Samba anyone? Using Glow to Support Games Based Learning

Overview

Meldrum awaiting the arrival of Slains on Carnival Day

On a cold foggy December morning I stand in the playground of Meldrum Primary in Oldmeldrum in Aberdeenshire waiting for the Samba Parade to begin. Yes, the Samba Parade! We’re waiting for the bus of Primary 4-7’s from Slains Primary, a small rural primary school in Ellon, Aberdeenshire to join Meldrum’s P7 class for Samba Day. I can feel the shivers of excitement in the air as well as the shivers from the cold. The 2 classes are meeting for the first time and yet they already know each other! They have been connecting up with each other virtually in a shared Glow Group for the past 3 months.

For the carnival, not only did the 2 primary schools link up, work on building floats together in mixed groups and perform and parade together but they were also joined by Banchory Academy’s magnificent Samba Band!

Banchory Samba Band

This Cookbook will investigate how the 2 schools have used Glow to enhance the delivery of their games based learning Project. In the Recipe section it will focus on the simple use of basic web parts for collaboration. In the Impact section you will be able to hear the 2 main teachers involved in the project speak, along with the pupils on how well Glow was able to act as a collaboration vehicle for the project.

A Tour through the Samba De Amigo Glow Group (12:23)

In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the shared Glow Group for the Samba de Amigo and Brazil project looks like
• How a range of web parts have been used
• How to replicate it
• What the impact was

Context

Pupils playing the Wii game together

Carnival Day came about as part of a project on Brazil which was inspired by the use of Nintendo’s Samba de Amigo Game for the Wii. Kim Aplin, P7 Teacher and DHT at Meldrum and Kim Davidson P4-7 teacher from Slains were easily able to talk about starting the project as Kim Davidson is 2 days per week in Meldrum Primary and 3 days per week at Slains. The idea for this game based learning project was to use the game, as Derek Robertson of the Consolarium Team puts it as “the central ‘contextual hub’ about which learning can be situated”. This gave the pupils a real context for their project on Brazil which also involved samba music stars and a plane crash in the rainforest.

A shared Glow Group was used to provide a vehicle for connecting the 2 schools up and allowing them to share their learning and planning in the 3 months in the lead up to the Carnival Day. Some of the activities involved uploading documents to the document library and collaborative writing projects across the 2 schools. The discussion board was very useful in allowing the 2 schools to build links with each other. This was seen by Kim Davidson to be particularly important for her class. Although there are 21 pupils in the composite class at Slains there are only 5 P7’s and it was fantastic for them to be able to make links with the full P7 class at Meldrum. Pupils also managed to use the discussion board in the Glow Group to allow a Meldrum pupil in Poland to keep up to date through using the discussion board for some of the duration of the project.

Story Starters for Brazil Project

It was abundantly clear that the pupils themselves loved using games based learning for their project. They played a large part in the planning of the project themselves once they were given the context of the game by their teacher. In consultation between the 2 schools using Glow the pupils were partners in deciding where the project was going to go and helped decide which activities would be involved in their own learning. The involvement of music came directly from the game, investigating the rhythms and the instruments but then the pupils wanted to investigate Brazil, how it differed to Scotland, the history of Brazil, the destruction of the rainforests etc. Kim Aplin mentions that the pupils, “have planned the journey and because they are partners in that planning and fully immersed in this collaborative story they are .. fully engaged and writing is not a chore, anything we do is not a chore. We’ve done science, we’ve done technology, we’ve done writing, we’ve done maths and they just see it as part and parcel of the project, which is fun. I would say if I was to deliver a writing lesson out of this context the children’s engagement and enthusiasm would not be the same at all… If you access their Glow Group you’ll see them bringing in stuff they’ve seen on the news or heard on the radio about Brazil because they’re just completely immersed in it.”

Many activities were shared on Glow as part of the project and some of them are covered here, with interviews with the teachers and pupils within the Impact section of the Cookbook. Collaborative writing was kicked-off with a story starter posted up into the activities page by Kim Aplin, then Meldrum pupils worked together to produce the first chapter, Slains the second and then back to Meldrum for the third. These chapters were shared between the 2 schools in the document library and then colourful versions of the whole book were produced by hand to go on the wall display in Meldrum.

Shared Samba Documents in the Glow Group for collaborative writing

The pupils were very excited to see the chapters coming in from the other school on Glow. Kim Davidson was interested to note that they were working collaboratively on 2 levels, in their own groups in their own class but also with the other school. They were much keener to look at the editing process, as Kim Davidson says, “[Slains] were very keen that it would be a good job because it was being shared with Meldrum and were desperate to see the results coming back.” This collaborative working was a really motivating factor in the pupils’ work. Kim Aplin adds that, “anything they’ve done through Glow, they were producing it for a real audience, and they really upped their game, wanting to show themselves and their best work.” The teachers added that a pupil who could be quite difficult to motivate was fully engaged in the work, not only in staying focused for reading what had come from the other school but also excited to begin writing as the story had been left on a “cliff hanger” by the other pupils. Children were spending breaktimes and lunchtimes completing the work in Meldrum because they were so excited about getting it onto Glow for Slains to do the next bit of the story.

Pupils in Slains made clay frogs as part of their investigation of the rainforest and pictures and videos of these were then shared with Meldrum through Glow for the Meldrum pupils to get ideas for making their own frogs. Another collaborative writing exercise involved the Slains pupils pretending to be explorers in the rainforest and writing diaries. The Meldrum pupils then accessed these diaries on Glow and prepared questions for the Slains’ Explorers to answer. The same happened the other way around as Meldrum pupils wrote biographies of samba musicians and the Slains pupils asked follow-up questions on these. Pupils were being asked to look more deeply at their writing through the questions which were being asked and were more motivated through the whole experience of the collaboration through using Glow. Writing was indeed not seen as a chore but, as Kyle from Meldrum says “its fun when learning”!

