Consolarium

February 8th, 2008

Nintendogs project under way

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: DS, games based learning, Nintendo, Nintendogs
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, Nintendo, rich tasks

Some time ago I received a very interesting proposal from the team in Aberdeenshire for a games-based-learning project that we could undertake in a couple of P.2 classrooms. The idea was to use the popular Nintendogs game for the Nintendo DS as a the context through which a cross-curricular project could be developed. What is Nintendogs I hear you ask? It’s a virtual pet that grows from being a puppy to a well-trained dog that you can take to virtual dog shows. I can assure they are great fun and disarmingly therapeutic when you scratch them behind the ear or tickle them under the belly! Have a look:

I was really interested in this and when I saw how the teachers had planned to use the resource I immediatley bought in to the idea.

The Consolarium has loaned some DSs and games to the schools and the local authority have also purchased resources to support the project. The children are working in pairs to support the nurturing and dvelopment of their virtual pets and the teachers are using the context created by the game to dive in to a range of rich tasks that open up the curriculum in a connected and meaningful fashion.

Lots of ideas for writing and number, design and technology is being looked at as the children have ben given a design brief to create a kennel that will keep a real dog dry and warm. There has also been evidence of entreupeneurship as some of the children have decided to open a dog-walking service that ocurs on a Friday afternoon (safety concerns taken acount of and parents heavily involved). The children have also established a system called Top Dogs in the class. To be a top dog you will probably have Nintendogs at home and will most likely be a more experienced player. These chiuldren are then acting as mentors to help and advise peers as they look after their dogs!

The project has a class blog, called Top Dogs, that hopes to detail the progress of the Nintendog puppies and the teaching and learning that is ongoing.

Looking forward to reporting more about this in the near future.

February 5th, 2008

Sony PSP project: an update from Campie PS

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Handheld learning, PSP, Sony
 : Categories East Lothian, Sony PSP

The Sony PSP project in the P.7 class in Campie P.S. in Musselburgh is well under way. The children have all been given their PSPs and are getting in to the habit of using it as part of their everyday learning. I must say that it seemed kind of incongruous to see the PSP sitting alongside some of the children’s pencil cases but the children looked at me quizzically when I suggested this idea to them-“What’s strange about the PSP in class? It’s a great way to learn!” I was quickly informed!

We have provided the children with a game for the PSP called Hot Brain. The idea behind this was to try to create a similar experience as to the one that we created with our Nintendo DS DR. Dr Kawashima in Dundee, one that presents the children with a series of challenging numeracy, literacy and puzzle games that they can play for the first 15-20 minutes of the school day. The children are keeping a log of their progress in the game on paper (as well as within the game) and they are all very keen to reach the level of excellence in Hot Brain - reaching the brain temperature of 55 degrees! If you reach this then you have a Hot Brain!

I had a chat with the children about the game and the response was an overwhelmingly positive one. They thought it was ‘brilliant’ to have the PSP in their class and that Hot Brain was a great way to ‘get the day started at school.’ The class teacher, Alicia Macfarlane, said that they although her class have always been well-behaved she has noticed that they are even more settled and focused first thing as they get stuck in to their Hot Brain games.I then observed a lesson that involved the children editing movies that they had shot on their PSPs. We have provided a camera for each PSP and this enables all the children to capture movies for their project work with ease. Campie PS use Macs and has meant that there are some challenges in relation to transference of data/assets from the PSP to the Mac. The PSP records the movie file as an .avi and although it squirts across to the Mac quickly via USB it is taking as bit of time to load up into imovie. However, once the movies were uploaded the children took their video-editing session really well. This kind of challenge will no doubt be presented to us on this pilot but it’s all learning as they say. Mrs Macfarlane also told me how she is beginning to integrate the wireless browser capability of the PSP into the teaching and learning in her class. The children are studying WW2 at present and they managed to access and download images of ration books to help them with a particular aspect of their project. This means that each child is free to browse the web on their own, at their desk with their individual handheld device.A class blog has been established so you can keep up-to-date of what’s happening with the PSPs in class. Great progress so far at Campie P.S and a big well done to Mrs Macfarlane and all the children of P.6/7.