This week we have been learning about effective ways in which game consoles can be used in the primary classroom. We had an input from three university lecturers who all have carried out research into the effects of using games in the primary classroom. All the games discussed are known as 'COTS' - 'commercial off the shelf' games which means they are not written or devised to be used in schools. David Miller and his colleague carried out a trial in 32 schools using the game Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. MissyMack at http://missymack12.blogspot.com/ explains fully the benefits of using this game. Divya Jindal-Snape discussed the use of Guitar Hero at the stage of transition from primary 7 to S1. IFarm at http://ifarm8.blogspot.com/ reflects on how effective this project was. Finally Jill Shimi talked to us about using Nintendogs in the early years classroom, which is what I am going to reflect on in this post.
The main aim of Jill and her colleagues research was to investigate the personal, social and learning gains from children's project work based on the game Nintendogs. The research was carried out using primary 1 and 2 children in four different schools in Aberdeenshire. The teachers of the classes were given free reign to select their own activities and could focus on the project as often or as little as they saw fit.
One of the main benefits that became apparent was increased social interaction in the classroom, especially noticeable in less confident pupils. Children chatted and helped one another whilst playing the game and this inevitably led to enlarged friendship groups and a leveling of hierarchies. Jill gave an example that one child who was always top of the class in all areas was not able to do something on the game and was given advice by a child who was of much lower ability. This shows evidence of increased PAL (peer assisted learning) skills, which are commended by LTScotland who state that peer learning'has a strong emphasis on personal development and can be particularly effective in allowing low achieving pupils to fully participate and succeed in a wider range of educational activities.' I feel that by using this game in the classroom it offers a wide range of activities which can in turn offer success for those who may struggle in other areas of the curriculum.
Another benefit of using Nintendogs was that there was high levels of motivation, enthusiasm and engagement from the pupils involved. I believe this was due to the project being challenging but enjoyable, a founding principle of Curriculum for Excellence. Children had to work hard and persist in training their dog before they could experience success, however the project was exciting and different to the usual day-to-day work in the classroom. The project was also very relevant to the children's lives, with many owning their own pet and having played a Nintendo DS before. The research carried out also showed an improvement in written language, with one class writing a 'doggy diary' documenting the life of their dog.
Overall, I feel this project offered huge benefits to the classes involved, and has shown me how effective the use of 'COTS' games can be. LTScotland list a number of benefits from games based learning:
- motivating learners to succeed and to continually improve
- fostering self-esteem, self-determination and enhancing self-image
- facilitating collaborative learning
- implicitly developing learners ability to observe, question, hypothesise and test
- facilitating metacognitive reflection
- developing complex problem-solving skills
- making school an exciting place to be
- offering inroads into other curricular areas.
I believe that this project encompassed all of these benefits in the early years classroom. I feel I now have a greater understanding of using games in the classroom and have been shown how effective they can be.
References:
Scottish Government (2010) About Game Based Learning. Available online at:
Scottish Government (2010) Peer Education. Available online at:
A very good post that is informative and stays focussed on one software to give depth. Well done.
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