Game Based Learning 2010 – I Wish I Was There!
Posted by Kim in Games, Imagination, Learning, Play on April 3, 2010
Spend a little time watching this inspirational video of Derek Robertson’s presentation at the Games Based Learning 2010 conference held in London last week.
Inspire Innovate 2010: Extras You Asked For :-)
Here are the extra planning and programming bits and pieces that you asked for in the workshop yesterday:
Planning Proformas/ Grids
My wiiMusic Worksheets
My wiiSports Tennis Plan
Tennis Skills + Planning Sheet
I hope that these sheets help guide you in planning and using games consoles in your classroom.
Please link back here so we can all see what you have tried in your classroom.
Who says that learning is all not all fun and games????
If you need/want any other info or help or ideas please just leave a comment here 
Inspire Innovate 2010
WHY GAMES?
- Games are a shared experience.
- Games build community – they are played socially at school.
- Meaning is constructed as a group – individuals contribute to group understandings.
- Language is played with – used in different ways to make different meanings.
- Language becomes more visible through a game – it has shared context, shared understandings and shared meanings.
- The experience, and the consequent language, is like “playdough” – it can be added to, moulded, pulled apart, re-arranged, viewed, discussed, evaluated, improved; first as a group, then individually; first orally and then written.
- Immersion in the experience is child-centred, lots of time is spent on student initiated and led exploration of the game and/ or the game world. Students become part of the experience: In the game directly: Participating in the game – manipulating the characters and events – “living the game”: As a springboard for real life, authentic learning.
- Learning outcomes are planned in detail – shared explicitly with students to support meta-language and deep knowledge.
- Learning indicators are specific and focused: one scene or setting, one character or one object.
CONTEXTS FOR LEARNING
Endless Oceans – Tom Barrett
Cooking Mama - LTS Consolarium
Nintendogs - LTS Consolarium
Samba De Amigo – LTS Consolarium
- Authentic, real world tasks
- Rich tasks
- Cross-curricula
- Creative – many ways to fulfill the assessment
- On and off the computer
- Expands across KLAs
- Whole class input
- Contract work
KLA SPECIFIC
Dolphin Island HSIE, S&T
wiiSports Maths – Tom Barrett
Drawn to Life English – Writing
Brain Training & Maths Training - LTS Consolarium
- More focused on one KLA area
- Individual, pairs, trios, smaller groups
Peter Richardson has a site that features a collaborative list of wii games and associated Year levels and activity focus.
PLANNING
Start with learning outcomes
Identify a game to support intended outcomes
Mind map, backward map, Blooms/Multiple Intelligences matrix.
Real world, authentic tasks.
2009 – The Year That Was
Posted by Kim in Articulating, Blogging, Learning, Networks on January 1, 2010
2009 was a huge year of personal learning outside of my classroom and I’d like to recognise that the opportunities that arose over the past 12 months were a direct result of the work I had been doing in my classroom in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (so thanks to all of those talented and amazing students who taught me so well and allowed me to work along-side them).
2009 presented the chance to share what I had been up to with others far removed from my little classroom in a suburb of Sydney. So here’s how it went:
January – saw me travelling throughout the UK on my Premier’s English Scholarship, making and meeting friends and seeing first hand Games Based Learning in classrooms. I was very excited to attend my first Teachmeet (on my birthday) at BETT09, and amazed to catch up f2f with many of my PLN.
February – March: I had the opportunity to present at a number of conferences and Professional Learning workshops at a local, region and state level, sharing how I used web2.0 technologies in my classroom.
April – May: Back with the DET I was involved with the Blog trial and took part in f2f meetings with like-minded educators from around the state to assist in the department developing a blog platform for all DET students and teachers. Began writing a Narrative Unit for the Curriculum Directorate based on a digital game for use with Stage 2 students.
June – July: Travelled to Washington, USA for NECC09 where I took part in many fantastic workshops, tutorials, discussions and events. Met up with some in my US PLN and joined in my first “Web2.0 Smackdown”! Moved on to Barcelona where I nervously presented at my first international conference, and then learnt a great deal at an imagination conference in Vancouver. Whew! A really busy month or so :-}
August – September: Back at school and trialling a wiiMusic project with my class – fun, interesting and many more possibilities to be explored here! Presented again at Sydney University for eLit (Primary English Teachers Association).
October: Headed back to the US to present at a Visual Literacy Conference in Chicago where I showcased the visual literacy aspects and opportunities of web2.0 tools and applications. Had the chance to visit Yellowstone Park whilst travelling – unbelievable :-0
November: Visited Canberra and Parliament House to receive my National Teaching Award for Excellence by a Teacher. An exciting and really proud moment of my career and year!
December: Found out that my joint proposal for a workshop at ISTE 2010 (in Denver Colorado in June 2010) was accepted so can look forward to further travels mid year 2010 already.
So that’s it – a busy year out of my classroom where I have grown as a learner, presenter and person. I’ve been able to see a bigger picture and refine my thinking in many areas, but have been affirmed in many of my deep beliefs about learning, children, and authenticity.
