Showing posts with label games and virtual worlds in schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games and virtual worlds in schools. Show all posts

Gaming to re-engage students in learning





At TEDxPSU, Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.


Last year, March 2010, Jane McGonigal said during her presentation "Gaming can make a better world" on Talks | TED that if we play, the world could be a better place! And schools too!


There are educators that are introducing games on learning. A good number of them! Perhaps not so many as it would be suitable, but they are spreading the word in different learning web blogs, on Facebook or Twitter.


Playing is funny and students can learn with pleasure. As you could hear once more, this time from Ali carr-Chellman. The theme now is about boys in the school.



"Ali Carr-Chellman recent research projects include "Bring Back the Boys," looking at ways gaming can be used to re-engage boys in their elementary education. Another projects asks prisoners and homeless people to think about how to reform schools, bringing new voices to the policy-making table."







She is an instructional designer and author who studies the most effective ways to teach kids and to make changes at school.





She realized as I realized and other innovative educators realize that traditional elementary and secondary classrooms weren't  for them, even less for their students.


In part because we are frustrated by the lack of innovation, agility, and readiness to change in traditional schools. 

Please read my posts Digital Schools versus Digital Teachers (September 2009)  Ah! Les jeunes! (March 2010)  or Pince of Persia: an interesting narrative text and some other posts that you can search on this blog.  


  



This kind of lack of innovation in the school has motivated me some years ago to be an instructional tutor, author and educator, working on how to change and innovate within schools to make education work better for more kids. 


I've been working with doctoral-level students (school teachers) to help produce a next generation of educators with inspired research ideas and methods. 


I also teach online courses focused on helping practicing teachers learn how to improve their own instructional practices and how to improve their courses.




Field trips are often an integral part of instructional practices and greatly benefit students’ learning by allowing them to engage with real-world environments. 


"Technology becomes a tool that students use for learning essential skills and 'getting things done' "

Marc Prensky


G-Souto


30.05.2011
Copyright © 2011G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Credits: video Talks | TEDX


Art Academy DS used in the Museu Berardo

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Art Academy Nintendo DS game


Art Academy, Nintendo DS game realesed Octber, 25 2010, will be used in some pedagogical workshops about painting and drawing for young students (7-12 years old) in the Museu Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal.


Art Academy lesson in the Museum

"The workshops aims to teach the younger people to draw and paint in a simple and intuitive way" - said the organization.

"Art Academy offers simple, easy to understand art lessons with a virtual teacher that you can take at your own pace."


Art Academy Nintendo DS in the Museum

The first workshop taked place yesterday, March 13, 2011. The second workshop will take place March, 27 2011.

During the 1st workshop 'Watching - Knowing - Transforming' - the aim was learning new ways to explore some painting masterpieces using Art Academy.

During the 1st workskop, young students  searched, captureed and explored what they liked  most of the exhibition and next they have worked their ideas using Art Academy.



Art Academy DS in Berardo Musem, Portugal



The second workshop that will take place March 27, under the same thematic of the first one wich is 'Watching - Knowing - Transforming', the students may use the camera of the DS and capture several spaces of the Museum Berardo and  after they may reproduce by mimicking using Art Academy as a tool.

This is a very innovative experience done in art workshops in a museum to initiate young students in the art of painting.

Read more about Art Academy Nintendo DS game here

In the video below of Berardo Museum, the Coordinator of the Educational department of the Museum introduces the painter Luigi Colombo "Fillia" (Berardo Museum) and an expert shows how she can mimic the painting with Art Academy DS Nintendo (Portuguese):





"Art Academy is not a game! It's also a school of art!"


Education: 


Art teachers can introduce Art Academy Ds in the Art curriculum as a wonderful tool to initiate the students in the art of drawing and painting.


These workshops for young people in the Berardo Museum are a fantastic example to apply in the classroom.


And why not? Go to the Museum with students to have a real Art lesson!



"What if, instead of seeing school the way we’ve known it, we saw it for what our children dreamed it might be: a big, delicious video game?"


