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
🙂
Great words fellow traveller. Tomorrow is a new day and we begin gathering our critical mass in an effort to provide those opportunities and skills you write of. Scotland in June????
Hi Kim,
Glad to here about the Games Design blog, although I am in Scotland this is the first time I’ve noticed it!
Kim,
In some ways the initiative that we have started in Scotland is down to people like you and Gail working on your games design project. I was inspired and challenged to try and replicate what you have been doing and so your work has gone helped inform our ideas. Hopefully we can collaborate across the hemispheres on this.
Inspiration, collaboration and connection – flat staffrooms as well as flat classrooms! 🙂
Derek and John, you are both masters and leaders in your fields – thank you.
Hi KimLets hope we at CLI can help get a critical mass of teachers and learners into gamemaking. I am taking over the Game2learn project and looking forward to catching up with you and Gail and sharign ideas on this on Wednesday. 🙂
Roisin
Hi Mrs P,
Your blog is looking really good we all think so!!
Allstars 🙂
Thanks AllStars – you are all awesome and are a constant inspiration.
MrsP