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MGS Guitar Hero Transition Project – Part Two: The Virtual Battle of the Bands

Ollie Bray — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:44:02 +0100

This whole project will eventually be catalogued on the edubuzz MGS Guitar Hero Website – where we hope to produce a guide for anyone wanting to replicate the project. I have already talked about the background and stage one of the project here.

But in summary the whole transition project basically has three stages:

Using Guitar Hero as a Context for Learning in P7 between Easter and the Summer 2008.
Bringing all P7 classes together for Virtual Battle of the Bands in June 2008.
Follow up work related to the context for learning in some secondary subject areas up until the September holiday weekend 2008.

This post will document Part Two of the Guitar Hero Project: The Virtual Battle of the Bands

Background

I feel that one of the reasons that you get so many relationship difficulties at the start of secondary school is because secondary schools spend a lot of time working with individual primary schools but not very much time bringing the future S1 together and working with them as a collective group.

I also think that when you get new S1 classes they very rarely have anything in common to talk about, they struggle to strike up conversation due to fear of saying the wrong thing and may also have problems building relationships with teaching staff.

One of the philosophical ideas behind this project was that every primary school in the Musselburgh Cluster would use the same context for learning (Guitar Hero) between Easter and Summer. Each primary school would take ownership of the project so each school may have a totally different experience. But then we would bring all of the children together. Not in their schools but as their S1 practical sets (no more than 20) for a morning at the Grammar School.

The programme for the morning was devised by a short life working group and consisted of the following:

Registration (Primary children made their own way to registration at MGS)
Introduction
Workshop One
Workshop Two
Break
Workshop Three
Summary and Conclusions

During the morning everyone had the opportunity to participate in a ‘round robin’ of three workshops. Each workshop was 45 minutes long. In no particular order, they consisted of the following:

Workshop One – Battle of the Bands

Woking in their practical sets we had 10 PS2’s set up in the hall. The only requirement was to have fun and that they must compete against someone in their new class that was not from their old school. Originally I, naively, thought that the only real learning here was to have a bit of fun. But I had forgotten about the social interaction. During this workshop I saw children helping children that they didn’t know, laughing with (not at) each other and chatting about a common interest (the game).

Senior students supervised the event so there was also an opportunity for new students to ask them questions about life at the school.

Workshop Two – The Guitar Hero Challenge

These workshops were facilitated by the Guidance Staff. The first task was for the guidance staff to ask if there were any problems from the visit days (that had occurred two weeks previously).

The second task was to ask the question, ‘tell me and your class what you have been learning about during the Guitar Hero Project’. The feedback from the children during this section of the workshop (as long as it was facilitated well) has been fantastic. Remember that each school took the project in its own direction. It was a chance for the class to communicate with each other about a common interest, swap ideas and learn about learning in each others schools.

The third part of the task was to allow 20 minutes for the group to be split into 4/5 people and to come up with a band name, logo and jingle. One of the S6 students commented to me, ‘I can’t believe it, they have just come up with that in 5 minutes.’ This was an important part of the experience. I have a concern that secondary teachers do not know the true ability and creativity of the new S1. This is something we must challenge.

Logo’s and jingles were photographed and videoed and the best groups will be awarded prises in the new term.

Workshop Three – Guitar Hero Option

Each practical set had an opportunity to participate in a different activity. All of the activities had a different theme related to rock music or the game. The idea behind this was to capitalise on secondary staff and senior pupil expertise, but also to capitalise on the experience. When the P7 classes got back to their associated primary schools, because they would have been in different workshops (remember they participated in the morning as S1 practical sets) they were tasked with sharing their experience with the rest of the class.

The optional activities included:

Guitar Hero Orienteering – using maps of the school to navigate around the school grounds to find the name of rock bands and answer the bonus Guitar Hero Questions.

Deigning a CD Case – using Microsoft Publisher.

Designing a guitar – using Photoshop (Mr Hall Skilfully doing to demonstration below!)

Rock Drama – lots on mime and improvisation to rock music in this workshop. It was great to see four different schools collaborating and working together almost in perfect sequence.

Rock Dance – Led by S6, I couldn’t believe the routine they produced in 40 minutes. I looked like at least 3 days worth!

Meet the Band – Working with an S6 band and learning how to play ‘Smoke on the Water’ on the guitar as well as getting a tour of the MGS recording studio.

iTunes Challenge – A numeracy related quiz using Activote. I’m just not sure about the last question. I think might have been set up there?

Displays

During the morning there was also an opportunity for schools to display some of the Guitar Hero Work that they had produced over the last few months. It was all outstanding!

The Musselburgh Grammar School Guitar Hero Transition Project – Background Information and Timeline

Ollie Bray — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:28:15 +0100

I’m trying to pull information together about our Musselburgh Cluster Guitar Hero Transition Project. I’ve not been very good at writing about it as the project progresses but I will eventually pull everything together and document the complete project over on the Edubuzz Guitar Hero Site. I know that Derek is also keen to write up the project as a model of good practice over on the Consolarium website.

