PREMIER’S TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP REPORTS
Premier’s English Scholarship
Developing a games literacy framework
to facilitate writing development
through using computer games in the
classroom
Kimberly Pericles
Belmore South Public School
Sponsored by
1
Focus of this Study
The focus of this study was on developing a games literacy framework to facilitate writing
development through using computer games in the classroom.
My scholarship study took me to the United Kingdom, to follow the work being done in
Scotland and England around computer games in classrooms. I found many classes were using
and exploring the use of computer games, each was doing this in different ways and for different
purposes.
Through the differences though, a number of commonalities also stood out: students were
immersed in the game, talk and discussion was paramount to developing understandings, and
collaboration helped in problem solving activities and episodes within the games.
To order and make sense of the ways teachers and classes were interacting with computer games
– especially in the writing area – I have attempted to put together an effective way to explore
learning with computer games.
These are using computer games as a:
1. Context for Learning
2. Add On to Learning
3. Within the Game Learning
Contexts for Learning
Games based learning is often about using the games as contexts for learning. The game is used
as the stimulus for a wide range of curriculum explorations, thus keeping the experience (the
game) squarely in the child’s world, and the explorations based on the game squarely focused on
curriculum.
The work done by Learning Teaching Scotland in Aberdeenshire is leading the way in Scotland;
Anna Rosvoll and Jonathon Cordiner are the consultants who work with the teachers and
students in this learning authority to develop opportunities to use games as a context for
learning.
Jonathon and Anna see their role as putting ideas, suggestions and knowledge into the hands of
the teachers and to help the teachers and their students come up with relevant and worthwhile
experiences for learning. Games are chosen for their links to the curriculum, ideas for curriculum
integration are available to get groups started, and then teachers, students and schools develop
further activities and programs that fit the needs, experiences and interests of the individual
group.
An aspect of interest is the importance of incorporating authentic tasks and real-life learning with
the use of the games. The off computer learning experiences move the whole focus from the
virtual to the real. Interesting aspects of the game being used are moved out of the game and
into the classroom-providing goal setting opportunities, real child-centred challenges, and social
interaction for students and their teachers.
The Nintendogs Project used the Nintendog game – a virtual puppy game for the Nintendo DS
handheld console. Primary 1-3 (ES1 – stage 1) students played the Nintendogs game daily to
explore the different levels of the game, joined an Aberdeenshire “Puppy Dog Tales” League
where they posted their weekly scores and could see their school’s place in the League. They
considered and discussed the care of living things, and the role of dogs in the wider community,
they planned designed, built and recorded on film various puppy accessories.
Building on this plan individual classes wrote stories about their puppies, researched breeds of
dogs, designed and made registration cards for their puppy, used pictochat (a message function
on the DS console where students can write/draw/message each other using their console) to
inform others of their puppy, made diary entries, visited local pet shops, vet, set up a class vet or
pet shop, designed and made puppy accessories to sell in the class shop, investigated money used
in the shop, designed and printed bags or brochures or leaflets for the shop.
Children explored healthy lifestyles – walked pet and selves each afternoon, designed dogwalking posters and leaflets. Researched Guide dogs/ Hearing dogs/ dogs in space – sorted and
recorded information, invited visitors to show Guide or Hearing dogs and designed invitation,
wrote thank you letters, wrote recount of visit, questions to be asked, and recorded the visit.
The class Investigated Dog Shows and Dog Agility Shows (these were two aspects of the game
where students could earn points in the game to buy accessories, food and grooming items for
their puppy). They invited guest speakers, created posters advertising a Show, designed an agility
course (PE lesson links).
Throughout the project the class kept diaries and wrote imaginative stories, diary entries and
poetry as well as exploring other text types such as procedures, information reports, visual
literacy such as brochures, posters, invitations etc.
Teachers were expected to share the work carried out by their class through the Puppy Dog
Tales GLOW (Scottish Education Intranet) group – they could also access documents and join
in discussions around Nintendogs through this group. This gave plenty of opportunity to share
and collaborate with others in a supportive way, with help available when needed by the GLOW
consultants. It also provided a safe environment to link the use of technology within the learning
being carried out in the classroom.
