Author: Cathie Howe

Games and Learning with Little Space Heroes

“Play is a key strategy in developing a design practice that is agile enough to entertain a constant need for transformative thinking but substantive enough to throw its strategic weight around when needed.” Katie Salen “Research is beginning to suggest that computer games can help to stimulate a successful learning environment and provide motivational learning contexts that suit many learners. They also provide an opportunity to develop communities in which learners have a sense of ownership over what they do.” Education Scotland “Games are increasingly recognised as becoming the literacy of the 21st Century” Chris Swain, Associate Research Professor...

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Young Game Designers in Action at Hornsby North Public School

Early in 2011, four Stage 1 teachers from Hornsby North Public School attended professional development courses at the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre (MacICT) in the use of the ‘Kahootz’ software and Game Design. Although the course was largely aimed at Stage 2 and 3, we were pretty sure our younger students in Year 1 and 2 could learn the basic skills needed to create a simple game. The game design element complimented the Stage 1 writing program in particular the work on narratives. We spent a term teaching some of the basic skills such as ‘swatching’ worlds and objects,...

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Invasion of the Shadow Plague micro-pilot: Midway Musings

Seven weeks ago MacICT launched a micro-trial of its new metagame, ‘Invasion of the Shadow Plague’ with two primary schools and three high schools, totalling 700 students. This project uses a socio-constructivist approach to teaching game design and is centered within a Word Press Blog. It requires students to complete nine missions and write nine mission reports earning the students digital badges allowing them to level up and complete the next mission. While playing the game through completing the missions, students are learning how to design and build games using Kodu Game Lab and practice the skills of good...

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Invasion of the Shadow Plague – Will You Save Us?

Two weeks ago our new Kodu narrative based metagame website, ‘Invasion of the Shadow Plague’ went live for the first time and, as Debbie Evans described it, it was a bit like giving birth! The Game Design team, spent months reading, researching, planning and designing an innovative way to integrate game design into teaching and learning that would be linked to curriculum outcomes across both primary and high school and provide an immersive experience for boys and girls from Year 3 to Year 10. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/yjhqoq1ePYg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> Students are ‘heroes’ in the Invasion of the Shadow...

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Imagine

Imagine having our students being so engaged in a complex, goal directed activity, that self-consciousness disappears and time becomes distorted and they do it, not for external rewards but simply for the exhilaration of doing! This is what can happen when we play well designed video games. I am sure many of us have either experienced it, or witnessed it in adults and children, that complete and energized focus on the game, the fun and fulfillment, the intense involvement, where nothing else matters but the game! What is it about playing good video games that enables this level of...

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PLEASE NOTE: MacICT was closed in 2016. This website remains as a record of the research conducted and courses run during its operation.