My name is Darren and I am a final year Computer Games Design degree student studying at University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich (UK). I would like to take this time in my first post to outline what aims, goals and ambitions I have for this, my final year project.
Firstly a little about me. Throughout the course of my life I have struggled greatly in academic settings. This has been due to my severe dyslexia and dyspraxia. Despite this I have managed to power through, attain decent grades and generally do quite well in education. I have thought long and hard about the reasons for this, and where endurance, nature and nurture can all account for some of my success, I refuse to believe that it was these things alone that got me to where I am today.
After much thought and research I happened to find myself leading a group of young students on a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Summer School for a week. Watching the events and activities unfold throughout that week I realised something, this is what I always loved and this how I learned. It wasn't hours upon hours looking at text books and trying to work out my 7 times tables. It was playing games, making experiments and generally breaking things just to fix them again. This was only enhanced further from the passion I hold for games such as The Legend of Zelda which had me looking at tasks and puzzles and solving them with 'outside the box' thinking.
I learnt though play.
This got me thinking, what if I could take this further? Up until now the knowledge I gained in this manor was guided solely by my own passion and random exploration. What if I had been given direction? Could I have learnt as much or even more had I been given these fun and challenging exercises in a managed and methodical way?
By the conclusion of this project I hope to have at least gone part way to answering this question and in doing so, develop a proof of concept that a standardised curriculum can be delivered effectively and efficiently to children aged 7 - 11 (Key stage 2), who may find it more difficult than others to learn via conventional methods. The end product aim will be a digital game developed by myself that can be delivered to children undertaking KS2. The game should do the following:
- Teach one particular aspect of their curriculum.
- Be held to a standard equal to or higher than it would be in regular lesson format.
- Should all be done in a way so as the child does not realise they are being taught.
I also aim to accompany this with research and feedback taken from play testers to either confirm or reject the validity of the theory and product.
Over the next week I will gather my sources and create a solid plan with a full reading list to back up my research. I will be blogging my progress as I go and displaying my findings openly regardless of which path they lead me (both for and against). I also hope to enlist the aid of local schools and parents to better gauge the effectiveness and accuracy of my final product.
I really look forward to taking this journey and I hope you will follow along with me week by week as I explore how far the gamification of learning really can take us.
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