Wii Challenge – Kororinpa was a science and technology context for exploration around force
and motion. Once again the project was supported through GLOW, giving participants the
structures and support necessary to try new ideas and adopt new ways of learning and teaching.
Kororinpa is a marble maze game for the Wii console where students explore the ways a marble
moves through mazes of varying difficulty and complexity.
Students were then challenged to design and make a marble run that was creative and that took a
marble the longest time to make the journey. Results from schools were posted on the GLOW
project area, and videos of the marble runs were also submitted to the group for viewing by the
group.
Scientific concepts were explored, hypotheses made and tested. Investigations into structures,
ramps, gravity, weight were conducted and the results were put to use by the students when
designing and testing their own marble runs.
As well as scientific learning, students also became involved in making marble characters (similar
to those in the game) and the characters then were part of many narratives written and devised
by the students. The marble runs were sometimes themed by students (as they are in the game)
thus linking setting and obstacles within the narrative structures.
Whilst Aberdeenshire is leading the way with Games Based Learning in Scotland, it is really only
possible due to the commitment of Learning Teaching Scotland and their appointment of a
Games Consolarium to oversee the use of games in learning. Through the work of the
Consolarium and GLOW like-minded educators around Scotland are linked and supported.
Many schools right across Scotland are taking part in these projects – games and consoles can be
borrowed from the Consolarium.
Ollie Bray Deputy Head at Mussellburgh Grammar School uses games in many ways and across
all curriculum areas to enhance and support learning at this Secondary College. Games are used
across the school in PE (Dance mats), foreign languages, music and maths.
The Musselburgh Guitar Hero transition to High School project is an example of a highly
supportive and educationally beneficial use of games in schools. The feeder primary schools were
all given a Guitar Hero game and a Wii console to use with their Primary 7 classes as the context
for many cross-curricula activities that were undertaken prior to the students meeting at the High
School.
Learning experiences were planned around the formation of a rock group who were planning a
World tour. Students form and name bands, and design costumes and logos. Bands select venues
to tour, produce posters and handle finances. Rock reporters review gigs and write newspaper
reviews.
Students from the feeder primary schools then come together on a number of orientation days
and take part in a number of different activities together at the High School. Bands play off
against each other (playing the Guitar Hero game), students get to know other students from
neighbouring schools through the shared knowledge and experiences of the Guitar Hero game.
Guitar Hero is revisited at the beginning of the next year when the students begin High School,
and the common experiences and familiarity of the school and teachers helps settle students.
Students were involved in many cross-curricula activities both in their primary school setting and
the high school setting, but underpinning all of the leaning and bringing it together was the
narrative, and more specifically, students writing narratives. Coming from a music perspective or
a graphic design perspective, students were connecting to their experiences and reflecting on
their experiences through writing narratives.
The way in this was done using the Guitar Hero game was through immersion in the game, and
using the game as a context for student learning. Students were looking at the experiences from
inside the experiences – they were part of the game, they were interacting with the game and
their peers as characters/participants in the game. This enabled the students to physically
respond to the feelings, emotions and thoughts of playing to live audiences; and these feelings
were used to write exciting narratives.
“Add on” to Learning
Using games as an “add on” to student learning is an engaging way to focus in on a specific
aspect for study. It provides a meta-language for talking about the writing the students are
undertaking. Using a game to focus on a specific aspect of writing encourages students to think
about, talk about, visualize and watch this aspect. It also provides opportunities to further
develop their thinking, talking and writing.
Drawn to Life – Wallyford Primary
Wallyford Primary School is situated near Edinburgh, Scotland. The Primary 3 class (Year 2
equivalent in NSW) and their teacher, Stacey Betteridge, were using their Nintendo DS consoles
and the game “Drawn to Life” to learn about narratives - especially characters and setting.
The “Drawn to Life” program “takes players to the next level of interaction and creativity on the Nintendo
DS. Your exact drawings populate the game, and no tedious animating or image manipulation is necessary. In
other words, your drawing comes to life!”
