Renfrewshire ICT Blog » LTS http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org Developing learning with ICT in Renfrewshire Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:19:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Scottish Learning Festival http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/09/19/scottish-learning-festival/ http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/09/19/scottish-learning-festival/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:28:38 +0000 gordonmckinlay http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/09/19/scottish-learning-festival/ We are at the Scottish Learning Festival this week.  Steven and I have been on the Renfrewshire stand in Hall 2 and Gordon has been keeping his own blog up to date at http://gordonsramblings.blogspot.com.

If you are at SLF then find us and say hello.

]]> http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/09/19/scottish-learning-festival/feed/ 0 Games Design and Learning with Gamemaker http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/06/08/games-design-and-learning-with-gamemaker/ http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/06/08/games-design-and-learning-with-gamemaker/#comments Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:49:34 +0000 stevenwilson http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/06/08/games-design-and-learning-with-gamemaker/  Renfrewshire Council is currently participating in the LT scotland computer games design pilot programme organised by Derek Robertson and the Consolarium based in Dundee.  I was given the opportunitry, along with colleagues from both Primary and Secondary schools, to explore Gamemaker.  Gamemaker allows you to begin creating games almost immediately, using a simple drag-and-drop system that makes learning to program much easier than traditional programming languages.  It is available as a free download for the PC from www.yoyogames.com, an on-line community where designers can post their games for others to play and review. 

My background as a secondary Computing teacher enabled me to identify Gamemaker as a suitable language to introduce pupils to  the Software Development Process.  It will not replace established languages like VB, but it does contain a scripting language, and will certainly complement them.  I recommend that Computing teachers check this out.

However it is in the Primary sector that I have beem most impressed by the potential of Gamemaker to enhance teaching and learning.  A P7 class at a local primary have used Gamemaker as the stimulus for an imaginative writing exercise.  I visited last month and it was fantastic to see pupils of all abilities fully engaged in the learning process.

Pupils began by deciding on the characters they wished to include in the game (two fish, Gimbal and Bubbles!) and then found images to represent the characters from the internet.  These characters were created in Gamemaker as sprites and objects and the game started to take shape.  The pupils printed the characters and stuck them into their project booklets. They then worked individually to write their own stories about these characters.

One morning a diver was added to the scenario – the class brainstormed others like a crab, shark, mermaid but after a vote they settled on the diver.  Democracy in action. They also decided that a shipwreck should be included as a background to the game. Once again images were sourced from the internet, agreed upon and pupils then returned to their work books where they added in the new images and expanded their stories.  The diver character and the shipwreck background were added to Gamemaker before the pupils moved on to create their game.

As I drove back to the office I considered these activities in relation to the four capacities of a Curriculum for Excellence.  Well this is a mixed ability class – but they were all on task and enjoying the lesson.  Of course some stories were more detailed than others but every pupil was enthusiastic, offering suggestions and contributing to the best of their ability.  The class teacher intends that the P7 pupils will show their finished games, and read the accompanying story to the infant class before the summer break.  What a fantastic way for these youngsters to end their Primary school days.

I returned to the school last week and the class teacher was delighted with the response she had received from her own P7 pupils and the infants.  The P7 pupils all enjoyed success by producing games and stories that they then had the confidence to share with their peers and the infant class.  The infants listened to the stories and were then given the opportunity to play the games.  It was so successful that the P7 pupils repeated their presentation for the P2 class – the P2 teacher asked if the P7’s could do this every day!

Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Effective Contributors, Responsible Citizens?- I certainly think so.  

]]> http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/06/08/games-design-and-learning-with-gamemaker/feed/ 0 Games and Learning @ ICT Coordinators Meeting http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/03/15/games-and-learning-ict-coordinators-meeting/ http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/03/15/games-and-learning-ict-coordinators-meeting/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:19:06 +0000 gordonmckinlay http://gordonmckinlay.edublogs.org/2007/03/15/games-and-learning-ict-coordinators-meeting/ Games and Learning

Derek Robertson from LTS gave a presentation on games and learning at the ICT coordinators meeting yesterday.  You will find attached the presentation he used. 

 games-and-learning.ppt

All the links are included here:

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/handbooks/03_10.htm

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=consolarium&w=all 


http://www.capcom.com/phoenixwright/

http://www.hoteldusk.com/

http://www.timrylands.com/index.html

http://www.timrylands.com/html/they-say.html

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/connected/articles/12/specialfeature/gamesfortraineeteachers/flashanimations.asp

http://www.gamemaker.nl/

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/showcase/adventure_author/index.htm

http://scratch.mit.edu/

http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/theirspace

http://sitc.education.ed.ac.uk/case_studies/whitfield/pages/pr.htm

http://hotmilkydrink.typepad.com/

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/teachingwithgames/findings.htm

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:2oqatvGsKr4J:www.elspa.com/assets/files/u/unlimitedlearningtheroleofcomputerandvideogamesint_344.pdf+unlimited+learning&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

http://www.marcprensky.com/

http://www.eyetoy.com/index.asp?pageID=11

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4222000/4222089.stm

http://uk.wii.com/http://www.buzzthegame.com/en_GB/index.html?lanSoundOn=true

http://www.newsgaming.com/press031304.htm

http://www.newsgaming.com/press092903.htm 

http://www.darfurisdying.com/ 

http://www.80soft.com/pmforever/info/uk/index.htm 

http://davidmcdivitt.wordpress.com/tag/using-making-history-in-class/

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

Day 73 - Games and Learning

Sorry about the lack of formatting.  I thought it was more important to get the links up here so that you can follow up on the presentation quickly.

Due to some technical problems we were having yesterday afternoon I was unable to get the audio recorded from the presentation.

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