Thanks to the countless people who have shared so much of themselves with me this year – f2f, on twitter, through blogs and conferences. I love learning with such a diverse and supportive group of dedicated professionals.
With 2010 upon us lets take a breath, think peaceful thoughts and then get on with another great year of learning and sharing. We WILL make a difference!
THANK YOU – I’M INSPIRED
A big “hat tip” and heart felt thanks to Teaching Australia for the wonderful celebration they put together last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Canberra. The organization of the event, the variety of sessions and the venues were top class and really enjoyable.
There were many highlights:
The ceremony at Parliament House, and meeting the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard made the honour “real” and won’t be forgotten any time soon.
Meeting the terrific Anne Mirtschin f-2-f. Anne’s friendliness and sense of humour kept me laughing (and talking!) the whole time. 
Sharing the amazing things that are happening in schools around the country, and being inspired by the teachers and leaders who are instigating the innovation and successes. Truly exciting!
Learning new sharing and thinking techniques and strategies courtesy of Eric Frangenheim.
Talking to teachers and leaders from across the country, across sectors and across stages – thinking, exploring and wondering together – trying to solve problems and make a difference.
Laughing during Peter FitzSimons’ after dinner speech at the National Portrait Gallery. I wish I could tell jokes like that – they just don’t come out funny when I try to re-tell them. Guess you had to be there – ;-0
The friendliness and support of the Teaching Australia crew – Peter, Anita and Helen. Thanks for your care.
Listening to Andrew Douch reflect on the wonderful opportunities he has taken advantage of whilst remaining true to himself and his beliefs. I like what he said about the need to share what you are passionate about with others – stand up and let people hear what you have to say – its not about you but about the students and what’s best for them.
It was an honour to be part of this celebration / event, it’s not often that teachers are recognised in this way. Thank you to all.
wii’ve Got The Music 1
Future Directions in Literacy Conference – Sydney University
This term I have been using the wiiMusic Game with my class to develop knowledge and understandings about music. Here are a couple of posts from my class blog – 09AllStars – all about what we’ve been doing.
wii’ve Got the Music
We are studying music for the next few weeks, and we will be using the wii to help us explore and experience a huge range of instruments.
We used our Golden Time today for the intial taste of what the wii can do – everyone had a quick turn at playing an instrument and we all had a bit of a laugh as well.
Stay tuned for more posts on what else we are doing with the wii Music.
Exploring the wiiMusic
Over the past week we have been playing the wiiMusic in small groups so that we can practise the activities and get better at the games.
We have been playing lots of different instruments and hearing and accompanying many different tunes. Its quite hard at times to play tunes that you haven’t heard before. We have found that you get better – and it becomes easier – the more you practice and the more familiar you are with both the instrument and the tune.
We have found out about “pitch” by playing the “Pitch Perfect” game – you have to listen carefully to match the notes that are the same, or put the notes in ascending order by listening to them. Sometimes this is hard, and the timer is counting down so you have to hurry!
wiiMusic – Perfect Pitch from KimPericles on Vimeo.
We Love the wii :-)
Posted by Kim in Conferences, Games, Learning, Writing on September 11, 2009
Future Directions in Literacy Conference – Sydney University
I have used the wii in my classroom quite a lot over the past two years, here are notes on a number of games I have used with my Stage 3 (Years 5 & 6 ) class.
Pwii – Tennis
Here’s a blog post my class wrote when we used the wii for our PE lessons.
We have finally started our “PWii” lessons. We call them PWii (rather than PE – physical education) because we are using the Wii to play tennis.
Each group of students has written up a lesson on a tennis skill, and they teach the rest of the class how to do the skill. We play outside using a wide range of bats and racquets to learn the skills we need to play inside on the Wii.
Each pair plays the Wii in the classroom, and we choose the “best of 3 games” option. When everyone has had a turn we will each play other students and have a “Round Robin” tournament.
We hope to put together either a wiki of our work or at least a page to show you what we’ve been up to 
wii Tennis was the first experience I had with using the wii in the classroom. The class was really excited about using the wii as no-one had one at that time and so enthusiasm was at an all time high!
The game linked into the curriculum through English (Talking & Listening, Reading and Writing) as well as PE:
- we researched the types of PE skills necessary to play tennis
- divided these up and pairs or trios of students then devised lessons to teach the skills to the rest of the class
- together we used the internet to locate some appropriate warm ups, stretches and cool downs to use at the beginning and end of the lessons.
- we located videos of how to perform the skills in tennis so that the students knew what they were to teach
- students wrote up their notes into lesson plans
- talking and listening skills and strategies were discussed with the class and a set of “Super Speakers” and “Great Listeners” charts were constructed to remind students of the expectations of the groups when students were teaching lessons
- small groups of students taught these skills over a period of 3 weeks out in the playground
- inside, the wii was set up and groups of students rotated through it playing tennis - to get the feel for the game and the skills they were teaching
- after all the students had taught their lessons we arranged a tennis tournament inside the classroom, using the wii
Mario and Sonic at the Olympics
It was a bit of a surprise to find ourselves using this game for poetry! However, a stand out of the game were the different characters and their individual responses to winning or losing the athletic events. Each of the characters were different colours and we discussed how the colours reflected each character’s personality.
