One of the games that I have shared with colleagues and many other folks at conferences and professional development events is The Nightjar featuring Benedict Cumberbatch. I was hugely drawn to this due to the narrative driven and engaging context of the storyline but mainly because it was a game that was driven by what I could hear... Have a look at the trailer:
The idea of a game that is driven by sound and the players reliance only on what they hear makes one immediately think of accessibility for visually impaired gamers but it also made me think of how such an experience could introduce sighted game players to an experience that required that they use this sense alone in order to escape the clutches of the alien and safely make it to the Nightjar's escape pod. What opportunities there are again to get players to look at writing their own text driven games, and how they could possibly be brought to life via Garageband or Audacity. Just even switching the direction from left to right audio (panning) could be the spark to light that creative use of tech to impact on the desire to create and enhance the texts they create and how they can write for a digital audience.
This morning a BBC Click feature alerted me to the fact that Papa Sangre II has been released. One of my jobs for today is to download this and to see if I can escape the Garden of Death!
With an enhanced 3D stereoscopic engine it seems that this audio driven game experience is one that is getting better and better.
The creativity that is being shown by games developers is really quite breathtaking at times...what a wonderful context this world is, if appropriately used, to help situate learning and learners in purposeful, relevant and motivating challenges. Now, if I had any influence or way in which I could help drive transformative change within our education system I would have it that games design companies and creative digital people from our brilliant universities would have representatives on local and national bodies to not only help raise awareness of what is out there but to raise the bar of aspiration and expectation of what we can expect from our young people. Alas, maybe I'll have greater luck escaping from Papa Sangre's Garden of Death... #everoptimistic
As a teacher and a gamer I found this interesting on two levels. I'm interested in the ethics of gaming, and in the role video games can play in exploring freewill and determinism with students.
After engaging with this post can I enter it as "professional reading" on my GTC NQT profile? ;-)
Posted by: Bonshui | September 04, 2014 at 08:32 PM