Just when you thought the Final Fantasy series couldn’t possibly reach any higher (though it always has to be honest) the first and second games have been released on the iPhone and Touch.
It’s been many years since I was introduced to the Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation 1 – Quite possibly the most addictive and spell binding game I’ve ever played.
Character, plot, music, sound fx and of course, graphics were sewn together to make an absolute work of art.
Final Fantasy III is available on the Nintendo DS and can be sourced easily and at a relatively small expense now. Games VII and VIII are still exclusive to the Playstation 1 which is a shame but may change with time.
Now…where does Final Fantasy come into the classroom on iPhone/Touch, PlayStation or DS? I hear you ask…To me, the answer is in every element of the game. There’s the reading of text (both conversational and directing), problem solving (map reading, in game puzzles), memory skills, numeracy (based on character health during battle and the in game currency), character creation, story telling, creative writing, podcasting reviews, recording character voices (which are not available in the game – it’s text speech only), fan art, game creation and language learning (the game can be played in a number of different languages).
As with all games the key to effective learning is not in the act of playing but in the use of the game as a tool for engagement. In my experience the Final Fantasy games will have pupils glued to your whiteboard (if you can project your iPhone), or to their Touch’s (if you are lucky enough to have them in class) with fresh and exciting learning as a result (not to mention the enjoyment you will have playing an old favourite, or a new addiction)
My only reservation would be the cost of the game on the iPhone/Touch…currently this hasn’t been set but I imagine it will be at the higher end.
It’s confirmed…Louise will be speaking at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua, New Zealand on 24th and 25th February!
We have been invited to speak about 21st Century Learning and how we approach the use of technology in the classrooms of Britain.
There are a great many people who have been involved in professional development programmes throughout New Zealand in the past few years. The Learning@School conference provides a wonderful opportunity for practitioners to share what has been happening for them as well as an opportunity for the international education community to take part too.
The Ministry of Education sponsors this annual Information and Communication Technologies Professional Development (ICTPD) conference at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua, to be held from 23-26 February 2010. There will be a powhiri and a special reception for all of our conference presenters on 23rd February.
Aptly named ‘Embedding New Technologies across the National Curriculum‘ Louise’s presentation will promote what we call ‘Eduvation‘, combining Education with Innovation, Inspiration and Application.
Course Aims Include:
- Explore a variety of ICT technologies and apply them in a classroom context
- To develop lesson ideas using ICT to engage learners
- Experience ‘Eduvation’ through the eyes of the learner
- Practice and apply Games-Based-Learning, Social Media and ICT to the curriculum
Technologies explored:
- Google Earth
- Digital Media
- MP3/MP4
- Games Platforms – Guitar Hero/Nintendo DS/Nintendo Wii
It’s taken a bit of time to get this blog post up. It’s been a very busy time at the Do Be HQ. We attended the annual Scottish Leaders Conference in Cumbernauld. The theme of the two conference was respecting professionalism. Head teachers from all over Scotland enjoyed the key notes speakers (Fiona Hyslop, Dr Carol Craig and Professor James Conroy) Dinner was particularly enjoyable at the Westerwood Hotel which I would recommend. We also had time to take advantage of the brand new leisure facilities. I feel it is a must to take advantage of these opportunities when they are available!
At the conference we ran a competition and Steve Dougan at Bo’ness Academy won Teach-It. It was an honor to present the Teach-It to Steve. David Mitchell the HT was also there but he voted on being the photographer this time. Bo’ness Academy have supported Do Be since day one so I was delighted when they won our competition. There are many reasons why we are elated to be working with Bo’ness Academy. ‘Eduvation‘ is the perfect word to describe how teaching and learning works in Bo’ness. They use a blend of technology and innovation to engage their learners in their education everyday.
2009 has been an exceptional year for the Bo’ness. Their S1 pupils worked closely with our local business partner Caledonian Produce to produce healthy salads. The pupils were split into teams and worked in Art & Design, Home Economics, Business Ed/ICT and PSE to design, make and market a salad which could be sold to young people in Marks and Spencers. The winning teams salad “Fruity Fiesta Rice” was so good is was sold by Marks & Spencers. Over 40000 salads have been sold with the profits coming back to Bo’ness Academy. Now that’s what I call enterprising pupils!
