Games and learning

Hello!

Another ICT workshop, so of course another blog entry. This week....games!

Most technology these days have apps or opportunities for learning and education. For example, the Nintendo DS is brilliant for games such as brain training, and activities to keep you thinking. It is a way to engage children in their learning through a platform that appeals to them. Most children these days have access to an Ipad, laptop or phone which can be used for all kinds of games - some of which can be really beneficial upon learning.

In the session we looked at a particular game that could be an educational tool which was.....THE DANCE MAT! Yes, a dance mat can actually promote learning across all subject areas (not just PE!) and here's how....

Dance to Advance

This is a special piece of software which is used alongside a dance mat. Sadly this can be a bit pricey and for the mat and the software I think it costs roughly £150, which must be taken into considerations as not all schools will be able to afford it.

The software works by assigning something to each location on the dance mat and then creating a prompt which will come down on the screen and then you must choose the correct answer through making the right movement on the mat. For example here is the one I made during the workshop. I decided to do capital cities. So to do this I inputted various different countries to drop down into the middle, and around the edges were all the possible capital cities. I made sure each country was correctly combined with the right capital city. And so here France is in the middle, and so pupils must look for the right capital city (Paris) which is at the top right hand corner. Once they press this with their feet on the dance mat they will get a point. It is possible to do this activitiy with virtually any topic - maths, literacy, history or even general knowledge! As well as supporting all these subject areas it is also obviously beneficial in PE and develops skills such as co-ordination and spacial awareness when thinking about positioning and movement on the mat.  It is brilliant as it appeals to all learners - visual, auditory and kinesthetic (RM Education). I would definitely love to have this in the classroom!

As well as having fun on dance mats we also looked at other online games to support learning. I looked at a specific one where you build your own roller coaster. On first sight the games may appear to be unrelated to learning but through playing with it I found that playing it involved a number of skills. Skills such as problem solving, logical thinking, and planning were all apparent within this simple idea of building a roller coaster.

"The strategies for successful game playing are increasingly complex, sophisticated, challenging and cerebral. This edges games towards the very heart of where learning is headed" (Heppell, 2006).


This quote sums up how good games can be for learning! And of course children love them.

Another two things to note which are great learning tools:

1. Wordle
2. Voki

Wordle is basically a way of mind mapping online through inputting various ideas and words and it generates it into a big mind map in which you can change the layout, font and size. I'd recommend it for good literacy links and vocabulary.

Voki is an online avatar that children can create for themselves which also helps protect children on the internet but is also really enjoyable for them.

Overall this session has taught me about the power of gaming. Before the workshop I never would have contemplated something like a dance mat supporting learning, but I have been proved wrong! I am going to try my best to use lots of the technology I have learnt about over the past few weeks in my classroom.

References

 

Modelling & Computer Programming

Last week was directed study week and so I didn't update my blog, although on my study week I spent time in my placement school where I actually got to see some of these ICT resources being used which was brilliant to see and the children really enjoyed them!

This week's session focused upon modelling and computer programming.

What is Modelling?

The idea of modelling involves children questioning ideas such as asking ‘what happens if’ before doing something, to develop their thinking skills.

Modelling allows children to:

• Persist at something and keep trying
• To be active learners
• To explore
• To be creative and use their own ideas
• To problem solve
• To make predictions on what will happen
• To make decisions on how to approach a task.

I would recommend the purple mash website as this has endless amounts of interactive games and activities.  2Simple & 2Simulate are two programs to check out! I was also lucky enough to see 2Simple being used during one of my placement visits, in which children made pictures for Art, but it can be used for other subjects aswell such as Maths.

Computer Programming

Computer Programming is great as it has lots of opportunities for modelling and allows children to develop their problem solving skills and other skills mentioned above! This idea of programming has already been introduced during the ICT workshops where we looked at programmable toys such as the Beebots (see earlier blog post). This idea of programming goes beyond the programmable toys however and can progress to various software packages such as Logo, Scratch and Kodu. These are FREE to download.

Logo

This software introduces the basic concepts of computer programming and allows children to input simple commands such as ‘FD 10’ and ‘RT 10’ to create shapes and patterns. It is a great software for developing thinking skills as it gets children to anticipate the commands needed to reach a desired outcome. As well as entering commands individually, they can be inputted as a repeated instruction to save time, which encourages children to think about every individual move needed to create their particular shape, and if it involves repetition. This can then speed up their thinking & enable them to complete tasks quickly. It links perfectly with maths for learning about shape and space and about angles when considering how far to turn to create a particular shape. It is a simple programme but very effective!

Scratch

I spent a lot of the session playing about with the Scratch software and it proved to be a lot of fun, and I know children absolutely love it! It still uses programming but does so through allowing children to produce cartoons, storyboards and art pieces. Children can choose a sprite (character) and can program them to move in a certain direction or do certain things. You can incorporate sounds as well, have costumes, background settings – theres so much to do, you could play on it for hours. Which is great as children can be engaged at school and at home. Scratch supports literacy really well and children can create story boards and sequences based upon stories they have read for instance. To the side is an example of what I managed to make in the lesson. I know the children would make things a lot better than this, it took me a while to get to grips with it! But it is really captivating and it exposes children to the language of ICT and programming through using words such as sprite, control, and mathematical terms also when thinking about angles, directions and timings. In an ICT Ofsted report, Scratch was seen being used effectively within a classroom. It was noted that 'The choice of task and software motivated pupils who were enabled to make good progress' (Ofsted, 2011: 15). 

Kodu

This is similar to Scratch, however it is purely for the designing of games.  The language within it is very simple and uses a lot of pictures which means it is really beneficial for EAL students. I did not get much time to experience this software though so will have to look at it again when I have some free time.

Why not go and test them out for yourselves? Bye for now!

 

References

OFSTED (2011) ICT in Schools 2008 - 2011. Available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/ict-schools-2008-11 [Accessed December 2012]