Tuesday saw me off, with colleagues from across the University, on a road trip to that most mystical and romantic of destinations: Milton Keynes.We were there to visit the Digilab of the Open University. It is a 'showcase for tools, technologies and resources illustrating how today's technology can nurture tomorrow's learners' - as their website says. It is mainly a resource for the OU staff who design course materials.
They had an impressive array of games consoles (wii fit boards, 360s, PS3s, PSPs, DS Lites - etc), Mobile phones, PDAs, Macs to access Second Life on (with OU avatars to show visitors the educational islands), and much more. While we were there, some staff were working with the real-time, interactive education tool Elluminate, which looked very interesting.
I hope we can get more of this technology into our teaching - I just need to read a book I saw there called Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for 
Learning Professionals....
Learning Professionals....
a wii game that teaches Buddhism.. now that would be good!!!
ReplyDeleteI know that in some primary schools in Milton Keynes (unfortunately my hometown, I hope your visit was not too traumatic) they have recently been issuing Nintendo DS consoles to the pupils for the purpose of teaching maths. Since we seem to be getting more and more reliant on technology (and more and more addicted to gaming/the internet) it looks like a good way to go. Or it could just be a sad sign of the times that this is the only way to get through to kids anymore. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to try Elluminate out for yourself, we have a free, 3-person/location room available for you to use as long as you like. Just visit:
ReplyDeletewww.getroom.com
- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication