THE Game

Just spent an evening with colleagues and students on the last session of the online games course. I was really impressed with so much of this. It is a curious experience because it is, on the one hand, very matter of fact, but on the other it breaks so many boundaries. It is delivered from Chicago and other presenters join in from across the world - so geographically liberated. It takes place in the evenings and we are at home - so timetable free. Most of the presentations are done by games professionals or the students themselves - so teacher free or at least the teacher is not the expert but a fellow learner. Self evaluation of their work and their working practice is wired into the structure and the thinking - so assessment for learning is not an afterthought. Students are invited to critique the course, the teaching and the presenters - so they are involved in managing and improving their learning.

And do they respond - of course they do. They worked in teams and made a game but more than that they also learned about team building and working. They were able to talk clearly about their own work and working practice and in doing so demonstrated how much they had learned about gaming concepts, design, principles, constraints, brainstorming, marketing and the creative process. But for me the most important aspect of the experience was to remind me, once again, of how sensitive and perceptive learners children can be when they are given the responsibility and freedom to work with their teachers rather than for them. I am grateful for that.

Garden Feature

EYFS (Early Years and Foundation Stage) Guidance specifies the absolute importance of outdoor learning and activity "These activities help children in getting stimulation, well-being and happiness, and is the means through which they grow physically, intellectually and emotionally. Outdoor provision is an essential part of the child’s daily environment and life."

So early yesterday I was really impressed to see this peacock amongst the sand and water trays in Cuddington School. However, my enthusiastic anticipation of childrens' heightened well being and happiness was somewhat deflated after a colleague described the bird as a vicious and peevish creature. So the source of stimulation was, in fact, merely a health risk. Good to learn life's key lessons early I guess.

Something significant happening here

Just need to put down a marker here about the work being done at Chalfonts Community College. I have written of this before but the new website seems to me to be something special. It represents four, or five, years hard work, risk taking and experiment, but it does at last give a real sense of what can happen when students become totally digitally literate and use the technology and grammar of new communications media to express themselves. Here there are 6th form students whose portfolio is purely digital. They are in fact accomplished designers who publish their work. In other places the natural humour and creativity of adolescents are given free reign as games are designed and published for others to play - love the game which uses smoke being blown into lungs as a scoring system. I'written before of the online games design course. The creative and media diploma is also well represented as the course and outcomes are published online.

The other thing I find inspirational in this school is the way that media studies are being developed in ways which totally embrace web 2 technology. Teacher blogs and twitter have become part of the learning dialogue free from the constraints of classrooms and timetables. Published video blogs have been folded into the broader revision practices being used in the run up to the examinations.

In a sense some of us have been talking about this for a long while now. But it does seem that this work around new media is now genuinely established and demonstrating really new ways of working.

Distressed wet photos

Today I was really impressed by some A level photography I saw at Buckingham School. I particularly liked the wet chemical experiments of students where developer, was spashed and dripped during processing and finished prints were crunched, rubbed and generally distressed before being layered and collaged into new images.

Some interesting digital work too as images were printed onto different papers and surfaces. As soon as students start putting wall paper through the coloured inkjet printers you start getting intriguing images and it leads to all sorts of other games and experiments - much better than the normal A4 white stationary.