Posted by Brian on January 19, 2010 under games design | 
Very Quick Post!
Just discovered that Scratch has the ability to handle text! I mat be a little behind the times on this one, but what a great potential this has to engage and motivate pupils studying Standard Grade and / or Int 2 Computing. Using a combination of the ask and answer blocks in sensing and appropriate variables, I’m positive pupils would be able to carry out the majority of coursework tasks in this freindly environment.
I have always enjoyed using Scratch in the classroom when we begin to teach programming, but the pupils were often put off when we moved from Scratch to the Xcode environment – and who can blame them?
I just recorded a very quick, not quite up to Avatar standards, screen cast to show how Scratch can take in keyboard input and process it in a very Standard Grade Computing way. 
Posted by Brian on January 13, 2010 under games design |
To begin with, take a few seconds to look at the silouttes below.
Recognise any of them? Of course you do – they are the central characters in some very successful computer games.
I spent some time earlier this week with David from Denki, discussing the process of games design and we got onto the topic of characters in computer games. We talked about how important the lead character in a game is and how it relates to the success of game.
When we think about ‘character’ we often think about the characters personality, characteristics and their personal history/background. In the context of creating a computer game in school, it seems like the ideal opportunity to investigate character in an English class. After discussion and writing a charcters background, they should be able to use it to influence how the character should look. Which brings me on to my main point.
The look of a character should reflect their persona, however, the character itself should be easily idenifyable. Hence the silouettes at the top of the post. When creating an easily recognisible character, you are possibly creating a worldwide marketing tool. How many lunchboxes, wallpapers, mugs, birthday cakes, hats, trainers etc are branded with an iconic computer game character? There is a great post by Aldric Chan here that discusses the importance of character further.
Just off the top of my head, I see great potential for embedding game design, in particular, character design into the Curriculum for Excellence eg…
- Write characters in English
- Explore their characters further in Drama
- Create distinctive character designs in Art, even model using clay?
- Use tools like Scratch to build thir own games
- Use their characters in other areas of the curriculum eg
- Create character objects in CDT like keyrings
- Create caps/tshirt etc HE
- Advertise and market their games in Business Studies
I am really keen to expore the area of characters in computer games further and will be working on a some resources for this at the Consolarium.
It would be great to hear from anyone who has used this idea in their school or any ideas people have about it.
Posted by Brian on January 11, 2010 under games based learning |
I just stumbled upon www.tutpup.com. It looks like a great, competition and rewards based resource for maths and spelling. Really suited to the primary school. Tutpup is affiliated to the adopt-a-monster social networking come edugaming site MoshiMonsters.
With TutPup, teachers can join for free and set up a class code. Pupils can then be given that class code and use it to join. Pupils do not sign in with their names, they choose an animal, colour and number and that becomes their TutPup ID. For example, I am RedOwl11434. Below is a creenshot of the my home page.
When a pupil joins a class you create, you can watch their progress as they compete in competition with other pupils from all over the world in Maths, Algebra, Times Tables and Spelling games. Pupils graduate from each level by correctly answering 10 questions in 3 different games. Pupils can try their best to get onto the Wall of Fame, win awards for winning game and keep a record of their wins.
The screenshot above shows me playing against someone from the USA in a Maths Mix game.
I would love to hear from anyone who is using this resource just now, or if anyone intends to use it with their classes.
Just discovered that Scratch has the ability to handle text! I mat be a little behind the times on this one, but what a great potential this has to engage and motivate pupils studying Standard Grade and / or Int 2 Computing. Using a combination of the ask and answer blocks in sensing and appropriate variables, I’m positive pupils would be able to carry out the majority of coursework tasks in this freindly environment.
