AMD Enters Educational Games Market

By Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk

Good to see the mighty Advanced Micro Devices – AMD is entering the educational games ring. Bolstered no doubt by their recent Eur 1.06 billion damages award from Intel, they are developing their “Changing the Game” educational initiative programme.

AMD successfully took the mighty Intel to the European court. AMD said that the ruling is an important step toward establishing a truly competitive market. With this ruling, the industry will benefit from an end to Intel's monopoly-inflated pricing and European consumers will enjoy greater choice, value and innovation.

Earlier today, the European Commission found Intel guilty of abusing its dominant position in the global x86 microprocessor market, saying that "Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated."

Ouch! The battle of giants was bound to be a bit bloody. And pending an appeal, it is probably not over yet. But it has elevated AMD to front of people’s minds and their incursion into education games is bound to be hugely beneficial to children.

Skillpoint Alliance, The World Wide Workshop Foundation's Globaloria program and Austin, Texas-based Southwest Key will initiate new programs with grants from the AMD Foundation. In addition, two current partners, PETLab and Science Buddies, will receive additional grants for work in 2009.

Reading Games Take On Technology To Become The Storyteller

Storytelling is under threat from technology. Children, distracted by Nintendo, video games and Wii leave little quality time available for parents to read to them. But technology fights back in the MightyBook on-line reading games now available to help parents and children to enjoy this vital activity. See the full article =>
Keen2learn blog

Maths Failing To Add Up At Primary Level.

A recent report has revealed 23 per cent of children at primary level fail to reach the standards expected of them in maths.

Despite a massive injection of 2.3 billion pounds during 2006 – 07 for teaching maths we still fail a huge number of children. The financial investment has been analysed as following the law of diminishing returns. Last year 66,000 children did not make the progress anticipated by their early achievements. This poses significant concern for their ultimate performance in the GCSE. The report also predicts that primary schools will continue to miss government targets by a wide margin in 2011. The situation is “far from rosy” said Edward Leigh, chairman of the committee of Public Affairs.

Although improvement has been made, clearly the target is being missed and the question of the root cause is far from resolved. Although training of more teachers in maths is one clear objective there is also a massive opportunity to enlist parents in the recovery plan. There is another way.

Schools use a significant number of maths games as teaching resources. These are ideal for use at home with parents, siblings and relatives joining in. Turning maths into an educational game brings an element of fun; an opportunity that can be highly productive. The techniques in the games are common with the school as the maths games have been developed to meet the National Curriculum. They are a significant step forward over the conventional text and exercise book approach that previously isolated many parents from homework support.

Considering there are 7.4 million households with school aged children, converting a small percentage to assist their children for 30 minutes a week at home would increase the effective teaching capacity. It would also induce a one to one relationship between parent and child and provide parents with a dynamic view of progress.

The drawback lies in the conversion of parents, many of whom shy away from the opportunity believing their knowledge of teaching procedures is different from current techniques. Many schools are addressing this misconception through family learning events where many adults discover their schooling experience is still extremely relevant. The historic drawback is the number of parents who would attend such events.

The report also indicated that children from Chinese and Indian ethnic groups perform better in maths than white and black children. It is perhaps no coincidence that parents in the far east are far more interactive in the schooling of their children.

Without a sea change there is a growing danger that many children will be left behind. If they are struggling at primary level the leap to secondary schooling with the commensurate jump in the curriculum will become a bridge too far for many. The burden on teachers to resolve this is an almost impossible task. Despite the recent influx of recruits in the teaching profession, spurred in part by the economic situation, the availability of inspirational maths teachers in the cohort is still to be revealed. A further concern is the staying power of such recruits. The safe harbour during the current climate may fail to retain some when the better times return, leaving schools and children high and dry.

The one constant are parents. There are c. 450,000 teachers who could potentially engage the active support of many of the 13 million parents of school children. If we are going to win the maths war we could look to the engagement of more troops.

Teaching Resources Come Home To Ruth

The lifestyle of any busy mum can impact on the schooling of children. Ruth Kelly, Minister for Transport, and ex Educational Secretary packs in parliament to give more support to her children.

Every mother suffers from guilt! It’s natural, goes with the job, is very difficult to overcome and causes considerable angst. Fathers as a rule, preoccupied with their latest bout of man flu do not suffer from this syndrome quite so much. Ironically a father’s contribution to support a child’s schooling can have a dramatic effect. This is in addition to any conventional help with their child’s homework. It is all about spending regular quality time with children and having educational fun. At least it should be the essential bedtime story, and ideally extended to give support through maths games, literacy, ICT games and science games to cover the curriculum where any problem exists or where their child just wants to have some support or fun with Mum and Dad. These educational games - used in school are designed to improve understanding through fun games that can turn the classroom lessons into practice at home.

The advent of computer games and online services add a significant new dimension to the range of educational games now available. Even the bedtime story can be accessed online where animated reading resources add entertainment in developing reading skills.

