Games in Schools Script

M1 Background & Resources

Hi there, my name is Ollie Bray and I am a headteacher from Scotland. As well as being a headteacher, I have also a great interest in game-based learning or playful learning in the classroom. I have been interested in this for a number of years ago now. Back in 2011, we put together an eLearning Lab for European Schoolnet and also the Interactive Software Federation of Europe. The course was pretty successful, but we decided that it was time to update it as part of this new European Schoolnet Academy. So just like last time, the course is still going to be split into 6 modules, but each of the module is now in more accessible bite-sized chunks. Module 1 is Why use computer games? Module 2: Using games for Thematic Learning. Module 3: Learning Games. Those are games that are specifically designed for learning. Module 4: What can we learn from games? Module 5: Designing Games, where we will try to get children to create content and not just consume it. And module 6: Why is it important to teach about games? This is Module One, so welcome and you are all very welcome from across Europe and I am looking forward to connecting with you on social media and also in the European Schoolnet Academy pages itself. So module 1 is made up of 3 parts, and then some tasks. So we are going to look at some background and resources in a minute, and then we will have a quick chat about why we might use Computer Games in the Classroom and thirdly, we will have a think about why and how do we learn with games. As I have mentioned, during some tasks involved, some of them are suggested tasks which might help stretch your knowledge a little bit and also hopefully stretch your imagination, then there is a compulsory task at the end of each module. At the end of the course, we will ask you to think about how can you use computer games in your classroom and we will be looking for some examples that you are doing that in practice. Lets make a start, shall we? Why use computer games? The first thing I really wanted to talk about is actually how the concept of game based learning has really started to grow. You have only got to go to Google games based learning to get lots and lots of examples of games being used in schools and classrooms, but also in big businesses as well in terms of simulations. In fact, it is quite interesting to look at the Google trends for people searching for term games based learning. You can see that not lot of this was happening before 2009, but in the last few years, the whole concept has really started to take off. If people are looking for it, that must mean that they have got a little bit of interest in it. So what are we saying? We are saying that it is a popular thing, but as well as being a popular thing, it has been around for a little while. For a number of resources that are referred to in the online notes, you might want to start become familiar with. One of them is the EUN publication Digital games in schools, the second one is a book that I produced for Microsoft which is Playful Learning: Computer Games in the classroom, and the third one, if you have got time, is produced by Imagine and is called Digital Games for Learning. I am not expecting

you to read all of this straight away, but I think it is just important that you have got an idea that these resources exist. Throughout the course, we are going to be pulling up and we are going to be looking at lots of different examples and games based learning in practice. Some of these will be European examples, for example the European Koku Kup. Some of them will be more on a more local level, perhaps the Redbridge Games Network in London. And then we will also be looking at schools that are really paving the way such as the 137th School in Sofia, in Bulgaria and Porchester Junior School which is also in the UK. Along away, we will also refer to a couple of other projects. Some of them now are no longer running which is a real shame. For example The Consolarium, Scotlands project in games based learning and also the European EduGameLab project. But the good thing about these projects is that their legacy still lives on and that there is still a variety of resources that we can use in the classroom. Where to start? If you are really interested in games based learning in your area, what I suggest you to do is open up Google, Yahoo! or Bing and see if you can find some of your own local examples to learn from. Teacher professional development is always at its best from learning from each other and not reinventing the wheel. There are a few other things that you probably need to be aware of as well. One of them is a website and a service called Games for Change, which encourages young people to design games that might be used for humanitarian purposes. It is a great project to be involved in the school, particularly if you are a history or social subjects teacher. The concept of games based learning has been around for a long time. There are a couple of books that you might be interested in reading again if you are interested in expanding your knowledge. The first one by James Paul Gee is What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. James Paul Gee is often described as the father of video games in schools. It is a very interesting book and we will pull up on some of his research later in the course. The second book which I think is also worth having a bit of read about is Marc Prenskys book Dont Bother Me Mom Im Learning!. It is quite a famous book and even though you might have not heard of it, you certainly heard of the phrases digital natives and digital immigrants, and it is in this book that Marc first invented these terms. There are also a number of journals that are available as well. There is the Internal Journal of Game-Based Learning and also the Journal of Serious Games. I think that the presence of these journals is really important because it shows that we have a strong research base for games based learning in schools, and a growing research community to help us research and write up and share some of these ideas. There is also a number of government reports recently produced around video games, and the importance of video games in the economy, because of course it is not only just playing games, it is also about building games and all of the other jobs and industries that are affected to this. Again, I will refer to all of these links in the notes. Here is the first task for you, a bit of a challenge if you like. One the books that I mentioned earlier was Digital games in schools, a handbook for teachers. It is available in a whole variety of languages from across Europe. Why dont you go on the online portal, download a copy of that, and maybe become familiar with one or two of the case studies. See you next time.