Consolarium

The Consolarium, Education Scotland, Years Active: 2006-2014

What the Consolarium offered

• The Consolarium was a centre where education managers, head-teachers and teachers could visit in order to try out a range of computer games and game design technologies in order to discuss the relevance and practical application of them in their schools.
• There was a team of Development Officers who worked with schools on agreed projects and who could offer support to deliver CPD events and even to speak to parent groups.
• Education Scotland could loan to schools to support their shared projects a range of game based resources that included games and consoles for example, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Sony PS3 and Xbox360.
• The team shared what was happening in schools, through a variety of channels. Teachers could collaborate using the Glow group and share the resources and experiences they had with their game based learning and game design classroom practice.

Unfortunately, this initiative has since been pulled. The principles remain as important as ever, only now teachers can no longer rely on this scheme to provide them with resources and support.

visit: Consolarium

 

Digital Game Making Sites:

Sploder

Kodu Game Lab

Scratch

Blocky

Reading

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. (2002) Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom. London: nferNelson Publishing Company Ltd.

Cowley, S. (2004) Getting the Buggers to Write 2. 2^nd ed. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Cowley, S. (2007) Getting the Buggers to Think. 2^nd ed. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

The Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak

The Book With No Pictures is a funny read-aloud experience for young children that may also inspire conversation about the power of the written word and the nature of a book itself.  Some questions that could be discussed:

The Advantages of Keeping a Sketchbook

What is a Sketchbook? A sketchbook is a combination of thoughts, ideas and experiences. It can come in a variety of forms from journals, artists portfolios, online blogs or scrapbooks. I use sketchbooks in the form of scrapbooks when I am approaching a new topic with a class. It occurred to me that I should share this experience with my class and this was the result…

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

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