Week 6
Hi everyone,
Last week in ICT we looked at Mlearning and Programming. We were introduced to a programme called KODU whereby children can create their own computer games. The games can be played on the Xbox as well as on computers in the classroom.
I had a go at trying to create my own game by assigning different controls on the keyboard to different actions on screen. Initially when thinking about the educational value of this task I did not really think of it as being very useful. I thought that children are not really gaining any knowledge and are really just playing. As I was constructing my own game however, I thought about the skills that I was using. I was planning, I was trying to be tactical and think ahead, I was using coordination and most of all I was engaged in thinking about how I was going to make my game. This is where Kodu is different to other programmes, children are not passive receivers in this context but active learners and most of all creators. I really enjoyed making this game and I think Kodu gaming has its place in the classroom, not in every lesson of course but I would I ask the children to make use of it now and again and would look forward to see what they have produced. As can be seen from the screen shot below, children can use the keyboard to assign keys to do different functions.
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The controls being assigned to keyboard keys
UK Learners - some of the Unhappiest in Europe
"School and education are key factors influencing children’s current and future well being. A higher proportion of children tends to feel unhappy with these areas of their lives.
More than three-quarters (80%) said that it
was very important for them to do well in
This is another area of life where safety is an
important issue. Around 7% of children do not
feel safe at school and three-fifths of these
children are unhappy with their school life
as a whole". (The Good Childhood Report 2012)
Click here to see the BBC report on this...
I was quite surprised to hear what we were told about research showing that UK learners are some of the unhappiest in Europe and also some of the least engaged. I was thinking back to when I was at school in the late eighties and nineties when we did not have nearly a fraction of the resources that children have today. There seems to be so much effort in recent years to engage young people, to get them to see the fun side of activities through games and colour and pictures and technological advancements. I wondered whether children were still unhappy, is all this technology making it worse for them to concentrate? I don't think that is it, I think in the fast changing instant society that we are living, we as educators need to keep up with the times. I think we didn't have all the technological resources we do, children would be even more unhappy and even less engaged.
So what attempts are being made to engage children?
We were shown the Dance to Advance program. This is a program whereby children are asked a series of questions on screen and they attempt to answer the question using their feet on the dance mat.
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| Dance to Advance |
The screen shot above shows how a screen would look where an EYFS or Key Stage 1 child identifies which sound is made by which animal.
We then had a go at creating our own question and answers. I based my activity on the 5 times table.
Voki
We were also introduced to Voki. At www.voki.com you can create your own virtual character.
I made my own Voki character, click on the link below to check it out!
