Thunder

Last week while I was in Staffordshire I was chatting to a couple of the delegates about gaming, as you do on a game design course. Tim from Ounsdale School mentioned that he had been playing on ‘Frets on Fire‘, this is an open source (FREE) version of Guitar Hero for the pc or mac. I have since downloaded it, it is very addictive and great fun, I would recommend it to everyone. I have passed the details on to Keith the Shropshire music advisor and we will see what he makes of it.

I have spent today in Staffordshire working with eight ICT teachers from across the county. The Staffordshire ICT consultant has accessed some funding for a study support project, the aim of the project is to participate in a Gaming Competition (details here). I was asked to deliver software training on Game Maker, the software to be used for the project. The project will conclude on the 4th December with the students coming to the training centre to present their games to the other students.

I have set up a blog that will be used to share ideas and work in progress throughout the project, the teachers have posted their initial plans for the project already. What was interesting is that the teachers were discussing how they will be using Game Maker in other contexts outside of the project, replacing Flowol with Game Maker was high on the agenda, iMedia was mentioned by several teachers, and using it from year 7 right up into the sixth form.

Do you like playing computer games? Do you like playing/composing music?  If the answer to these two questions is ‘yes’ then xbox have got a competition that is just right for you, check out their website:

Forget music for movies – that’s so last-century. Music for games is the next creative frontier. Lead the revolution by creating the ultimate Xbox game trailer soundtrack.

Our judges will pick their favourites, then the public will get to vote for the best of the best right here on Xbox.com. If you win, you’ll make gaming history with the chance to lay down your track with one of the Universal Music team. (Worldwide fame and adoring fans are sure to follow – but don’t hold us to that.)

Don’t miss this exclusive chance to share your soundtrack with the world. You have until 31 May 2007.

iQuiz is a new ‘game’ available to download for your video ipod, it costs 79p in the UK. It allows the user to play multiple choice tests and records their statistics. If you download iQuiz Maker from Aspyr, currently only available for the Mac but Windows version is due out this month, you can also create your own tests that can be uploaded to the ipod. This would be another way of utilising the technologies have students have in their pockets in or beyond our classrooms.

I found several multiple choice ICT tests on Teach ICT and even though their resources are free to use they will not allow me to turn them into iQuiz files:

Hello
Thanks for getting in touch. We have also been considering other channels to pursue, such as ipods (video and audio), so in light of this, we must decline your request of using our content to do this.

If you develop something along those lines using your own material, then please drop us a line as we are always willing to host other contributors work on the teach-ict site.See http://www.teach-ict.com/contributors/index.htm

Regards
www.teach-ict.com

So if anyone knows of any ICT multiple choice questions that I could use, drop me a line and I will share all the iQuiz files I produce.

Does anyone know if this kind of software, both the quiz and quizmaker, is available for the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP or PDAs?

Yesterday I attended Becta’s ‘Enhancing learning; virtual worlds, simulations and game based learning’ seminar. It was an excellent even, a shame only 3 Local Authorities sent representation, the majority of the audience were game/e-learning companies and university representatives.

Dave Hassell kick started the day, setting the scene etc. The first question posed was ‘what is a game?’, there are a variety of answers for that and examples are given in his presentation. What I think was important is that it doesn’t really matter what your answer is, ie what the product is, what is important is the outcome achieved by the ‘game’. He stated that over £1 billion has been spent in the education sector over that last 5 years on content, how much value for money have we had from this investment? We need a strategic approach to this spend and the sector should investigate what it wants the content to achieve first.

When students are playing games we should think about the following:

If ‘games’ are beneficial then how do we get the workforce to adopt them? What interventions are needed to achieve this? Should we do this or should we leave computer games for students use at home?

Presentations can be downloaded from the Becta website.

