At this time of year I love reading everyone’s wrap up of the previous year. Highlight, lowlight, best of. I am not usually one to write that sort of thing, and if you look back over my year of blogging I haven’t been one to write much at all. No, this is not gong to be a promise to write more but I thought it would give me an opportunity to blog out something I wish I had through the year, the gaming inquiry my class did.
Rigor had been a word I had tried to ignore for so long when it came to inquiry but I think in this inquiry I got the true sense of the word. It feels like I have come full circle in my thinking about inquiry. From the rigid ‘you’ll do inquiry my way, my process’, to the ‘let the kids go and they will learn’ inquiry. This inquiry was somewhere in the middle. Did the students have complete freedom to direct their own learning? Yes. Did I influence that decision? Yes, probably. Many times I started my sentences with “It is up to you but can I ask….” and “Have you thought about…?”
The inquiry group was 24 boys who were interested in computers, games, Lego and paper planes. The first few weeks were spent getting to know what our interests were, identifying what we knew and coming up with some questions which would drive our inquiry. We found a common love of gaming and groups were formed by the students and the following questions developed.
- How is music used in gaming?
- How do you make a good game?
- How do you make an open world game?
- How do you get real things in games?
- How do you make an arcade game?
- How do you make a game?
And off they went! During our check ins (Time for sharing what everyone was doing and discussing our next steps) we came up with ideas for finding out what we needed to about gaming. Some students reviewed games using Sploder and Scratch, others followed tutorials on how to use different platforms. Max from grade 6 was called in as a Scratch expert. Meanwhile, Max in grade 3 used Code Academy to learn Python. Surveys such as this one asking about the use of music in gaming were analysed to help one group design their own pieces of music using Soundation. Images of arcade games were used to come up with a criteria. And yes, there were lots of games played. Some students became experts in certain areas and Max and Gareth skyped another school to teach them about using Sploder.
As the groups developed their own knowledge, changing their opinions as they went and asking more questions a culture of sharing was developed where groups helped each other out in their quest to make their own games. The music group made music for another group’s game. Experts using Scratch helped out the music group. The list goes on.
As the games neared completion it was becoming clear we needed to share them. At a later check in it was decided we should have a festival of gaming, both as a website and an event. The festival would have a few aims. Firstly an opportunity for us to share our learning, also to get feedback and finally to prove to our school community that gaming is a good thing. Before the festival there a few things that needed to be done. Marketing had to be organised, venues booked, and the games would need to be finished. As part of the designing process we knew it was important to have users test our games before the final showcase so the students invited their peers and parents to try out their games, then made the final changes to them in preparation for the festival.
The festival was a huge success. With large numbers of the school community turning out to play the games, give feedback and learn about gaming through the students led workshops. It was at this stage and during the reflection the following week that I really got to see what the students had learnt about design, the creative process, inquiring, collaborating but more so the confidence they had in their own learning. And this wasn’t from me letting them go nor from telling them how to do it. But from setting the culture, modelling the inquiry and for one group, me even being a team member sharing ideas and contributing. Would they have pulled it off without me? No. Would they have had as many people visit their website had it not been for me? Would the group with the arcade game thought of the idea without me. Probably not. But what I did do is show them how next time they can do it on their own. I modelled to them how amazing curiosity, inquiry, determination and failure can be.
Watch me talking about the inquiry for AITSL’s Teacher Feature.