Educational Games

There is always a divide between learning and home-life. Learning happens at school, then the children return home. There's a seemingly strict divide. The activities of learning are different from the activites of home-life. At this present moment, fun and happiness is associated with home-life (going out with friends, playing on the computer).

To an academic, learning is an exciting and fulfilling activity. Research, teaching and writing papers is fun. However, to the average K12 child, learning is something one has to do by law, not a fun activity, not an experience to prepare your life skills, not something that one needs to totally engage in.

Educational games are something (if done correctly) can cross the divide between learning and fun. They can bridge the gap. It allows education and the concept of learning become fun. Consider these scenarios:

• What if - a brand new shoot-em-up game was released, like the famous Gears of War, or Call of Duty, but to get through the door to the next level you had to answer a series of mathematical equations in a certain time?
• What if - a football game was released, where the player acted as manager for the team and had to make difficult financial decisions when buying and selling players?
• What if - a real time strategy sci-fi game was released where the players were given intricate and complex problems to overcome in order to win the game.

Effectively the players would be associating learning with fun. The strive for success that is embedded within us would help children learn more maths so they could get through the doors of the shoot-em-up game quickly. As far as the children are aware, they're not learning, they're playing.

Educational games still have a long way to come before they become mainstream, but there are some great examples out there. Word games come in all forms now, games which teach the students problem solving skills and maths games are just the basics, but have come a long way.

Look at these examples:

• http://www.miniclip.com/games/alphattack/en/
• http://www.miniclip.com/games/word-vine/en/

"If it's worked for so many years, why change now?"

This can be an answer to many peoples reservations about using Multimedia in an educational environment.

Most educators who are used to using their traditional methods of teaching will often pose the question "If it's worked for so many years, why change now?" Well, here's my honest opinion of that -

Years ago, before computers and high speed broadband became a household item almost as essential as a shower, the old and more traditional methods of teaching used to work well. The children had no other experiences than the ones you taught them in school, so they used to absorb the information you gave them easier. Now, children spend most of their time in a virtual universe with gadgets and gizmos not everybody understands and then they come to school and look at a blackboard and a teacher reciting facts to them. It's almost a trip back in time.

Using technology such as the SMARTboard is great, but only if you use it to its full potential. If you use it like a blackboard then the interest of the students will be lost very easily. If you use the technology to it's full potential and use your knowledge and expertise as an educator to come up with new and exciting ways of getting the students to enjoy your lessons, you're lessons will be so much more rewarding for your students. As i've said before, there is a multitude of opportunities to learn multimedia, alot of software programs do not require a great deal of knowledge or time.

There is a common theme that implementing Multimedia is like slaying a dragon, a big Multimedia Dragon that you have to use all available time and knowledge to overcome. But when you consider the availablility of software, the sheer amount of software dedicated to teaching educators multimedia and the amount of online tutorials to help you through the transition, it's really more of a Multimedia Puppy that you have to take on walks once every so often.

Answer To The Difficulty Debate - Part 2

Okay, this has been more frustrating than I thought. I created a simple Flash Application which I separated into Screens (I used the term because teachers would be familiar with it, from PowerPoints). Each screen (and there are 4) has it's own elements on it, one has text and an image, another has just text, another has text and a video and another has text and an animation. The idea being is that the teacher can duplicate the screen that they need, then pull it onto the stage where it can be adjusted to their own needs. That, in theory, is quite simple, in practice is very different.

I've had the notion that the teacher should already have some basic knowledge of flash, but should they have to? If the answer is no, I must create some sort of user guide for them to know how to change the various parts and get them to know how to move around the Flash Environment (risking countless confusion), if the answer is yes, then that severely limits the use of the template.

This has been quite a struggle.

I've now come to the conclusion that this template should be used by people with basic Flash knowledge but without the time to get in and create something from scratch, but for those with little or no experience of Flash, it would probably be best to use a software with a much higher "user-friendliness" than Flash, such as Adobe Captivate.

Answer To The Difficulty Debate - Part 1

Back from sunny Benidorm and into the cold, rainy, Welsh valleys once more, where I have had a slight (but nonetheless significant) epiphany.