Why then has Ruth Kelly, the ex Secretary for Education and high flying cabinet minister, quit her post to devote herself to her children and their schooling. A courageous move, yet the undertone raises concern. Is the modern pace of life, ideals and social environment at odds with raising children? Are parents becoming distant from the bosom of their family? Long hours, pressure of work and stress take their toll on the relationships at home and children often miss out.

If the hugely resourceful ex Minister of Education sees such a flaw in the system that can only be resolved by leaving a focal role in government, is this a condemnation of our schooling system? Is there a disconnect between the state educational provision, the needs of industry and commerce coupled to a modern lifestyle.

Clearly the state education system is not firing on all cylinders. Billions spent in the UK, and likewise in the USA and Australia (the problem has international dimensions) have failed to improve standards in literacy or numeracy. Yet this is 2008 and these are first world countries who excel in many areas, banking accepted, so why are we falling short of our standards in school? In this age of extraordinary technical achievement, rapid communications where we can text or email virtually anyone in the world in seconds, do we fall behind in basics of effective schooling?

Perhaps Ruth Kelly has the answer. It lies at home. Instead of abandoning our children when they go to school maybe parents, both mum and dad, should be coerced into providing a minimum period of schooling time with their children. This could be measured and even incentivised through some payment or tax relief. The substantial effect of parental support in the schooling process could be supported through the educational budget. But would this work ? Research in the UK and USA show the 80% of a child’s academic success of relies in what parents do with their children at home.

I imagine that Ruth Kelly also spotted this fact. As an ex minister for education and parliamentary high flyer perhaps she should be given a new role as minister for home educational support - working from home of course.

Alistair Owens Keen2learn

Educational Games Introduce Fun To Facts

Educational games, toys and puzzles are being used to overcome one of the biggest drawbacks of teaching; how to quickly grab the attention of the class at the start of the lesson. Boys tend to take much longer to settle down and some children are notoriously late. Ten minutes of the class can be lost before teaching really gets going. But now there are options.

A daily dose of maths computer games can boost maths attainment according to a study carried out in Scottish schools.

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) - the main organisation for the development of the curriculum - analysed the effect of a "brain training" game. It also found improvements in pupils' concentration and behaviour.

Less able children were found to be more likely to improve than the highest attainers and almost all pupils had an increased perception of their own ability.

LTS worked with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and the University of Dundee to see if the pilot results were replicated on a wider scale. Researchers found that while all groups had improved their scores, the group using the maths game had improved by a further 50%. The time taken to complete the tests dropped by five minutes, from 18.5 minutes to 13.5 minutes. The improvement in the games group was double that of the control group.

The study also found reduced absence and lateness in some classes. Derek Robertson, LTS's national adviser for emerging technologies and learning, said the results offered the first independent, academic evidence that this type of computer game could improve attainment when used in an educational context.

He said: "Computer games help flatten out the hierarchy that exists in schools - they are in the domain of the learner as opposed to the domain of the school. This intervention encouraged all children to engage and get success in a different contextual framework; one in which they don't know their place."

The educational games used in the trial were one of the growing numbers of computer games developed with education at the core. Modern technology harnessed to present a platform that is interesting and appealing to the young mind sets the challenge. A form of learning in disguise acceptable to a wide range of ability, age and both girls and boys is paying dividends in accelerating learning.

The games can be played in class and at home. They are having a marked effect in settling the class at the start of the lesson, and the number of late arrivals has noticeable reduced.

Technology in the form of a chemistry game or physics games generates the practice activity essential to learning retention. Compared to conventional text and exercise book activity that can be one dimensional, computer games have the major advantage of capturing peer support. Children also learn from other children. How else do they pick up the detailed operation of a mobile phone? Certainly not from their parents or the school national curriculum. So the next time you see a child buried in a computer game on a PC, laptop or Nintendo take comfort this is a great way to help them learn.

Settling the class down can be eased with lesson starters; computer games that set a quiz based on the subject, or a combination of questions and clues to open the next level of the game. Some games even let the player design the next portion of the game.

The help of parents is fundamental in supporting the teacher to enhance the schooling of their children. Educational games are the easiest entry point. Playing the same game or puzzle at home as in school is the most effective way to help. You do not to need to be proficient in the subject background and you never know how much you will enjoy the challenge.

Alistair Owens keen2learn

The Exams That Need To Be Examined

The last thing any child wants, after the trauma of completing an exam, is to find out that the SAT assessment against the UK Key Stage 3 in the National Curriculum itself has failed.

The SAT key stage 3 system recently imploded in a spectacular fashion taking the hopes of 1.2m children with it. Despite effective teaching resources, Britain paid £156m to contractor ETS to handle the marking of key stage 3 SAT’s over a five year period. The initial shock from the amount of the fee was quickly followed by fury that the exam marking process had failed, the contractor sacked and a partial refund demanded.

