Students do it their way and they do it well!

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Students do it their way and they do it well!

October 8, 2007 by gaildyer

Last week I had the pleasure to witness seven Stage 3 students from our school demonstrate their skills at making games to an audience of 80 teachers at the NSW Department of Education and Training’s Connected Learning Conference last week.

Three of the students presenting at the Conference had formal training in how to use Gamemaker at the end of 2006. At the end of that project the students said they had enjoyed the experience and learning about Gamemaker but they hated the way they were taught.

Before the next round of game making began students involved negotiated a Design Brief for the games they were to make. Brainstormed elements of a good game and developed a rubric with the criteria for evaluating their work.

The other four students were then taught by their three expert peers using a pedagogical method that suited their purposes and which would have sent me crazy. Between them, in 10 school days, they had created 4 maze games for students in a Stage 2 class to play as part of their unit on the Solar System. These games were also entered in a Learning Resource Awards competition for students.

The Belmore South students in their presentation demonstrated to the audience that their learning had incorporated most of the qualities identified in the NSW quality teaching model. The two students Sam-James and Sharliyah who demonstrated how to make a basic game showed a deep and thorough understanding and knowledge of the requirements of programming a digital game. The other panel members Aisha, Farabee, Yilmaz, Martin and Jasmeen demonstrated their games. They too demonstrated a deep understanding and knowledge of digital games structure and programming.

The panel chaired by Naomi, a Year 4 student, revealed the students’ evaluation of how their gamemaking experience progressed and why this kind of learning activity has an important part to play in their classroom.

It just goes to show you that if we listen to students and respond to them they will show themselves to be learners who are: