Context for Games Based Learning

This week our task was to develop a context for learning using a piece of games technology for a class of primary 6.  We chose the game Just Dance for the Wii for a number of reasons.  Firstly, we were all familiar with the game therefore felt confident and competent to use this as a context for a learning experience for the children.  Also, we believed most children would have played on a Wii before, and maybe even have played the game Just Dance before so we thought it would be interesting and motivating for the children.  Finally, from a practical aspect we thought the Wii was a good choice of console as we could have four children playing the game at the same time, thus making the organisation of the activity more manageable.  I have previously talked about the benefits of contexts for learning, so if you would like to read those points please visit my blog post Digital Literacy and ICT.

Using the game Just Dance as a context opened up a wide range of opportunities for learning experiences.  Our focus learning, through the context of Just Dance, was to create an attractive and informative poster advertising a dance performance.  Below is a copy of our full lesson plan should you wish to read and understand it in greater detail.

Class/Group: P6 group (8 children)           Lesson: Just Dance          Date: 16.2.12

Previous Experience We are not sure if they have experience with Just Dance on the Wii, but we think mostly all children will have had some sort of experience working with computer consoles.  We assume children will have had some experience making a poster before.
Working towards outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience. LIT 2-06A I can develop and communicate my ideas, demonstrating imagination and presenting at least one possible solution to a design problem. EXA 2-06A
		ASSESSMENT
Learning Intentions WALT: -          create an attractive and informative poster		Success Criteria I will be able to:  - make my poster eye-catching and colourful  - include relevant information e.g. venue, cost  - create a name and logo for my dance crew	Methods -          Thumbs up, thumbs down -          Checking children’s posters and assessing it against the success criteria
Timing				Resources
5 mins  5 mins	Setting the context/Beginning the lesson (Introduction) Introduce ourselves and let the children introduce themselves.  Let everyone put a name tag on, including us Q – Has anyone ever seen a dance performance before? (real life, tv…) Q – Has anyone ever participated in a dance performance before? Show them a dance performance they may be familiar with – Diversity on Britain’s got Talent (youtube clip) Teaching the learning intentions (Development) Diversity’s clip has led quite nicely into what we will be doing today – focusing on dance performances. Our learning intention today is to create an attractive and informative poster. We have two activities for today: 1. To explore Just Dance 3 on the Wii. (Children will be trained on the job). 2. To create a poster advertising a dance performance.  We would like you to do one each but you can all discuss it together and help each other out. Resources on table – help yourselves. Logo examples on table to give you some inspiration for creating your own logos. Go over the success criteria which are on the ‘think about…’ sheet and answer any questions the children may have about the task.			Paper, pens, sellotape Youtube clip Projector Screen Wii console, 4 controllers, just dance game A4 & A3 paper, pens, pencils, rulers, logo examples, ‘think about’ sheets

15 mins  5 mins	All children will start working on their poster, minus one group of 4 children who will go straight onto the Wii. The children will take it in turns (in groups of 4) on the Wii, having the opportunity to complete two short songs in each turn. The children will continue to rotate in this manner. Ending the lesson (Plenary) Stop the children and do ‘thumbs up, thumbs down’ so see if they feel they have met the success criteria. Q – Have you had experience with two stars and a wish before? Inform the children they will be giving todays activities two stars and a wish.  Give the children a post it note each and once they have finished they can stick it on a big piece of paper on the wall.		A3 piece of paper, post it notes
Success Criteria Results		Next steps for the children
EVALUATING MY PRACTICE
Going well (what worked and why?)		Areas for development (what didn’t work and why?)
Next Steps for Me

In planning our lesson, we decided to introduce it with a video clip from ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ winners Diversity.  We chose this dance group because we believed they would be meaningful and relevant to the children as we thought most children would have seen them before.  Also we believed their type of dance would appeal to both boys and girls therefore allowing all children to be engaged through the context.

For the vast majority of children our context was really engaging and enjoyable.  One child was slightly hesitant about joining in with the dancing but did so and enjoyed it, then went on to produce a fantastic poster.  However another child was completely disengaged from the dancing context, meaning he was then disengaged with making a poster as he was so upset by the whole dance experience.  I believe we could have avoided this situation if we allowed an element of personalisation and choice to the context.  This was difficult to do as we had no communication with the children before they came to the University.  However what we could have done was: create two contexts with a different task for each one, then let each group of 8 children choose between them which context they wanted to engage in.  Another factor contributing to this child’s disengagement was because we didn’t know the children.  When I spoke to their class teacher about the situation she said she knew this would happen with this child as he thinks he is too cool for such things and has acted like this before.  This reinforced the importance of knowing the children in your class so you can cater to individual’s needs and interests.

A further observation from today was that the final group (3 groups in total) engaged most in both the context and in making the posters.  This could be due to a few reasons.  It could be because by our third time of presenting the context and activity we made it more exciting, meaning the children responded better to the context.  Or it could simply be that the children in the third group were the most interested and motivated by dance in comparison to the children in the other groups, so it was always going to happen that way.

The vast majority of children really enjoyed engaging with the game Just Dance on the Wii and making a poster.  The general opinion of the children’s feedback was that they enjoyed being active but wanted to spend more time exploring the game Just Dance and have longer to complete their poster.  To be very honest, I thought this would be the case.  If I was to use this context in the classroom myself I would have split the lesson over two classes so all children could engage in the Just Dance game together.  Then later, all children could engage in making their posters together without being distracted from what was going on around them (which I believe happened).  Due to the rushed nature of the learning experience I am not sure the children fully understood the relevance Just Dance had to making their poster.  Brooks-Young says:

“…students need to be provided with opportunities to reflect on their gaming experiences to be sure they understand the content learning” Brooks-Young, S (2010, p.95).

I believe that if the exploration of the Just Dance game and making the posters was done in two separate lessons then the children would have more likely seen the relevance of the context to their learning experience.  Also, we as teachers would have had more time to make this clear to the children.

A final point to consider would be the organisation and management of this activity if I were to do it myself in the classroom.  Today we had a ratio of 5 students to 8 pupils.  I felt this was far too many students to the number of children and made it an uncomfortable environment for me to work in as I often felt I had no purpose.  However I do realise if I were to do this activity myself in the primary classroom it would be a whole new difficult as there would be a ratio of 30 children to 1 teacher.  Saying that I quietly feel confident I would manage the children’s learning effectively.

References

Brooks-Young, S (2010).  Teaching with the tools kids really use – learning with web and mobile technologies.  London: Sage Ltd.