Technology, Games and the whole damn thing . .
May 22, 2007 by gaildyer
While it is really good to be living in the peace and relative freedom that exists in this large land of ours, Australia, it has enormous drawbacks and detractors.
Our country is so large, our population so small and so isolated. To engage in dialogue with educators who have similar views and ideals is nigh on impossible. I am lucky that Kim Pericles and I work in the same school.
We are fortunate in that the experience we had in the UK earlier this year has made us aware of all the possibilities that exist when it comes to integrating technologies with classroom teaching practice.
We came home full of enthusiasm and a desire to make a difference and since then we seem to have been standing still caught in a web of indecision, so much to do, where to begin and how to begin.
It is wonderful to see that so many of the people we spoke to in the UK are now working together on things that we were talking about with them. They have taken Gamemaker, Missionmaker, Neverwinter Nights and Thinking Worlds and begun to do some serious study into the effects that game making has upon children’s learning and creativity.
They have the backing and the blessing of Learning Teaching Scotland, they are able to communicate face to face working within 60 minutes of each other, to share ideas to develop pedagogy and appropriate practice.
We feel like we are lone voices in the wilderness. Our system and the bureaucrats are obsessed by literacy and numeracy results. Each Principals’ meeting I have been to this year has been obsessed with the data and how we (our area, our region) look as a reult of the zillionth analysis of the data. Why can’t we let go and try something different that might actually engage our students and switch them on to being self directed learners.
We have applied for an ASISTM (Science, Technology and Mathematics) Grant to work across NSW BOS, with NSW DET Centre for Learning Innovation, Macquarie University and several professional teaching associations and a cluster of five schools, 2 High Schools and 3 primary schools. We want to look at developing the use of play and gamemaking in the development of creativity and enrichment of our students language learning experiences and also as a means of turning students onto programming, maths and physics. It seems like the decision about whether we are a worthy project is taking forever. Meanwhle LTS are motoring along doing great things.
And now you have elive to look forward to.
The NSW Centre for Learning Innovation is about to release a video on using Gamemaker in the classroom, we have been sharing teaching / learning strategies about the Interactive whiteboard and this has been filmed by the CLI for use in classrooms across NSW, especially as now the NSW Government has promised 1 interactive whiteboard per school as a matter of policy.
The NSW DET Centre for Learning Innovation has been fantastic they are a group of educators who want to fly ahead with encouraging teachers and students to use technology in a variety of different ways in the classroom. They can see the possibilities and have provided our school with enormous opportunities and encouraged Kim and I in our endeavours.
The NSW Board of Studies are also interested in promoting the use of technology, especially as they are undertaking the rewriting of the primary Science and Technology syllabus. Technologies, web 2.0, gamemaking and the mobile technologies all being well suited for any scientific explorations. The technologies;however, should not be limited to the science subjects. There are all manner of creative, language and social benefits acruing from the imaginative and creative use of these tools. if only we could get rid of this noose that is about our necks.
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Hi,
Your struggles are not unfamiliar to us here, either. The work we’re doing in LTS has also taken a lot of persuasion and is linked to improving attainment each and every step of the way, but we have started out looking at student experience as a way to improve attainment. We figured if we could the former right the latter would take care of itself. And in every project so far that we have done, from gaming to blogging to podcasting… they’ve *all* led to better pupil experience and, later, better pupil attainment.
If you are ‘owned by Wall Street’ in the education world, meaning that you need to see improvements within the school term, within the school year, even, then this will stop many teachers attempting something new. Social media, for example, can take two years to bed down before a community emerges which is large and varied enough to sustain more informal learning.
This is where using the long term plans schools and orgs such as LTS must come up with can become very useful in setting longer term goals, meaning you can give time to projects to be successful, to alter them, to go off on interesting tangents. It needs thought out, expectations need set for all and then a small group need to take things forward.
For all that we’re a small country I still never see my coworkers often enough, maybe once every three weeks in LTS. Yet, through our blogs, we’re able to keep in touch with what each other are doing.
Hopefully, in there, is a way forward for you guys. Loving your blogs!
Thanks for your words of wisdom and encouragement. It is strange that our closest links in philosophy and educational desires are on the exact other side of the world in a small country from which my family came a century ago. Maybe it is that spirit that keeps us going. Just today, after I posted this blog, Kim and I have made a few decisions about moving things forward. We are in the process of gathering folk togehter.
Keep up the inspirational work and be aware even if I don’t always comment . . . I am lurking.
Hang in there Gail. I am in Sydney and I know of the great work you are doing through Marie at Wiley Park. You can continue to be the pied piper that we will follow. If your kids are enaged in authentic literacy tasks through ICT they will be able to pass those silly BST tests.