Consolarium

January 28th, 2010

Consolarium podcast no.3: BETT10 reflections and Wii Winter Olympics

Derek Robertson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: bett10, Consolarium, educational games, fun inc, games based learning, Nintendo, Tom Chatfield
 : Categories West Dunbartonshire

This editon of the Consolarium is now available. You can subscribe to the podcast from itunes via this link or listen to it via the embedded player.

This edition of the Consolarium podcast consists of the following:

Reflections on BETT10

Derek Robertson and Ollie Bray attended the BETT10 educational technology exhibition at London’s Olympia. They offer their reflections of how this visit was for them…

Mario and Sonic at the Olympics at Gavinburn PS

Ollie Bray interviews Gillian Penny, the headteacher of Gavinburn PS from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire. Mrs Penny has become a real ally and asset to game based learning having carried out some tremendous initiatives in conjunction with the Consolarium over the past year or so. Ollie talks to her about the planning process involved in leading game based learning projects in a school and they take the chance to focus on how planning for the Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics project is progressing.

AOCBGBL

Brian McLaren talks bout how he is using the lovely www.buildyourwildself.com resource to support his work in schools with Wild Earth African Safari.

Olie Bray recommends an website called www.blabberize.com that allows you to turn images into talking, or blabbering, animations. Very nice!

Derek Robertson mentions a new published book about computer games called Fun Inc. Why Games are the 21st Centuries Most Serious Business by Tom Chatfield

Brian Clark recommends the website www.tutpup.com. Online numeracy and spelling challenges.

January 26th, 2010

Involving Parents

bmclaren

Comments: none Tags: Tags: games, Parents
 : Categories Consolarium, Parents, cross-curricular, game based learning

I was invited to a couple of Parent Council meetings this week, asked in to explain the role of Games Based Learning within A Curriculum for Excellence and to showcase some of the projects the Consolarium already has underway and potentially what parents could do to support it in their own child’s school.

Many families will already be familiar with the range of consoles and software available and most of the folks I spoke to at the meetings had more stuff in their houses than I had; yet very few had ever played with them and almost none had played them with their children. (Derek Robertson writes a brilliant blog post “Cod Liver Oil and Effective Learning..”on his personal site at HotMilkyDrink which is well worth a read, from a parent’s perspective)

One of the best things about the job is seeing the sparks of enthusiasm and creativity created by the GBL approach and this was evident again as a room full of parents and carers were excitedly discussing the kinds of things their children could be learning. One of the meetings ended with the Parent Council pretty much demanding (in a good way!) that the school take money from them and get out and buy consoles and implement them in their children’s learning straight away.

A positive partnership between parents and school is really important and ACfE provides a perfect backdrop against which these relationships can be strengthened; and the games based learning approach augments this beautifully.

All of these consoles in homes and all of these learning opportunities. A germ of an idea is beginning to form…………

In the meantime check out the Trailer for Parent Toolkit below

January 19th, 2010

Get Involved!

bmclaren

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: community, Glow, involvement
 : Categories Added Value, Clackmannanshire, Consolarium, Glow, South Lanarkshire

A busy time over the last week or so since my last post. As Ollie mentioned in a previous post I have been toiling away updating our Consolarium Glow Group. In the past this group hasn’t been as successful as we had hoped and it was beginning to get a bit tired looking. I have tried to restructure the way the group works so that you can more easily navigate your way around and find interesting and useful resources. It is still very much a work in progress and you should see it develop over the coming weeks and months particularly with the addition of the Games Design section which will be forming a large part of the work of the Consolarium in 2010. (I am sure that you are going to hear some very interesting things from Brian Clark in the not too distant future about this…)

In order for the Glow Group to be as successful as possible though we really need community involvement. There is so much good practice going on in schools all over Scotland that should be shared and celebrated and Glow will provide an ideal vehicle for this. Join in the discussions, add your own paperwork and weblinks and encourage others to do the same. Let us know what you think about the group, about GBL in general and perhaps some topics you would like to see covered in a Glowmeet.

