We had a fantastic two and a half days' training with Cohort 1 colleagues back in September, exploring the software and the principles of the project but also discovering the delights of sucking tea through chocolate biscuit straws, so we now know how to improve the content for Cohort 2!! We then set everyone loose to plan and execute their projects back in school, and preparations for this have been going well (see Tony's blog on progress at St Aloysius, top left, including possible cake-baking ventures by English teacher Ryan, all in a cross-curricular cause, of course). Everyone now seems poised to work with their pupils from the second half of the term onwards and in many cases schools have wooed other departments such as geograpy, MFL and business studies, forming teaching partnerships in the true spirit of A Curriculum for Excellence. We also have four fine Heriot-Watt PhD students to support schools with technical matters, which is a great bonus for the project. As the classroom-based work unfolds in the coming weeks we will give you news of progress - and each school will be linking a blog to this site, so you can hear from the horses' mouths just how it's all going!
And now my thoughts are turning to Cohort 2, whose training begins in December. We have already had much interest and it looks as though we might already be full, but do please submit an application in case we have a last-minute casualty (as happened in September) or if you want to be considered for Cohorts 3 or 4: http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/adventure_author/2009/05/mgis-4-deadlines-for-applications-20092010.html. We can offer on-the-ground support if you are reasonably accessible from Heriot-Watt (about a 50 mile radius), but if you have the technical back-up in school and feel you could cope on a remote support basis, do talk to us to see what might be possible.
Here is the early release version of the Adventure Author Installer.
It is not completely finished but should be easy enough to get going for those of you keen to get started as early as possible.
The following .zip contains an important 'readme' document in PDF format, please have a read at this (but don't be intimidated by what you may need to do - its nice and simple) before you begin the installation.
Enjoy
Have a look at the updated training materials and videos which Cathrin has developed this summer!
I'm in a panel at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Monday - come along if you can!http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/
"Technology & Literacy Mon 24/08/2009
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
Can video games, the internet, and other ICT applications help young people engage with literature? Find out in this inspiring event where panellists Bill Boyd, Programme Manager at Learning and Teaching Scotland, computer scientist Judy Robertson and Australian cyber-journalist Lili Wilkinson demonstrate how to utilise new technologies in the classroom. Chaired by Joy Court of CILIP. "
I ventured south earlier in July to join the United Kingdom Literacy Association's international conference entitled 'Making Connections: Building literate communities in and beyond the classroom', and gave AA its first real airing in literacy circles. Our work was greeted with enthusiasm and seems to contribute to the latest thinking about new ways in which children are reading, writing and learning. It was a great few days, with lots of opportunities to catch up on the latest research and practice and I met a host of fascinating people - not least lots of folk whose books I've been reading, including Kate Pahl, Debra Myhill, Eve Bearne, Jackie Marsh and Teresa Cremin. How exciting to meet them in person!! Great contacts made, too, both here and in other parts of the world, so ideas will continue to be exchanged.
Our seminar was entitled 'Adventure Author': Storymaking through computer game design and I've attached our slides in case you want to see what we said, but I'm afraid it's a pretty big file - lots of screenshots: Download Storymaking through computer game design updated notes. If you do succeed in downloading them, the notes view will help you to make sense of the thinking behind some of the slides.
We also produced a mini-poster by way of summarising some of our latest ideas, which you can download here: Download AA UKLA poster July 2009
Schools from Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Moray and West Lothian are joining us for the first round of Making Games in Schools, kicking off with a residential course at Heriot-Watt University from 2-4 September. We'll be encouraging them to blog their experiences and are very much looking forward to seeing what they do with the NWN2 and Adventure Author software in their classrooms. Watch this space for further news of their exploits!
Applications are steadily flowing in for the Making Games in Schools project, some for cohort one, some for cohort two, and we are delighted to be in a position to say that the first round of training will definitely be going ahead, such is the level of interest as the last few applications make their way through the ether. Judy and I will be looking through all the applications in detail early next week and will let everyone know our final decisions as soon as we can. It's very encouraging to see so much enthusiasm, and we do appreciate some schools being flexible about which cohort they join.
I must add that it's been fantastic to see how good the bids are - we tentatively asked for at least two classes and two teachers to be involved, but in most cases far, far more than that will be brought on board, and over a longer period that we had dared hope, with all sorts of plans for cross-curricular projects and wider staff training, too - thank you, brave pioneers all!
More news soon of the final group for cohort one . . .
The May edition of the Futurelab newsletter carries a very helpful set of resources for educators and researchers interested in the role of games in learning, produced as part of their Games and Learning programme of research, events and publications. The collection includes:
a policy recommendations reportby Ben Williamson of Futurelab. This summarises the key arguments for and against games and makes recommendations for ways forward, including the need for further research to develop our evidence base, as well as support and training for teachers. It also recognises the importance of Scotland's Consolarium as a model for a national centre of expertise south of the border. a report for educators by Ben Williamson of Futurelab. This report is aimed at teachers, trainers and policy makers. It looks at the eduactional use of commercially available games in schools (rather than 'edutainment packages) and offers a range of case studies. It is 'written as an accessible guide to the rationale and practices of game-based learning, it identifies available evidence from existing research, and supplies some new and previously unpublished research on teachers’ and children’s experiences of using games in classrooms'. It goes on to look at the implications and offers recommendations. And we're delighted to see that our own Adventure Authoris cited as a resource used by teachers, alongside much better-known commercial products such as Myst, SimCity and MissionMaker!
For more information on the work of the Games and Learning programme and to download copies of the reports and poster, visit http://www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/games-and-learning/research. And it seems worth adding here that our own work has much to add to the body of evidence, not least our paper 'Computer Game Design: Opportunities for Successful Learning'!
You can read the full May Futurelab newsletter at http://newsletter.futurelab.org.uk/58/ - and go to the bottom of their page to find details of how to subscribe.
I rejoined the Heriot Watt team at the beginning of May, thanks to funding from EPSRC which allows us to disseminate the work of Adventure Author through the Making Games in Schools project - that means getting our approach out into Scottish classrooms, training teachers and providing support along the way. Part of that support is keeping our resources and information up to date, so I have been back into our teaching materials to ensure they link with the final Curriculum for Excellence guidance recently published here in Scotland. I will also be doing further work on our teaching manual over the summer, but for now I hope these documents, highlighting how game design fulfils many of the expectations and aspirations of ACfEx, will be helpful - as we always say of game design, "It's 'A Curriculum for Excellence' in a box!"
A Curriculum for Excellence - Gamemaking and technologies: Download Technologies and making games
A Curriculum for Excellence - Gamemaking and literacy across learning: Download Literacy across learning and making games
If you would like to take part in the Making Games in Schools project, and your school is within a 100 mile return trip from Heriot Watt University and you think you can fulfil the project requirements, do submit an application - we'd love to hear from you! Dealines and application forms can be found here.