Creating games for younger children
Introduction
I wanted to test the potential of a new piece of software my school recently acquired. My school, Sonning Common Primary School, is a double-form entry, values-led community school in South Oxfordshire. It has recently been equipped with a new ICT suite featuring a thin-client network; this has led to new software being installed and explored.
The software in question was 2Simple’s 2Do It Yourself (2DIY). This piece of software allows children to easily make their own flash activities, resources and games. It encourages creativity and imagination and involves the use of many aspects of ICT – developing ideas, control, design, presentation, exchanging ideas and reviewing. It is easy to grasp the basics, but can be extended, and is very open-ended.
I had previously run parent and child after-school workshops where children in Years 3 to 6 had made fun games using 2DIY (these can be on the Sonning Common games page) Each game took around an hour and a half to make. I wanted to see whether 2DIY could be used across the school to support learning. Could children make learning games for each other?
Watch Matt's video about this project on the VitalCPD YouTube channel.
The project
I asked some of the children in Year Four to make maths learning games for the children in my class (Year 2). I told the children in Year Four that my class were learning simple times tables and about shape. I showed them the basics of using 2DIY - how to design their own objects, how to make things move, how to create challenges for the people playing their games and how to use the points system. It was then up to the children to think about the kinds of games they could create. Lots of discussions were had, and the children shared their ideas. Some children wanted to make a game where the player had to collect even numbers, but leave the odd numbers or collect the numbers in a certain times table and leave the other numbers. Other children wanted to create games relating to the learning of clock reading or science. I wanted to allow the children to be creative, so didn’t stop them from thinking about what they felt would work best. Guidance was given, but I wanted them to carry out their own ideas. I didn’t want my ideas and feelings to be a barrier to their creativity.
Before the children started designing the games, we discussed the types of games that young children like playing and how we would need to consider our audience during the design process. The children understood that the kind of games they liked playing may not be ideal for younger children. We also discussed presentation – using the right kind of colour combinations and making our games look visually pleasing.The children then worked in pairs to create the games.
These and other games can be played on the Sonning Common games page.
One of the great things about 2DIY is that the activities being made can be previewed at the different stages of development - this allows for the children to reflect upon their work as it is progressing. I noted many reflective conversations between the children as they were designing their games, and improvements were being made there and then.
Once completed, the games were uploaded to our website, and played by the children in Year Two. The children who made the games joined the younger children whilst they were playing them - this provided another good opportunity for the older children to reflect upon and evaluate their games. Conversations about the effectiveness of the games took place between the children, and the older children were proud to see their games being used.
Reflections
Did this make a difference?
The younger children stated that they believed games such as the ones they played could be used to help them learn. They also enjoyed playing them. The older children loved making the games, especially since they knew that other children would be using them. They enjoyed using a variety of ICT skills and being responsible for developing their own ideas. The creativity and open-endedness of the task allowed the children to direct their own learning. Creating learning games for others also helped consolidate their own learning - they had to have good subject knowledge to make a useful game.
One or two sessions using 2DIY gave the children a good introduction to the software, but their learning shouldn't stop there. There's so much that can be achieved with this package that it should be used throughout the whole school to support learning in ICT and in other subjects. It is almost totally a cross-curricular package, and it should be exploited for that. Children of all ages would be able to access the software in one way or another.
Through this project I experienced first-hand how motivated children become when their learning has a real purpose. The children couldn't wait to design and show off their games; some even spent their free time thinking about the kinds of games they could create.
Next steps
If all teachers in my school are trained on using this package, it could soon become embedded into the whole curriculum. It would be great to see it being used to support learning in English, science, history, geography and in many other subjects. It could also be used as a way of establishing relationships with other schools - children from the same year group, studying similar topics, could create and send activities to each other.
Further information
The potential use of game creation extends far beyond what we achieved during this day. Children could:
• Make activities based on topic work to extend the learning of themselves/peers
• Make activities that could be played by children in other schools
• Make activities that could be used by teachers to assess children's understanding
• Make activities that could be shown to parents - real audiences help inspire children
More ideas can be found in this Creative Things Google document (you may need a Google account to view it).
There are lots of tools that can be used to create games. Some further resources I have fodun useful are listed below
• Class Tools - create free educational games, activities and diagrams
• Klik & Play for schools - play and create games (advanced) - free for schools
• 2DIY Archive - lots of ideas and extensions for 2DIY
• Purple Mash - free tools from 2Simple
