Female: Derek Robertson presented at the Sick Dog Meeting and from that we organised for our authority team to go to Dundee and visit the Consolarium. There we played with a number of games and explored different ideas that we would like to take forward.
We also had this other initiative running where we were taking part in the Microsoft Innovative Teacher Initiative. And we wanted to launch that initiative with a conference, we wanted to bring people together so that they could hear about new ideas and take innovative practices forward. We offered participants, delegates who attended the conference, the opportunity to opt into three project bids, one being Star Qualities where they would be given Guitar Hero and Sing Star and they would look at how they could develop the use of that as a context for learning in the classroom. We also offered them to participate in the MYST project, which was using MYST Exile III as a context to raise attainment in writing really, and the other one was Crazy Talk.
I went along to the conference at ... (unclear) Academy, I think it was March, and I saw yourself, talked to people gathered there, and I thought that this sounded really exciting, I was looking for some way in which to enthuse my class, particularly the boys, initially in their writing, and at the end of the conference I indicated that I would be interested in participating in any pilot schemes that were being thought about. We had just returned from our Primary 7 trip after Easter, I had the last term with the Primary 7 in prospect, the Academy is looming, and normally at this time of year with the Primary 7 the kids want to move on. Their motivation, enthusiasm for primary school goes, quite rightly, they’re ready to make the change, but I still had a term ahead of me. So I was delighted when Guitar Hero was delivered to me and asked if I could use that as a resource in the classroom.
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