Other things on the go this week include a visit to Lourdes Secondary to see them using MangaHigh and hearing what staff and pupils think of it and if you follow me on Twitter (@BrianMcL) you will know that I was in Park Primary in Alloa watching some wonderful children drum their African rhythms with an energy and enthusiasm that would have made a Masai warrior proud. I’ll be heading off to Fairview school in Perth and Loch and Calderwood Primaries in South Lanarkshire to discuss the use of GBL as well as a million other things including the next humiliation of the Wii fit weight loss challenge (I am away now to start looking out my lightest clothes to wear for the next weigh in!)

January 13th, 2010

Follow the Consolarium on Twitter

obray

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Consolarium, social media, twitter
 : Categories Consolarium

Over the next few months we are going to be expanding the ways that we communicate and publicize the work of the consolarium. We have already made a good start with our bi-weekly podcast where we share what we are up to, ideas, interviews with other practitioners and top tips for classroom practice and professional development opportunities.

We are also working on another few resources that we hope will benefit the whole games based learning community and more information on these services will follow soon.

As part of a bigger project we are working with the on-line service team to audit and up-date the ICT in Education website and the Consolarium pages on sharing good practice. We have a load of other case studies that will be going up online soon and we are just waiting for the interviews to be transcribed.

Brian has also been working hard on the Consolarium Glow Group and again we hope to make use of the new blogs and wiki features of Glow when they become after the Glow refresh in March / April.

Finally, we also now have our own dedicated Twitter Channel (www.twitter.com/consolarium). As well as pulling in the RSS feed from this blog we will also be tweeting from the various conferences and events that we attend around the UK.

The whole of the Consolarium team is on Twitter – we find it a great way to keep in contact, to share ideas and resources. You can find us at the following accounts:

• Derek Robertson - www.twitter.com/derekrobertson
• Ollie Bray - www.twitter.com/olliebray
• Brian McLaren - www.twitter.com/BrianMcL
• Brian Clark - www.twitter.com/bw_clark
• Charlie Love - www.twitter.com/charlie_love

January 12th, 2010

Consolarium Podcast no.2: Wii Fit weight loss challenge

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Consolarium, game based learning, games based learning, GBL, wii fit, wiifitweightlosschallenge
 : Categories Consolarium, exergaming, exertainment, game based learning, podcast

Isn’t the Christmas and New Year break just great. However, getting back to work and attempting to fit in to the work clothes can bring one back down to earth with a bump as the two weeks of festive excess appears to still be with you! Fully in-keeping with our Health and Well-Being agenda the team at the Consolarium has resolved to try to shift from their expanded wasit lines the trifle, turkey, mince pies, Black Bun and possibly the occasional beer that they had consumed over the festive break.

The Wii Fit Weight Loss Challenge

We are quite lucky at the Consolarium as we do have access to a variety of exergaming titles. Dance mats have always been popular but we have decided to focus on looking at how the Wii Fit can help us lose weight. The Wii Fit Weight Loss Challenge is now underway! We all weighed ourselves on Wednesday 6th January 2010 and we plan to undertake our exergaming exercise programme over the next 8 weeks with a finish date of Wednesday 3rd March 2010. Here are our initial weights in kilogrammes:

If you would like to participate in the Consolarium’s efforts at getting the weight off then feel free to join us. We are posting our weekly weigh-ins on Twitter with the hashtag of #wiifitweightlosschallenge. Have a go and let’s see if we can make those work-shirts a little less tight fitting!

Stirling Council visits the Consolarium

A recording of us using the Wii Fit board to record our initial weights is part of our second podcast. You can access/subscribe to the podcast via this link. This podcast also contains an interview with our colleagues from Stirling Council, Margaret Cassidy and Joe Shaw. Margaret and Joe have been great partners of the Consolarium and have been involved in quite a few projects with us for example Moshi Monsters, Endless Ocean and Crazy Talk.

