games and learning and why schools don't need closed minds

TITLE

PRESENTER EVENTDEREK ROBERTSON UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE MAY’09

GAMES BASED LEARNINGAND WHY SCHOOLS DON’T NEED CLOSED MINDS

observing

hypothesising

testingevaluatingpersevering

SUCCESS

Do you believe he is really

playing a PS3 game?

RISK AN EARLY DEATH,

JUST DO NOTHING.

Dr Tanya Byron. (Source: Byron Review, p15)

The Byron Review refers to “the educational, social

and entertainment benefits that the internet and video

games technologies clearly offer.”

The games industry “fulfills and plays an important role in our

society, and a very constructive role in the lives of many young people, as well as middle-aged

people like myself.”

Shaun Woodward, Government minister. (Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

“A Nintendo DS system to improve your child's education. What a load of nonsense, just shows you how destitute in ideas some of those so called educationalists have become.”

“What a load of tripe - so the kids leave school not being able to read and write but they can use a playstation? - which moron thought that one up.”

How does such a pessimistic

outlook help take learners forward?

Shouldn’t their learning

experience be an optimistic one?

SCHOOL DOMAIN

GAMES DOMAIN

Semiotic Domains

It’s now a cool aspiration to be good at mental

maths...

What did the parents think?

Scotland’s got game• Consolarium project began in August

2006

• Initially 7 early adopter authorities

• Now working with or about to work with almost 30 of those

• Hundreds of teachers and thousands of pupils involved

• Games consoles in many schools (2300 DS recently purchased)

• Working with many TEIs

• Permeates Curriculum for Excellence

• No longer seen as a maverick idea

JustwantedtodropyouanemailtosayhowmotivatedourchildrenarewiththeDSLiteswhichhavebeenborrowedfromtheICTteam.Currently,P4,aVERYchallengingclasstosaytheleast,areusingthemsuccessfullyeachday.Theyarehighlymotivatedandfocusedandaregettingonwiththeirtaskswhenasked‐thisisanoveltywiththisclass.TheirCTisalsousingthemforwritingstepbystepinstructions‐HowtoswitchonyourDSLite?Thereisonelittleboyinparticularwhojustcannotfocusformorethan5secondsandhelovesdoinghismentalMathsontheDS‐agreatexampleofactivelearning!

PROJECT

DATE SCHOOLSWINTER ’08 TO PRESENT ACROSS SCOTLAND

I’VE GOT £4200 IN THE BANKGLEEFUL LEARNING WITH NINTENDOGS IN P.2

Mad Dogby Saitaro Kuroda

PROJECT

DATE CLIENT2007 TO PRESENT LEARNING AND TEACHING SCOTLAND

GUITAR HERO IN THE CLASSA DAFT IDEA? YOU BET, BUT IT WORKS!

Creating a ‘collaborative story’* Guitar Hero became the contextual hub for learning in P.7

* Children lost themselves in the world of rock and roll

* Relevant and meaningful learning programme established

* Class virtual band drove learning in various curricular areas

* Enthusiasm and commitment to learning was palpable

* A rich learning experience packed with quality

Used as a Primary to Secondary

transition project

PROJECT

PRESENTER AUTHORITYDEREK P ROBERTSON ABERDEENSHIRE & STIRLING

ENDLESS OCEAN....ENDLESS LEARNING WITH SANDBOX GAMES

Bringing writing to life

PROJECT

DATE CLIENT2009 ONWARDS PORT OF MENTEITH AND NATIONALLY

MOSHI MONSTER MANIAVIRTUAL PETS ENCOURAGE REAL LEARNING

Moshi Monsters can be used to create contexts

for writing

Moshi Monsters can be used to let creativity flow via

animation...

...and writing and animation...

Moshi Monsters can help children engage with the design process

PROJECT

DATE AUTHORITYSUMMER TERM 2009 VARIOUS AUTHORITY PARTNERS

NARRATIVE IN GAMESOPPORTUNITIES FOR CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT

Impo

rtan

ce

Time

Technology v’s Narrative

Narrative

TechnologyGam

es

Mov

ies

& T

V©Ted Hung, www.tedhung.com

An area for development

• Very little depth, demand or challenge in the underlying narrative

• Characters in games up until now have been rather superficial and one-dimensional

• Lack of emotional diversity

• Currently: Fear, Surprise, Anger, Anticipation Fight-or-Flight Response

• Future: Love, Sadness, Jealousy, Optimism,

Where are we with games as texts?

Thanks to Ted Hung for inspiration here www.tedhung.com

Phoenix Wright DSCharacter sketching

THE SHADOW“WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF

MEN? THE SHADOW KNOWS...

Writing for a digital audience

• S.2/3 Pupils to play Hotel Dusk Room 215 for homework

• Will develop their Noir detective and their storyline

• Story to be drafted, recorded and dramatised for audio and video podcast

• As with old serials their stories will be delivered over a a period of 6 weeks, building their digital audience

• Using Garageband and ipod touches to create and test their work

• Promoting inter-disciplinary working

• Introduce pupils to the wider genre of Noir literature

What do we plan to do?

Professor Layton and theCurious Village

PROJECT

DATE ONGOING LEARNING AND TEACHING SCOTLAND

BUILDING THE COMMUNITYGLOW & THE SCOTTISH LEARNING FESTIVAL

Joined up thinking?• SLF’08: Guitar Hero Competition

• SLF’08: Sonic and Mario at the Olympics Competition

• SLF’08: Dr Kawashima Competition

• SLF’09: Guitar Hero World Tour Competition

• SLF’09: Dragon’s Den Competition

• Glow Groups

• The Winning Game

TITLE

PRESENTER AUDIENCEDEREK ROBERTSON NATIONAL RESOURCE

CANVASEXPLORING LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

Teachers embracing games GAMES DEVICES HAVE A LOW TECHNOLOGY

SKILLS THRESHOLD

TEACHERS GET SUCCESS WITH GAMES TECHNOLOGY, THIS ENHANCES SELF-CONFIDENCE

TEACHERS CAN FOCUS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING AND NOT WORRY ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY

THEY SEE THE POSITIVE IMPACT ON CHILDREN

Good teachers use good

resources to engage learners

Children have you for a year.

Take them places...

email: d.robertson@ltscotland.org.ukwebsite: www.ltscotland.org.uk/consolariumblog: www.ltsblogs.org.uk/consolariumown blog:www.hotmilkydrink.typepad.comtwitter: derekrobertson

Thank you