Adventure Author

Making Games in Schools update

We had another excellent MGiS training session in December, working with the new cohort of teachers who proved to be a highly creative and reflective bunch and very enjoyable to work with! They have all now scurried back to their schools and are busy planning and preparing - and even blogging - as they get their projects underway. I am looking forward to visiting! Follow the MGiS project blogs to keep up with all the school developments with MGiS.

And I have had fun to date visiting the Cohort 1 schools, seeing some great work and exemplary practice. I was very interested to see how well the computer science-English department partnerships have been working in the two high schools who have opted for a joint approach. The central role of the fantasy text has been very helpful for all concerned, giving a focus to CS lessons and bringing staff and pupils together in a strongly creative way. I've made a new page on the site to gather thoughts about all things fantasy, so do please send us your ideas. Richard, too, is doing sterling cross-curricular creative stuff in his P7 class and the kids are equally well-motivated. I am looking forward to visiting the Cohort 2 schools this term, especially now the snow has eased!

We are encouraging our project teachers to develop their practice and deepen their understandings around games in schools (although it has to be said they're already pretty far down this track!). We hope all teachers will enjoy our new page for learning professionals which has with lots of useful reading and information related to games and learning in the classroom, including a link to the General Teaching Council for Scotland who can give accreditation for work in this field.

We are busy making preps for training Cohorts 3 and 4 in quick succession, so time is running out if you want to apply - see the project info page to find out more. It would seem we are already over-subscribed for Cohort 4, but there may still be a chance of joining Cohort 3 if you have a strong application and are quick with your technical checks - very, very important! No good having great plans if the kit ends up letting you down . . .

Making Games in Schools update: Cohort 1, Cohort 2

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.

Deadline today for first MGiS cohort

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 . . .

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. 

MGiS: 4 deadlines for applications 2009-2010

If you are thinking about applying for the Making Games in Schools project, the dates below show how we are planning to time the four cohorts over the coming year. Each will begin with 2.5 days' training at Heriot Watt University for successful applicants and projects will then run in schools during the ensuing weeks.

Applications should reach us by the following dates:

Cohort 1

Closing date: Friday 12 June 2009

Training 2-4 Sept 2009
Project to run during Sept/Oct

Cohort 2

Closing date: Friday 30 October 2009

Training 9-11 Dec 2009
Project to run during Jan/Feb 2010

Cohort 3

Closing date: Friday 29 January 2010

Training in early/mid March 2010 (TBA)
Project to run during April/May

Cohort 4

Closing date: Friday 19 March 2010

Training late April (TBA)
Project to run during May/June

 

For more information, download the MGiS information sheet and application form:

Download MGiS Information for Schools 2009-2010 May 09

Download MGiS Application FormFinal with dates

 

Slides from HW teachers' workshop 8th May

Thanks to all the teachers who attended the workshop on Friday. Here are the slides:

Download Making Games in Schools8thMayEdinburgh

Making games in schools - application forms

If you are interested in taking part in the Making Games in Schools project, here are the information the application forms and dates are here.

Information for Prospective Participants
What?
•    A superb creative, cross-curricular Curriculum for Excellence opportunity which meets the new technologies requirement to design and make computer games, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
•    A programme of ongoing training and support over an 18 month period for 4 cohorts of 8 teachers in using the Adventure Author gamemaking software in classrooms, typically for 6-8 weeks.
Why?
•    Important professional development and leadership opportunities
•    Enthused and motivated pupils
•    Free software
•    Free accredited training by national CPD provider
How?
•    2.5 day residential training course for each cohort, including theory and practice, at Heriot Watt University, delivered by Dr Judy Robertson and Cathrin Howells, followed by school-based planning and implementation by pairs of teachers.
•    Classroom visits from Cathrin Howells to support learning and teaching and observe progress.
•    Additional in-classroom technical support from computer science students.
•    Teachers will be asked to work with a minimum of 2 classes during the project period.
•    Participating teachers will also undertake to train other members of staff in their schools on the job once they are confident with the technology themselves.
•    Teachers will document experiences in personal learning logs and keep records of pupils’ achievements, acting as researchers and contributing to current research in games-based learning.
•    Cohorts will meet to share their projects with each other and present their work to other teachers.
•    Throughout the project, the teachers will support each other online using blogs and wikis.
Who?
•    The target age group is between 11 and 14; thus primary seven, and first and second year secondary classes will be targeted.
•    We would like to recruit teachers in pairs, to support each other. One member of the pair will be a secondary computing teacher or a primary school ICT specialist. The other member might be a teacher from a complementary discipline such as English or drama, or a teacher from a primary school with links to the secondary school.
When?
•    Cohort 1 from September 2009
•    Cohort 2 from November 2009
•    Cohort 3 from February 2010
•    Cohort 4 from April 2010
 
What else?
•    Participating schools will need to have the recommended system requirements on their PCs (see below).
•    They will need to guarantee senior management commitment to the project, to ensure support for planning, development, implementation and dissemination.
•    Teachers should be willing to share their work within the project and beyond.
Technical Specification for Neverwinter Nights 2
Please note: The game files are large, so pupils will each need access to at least 100 MB of disk space on their user account.
Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Download Recommended System Requirements
     3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4® or AMD Athlon® equivalent
     1.0 GB RAM
     ATI Radeon X800 or NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or higher
Supported Video Card Chipsets:
     ATI Radeon X1900 series
     ATI Radeon X1800 series
     ATI Radeon X1600 series
     ATI Radeon X1300 series
     ATI Radeon X850 series
     ATI Radeon X800 series
     ATI Radeon X700 series
     ATI Radeon X600 series
     ATI Radeon X300 series
     ATI Radeon 9800 series
     NVIDIA GeForce 7900 series
     NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
     NVIDIA GeForce 7600 series
     NVIDIA GeForce 7300 series
     NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
     NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series

Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Download File Size
4.5 GB 
 
MGiS Project Memo: Age-appropriate censor patch
Please note that the published version of NWN2 is intended for 13 years and over. We have a downloadable censor patch to ensure the content of the program is suitable for younger children.