Adventure Author

Futurelab report and recommendations on games and learning

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of game-based learning, it identifies available evidence from existing research, and supplies some new and previously unpublished research on teachers’ and children’s experiences of using games in classrooms'.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!

• a survey analysis report by NFER which considered responses to questions covering the following topics: teachers' use of computer games for entertainment and leisure; teachers' use of computer games in the classroom and the hardware; teachers' possible use of computer games in the classroom in the future, and the reasons for this; the consequences of playing computer games, both positive and negative; and perceived barriers to the use of computer games in the classroom. Although around 40% never played computer games themselves, and over 60% never used computer games with children in school, around 60% said they would consider doing so for educational purposes. Clearly there's still a long way to go, with lots of issues to resolve around training, equipment, resources and an understanding of the learning that can take place, but at least it would seem that the majority of the teaching profession might be willing to try! 

• a scenarios poster illustrating some of the ways in which computer games can support learning in schools.

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. 

Creative Writing, Creative Sparks and Adventure Author

Judy and I presented our latest thinking about gamemaking and storytelling when we spoke at the Creative Sparks conference in Edinburgh at the end of February. The day was organised by the Scottish Book Trust to promote and celebrate creative writing, and we were delighted to share our digital take on this area of language.

We have been analysing the games produced during the Campie school project last year and our thinking about the processes the children use has continued to evolve. We are particularly interested in the ways in which Gunther Kress's concept of reading pathways develops when considered in a 3D, 360 degree, interactive, immersive environment, and have noted the importance of what we are calling 'story locations' and 'narrative vehicles' in helping these pathways emerge. Children are creating their stories using more than language, thinking in visual, spatial and logical ways to make a game in which their story can be told. We are excited by the realisation that the children are behaving in new ways as writers and readers, with important implications for both teachers and learners.

We feel there is much here to fulfil the cross-curricular requirements of A Curriculum for Excellence: the literacy and English guidelines call for future-proof texts, technology the making of computer games; the Adventure Author approach offers a creative and motivating way forward for schools who are wondering how to meet these new objectives.

Download our slides, and do contact us if you would like to know more.

Download Adventure Author new technologies and creative writing for SBT March 2009

Assessing game making and story skills

As part of the materials to support teachers, we have put together differentiated assessment criteria at novice, intermediate and advanced levels, relating to story making and to game making. The plan is that these will eventually be available as a statement bank via the Comment Cards, but I think they are useful to look at now as a simple Word document, and should help teachers get a feel for what to expect at each level as well as what to plan for. Children can use these statements for peer and self-assessment, too.  Download differentiating_the_objectives_aug_081.doc

The levels relate broadly to levels 2, 3 and 4 of A Curriculum for Excellence, and quite uncannily I put the language elements together some months before the draft Experiences and Outcomes were published - I am quite pleased with the correspondence we achieved! I have also added here, and to the teaching area, the Curriculum for Excellence Language and Literacy Experiences and Outcomes, with pink highlighting showing where language opportunities could lie if you were to adopt an Adventure Author approach to teaching NWN2.
Download nwn_and_the_draft_literacy_and_english_experiences_and_outcomes1.doc

Eventually I will write some formal plans for aspects of the teaching, but in the meantime, between the teachers' manual, the draft LLEOs and our own differentiated objectives I would hope there is enough to reassure any teacher that a rich array of learning opportunities can be offered and effectively evaluated.

As ever, do please let us know what you think!

PS To find out more about A Curriculum for Excellence, visit the Learning and Teaching Scotland CfEx web site.

Information for people who attended Educators' Day

A big hello to those who attended Educators' Day at the NILE conference. I hope you enjoyed it. Here are some resources to get you started if you're thinking about following up on the projects you heard about.

If you're new to A Curriculum for Excellence, look here: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/

Academic Speakers

Andrew Burn

Judy Robertson

Mel Gibson

Inside Stories info

You can buy it from: www.narrativejourney.org .