It is now possible to share games produced using Mission Maker with people who have not got the software, all you need to do is download the player from http://www.immersiveeducation.com/missionmaker/player/ - Let the games commence

Being a very lucky boy, great dad and super husband I was lucky enough that my family bought me (at great distress) a Nintendo Wii for my birthday last week. What a great bit of kit the Wii is, for playing ‘proper’ games I still prefer my XBox 360 but what fun playing on the Wii is, and Jack my 3 year old can even have a go. The Wii has also awoken Steph’s competitive side and we are having so much fun.

Anyway to the point of my post, tennis is probably our favourite game - and I have lots of photos of Steph playing (give me an email if you want to see one). While playing tennis we have to move all the furniture back to allow us plenty of space. Unfortunately there isn’t much skill to my game I just whack it and hope it stays in, this being the case I decided to do some research to see if anyone can help me out. There are loads of websites out there but this has got to be my favourite - How to win Wii Tennis (at any cost)

If anyone knows of any good sites that provide useful tips for getting my ball to go back straight over the net and not cross court all the time please leave it in the comment section below Thanks

Formed in 1970, SAGSET is a voluntary professional society dedicated to improving the effectiveness and quality of learning through the use of interactive learning, role-play, simulation and gaming - in all aspects of education and training, from Primary School to University - and in all levels of adult, lifelong learning from the shop floor to the board room.

Our 37th Annual Conference will be held in Manchester in July 2007 (16th - 18th) and contributions are invited from:

• Teachers in Primary, Secondary & Adult Education
• Teachers specialising in supporting pupils with learning disabilities
• College & University Lecturers
• Employers & Trainers interested in interactive methods of developing the skills of employees in Business & Industry
• Business Management Training Organisations
• Voluntary Organisations
• Teams designing simulations for the Emergency Services
• Designers of other games & simulations

Why not use this opportunity to spread your message among a variety of like-minded groups - and pick up new ideas from them in turn!

Papers (to last 40 minutes including questions) or Workshops (85 minutes) will be particularly welcome with a deadline for Full Paper Submission of 20th April 2007. For more information please visit: http://www.simulations.co.uk/sagset/sagset2.htm

Conference Fees (All prices include VAT)

Early Bird Full Residential Conference Fee (Must be booked by Saturday June 16th 2007 - higher fees apply thereafter): includes en-suite accommodation in the conference centre for the nights of 16th - 17th July, all conference facilities on 16th - 18th July, meals & conference report, and a year’s membership of SAGSET: £295.0 (or $US 580.0)

Day Delegate Rate: (Does not include supper, but does include lunch & SAGSET membership): £70.0 or $137.0

To book your place, and for a full set of details about the conference, please contact the Conference Organiser:

Paddy Griffith, 41 Burlington Road, Manchester M20 4QA

Tel: 0044 (0)161 434 2551 e-mail: paddygriffith@tiscali.co.uk

HAGames was created by the same crew who dreamt up the Hidden Agenda Contest back in 2003.  We’re Liemandts and Reimanns, which sounds like two different tribes of a new medieval quest game but is actually two families that want to make a difference in this world by furthering education through technology. Our family nonprofit organization, the Liemandt Foundation, funds the Hidden Agenda program and the HAGames site with the help of a fabulous cast of advisors and partners. The Liemandt Foundation is dedicated to facilitating, testing, and promoting “stealth education” video games so that they can make learning fun for kids who might enjoy playing games more than listening to teachers.

Don’t get us wrong – we love teachers! And parents! In fact, we hope they’ll check out these HAGames and show them to all of their favorite kids!  We have a feeling everyone will appreciate this new way to help middle schoolers learn tough subjects that may not “stick” as well through memorization or by reading a textbook.  Especially since we are committed to offering these games to kids for free, forever.

Russell is on a roll, his latest demonstration was ‘KIT - Kinesthetic Interactive Teaching System‘ was really inspiring - he had 30 members of the audience playing a mulitplayer game with him.  The system costs £3000 but has a great amount of flexibility, you can use the games that come with the system or create, better still get your pupils to create, games for it.  The system can also play music - so no need to hire a dj for the school disco again, it also can be used as a karaoke system

I would really like to get hold of one of these systems.