The on-going argument about how difficult multimedia is to create and use has been a fruitful one, I had the wonderful idea of making a Flash Application that can be easily adapted and used amongst most subjects and topics. Now, this is no easy task, I have a few things to consider:

- How do I make the application so that each individual element can be edited
- How do I inform the user of what should be changed and what shouldn't be
- How do I make it all work and provide all the necessary elements for the teacher to adapt

You'll have to stay tuned to find out how I managed to do it.

Use of New Internet Resources: Google Docs

Google Docs is quite a formidable tool.

Feel free to download the report I wrote about it - Google Docs Report

Alternatively you can find the Report on the Simply Click VLE - in the RCT Portal under the resources folder C.E.L.T. Resources and Software Guides

Staggering The M-Conversion

We've already discussed that multimedia is a step worth taking, for the benefit of the teachers AND the students. However, it's now been brought to my attention that the hesitation in the conversion of multimedia, isn't the idea, its the practice. Multimedia can be difficult in some respects and time consuming in others, two things a teacher in Rhondda Cynon Taff are not interested in. So how can we spin this and make teachers in RCT want to use multimedia when there's no interest in taking the "large step for mankind" into this world.

The best way I can come up with, from the top of my head is to stress how easy some aspects of multimedia are, and I know what your thinking, it's all very well me saying this when I'm technically orientated anyway, but with the correct guidance it could be easy for everyone. Okay, learning certain multimedia programs can be like learning a new language altogether but where there's a difficult option, the world introduces a more user-friendly option and allows the same work to be carried out in a much easier way.

Take Flash for instance, to make a quiz in flash takes a huge amount of technical knowledge, to use ActionScript and components and it's all very complex, however, in Captivate, creating a quiz is as simple as choosing "insert quiz" from the menu and then typing the question and answers into the correct boxes.

What I'm really trying to say here is that, although conversion to multimedia is a huge push, it doesn't take a huge effort to do this. Especially with organisations such as our department at the University of Glamorgan (C.E.L.T) out there trying to cushion the fall for even the least technically minded teacher. We are here to help, we really are. I mean, we're not saying "everything should be Multimedia Now or Else", we're saying "we'll help you make the transition slowly and build the knowledge to advance on that transition in a smooth and easy way"

The Importance of Inter-School Communication and Resource Sharing

Teachers nowadays are constantly trying to develop new ways to teach, or they are constantly having new technology thrown at them to bring into their teaching methods. Thing is, if one teacher comes up with a revolutionary way of teaching a lesson, one that brings both joy and knowledge to the pupils, they wont tell a soul. Why?

Truth is, everyone is too concerned over inspection results and reaching farther up the teaching ladder. It's not about that.

I was told that having something unique on the inspection report would get you extra points when it comes to your schools grading and having a unique teaching method would get you more likely considered for a higher position.

However, what if you shared this "revolutionary" teaching method, and it was being used all over the country - wouldn't you get much higher acclaim for that?

And during inspections, if the inspectors had been all over the country to see this method and then you told them you were the developer, the creator of this revolutionary teaching method then wouldn't you get even more points for that, with inter-school communication and your unique way of teaching to consider. Actually, come to think of it inter-school communication probably ranks highly on their scale of points, after all, it's essential in some areas.

What we really need is to use the VLE to talk to other schools of the "consortium" or even all other schools, to share resources and teaching methods with other teachers.

Think about this, 1,000 Geography teachers all transcribing the same lesson - tedious? How about 1,000 Geography teachers using a full combined effort to transcribe the lesson. Less work per teacher, and better ideas with the result of more innovative teaching methods.

The VLE is a great help with communications, if it was used in the manner that it was intended life would be so much easier, and all the pupils all over the country would benefit from this.

Learning For The Less Confident

Confidence in children has always been a potent issue among teachers, how to calm that loudmouth down and how to get that quiet one to speak up. Truth is, there's not a lot teachers can do, the confidence of a child is directly influenced by their home life and their roots, so anything a teacher does to change the child (better or worse) will go to waste as they will revert back to their old selves as soon as they leave school. This is a major issue. Some children know the answer to some really difficult questions that you may ask them, but are too lacking in confidence to say.