Adventure Author info

Download AANilePresentation.ppt

Getting started with Adventure Author

Andrew's game

Tessa's class blog

Publications

Teaching materials gradually taking shape

Hurrah! The Adventure Author Teachers' Handbook is beginning to evolve and I am gradually posting chapters on our new Teaching Materials page. Eventually this will become one hefty tome, but we hope you will want to read the whole thing, especially the theoretical bits (promise we'll keep them light, but they're vitally important!). You will be able to download the chapters singly to help you with each stage of a project, as well as having the option to download the complete collection. There will be video tutorials to help with some of the technical stuff, and short exemplar games to go with some of the sections, in case you want to demo the principles or techniques of a given chapter.

The following chapters are now available:

Introduction - sets the scene with thoughts about the role of Adventure Author and NWN2 in the 21st century curriculum

Section 1: Working with the Software
Getting Started - Time to Play! Important thoughts about the value of play and the importance of the children teaching each other.
Gathering Ideas with the Fridge Magnets - creative planning with our touchy-feely magnets.
Setting the Scene - including thoughts about 'story locations' and 'reading pathways'.
Hooking and Helping the Player - including thoughts about visual strategies, embedded text, 'narrative vehicles' and creatures who meet and greet.

To follow soon:
Talking the Talk - using the Conversation Writer
Developing Simple Quests - setting conditions via the Conversation Writer and significant plot items.

Learning about 21st century storytelling

I am awash with recent academic reading about children's writing in a visual age, and realising that we know way too little about how our children are making their stories when they set to with all the power of the NWN toolset and the Adventure Author plug-ins at their finger tips. As teachers, we are going to have to bone up on changing views of literacy if we are to keep pace with our children; we are going to have to find out as much as we can about the interplay between word and image as children increasingly create narratives using both, with both modes carrying valid and often sophisticated meaning. We can't fall back on the old prejudice of placing less value on the pictures, giving the words higher status - there is a a symbiotic relationship going on that we need to understand and need to be able to talk about. In developing our research through the Adventure Author project, we are ahead of the game, but there is still much to be done to really understand how stories are made (and interpreted) in this multimodal way.

The world told versus the world shown
Gunther Kress, Professor of English Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, says of multimodal messages, "There is a consequence for notions of meaning: if the message is realised, 'spread across', several modes, we need to know on what basis that spreading happens, what principles are at work . . . Making meaning in writing and making meaning in reading both have to be newly thought about." He asks some searching questions to which, as a profession, we don't yet know the answers: "Can image do things that writing cannot do? Or what is it that writing can do that image cannot? . . . And so the really large question is, what is distinctive about the resource of writing [for making meaning]?" Kress also says, "I think we need to be wary of being fooled by the seeming stability of the word [notably the book]."

Kress is clearly a pioneer in the field of "visual literacy" - and there is a pressing need to update our thinking, our teaching and our children's curriculum - but much of his work is based on static images, and he admits that the surface has barely been scratched in terms of moving image and the animated, interactive experience of the video computer game. Enter the Adventure Author research team . . .

Scottish curriculum: game design now included

[cross posted from Judy's blog with edits]

Good news, comrades! There was a press release last Monday from the Scottish Government about the new Curriculum for Excellence learning objectives for Technologies. I saw it over someone's shoulder on the bus on the way to start a new computer game making study in a school. Talk about co-incidence?

The learning objectives are here:(http://www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk/outcomes/technologies/index.asp ). Have a look at this particular set of objectives:

"Early-> first (up to 8 yrs) : I am developing problem solving strategies, navigation and co-ordination skills, as I play and learn with electronic games, remote control or programmable toys.

Third: (12 - 15 yrs)

Using appropriate software, I can design and implement a game or other application which is interesting and entertaining.

Fourth (Up to 15 yrs):

By learning the basic principles of a programming language, I can design a solution to a scenario, implement and evaluate its success."

Yes, gentle reader, the little children are indeed going to learn how to make their own computer games! And from the looks of it, the intended progression from making games is to learning  underlying programing skills. As far I can see, the elements at stage 4 may be optional specialisms, so not all secondary pupils will be re-compiling their linux kernels just yet. 

Being a nit picker, I have a minor quibble about the progression from the 2nd to 3rd levels. It is much harder to make an educational game successfully than it is to make an entertaining one.

Leaving aside nit picking, this is fantastic news! I am pleased to live in such a forward looking country. It is streets ahead of the rest of the UK. My colleagues south of the Border are jealous. "Scotland: the Best Small Country in the World", as the posters at the airport say.