Consolarium

March 22nd, 2011

#gametolearn – Playful Learning: Geocaching Workshop

obray

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories Conferences, Game to learn, animation, game based learning

As well as dong a lot of work at the Consolarium on Games Based Learning and Games Design we also research and investigate other technologies that we think will have a real impact in the classroom. In the last 12 months this has included 3D printing, mobile Apps, social software, multi-point and tablet technology.

One of the technologies that we see real potential in at the moment is GPS and Geocaching. We will be publishing a whole heap of resources and ideas to help support schools with this sometime before the summer.

As part of the recent Games to Learn Conference we ran a Geocaching workshop to help introduce practitioners into what GPS and Geocaching is and how it might have real education value. The weather was spectacular for the workshop and 30 educators had a great time treasure hunting around Dundee.

Have a look at the picture below:

Can you see the joy and excitement on their faces? This is impact of finding your first Geocache – pure excitement! The video below explains what Geocaching is:

During the workshop at Game to Learn participants had an opportunity to find some cashes from geocaching.com. These were mainly magnetic cashes and hidden around the city. We also hid some of our very own Consolarium Cashes and cryptic questions for people use their GPS to find and answer.

Using a GPS with pre-loaded co-ordinates our Consolarium adventures had to complete the following tasks:

1) Uncover a micro magnetic cache in the middle of the city (who would have know it was there!) -

2) Collect a sticker from inside a false rock in the graveyard -

3) Explore the history of Dundee by taking a crayon rubbing of the historic plaque (also works well with trees, statues and grave stones!) -

4) Find out about Roman Numerals and the height of the water at the HMS Discovery -

5) Take a digital picture of an engraving on the roof of a landmark that you would never normally see unless you stood in exactly the right place and looked up -

6) Record and answer in audio using their mobile phone or talking tin -

As well as the above the groups has to work as a team, persevere and look after each other while they were alone in the city! They all did very well!

@OnTheSuperFly recorded the journey of his group really well as a series of Flickr Images and an associated blog post. Most of the above photos are his as well.

When he got home Andrew McLaughlin re-created the excitement as a Go-Animate Animation! GoAnimate4Schools.com: Geocaching #gametolearn by Andrew McLaughlin

In summary, at the Consolarium we think geocaching and educaching had huge potential in schools to help support learning and we will be writing more about this very soon!

March 17th, 2011

Land of Me initiative kicks off in Argyll & Bute

Derek Robertson

Comments: 4 Comments » Tags: Tags: game based learning, game design, GBL, thelandofme
 : Categories Argyll & Bute, Early Years

The Consolarium team is currently working with three local authority partners in Scotland to explore the application of The Land of Me in the Early Years setting. Having already started things off a couple of months back with Dundee City and West Lothian Councils we finally managed to kick things off today when we met Maggie Irving (check out her own site that has some great help for CfE) and the teachers involved in this stage of the initiative from Argyll and Bute. It was great to see that the teachers had been funded to take the day out of school in order to come to this initial event.

Maggie Irving had planned for everyone to have a ‘fluid’ day in order for us to tease out and explore just how we might begin to plan for the use of The Land of Me. The consensus of opinion was that the last thing we wanted to create was a set of pre-planned activities that would be used by everyone and so there was a general discussion of how each of the six chapters could be used.

It is fair to say that Maggie Irving was particulalry taken with the The Land of Me so I took the opportunity to record our discussion about just why it was she thought it was so appealing. You can hear our discussion here:

(Transcript to follow)

The main points about the resource that Maggie raises are:

• The Land of Me is more than a piece of software, it is a digital experience for young learners
• there is so much potential for children to develop their learning and creativity away from the 2D computer screen
• the material is perfect to explore the many of the literacy outcomes in CfE
• it offers many opportunties for teachers to ask key questions when working with children

The teachers involved over the course of the day were delight to work with and they seemed to be of the opinion that the resource and the learning opportunities that could be exploited from it was something that they could use to great effect in their settings. Maggie was really pleased with her colleagues response to the day saying, “If this is the response from teaching staff then it will be fabulous to see what the kids do with it!”