Sara Corbett, NYT



G-Souto
14.03.2011
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Credits: videos.sapo.pt

References:


Games in Schools, Roger Blamire, Quest to Learn: going with the flow, October 6, 2010
http://games.eun.org

GameOver

Art Academy

Art Academy game overview

Young blind can finish Abe´s Exoddus game




Video game Abe's Exodus/ Screen Shot

The studio Oddworld Inhabitants that created Oddworld franchise, presented Terry Garrett, an american young man, blind, 23 years old, engineering student, who managed to finish 'Abe's Exoddus' being guided only by the game's sound effects.



Video game Abe's Exodus/ Screen Shot

During an interview posted on the video, Terry Garrett explains how he manages to overcome the many difficulties presented in the adventure, taking full advantage of clues created by the sound effects of Oddworld's  department of soundscape .

So, watch and listen the video below. Something amazing!






Education:

Motivating students with disabilities in classroom

Producers: 
Planning video games for students with disabilities

G-Souto
23.02.2011
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


Reference:

GameOver

Video Games Awards Nominees in 2011



The nominees 2011 BAFTA Game Award to Watch Award has been announced.





.
"The GAME Award 2010 is voted for entirely by YOU, the games-buying public, giving you the chance to have your say on the title you think deserves to be called the best game of 2010."



  

Call Of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
Dance Central (Microsoft)
FIFA 11 (EA)
Halo Reach (Microsoft)
Heavy Rain (SCEE)
Limbo (Playdead)
Mass Effect 2 (EA)
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
Red Dead Redemption (Take-Two)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)




The surprise? An indie game "Limbo". Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game and the premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead Studios




"Limbo has no spoken dialogue at all. And no cutscenes. And barely any real enemies, either. Instead it has a little boy, traversing a sombre world by running, jumping, pushing, pulling and climbing to solve spatial puzzles and make it through three broken, ruinous areas, where shortly-spaced checkpoints make death not a frustration, but a learning experience: Urging you to think laterally; teaching you to always be vigilant."                                

Watch the 10 nominees here and vote on your favorite game until March 14, 2011.

The ceremony will be streamed on the BAFTA website, live from the London  Hilton on Park Lane on 16 March 2011 from 8:30pm.



G-Souto
18.02.2011
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®  

References:

Game Award 2010

Limbo



Fate of the World game



Fate of the World game
http://fateoftheworld.net
"A diferença entre um jogo de impacto social e os meios tradicionais - livros, documentários, peças de teatro, etc. - é que sobre o mesmo assunto estas são todas experiências passageiras. Mas nos jogos pode-se 'calçar os sapatos' de uma perspectiva diferente e fazer escolhas significativas"

Jeff Ramos


Photo: Red Redemption

Fate of the World is a dramatic global strategy game that puts all our futures in your hands. The game features a dramatic set of scenarios based on the latest science covering the next 200 years. You must manage a balancing act of protecting the Earth’s resources and climate versus the needs of an ever-growing world population, who are demanding ever more food, power, and living space. Will you help the whole planet or will you be an agent of destruction?



"But if people can feel and see the evolution of variables in a system – such as a changing climate – it can be a better way of learning than reading lots of scientific prose."

Tom Chatfield


Climate Challenge

Fate of the World is the sequel to the popular BBC Climate Challenge played by around 1 million people all over the world. 
BBC Climate Challenge was winner of Best European Green IT Award 2008, DEFRA Climate Challenge Award, Serious Games 2009 Finalist, Games For Change 2008 Finalist, EuroPaws 2008 Finalist.





"Fate of the World" is brought to you by the award-winning 'Red Redemption' games team including Executive Producer Klaude Thomas (Battlestations: Midway), Lead Designer Ian Roberts (BBC Climate Challenge) with climate modelling by Dr Myles Allen (University of Oxford), writing by David Bishop (Dr Who, 2000AD), music composed by Richard Jacques (Mass Effect, Alice in Wonderland) and gameplay direction by veteran game designer Matthew Miles Griffiths (Conflict: Desert Storm, Battlestations: Midway, Cannon Fodder GBC, Futurama, Thunderbirds GBA). 

Read the review in The Guardian/ Environment (December 2010).


Education:


It's certanly  a wonderful tool in Sciences and Civics curricula. It could be useful to the students in independent choosing  wich each one helps the planet or is an agent of destruction. 
It would motivate students' awareness to the problems of the environment, preparing them to be active ecological citizens.

"Serious Games is a movement that aims to use new gaming technologies for educational or training purposes. It investigates the educational, therapeutic and social impact of digital games built with or without learning outcomes in mind. This movement has emerged to meet the needs of a new generation of learners."

