Gaming in the Classroom: 3-D gaming for DiDA courses
John Galloway
Published:
07 October 2005
Not only is the DiDA (Diploma in Digital Applications) a new qualification but it is also a new approach to qualifications, an attempt to move away from what might be perceived as staid or static. “We want students to have fun,” Ann Weidmann, qualifications leader for ICT at Edexcel explains, “The problem with the GNVQ is that it’s become a sort of sausage machine. I want DiDA to be a broader experience. I see it as learning a life skill. Having done a DiDA unit they can see connections between that activity and what they do in their broader lives.”
Computer games in e-portfolios Like playing computer games, something DiDA will need to reflect. Not only could computer games soon be submitted in pupils' e-portfolios (once file formats are agreed) but a specialist games development unit is planned. Ann Weidmann sees two possible problems. The first is that: “Once you move away from office applications a lot of teachers get scared.” So staff would need training not just in using the software but also in understanding and assessing a medium they may have little experience of. The second is: “The availability of suitable authoring software for level 2 students.”
This latter difficulty may be about to be solved. Immersive Education, creator of Kartouche and Media Stage, have been developing software specifically designed for school students to make games. For a start the environment is created by dragging and dropping objects (like rooms) on to a grid. With a click of the mouse this becomes a 360-degree, texture-rich, three-dimensional location. From here props and characters can be added, all capable of being programmed to respond to various triggers as players progress through the game. Artefacts can be gathered and used, health and wealth depleted and restored, and problems and solutions embedded - just like in the real thing. With the capacity to add information through posters, sound and video this could offer one of the first opportunities to bring games into DiDA through the multimedia module.
Set players a challenge Students could set players a challenge, to save a local character or landmark perhaps. Progress through the game wouldn’t happen without them having used particular information gathered by reading posters, watching video clips and picking up souvenirs. This process of solving problems and overcoming obstacles becomes a quiz - it's just presented in a very different way.
Which raises a final problem. Might this be so different that the only people qualified to mark it won’t be examiners, but gamers?
