Children in Action(scripts)

We have been lucky enough to work with with 2simple using a product called 2diy over the last couple of weeks. 2DIY if you haven’t heard of it before allows the user to create simple flash games. We have been exploring some of the hidden treasures of the software a programming language called action scripts. This is all leading towards making my class experts in Action Scripts and some of my class and me going to Game Based Learning Conference and allowing the children to teach others about what they can do.

Below is a brief over view of what we have done over the last few weeks.

Week 1
My class used the software and created a simple game based on the theme of internet safety. It allowed the class to use the basic functions.

Week 2
Started to introduce action script and learnt how to creating power ups. So how to make the player jump higher, move faster and fall quicker. This was taught to use via Skype and Anthony Evans of 2simple. Children liked this and its worked, Powerups are a great place to start with action scripts.

Week 3
Introduced more action script ideas, how to teleport a player and how to turn things invisible, these seemed to be much more difficult. The teleporting needed children to think about coordinates which threw some, also others needed to practice powerups again.
I realised that even though the focus of these lessons is to teach action script, it is a concept that was designed for the higher ability in the class. Though I want it to be accessible for all, we just need to remember to balance how many new ideas we add, this week we did too much. We need to practice more.

Week 4
Had two sessions this week – one where we just spent an hour going over the action script skills we had already learnt and practice them by adding them to our World Book Day games from last week.

The main session this week was a small bit of action script teaching in the form of a video from 2simple that reviewed teleporting and the how to lose a life. My class was set a challenge to create a multi level game which included some of the action script skills we have been learning. We discussed game design, what we had to consider to make a game challenging and the story or aim of a game. I didn’t give children a topic to follow i wanted them to use their imaginations.

Week 5
Most of the class continued to work on their multi level games. I worked with two of the children in my class who where best at using action scripts and we met up with the Year 6 children of Whissendine CE Primary School their Headteacher Rob Gooding. They taught the children how to make Power Ups, I helped a little bit. Check out the video below.



I met up with the school again later and saw two great examples that where using action scripts.

Moving onto week 6 this will be a final chance to practice before 4 of my class attend the Games Based Learning Conference. Come back for more info and some examples of the games we produced.

TeachmeetBETT 2010

In the evening of Bett I attended the Teachmeet, a place where anyone can get up and talk for 2 or 7 minutes about what they are doing in class. It’s a great place to be inspired as one teacher said what’s normal to us is a lightbulb to someone else. A list of all the speakers is here and you can re-watch the whole thing by replaying the live flashmeeting.

If you wanna know nore about what a teachmeet is click here and watch the video.

These are the things that I took away with me.

Voki.com – as a way to create speaking avatars. 2 teachers spoke about how they are using it as:
- a way for showing younger children to navigate the MLE
- an MFL tool, by creating Voki’s that speak different languages.
- a way to present Lit work inparticular poems – it also has the ability to leave comments.



Get a Voki now!



http://linkbun.ch/ – a way to share a number of links in a single link. Click on the link and they will all open up in tabs. It’s a great way to prepare lessons and almost teach just from a series of webpages. Share your planning over twitter. http://linkbun.ch/khv7 - of all the links from this post.

An idea for Databases – a murder mystery which you have to solve by investigating databases – cool idea.

http://www.xtranormal.com/ - create videos online – great starter activity for introducing video creation and editing.

David Phips of http://www.ictcoverlessons.com/ – showed live how you can turn two Wii motes into a Interactive whiteboard - £100 cost. It was great ;o)

Helen Myers – talked passionately about how she has discovered Second Life and been using it to learn languages and how that she is starting to build a Languages world in Teengrid. Check out her video.

Of course I spoke as well check out the video of the of me speaking about the Redbridge Games Network.

BETT 2010 - Thoughts and things

Yesterday was my day to soak in the technical goodness that was Bett. It was a very long day, since I also attended TeachmeetBett2010 (post to come)

While I saw a few interesting things, there where no wow moments this year for me. I'll briefly list some of the things that caught my eye.

2create a superstory from 2simple was a really nice product which allows children to create a variety of books and texts. Its selling feature is the ability to very easily add animation and sounds to these stories. Think 2createastory all grown up. I've got my copy and hope to be using it with the children next week.

Augmented Reality was on a few stands and is a really interesting concept. These little black shapes or square patterns when shown to a web cam allow a 3d model to be show and moved around. The people from connectED where showing a PSP system that would also play videos or sounds when shown a certain image. There is something to this tech, it just seems that no-one really knows how to make it work in class. Below is a video of a Smart product - the page turning this a nice idea. 2simple have also shown some AR in the past working with their online tools and 2design and make.

Projectors seemed to the talk of a number of stands and they seemed to range in size and power. Casio has a revolutionary one which was bulb less. £750 2000 lumen's and a 5 year or 10,000 lamp hour life warranty.

I'm always on the look out for cool new laptops and this one below really caught my eye. Dual screen, net book sized. The company called VYE has a range of net books and smaller sized products. Click the link to check them out.

I was as always on the lookout for new robot products and spotted two things. One was the new LEGO Education WeDo System which is a really nice KS1, early KS2 introduction to Programming and the Lego Mindstorms system. The children build models based on a story. It is a really nice package and allows children to experience some control concepts that aren't normally taught till year 5 or 6.

The other product I saw was from RM and called TETRIX. Another Lego product that combines Mindstorms and the NXT brick with a metal construction system. Think Mecano but it connects with technic lego as well. Great progression, more of a secondary resource though. :o(

Anthings was at the show of course and showing of the new audio recorder in their software.
Finally a great success for Redbridge was that children and teachers where invited to talk about their work with 2DIY at the Playful Learning Stand which was sponsored by Stephen Heppel. Children from Geries Infants and Cleaveland Juniors had been working together to make games for each other it was great to see and their will be video available soon.

New post on Redbridge Games Network - Wii and PE?

Click the link to check out the work I did with my class using the Wii in my PE lesson.

http://redbridgegamesnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/12/wii-and-pe-part-3-power-up-to-year-6.html

Vikings - We want you!

Use the following video and links to find out some information about Viking Warriors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/viking_raiders/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/warriorchallenge/vikings/profile.html



Find out about

1. What they did.

2. The weapons and equipment they had.

3. Where they travelled to.

4. How often they would go on raids.


Write a leaflet encouraging people to join up and become vikings. Include the information above.

Wii in School this week.

Its been a good week for the Wii in Nightingale this week.

Its been used in both a Year 6 maths lessson and a Year 4 PE lesson.

Click on the links to see what we did and how it worked out.

Mario Kart Day 2

Today was day two to Mario Kart in class. Click on the link to find out how it went.