Teacher Training – Games in the Classroom

Delivered a workshop to a class of teachers in training, on how they can incorporate gaming in the classroom.

I set out to demonstrate a variety of approaches which, could be used in order to reap the benefits of gaming in the classroom. This started with an introduction into bespoke development, like the services we other at Ideonic to how COTS (commercial of the shelf) games could be used for educational purposes; this included an activity to develop communication skills using a Wii and a blindfold – a great success.

We then looked at how freely available social media could be used to create games, which they could then use in the classroom. This was in the from of an ARG (alternate reality game) I devised called ‘Sophie Carroll’ (visit the starting point at sophiecarroll.wordpress.com ) - this worked extremely well and sparked many ideas for its application to different areas of learning.

Finally we did some brain storming (using computer game characters as an seed) to find solutions for the challenges of getting gaming into the classroom.