‘Scotland’s got game’: How Scotland has embraced games-based-learning

Scotland's got game and people are sitting up and taking notice.

It's been two years now since Learning and Teaching Scotland established the Consolarium: The Scottish Centre for Games and Learning. In that time a critical mass of games based learning practice has been established in schools throughout Scotland.

Computer games in the classroom as either the context for learning or acting as the actual learning resource is now very much in the framework of thinking for many of our teachers.

The work carried out by Scottish teachers in this area has also attracted interest from our friends south of the border as well as from further a field.

Go into a classroom today and you might not be surprised to see Nintendogs being used in P.2, Guitar Hero as a transition project, wireless access of the web via a Sony PSP or even games impacting formatively on how learners perceive themselves as learners. In this presentation Derek Robertson will detail the progress to date of the Consolarium's work as well as showcasing a number of the games that are currently being used in Scottish classrooms.

Derek began his teaching career in Dundee in 1994.

Two years as a an ICT staff tutor in Dundee City Council led to a position as a lecturer on the B.Ed(P) and PGDE(P) courses at the University of Dundee.

An interest in the use of ICT to motivate and engage learners caused him to reflect on the gains that could be achieved via computer games.

This interest led to him establishing games based learning as a topic of study for his teaching students and then to his successful application to lead games based learning initiatives for Learning and Teaching Scotland via the Consolarium.

Derek is now partnering local authorities and teachers throughout Scotland to explore the impact of computer games in the classroom.