Games Based Learning DSI

  Today we looked at Game based learning using the Nintendo DS. We played 4 different games for the DS while thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of each game. We then selected the 2 games we thought would be most appropriate in schools and would help engage and enhance children's learning. The different games require the use a variety of skills and link to different areas within the Curriculum. 

Maths Training

The game requires the children to use their arithmetic skills in adding, subtracting and multiplication. This game is more suitable for children in the middle and upper levels of the school. Although it the simple addition and subtraction can be used in the lower end of the school. It would be a good warm activity at the beginning of a maths lesson because it will get the children to think on their feet. It is quite competitive which creates a sense of excitement, so there could be class competitions of who can complete the tests the quickest and get the best scores. "I can use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division when solving problems, making best use of the mental strategies and written skills I have developed. MNU 1-02a"  The only disadvantage of this game would be that the children have to write the answers using the stylus on the screen and sometimes the DS does not recognise the number you have written therefore they would get the answer incorrect.

Imagine Teacher

This game is really fun and is suited to the upper, middle and lower stages of the school. The game is based on a teacher who is trying to encourage more pupils to join the class by teaching interesting and effective lessons. The player has to complete different tasks on a variety of subjects in order to gain more pupils. This game will test the children's knowledge within these different subject areas e.g. Geography, Biology and Music. It will provide the younger children will new knowledge on the subjects they have not covered in school. For the children in the upper stages of school, this game requires them to use their problem solving skills as they need to identify which subjects the pupils do not enjoy and put the children in the appropriate seats to avoid bad behaviour.

Reference

Scottish Government (2009, p2) Learning, teaching and assessment. Curriculum areas. Mathematics. Experiences and outcomes. Word file: Numeracy and mathematics: Experiences and outcomes (518 KB) Available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/mathematics/eandos/index.asp [accessed 21/3/11]

Crazy Talk!!

  Today we looked at the software Crazy Talk. This software gives photographs and pictures voices and their mouths move in time with the speech. Once a character has been selected the speech needs to be added. This can either be done by recording someones voice or by simply typing in the text then selecting an appropriate automated voice. For the character to look effective when speaking, the face has to be manipulated accordingly in order to suit each part of the speech.

  Teachers could use Crazy Talk to tell stories to their class. Children may be more engaged and interested in the stories if a celebrity they like is narrating them. It may also encourage the participation of children who are usually too embarrassed to talk in front of their peers. They could record themselves speaking but use a picture of someone else to represent them. This activity links to English within the curriculum: "I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience. LIT 2-06a" Children will really enjoy playing around with different pictures and pieces of speech. They will also gain a great sense of pride once they see their end results. The disadvantage of Crazy Talk is that it is quite difficult to manipulate the faces to correspond with each part of the speech. This is due to there being lots of different commands and parts of the face that can be manipulated. Children therefore may find this difficult and may loose interest in the activity.

  We created our own Crazy Talk characters in relation to our groups topic of "People Who Help Us" to put on our Wikispace. I decided to use a picture of a Police woman. My groups topic is targeted towards children in the Early Years therefore I decided that the Police woman should recite a children's poem that relates to the Police. I had a cold so decided to type the speech rather than recording myself saying it. Upon reflection, I think it would have been more effective and engaging had I used my own voice instead of the automated one. In future I would always ensure I had someone to do the voice to make sure it was fun to listen to.


My Police Woman(supposed to be in tune to "I'm a little teapot")


 

Reference

Scottish Government (2009, p4) Learning, teaching and assessment. Curriculum areas. Languages. Literacy and English. Experiences and outcomes. Word file: Literacy and English: Experiences and outcomes (558 KB). Available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/languages/litandenglish/eandos/index.asp [accessed 21/3/11]

Samba de Amigo!!

  Today we were exploring games based learning using Wii's. My group played the dancing games "Samba de Amigo" and "Dance on Broadway" while the other group played the "Beatles" game. We had to move around a lot due to sharing rooms and rooms being booked. We therefore experienced plugging the Wii into Smart boards, projectors and DVD Players. I now know how to plug the Wii into a variety of devices.

