This game is essentially a 'point and click' story adventure. The difference being its frequent and clever use of puzzles to progress through the game. These puzzles range from visual tricks to logical thought processes to word poblems.
The obvious use of the game in school is that of interest in, and a want to solve and explore the puzzles. I believe the best way to use the puzzles (and something I plan on doing) is using them as daily puzzles to be solved at the beginning of the school day on the board. I spent a long time on a recent practice, searching for fun and stimulating problems to be solved in the morning for a yr 5 class - this game would have helped me a lot.
Another aspect, something I think may come into effect in the near future, is the use of video games as narratives to derive writing tasks. This games story (although would be too challenging for yr3 and below) could be an interesting and unconventional way of introducing a story to set up a task (using characters to make own story, what happens next in the story etc).
All in all an enjoyable and mentally stimulating game. Not one to spend a whole lesson playing, but definately has potential in the classroom!
Friday, 20 February 2009
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Brain Training
Brain Training was of of the early games to be made for the 'Touch!Generations' series that aimed for a non gamer market.
I've found this game to already be a popular choice in school because of its heavy emphasis on learning, memory, maths and reading.
It basicially consists of a collection of simple 'mentally stimulating' activities to be attempted every day in order to increase fluency in the tasks and hopefully overall ability in the feild.
The games main way of letting you know how well you are doing is by giving you a 'brain age' the lower you get the better. This can be a little unhelpful to children as the lowest possible is 20 (although quite tricky to get).
I'll go over a few of the activities to give you a feel for the sort of things on offer.
Calculations - One question will appear on the top screen, and the player must hand-write the answer on the touch screen. The calculations involve simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication (2 digit to 1 digit max).
Reading Aloud - an extract from a classic story is given for you to read aloud, turning pages as you would a book. At the end of the extract, you get given a 'words per second rating'.
Syllable Count - Given a sentence or two to count the number of syllables in each.
Time lapse - Requires you to calculate the time between what is shown on 2 anologue clocks.
Multiplayer options are reasonable. Only one game is needed to download a competative version of the calculation solving game, which could be useful in the classroom to give children a challenge (against other children or the teacher).
Numerous tests have been conducted as to the effectiveness of this game on memory and skill, with varying results. Personally I see it as another means of making maths and some English accessible to certain children.
I've found this game to already be a popular choice in school because of its heavy emphasis on learning, memory, maths and reading.
It basicially consists of a collection of simple 'mentally stimulating' activities to be attempted every day in order to increase fluency in the tasks and hopefully overall ability in the feild.
The games main way of letting you know how well you are doing is by giving you a 'brain age' the lower you get the better. This can be a little unhelpful to children as the lowest possible is 20 (although quite tricky to get).
I'll go over a few of the activities to give you a feel for the sort of things on offer.
Calculations - One question will appear on the top screen, and the player must hand-write the answer on the touch screen. The calculations involve simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication (2 digit to 1 digit max).
Reading Aloud - an extract from a classic story is given for you to read aloud, turning pages as you would a book. At the end of the extract, you get given a 'words per second rating'.
Syllable Count - Given a sentence or two to count the number of syllables in each.
Time lapse - Requires you to calculate the time between what is shown on 2 anologue clocks.
Multiplayer options are reasonable. Only one game is needed to download a competative version of the calculation solving game, which could be useful in the classroom to give children a challenge (against other children or the teacher).
Numerous tests have been conducted as to the effectiveness of this game on memory and skill, with varying results. Personally I see it as another means of making maths and some English accessible to certain children.
Monday, 9 February 2009
The Wii
Primarily a home video games console, the Wii has opened up the market to all sorts of new types of gameplay from its revolutionary control system.
For those who are not yet familiar with the Wii, the control system involves a simple single handed controller (based on the style of a tv remote for easier access to 'non-gamers') thats motion based controlling means all sorts of physical moving based games are accessible.
But whats this got to do with ICT and learning, I hear you ask?
Well... this console can provide a means to develop simple, and more complex motor skills by 'playing' some of the games on offer.
This idea is similar to the program brought into some American primary schools using the 'Dance Dance Revolution (Dancing Stage - Eur) games to tackle increasing obesity probems using the active game.
I'm going to include the pre-packaged game, Wii Sports, in this post as its almost considered part of the console.
This game has 5 sports in which to play, all requiring specific hand and arm motor skills to play. It is not aimed at a particular market in its style and does not change its simplicity based on the age of the player (so could be used across key stages and ages).
If two classes or schools were to have a Wii console, messages can be sent to either through a wireless network (which almost all schools have). This could be used to send information about what the class is up to, what is being learned etc, allowing for an interesting correspondance between classes. This of course could be achieved with a computer and e-mails, but this is a different example, using a different ict system.
An idea came to me in which a message could be sent to the class to give a an activity introduction from someone unfamiliar. In the same way a 'fisherman' could send a letter to the class asking them to 'find the best material for his coat' (the whole thing set up of course by the teacher).
Other channels present on the Wii system that could provide a springboard for interest and activities are the photo, weather and news channels.
All three of these provide fantastic opprtunities in class. The weather and news channels give frequent updates, and are visually child friendly (although the news is not completely child filtered but works well with adult supervision).
The photo channel allows pictures to be downloaded, viewed in a slideshow with music and visually played with. This is not particularly special though as a pc can do all of this.
The best benefit of the Wii in my mind is its getting reluctant children active, and simply providing another interesting, educational and fun resource into the classroom.
For those who are not yet familiar with the Wii, the control system involves a simple single handed controller (based on the style of a tv remote for easier access to 'non-gamers') thats motion based controlling means all sorts of physical moving based games are accessible.
But whats this got to do with ICT and learning, I hear you ask?
Well... this console can provide a means to develop simple, and more complex motor skills by 'playing' some of the games on offer.
This idea is similar to the program brought into some American primary schools using the 'Dance Dance Revolution (Dancing Stage - Eur) games to tackle increasing obesity probems using the active game.
I'm going to include the pre-packaged game, Wii Sports, in this post as its almost considered part of the console.
This game has 5 sports in which to play, all requiring specific hand and arm motor skills to play. It is not aimed at a particular market in its style and does not change its simplicity based on the age of the player (so could be used across key stages and ages).
If two classes or schools were to have a Wii console, messages can be sent to either through a wireless network (which almost all schools have). This could be used to send information about what the class is up to, what is being learned etc, allowing for an interesting correspondance between classes. This of course could be achieved with a computer and e-mails, but this is a different example, using a different ict system.
An idea came to me in which a message could be sent to the class to give a an activity introduction from someone unfamiliar. In the same way a 'fisherman' could send a letter to the class asking them to 'find the best material for his coat' (the whole thing set up of course by the teacher).
Other channels present on the Wii system that could provide a springboard for interest and activities are the photo, weather and news channels.
All three of these provide fantastic opprtunities in class. The weather and news channels give frequent updates, and are visually child friendly (although the news is not completely child filtered but works well with adult supervision).
The photo channel allows pictures to be downloaded, viewed in a slideshow with music and visually played with. This is not particularly special though as a pc can do all of this.
The best benefit of the Wii in my mind is its getting reluctant children active, and simply providing another interesting, educational and fun resource into the classroom.
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