, SLF2008
 : Categories Consolarium, SLF08

Rock and Roll is helping the Scottish Learning Festival ’08 turn it up to eleven this year in the form of the Scottish Schools Guitar Hero Challenge! If you think that your pupils have the potential to win this then get involved in this year’s Game Zone Challenge at SLF’08. All you need is one of the following: a PS2, PS3, XBox360 or Nintendo Wii along with a copy of Guitar Hero III (with a guitar).

Over the next few weeks we are asking you to let your children play When We Were Young by The Killers. Pupils validated scores should be emailed by their teacher to consolarium@ltscotland.org.uk and we will then upload this to the leaderboard The competition heats will end on Friday 12 September when the top four on the leaderboard will be identified and invited to Glasgow to compete in the Game Zone Challenge. Travel costs will be covered by LTS. This event will take place at the SLF’08 on Wednesday 24 September, 4:00pm.

It promises to be quite an event what with the finals being held on a stage with a PA, large screens, lights AND a dry ice machine…eat your heart out Spinal Tap! Oh, and the champion can win computer games goodies for their school.

We have established a Guitar Hero Glow Group for schools to share the associated curricular work that can go on around a game such as a Guitar Hero but if your school is not yet in Glow don’t worry you can still participate…send your high scores to me and I’ll add it to the leaderboard. If you like you can send me any other material your class may have done in relation to Guitar Hero and I’ll post it in Glow.

The song that we want you to play does not immediately appear in the game so you have two ways of accessing it.

1. Play the game until it opens the song
2. Use a cheat. If you don’t know how to do this then follow these instructions:
   1. To enter cheats, from the main menu in Guitar Hero III go to Options -> Cheats -> Enter New Cheat. For each code, you have to strum while you press the given buttons. Notes in parenthesis are held together while you strum .i.e. (RY) denotes Red and Yellow buttons held at the same time and strummed once.
   1. The cheat code is as follows: GRBO, GRYB, GRYO, GBYO, GRYB, RYBO, GRYB, GYBO, GRYB, GRYO, GRYO, GRYB, GRYO

Please contact us if you have any difficulties with this. Good luck and maybe we’ll see you and your pupils at SLF’08!

August 15th, 2008

Scottish Schools Sonic Olympics Challenge at SLF ’08

Derek Robertson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Consolarium, LTS, Nintendo, Scottish Learning Festival, SLF2008, Sonic and Mario at the Olympics, Wii
 : Categories Consolarium, SLF08

Do your pupils have what it takes to be the Scottish Schools Sonic and Mario at the Olympics Champion for 2008? If so, then get involved in the Mario Olympics Challenge at this year’s Game Zone Challenge at the Scottish Learning Festival ’08. All you need is a Nintendo Wii, a copy of the game and up to four Wiimotes (the handset that you use to play the Wii).

Over the next few weeks we would like your pupils to enter the trampolining heat. They must try to get the highest score they can on the trampoline event in the game. Their validated scores should then be emailed by a teacher to consolarium@ltscotland.org.uk and we will upload this to the leaderboard.

The competition heats will end on Friday 12 September when the top eight on the leaderboard will be identified and invited to Glasgow to compete in the Game Zone Challenge. Travel costs will be covered by LTS.

One school in Dundee has already piloted this game and not only was this great fun but it led to enthusiastic learning around the associated curricular areas. This work will soon appear on the Consolarium’s website in case study format.

We have established a Glow group for those who want to collaborate and share their work and experiences in this venture. If your school is not in Glow then please do still feel free to join in and compete….

Please note that the finals will comprise of the 100m sprint, the swimming and the trampoline so get cracking with it. They will be held on a stage in the Education Village (Thursday 25 September, 3:00pm) so that an enthusiastic audience can cheer on the competitors. The champion will win some computer games goodies for their school and this prize will be presented by one of Scotland’s best rugby players of recent times, Gregor Townsend MBE who now works with the Winning Scotland Foundation.

Please contact us at consolarium@ltscotland.org.uk if you have any queries about this. Good luck and maybe we’ll see you and your pupils at SLF’08!

April 15th, 2008

Kawashima project kicks off

Derek Robertson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Consolarium, games based learning, Kawashima, LTS
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, Nintendo, Western Isles

The past two weeks have been rather hectic, with the promise of more of the same next week. I’m writing this post from the Western Isles EDC offices in Stornoway having completed another leg of the LTS extended Dr Kawashima project.

Last year we carried out a small-scale intervention using Nintendo DS & Dr Kawashima in a P.5/6 class in Dundee. Thew results proved to be so interesting that we managed to access funds that has allowed us to extend this to 16 schoolsd with Nintendo with 16 control groups. The methodology is very similar to what we did last year with the exception that we only have Nintendo groups and control groups this time around and the fact we are using different measures to the Burnett Self-Scale that we used last year. So now things are well under way…

We had a great start last week in Aberdeenshire schools that are taking part. It was an experience, to say the least, to have some headteachers waiting at the front door for my arrival and then to be welcomed with the excited exclamation, “It’s the Nintedno man!” The pre and post tests went like clockwork, no small thanks to Anna Rossvoll, Alison Butcher and Caroline Denning from the ‘Shire’s ICT team as well as Elizabeth Cole from HMIe.  What a team!

