@derekrobertson's...

Escaping the Garden of Death and Educational Culture Change

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!

Papa Sangre II official trailer from Somethin' Else on Vimeo.

 

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

Why were there no real computer games at BETT10?

If you attended BETT10 how was it for you? For me, it was a disappointment. I could not help but feel a sense of deja-vu as I walked around the exhibition and saw really much of what was on display and offer last year and try as I might I could find little or no evidence of commercially available computer games and games consoles showing their educational face at the event. My tweets at the time captured my disappointment:

Why should I focus solely on computer games you may ask when there was so much else in terms of educational technology available for delegates to engage with and consider how that might be used to support and enrich learning? Why should my experience be such a disappointing one when it appears that Play and Playful learning was apparently a major theme of this years conference? I'll tell you why, it's because commercially available computer games that have been built for entertainment are, in our experience in Scotland in recent years, some of the very very best educational resources that schools teachers and pupils can get their hands on today. Yet, at this huge event they were singularly absent from the exhibition. 

In this article about the theme of Playful Learning at BETT10 Professor Stephen Heppell said, “Playful learning has re-energised classrooms, rekindled school and parent relationships, re-engaged brains, provided a powerfully competitive space for problem-solving, and at other times a place for real individual concentration,”

Prof. Heppell's Playful Learning stand was one of the very few areas in the exhibition that at least made delegates question just what we mean by educational technology and the rationale and underpinning approaches that will have a positive impact on learning in classrooms. It was great to see resources that we are trialling in Scotland, such as 2DIY and Manga High featured on the stand. This is no surprise when you consider how much of a friend and advocate Prof. Heppell has been of the GBL work that we have been involved in over the past few years. However, I was very surprised and disappointed to see that the excellent game based learning practice with resources such as the Wii, DS, PS3, Xbox360 etc that has been nurtured, grown and embraced by schools across Scotland, England and further afield not really at the show. But apparently....

"...signs of a games-based, ‘playful’ approach were in evidence on many stands around the 14,000 square metres of trade show that made up BETT 2010. Arvind Desikan, head of UK consumer marketing for show lead sponsor Google, said tech-savvy, creative students can also come up with new ways to use technologies. Interactive games-type approaches help teachers and students alike."

Where was this? I didn't really see it. I believe that the success that we have had in using commercially available computer games in schools has been down some fundamental principles. One of our GBL principles that is of particular relevance to this post is the fact that COTS belong in children's own cultural domains. For very many young learners game-play with COTS is what they choose to do in their own time, COTS culturally resonate with young learners, COTS have status, attraction, appeal and they are not from the domain of the school. This very fact has an immediate impact on interest and engagement when we work in schools because learning is being linked to a context that has significant cultural appeal and a sense of an "I belong in this activity...this makes sense to me" effect. James Paul Gee articulates this very well when he talks about Semiotic Domains and we use this to help explain the dynamic that we see when we use COTS in classrooms.

Yet what do we see at BETT10? On the most part more educational technologies being sold and linked under the banner of play and playful learning when, to me, they are very much in the domain of the school and the teacher. Yet apparently, as the article from Channelweb.co.uk, it does not have to be about 'conventional computer games. What does this mean? What is a conventional computer game anyway? Is this in some way an attempt to dismiss the world of COTS and the place that they may, and in my opinion, should have in classrooms?

Most of the tools that I saw that were linked with the Playful Learning theme are very interesting and no doubt of great use in the hands of good teachers but for me to not have the some of the most dynamic, appealing and hugely engaging learning resources that are currently available on show or display at BETT10 was a huge own goal. It may be the case that the major game companies wish to remain to be seen as entertainment companies and not to be explicitly linked with education. If this is the case then so be it but I think that horse has well and truly bolted though when you consider how game based learning with built for entertainment COTS is becoming more and more mainstream and widespread in schools.

