Consolarium

March 8th, 2008

The Consolarium at Perth High School

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Consolarium
 : Categories Peth & Kinross

A working relationship with Perth & Kinross Council has already been established in relation to a visit to the Consolarium having already taken place and Perth HS’ involvement in the Winning Game project that we are curently in the process of supporting. Discusions with Jim Scott and Jim Hynd at Perth HS led to a CPD event being held at their school last week for teachers from the school and from local primary schools. A healthy crowd turned up to listen to the arguments for the place of computer gamnes in the classroom and to get their hands on a number of titles that I had brought along. I must say that they were an excellent crowd as not only were they very attentive but they stuck with me as I delivered my first presentation using Keynote for the Mac! What an application that is!

The event proved to be a great success and it even saw a couple of Headteachers chating with me about possibilities for projects in their schools well after 5:30pm! Dedication as Roy Castle used to say.

I never fail to be impressed by the quality of teachers that attend these events and the idea that they bring to the table for possible games based learning initiatives in their particular contexts. Again, I am looking very much forward to supporting as many of these teachers as I can.

October 29th, 2007

The Winning Game

Derek Robertson

Comments: 6 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Aifl, Peth & Kinross, Serious Games

What role can games play in terms of supporting Aifl? Can the design of a game be such that it can help create a ‘winning’ attitude where the player/learner can continually self-reflect in order to move forward? This is quite a serious application of a game and one that possibly fits in with a movement in the games based learning world at present called Serious Games.

Serious Games are described as games that are for education and training purposes and not for entertainment. However, games being games I believe there is always a sense of fun and challenge about games irrespective of them being ‘Serious’ or not…

Anyway, back to the opening questions. Recently we met with a Scottish games based learning compnay called TPLD. They have worked in schools in the past and are currently doing so with an application called Eduteams. They came to talk to the Consolarium to tell us about a new game that they were working in partnership on with the Scottish Institute for Sport Foundation and a man called Yehuda Shinar. Abit more about the partners:

• S ISF: The Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation (www.sisportfoundation.org) is an independent charity, established in 2006. The Foundation is supported by some of Scotland’s most energetic and successful business, political and sporting leaders who share a passion to reshape and inspire the way Scotland performs as a nation. The annual budget of The Foundation is in excess of £1m.
• Yehuda Shinar: Cast your mind back 4 years to the last Rugby World Cup. Do you remember England’s success? Well, it is argued that Yehuda Shinar was a major part in that victory as his Winning Theory was applied by him and Clive Woodward to help create a winning mentality in the England squad. Yehuda’s research has seen him identify what he believes to be the twelve principles that winners employ. whether in sport or business. He calls these his TCUPS: Thinking Correctly Under Pressure.

As a result of this initial meeting we became very interested because we felt that the Winning Theory had the potential to complement and reinforce the Aifl agenda in Scottish schools.

We have now taken project this forward with a small number of local authorities and on Friday we had our initial meeting with proposed project participants to discuss the theory, play the game and consider how it could impact on teaching and learning in their schools. Here’s some photos of the event at Perth HS:

We were delighted to welcome Yehuda Shinar himself to the meeting and he gave a presentation about the Winning Theory. We then had the opportunity to play the game in ther computer room and it proved to be quite an engaging affair with some people tuning in to the Winning Zone more than others. However, the whole point of the game is that there will be a debrief session that can help the player self-reflect and consider what they can do in future to gain improve and gain success. We really want to consider how this ethos can be transferred to other aspects of school life and approaches to learning.
We look forward to taking this project further and reporting back on what we find.

One last thing, very well done to Perth HS and in particular their prefects for the way in which they welcomed and looked after the visitors to their school. They were a credit to themselves and to the school.

September 29th, 2007

Perth & Kinross at the Consolarium

Derek Robertson

Comments: 3 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Consolarium, Consolarium visits, Peth & Kinross

Since December ’06 we have had quite a lot of local authorities visit the Consolarium. An initial interest in what games based learning has to offer and then an exploration of how this could impact in their particular context leads to projects and pilots happening in schools. On Friday we had a visit from colleagues from Perth and Kinross. Having seen a couple of the games based learning presentations at SLF ’07 Jim Hynd and Matthew Mackie from Perth High School contacted me to see if they could visit the Consolarium and find out a bit more about what is happening with games in Secondary schools. So along with Mark McShane, ICT Development Officer, they came for a visit yesterday.

It seems that Jim in particular has an interest in games. He is a level 6 ‘Mage’ (is that right Jim?) in World of Warcraft and has used games in his practice for years it seems. Matthew and Mark were also aware of the wider landscape of games and they were very keen to explore how games could impact not only in Perth HS but also across the authority.

The Consolarium is proving to be a successful set-up in terms of engaging local authorities with reflecting on the concept of and practical application of games based learning. A visit allows engagement with the arguments and debates around the subject and then a chance to have a go at many of the games that we suggest could work in schools. Here we see Jim having a go at Wii Golf but we spent quite a bit of time looking at a range of games.

Unfortunately the gentlemen from Perth had to get back to school for the afternoon so the session had to be cut short.

Looking forward to working with colleagues in Perth & Kinross.