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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.  

The course was delivered by Oscar Stringer who is a world leader in the teaching of video and animation for the classroom.  Oscar flew up from Bristol and created a flurry of activity in the office when we realised that all hotel rooms in and around Glasgow were booked by Spanish football fans who were in the city for the UEFA cup final.  Fortunately there was a cancellation and we managed to secure a room at the airport.  Otherwise I was to spend Tuesday evening frantically cleaning the house in preparation for an unexpected guest!

On Wednesday we had 30 P4 – P7 pupils from Arkleston, Fordbank, Moorpark, St James(Renfrew) and South primaries, along with S2 from Linwood High and accompanying staff.   Pupils from Bridge of Weir, Gallowhill, Mossvale, Ralston, St John Bosco primaries and Paisley Grammar attended Thursday’s session.

After demonstrating some examples of movie making ‘good practice’, Oscar set the theme for the day as horror. The youngsters then had great fun exploring the grounds (in the rain) and the lodge itself as they identified suitable locations at which to film.

The pupils were split ino 5 teams that comprised one person from each school and I was very impressed how quickly they bonded and contributed to the project – we had budding camera operators, actors and directors.  Staff were on hand to advise but, to be honest,  the pupils ran the show and there was no way that any aduklts were getting their hands on the camera equipment!

The afternoon session was spent editing the video using i-movie – once we eventually convinced the pupils to stop filming as they had more than enough material.  The video clips were edited, audio and captions added and we ended the day with a scary movie show as the rain tipped down from the heavens.

Each school will receive a DVD containing the movies produced during the day, and they have now acquired an ‘in-house production team’ that can capture important events in the school calendar . 

Thanks again to Oscar, Ann Crawford for the organisation and to school staff for their enthusiastic participation.  Watch this space for details of the next Video Festival (in September we hope).  If your school has not participated before then I strongly urge you to come along – it really is a joy to work with pupils from a variety of schools and agegroups outwith the confines of a classroom.

I previously taught Computing at Park Mains High School and I am particularly enjoying the opportunity my new post offers me to work with staff and youngsters from all sectors of education in Renfrewshire.

Gordon’s post outlined some of the ICT initiatives on which we will focus in Renfrewshire over the coming months and I will update you on each in greater detail shortly.  Any comments you have would be most welcome.

 You can contact me directly at steven.wilson-ict@renfrewshire.gov.uk or telephone 0141 840 3804.

Social networking is an important aspect of our ICT strategy both within and without Glow.  It would be odd, therefore, if we didn’t use the medium ourselves!  There is a lot going on that Steven will keep you up to date with.  This includes;

• Glow;
• games and learning;
• interactive whiteboards; and
• child protection on-line.

Expect to see an update on all of these here very soon.

I will keep my hand in every now and then when something of relevance crosses my horizon.  For example, we are currently getting the in-service catalogue finalised at the moment.  A letter should be out about that this and we are working hard on the curriculum for excellence conference at the end of May.

I hope you continue to find this medium of communication useful.  I know that we have not had many comments over the past year but from conversations around it seems that lots of folk read the posts.

Accessing the tools outwith the corporate network has been fine but it has just not been working in any of our schools.  IT have been working hard to try and fix the problem and we hope that the pilot schools will be able to start to use the tools properly in thew coming week.

All good so far. The main problem is that we can’t actually use the chat or web conferencing facilities due to firewall difficulties we are currently having! It is going to be a bit of a damp squib if we can’t get that fixed over the next week or two. At the moment the only place anyone can actually use the tools as if they have a broadband conenction at home. Not ideal.

The children have all had a brilliant time working from the original idea, story boarding, filming, capture and editing the final result. Some of the ideas were really interesting and imaginative. It was great to see the children being creative and working as aprat of a group in order to get the product created.

There is huge potential for using these techniques in the school setting. The teachers involved in the day should now feel far more confident about putting the techniques into practice in their own establishment.