Maybe BETT2011 will embrace Play and Playful learning in a far more wide reaching manner than it did this year. I hope so, we need to be showcasing the best resources and practice available to teachers to help inspire and engage learners and for me some of what would be 'Best in Show' were not even on the exhibition floor of this trade show.

Spore demo creature creator soon to be available

The big event of the summer for me is not the Olympics in Beijing, not the European football Championships in Austria/Switzerland and not even Wimbledon. No it's the long awaited release of Spore, the evolution game from Will Wright of Sims fame.

Its release seems to have been a long protracted affair but to wet our appetites Electronic Arts are to release a Spore creature creator demo June 17th.

I look forward to creating my very own micro-organism that will evolve in to the most powerful and despotic beast ever to have stomped around the universe. I might however create a Ghandiesque being who will encourage dialogue to ensure harmony in the evolutionary process. (Don't think he'll last long somehow!)

Subscribe to Spore updates via this link.

BBC Brainbox: TV now has the brain game bug

Don't know if anyone had managed to catch a new TV programme on BBC2 called Brainbox Challenge but it's rather good. However, what is even better is that their accompanying website has some excellent games on it that are quite similar to thise that you find on the Brain challenge games that you find on the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

As you play the many games that are available the site records your performance and gives you your Brainbox Quotient: how clever you are at these games! This approach is very similar to what you would see in Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS but what's good about this is it's free!

The areas of challenge and the games available are as follows:

• Visual
  • Shaping Up. What pre-defined shapes make up a larger composite shape?
• Spatial
  • Sphere and Now. Word puzzle game that has me perplexed!
• Language
  
  • Word Matrix: Add prefixes and suffixes to a central group of letters to make as many new words as you can
  • Vowel of silence: A word appears without any vowels! Work out what the word is.
• Dual Task
  • Five a day: Numbers are replaced by fruits. You need to memorise the values of the fruits and then get the sums correct.
• Coding
  • Symbol Solution: Similar to Five a day but the codes here are related to letters. Really challenging
• Memory
  • Total Recall: Pictures appear in order and then you have to say which order they appeared in. Kind of like Simon from MB Games in the 1980s!
  • Pairs in Squares: Under which square did you hear that sound?! Great fun.

Have a look and see what you think. There shouldn't be any problems, hopefully, with accessing this in schools but have a go yourself and see how high you can get your Brainbox Quotient.

Gamesmeet 08: What larks we had!

What a really good evening we had at the Gamesmeet08 session in Edinburgh last night. A decent number of people turned up to get their hands on some games we had available. here are some pics of the evening:

Even though we had brought many other games to be played on the plasma screen it seemed that Guitar hero III was the BIG attraction of the evening. Just about everyone had a go and when some of the guys managed to use a cheat to open up all of the songs available in the game then it somehow managed to attract even more attention with songs by Weezer, Kaiser Chiefs and The Killers being hammered out.

In terns of finding out new things games related it was great to hear about Mathletics website from Vicky Mackenzie from East Dunbartonshiore. Vicky has the kids in her class enrolled on this site and I must say that it was superb. What happens is a substantial  community could be online at the one time and when you go on to challenge others within the community at addition, subtraction or wnatever you're feeling confident in a group is randomly selected and you then compete in a maths type battle. It was so exciting and it forced accuracy in typing to ensure that you'd be fastest! I'm please to report that everyone at the Gamesmeet who had a go came first in their competitions. Yes, Scottish education is in good hands!

This game has great potential and it's something that I'd love to see made available to Scottish children via Glow.

Anyway, Gamesmeet 08 was great fun and hopefully there will be another one in the not too distant future.

 

It's not WHAT but THAT games teach!

Why do people play computer games? This question is discussed by Margaret Robertson (former editor of Edge) in her new BBC column. She argues that many games are boring, over-priced, however, tim e-consuming and designed to make you feel like a failure! She goes on to talk about how people like me try to rationalise games as educational tools but she argues that it's niot WHAT they teach but rather THAT they teach. She says:

"Brains love to learn. For everyone, there's some kind of learning that is as satisfying for their brains as running all day is for a border collie....and as you learn, you're given an incredible window into your own capabilities. Games are a test-bed where you can endlessly explore what an extraordinary machine you are."

