It’s not television, it’s not broadcasting. It’s about harnessing the networks that are out there, virtual or real-world, and creating new models of interaction for an audience that, increasingly, is online rather than on the box.

participation culture needs to underpin our largest educational and technological ventures.

In an older post Thinking out of the (X) Box Ewan discusses some of the possibilities that gaming has to offer with particular reference to creative writing. Derek Robertson Head of the Consolarium, the Scottish Centre for games and learning has been aware of the potential of platforms such as the Nintendo Wii for some time at Learning and Teaching Scotland.

All students are involved with social networking or gaming culture at some level. They interact with each other socially through Bebo or Facebook and they also interact with each other playing “games’ on the variety of platforms available.

I spent a day looking at the educational possibilities presented by the use of a Nintendo Wii in a science classroom. These possibilities fell into a number of categories.

• The technologies used (blue tooth, motion sensors, infrared cameras etc)
• Physics engines and the need to understand basic physics in the real world before the virtual world can appear realistic.
• As a carrot… yes you can come into the lab during lunch and play with the Wii but you have to research and write a report on the technologies involved over the weekend

get your vodpod

Brainstorming indicated links that can be followed up

Apart from the obvious engagement of students (might not do boxing again as the willingness of students to virtually punch each others’ lights out looked as if it might spill over into the real world) there were some exciting developments. One student who clearly has an understanding of the technology beyond that of this humble chemistry teacher is following up a project turning the Wii remote into an interactive whiteboard. An example of gaming stimulating high order learning.

That one keynote was the catalyst for a complete rethink of my attitudes to teaching and learning in secondary science education. Since then every time I look at classroom practice through the lens of emerging technologies opportunities arise that challenge traditional assumptions.

Blogs provide communication opportunities with and between students and stimulate collaborative learning. One of the key posts on Ewan’s blog Thinking out of the (X) Box alerted me to the potential of gaming in education.

Which brings me to my good friend Derek Robertson who is currently in charge of the Consolarium and hence the professional development in the title of the blog. Derek is passionate about lots of things including his football team Dundee United ( blinded by unrealistic optimism ). His infectious enthusiasm for the potential of gaming in education has attracted a big following. I was fortunate to spend a morning at the Consolarium in January while on holiday from New Zealand and catch up with his latest ideas. I have watched him on a number of videos recently arguing the case for gaming in schools and politely rebutting traditional methods that placed the teacher firmly in the role of the expert who had all the knowledge. Education by transmission is severely limited if the receiver is switched off or the paper storage system has been screwed up and and on a collision course with the back of the teacher’s head.

The second guest on the show played to the fears parents have of kids transfixed to a computer screen for hours. He also seemed to be concerned about the authority of the teacher being undermined . In secondary science the distinction between a gaming environment and working physics simulation has become blurred. As Derek comments good teachers have always used appropriate resources to open doors to the curriculum locked to many. The traditional Victorian classroom many of us still teach in restricts us to a limited number of learning styles and exclude many, particularly boys.

Deconstructing games and teasing out the science underneath the skin is a good start for secondary teachers. The Nintendo Wii Sports game allows you to simulate motion in a realistic way. For instance playing a round of golf you can hit the ball hard enough to land on a particular spot. You still have to judge how far the ball will carry if it is on fairway or the rough. A cross wind will also affect the trajectory of the ball. Similarly you can lob a tennis ball and observe the effect of spin. These are games but Newton’s laws of physics lurk underneath the graphics.

Cars, bikes helicopters and people move around in games like Grand Theft Auto 4 with slick realism.

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Objects that move around in the real world follow Newton’s laws of motion. To develop software that mimics the real world you need to understand the physics of motion.

Rockstar North is the developer behind Grand Theft and they are based in Edinburgh Scotland. They are currently advertising for a physicist and people to test their games to check that they are realistic! The boundary between games and scientific simulation through a physics engine blurs.
I am currently trialling the use of “Phun” an addictive piece of software for designing and exploring 2D multi-physics simulations in a cartoony fashion. It is proving popular with boys in particular. It can be downloaded free.

Thanks again to Ewen and Derek for some of the best PD to come my way in years

In learning terms the game is interactive and student centred using realistic contexts. Don’t forget that pilots play games as they learn the complexities of flying a large passenger plane, they use flight simulators. Chemists also play with simulation games at university as they design molecules with particular geometries and polarities. Sixth form chemists use pen and pencil to do the same thing in exams using theory that is over 30 years out of date.

“Will Wright — a legend among gamers, the nerd’s nerd, undisputed king of the simulation.” – The New Statesman. His first hit game SimCity spurred players to make predictions, take risks and sometimes fail miserably.

Wright spent a number of his early years in a Montessori school and later in life came to realise that this time was the highlight of his education He now thinks of his games as “Montessori Toys” that allow kids to develop an understanding of the world around them through play. Experiencing failure was also part of this process.

His latest game Spore invites players to create an entire Universe from a single celled animal and Darwinian principles to galactic physics. Spore is not so much a game as an opportunity to discover and understand important scientific principles….”an imagination amplifier”

As a new technologies research practitioner he has been involved with integrating blogging, podcasting, wikis gaming and other emerging technologies into classroom life from nursery to secondary within the East Lothian Council district of Scotland.

Ewan delivered the keynote speech at the Ulearn conference. The conference focused on integrating new technologies to empower learning and transform leadership in education.

Ewan recognises the power of play in learning. Ludic learning can happen in secondary science but students do a huge amount of unsupervised and unrecognised learning as they play computer games and access social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook. He has recognised their potential in the classroom. In workshops he has discovered the effectiveness of games in expanding student horizons and imaginations when they are speaking and writing creatively or transactionally.

He highlighted the example of Tim Rylands who uses the unsettling landscapes in Myth III during literacy exercises. Tim is a real performer in the classroom although his academic rigour while playing games is evident. He apparently uses a walking stick that he doesn’t require as a prop. It magically turns into a flute! Look at the engagement of his students.

He asks students to describe the rocks in the landscape at one point. Perhaps we need to rethink literacy issues in school and be less reliant on the book paradigm in science