Thursday 24 February 2011

Games based learning

Today we looked at how ICT games can aid learning within the classroom. We used a Nintendo wii and games "Dance on Broadway" and "Samba de Amigo". Nicole, Keira and I thought that these could be used for music or health and wellbeing lessons. The dance on broad way has familar tracks which children can relate to. This could be used when teaching rhythm to a class. The good part of the games based learning is that it is interactive, engaging, fun and the whole class can take part together. When trialing the samba de amigo we found that the maracas which connect to the controller were rubbish. They blocked the path to the sensor.


On trying to create a hole for the sensor unfortunately it broke.

One child could use wii remotes and all the other children could use actual maracas and therefore everyone would be involved.

As we encountered several problems it would be fair to say that these games should be tried before using with a class. Another consideration is the impact of dance games amongst the boys in the class. Together we thought that a good way to solve this would be to use Michael Jacksons Thriller as boys may find it easier to engage by dancing like zombies, or to use Just Dance 1 + 2.

By doing this games based learning input at university we are able to critically look at the tools and what would be best for a mixed class. If you were to just do this off the cuff one day it would not work.

Here is my Games Based Learning Powerpoint created online online in google docs.
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZG0O9ZMxnvEZHdtcjVmY183MnI2c24yOWN6&hl=en&authkey=CNmMmqAB
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3 comments:

  1. Collette9 March 2011 at 01:25

    I would like to think that you would not being doing any lessons 'off the cuff'. As with all resources, evaluation is neccessary. You need to ask yourself questions such as: Will this resource enhance the learning? What learning is taking place? Does the resouce enable everyone to take part?

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  2. Mrs Tonner-Saunders15 March 2011 at 14:00

    An interesting input and we all learnt a great from this. I think the biggest learning for me was the sudden connection to design and technology. The maracas did not work but we came to the conclusion that this would make a wonderful lesson for children to design a pair or workable maracas. So don't throw out what is not workable, speak to the children and look for solutions as the best learning comes from the journey not the end product.

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  3. miss17 March 2011 at 06:36

    Yes this input definately shows that resources need to be tested first, especially in IT. The connection to desing and technology is nice because most children enjoy creating musical instruments.I have now added my online powerpoint to this blog post.

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