The project has three distinct stages:

Using Guitar Hero as a Context for Learning in P7 between Easter and the Summer 2008.
Bringing all P7 classes together for Virtual Battle of the Bands in June 2008.
Follow up work related to the context for learning in some secondary subject areas up until the September holiday weekend 2008.

Here’s a small time line to demonstrate how the project has progressed until the implementation of stage one of the project.

I was impressed with Case Study of the pilot project that occurred up in Aberdeen and also keen to improve the flow between primary and secondary education within the Musselburgh Cluster. I was also keen to build relationships between primary and primary and primary and secondary colleagues.

In October 2007 I suggested at a cluster head teachers meeting that Games Based Learning might be an area we could take forward as a cluster. I offered to source the funding for such a project if all of the schools came on board.

By November 2007 I had scrapped together enough funding from a variety of sources to buy each of the associated primary schools a PS2, Guitar Hero Three and an additional Guitar Remote Control. I also found funding for a copy of Buzz the Schools Quiz for each of the schools.

By January 2008 all of the funding had arrived and we were in a position to order the equipment. The first wave of equipment arrived at the end of January, however we had to wait for our additional guitar controllers until the end of March.

On the 25^th February 2008 we held our first meeting with P7 teachers. Despite the message not quite reaching some of them from their HT’s that they were going to be participating in this project some very enthusiastic P7 teachers embraced the technology and embraced the challenge!

During the Easter Holidays a huge amount of planning was done by many of the associated primary schools. These plans will be shared shortly.

Project Implementation Stage One

Between the Easter and Summer 2008, Stage One of the project took place. Stage One of the project was use Guitar Hero as a context and stimulus for learning. During the term a huge amount of learning took place in each of our associated primary schools using the game and the theme of rock music. Each school was given ownership on how they took the project forward but some examples of the work included:

Creative writing on fictional bands
Character studies on fictional and real band members
Band animations
Learning to DJ
Disco and rock dancing
T-shirt design
Marketing and learning about profit and loss
Making models
Learning and playing music
Geography through the use of the world tour
Venue and city studies
And loads more!

As part of our planning two of our schools also put on a fantastic showcase. Which I have written about previously.

Project Implementation Stage Two

I will tackle this in a separate post - which I have already half written!

Guitar Hero at Wallyford: ACE in Action!

Ollie Bray — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:42:43 +0100

Here’s one example of the amazing talent displayed at last night’s ground-breaking GH08 showcase at Wallyford Primary by P7 students from Wallyford and Whitecraig Primaries.

In these routines, each band performed a dance:

they had choreographed,
to a track they had created using Garageband
wearing the T-shirts they had designed, and which they were selling on the night.

Contact Stacey Betteridge at Wallyford Primary to get your T-shirt before they sell out!

Guitar Hero Showcase: I love it when a plan comes together!

Ollie Bray — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:21:02 +0100

A number of months ago I suggested to the Musselburgh Cluster that we engage in a Games Based Learning project to help with transition. I suggested that we used Guitar Hero as the context for learning and base the projects on some of the work being carried out at the Consolarium.

Our project would initially follow a similar form to the Aberdeen pilot but then develop into a real and worthwhile transition activity. The work would then be carried on into the initial stages of the S1 programme. I think when I first suggested the idea a few people thought I might have completely lost the plot. However I was absolutely delighted when all of our primary heads signed up to the project.

We secured the funding for equipment from various sources – more on this later and then Guitar Hero was let loose in P7 classrooms across Musselburgh. Lots of people have helped us on the way and I will thank them all in a separate post.

Tonight I have just come back from A Guitar Hero Showcase Event performed by children (and teachers) from Wallyford Primary and Whitecraig Primary at Wallyford Primary School. The event was outstanding and was truly A Curriculum for Excellence in Action! During the evening we saw dances, songs, music that the children had composed, animations, t-shirt designs, logos, character studies, artwork (Elvis Lives!), photography, digital video and huge amount more!

A huge amount of thanks must go to Stacey Betteridge (PT at Wallyford) and Jenny MacNair (P6/P7 teacher at Whitecraig) for all of the hard work they have put into this project. I hope to be able to share some of the performances with you soon and also some of the planning that went into this project. In the meantime above you can see some of the outstanding work that was on display during the evening.

SQH Course Four

Ollie Bray — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:23:00 +0100

I thought I should give a quick SQH up-date. This week I received notice from the University that I had passed the school improvement oral presentation and Critical Incident discussion which make up part of the course four assignment.

My school improvement project is on transition which interestingly was also the same theme as my critical incident discussion! I chose not to do a PowerPoint to assist me with my presentation. Instead I chose to produce a ‘comic handout’ and talk to it.

The remainder of course four has got to be completed by August this year. After that it will just be course five to go and then I will have finished!

Local Heroes: The Art of Graphic Novels – Soon to be permanently displayed at Musselburgh Grammar School

Ollie Bray — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:11:00 +0100

I’ve been doing lots of thinking and work on Graphic Novels just recently. This has been partly inspired by the excellent exhibition at the National Library of Scotland titled, ‘Local Heroes - The Art of the Graphic Novel’.

