I´m redrooster and I will mostly participate as a lurker this year. I´m basically out to learn new things about game based learning.
I work as a special planner in the city of Helsinki, Finland in a place called media centre of Helsinki. My main task is to to be a part of a team that is involved in developing the pedagogical use of ICT in education in our schools. I am also responsible for the swedish speaking schools in Helsinki, concerning this subject. Our main focus are on leadership and teacher training, strategical implementation, development of tools and methods and a lot of testing and (mostly through different projects) knowledge search. Right now we are involved in a project in which we are introducing GBL and e-portfolios to kindergartens and elementary schools. Around 15 schools are involved in the project and we are mostly investigating how the objectives of the curriculum can be fulfilled through GBL. Student involvement, learning processes, portfolios and immersivity are a few of the key elements in this project. In the past I´ve worked as a teacher in an elementary school for 10 years, so I do have some insight in the real life of our students.
Other than that I will continue my introduction by simply just answering the questions.
What level of Education are you thinking of using GBL for?
Everything from kindergarten schools to our high schools (gymnasiums and vocational schools)
What types of games are you thinking about using?
Depends on the age group - we will try different ones ranging from simple learning games to more complex learning environments, including programming.
How much experience do you have in gaming?
I play quite a lot myself, although not that many massive collaborative games. In the 80´s I started out with a Commodore 64 with a couple of hundred games (used to love the sport games, back then). Now I mainly play with my pad or phone on leisure time and also test some learning games at work.
What are your expectations of GBL's affect on your students / clients?
I think there are a lot of possibilities involved in GBL. The affect on our students are almost indefinite in the future. However, we are only taking the first steps away from a more conservative way of teaching (rather than learning) - it will require time to make this shift and fully be able to use GBL in a pedagogically meaningful way.
Are you looking for collaborators?
In the future yes.
Unfortunately I don´t have that many some-weapons. At least none worth bragging about. Usually I just test different tools Of course I use fb, a bit of twitter, blogs etc, but none of them are game related.
Here is however our home site
http://www.hel.fi/hki/Opev/en/Etusivu.
Games Based Learning MOOC
