Category Archives: Curriculum Developments

It’s all in the game….and it’s pretty much free!

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The new Computing Curriculum states clearly that we need to look at programming. For years Scratch has been a bit of a godsend, allowing users to drag code together like a jigsaw puzzle. As we move forward, however, some limitations are being seen. Many of the children we encounter today are big gamers and want to create their own games. In fact the two most asked questions I get are, ‘when are we going to find out how to build a computer?’ and, ‘how do you make a computer game?’

Whilst Scratch is fantastic at putting lists of commands together and editing these, it is much harder to create a game in. Many students do not understand variables and cannot get their heads around loops and functions. Despite being a jigsaw puzzle it is not as intuitive as other programs as it is trying to be an all in one. Whilst teaching the Cambridge Technicals at Level 3 I had been on the lookout for a piece of gaming software that can produce 3D gaming whilst allowing a high level of challenge. Oh yeah, and it needed to be cheap. I stumbled across Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free development environment that allows a student to load in premade characters (either from the library already there or ones they had created in 3D design software) and set up rules for games using a visual programming language called Kismet. Although this is quite a large step for some students that have done little programming lower down the school it is keeping them focused and the results so far are looking good. It can be a little bug ridden and if you do not want to do a first person shooter then it takes a bit of fiddling around. Also it can be quite memory intensive.

My choice of free games creation programs to use across all key stages
My choice of free games creation programs to use across all key stages

Using UDK was a steep learning curve for myself as well as the students but does lead them towards university courses on games design. From here I thought about setting up a games creation club to allow students to play with UDK so as to get an idea of the challenges posed when introducing it to KS3. One concern was the level of challenge but another was that I would be promoting shooting games, in fact an engine based around a game for sixteen year olds and older. However, in every documentation on gaming at school I have found one word kept popping up, Kodu. I decided to bite the bullet and have a go, a brief download and a quick play and I was astonished. This is a fully realised 3D environment with a simple interface where students can create a range of games from racing, dodging mines and defend the castle to a top down shooter where more than one player can play at the same time. I managed to master the basics in less than an hour without even looking at any tutorials or guides. This is perfect I thought, in fact it is a miracle, a Microsoft program that I actually love! I headed down to the network manager to ask for an install, letting him know it was free early on so I didn’t hit the staple ‘there’s no money in the budget’ response. It turns out that as it is made by Microsoft it is insanely easy to remotely install over the network. A two week turn around turned out to be completed in two days. So here I sit, tasked with writing a five week scheme of learning to test on the Year 9s before we roll it out properly next year.

The story aside, I am starting to see how we can move students forward in games design and games programming using free software. So here are my plans for the future…

  • KS3: Year 7 look at game making in Scratch to produce basic 2D games before moving on to 3D gaming using Kodu in Years 8 and 9.
  • KS4: We currently teach Cambridge Nationals and there are no gaming units, I would like to introduce some gaming elements here. Maybe use Touch Develop as this is a lot less visual and more about the code behind the game.
  • KS5: The games development unit will use UDK to enable students to use some more industry standard software and allow students to push their games creation skills further in a 3D environment.

These programs will not allow students to meet the visual programming side of the curriculum but should keep them engaged and allow them to understand the principles of programming as well as creating something stimulating that moves their thinking forward. So what advice would I give to anyone wanting to implement gaming units at KS3? Look out for free educational games making software, however, you can’t go far wrong with Scratch and Kodu, just make sure students are not just following guides but understand the principles behind what they are doing. Hopefully you have enjoyed this post and will head back sometime as I plan to add more posts updating you of my progress with games design and creation units. Let’s hope I have some amazing examples of games the students have created to show you as well.

Finally we are a ‘real’ subject

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As I wonder around school at break, lunch or between lessons I have always felt like the poor relation. Whilst I look at the faces that greet me I can quickly pick out the media kids, drama kings and queens, sporty guys and academics. However, until recently I have not been able to see those ICT buffs, the ones who love using computers to do great things on rather than just simply play games. Not that games are bad, but we should be designing and creating them not simply consuming what is already churned out.

For years this feeling of inadequacy, coupled with qualifications that I deem far too easy, has made me feel a little down. But now there is some excitement in the air, some buzz around the computer labs. Whilst other subject areas have hijacked the communication side of our subject and are using the latest web 2.0 tools and rich media technologies, they may well not be able to comprehend the changes that are happening to the ICT curriculum, or should I say Computing. As I do not understand all the different tenses in French or how different substances are combined to create others in Science, I would not expect them to understand how to set up a network, program a computer or combine multimedia applications with web content to create more than a pretty product but one that has deep functioning and performs effective tasks whilst still having a bit of lippy on.

Yes, I am talking about the introduction of the Computing curriculum from 2014. For all his flaws, and as teachers we know a lot about them, Mr. Gove may just have got this right. That is not to say that I do not have any concerns about the curriculum. In fact I can see five large ones…

  1. Cost – it costs a lot to develop a curriculum, not only in money but in time. Extra software and hardware is needed but we also need more training to make sure we can teach it effectively and stay one step ahead of the students.
  2. Ability – computer science is hard, it is as simple as that. It requires logical thought, understanding abstract concepts and scanning long sections of code to find the dreaded syntax error. At GCSE and A-level it is considered to be for stronger students, therefore how can we engage all abilities?
  3. What about older students? – students from Year 8 onwards will not have had much discrete computer science education. Do we introduce it now and give them the opportunities to move into computing knowing they may get lower grades or do we shield them from it and limit job opportunities?
  4. What about the things we taught before? – ICT (or rather Technology Enhanced Learning as it will now be called) is to be taught cross-curricular. Whilst I have seen a lot of excellent work done in other subjects, they are more focused on content rather than how it is communicated. In ICT we delve deeper into the technologies and think about how what we create impacts on other people. Who will pick all this up? Do other curriculum areas have the time to do this?
  5. The curriculum is vague – yes we want the opportunity to shape our own future but the Computing curriculum being vague is an understatement. Will this lead to different schools teaching to different levels and thus some students not being as privileged as others? Some teachers also have more business ICT or multimedia backgrounds and may not be as comfortable with computing, if these make up most of a department what does this mean for students?

We could sit and dwell on these points but that is not progress, that is just resisting change. The fact we are preparing students for jobs that do not exist means we need to enable the change and it seems that Computing is one way forward. If statistics are to be believed, the number of computing based jobs will triple in the next five to eight years so it is down to us to enthuse students and build up their knowledge of Computing. It is a great opportunity to move Computing forward to not only be what to click but to understand the processes that are happening in that magical little box. I am personally very excited that my students will no longer pass courses by simply knowing where to click (ok it is more than that but not as deep as I would like). Now I can tell them how that WYSIWIG editor works, what we need to do to make a computer game, what is actually inside that machine in front of them and what each component does. I can make them understand that when they send an email it does not magically jump from one computer to another, how computers are linked together and what to do if their machine stops working. These are things we touch on at Key Stage 3 but seem to be ignored in coursework based qualifications by Key Stage 4. These points aside, the thing I am most looking forward to is when I walk those corridors and will be able to say ‘hi’ to computing students, to see them grow and maybe even coming to talk to me about the latest project they have undertaken. That excites me more than anything, and who knows, it might even be me who teaches and inspires the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.