Games - Making Games
In Creating the Future the Computer Games Skills Forum recommended that programs such as the Instiute of Education's Making Games project be supported wherever possible.
The Making Games project is developing tools based on computer games to enable school students to learn the 'literacy of games and mechanics of construction', whilst developing their problem solving, value judegment, negotiating and decision making skills.
With funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Department of Trade and Industry, the Institute of Education are working in partnership with Immersive Education to develop a software prototype which will allow children to design their own roleplaying and action adventure computer games. The research will contribute to the software's design and evaluate its benefits, focusing on the needs of girls and children with print-literacy problems.
The research focuses on the benefits which a game-authoring production tool can have in developing literacy. The contemporary media environment means that traditional notions of literacy are being widened beyond written text, to encompass the many different ways in which we communicate - including visual images, animation, video, audio, graphic design, and 3D objects. Computer games bring these different modes of communication together in highly sophisticated ways.
For more information on the scheme visit:
The Institute of Education: www.ioe.ac.uk
The Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media: www.childrenyouthandmediacentre.co.uk
Immersive Education: www.immersiveeducation.com
This project is part of the PACCIT programme, which is jointly funded by ESRC, EPSRC and DTI (now BERR)