Brazil posters

Ingredients

What did the teachers initially need to allow the pupils to collaborate with each other using Glow?

1. A Glow Group with membership for both primary schools
2. Pupils needed to have at least Contributor level permissions set to allow them to post news items, add to discussions and upload documents (pupils were actually set with web designer permissions)
3. A Noticeboard page with a news web part
4. A discussions web part on the discussions page
5. A documents web part on the documents page with separate folders for pupils to upload different pieces of work
6. An additional Activities page added with some text editor web parts with instructions and information

In the next section, we’ll take a look at the shared Glow Group and learn how to recreate elements within it.

Recipe

The Parade

The videos begin by showing the whole Glow Group which Slains and Meldrum used for the project. This is the same video which was shown earlier in the Cookbook. The videos then progress to showing how the activities page was created and populated with information. We then look briefly at the simple process of making folders in the Document store web part to allow pupils to quickly and easily locate different activities. We will also look briefly at how pupils as web designers in the Glow Group were able to take more responsibility for leading their own learning and the direction of the project.

Videos

A Tour through the Samba De Amigo Glow Group (12:23)

Making the activities page and adding text editor web parts with instructions (4:53)

Making folders in the document store for pupils to upload stories to share, and sound files (3:03)

Setting membership of the Group for pupil responsibility (6:59)

Impact

In this section you will be able to view several videos recorded on the Carnival Day which will give you an idea of what the pupils and the teachers feel the impact of using Glow for the project was. The videos begin with a quick video of the pupils playing the Wii game to set the scene and progress to an explanation by the teachers and the pupils of how the Collaborative Writing activity progressed along with its impact. Kim Aplin speaks about CfE and the project and there are short videos showing the pupils using the discussion board and giving their feedback to the Carnival Day and the project as a whole.

Videos

Pupils playing the Samba De Amigo Wii Game (0:49)

Collaborative Writing in the Project using Glow (7:38)

Kim Aplin talks about CfE and impact within the project (2:19)

Using the Discussion Boards in the Glow Group (1:31)

Feedback from the pupils (1:56)

Find out more about the day and Game Based Learning

The Consolarium podcast on Carnival Day and the project can be found here.

Possible links to Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes (there are many more than are listed here involved in Kim’s planning but I have selected the outcomes specific to what we have chosen to look at in the Glow Group and in this Cookbook).

Rainforest Frogs

Expressive Arts

• EXA 2-02a – I have the opportunity to choose and explore an extended range of media and technologies to create images and objects, comparing and combining them for specific tasks.
• EXA 2-04a – Through observing and recording from my experiences across the curriculum, I can create images and objects which show my awareness and recognition of detail.
• EXA 0-05a / EXA 1-05a / EXA 2-05a – Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design.

Literacy and English

• LIT 2-14a – Using what I know about the features of different types of texts, I can find, select and sort information from a variety of sources and use this for different purposes.
• LIT 2-15a – I can make notes, organise them under suitable headings and use them to understand information, develop my thinking, explore problems and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.
• LIT 1-20a / LIT 2-20a - I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.
• LIT 2-24a – I consider the impact that layout and presentation will have and can combine lettering, graphics and other features to engage my reader.
• LIT 2-25a – I can use my notes and other types of writing to help me understand information and ideas, explore problems, make decisions, generate and develop ideas or create new text.

I recognise the need to acknowledge my sources and can do this appropriately.

• LIT 2-26a – By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience.
• LIT 2-28a – I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways.
• LIT 2-30a – As I write for different purposes and readers, I can describe and share my experiences, expressing what they made me think about and how they made me feel.
• LIT 2-31a – Having explored the elements which writers use in different genres, I can use what I learn to create stories, poems and plays with an interesting and appropriate structure, interesting characters and/or settings which come to life.

Sciences

• SCN 2-01a – I can identify and classify examples of living things, past and present, to help me appreciate their diversity. I can relate physical and behavioural characteristics to their survival or extinction.
• SCN 3-05b – I can explain some of the processes which contribute to climate change and discuss the possible impact of atmospheric change on the survival of living things. (Third level outcome)

Social Studies

• SOC 2-08a – I can discuss the environmental impact of human activity and suggest ways in which we can live in a more environmentally-responsible way.
• SOC 2-08b – I can consider the advantages and disadvantages of a proposed land use development and discuss the impact this may have on the community.
• SOC 2-12a – By comparing my local area with a contrasting area outwith Britain, I can investigate the main features of weather and climate, discussing the impact on living things.
• SOC 2-14a – To extend my mental map and sense of place, I can interpret information from different types of maps and am beginning to locate key features within Scotland, UK, Europe or the wider world.
• SOC 2-19a – By comparing the lifestyle and culture of citizens in another country with those of Scotland, I can discuss the similarities and differences.

Technologies

• TCH 1-03a / TCH 2-03a – As I extend and enhance my knowledge of features of various types of software, including those which help find, organise, manage and access information, I can apply what I learn in different situations.
• TCH 2-03b – Throughout all my learning, I can use search facilities of electronic sources to access and retrieve information, recognising the importance this has in my place of learning, at home and in the workplace.
• TCH 1-04a / TCH 2-04a – I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.
• TCH 1-04b / TCH 2-04b – I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.
• TCH 1-14b / TCH 2-14b – Having evaluated my work, I can adapt and improve, where appropriate, through trial and error or by using feedback.

A big thanks to Derek Robertson from Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium team for his help in the interviews and providing the film extracts for this Cookbook.

Samba anyone? Using Glow to Support Games Based Learning5.052