The school has been awarded the accolade of “Smart Showcase School”. This award has only been presented to 5 schools in the UK. It is for schools that have demonstrated a high level of innovative use of ICT across the curriculum. At present along with using interactive whiteboards our teachers use blogs, twitter, voting tools, video (you tube), digital papers, podcasts and MP4 players (do-be ones obviously!)
Through our involvement in the promotion of effective ICT as a tool to aid learning and teaching, Steve had the privilege of being selected as part of a Scottish contingent to visit Copenhagen to look at what is going on in their education system with regards to innovative ICT work (Steve you get all the good jobs)
We are going to be working closely with Steve’s staff on the implementation of Teach-It into the curriculum. Steve commented ‘We are working closely with Do Be to help some of our staff become more confident in using the internet to stimulate and promote discussions. Teach-it is a fantastic aid and the training that is provided makes even the most IT illiterate member feel empowered’
It is clear to me that Bo’ness Academy is paving the way in Scottish education and beyond. They are always keen to look at ways they could be even more creative in the classroom and it is a exciting to working with Bo’ness taking learning to the next level…
As many of the tools used in the Teach-It are hosted and accessed by the general public we at Do Be, and the teachers using these tools have little or no control over what the public decide to do with them. As is the nature of Web 2.0, we gain the most from it when we are invited to interact with these tools in such a way that we provide data (words, pictures, sounds etc) and the tools in turn provide us with rich content that can be used to enhance learning and teaching in our classrooms.
We are aware however that on this basis, there may be elements of these tools/websites that can be unsuitable for a younger audience. Not on the part of the tool creators themselves but from the public providing the data.
An example would be Wordle…fast becoming a widely recognised tool suitable for use for all manner of learning from literacy to self assessment and even CV creation. We all want to be able to use Wordle in the classroom but there are many other people using Wordle for different reasons, many of which are simply recreational. These ‘Wordles’ are then posted on a public gallery from which their content can be viewed by anyone and that includes your pupils. These public ‘Wordles’ may include words that are unsuitable for children (or anyone for that matter) and so the knee jerk reaction tends to be a complete ban of Wordle across a school or even an entire authority.
At Do Be we believe in helping teachers with both ‘Responsible Use‘ guidelines as well as solutions where these guidelines are not enough. In the case of Wordle I would like to bring a solution to your attention which will allow you to continue to use this tool in class without the worry of inappropriate material being accessed:
The Wordle front page will never feature images or links that are inappropriate for classroom use. Therefore, it’s possible to configure “site-blocking” software to keep Wordle safe.Simply have your networking administrator block the following base URLs: http://www.wordle.net/galleryhttp://www.wordle.net/nexthttp://www.wordle.net/random Your users will not be inadvertently shown anything that’s not safe for classrooms. If your filtering software only blocks per domain, then you’re out of luck. It should be noted that the chances of stumbling across inappropriate public material in Wordle is not possible when following theTeach-ItWordle Lesson Ideas. I hope this helpsStephen
I had a great time down in London on Friday. My first presentation was at Redbridge Teacher Centre in Ilford. The teachers I met in Redbridge were doing some amazing stuff using technology to engage and enhance learning.
Anthony Evans(amazing guy) or follow him on Twitter@skinnyboyevansorganised the day so BIG thank you Anthony. You can check out Anthony’s blogpost on my presentation.
Feedback from teachers onTeach-Itwas really positive even though most of them were into ICT in a big way. Wordle, Picnikand of-course Google Earthwere some of the favourite applications.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Del Singhfrom Woodlands Primary in Redbridge. Del has introducedTeach-Itto all staff in his school to enrich the teaching of their ICT scheme. Del described how he gave the pupils a photocopy of the skills they were learning which included steps on how to meet the learning objective. He said that pupils worked at their own pace to complete the activity in the Digital Image Section (Idea 2). Pupils then applied their new skills of saving images from sites such asGoogle,Flickrand DeviantArtinto a PowerPoint presentations on their topic this term – Ancient Egypt.
Here is just one of a huge number of positive quotes from Del’s students:
‘The only place I knew I could search for images was Google Images….now I know about flikr and deviantart’ – Yr 5 pupil
Here is an example of the staff feedback:
‘A good resource that also get pupils reading and following instructions’ – Caroline Jones
‘All in all I think this is an innovative resource that supports pupils learning of current technologies’ – Del Singh
Here is an example of the feedback sent so far on how the pilot is going:
It’s been a busy start for Stephen and I this week. We were invited by David Innes (Enterprise Officer Aberdeenshire Council) to exhibit at the Aberdeenshire Learning Festival #alf09. We had a great time and the food was gorgeous. I particularly liked the Aberdeen Angus beef stew.
