Childs Play? Teaching with Computer Games

‘There is a growing body of research from both academic and professional organisations driven by a widely held view that games software is capable of developing a degree of user engagement which could be usefully harnessed in an educational context’

TEEM Report on the educational use of games

Sheffield West City Learning Centre is pleased to announce that it is running a series of workshops exploring the rise in use of gaming technology for education. Delegates will have a chance to try out for themselves some of the new emerging technologies in this area. The detail of each workshop is as follows:

Thursday 29^th June 4pm-6pm

"Stagecast Creator could be used in the area of simulations and controlled technology and would be an excellent accompaniment to a lesson. I would also envisage it as an application for music, maths, geography and science. As a task children could be given a SIMMs to tackle or produce an outcome. It would contribute to a lesson as a computer based lesson. The title could be used to directly teach the curriculum supported by the teacher."
Jon Queralt, ICT Co-ordinator

A hands on workshop exploring new ways of delivering Control and Simulation in the Key Stage 2 ICT Curriculum through designing computer games. This will cover all aspects of designing and creating Computer Games and Simulations with primary pupils using Stagecast Creator 2. This will also have links to D&T and ICT at Secondary level and therefore may be of interest to teachers of these subjects. For secondary ICT, Stagecast could be used with KS3 or lower ability pupils.  In D&T it could be used as a part of a project that looked at the whole game design plus packaging & marketing side of the games industry.

You will also be able to take away ready made schemes of work, lesson plans and resources mapped to the National Curriculum for Years 3-6. This will be delivered by a Primary Teacher who has used this extensively with children in the relevant year groups.

(This training is priced at £15 per person.)



Secondary

Developing young people's storytelling skills through computer game design
Dr Judy Robertson – Glasgow Caledonian University

Wednesday June 28^th 4-6pm

An exploration of the development of young people's interactive storytelling skills within a game creation environment. We will discuss the Gamemaker workshop series, in which young people learnt to use a computer game authoring tool called Neverwinter Nights to develop interactive, branching stories. We will also take a look at the software and examples of young people's games.

Given this new medium for narrative expression, there is need to better understand the ways in which the young people choose to express their story ideas, in order to provide further support and scaffolding for their developing narrative skills. In particular, we will investigate the plot themes they chose to explore, and the ways in which they included interactivity in the story, particularly through dialogue.

Motivating reluctant readers - Developing Literacy through Game Play and Game Design
June 2006 (TBA)

This workshop will explore how playing games and building games can motivate reluctant readers to explore literature. We will be looking at the beta version of Immersive’s new product ‘Mission Maker’ a 3D game authoring tool for teachers and pupils.

Delegates will be able to try ready made activities for themselves and take away an evaluation copy of the beta as part of the City Learning Centre’s involvement in the development of this product.



Playing Games to Learn – Exploring the Science KS3 and 4 Curriculum through Computer Games

Tuesday 27^th June 4pm – 6pm

This workshop will give delegates a chance to explore cutting edge 3D and Sim type games that enhance teaching and learning in KS3 and 4 Science. Science Supremo – is a simulation game that offers young people studying GCSE Science an opportunity to get a feel for what it means to be a scientist and to understand the interplay between science and society.

It is mapped to the new GCSE curricula (due to be launched in schools in September 2006), with a particular connection to the OCR 21st Century Science course. DoomED follows the conventions of FPS gameplay, with puzzles using aspects of the KS4 science curriculum as their focus (e.g. radiation levels and relative protective elements).

We have a limited number of places available, so if you are interested, please contact either Sarah or Lisa on 2855586 as soon as possible to book your place.

Sarah Peacock
Curriculum Development Officer