Presentation delivered by me to PGDE(P) students at the University of Dundee in May 09. Video clips not available here I'm afraid.

1. GAMES BASED LEARNING
TITLE
AND WHY SCHOOLS DON’T NEED CLOSED MINDS
PRESENTER EVENT
DEREK ROBERTSON UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE MAY’09

3. observing
SUCCESS
testing
evaluating
persevering
hypothesising

5. Do you believe
he is really
playing a PS3
game?

6. RISK AN EARLY DEATH,
JUST DO NOTHING.

7. The Byron Review refers to
“the educational, social
and entertainment benefits
that the internet and video
games technologies
clearly offer.”
Dr Tanya Byron. (Source: Byron Review, p15)

8. The games industry “fulfills and
plays an important role in our
society, and a very constructive
role in the lives of many young
people, as well as middle-aged
people like myself.”
Shaun Woodward, Government minister.
(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

13. “A Nintendo DS system to
improve your child's
education. What a load of
nonsense, just shows you how
destitute in ideas some of
those so called educationalists
have become.”

14. “What a load of tripe - so the
kids leave school not being
able to read and write but they
can use a playstation? -
which moron thought that one
up.”

15. How does such a
pessimistic
outlook help take
learners forward?

16. Shouldn’t their
learning
experience be an
optimistic one?

19. Semiotic Domains
SCHOOL DOMAIN
GAMES DOMAIN

22. It’s now a cool
aspiration to be
good at mental
maths...

25. What did the
parents think?

26. Scotland’s got game
• Consolarium project began in August
2006
• Initially 7 early adopter authorities
• Now working with or about to work
with almost 30 of those
• Hundreds of teachers and thousands of
pupils involved
• Games consoles in many schools (2300
DS recently purchased)
• Working with many TEIs
• Permeates Curriculum for Excellence
• No longer seen as a maverick idea

27. Just wanted to drop you an email to say how
motivated our children are with the DS Lites
which have been borrowed from the ICT team.
Currently, P4, a VERY challenging class to
say the least, are using them successfully
each day. They are highly motivated and
focused and are getting on with their tasks
when asked ‐ this is a novelty with this
class. Their CT is also using them for
writing step by step instructions ‐ How to
switch on your DS Lite? There is one little
boy in particular who just cannot focus for
more than 5 seconds and he loves doing his
mental Maths on the DS ‐ a great example of
active learning!

29. I’VE GOT £4200 IN THE BANK
PROJECT
GLEEFUL LEARNING WITH NINTENDOGS IN P.2
DATE SCHOOLS
WINTER ’08 TO PRESENT ACROSS SCOTLAND

35. Mad Dog
by Saitaro Kuroda

38. GUITAR HERO IN THE CLASS
PROJECT
A DAFT IDEA? YOU BET, BUT IT WORKS!
DATE CLIENT
2007 TO PRESENT LEARNING AND TEACHING SCOTLAND

39. Creating a ‘collaborative story’
* Guitar Hero became the contextual
hub for learning in P.7
* Children lost themselves in the
world of rock and roll
* Relevant and meaningful learning
programme established
* Class virtual band drove learning in
various curricular areas
* Enthusiasm and commitment to
learning was palpable
* A rich learning experience packed
with quality

40. Used as a Primary
to Secondary
transition project

43. ENDLESS OCEAN....
PROJECT
ENDLESS LEARNING WITH SANDBOX GAMES
PRESENTER AUTHORITY
DEREK P ROBERTSON ABERDEENSHIRE & STIRLING

47. Bringing writing to life

49. MOSHI MONSTER MANIA
PROJECT
VIRTUAL PETS ENCOURAGE REAL LEARNING
DATE CLIENT
2009 ONWARDS PORT OF MENTEITH AND NATIONALLY

50. Moshi Monsters
can be used to
create contexts
for writing

52. Moshi Monsters
can be used to let
creativity flow via
animation...

54. ...and writing and
animation...

56. Moshi Monsters
can help children
engage with the
design process

58. NARRATIVE IN GAMES
PROJECT
OPPORTUNITIES FOR CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT
DATE AUTHORITY
SUMMER TERM 2009 VARIOUS AUTHORITY PARTNERS

60. Technology v’s Narrative
Importance
Narrative
Movies & TV
Games
Technology
©Ted Hung, www.tedhung.com
Time

61. An area for development
Where are we with games as texts?
• Very little depth, demand or challenge in
the underlying narrative
• Characters in games up until now have
been rather superficial and one-
dimensional
• Lack of emotional diversity
• Currently: Fear, Surprise, Anger,
Anticipation Fight-or-Flight Response
• Future: Love, Sadness, Jealousy,
Optimism,
Thanks to Ted Hung for inspiration here www.tedhung.com

62. Phoenix Wright DS
Character sketching

64. THE SHADOW
“WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF
MEN? THE SHADOW KNOWS...

65. Writing for a digital audience
What do we plan to do?
• S.2/3 Pupils to play Hotel Dusk Room 215
for homework
• Will develop their Noir detective and their
storyline
• Story to be drafted, recorded and
dramatised for audio and video podcast
• As with old serials their stories will be
delivered over a a period of 6 weeks,
building their digital audience
• Using Garageband and ipod touches to
create and test their work
• Promoting inter-disciplinary working
• Introduce pupils to the wider genre of Noir
literature

66. Professor
Layton and the
Curious Village

67. BUILDING THE COMMUNITY
PROJECT
GLOW & THE SCOTTISH LEARNING FESTIVAL
DATE
ONGOING LEARNING AND TEACHING SCOTLAND

68. Joined up thinking?
• SLF’08: Guitar Hero Competition
• SLF’08: Sonic and Mario at the Olympics
Competition
• SLF’08: Dr Kawashima Competition
• SLF’09: Guitar Hero World Tour
Competition
• SLF’09: Dragon’s Den Competition
• Glow Groups
• The Winning Game

69. CANVAS
TITLE
EXPLORING LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
PRESENTER AUDIENCE
DEREK ROBERTSON NATIONAL RESOURCE

71. Teachers embracing games
GAMES DEVICES HAVE A LOW TECHNOLOGY
SKILLS THRESHOLD
TEACHERS GET SUCCESS WITH GAMES
TECHNOLOGY, THIS ENHANCES SELF-CONFIDENCE
TEACHERS CAN FOCUS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING
AND NOT WORRY ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
THEY SEE THE POSITIVE IMPACT ON CHILDREN

72. Good teachers
use good
resources to
engage learners

73. Children have
you for a year.
Take them
places...

74. Thank you
email: d.robertson@ltscotland.org.uk
website: www.ltscotland.org.uk/consolarium
blog: www.ltsblogs.org.uk/consolarium
own blog:www.hotmilkydrink.typepad.com
twitter: derekrobertson