And now the fight. Understandably due to the size of the contract ETS has lodged a counter claim. They say that the National Assessment Agency ( NAA), a division of The Qualification Agency (QCA), withheld information, delayed decisions and changed the terms of the contract.

You couldn’t write the script! But more importantly we have government departments that seem either remote or so aloof of the facts they appear to fly in the face of common sense and the views of the professionals involved. How can a body such as of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) be completely ignored? This august body has the brief to develop policies, proposals, ideals and solutions based on years of hands on experience. They identified a solution to the current crisis five years ago. And appear ignored. ... read the full article

Alistair Owens is not a teacher but believes that teachers are largely ignored in developing the solutions to many of the problems that beset our educational system. He writes regularly for a teaching resources and educational games web site www.keen2learn.co.uk

What Teaching Resources Do We Really Need?

Government educational policies striving to improve standards are criticised. If the pass rate improves it’s down to easier exams, and it they deteriorate it’s due to the wrong teaching resources or technique. But the rate of change in the now global markets is placing different demands on the educational content. Are we matching the output with the actual demand?

In the space of 10 years the world as we know it can change dramatically. The schooling content seen as essential at the start of a decade can be almost irrelevant at the end. So are we programming the right curriculum for our children as they start their 10 year schooling journey and making the best use of modern educational games in our teaching resources?

Remember Y2K ? The 1st of January 2000. The world was scheduled to stop revolving, lifts jam mid floor, bank accounts freeze and computers implode. The computer gurus had overlooked the implications of the date code of the new millennium. Suddenly we were desperately short of ICT personnel to rewrite operating programs and manufacturers to build new computers, servers and networks. The world at large joined in the furore, angst and paranoia.

The hot ticket career in ICT reacted to a demand that nobody foresaw. Inflated salaries, bonuses and a massive workload reflected what turned out to be misjudged panic. Thankfully Y2K passed like a damp squib. The world managed to continue to spin controlled by clocks and computers that continued to work. But there were huge economic consequences. Operating budgets were raided, projects cancelled as funds for replacement computers and services were rushed into place. And then….nothing.

Hardware manufacturers had a ball. Everyone had the latest specification computer, ICT guys had earned a fortune. But the bubble burst. The demand evaporated and the market flooded with skilled ICT professionals looking for a job.

Doubtless we have learned something from this maelstrom. Since Y2Y we have seen the centre of gravity in ICT support moving to Bangalore, manufacturing to China and possibly the Financial Services market to Frankfurt? We need to reprogramme our teaching resources so children can meet the changing demands of a global market. Matching the future needs in the curriculum is complex, and critically, would require decisions a decade in advance.

In the meantime we see continuing conflict in the performance in the key stages of the National Curriculum. A huge number of children in primary school fall short of reaching an acceptable level in maths, English and ICT. The problem is passed to secondary school where teachers, already stressed, attempt to correct shortcomings as well as meet their own standards and targets. Perversely, success in exams is tempered with concern they have become too easy. GCSE’s are criticised by the Confederation of British Industry that their content fails to meet the demands of the modern commercial world. The DCSF and OFSTED wail, gnash their teeth, change policy and muddy the water.

The government have announced changes to the GCSE. Designed to encourage children and provide a better chance of success, on the surface the syllabus is to be brought up to date and coursework will become modular. But this laudable intention has met with an immediate backlash; schools claim their workload will become intolerable as they try to meet the demands of children at varying stages of progress and attainment. Critics claim it would be impossible for the children not to gain good grades. But is the final outcome for the children ideally matched to the career market they are to enter?

Change will always induce reluctance, yet if we do nothing then nothing will change. Forty years ago the pace of change was more regulated. Children had some idea of a career in mind when selecting GCSE and “A” levels. Engineers went for physics, accountants for maths, doctors for the sciences. Today the changing employment options have left children with less focus. Historic careers have vaporised or can radically change within the schooling journey – e.g. the Y2K syndrome and global market forces in manufacturing. Without specific career objectives children are bound to select subjects on their exam success potential. Maybe we should assess children for their likely career potential at an earlier stage to help programme their educational journey more efficiently. Pundits from the respective industry should be involved in the curriculum planning such that the syllabus incorporates developing techniques.

The World Wide Web, email and computers revolutionised communications in the space of 10 years. We are intimately aware of environment issues; global warming, animal migration and climatic changes that are all in state of flux. We need to consider what teaching resources are best suited to the educational objectives that best suit this fast evolving world.

Alistair Owens Keen2learn

Alistair Owens believes education should be fun and use technology to meet the needs of commerce, industry and the environment of tomorrow. Modern teaching resources in the form of educational games and toys use technology to enthuse and make learning fun at school and home.

Educational games using modern technology are already helping to teach children in school and at home. You can see examples here http://www.keen2learn.co.uk/l/64/ICT_Games.php.