In order to suport this initiative we introduced the teachers to the Land of Me area within Glow and this gave us a perfect opportunity to share the forums within Glow with them. CPDConsolarium was also shared with the teachers and we have asked that this becomes integral to how they manage their progress when using The Land of Me in their settings.

Future follow up posts about progress will be published over the next few months.

March 15th, 2011

Consolarium Catchphrase Twitter Challenge at Game to Learn

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: game based learning, games based learning, gametolearn, GBL, ps3
 : Categories Game to learn

What’s in a catchphrase? The shortest, snappiest, cleverest sound-bites can make a star of out even the most ordinary of us and in so doing win a Sony PS3 for your school/establishment at Game to Learn: Take2! on Saturday.

Yes, with one eye on the great Roy Walker (“say what you see”) we’d like to challenge you to the Consolarium Twitter Catchphrase Challenge! Get your thinking caps on, your Twitter account at the ready and come up with the catchiest catch-phrase that will meet this challenge:

Why is Game Based Learning and/or Game Design a success in schools?

If you don’t have a Twitter account then you can sign up for one here www.twitter.com. Once you have set this up and you wish to submit your catchy catchphrase then please ensure that you are within the 140 characters that a ‘tweet’ allows. You will also need to add this hashtag to your tweets #g2lcomp. The Consolarium team will look at this #g2lcomp stream over the course of the day and make a decision on the one that they feel is the catchiest catchphrase.

The most terrific, tastiest and topmost tweet takes home (to their school/educational establishment) a wonderful Sony PS3 with a copy of Little Big Planet AND Little Big Planet2!

Please Note: You must be at the conference venue to claim your prize.

If your tweet does not win then do not fear for there is the chance that you could yet be lucky as we have two desirable Nintendo DSi, a superb Nintendo Wii AND a fantastic Xbox 360 with Kinect to give away at the end of the day….details of you might get your hands one of these prizes to be given out on the day.

We wish to thank our friends at Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft for their support for Game to Learn.

March 15th, 2011

Kinectimals in the Early Years supporting Numeracy

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: educational games, game based learning, games based learning, gametolearn, Kinect, kinectimals, xbox
 : Categories Dundee City, Early Years, Numeracy

*Guest post from Judi Regan and Dawn Calder at Menzieshill Nursery School, Dundee who are involved with our Kinectimals initiative. Judi, along with her HT LOuise REid will be sharing their experience of using Kinectimals at Game to Learn: Take2! on Saturday 19 March 2011.

We’ve been investigating lots of ways that Kinectimals can develop learning in line with Curriculum for Excellence recently. For the purpose of the blog, we will look at one curricular area each update. This fortnight we are focusing on numeracy and in future updates we will discuss some of the other curricular areas. We have included the CfE code in brackets.

Through various aspects of the game the children have been learning to use number for practical purposes such as counting down using the on screen timer. Although the timer starts quite high, sometimes from 60, the children are able to join in the countdown from a number they recognise. Similarly, there are many other games, which develop counting skills such as throwing virtual soft toy piggies at skittles; kicking the ball, turning the skipping rope and many others. (MNU 0-02a)

Cross curricular opportunities for re-creating patterns, such as stripes, spots etc have been explored in our art and craft area. The children have been printing spots and stripes, and have been making masks of the various animals. (MNU 0-03a)

The children have been able to experience positional terminology, such as on top, behind, under, over and are learning left and right by the variety of movements required during the game. While kicking the virtual ball to burst bubbles, the player needs to move from side to side to receive the ball before kicking it back and when they do the assault course there is a great scope to use prepositions such as over, under, by, past, on, through etc. (MTH 0-17a)

Comments and thoughts from children and staff have been very positive since beginning this project. The children are saying every day, that they want to play Kinectimals and there is always a queue. Sharing and turn-taking skills are clearly being demonstrated here! When asked “What do you like best when you play Kinectimals?” responses included, “I like when you throw the ball” and from another, “I like it when you jump up and down”,(teaching the cub new tricks, such as jumping, star jumps, etc) and “I like it when you throw the piggies at the thingys!” (it’s dominos and skittles being referred to!) There has been lots of discussion around the water pistol activities and the children empathising (or not) with the cub who’s fur gets soaked! Admittedly, some of the games have required a degree of skill and it depends on which child and which adult is there as to who helps who!

