04/12/12 - Games and Mlearning

This seminar was a continuation of last weeks session. The focus this time was more on the games aspect. 

Kodu – Game Lab

Kodu is a software which allows you to create a game from scratch. You can create everything from backgrounds to characters. A little example of what I have done in a short space of time using the software is below. UK students are some of the unhappiest in Europe. If there is anything that can help engage the students interest, it will be quite beneficial which I believe work with games can do.

RM – Dance to Advance is an interactive game designer which can be used with a games dance mat. The games can be made out of anything as the example of something I made in class shows below. It is a very fun and interactive game. As the example below shows, the questions and answers need to be created. This is another example of when the how the game is created can be more valuable than the final product. This tool can be used to assess the children without them feeling the pressure of a class test as it is in the form of a game. 

There are many games out  there which are similar to this such as Endless Ocean and Professor Leyton’s Brain Training.

Simulation games - Myst 3 – Exile – game can encourage students, in particular boys to express ideas and can be a great idea for literacy, for example getting the children to do a running commentary on the game. This can be used with any games that children are playing as this will get them engaged in the classroom. Simulation games support modelling as the gamer can simulate or model different outcomes to the same situation learning the outcomes from their actions. Children should therefore use simulations to make and explore predictions and to identify patterns and relationships. There are many simulation games out there which you can do similar things with such the popular World of Warcraft, Football Manager and The Sims. These sorts of games provide help develop problem solving, creativity and challenge skills. Also please see the links below for more simulation games. 

Kenttrustweb.org.uk – Progression in modelling and simulation.

http://www.clusterweb.org.uk/kentict/kentict_soft_simul.cfm