KimP’s Blog

Thank You Bloggers

Thank you to all of the wonderful bloggers who attended the recent eLive seminars. I have spent  a bit of time reading many of the posts about the event.  Here and here and here.   After my lament last week (about being so far away) I guess I’m really not that far removed when I can read about the presentations and the views on the ideas and merits of the seminars that were blogged about.

The pictures and photos showed  really animated groups of people thoroughly enjoying their learning what more could the presenters hope for? The ideas are already percolating in my head and I hope to try out some of the things I read about in my classroom too.

John’s spinning video, and the Tin Foil Hat Song were a true education! although I’m not too sure how to fit them into my class    :grin:

As I sat at my computer with a glass of red, I almost felt a part of the event itself.

Time and Tide ……

Exciting times ahead for Learning Teaching Scotland and Scottish schools. Check out the new Games Design blog and read about a game-making project that has just got under way. Derek Robertson has managed to draw together an impressive group of leaders from within the game making sphere to work with students and teachers on making games in class.

Working as part of a team on a common game making platform is a great opportunity to use games in new educational contexts within the classroom. Being able to

• share ideas, successes, worries, concerns, strategies
• compare methods, results, experiences, responses
• connect with others
• learn with, from and alongside students

while having the moral and technical support of LTS brings together the creativity and expertise of students and teachers to develop new and engaging ways to respond to the curriculum. Having a critical mass of people willing to “have a go” is really powerful and will lead the way forward in using games in the classroom.

 It’s all a bit lonely on this side of the world, sitting back and watching great ideas and innovations being taken up and worked on and wishing that it could all happen down under as well. But wishing only works in fairy tales…. so its up to us to get “up and at it” so that students on this side of the world can have similiar opportunities to  discover, explore and innovate as  they engage with games in their classrooms.

 My colleague (and boss!) Gail Dyer and I are determined to get games into our classrooms - student engagement, communication, learning, problem solving, deep understandings, thinking skills as well as more “traditional” reading, writing, talking, maths and science skills are all enhanced and developed through games .

But getting games into classrooms in meaningful ways is not going to happen by itself - getting a critical mass of people to help it happen is perhaps the way to start, and that’s what we will do. Waiting to hear about  grants we have applied for and applications for projects we want to undertake is wasting time and letting the enthusiasm and energy ebb away. So that’s it…..  

“ They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. “– Andy Warhol