OPLS blog

I promised a review of Imagine Teacher for the Nintendo DS, in the vain hope that it would help teachers in some way with their own professional development. Well, the short answer is, it won’t!

I looked for insights into classroom strategies, help with identifying student learning styles, curriculum planning and perhaps learning space design. I think I was being a little optimistic.

The game is as taxing on the brain as watching Celebrity Big Brother, and, to be honest, I shouldn’t have devoted the amount of time I did in getting to know it, hoping against hope that I’d uncover a few nuggets of wisdom somewhere.

You’re better off using the pictochat feature on the DS and collaborating with peers across the staffroom.

Best avoided.

I have just ordered a copy of Imagine Teacher for the Nintendo DS.  According to Play.com it allows you to:

• Teach your students writing, maths, biology, geography and history
• Develop their artistic skills - music, drawing and pottery
• Help organise school events such as organising parties for your pupils’ birthdays, an end of year party, and many more
• Encourage your students so they find their true vocation
• All your students have their own personalities and favourite subjects
• Position them carefully in the classroom to prevent them from chatting and distracting other pupils
• Buy or collect new items
• Upgrade your school
• Multiplayer for up to 4 players with a single game cart.

I was at NECC 08 recently and bumped into some interesting people. One of whom was Mark Wagner who presented on his PhD research into the use of massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPGs) in education.

According to the literature review for his thesis, MMORPGs offer significant possibilities for rich social interactions and learning.  They include:

• Engagement and motivation
• Context-embedded learning
• Inquiry-driven learning
• Socially negotiated learning
• Reflection and metacognition
• Social change

Mark set about testing these via the Delphi method and, from his discussions with a number of experts in the field of education, learning and gaming, he concluded that these benefits were possible but that a good body of evidence needed to be further developed.

He does, though, have a number of recommendations for educators and these are as follows:

• Use existing commercial MMORPGs with students, particularly in relation to developing 21st Century Learning Skills.
• Support MMORPG play with dedicated, structured and frequent debriefing.
• Use MMORPGs to motivate and engage students.
•  Use MMORPGs as a context for student learning, including social learning.
• But beware infrastructure needs and logistical challenges.

We went through a few examples that he recommends, which I have diigo-ed.  You can find them here.  Please take a look when you can.