Jamie Andrew was one of the main speakers at the conference. He survived for five days perched precariously on an icy ledge at the summit of an alpine mountain while winds raged to 130 km per hour, and temperatures plummeted to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Jamie survived the ordeal, but at great personal cost. Ten days later his hands and his feet, damaged by frostbite, were amputated. Amazingly, only three months later, Jamie emerged from hospital, walking on prosthetic legs.
Since then Jamie has defied all expectations by running the London Marathon, returning to climbing using his own design of prosthetic ice axe, climbing Ben Nevis, revisiting the Alps, reaching the roof of Africa, and learning to ski, snowboard, sail and paraglide, raising tens of thousands of pounds for charity in the process. His humble and unassuming manner, coupled with a positive attitude towards life and its challenges make Jamie an extraordinary example of bravery and determination. He now does lots of work in schools telling his inspirational story to others. Jamie has also written an award winning first book, “Life and Limb”, it tells the tale of his remarkable story. He is a truly amazing human being and it was fantastic to hear his story.
We work with many Aberdeenshire schools using our Do Be Learn-It MP4’s. It was great to meet teachers running their own unique projects and enhancing learning and teaching using our technology.
Not only did we meet fantastic teachers we also met some fantastic companies. Juliet from Creative Star caught my attention. She specialises in the delivery of creative workshops and resources to motivate people to get children learning outside. Check her website out www.creativestarlearning.co.uk
The teachers were blown away by Teach-It and the lesson ideas it offers. I found Aberdeenshire teachers to be very forward thinking. Some teachers explained they weren’t very confident using ICT in the classroom but what I loved was there was still a willingness to learn to engage their pupils in this way. Teachers are aware that education and the way pupils want to learn is changing and they need to be getting creative and innovative in their classrooms.
I am sure Teach-It will be landing in Aberdeenshire very soon.
Heading out to annual Scottish Leaders Conference tomorrow and Friday. Looking forward to sitting in on Dr Carol Craigs key note on confidence and wellbeing. I’ll keep you posted!
Since the launch of our Teach-It and due to it’s huge success throughout a vast number of UK schools so far, we’ve been busy working on the Teach-It 2.
Filling the pages of my, already packed ‘Technovation Journal’ with fresh experiences, experiments, tutorials, hints, tips and tricks from an unending stream of the latest web 2 applications, I stumbled upon Prezi.
This incredible little tool, used for the purposes of making presentations, easily outstrips both Powerpoint and Keynote as an impressive and easy-to-use presentation app.
Being web based there is no need to install anything on computers or servers giving you permanent access to your presentations for both editing and showcasing and (in it’s basic form) it’s also free meaning you can enjoy this highly adaptable tool in the classroom without impacting on your budget.
I’m now developing a series of Prezi Lesson Ideas focussing on literacy, numeracy, science and expressive arts so watch this space!
In the meantime, here is a ‘Prezi‘ I made for you to watch. Enjoy and let me know what you think?
You will require the latest version of Flash to play this…get it here!
Here’s a great opportunity for some 21st century learning and an idea for using your blank Teach-ItLesson Ideas…
With the moving image at the heart of what so many young people engage with today, from music videos, television and cinema to animation and the self made You Tube phenomenon we feel this years National Schools Film Weekhas to be an excellent basis for engagement in (or in this case) out of, the classroom.
This year’s dates are: England, Wales & Northern Ireland – 15-23 October 2009 Scotland: 2-6 November 2009
National Schools Film Week (NSFW)provides teachers and their students the opportunity to see a wide range of films at local cinemas entirely free-of-charge. From major urban centres to small towns, NSFW extends education into local cinemas, giving teachers the opportunity to use the power of film to cover many different subjects.
I checked and my own local cinema is taking part up here in Dunfermline Scotland!
The festival is available to any school and every pupil, with last years attendance numbering 410,000.
Bookings of all sizes are welcome as long as there is space in the cinema!
How can I use cinema in my teaching? Learning which takes place beyond the classroom walls plays an important role in students’ social and cultural education. By providing free film screenings, along with a rich programme of educational events and a wealth of high quality, curriculum-based online resources to support learning, National Schools Film Week ensures these opportunities are available to students of all backgrounds. Learners at any level can gain immensely from the cinema experience whether they are at Higher level Film Studies or a Year 1 child seeing their first-ever big screen film.