Then students thought about the colours themselves, and how each colour looked, felt, smelled, the emotions it evoked, and even the tastes it reminded us of.
Lastly we put both aspects together and wrote poems that showed how the colour and the character linked together to really show what the characters were like.
My colour jumps with joy and relief!
My colour sounds like a creaky hall way.
My colour feels optimistic.
My colour feels like the mysterious night sky
My colour is dark as the night sky.
My colour sounds like storms on a rainy day.
My colour is as evil as the grim reaper.
My colour feels like a touch of death.
My colour is the colour of horror.
My colour tastes like a shadow waiting to be unleashed.
My colour smells like darkness.
My colour is mysterious.
My colour is black.
My character is Shadow.
WRITING ROCKS
Literacy is my home, my comfort zone: I know what to do and what to expect.
So I’ve been a bit uncomfortable for the past few weeks, as our wiiMusic unit develops and grows.
Enabling the students to discover, explore and make connections with what they know and are familiar with about music and what they are learning about music through playing with the wiiMusic game, is a vital part of the learning cycle.
We have been talking our way through the game, the concepts and the terminology, investigating ideas and thoughts more fully through art as well.
We’ve written some informational texts, but I have been uneasy and at a bit of a loose end and I think it’s because I haven’t been able to harness the fun and excitement of the wiiMusic game into the literacy learning of the class.
I have tried to placate myself with thoughts that my students are learning about music – the language, the sounds, the instruments etc – but I was a little apprehensive about the lack of meaningful literacy moments that I could take advantage of.
I LOVE creating and crafting texts with my students: of playing around with writing so that it connects to readers and says exactly what you want it to say – but the opportunity had not arisen ……. Until today!
Today we shared ideas -
We built on each others words,
We explored vocab together,
We searched for the appropriate phrases,
We put images into words.
We created together!
This class is different to the classes I’ve had over the last couple of years: as a group they are much more reserved, they are less confident in themselves, there are fewer risk takers, there are more early phase ESL students in the group, and as a group they are less academically engaged in school.
So the strategies I used
⇒ were modified,
⇒ the positive reinforcement more frequent and specific,
⇒ the scaffolding was greater,
⇒ the re-phrasing and modeling more explicit, and
⇒ thinking time was more individual rather than shared
But the results were astounding!
Once the initial shyness was overcome there was much clapping and supporting of the efforts of all!
A shared purpose.
A shared pride.
A shared success.
Writing rocks!
A WOO-HOO MOMENT!
Posted by Kim in Class, Reflecting on September 8, 2009
I have felt like I have been slugging it out for the past 6 weeks or so – desperately trying to get back into school mode and working with my class again after being away for a couple of weeks of long-service leave at the end of last term.
Re-connecting with my class was crucial as we had a number of students added to my group and so we had to get to know each other and sort the social and academic groupings all over again.
It’s been hard work: time and thought consuming, problematic and frustrating all at once.
There’s been social issues, behaviour issues, routines issues, learning issues, attitude issues and friendship issues – tears, tantrums and tirades!!!!
But …..
Just when you think “that’s it!” – “I’m over all this” – a moment happens …..
A spark is ignited, fanned by some positivity and fuelled by some camaraderie and I think, maybe, we’re off……..
Onwards and upwards!
Let’s go AllStars – light the way!
Image: ‘Light it up …‘
www.flickr.com/photos/25047883@N00/209662750
Mouse Woman Rocks!
Posted by Kim in Class, Conferences, Imagination, Literacy on July 17, 2009
I was introduced to Mouse Woman today, a cute and cheeky character found in stories from the Haida, one of the First Nations bands of the North West coast of Canada.
Mouse Woman is a shape changer, a narnauk, who lives and travels between the human and spirit worlds, helping and guiding young people in need by offering suggestions, options and alternatives.
Mouse Woman, or Grandmother, likes life to be balanced and works with humans and nature to equalise good and bad, right and wrong, and deal with the humans or spirits who had upset the order of the world.
As payment for her help, Mouse Woman loves wool, which her ravelly little fingers like to tear into a lovely, loose, nesty pile of wool.
The stories, written by Christie Harris, are refreshing, fun, mischievous, scary and thought provoking. I ‘m sure that I will be using the stories with my class. They will be great for discussing and exploring positive values, symbols and actions, and even ideas of natural balance, ecology and rights and responsibilities.
The stories also give a wonderful insight into traditional Haida life and beliefs – the descriptions of the forests, coasts and oceans are beautiful and poignant. The social structures and way of life in the Time Before are also shown and explained.
I’m so glad that I’ve met and fallen under the spell of Mouse Woman – and I hope she will join me back in my classroom to share her adventures with children on the other side of the world.
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