How can you fix this? What can one person do to help a poor confidence-challenged little child? The best way to do this is to get them to interact with the lesson in perhaps a different approach, an approach that doesn't involve them speaking in front of classmates or even yourself as a teacher. I have two words that will instantly prove a solution. Interactive Multimedia.

Yes, Interactive Multimedia. Getting the users sitting in front of a computer (all of them) and interacting with a fun, engrossing, interesting application and then getting them to dynamically interact with it by answering questions and playing games to test their knowledge. Would you feel more comfortable standing in front of a room full of people and saying something that you're not sure is correct (imagine the demoralising laugh from your peers after getting it wrong) or playing a game on a computer?

The Very Essence Of Teaching & Multimedia

Teaching is a wonderfully versatile thing, almost an art form in itself, and most certainly a challenge for all involved. You see, teachers, this day and age don't have a lot of time for learning themselves, you could argue that the holiday periods present a very large time for learning but it's often overlooked as that is the time they create all the teaching materials (possible the most time consuming element of teaching).

So how is a teacher expected to implement multimedia into their teaching methods if they've not enough time to learn how; very frustrating indeed. Learning takes a lot of time, as I'm sure your aware, even the most intensive courses involve hours upon hours of "out of classroom" work.

The dilemma is this: "How do you get knowledge into the teacher's brains without impacting their time?" I came across this dilemma when I needed to teach some teachers how to use certain software programs, Flash in particular. The software in itself harbours some very broad concepts, so how do I teach them how to spice up their lessons with multimedia when all the time they have is a little hour here and there.

I have come up with a method, and maybe this method only applies to software and nothing else, but still, it's a starting point. What if you just taught them the very basics, how to put the pen onto the paper and just taught them enough so that they can have a play and have an experiment. I know one of the most effective ways of learning software is experimentation, testing all the "what ifs" to create something. If I gave the teachers an hour or so of hard training about the very basics and tried to make them feel as comfortable with using the software as possible then, when they have 5 minutes to spare they could have a play around, to see what they could come up with. This can then be done in whatever 5 or 10 can be spared, even possible in a lesson. Also, then provide them with a brief (and i mean brief) idiot's proof guide about everything you taught them and nothing more.

I'm still just testing this method and we'll see how it goes when I have a meeting with some of those involved on Friday but I think there's something there for development at least.

If I can create a multimedia application about these lessons, with voice overs and video examples and interactivity and quizzes, then maybe I'd not need to be there at all... it's worth a thought! After all, I've been saying all along that using multimedia is a very useful advantage! Why not teach teachers how to use multimedia with multimedia?

V-Learning: The Way Forward??????

Alot of interest has fallen on V-Learning or Video Learning. In my opinion, it has a very broad range of capabilities for learning and teaching.

Not just is the resultant file very interesting but it is also very simple to create; There are a very few number of procedures that need to be memorised in order to create a video. Imagine teaching Geography, where your teaching the students about Drainage Basins and Corrie Lakes etc. Wouldn't it be wonderful to show them real world footage of these particular formations and then get the students to bring in some footage of their own to show the class, is that more interesting that writing about them? Of Course it is.

However, V-Learning has it's disadvantages. For one, it isn't at all interactive, so additional methods would need to be employed in order for the child to feel a part of the lesson, secondly, it takes time to acquire the footage, and if your downloading have some copyright infringements to look out for.

Where I think the interest should currently lie is in interactivity. Software like Adobe Captivate and Flash are leading the way with interactivity. What if we take the Geography Example I mentioned above, wouldn't it be better for the students if the video automatically paused for a moment to allow them to annotate certain sections of the freeze-framed image, wouldn't it be better if a quiz magically appeared at the end of each section, testing what each of the students knew about each item? Yes, it would be better.

V-Learning is the way forward, but not directly straight forward, maybe of on a 45degree tangent to forward. It's useful don't get me wrong, but combining it with another type of Mutlimedia (interaction) can bring a whole new dimension to learning. I understand, also, that Interaction Multimedia can be quite difficult, and if showing teachers how to video edit first, at least gets their foot in the door of Multimedia. I am willing to support the notion of V-Learning and all it stands for, but maybe I'll introduce the interaction side of things slowly, as a transition not a jump, after all most of the teachers are taking one hell of a leap for mankind in including video. So anything I can do to support them, they have my full attention.