  "Dance on Broadway" allows up to 4 players. We decided this game could link into Health and Well being. An example of this link within the first level is "I am developing skills and techniques and improving my level of performance and fitness. HWB 1-22a" This could be incorporate into a PE lesson whereby a couple of children dance at the front of the class with the Wii remotes while the rest of the class copy the actions behind them. They will all take it in turns dancing with the remotes to ensure it is fair. This lesson would require a lot of space and a projector so the whole class can see the routines. A cross curricular link would be with Music as this would help them with rhythm and timings.

Advantages

It is active, engaging and fun. There are a variety of songs the children can choose from so they do not always have to dance to the same music. If the whole class are participating, some children who usually feel embarrassed to dance in the class may feel less embarrassed because everyone is taking part.

Disadvantages

The characters on the screen are quite small so children at the back may struggle to follow the actions. The oncoming actions are unclear because we found it would tell you to raise your right hand when it actually meant for you raise your left hand. It may be difficult to get boys involved because they may feel dancing is just for girls. A teacher would over come this by firstly introducing a more male orientated dance game such as "Just Dance". This game has male and female characters and there are more modern and well known songs to choose from. 

  "Samba de Amigo" is another dance game which requires you to shake your maracas in time to the music. This game is fun because it not only involves dancing but also has the added exciting element of the maracas. The children would need more space around them because they might accidentally hit each other with the maracas. The teacher could ensure the whole classes participation by providing the children who do not have remotes with real maracas or bells which they will have to shake in time to the music. This game incorporates Music because the children need to develop rhythm in order to be able to shake their maracas at the correct time. "I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound, rhythm, pitch and dynamics. EXA 1-17a" Another cross curricular link could be with Art and Design as the children could design their own maracas. We stumbled upon this idea when we tried to fix the Wii Maracas because there was no hole in the top of them to transmit the sensor from the remotes to the Wii.

Before

After

Advantages

More children will want to participate because the game does not solely focus on dancing. The children will feel more motivated and engaged if they have their own maracas or bells therefore it is a really good idea to get the children to design and make their own. The music is quite fun and they may recognise some of the tunes.

Disadvantages

This game would require a lot of space to ensure the children do not hit each other with their musical instruments.


Reference

Scottish Government (2009, p9) Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Curriculum areas. Expressive Arts. Experiences and outcomes. Word file: Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes (421 KB). Available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/expressivearts/eandos/index.asp [accessed 21/3/11]

Scottish Government (2009, p5) Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Curriculum areas. Health and Wellbeing. Experiences and outcomes.
Word file: Health and wellbeing: Experiences and outcomes (680 KB). Available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/healthandwellbeing/eandos/index.asp [accessed 21/3/11]

Wikispaces

  Today we were working in our groups to complete our Wikispaces. Soloman and Schrum (2007, p.201) explain that "community collaboration is the focus of this tool." Wikispace is an online area where multiple people can work on the same document at the same time from different locations. It is a great way for people to share ideas and manipulate information and pictures to suit their needs.





 My group designed a Wiki based on "People who help us" which is aimed at children in Early Years. We divided 6 characters who help us between the 3 of us and designed an information and activities page for each character. The information and activities we chose are age and stage appropriate to our targeted audience. I really liked how we could all work on the Wikispace at the same time. We all worked well together, communicating with one another throughout the whole process in order for the Wiki to look consistent and effective. The only negative I have about the site is that it was really difficult to maipulate the text and images. Whenever I saved my work and viewed the page, I found that it had changed the layout completely. So for the majority of the time my pages didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. Maybe that's me just being a perfectionist?

  Wikispaces could be used within the classroom through a range of collaborative lessons. An example of this would be when small groups of children are working on individual areas of a class topic and have to carry out their own research. They could create a Wikispace, record their research on it and then add images and activities. Once their Wikispace is completed they could share it with the rest of their peers. This will allow them to be responsible for their own learning and they will also be able to learn from their peers Wikispaces.

