Consolarium

February 24th, 2010

Consolarium Podcast 5: Samba de Amigo inspired learning

Derek Robertson

Comments: 9 Comments » Tags: Tags: Aberdeenshire, Consolarium, crazy talk, game based learning, games based learning, GBL, Glow, Nintendo
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, Added Value, Glow, Literacy, Nintendo, game based learning, podcast, writing

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

Super samba inspired learning in schools!

This edition of the Consolarium podcast is solely dedicated to a project that came to an end just before Christmas 2009. Meldrum PS and Slains PS in Aberdeesnhire had been working with the game Samba de Amigo for the Nintendo Wii. When this game first came out the team at the Consolarium thought that this would have great potential in schools and so it was duly purchased. Here’s what it looks like:

OK, I think that after that clip you may be asking, “How on earth can a game that requires the player to shake out samba rhythms help children learn?” Well it most certainly has. What has been going on?

Samba de Amigo inspires ‘relevant and engaging learning’

The methodology that the Consolarium invariably employs in our approach to game based learning involves the computer game being used as the central ‘contextual hub’ about which learning can be situated. We have used this approach with many of our previous projects and it has proved to be a successful methodology. The teachers involved in this project worked together to create a collaborative story that focused on a rags to riches tale about a favela dwelling samba musician who made it to the big time. Accompanying this came the story of a plane, that was carrying the newly created Samba music superstar, crashing in the Amazon jungle and the associated learning about that. Here is some of the children’s work. Here is a news report of that event:

Some people may still be of the opinion that the idea of game based learning is something that does not sit with what school should be about but we would argue that game based learning, if used appropriately, can excite, challenge and create relevant and appealing contexts for learners. Just look at how writing has been developed here”

• The children created their own samba stars and wrote a biographies about them. Have a read of one these: The life of Angelo de Rimosto (biography)
• The children were inspired to carry out research about the Amazon Rainforest as a result of the “plane crash’ scenario and other ways in which the teachers had created the settings in which intrinsic motivation to explore the topic. Have a read of this piece of writing: The Amazon Rainforest
• The children from both schools used Glow to begin to explore how they could work together on story start project. Here is the beginnings of their efforts: Trible Troubles Chapters 1, 2 and 3 If you would like to find out more about how Glow was used then join their Samba de Amigo Glow group.
• The children also used Crazy Talk to great effect to bring their writing to life. Here we see how writing about an imaginary Amazonian rainforest creature can be enhanced by this simple piece of technology:

If you take the time to listen to the podcast about the Samba de Amigo project then you’ll here us talking to a pupil about his experience. If we could have written a script for a pupil to read out about the benefits of game based learning then what he said (without coaching or prompting we may add) would have been what we would have said. He talks about his learning connecting up, about it being exciting and active and how he will rmember this project. Great stuff from him. Here is a brief clip of some boys actively involved in the project and warming up for their Samba music creation lesson.

Hopefully the podcast and this brief blogpost will give you a flavour of just how good this GBL project was. A fuller account of what was done and how this GBL context impacted on learning will be released in the near future. In the meantime can we just say thanks to all at Meldrum PS and Slains PS for working with us on this project.

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!

February 27th, 2009

Nintendogs in Art & Design and a podcast!

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: , games based learning, Nintendogs in education
 : Categories Aberdeenshire, podcast

The Consolarium’s approach to the use of games is somewhat exemplified by the Nintendogs project we carried out last year. Nintendogs is a game that was made for commercial sale and one that is very much for entertainment. Look a little closer though and you can see how powerful this game/learning environment is and with a little bit of imagination and a big bit of belief that it is appropriate to use this you can do tremendous things with it.

I met a probationer teacher during my time at Fraserburgh PS called Jo Barcus Buchan. A P.2 teacher, Jo recently graduated and was lucky enough to get a chance to try out the Nintendogs project with her class. She replicated a lot of what has been established as a good practice with this resource. Have a look at some of the photos .

She has though extended the learning that may be achieved through the context of Nintendogs by moving into the world of art & design and to engage her P.2 children in dialogue about artists craft and what paintings make you feel or think. She introduced four paintings about dogs to her class and these were observed and discussed. These observation’s and discussions were then taken into the children’s own work where they had to think about what choices they were making in the creation of their pieces of art based on what they had seen.

Have a listen to the latest Consolarium podcast to hear our more detailed discussion, some perspective from the children and the view of the Headteacher.

Thanks go out to all Fraserburgh South Park PS for allowing us to come and see and record the excellent work that is happening up there. Well done to you all.

November 23rd, 2007

Consolarium at CPD event in Dundee

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: , Consolarium
 : Categories Dundee City, podcast

Last week I took the Consolarium to a CPD event in Dundee. I was invited along by the ICT Staff Tutor team in Dundee to contribute to an in-service day that was to take place in a city centre hotel. The idea was that it would act as a mini-exhibition similar to the one that LTS has at The Scottish Learning Festival. Organisations and companies whose business is focused on ICT in teaching and learning were invited along to raise awareness about how their products could impact on teaching and learning.

The staff tutors were also working in conjunction with the Learning Together in Dundee (LTiD) team. LTiD is Dundee City Council’s main driver in relation to embedding formative assessment strategies in classroom practice and this was designed to highlight ways in which ICT and LTiD could work in tandem. Have a look at how one school in the city is implementing this strategy.

The Consolarium stand was given a prime spot with a ridiculously large projection screen, however, it made the games look even more spectacular. I had taken along the Xbox 360, the Wii and the PS2 as well as Nintendo DS and Sony PSP machines. I also took along a variety of games that would exemplify a wide range of curricular applications of games based learning.

To say the stand was busy is an understatement. The teachers who came along (and it was estimated that almost 900 were in attendance over the course of the day) were very interested in what games based learning was all about and how it might work in their clasrooms. Many of them had read about our Dr Kawashima project and quite a few had visited the Consolarium’s website. Many of the Wii games proved a hit but Guitar Hero was the most popular of the day. At one point there was chorus of ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ drowning out almost everything else as a large group of teachers let their hair down and lost themselves in the game when two of their colleagues battled out that song. Apologies to the other presenters who were beside me.

I have made a short podcast of the day which can be accessed via my own blog for the time being.

Hopefully this will give a flavour of the day and of how the teachers enjoyed this ‘different’ approach to in-service.

Thanks to all at Dundee for the opportunity to share our work with their teachers and thanks to the teachers who engaged, in such an open-minded and enthusiastic fashion, with the resources and concepts underpinning our work .