NILE 2008 Talk August 11, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Evaluation , 1 comment so farWell, despite the nerves increasing steadily as more and more (very damp) people sat down in the room, the World Builder Project talk went really on Thursday!
The whole Adventure Author presentation was very well received by a varied audience of teachers, students, game designers, storytellers, writers and university and college experts, especially the part expertly delivered by the charasmatic young Andrew from Dundee! Everyone was very positive about the work we did at Campie and how much everyone involved learned from it. You can see the conference write-up on our presentation and the other great talks at NILE by following the link on our Blogroll to the Adventure Author Blog.
Thank you to everyone who has been following and supporting our blog with your comments and input -it made a huge difference to both the pupils and myself. Please do get in touch if you are interested in knowing more about the planning, delivery and evaluation of this project as there are plenty of digital documents to support it all.
Thank you once again to the Adventure Author team and, of course, to Andrew from Dundee for showing us how calm and humourous we could have been!
Our Project Features in International Conference! August 4, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Evaluation , 4commentsOn Thursday 7th August 2008 the Adventure Author team will be taking part in the Narrative in Interactive Learning Environments 2008 conference, or NILE for short!
The Adventure Author team will be explaining how they use Neverwinter Nights 2 and how they have designed the Fridge Magnets and the Evaluations programmes that we tested for them during our project.
Then….. I will be speaking about our very own World Builder Project and how well it went and just how much the class got out of it! Eek! I am, of course, very proud of what we achieved and so am looking forward to sharing our stories and experiences with the audience.
A pupil from a school in Dundee who has also been creating his game with the AA team will also be there and giving a presentation on what he has learnt from it all.
A World Builder Assembly June 16, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Class work , 1 comment so farOn Friday last week our class had the opportunity to tell the other P7s about the work they had done during the World Builder project in assembly.
Morgan, Steffani, Craig and Thianna took on the job of creating this assembly, and did a fantastic job! Morgan and Steffani both produced great PowerPoint shows covering the gaming side of the project:
Craig and Thianna also talked about the language work that we did, and about our class novel, The Hobbit. Thianna chose a great excerpt to read from the book: the part where Bilbo discovers he is being wrapped up in sticky webs by giant spiders in Mirkwood!
Chloe, Rory and Katherine volunteered to read their World Builder tales also.
Well done everybody! 
Fantasy Literature Circles June 2, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Class work , 3commentsToday all groups are working on reviews and reports about the fantasy genre titles they have been reading.
After writing our reviews created radio broadcast podcasts, and here are the first of the finished results!
silver-chair-book-review-by-sean-alex.mp3
Dear Adventure Author Team…. May 30, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Uncategorized , 13commentsPrimary 7b have been very lucky to have this project, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the wonderful work of everyone at Heriot Watt University on the Adventure Author Team.
THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US!
One Last Booster…. May 30, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Class work , 23commentsGood morning! This is it! The last ever WB Brain Booster!
Today’s Brain Booster is:
If you were a character in a fantasy world, would you be good or eeeevil, and what type of dwelling would you live in? A castle in the mountain or on the sea? A Hobbit hole? A cave? An dark and mysterious undergroud lair? A tree-house in the forest? A cottage in the village?
A Special Award May 30, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Evaluation, Images , 4commentsWe were really pleased that Mrs McCall, Mrs Clark and Mr Wood were able to join us for our presentation on Monday at this busy time of year. And it seems that they were so impressed with the efforts of our class that we were presented with a Certificate of Achievement!
What did you think of World Builder? May 30, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Evaluation , add a commentThe class have very kindly filled out some evaluation forms for me in class this week to let me know what they thought of the project.
Everyone, (no surprises here) loved creating their worlds on the laptops, and some found the conversation writing to be the trickiest part.
Most people were happy enough with the rotation of groups as it meant that everyone had an equal shot. However, it would have been better if we had all had our own computers and had been able to have more time on the games.
Overall the feedback on the language work we did was positive, with most of our activities being rated as ‘Useful’. Story Planners were rated as boring in many cases… no surprises there either!
Lots of pupils felt that they would think more about description in their writing in future and some also said they would consider reading Fantasy now in their own time. Some also mentioned that they learned about working together and working through problems.
Generally everyone was happy with the project, though lots of people would have liked to have had time to make new levels and to learn about Interiors on the game.
Thank you very much for this feedback and for all your hard work P7b! :) :)
And the project went out with a bang….. May 26, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Class work, Games-Based Learning Links, Images , 1 comment so farToday everyone worked really hard to finish stories and props and get the class ready for our presentation in the afternoon.
The pressure was on to get drafts finished, typed and blogged, and I am pleased that so many managed to do it. Please do keep checking the Our Worlds page as more will be added each day. And yes, they are actually there to read again now!
Everyone had one last chance to edit their game, and Kieron very kindly arrived in the morning to offer assistance.
Over lunchtime Callum and Steffani helped to transform our classroom into the World Builder Presentation room.
Judy arrived and helped us to set up a bank of computers at the front where parents and other guests could be shown our fab games. All the desks were moved and the chairs laid out in rows. Morgan, Hannah and Mairead came up with the genius idea of running a Rune Translation competition and so set to work preparing that and getting it all photocopied. Mairead also put together a slideshow about the work we had done on Runes, and Rory’s name plate was a prefect example to have on show. We also set up a laptop where visitors could use the website to find out their hobbit and elf names! We barely had time to eat!
At 1:45 the parents arrived, and the room began to fill up. We were delighted that so many parents went out of their way and took time off of work especially to come along! Mrs McCall, Mrs Clark and Mr Wood also made a special effort to attend.
After a bit of an introduction from Judy and myself, it was time for everyone to read their stories. Some people were very shy to begin with, but we ended up hearing about 10! Well done brave people!
We took a break after about 5 or 6 of them, and then we demonstrated our games to our visitors by Group. Having the competition and other activities running at the same time here worked really well -thank you girls! It looks like we really tested those parents!
Everyone was very impressed, (and some a little mystified) by our computer games. We were able to show some games on the interactive whiteboard which made them easier to see.
Back in our seats, the announcement was made: Mrs Clark won our competition!
After some more excellent story reading, every member of the class was presented with a certificate from the Adventure Author team for a job very well done!
Missing Worlds May 26, 2008
Posted by Miss Collins in : Uncategorized , 2commentsAt the weekend I had another go at making our blog look a bit more exciting and a bit, well, darker! I thought we needed to make it a bit more fantasy-like. As some of you my have seen things went a bit green and were divided into three columns and it was all looking pretty good….
… until we discovered today that the theme I had chosen was hiding all our lovely stories on the Our Worlds page! After an initial panic, I realised that they were still there after all, and I just had to change it back.
I am sorry if you were not able to view it!
