As I cruised into work on this fine dew-drop of morning, the wind blowing in what’s left of my hair, I had time to reflect on the MIE input at the DCA last night. The night was designed for teachers across our authority borders (inclusive of Dundee) to get together and experience a preview of the coming Discovery Film Festival. We were also treated to an introduction to educational possibilities of Endless Ocean on the Wii console by Derek Roberston (LTS) and MIE by Andrew Gallagher, now based back in St Ninian’s school in Dundee.
Discovery Film Festival – The festival runs from the Oct 21-Nov 02, with free transport to and from the DCA for Dundee Schools. There is a list of films for Early Years, Primary and Secondary pupils on the website. The website will also contain downloadable resources and content to use within the classroom setting.
Endless Ocean – Derek introduced the topic of sandbox games. These are console games which are more open-ended than the usual challenge based games, focusing on exploration, interaction and play. One such game is Endless Ocean, available on the Wii console. In this game you are a diver with the whole ocean at your disposal. You guide your diver around the reef and open ocean exploring the virtual environment and interacting with the inhabitants of the water. As you meet and interact with new animals, information about your new watery playmates is added to your journal. The idea behind using games like these in the classroom is to create a context for the delivery of a range of curricular areas, giving the pupils learning a relevance and focus. Using off-the-shelf games, Derek suggest, blurs the edges of a pupil’s home and school experiences creating “stealth learning” opportunities. He showcased an example of the software being used in this way by a primary school in Aberdeen. The teacher had successfully set a range of curriculum activities within this context. There is a copy in EDS which will be made available to anyone that would like to implement it.
MIE (Moving Image Education) – Andrew Gallagher presented some of the key concepts that came from the Moving Image Education Angus project that he was involved with. he also considered the implications for a Curriculum for Excellence and the impact on the classroom. Andrew is now back in the authority and the conditions of Angus contract mean that he can now share the resources developed over the four year project. Margaret Foley (QIO Literacy) is to make this available for inclusion in the MIE box. This guarantees to be an invaluable addition to the box.