create, contribute,
collaborate & learn
social software & learning through
computer games
Derek P. Robertson
Learning Teaching Scotland
New Technologies for Learning
[email protected]
Visions of the future…
• Science fiction now fact?
– Isaac Asimov: The Fun they Had
• TechnologyTechnology
enslaved to traditional methods
• Education in an Empiricist form
asThe
a threat
– Ray Bradbury:
Pedestrian
• Future world dominated by technology
• Leave the house, why!?
• Arrested for rebellious tendencies
Technology today…
• Technology is embedded in our lives
– Mobile phones anytime, anywhere
– CCTV
– Online shopping at home
Has the world of
• Even for groceries!
‘The Pedestrain’
– Online communication at home
– Home entertainment
arrived?
– Home banking
Establishing an ethos!
• Is technology changing the way we learn?
– digital immigrants & digital natives (Prensky
2002)
• Should we enslave dynamic intuitive
resources to traditional methods?
– examples you will see embrace and celebrate
how ICT can:
• enhance the learning process
• Foster and encourage an ethos of creativity and
innovation
• help prepare ‘digitally aware’ learners
• How do we do this…..
The wonderful world of web 2.0
• Defined by Tim O’Reilly
• Web 1.0 was all about knowledge
transmission
– web was an information giver
– technical hurdle for people to have a web
presence
• Web 2.0 all about creating contributing,
collaborating and learning
– emancipatory nature of intuitive social
software
Web 2.0 software
•
•
•
•
•
•
RSS feeds and newsreaders
Blogs
Photo sharing (even singing sharing!)
Delicious (online bookmarks)
Wikis
podcasts
RSS and newsreaders
• Really Simple Syndication
– BBC site gives good description
• Allows you to have information from
selected websites delivered to you
• Best results with a newsreader e.g.
– Bloglines
– My Yahoo
• Constantly up-to-date
What is a blog?
• Website where you can discuss your
personal/professional passion
• Exploding aspect of web 2.0
• Transforming learning
– You learn from the collective experience,
interests & knowledge of a community of
interest
– You become part of and enrich the community
of interest that you join
• My blog: www.hotmilkydrink.typepad.com
Knowledge and file sharing
• Wikis
– Wikipedia
– Teachmeet ‘06
• Flickr: Online community for photo sharing
• Del.ici.ous: online shared bookmarks
• Music:
– Singshot
– Garageband
– icomposition
Let’s create a podcast!
• Freedom to create your own broadcast
– Audio: podcast
– Video & audio: vodcast
• Emancipatory and hugely motivating for
learners whatever the context
• Free software: Audacity
• Use iTunes to access and store podcasts
• Let’s make one
Public enemy No.1?
• The new moral panic: computer games
– Encourage and promote violence
• Columbine High Massacre
• Murder linked to ‘Manhunt’
– Obesity
– Social Isolation
– Lack of academic attainment
– Any other contemporary social ill
Why games engage us…
Games
Games
arehave
a form
representation
of fun.
and story.
That
That
gives
gives
us enjoyment
us emotion.and pleasure.
Gameshave
haveinteraction.
rules. ThatThat
givesgives
us structure.
Games
us social groups.
Games
conflict/challenge/opposition.
Games have
are adaptive.
That gives us flow.
Games
outcomes and feedback.
That
gives have
us adrenaline.
Games are interactive. That gives us doing.
That gives us learning.
Games have win states.
Games have problem solving.
That gives us ego gratification.
That sparks
our creativity.
Games
are a form
of play.
Games have goals. That gives us motivation.
That gives us intense and passionate involvement.
A gathering momentum…
• Interest and status of computer games in
education is gathering momentum
– Increasing frequency of topic for
study/investigation in academic journals
– LTS Consolarium
– Championed by two main voices:
• Marc Prensky
• James Paul Gee
www.marcprensky.com
‘What video games have to teach us about
learning and literacy.”
Games as narrative
• Games have complex and detailed plots
underpinning them. Players develop skills
that allow them to grapple with the internal
grammar of games:
– Tim Rylands
– Phoenix Wright
– Trauma Centre
– Loco Roco
Games & cognitive challenge
• Games designers are beginning to create
games that could directly support ‘obvious’
learning
– Usual suspects of puzzle games such as
Tetris
– Nintendo Touch Generations
• Professor Kawashima1 2
• Big Brain Academy
Peripheral with Games
•
•
•
•
Eye Toy
Dance Mats
Guitar Hero
Nintendo Wii
Power to create games!
• An ethos of creation and not just
consumption is required:
– Gamemaker
– MissionMaker
– Caspian Learning
• Microsoft
– Opening up Xbox coding
Game play in politics
• Music, literature used as vehicles for
political protest…games now used as a
political medium:
– Madrid
– September 12th
– Darfur is Dying
• Learning about citizenship and politics?
– Prime Minister election simulator
What does this mean for you?
• Are you willing to take risks?
• How can you embrace and keep up with
the rapid rate of technological change?
• How can technology impact on your
professional development?
• How can technology impact on your
professional practice?