During the exhibition a number of evening talks were put on and I was lucky enough to go to most of them with other members of school staff, including representatives of the Art, SfL and English Departments. I was even lucky enough to get a signed Dan Dare poster!

One of the questions on my mind was, ‘what happens to all of the material after the exhibition is over?’. I’m a big believer in that is doesn’t hurt to ask and I obviously share this philosophy with our PT Art and Design! Today I went down to the library and collected the vast majority of the exhibition (about 20 display panels) and several hundred pounds worth of Graphic Novel Books that the library has donated to the school!

We hope to get this material as a permanent display up in the school between now and the summer and hope that it will really inspire some of our students as we start to use graphic novels in more detail next year. I also hope to use the display material as a transition activity treasure hunt for next session.

Some of the panels that we have been given are shown as a Rock You Presentation above! Well done MGS Art and Design Department!

Internet Safety at Preston Lodge High School

Ollie Bray — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:14:00 +0100

The first of our series of Internet Safety and Responsible Use Training Session went well at Preston Lodge High School on Tuesday evening. The presentation received outstanding feedback from staff and parents in attendance.

I was pleased to hear that people are starting to realise that this really is an important issue and that schools, students, parents and families must all start to work together to make sure that our young people are behaving responsibly on-line.

One piece of feedback on the presentation website states,

‘I found last night’s training session for Parents and Families at PL very informative. It was useful to me as a parent as well as an East Lothian teacher. What could have been a very heavy topic was presented in a varied and interesting way, making it accessible to the audience. I think it is essential that we stay a step ahead and would find a session like this useful each year as things will have moved on in a year’s time.’

If you were at the presentation you can access the on-line handout at http://edubuzz.org/blogs/internetsafety. The on-line handout includes the slides that were used during the evening (embedded below).

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If you missed the presentation you can still attend one of the other Eat Lothian events. All presentations take place between 7 – 9pm at the following venues:

Ross High - 10 June 2008
Dunbar Grammar - 11 June 2008
Knox Academy - 18 June 2008
North Berwick High - 24 June 2008

Hope to see you there.

Internet Safety: BBC Radio Scotland

Ollie Bray — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:17:00 +0100

If you listen to BBC Radio Scotland in the Morning, PC Davie Gunn and I will be doing a short interview during today’s breakfast show. This is following on the back of the ‘Ask and Expert Slot’ on Talk 107 with Ian Gilmore and Lynne McCrossan that we did yesterday.

The interview at Talk 107 seemed to go really well and Ian and Lynne have invited us back to do a follow up session later in the year.

Tonight is the first of our series of Internet Safety and Responsible Use session for Parents and Families. PC Davie Gunn and I will be delivering 5 sessions between now and the summer at each of the secondary schools in East Lothian. I’ve also put together an edubuzz website with some information about the sessions and an on-line handout for course participants. You can have a look at it at http://edubuzz.org/blogs/internetsafety

The other Internet Safety and Responsible Use Training Sessions are between 7-9pm at the following locations and dates:

· Tuesday 3^rd June – Preston Lodge High School, East Lothian , 19.00h – 21.00h.
· Tuesday 10^th June 2008 – Ross High School,East Lothian , 19.00h – 21.00h.
· Wednesday 11^th June 2008 – Dunbar Grammar School,East Lothian , 19.00h – 21.00h.
Wednesday 18^th June – Knox Academy,East Lothian , 19.00h – 21.00h.
· Tuesday 24^th June 2008 – North Berwick High School, East Lothian, 19.00h – 21.00h.

Our Nintendo DS’s have arrived!

Ollie Bray — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:28:00 +0100

Finally after months of waiting our first school class set of Nintendo DS’s have arrived. We will be using them in the Maths department from the start of next session. Initially we will be using Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? and also Big Brain Academy. It is my hope that the use of this technology will help improve children’s numeracy and cognitive ability.

Although there have been a number of studies involving this hardware and software in the primary setting (see here and here). I don’t know of many other secondary schools that have really started to embrace this in a big way.

Using a group of students we tested all the equipment today – it was amazing to see a whole class of students engaged for an hour period practicing their maths. We even had a couple of age 20 Brain ages!

There are lots of other good educational games out there for the Ninetendo DS and others that can be used as a good context for learning. Interestingly Ubisoft recently announced some new educational games in the pipe line which will add to their range.

Two of the most interesting new titles include My Health Coach: The Easy Way to Stop Smoking (DS) and My Health Coach: Manage Your Weight (DS). The manage your weight health coach game includes a pedometer accessory that is designed to connect to the DS and transfer steps taken into the personalized health program, tracking distance travelled.

Talk 107: Internet Safety Interview

Ollie Bray — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:39:00 +0100

If you listen to Talk 107 at lunchtime you will hear PC Davie Gunn and me in the Ask an Expert Section today at Lunchtime between 12.00 – 13.00h. We are going to be talking about the Internet Safety and Responsible Use Training Sessions for Parents and Families that we are going to be running in five of the East Lothian Secondary Schools over the coming few weeks.

The first of our series of talks starts this Tuesday at Prestonlodge High School. If you would like to attend this or any of the other sessions then please get in touch.