This week has seen me carrying out the needful in the Western Isles with my colleague from the University of Dundee, Dr David Miller doing likewise in the participating Dundee schools. Next week will see us both doing the same in our partner schools in East-Ayrshire.

I’ve always said that teaching is a great career but it’s an added bonus to see the gleeful reactions and to hear the gasps of disbelief when we tell ther children that they are getting to use the DS in class, and that we are giving them one each for the 10 week duration of the project. Good times.

We’ll all be back to visit the schools to carry out the post-tests in 10 weeks time and then for the analysis…

March 25th, 2008

Crazy Talking and exploring Art & Design

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Aberdeenshire, animation, Consolarium, crazy talk, Elrick PS, LTS
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, animation

At SETT ’06 I saw an application called Crazy Talk at one of the stands. Totally bowled over by this application I bought 25 licences for the Consolarium so that I could share them with my early adopter partners. The reason that I liked it was that it made bringing digital characters to life so easy, particularly in regard to the fact that I had been attempting to teach my students at University of Dundee to use Flash to animate computer goodies and baddies! This application lowered the technology threshold so much that it allowed anyone to achieve great success with the animation process which could then enable/allow the teacher to focus on what the learner had written…

I managed to get some great stuff going on, particularly in Stirling Council where they used it to great effect with a collaborative writing project that was showcased at a seminar at SLF 07.

Whilst at Elrick PS to se the Nintendogs project in P.2 I was asked to pop in to the P.7 class to see their Crazy Talk work. What they have been doing was again incredible in terms of pupil engagemewnt and enriching the learning experience. A visit to Aberdeen Art Gallery was organised and during this visit the children were going to focus on portraits. This focus would look at the style of the painting but also at the social history behind the subject matter/person. The main character they were finding out was an artist called Edward Burne-Jones.

The children had found out so much about so much about him and they were able to tell me all about how he studied under William Morris and that there was a supposed relationship with Queen Victoria. I learned quite a lot about this chap from the children.

It was clear that this application had again encouraged these learners to find out about their subject matter and then write it up so that they could bring their characters to life.

Have a look at the P.6/7 class blog where the children have published their animated Crazy Talk portraits.

December 11th, 2007

Sony PSP project in East Lothian

Derek Robertson

Comments: 5 Comments » Tags: Tags: Consolarium, Glow, LTS
 : Categories East Lothian, Sony PSP

Most, if not all the handheld games device projects that have emanated from the Consolarium have so far been based on the Nintendo DS platform. We have for some time been looking at the Sony PSP as a learning tool and after much deliberation and discussion we eventually managed to initiate a project that will explore the potential of this platform as a learning tool.

I have been in discussions with Connected Education, who are educational resellers for the Sony PSP, for some time now but I was always doubtful about exploring this device due to the fact that I was not greatly convinced of the educational application of the range of games that were available.  However, I met with Mark Stimpfig and Andrew Goff from Connected a few months ago and during this meeting my attitude towards the PSP changed. I was shown a number of applications that I felt added that extra dimension ands accessibility to making the PSP a worthwhile device that could play a significant role in out classrooms. These applications allow content to be created away from the PSP but then played, shared and enjoyed via the PSP. The applications that we looked at included:

•    Crazy Talk
•    Vlog
•    Lecturnity

The PSP plays video, audio, images, it has a wireless browser built in and it plays games. There is also a camera that fits on to the PSP and this offers the chance of a wireless and mobile video-conferencing device. There are also applications such as GoEdit that allow you to create content on the PSP and we are looking at those too.

One local authority had expressed a real interest in looking at this device and so after a meeting with Karen Robertson and the team at East Lothian it was decided that we would host the project in P.6/7 in Campie PS in Musselburgh.

Yesterday we held our first meeting with the school staff, technical support, ICT development team and LTS representatives. Tony Giddings from Connected Education gave us a tutorial about how to use all the features within the PSP. It was great to see how easy it was to access the web via the wireless network in the school via the PSP. The screen on the device is really quite large and it was simple enough to navigate through a series of web pages using the PSP interface.

Ollie Bray and Tess Watson were very keen to see how the Glow portal would look on the PSP and when it cam through it really looked good. Compact, accessible and there! This does ask questions and opens doors for pupil accessibility to Glow as it becomes more widely available. Logging in to your work or your own personal space in Glow via a games device seems quite an exciting prospect to me. On another note we are also looking at making Glow available through the Sony PS3 but more of that later.

Today we met with the class teacher, Alicia Macfarlane and the PT Steven Woods where we initiated discussions about appropriate areas of next terms curriculum that would best suit the application of the software and their devices that we are giving the children. Their topic is WW2 and already we have developed a range of ideas that would allow the gradual integration of the PSP as something that will become integral to the teaching and learning experience within the class.

Amongst other things that are currently in the planning stages this is another interesting games based learning project from LTS that will hopefully continue to contribute to the evolving body of evidence about the successful application of handheld gaming devices in teaching and learning.