Scratch

Scratch is a multimedia tool that can be used by students, teachers, and parents for a range of educational and entertainment purposes from educational projects such as maths, to fun projects involving art and music etc. Mandy showed us an introduction video to it and then gave us a step by step guide and we had to create our own animation based on set instructions.  After having a go myself I would say that scratch is most suitable for people aged between 8-16 years old and this can again be backed up by the fact it is used in education all over the world. Personally I didn't enjoy using it as I found it quite hard to use and follow the instructions however I can see the reason behind it and how it would be useful in education. 

"Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively; which are essential skills for life in the 21st century"

Games Day

Our last lesson took place in the Mumbles room, where we had the opportunity to try out different types of gaming consoles and technology. There was 5 gaming stations in total set out around the room and in groups we all went around each station spending about 15 minutes playing on the games.  Once we had played each game we were asked to fill in an evaluation form explaining what we liked and disliked about the game and how we think it could help within the educational environment.  As I enjoy playing some game especially on the Nintendo Wii, I found this lesson really enjoyable and fun.

The 5 games we got to try out were:

• Wii sport - including tennis, bowling, golf, boxing and many more
• adventure land (xbox connect)
• doctor who (on a tablet)
• just dance ( Nintendo Wii)
• mystery game (Ipad)
• 
  

After this lesson I have learnt that a lot of these games and consoles could definitely be incorporated in the educational classroom environment, and I think most children would become more engaged in learning if they were to play and experiment with all of these.

Techno Camps

On Tuesday my class visited the Liberty Stadium to take part in a project called Technocapms. Unfortunately I could not attend, howeveri have been able to do some back round research to see what it the trip was all about. Techno camps provide free workshops to students to give them the opportunity to learn about in depth computer science and STEM. The work shops run include game design, programming, robotics, app development and much more. 

"It is about getting young people (11-19 years) in Wales excited about Computer Science and STEM and challenging them to think about the world around them in a different way." 

Gaming Debate

In our last session we had to discuss the pros and cons of gaming in education in the formal structure of a debate, we had to decide if there is in fact a place for gaming in education. We were put into two teams, one for online gaming and the other against, then there was two judges that would listen to each teams options and arguments either for or against the topic and decide on a winner. I was in the team that was against online gaming, and we actually one the debate. Evan though I am for online gaming and using it within the educational setting, the arguments my team came up with for why is it can be bad were really good and some of which I do agree with. It was good to listen to the other teams arguments for the topic and learn about reasons why online gaming within education is a good thing, and how it can be really benefcial including it in education.

My Game... Save Christmas

Bow Street Runner

Today in Mandy's lesson we were all put into groups and each group was given an online 
game to play, evaluate and assess. I thought being able to actually play the games ourselves to evaluate was exciting and was actually looking forward to trying the game out. The game that we were given to play was off the Channel 4 website called 'Blow Street Runner'. Here is a little overview about the background to the game which is:  

Blow Street Runner is set in London's Covent Garden in the 1750's and depicts a time when crime and vice in the city had hit such high levels that the local Magistrates began to introduce the first instances of physical policing of law and order.

The game started off with a little introduction to a story of a man being murdered, however you do not learn how or why this man was murdered. After the story i knew that the aim of the game was going to be trying to solve the murder mystery. I don't really like these kind of games and it showed as it took my nearly the whole lesson to just get past the first level. This is the image that is given and you have to look around it for clues:

I felt like there wasn't enough information given as to how to progress and go onto further stages. However at the end of the lesson Mandy showed us how we could have accessed the cheats, which showed you exactly what to do on each level. So maybe I could have gone further than level 2 in the lesson if id known these!! 

Overall I really didn't enjoy this game even though I didn't really play much of it, I felt I couldn't get into it after the first stage and found myself getting extremely bored of playing it. I wouldn't recommend the game to any of my friends either! However I do think that this game would be more suitable and enjoyed more by boys, maybe of an age range of 10+. 

To conclude I feel that this game could be good in some ways towards education for example it is has an Historical setting and theme so children can learn what it was like in this era. Also as the game evolves solving a mystery so children can gain and improve their problem solving soling skills to some extent. I do feel however that there are better games out there can enable children to progress with these skills and would say that I think this is more of a game to play in your spare time just for fun and not mainly educational.