[Yr7-10it] RE: games

[Costello, Rob R]

Vic I've got something in the wings with Swinburne, based on the Unreal
Engine (inspired by Harvards's River City)   

Check this 
http://decenturl.com/thinkingcurriculum/virtual-enquiry

cheers 

rob  

> Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:05:53 +1100
> From: "victor rajewski" <askvictor at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Yr7-10it] games
> To: "Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List"
> 	<yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Last Friday I hosted a games night for my students at school. This
> involved students bringing a variety of games into the school, then
> loading them onto the network or hooking up to the projector. It was a
> great bonding experience, and I'll be doing more of them in the future
> as a reward for positive behaviour. But what really grabbed me was
> seeing students playing Quake Team Arena. Now, I've read research on
> how good games are for student learning, multi-tasking, etc, etc. But
> I was quite blown away at actually seeing it. One student, who has
> considerable difficulty with just about all unfamiliar task, was quite
> shaky at the start of the game. Within an hour, he had found his feet,
> and within two hours was up there with the best of them (having passed
> my own abilities some time before). Keeping track of that many things
> at the same time, working together with others, learning by himself,
> are all things he typically struggles with in the classroom. Yet here
> he had learnt a considerable amount all by himself in a very short
> period of time. OK, so the context is violent. I have mixed feelings
> about this, but in the context of my particular school, we are trying
> to discourage this. So, the question is: "how can we harness this
> learning potential?" Ideas I've come up with are by making games -
> that link to Alice seems really interesting, but probably aimed more
> at higher levels. But where are the immersive 3D educational
> environments? I want a a Quake where a student has to solve a logic
> problem, or paint a picture, or write something, or analyse a piece of
> text or something before they can get to the next stage... Is there
> anything like this? Is anyone working on this?
> 
> /rant
> 
> vik
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:09:58 +1100
> From: "Pamela Wright" <P.Wright at latrobe.edu.au>
> Subject: RE: [Yr7-10it] games
> To: "Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List"
> 	<yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>
> 
> Hi Vik,
> 
> This is my topic for my PhD.  I too was blown away at the
collaborative
> and immersive learning when games were introduced into the classroom
at
> primary level. Runescape was a good one, with a little less violence
than
> quake, but graphics are poor in comparison.
> 
> I've worked with both secondary and primary students on game
development
> using gamemaker and found it appropriate for both levels.  Its free to
> download from www.gamemaker.nl. I'm about to conduct further research
into
> game development using Scratch, which is also free.
> 
> Pam
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Pam Wright
> Lecturer
> School of Educational Studies
> La Trobe University
> 9479 2765
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of victor rajewski
> Sent: Mon 10/12/2007 5:05 PM
> To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: [Yr7-10it] games
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Last Friday I hosted a games night for my students at school. This
> involved students bringing a variety of games into the school, then
> loading them onto the network or hooking up to the projector. It was a
> great bonding experience, and I'll be doing more of them in the future
> as a reward for positive behaviour. But what really grabbed me was
> seeing students playing Quake Team Arena. Now, I've read research on
> how good games are for student learning, multi-tasking, etc, etc. But
> I was quite blown away at actually seeing it. One student, who has
> considerable difficulty with just about all unfamiliar task, was quite
> shaky at the start of the game. Within an hour, he had found his feet,
> and within two hours was up there with the best of them (having passed
> my own abilities some time before). Keeping track of that many things
> at the same time, working together with others, learning by himself,
> are all things he typically struggles with in the classroom. Yet here
> he had learnt a considerable amount all by himself in a very short
> period of time. OK, so the context is violent. I have mixed feelings
> about this, but in the context of my particular school, we are trying
> to discourage this. So, the question is: "how can we harness this
> learning potential?" Ideas I've come up with are by making games -
> that link to Alice seems really interesting, but probably aimed more
> at higher levels. But where are the immersive 3D educational
> environments? I want a a Quake where a student has to solve a logic
> problem, or paint a picture, or write something, or analyse a piece of
> text or something before they can get to the next stage... Is there
> anything like this? Is anyone working on this?
> 
> /rant
> 
> vik

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