I agree with her sentiments but would like to argue my viewpoint that games can be retro-fitted to support learning in schools in many ways. For example, I have talked about using Dr. Kawashima and Guitar Hero with some of my projects and what I have seen has been incredible in terms of pupil engagement and motivation. Games do teach, that is without question, but the challenge for education is how can we make explicit the learning that is happening when people play games and how can this learning expertise be transferred to other contexts?

Zap the midge

Didn't get tickets for T in the Park? Think that you're missing out on all the fun of the 'outdoor festival'? Then fear not because our friends at the BBC have done their utmost to bring the experience to you!

Yes, they have created a game based around that traditional Scottish activity of avoiding or killing the dreaded midge. Click here to play Armidgegeddon.

Now you can play this and watch the gig on BBC3 and save yourself the irritation.

Guitar Hero III is on its way, hooray for online play!

Autumn hurry up and arrive because there will be a third version of the fantastic Guitar Hero game, yes Guitar Hero III is to be released. It will be available for the PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox360. The one thing they had to do to improve this has been done... YES, we will be able to play each other online!

Guitar Hero II was particularly good due to some of the songs that were featured, my favourites being...

• YYZ: Rush
• Surrender: Cheap Trick (who I saw support Motley Crue in 1986)
• Crazy on You: Heart (before they became MOR)

...but crunching grunge and geek rock classic songs that have been confirmed for Guitar Hero III include:

• Cherub Rock: Smashing Pumpkins
• My name is Jonas: Weezer (have a look at this one in GH3 format below)

Looking forward to online moshing and jamming but in the meantime we'll have to make do with Guitar Hero: Encore, Rock the 80's.

Computer games olympics

I have been in discussions with some local authority partners about the possibility of establishing a computer games league that would involve schools either visiting each other to compete or for them to play via an online connection.  There are a huge range of games that we could use to do this: Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Dance Mats, Pro-Evolution Soccer, Singstar...I'm sure that you could think of many of your own

The inspiration for this could easily be drawn from events such as the Games Olympics that are about to begin in Paris. I'm sure that, as I found when running the school football team, that this type of activity could really help engender that sense of belonging to the school by those picked, it may motivate kids to play the game in the school if they wanted to play for the school and it also helps to bridge the gap between what learners do at home and what they do in school.

Custom Robo Arena: any wireless foes out there?

I've bought quite a few games recently that I have been taking some time to play. The one that I can't quite put down is Custom Robo Arena for the DS. I was intrigued by and attracted to this title due to the fact that it sounded a little like the old BBC2 serial Robot Wars. You know the one where teams would build a robot to compete, to the death! Well this one hooked me due to the fact that you can battle on-line against players from around the world and now that we are wireless and on-line in the |Consolarium and at home (with WEP rather than WAP) I am thoroughly enjoying the delights of handheld on-line play! Have a wee look at this review of it:

I've spent quite a bit of time on it and am now getting to Commander stage and feel as though I am learning how to effectively combine all my weapons deployment in to successful 'combos' that gain high points value.

As the reviewer says in the video, the story is rather tiresome but the game-play when you dive into battle with opponents is excellent. I'm getting Playstation thumbs. I'd ideas for using this as a focus for a collaborative project in schools but I fear that the guns element really explodes that thought before it goes any further.  Although the fighting element is well packaged in the story as the robo battles are seen as honourable contests between players who have mutual respect, it really is a no-go to use this kind of resource in schools.

Now...if anyone out there fancies a 'robo dive' then give some thought to giving me a shout by filling out the 'challenge a friend' form on their site. Watch out... I've got a reflective pod, a vertical gun and super thrust legs!!!