Author: George Milliken

Game Maker

Game Maker

go to Making Games page

GameMaker is a development tool for making 2D games, used by indie developers, professional studios, and educators worldwide. Users can create games for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Remember to check with your local authority data security team/officer before registering any learners as users.

Explore tutorials using this link – Learn How To Develop Games 

Find out more about the Game Maker Education license with this link – Teaching Using Game Design 

restore by glitchers - land use game

Restore by Glitchers – a game about land use

Restore by GLITCHERS

 

Restore is part of an academic research project called RestoreID (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-17). This research project investigates the relationship between nature restoration, biodiversity, and disease prevention. The restore game is led by Dr Brad Duthie and Prof Nils Bunnefeld at the University of Stirling.

The game will take between 5-20 minutes to play, depending on the level that you select. Only your in-game decisions will be recorded for research purposes, and no personal identifiable data will be recorded.

No download or signup required — Restore is compatible with modern browsers like Chrome, Safari and can be played on desktop or mobile. Just visit the itch page to start playing.

Play the game by using this link – Restore by GLITCHERS

playing games

Playing games

go to the Games in Education page

This section aims to support educators to provide opportunities to play games in education. Games are valuable, meaningful and engaging to people of all ages, including children and young people. Play is a valuable and recognised aspect of learning and child development.

Below are links to information, ideas and resources to help educators implement playing games in their setting.

restore by glitchers - land use game
Restore by Glitchers – a game about land use

Restore by GLITCHERS   Restore is part of an academic research project called RestoreID (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-17). This research project investigates the relationship between nature restoration, biodiversity, and disease prevention. The restore game is led by Dr Brad Duthie and Prof Nils Bunnefeld at the University of Stirling. The game will take… Read more

Tinderbox games club
Tinderbox Games Collective

Tinderbox is a collective of young people, musicians, artists and youth workers in Scotland. Their work uses music and the arts to bring people together and strengthen communities, providing exciting opportunities that support young people to build their confidence, skills, self-esteem, and professional experience.  Find out more about Tinderbox here… Read more

engaging activities

Engaging activities

back to learning, teaching and assessment home

Activity

Provide a model to scaffold learning around instead of blank pages:

Word with headings

PP with slides outline

weblinks to read, watch or listen

Continue from last lesson or prior learning at home: 

  • build on a project/document they have started  
  • Add this learning to it  
  • Use feedback tools to guide as it develops and not just final product 

 

Be prepared to go ‘off piste’ if they identify new challenge, opportunity or focus from reading and watching or collaborating  

  • keep their prior learning in document and add this new learning to it 
  •  

Collaboration in group work:

One shared document, folder or blog page


Track changes to evidence who’s contributing what

regulate and check-in: 

  • Timers 
  • Chat 
  • screen breaks 

communicating and explaining learning

Communicating and explaining learning

 back to learning, teaching and assessment home

Main teaching

 

When presenting new information or ideas, educators should keep it clear and concise to reduce cognitive load on learners. 

Presentations or videos should be short and succinct. This goes for the visual, audio and text presented. Below are principles to follow when designing teaching materials and resources.

Educators can use presentations to explain ideas or videos to demonstrate skills. Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint are available in glow.


Checking learner understanding throughout the lesson

Educators can use quizzes to check learner understanding. Google and Microsoft Forms are available in glow.

 

 

 

Educators can use collaborative spaces, such as Microsoft Whiteboard to share and group ideas using ‘post-its’. to check the understanding of a group of learners. Microsoft Whiteboard is available in glow.

 

 

 

starting the lesson

Starting the lesson

back to learning, teaching and assessment home

Using assessment to check learner understanding can be a useful starting point in a lesson. Checking understanding at the start of a lesson can support progression and coherence – that lessons take account of prior learning.

Working with learners to develop learning intentions and success criteria makes clear what they are learning and how they might achieve it. The Education Endowment Foundation classes metacognition as a highly effective and well-evidenced approach to making significant progress in learning. 

Checking learner understanding at the start of the lesson

Educators can use quizzes to check learner understanding. Google and Microsoft Forms are available in glow.

Educators can use collaborative spaces, such as Microsoft Whiteboard to share and group ideas using ‘post-its’. to check the understanding of a group of learners. Microsoft Whiteboard is available in glow.

Educators might build on the flipped learning approach by providing learners with the opportunity to present their learning from home. Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint are available in glow.

Share learning intentions and success criteria with learners

Educators can communicate learning intentions and success criteria with learners using the chat/posts function in Classroom or Teams. Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams are available in glow.

 

Educators can create a rubric that explains what the learning intention is and what different levels of success might look like. These can be shared with learners so that they are clear on their outcomes. They can also be used by educators to provide quick feedback to learners. Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams are available in glow.

before the lesson

Before the lesson

back to learning, teaching and assessment home

Flipped learning is a strategy where educators share learning resources and content with learners before thy attend class. This allows learners to engage with the content, adults to support them if required and means a more equal starting point in the classroom. 

Below are some examples of how educators might flip learning.

 

Educators might create video, slides or audio explaining or modelling ideas or skills that will be taught in class. These can be shared using platforms such as Classroom, Teams or glow blogs.

 

 

 

 

Educators should consider the effectiveness of their messaging when creating content to share present ideas and information to learners. Dual coding is a concept of reducing cognitive load for learners and supports retention and retrieval of ideas and information.

Educators can use features such as posts or assignments to share resources and information with learners. Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams are available in glow.

 

An advantage of using digital to implement flipped learning is that learners can create content at home, such as posters, videos or texts, and then access these in the classroom. This allows them to arrive at the lesson with some capital and build on these ideas with the educator’s guidance and support.

Learners could create a poster about the ideas to demonstrate their understanding. Adobe Express is available in glow.

Learners could create a presentation about the ideas to demonstrate their understanding. Google Forms and Microsoft PowerPoint are available in glow.

Learners could create a video explaining their understanding of ideas and information. Microsoft Stream is available in glow.