Students draw their character and work their way through various scenes and settings solving
problems. The Primary 3 students were investigating descriptive writing through designing their
own characters and writing physical descriptions; investigating setting through writing detailed
descriptions; and drawing and writing ways they solved the problems they encountered in their
game.
Characters drawn by the students were used to develop descriptive writing – physical
appearance, size, colors, and features – and personality traits were talked about at a simple level –
clever, calm, excited, angry, or frustrated. Students were exploring how the characters were
feeling at various points in the story/game, and what the character’s actions would be as a result
of these feelings.
Talking and listening skills were being developed as students made decisions and had to explain
and support their decisions based on the events of the story/game.
Moshi Monsters
Moshi Monsters is an on-line game where students adopt a monster and must look after it –
keeping it happy and healthy by solving problems to earn roks, which can then be used to buy
food, household goods and clothes /accessories. Moshi Monsters has problem solving, early
literacy and numeracy tasks all embedded into the game play as well as the facility to introduce
social networking to children via a friends finder and a notice board. This game is freely
available (although an enhanced experience via subscription is now on offer) and can be used by
anyone who has an internet connection.
Many contexts for writing could be facilitated by the game. These include exploring the wide
array of settings and associated characters and using these as a basis to develop writing skills and
understandings of narratives; writing adverts to sell a Moshi Monster’s house; writing to explain
the design of flags made to represent Monstro City as well as news flashes about what has been
happening in Monstro City itself. Students could also design and write a tourist information
leaflet for visitors to refer to if they were planning a visit to Monstro City, and could also write
messages to each other on the notice board available in each Moshi Monster house.
Anna Rossvoll (from Learning Teaching Scotland) said that many schools in Aberdeenshire were
using Moshi Monsters as daily literacy and numeracy training and that it was a very useful
jumping off point to use in early years classrooms for more specific learning activities, such as
writing.
Moshi Monsters is a motivating “add on” to learning because students have an affinity to their
Moshi Monster and can easily feel that they are part of the game. They have a shared knowledge
of the game setting, which is developed and shared through guided talking and discussion
sessions, and can be successfully built on to develop writing across a number of genres.
“Within the game” Learning
Learning from within a game is a powerful and personal way to interact with words, language
and narratives. It enables students to become a part of the story – to explore aspects of story
(such as characters, setting, complications and mood) in an interactive manner. Once in the
game, language can be extended through drama, literature, music, poetry and song – enhancing,
reinforcing and transforming the game experience so that students are almost a virtual part of a
virtual world.
Myst
Tim Rylands has received a vast amount of press coverage from around the world for his
original use of ICT and has gained most notable recognition for using the games in the Myst
series of computer games to inspire children’s creative confidence in many areas of the
curriculum including creative writing, speaking and listening, music and art.
Tim is the 2005 BECTA ICT in Practice award recipient so we were privileged to be able to
participate in a Kent District ICT workshop featuring Tim Rylands and his work. The day
consisted of 3 workshop sessions where Tim demonstrated his techniques and strategies with
groups of students across different learning levels and ages. We were also invited to participate in
a Twilight session in the evening to further work through Tim’s ideas and strategies in greater
detail.
The game “Myst” is the visual inspiration used by Tim as a springboard to launch the ideas and
the imaginations of students from Year 1 to Year 6. Tim leads his students on a journey through
the magical landscapes of the game stopping to discuss, to wonder, to imagine and to predict
developing language and ideas as they go.
The students become a part of the game; they are within the game – looking onto landscapes,
into rooms and interacting with the people they meet. Tim’s careful and structured lead is
strategically planned around specific learning outcomes that he wants to teach. The pathway
though the game may be dictated by the group, but the purpose of the lesson, and the skills
being taught along the way are specific, well thought out and programmed by Tim.
This is a whole group journey of discovery – in the workshops we were part of, he had groups of
30 or more students from a number of schools, working together. The students explore setting
by describing, by wondering, by using imagery; they scribble ideas in a notebook and share the
sentences they’ve created with the group.
