BACKGROUND

We were going to study barrier reefs with P5 and one of our teachers had experienced Games Based Learning and so we decided to use the wii and Endless Ocean as a hook in to our topic.

HOW ICT SUPPORTED TEACHING AND LEARNING

The children used the wii to dive in the ocean, to discover marine life and then recorded their findings. There was a class diving log to fill in and personal dive diaries too. The wii was an incentive and it encouraged children to improve their report writing too. Children, including some reluctant writers, were asking to write in their diaries. In class work we learned about aspect of the sea and the Great Barrier Reef. The children used a variety of sources, including the internet, to research different marine creatures. They were also encouraged to keep up a personal factfile, where they could research anything that was related to our topic. This gave the children an opportunity explore aspects of the Barrier Reef that they wanted to find out about.

The children drew imaginary sea creatures and wrote biographies for them. They used a programme called Crazy Talk to ‘bring them to life’. It’s a programme that can animate 2D drawings and make them speak, having recorded the children’s voices.

Emma b ocean

We also explored  the importance of caring for the reef and the environmental issues surrounding them . The children used flip cameras to record

adverts for eco friendly tourist attractions to the reef. As a natural extension to this topic we also covered Australia.

We linked up with a school in Kirkintilloch who were also doing the same topic. We used Glow during the topic, we held Glow meets between the two classes where we presented powerpoints we had made to each other.

The children from each school were able to discuss their topic with each other using a discussion forum in their joint Glow group. Finally we ended the link with a Glow meet spelling bee. Three children represented each class and were tested on spelling word that were related to the topic had been set throughout the study. This was a great experience and the children really enjoyed the interaction with another school.

IMPACT AND CONCLUSION

The wii was actually a tiny part of our topic, however it was probably the most important in the children’s mind. They didn’t see learning or class work as a chore. It was a tool to get on the wii! They were learning whilst they were playing. The game had an educational slant and they were learning social skills. We are hoping to do this topic again next year, along with some other Games based learning topics.

Find out more about our topic in the children’s words

http://www.cumbernauld-pri.n-lanark.sch.uk/CPS_Classes/2009_2010/5c_Topic5

Find out more about our school by visiting our web page

http://www.cumbernauld-pri.n-lanark.sch.uk/