Digtal Games in School


"Video games are an ideal, natural medium for learning." 

David Samuelson 


G-Souto
17.01.2011
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 




References:
Vaughan, Adam, Climate change chalenge for computer games, 31.10.2010

Digital Games in Schools, May 2009
http://games.eun.org

Abreu, Bruno, Videojogos descobriram um novo adversário: as alterações climáticas, DN/ Ciência, 21.11.2010

"Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom" in the classroom!




"If there's one word I would use to describe Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, it would be "delightful." From beginning to end, Majin is a game designed from the ground up to make you smile, and in that respect, it is a magnificent success. A charming and compelling experience, if any game this year could be considered heartfelt and genuine, then this would be it."

Jim Sterling (DestrucToid)

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom has just hit stores in Europe, the 26th November 2010. It is the kind of game that you will love at first sight

In a effort to reach a wider audience, Namco Bandai bet in height (8) languages including Portuguese. So, it's available in the native languages of a maximum number of people.

Wow!! Finally Portuguese language!! It's good to have the text and the voices in the native language!




Some screens of Namco Bandai's charming new adventure game, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. A good Narrative text for sure! And the music! Fantastic!

Let's visit the official website that describes this fantasious game!


Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom (screenshot)


With a charming atmospheric look and with what seems like an endearing and heartwarming story as opposed to a bleak and depressing one, Majin has potential to be a terrific game. 

It's a PS3 and Xbox 360 game and is available on Amazon.



Synopsis:

A kingdom has been overtaken by a substance known only as the Darkness, which envelops living beings and turns them into mindless, nigh invincible soldiers of evil. Tepeu, a young thief who can talk to animals, steals his way into this kingdom to protect his own home from decay. 

Once in the kingdom, he discovers an ancient power that has been hidden away by the Darkness, a creature known as the Majin. Together, Tepeu and the Majin must work together in order to destroy evil, rescue the kingdom, and get the girl. 

Oh, don't miss the telling story on the website. Students will love it!




The game caught my eye today with a really promising trailer, seeming to hint at a game with all the aesthetic need to gaming in school.

The screens continue this theme, with some really pretty looking backdrops and unique character designs. I think this has potential to be a cult classic, if the gameplay is as good as the visual style. 

For Portuguese students or Portuguese foreign language, don't miss the Portuguese trailer below:





This new game was released very recently. If, like me, you somehow managed to not hear about this game until today, do check it out! . It's hard not to fall in love with this beast, and I'm already drawn into the journey the game's two characters will share.

Just love it! It's so charming!  Majin, a towering beast that forges a strange friendship with a thief, Tepeu. The two characters balance each other surprisingly well, with Tepeu's cunning and speed matched by the Majin's adorable dimwittedness and hulking force.




So well! Here we are again! Games in the school! 

Ok! Do you remember Prince of Persia, no doubt! The narrative seems very similar. So, let's include some activities and enjoy a different course.  

In the classroom, begin to let students, on theirs smartphones, visit the official website "Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom" on the internet, and discover the story, the features and media.


Don't forget to get the mission on the Facebook info.  


Context:

A. Cross curricula: native language, foreign language, design, music
B. Values: cooperation, collaboration, equality, inclusion, loyalty
C. Target school group - secondary school

Some activites: 

Teaching and learning different languages (choose the languages between English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Dutch and of course Portuguese)

1. Languages courses:
1.1. Listening & comparing the translation into Portuguese or another language;
2. The Narrative text (structure);
3. Civic values: cooperation, friendship, equaliy, inclusion;
4. Grammar; vocalulary;
5. Translation exercises;
6. The creation of different characters in the design course;
7. Listen and comprehending the music composition in the music course.


The music of "Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom" was written by "fairy tale world" music specialist Sahashi Toshihiko, who has also composed music for Tokio's Disneyland. 


Share with your students the videos music behind the game here 


Be yourself creative and share some other activities with us!


Good practices!

G-Souto
30.11.10
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®




References:


Gina Souto, Prince of Persia: an interesting narrative text, June 16, 2010
http://gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com


Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
http://majin.namcobandaigames.com


Jim Sterling, DestrucToid
http://destructoid.com


Gameover/Sapo
http://gameover.sapo.pt