Creating computer games in the classroom

Whatever you think about computer games, making computer games is a creative process just as writing a story or painting a picture. All creative efforts require a substantial degree of intuition, logic, problem solving and fun. It is fair to say that we can learn and develop a range of skills from anything we create from scratch. Moreover making computer games are a good way of getting children interested in topics that they may not normally choose to spend time involving themselves in. Creating computer games can entice children to stretch their creativity and their intelligence. It is also making a tentative start on diversifying the ICT content taught in out classroom and it may even stimulate an interest in developing their own more complex games later on.


In this week’s sessions we have been exploring Gamemaker - the light version. Students were initially asked to create a game following the onscreen tutorial. This gave them hands on experience of the game making process, and it allowed them to learn the tools of the application as they progressed.
In the main they were successful in creating a basic game. Some were more creative from the outset, only following the tutorial when they needed help. It was interesting to see how their games differed when they were asked to just write suggestions of the progression of their game, outlining what improvements they would make to their original game with only the limitations of their creativity to stop them. I introduced them to Tim Rylands today too so hopefully he will inspire them to persevere in their voyage of discovery in the gaming in education process.

This is a tagxedo of the image I found when I googled Mandy. I selected my blog address to create the final effect!  This week my students are exploring a range of web2 applications that help them make creative images from text. Their task was to use the 4 applications I selected thematically and add them to their blog. The online applications I chose were: wordle, tagxedo, text-image and graffiti creator.

Creating images with text

Below is a selection of on-line applications that allow you to create simple but effective images and shapes from text.  Explore with them using a theme that you feel might help with your project.  It is wonderful to explore the written word and even more amazing to discover how creative you can be by simply developing the concept of simple visual communication.  We see text all around us from bill board posters to graffiti in the street, from signs and instructions to warning and encouragement in our workplace.  Explore the power or words and text just for fun and see how creative you can be.  I used the theme of gaming for my selection.

 The image above is created using text-image.  You select any image that you fancy, choose the text that you wish your image to created from and click.  It takes a few minutes depending on the size and complexity of you image.  If you are clever enough you can copy the code and edit it to suit, maybe to get rid of the background.  I stuck to the simple screen shot using the Snipping tool in windows 7 then uploaded the image to my blog.  See the original below to see where it came from.

The image of gaming

Tagxedo is fabulous way to express yourself, using the magic of text with the power of image. In case you can't quite make out the text image below this is it! Check out this blog for some great ideas http://blog.tagxedo.com/

The Face of Gaming

You may say that first and foremost games are ‘fun’. This is, of course, true, but games can be much more than that. Click on the Mr Toledano link below and take a look at some pictures of gamers playing and you will see fun in some of their faces. You may also notice another much more constant emotion: challenge. Games challenge in ways traditional linear media, from feature films to textbooks to PowerPoint presentations, generally do not, certainly not at such regularity with such power and impact. And in an age when politicians, parents and many educators feel that learning has lost its rigour, gaming presents a superb means to challenge young people. For a start, games seem to raise our expectations from the moment we launch them, like a Hollywood blockbuster, and then engage us for as long, sometimes longer. No matter what your own ideas and preferences about gaming are you will have an opinion about whether there is a place for it in education.  Simon Egenfldt-Nielsen discusses the challenges of edutainment in his PhD ‘Making Sweet Music: The Educational Use of Computer Games’. Where he suggests the area of ECG is not yet well defined.  He states that it is not enough that a player is more motivated, or that game culture is collaborative, or even to suggest that computer games as complex devices will somehow automatically transfer knowledge to the player.  Rather he promotes the notion that it is how each of these elements helps constitute the activity educational use of computer games.