@derekrobertson's...

Fancy a PS3 laptop? Get your bid in.

If you can't wait to get home to play Call of Duty 4 GTA IV on your PS3 then fear not fare gamer player. Just imagine getting your hands on the PS3 laptop and unleashing this beast on the table top of the train back to your home town. It's a one off so get your bids in. I wonder if my budget could extend to this ;-P

Guitar Hero rocks P.7 in Aberdeenshire

If Hannibal from the A-Team had been with me in Aberdeenshire on Thursday he would have said, "I love it when a plan comes together!" You know why, because my plan did and how... For those of you who know me and who may occasionally read my ramblings then you'll know that I am big Guitar Hero fan. Red hot and untouchable at it I know but hey, that's what years of dedication can bring. Anyway, I really wanted to see if this resource had a place in class so I put a few sets in schools with my partner local authorities and gave them some ideas about how I though it may be used. One of these was P.7 at Meldrum PS. Have a look at the photos and then read on...

Meet 'Full Moon'

Again, very much in keeping with my philosophy of teaching, the teacher here has used Guitar Hero to create a 'Collaborative Story' about which she has thematically linked and stuctured various aspects of the curicculum. Very much in keeping with the Primary approach of thematic based learning. The main story about which the learning has happened is that as a result of getting lost in the 'crazy world of Rock and Roll' with the Guitar Hero the class have created their own fictional band called Full Moon. Full Moon have just released their first hit single called Pure Black Magic and I'm sure it's going to go double platinum!

Here is a brief description of what they have been doing in class:

• English Language: The class have established a highly believable, interesting and fully 3-dimensional set of band members via a series of rock biographies that the have written. These biographies had to be heard/read to be believed, they were fantastic! They have also worked on their persuasive wrting by penning adverts to sell the guitars they made in D&T that feature in the class guitar shop called Streets of Steel. They have also ben working on writing song lyrics and have penned what will no doubt become a rock anthem, 'Pure Black Magic.'
• Design and Technology: The teacher asked the class to design their idea of a 'must have' guitar. Little did they know that they were going to create one using junk! This they were duly asked to do but the criteria was that no sellotape was to be used in the construction of their guitar. You can see their guitars hanging on the wall in the photos.
• Drama: The class are working with the Drama teacher to create a rock video for one of four rock songs. The children are busily preparing their routines and their costumes and the videos are due to shot next week. They also had an X-Factor style audition session where the children played the parts of Sharon, Simon and Louie to give critiques of the hopefuls attempting to get in to Full Moon.
• Art & Design: Band logos have been designed, album covers, European Tour posters, Tour T-Shirts that can be ironed on and costumes have all, or are being, designed.
• Science: The class have been investigating sound by looking at the pitch made by different guitar strings and how this is changed when you press the string against the fret board.
• Environmental Studies: The class have got themselves so involved with this that they are now planning a European Tour and as a result they are working on an itenary for Full Moon for when they play the major European venues.

The teacher of the class has had P.7 a few times now and she has stressed that she can't believe how this project has galvainsed, motivated, engaged and excited a P.7 class at this stage of their school career. She says that normally once they have been to visit their 'new school' then it's very much a case of them looking forward to that but with this project it seems the class don't have enough time left to finish the work that they want to finish!

As for the kids in the class....well, I was really delighted with what I saw. Children beaming with interest, excitement and a willingness to get lost in this collaborative story. Here's what some of them had to say (unsolicited and spontaneous I may add):

"Normally we do english, maths, technology, art all on their own but with Guitar Hero II it's all linked instead of one thing at a time."

"Guitar Hero is really good fun but its at the centre of it and it really boosts you on and it helps you work on your imagination."

There will be much more to come in terms of evidence and detail on the soon to be unveiled and long awaited Learning and Teaching Scotland's Consolarium website! Photos of the kids playing me at Guitar Hero (and possibly video) will be there too and yes, in case you were wondering...I wiped the floor with all-comers although one young upstart deigned to overtake me mid-way through Surrender by Cheap Trick!

Great stuff at Meldrum PS and testament to what thoughtful creative and exciting use of resources by a skilled teacher can do to get the most, and more, out of children.

