It was this time last year that I got a flyer for the East Sussex ICT Conference 2010 and saw that @Ewan Mcintosh was keynote speaker. Being the nosey so and so that I am I put his name into google. The phrase inspired comes to mind.
Yesterdays blog post was all about using 2DIY and games to support and assess children's understanding of other subjects but the idea of using games to inspire children in their learning and using it at the heart of a topic or learning journey had never even crossed my mind – (rightly or wrongly)!
Games Based Learning (GBL) was a phrase that was new to me, we have all used games to aid our teaching and indeed to cement learning within the classroom and at home. I personally felt that these ‘games’ were always as an add-on to the work we were doing, perhaps as an extension activity or as a starter to capture imagination and stimulate learning.
One game had never been the core for a week or indeed a whole terms work (well certainly not in my teaching or any of the schools I have been in). The notion of GBL is that the multi-million pound games industry provides inspiration to children to enable their learning in an environment which is familiar to them.
Quite simply the game becomes the core of a topic of work.
Gillian Penny from Gavinburn Primary School describes this process with two games, both using the Nintendo Wii. (http://newlearning.blip.tv/file/3437105/)
I will add resources and information about the way I did this tomorrow but fair enough to say that it has made a big impact on learning in my classroom and I have been asked to present at the East Sussex ICT Conference 2011. Looking forward to having a bit more inspiration from @TimRylands
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