Reference

Soloman, G. and Schrum, L. (2007) Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. USA: iste. 

Smart...boards!

  Today we learned how to use the Smart Board software called Notebook. This is an effective way of engaging children in interactive learning. This training will help us enhance our lessons. I have used Smart Boards in two of my placements but only used interactive games from websites and programmes the school already had. During this training session we were shown how to use a variety of tools that can be used to create a variety of exciting lessons.


  Once we were shown how to use the basic tools, we tried creating our own interactive activity which tied in with our topic of "People who help us". I decided to create a "move to reveal activity" that is targeted towards children in the Early Years. The children will take it in turns to come up to the board, select a question relating to the topic and if they get it correct they get to click a box which will reveal a section of a picture. Once all the boxes have been clicked, the full picture of someone who helps will be revealed. This encourages the children's participation in a questioning and answering sessions because it interactive and there is the added element of fun by trying to guess the picture under the boxes. It also encourages the children to take it in turns and they can help one another if they are stuck. It was quite difficult to manipulate the objects at first but after some time playing around with the software I got used to it. Although I think you would need some practise with this software, I definitely think it is worthwhile and beneficial to teachers lessons and the children's learning. It can also be used for lessons across the Curriculum!

 

Night at the Oscars

  Today we presented our movies to other members in the class. We each had to give a brief introduction to the movie then showed our movies on the big screen. It was really interesting to see what different ideas the other groups had come up with and how they had edited their movies.

  Sharon used a voting website called poll4. It requires the use of a phone or the Internet on a iPad or iPhone. It can be used to ask questions, take polls or for assessment purposes. Poll4 is effective because it is anonymous which means children do not have to worry about what their peers think about their opinions or answers. It also means there is no animosity after any voting processes because no one will know who voted what. This could be used in any lessons as it may encourage children who do not usually participate in classroom discussions, to participate. 

  Sharon carried out a voting poll in which we rated each film from 5 to 10. All the scores were recorded till the final film had been played and then the winner was announced.

  My group won!! I am so proud of how well we worked together and how well our movie turned out. Although I have to say that the other groups movies were just as brilliant! Well done everyone!

Our winning movie 

Movie Editing

  Today we began editing our movies. We used a website called Zamzar to convert the movie files into the appropriate format so we could put them on Windows Movie Maker. Zamzar was quite complicated to use and very time consuming therefore I do not think I would use it with the children. Zamzar also corrupted all our files so in the end we had to find another software to convert the files. This whole process wasted a lot of valuable editing time so I definitely would not use it with children.


  We used  Windows Movie Maker to edit our movies. Sharon briefly showed us how to use the software which helped us identify all the different things we could use to produce better movies. Although it is quite easy to use if I was doing a lesson on movie editing, I would give the children a quick demonstration on how to use it. Windows Movie Maker is really effective because we could add music, sounds, transitions between different scenes and we could edit scenes by cutting off sections that were not right.


  In my group, we all worked together on the editing process ensuring we each had a turn at each part of the process. This resulted in me fully understanding how to use the software and I now feel more confident to use this in a lesson with a class. Although if I was carrying out this lesson with a class, I think I would allocate the children with specific roles within their groups to ensure they all know what they are doing and to stop disagreements. If this works, I would let them choose their roles the next time. We all worked well together therefore it made the process a lot easier because there were no disagreements. As a result of this I would ensure that children were in appropriate groups in relation to who works well together and who does not.


  I would always tell the children to save their work because they would feel very downhearted if for some reason the computers crashed and they lost all of their work. I would also ensure they backed their work up onto a couple of pen drives in case they loose one.


  The editing process required a lot of patience and effort but the end result was definitely worth it! This task will motivate the children and they will feel a great sense of pride once they see their final film. This will promote their self-esteem and possibly their future interests in ICT.