Characterization is explored through role-play and talking “to” characters, adding sympathetic
characters and innovating on known characters to add to the story.
Atmosphere and mood are explored through physical activities and physical responses to the
surroundings in the landscapes being depicted in the game.
This approach provides oral structures to support the students, the creating has a cumulative
effect – the language structures become more sophisticated as students share and build upon
what the group creates. Music, songs, poetry and literature are used to enhance the language
being used and to make links to a student’s background and prior knowledge. Tim gives the
students permission to articulate their ideas, to think flexibly and to challenge themselves to
wonder about what they are seeing.
Chances for making notes and trying out ideas in the written form are offered throughout the
sessions. Students are given time to write and then share and build upon their writing.
Performance of their writing is developed, voices and oral expression are modeled by Tim as he
encourages the authors to read their writing dramatically and with heart.
Story is all important in this “Within the Game” learning – students are looking for stories and
building information about people, places and objects, using the senses to discover the
surroundings, becoming involved and enlarging and adding detail to the shared world and the
story being developed by the whole class.
Adventure Author – Dr Judy Robertson and Cathrin Howells
“Adventure Author” is a freely available game creation tool for children aged 10-14, a
modification of the “Neverwinter Nights 2” game-making toolset for designing and building
interactive stories.
Cathrin Howells, Adventure Author’s educational research officer, says that computer game
design is a creative, motivating, pupil-centred experience that harnesses children’s own culture
and allows them to read, write and learn in new ways.
Conventional writing is supported and in evidence, but the creation of 3D computer games gives
important insights into the ways that students use visual, spatial and interactive elements of game
design to contribute to the story-making process and how they can carry meaning making
beyond words only.
The Adventure Author program provides a comprehensive set of materials that support students
in constructing stories through a 3D computer game. Setting, plot, character and dialogue are all
structured and supported so that students can easily and confidently plan, write and construct (in
game form) their stories.
Teachers who have been part of the Adventure Author trial have reported that student
motivation to write improved greatly over the project. From the initial design of a fantasy
character, to individual setting descriptions and writing up whole episodes of the story, students
were able to write with greater detail, insight and personal
connections to their writing.
As Adventure Author is a game-making project student learning within the game is a key feature
- students have the ultimate control of both the story and the game. Students use their
knowledge and understandings of stories to design their game, thus expanding and reinforcing
their understandings of writing and telling narratives.
From within the game student’s vocabulary, figurative language, word choice, word order,
characterization, story structures and problem solving skills are tested and rehearsed and played
out in an engaging, playful manner that results in increased knowledge, understanding and skills
in writing narratives.
Learning using games
The study tour allowed me to explore further the possibilities of games- based learning in
classrooms K-10. I was fortunate to be able to witness first hand the use of games in many
contexts across many age groups, and in a variety of curriculum areas.
The most powerful use of games was when their use was:
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Linked to syllabus outcomes
Explicitly planned in detail to support student learning and enable deep knowledge
A shared experience – the game or scene or learning outcome was discussed, shared and
built on by students. The learning was articulated and owned by all the students.
Meaning was constructed as a group – individuals contributed to group understandings
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Language is played with – used in different ways to make different meanings
Immersive – child centred exploration of the game, time to explore and develop
understandings, which are then shared and refined and practiced in other settings
Based in oral learning and un-packing of learning before shared, guided and lastly individual
writing about the learning.
Visiting classrooms and speaking to experts and practitioners was important as it gave me
insights and opportunities to see what games – based learning looks like in on a much larger
scale than in my own classroom.
Games and play are ideal and natural ways of learning language – to learn and play with language
in a group, as a social medium scaffolds learners and enables modeling of structures, ideas, word
order, sentence construction and vocabulary.
Orally playing, rehearsing, practicing and building upon language before using these
understandings in writing is important and necessary from K to Year 10.
The playful aspect of physically playing the game is mirrored and reflected in the playful way of
using language in a number of ways for a number of purposes when writing. My scholarship
study tour allowed for me to see that writing skills can be carefully taught and developed using
games as a context for learning, as an add on to learning and for learning from within the game
itself.