Find us on
- March 17th, 2011
Land of Me initiative kicks off in Argyll & Bute
- Derek Robertson
- Comments: 4 Comments »Tags: game based learning, game design, GBL, thelandofme
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.
Categories Argyll & Bute, Early Years
It really was a great day, thanks. Spent my time on the ferry back to Islay tonight jotting down ideas and started working on a powerpoint to show the parents as an introduction to The Land Of Me before I start working with the children. My mind is buzzing. Hope the software inspires the children as much as it has inspired me.
Great stuff Janice. Really delighted that you had a worthwhile day and that this resource is something you can take forward in your class. Looking forward to visiting in the summer term to document how you have used it.
Sounds like it was a great day! Really wish we could have been there. Such a priviledge to have such a cracking bunch for this project. I can’t wait to hear about everyone stories over the next few months. Let’s go adventuring!
Had a great day learning about ‘Land of Me’ Got great ideas ready to go first few days back. Parents are meeting with me tomorrow to offer their ideas and support.
Looking forward to getting fresh eyes on the software and to see the reaction from the children.