BETT '07: DfES Games Summit, Buzz-The Schools' Quiz

The DfES Games Summit today at the Royal Garden Hotel proved to be a very interesting and thought provoking session. There were some short presentations from Caspian Learning, Dave Whyley from Wolverhampton LA and Relentless Software. The last presentation by Relentless had me really excited…

The games for the PS2 are in my opinion just superb. I’ve talked about Guitar Hero, Dance Mats and Eye Toy quite a lot in this blog but there’s a new kid in town and it’s called Buzz and it really is incredible. It’s based on quiz formats that are commonly seen on a range of TV shows and it comes with four controllers that hook up to the PS2. There is a range of games available for Buzz: a music quiz, a general knowledge quiz and a game called Jungle Party (which we have at the Consolarium and more will be blogged about this soon). But today we learned about Buzz: The Schools’ Quiz that has been commissioned and will be due for release mid-2007.

We saw a short video of it in action at Terra Nova Primary School and it was a sight to behold. The kids in that class had been put in teams and they were answering questions that had been covered in a recent Environmental Studies project. They engagement was there to be seen. Unfortunately the presentation had to be cut short but it was clear from the video how the dynamic nature of group involvement within the context of Buzz engaged, excited and challenged the children. We need to get our hands on this and see how much we really know about rivers, weather systems and transportation! Maybe the kids would beat us in this context.

Naturally the commission for this product was aimed at the English curriculum so it would be really good if we could make representation to Relentless to ask them about creating a Scottish version. My initial observation of the game was that it would not allow you to edit content hence the need to possibly tweak it to suit our particular needs.

This appears to be a really innovative product and I look forward to getting my hands on it.

Guitar Hero II on Tour

For all you rock imposters out there who have been fumbling about with 5 figure scores on Guitar Hero have a look at the leaderboard for the Guitar Hero II Tour. That's it...I'm taking the guitars home to get myself up to that standard. That high score is double my best yet!

As you can see the tour is coming to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Does anyone fancy accompanying 'Slash Robertson' to one of these events??? I feel a high score coming on...

Moral Panic alert! Rule of the Rose release postponed

I have just tuned in to the debate surrounding the the Rule of the Rose games for the PS2. This game has been given a 16+ PEGI certificate yet the moral panic mongers have managed to cause such a furore that the release of this game has been postponed!

The Daily Mail (as you might expect) have called this game 'obscenely cruel' and surprisingly The Times have jumped on the band wagon also. To put the tin lid on this the EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has also released a press statement calling for an investigation into some of these obscene and perverse video games.

Look, where is the parental responsibility here?! If a game has a graded certificate that tells you that it's not suitable for your young child then don't buy it. Would you buy an 18 certificate DVD to put in your 10 year old's Xmas stocking? No, well then use the same judgment when buying games.This is very similar to a minor celebrity spat that I saw on Never Mind the Buzzcocks during the week. Jamelia (of Singstar fame) had said to Lily Allen that she would have liked a censored version (no swearing or sexual references) of her latest release so her very young daughter could enjoy it. Lily Allen point blank refused and said that her audience was not young girls and that no she wouldn't change her work...Why do we have to even consider that art and media should be made palatable for a very Young audience when it is clearly stated on much of it that the target audience is adult. Yes I know that youngsters will get their hands on this material but isn't that what growing up is about at times? Breaking the rules, pushing the boundaries, exploring the taboos and things that are 'not for you'. All we can do is to put mechanisms such as PEGI in place that informs adults of the nature of media that they intend to buy and we have to leave it up to them. That's my tuppence worth anyway.

Now, it seems that I'm going to have wait to be flegged to death as they say in Dundee by Rules of the Rose so I'm just going to but Fatal Frame instead.

Game City Conference

Going to the Game City Conference in Nottingham this week. There is a nice summary of the events from the Edge site. I look forward to blogging about this.

Guitar Hero arrives...

Just received Guitar Hero and an extra guitar for the Playstation. If you don't have an idea what this is then looks at these guys playing. It' quite a challenge...not as much fun as oplaying a real guitar though.

Fancy a game....