KimP’s Blog

A HUGE thank you to Ollie Bray who organized a busy and information packed Wednesday that took us to Wallyford Primary and Musselburgh Grammar to see Games -Based Learning in action in a variety of classes and age groups.

Gail and I were accompanied by Margaret and led out by Ollie to see a range of game platforms being used by great teachers, enthusiastic students and a proud & passionate Mr Bray.

Without exception, students from the two schools were engaged and enthusiastic about the use of games in their classrooms. Whether the games were being used for skills practice, skill speed improvement, concept development, or as a context for learning new skills  – students responded to the playfulness and fun of the games.

This allowed teachers to harness and support this enthusiasm into meaningful learning experiences for their students.  Maths drill and practise became purposeful and competitive; story writing was embedded in a shared context; and dance and movement was personally challenging with goals and targets to keep on track.

It was interesting to see how the teachers “unpacked” the learning taking place with their students. Discussions, suggestions, strategies and rules could be seen in charts and on walls of the classrooms that indicated the learning that was taking place was deeper than the skills emphasized in the games themselves.

Problem solving strategies were listed and articulated, child protection issues were talked about and solutions offered, management routines were developed with and by the students. All of which engendered ownership of the learning that was taking place, and the strategies and routines that students could use to confidently use and make the most of the games and learning they were involved with.

All in all a wonderfully fun and enlightening day in many ways. Thanks to the teachers who were so willing to share their classes and teaching with us.

I was feeling very guilty … I was letting my Year 4’s down … I had planned a series of activities to “do” with the Year 4’s (ages 8-9) that tied in with the Dolphin Island game, but I hadn’t had time to do more than explain some of the ideas of what we could do.

 When I finally called them all together to get “started” I had no takers – they were all otherwise engaged!

 Four students were bunkered down on the pillows totally absorbed in playing the game. Someone called “TIME” and the games were passed on to the next player, the groupings moved around and the next lot of kids were soon quickly drawn into the game as well.

 A little group were huddled around the DOCs (Dear Old Computers or Dead, Old Computers depending on the current state of operability!) reading and typing from their writing notebooks information about dolphins onto the class wiki.

 One little person was flicking through non-fiction texts looking for creatures that were in the game. Winson was looking up more facts about orcas on the internet – and pushing his and my current knowledge about the relationship between dolphins and orcas.

 I didn’t want to interrupt so left them till later.

 However…… later on ….

•  some Year 4’s were looking for images of sea creatures from the game on Flikr to use in an art design project,
• others were involved in the design work,
• another pair were playing the game,
• Deon was writing out his narrative that would accompany the Voki he was going to make about orcas,
• Justin was searching through Flikr creative commons to find new pictures that he could legally use to illustrate the information reports he had written for the wiki about a number of marine animals.

 I’m afraid that my Year 4’s are just too busy

• Organising
• Directing
• Negotiating
• Sharing
• Supporting
• Investigating
• Hypothesising
• Researching
• Contributing
• Planning
• Writing
• Reading
• Experimenting, and
• LEARNING

to “do” my activities.

 Isn’t it great

My class is studying oceans and conservation at the moment and all are involved in projects on an area of interest related to this overall topic.

I had been waiting for an opportunity to try using the school DSLites with my class. I had come across the game “Dolphin Island” and knew that the time had arrived

The 9 Year 3 & 4 students are the target group as they still need/enjoy a little more structure than the rest of the group. As well as playing the game and learning about conservation, there are a number of other off computer activities that this group will be undertaking as well.

The students are researching a sea creature and adding the info to our class wiki, identifying conservation issues and trying to work out solutions, measuring sea creatures, investigating mathematical problems based on the game, and participating in art/craft activites!

What fun! 

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Derek Robertson, from Learning Teaching Scotland, spent Friday in the media promoting the use of games in education.

Here’s a link to an article  and listen for yourself here…….  enjoy

Image is “bling ds lites” by russell