Staff opinions have been positive also, despite some feeling slightly apprehensive about using the console, although after a short time, their confidence grows. The whole idea of using your hand/body to control the game has been a learning curve for everyone, and staff and children alike have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get the hang of.

Parents and students have been quite incredulous that a nursery school is using a games console for learning opportunities, and a number have shared personal experience of using one at home. To this end, we are considering holding a Gaming evening in the future, for parent’s to come and have a go – and to share some of the educational benefits of games based learning.

March 6th, 2011

Land of Me pilot: Dundee teachers’ and EYPs’ early feedback

Derek Robertson

Comments: 5 Comments » Tags: Tags: educational games, game based learning, games based learning, Land of Me
 : Categories Dundee City, Early Years

In March 2010 representatives of LTS’ Consolarium team attended and participated in the Game Based Learning Conference in London. One of the conference presentations that we saw was from a company called Made in Me who were showcasing their as yet unreleased resource, Land of Me. The team found this resource to be instantly intriguing and it’s design, both aesthetic and pedagogic, was such that we approached the company to express and interest in trying the software out in Early Years settings in Scottish schools. Have a look at one of the chapters here:

One of the aspects of this resource that proved most appealing to us was that the designers had worked with Prof. John Siraj-Blatchford who has a long and illustrious record in academic publication and is seen, along with his wife Professor Iram Siraj-Batchford, as expert in the pedagogy of teaching and learning in the Early Years. The partnership between Dr. Blatchford and Land of Me led to a the design of a resource that aimed to immerse young learners in a beautiful and engaging world but in such a way that opportunities for deep learning and active participation could occur within the game but just as importantly, away from the game. This concept is what most interested us about this particular resource as we felt that it most certainly would help address the underlying principles of CfE and offer exciting and purposeful avenues for learning at Early Level and possibly beyond that.

The LTS/Land of Me Pilot

Once the Land of Me was fully completed and ready to be launched to schools LTS negotiated a pilot programme to take place in Dundee City, Argyll & Bute and West Lothian Councils. This pilot is currently in its early stages with schools in Dundee and West Lothian already making great use of the resource with the Argyll & Bute schools due to come on board at the end of March.

As yet we have no firm data in terms of qualitative feedback from out partner schools other than a general feeling of delight and positivity in relation to how young learners are responding to this resource and the learning activities that can arise as a result of playing in and outwith the game.

This was evident in a recent feedback session in Dundee City from the teachers and Early Years Practitioners who working with us on the pilot. Their early feedback was very positive with some insightful observations about its use being fed back. Most of the feedback that was of the ‘wish’ variety focused on the activities that could be downloaded from the resource itself. Even so, the general feeling was that this resource has great potential with Chapter 4: Rythmn & Dance, where the learners/players have the opportunity to dance along with a family of Otters, appearing to be a particular favourite for the children in the Dundee schools! Can you do the crab, flamingo, tiger dance?

I took the opportunity at the event to speak to Maggie Llanwarne who is the Headteacher at Longhaugh Nursery School about her thoughts on the resource. Maggie was very impressed with the resource however her experienced eye also offered some formative fedback in terms of its design and how it can be used. Here is what Maggie had to say:

I also spoke with Bernadette Donald from Wallacetown Nursery School. Again her feedback was very positive but some formative ‘wishes’ were also suggested by this experienced practitioner in terms of the tasks/activities that can be downloaded as a part of the overall Land of Me experience: Here is what Bernadette had to say:

Some of the schools talked of how they were still exploring the resource whereas others talked of how having explored the resource, they were now beginning to embed Land of Me in to the daily life and learning of their children. We look forward to sharing the further experiences and thoughts of teachers and EYPs in Dundee and those of the teachers and EYPs in West Lothian and Argyll & Bute. If you are using this resource in your school please do tell us what your experience has been.

*There is a Land of Me Glow Group to support this initiative and any other teachers who might be using this resource in their particular setting. Please do feel free to contribute to this group.