Think CfE - The experience of film goes far beyond the cinema. Before a screening, teachers can involve their whole class in preparing for the event, for example, by researching the history of the local cinema, investigating current films’ releases or exploring the issues that feature in their chosen film. Back in the classroom, Film Educa’ion’s curriculum–focused teaching materials make it easy to incorporate film across a sequence of lessons or even a whole term, whether exploring issues presented onscreen or developing an understanding of the language of film. Whatever your focus, film can provide a valuable, accessible and engaging mode of delivery to learners.
So, aside form the enjoyment of this event itself – if you are using ourTeach-Itwhy not take your blank Lesson Ideas and create lessons based on this event. Mail them to us and we can help to refine them for use throughout the rest of the year.
Glasgow saw it’s first glimpse of the newTeach-Itthis week as Stephen launched to classroom resource in John Paul Academy.
JPA are leading the way inTechnovation, 21st Century TeachingandCPDas staff have been given the resource as part of their personal and professional development as well as their active classroom resources this year.
The project, led by Technical teacher and ICT enthusiastFrank Bannon(Twitter – MrBTec) is designed to help staff develop their knowledge and practical application of the technologies pupils are using every day. The Teach-It will help all staff to learn how to use 5 key technologies for use in the classroom as part of the new curriculum throughout the year.
The launch, carried out as a twilight session was a huge success with a full turnout of staff including P.E teacher Charlie (who I met a few days later at a mutual friends wedding!). Staff were shown the Teach-It in both paper and online format and given time to discuss it’s use in each of their subjects.
As always we look forward to next years CPD training day – TheDo Be Use-Itin which the Teach-It will be used to it’s full potential by the staff at JPA, creating rich content for use in the classroom as well as for whole school projects, blogs and even GLOW.
Thanks to Head Teacher Vincent Docherty for his belief in the Teach-It and toFrank Bannon (Twitter – MrBTec) for his tireless efforts in setting this whole project up. The eyes of Glasgows education network are on you!
Lately I’ve been playing Touch Physics again…I blogged a while back about this great app and only recently rediscovered it’s childish yet scientific fascination.
A great little game for the scientist in you!
Touch Physics is a fantastic little game that allows the player to manipulate a given environment using the basic laws of Physics:
Motion Gravity Mass Force Energy
Combining Science with the most basic Art skills the aim of the game is to get your Ball to the Star and complete the level.
Throughout the full fifty levels your ball starts in any and every kind of scenario. It may be static, at the top or bottom of a hill, trapped in a box, on top of a triangle, inside another shape, on a see-saw and so many more. From here your job is to create shapes and actions that will allow your ball to travel around the screen and reach the star.
Solutions include building walls to protect the ball from falling off screen, constructing a see-saw on which a larger shape can be dropped sending your ball towards the star (if you’re lucky!), creating shapes that will push your ball out of a hole or off a ledge and creating slides and /or hills to navigate varying heights.
Using very attractive artwork that emulates crude chalk marks on backgrounds of crumpled paper, polystyrene and wood this will appeal immediately to your pupil’s as well as your own inner child while challenging the natural scientist in all of us.
You can download a Lite version of TouchPhysics for free in the App store for the first 5 levels. The full version has 50 levels with the promise of more to come.
Ideas for use:
• (Individual) Pupils tackle levels, working their way through the levels to the end.
• (Group) Pupils work in groups to tackle each level, taking shots in turn.
• (Group) Pupils complete each level then discuss each element of Physics involved.
• (Group) Pupils recreate levels using physical objects in class/school.
• (Class) Pupils tackle levels on paper first, planning their solution then attempting each in turn.
• (Class) Teacher tackles each level following Pupils instructions.
Ideas for application:
• Try projecting your iPhone to the White board using Honlai’s QingBar MP101 iPhone projector. • Use multiple iPhones for individual/group learning • Collatescreenshots from your iPhonethen project them to the White Board and invite pupils to solve the levels using the pens.
We hope you enjoy this iPhone app and find many ways to enrich the learning in the Physics classroom. To finish we’ve included a neat video of the game in action:
Just when you thought the Final Fantasy series couldn’t possibly reach any higher (though it always has to be honest) the first and second games have been released on the iPhone and Touch.
and let me know what you think?