AOCBGBL

Our AOCBGBL (any other competent business games based learning) section sees us talking about these resources:

Blue Murder Mystery Files: A narrative driven puzle packed murder mystery game for the PS3. Beautiful graphics, an engaging narrative and real challenge in those puzzles.

Light-bot: Control a robot by giving it commands. Use programmer-style logic for more complex levels that include functions to re-use.

Yudu: A lovely little tool that allows texts to be converted to page turning digital books.

Let us know what you think of the podcast. Your feedback would be appreciated and do feel free to join us in our #wiifitweightlosschallenge!

January 12th, 2010

Happy New Year

bmclaren

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories cross-curricular, game based learning

Well that’s it, Christmas has been consigned to the memory banks and most of the New Year’s resolutions have been broken already (although with one notable exception that we will get to in a minute!)

Santa was particularly generous this year bringing both a Wii and a couple of Dsi s for my children so if we add this to the hardware I use for work and my own stuff, my house now contains

2 x Wii 1 x PS2 1 x PS3 1 x Xbox 3 x DSi 1 x DSlite 1 x PC 2 x Notebook 1 x Macbook

And a selection of software for each of them. Is this too much? I see it as a level of my commitment to the job

I am very excited by the work that is being taken on by the Consolarium team this term. For my own part I am looking forward to watching how the trial of Mangahigh pans out across nine schools in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh. My colleague Brian Clark and I will be meeting all of these schools, teachers and pupils collecting thoughts, feelings and data.

Wallace High School in Stirling is running a very exciting cross curricular interdepartmental topic for S1 using Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Maths, Geography, Art, English, Music and ICT departments are all involved and being coordinated by a very enthusiastic Maths teacher, Suzanne Harris

If you can believe it, the planning for SLF10 is well underway and the Consolarium team has some very exciting things planned for this year. Follow our blog and podcast and get your school involved. We will also continue to instigate, develop and support a huge range of work across Scotland, if you are undertaking work in the area of GBL and games design please get in touch and let us know.

And as for the only resolution left. The #wiifitweightlosschallenge. Last week was the inaugural weigh in, oh dear! There is nothing like a bit of public humiliation to provide some serious motivation. Follow our progress on the podcast and if I am visiting your school over the next couple of months please hide the biscuits.

January 8th, 2010

TapTale

Brian Clark

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Consolarium, games based learning, iphone, itouch, Literacy, tap tale
 : Categories Consolarium, game based learning

LTS in conjunction with 4ip worked with SixToStart to create and pilot an iPhone/iTouch App called TapTale. TapTale’s primary goal is to promote literacy through the reading and writing of tales using the tap, tilt, shake and swipe functions of Apples touch screen devices.

When creating a tale, pupils are asked to write chapters using the touchscreen keyboard on the device. In order to progress from chapter to chapter, the reader must use one of the tap, swipe, tilt or shake sequences. It is up to the author of the tale to decide what action must be taken for the reader to see the next chapter.

Once a tale has been created, users can upload them via the device to the taptale website. This allows other registered user to download and read their tales directly on the device. Registered users can provide feedback on any tale via the website using a ‘fridge magnet’ style form. Anyone can read the tales created directly from the site, but of course the tapping and tilting functions are not possible in this view.

This App looks really promising. I really like the idea of pupils incorporating the device’s actions in their tales. For example, each chapter could provide clues to what action is expected for the reader to progress.

Chapter : “… Anum waved goodbye to John …”
Expected Action – Shake
Chapter: “… heard a knock at the door …”
Expected Action – Double tap

Encouraging pupils to read and write, provide and receive feedback using interactive and relevant technology should not only improve literacy skills but digital literacy skills.
Needless to say, I am delighted to be involved with the forthcoming pilot and am looking forward to seeing the impact it has.