Education

Save Your Best Songs for the Encore

by
Guitar 1468928560 Save Your Best Songs for the Encore

Years ago I read an interview with a musician (whose name escapes me), where he was giving advice to new musicians. There was lots of good stuff, but the one that really stuck with me was this.

Save your best songs for the encore, even if you never get the chance to play them.

At the time, this struck me as very odd. However, over the years I have started to see where this guy was going. The first thing is that all your songs should be good – if you rely on one or two and the rest are fillers, people will notice. If you are so confident in your songs that you can leave the ones you feel are best for a potentially never heard encore, you are on to a winner! Read More ...

[News] RNLI creates Minecraft beach survival game to teach water safety to children

by
Image News RNLI creates Minecraft beach survival game to teach water safety to children

This Summer, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is launching year two of the charity’s Beach Builder Challenge using the interactive video game, Minecraft, which allows children to create and build virtual worlds.

The Beach Builder Challenge, available to play from 1 August, has been created by the RNLI to teach children about beach and water safety at a time when many young people will be visiting the coast during school summer holidays.

New for this year, the RNLI has expanded the virtual world to include a Beach Island Adventure, which means as well as being able to create epic beaches, this year creative youngsters are also tasked with completing four levels in the Beach Island Adventure. The four levels are based on the charity’s Stay SAFE acronym: Spot the dangers, Take Advice, Stay close to a Friend or family member, Learn what to do in an Emergency. Read More ...

Narrative Choice Architecture and Gamification

by
Slide4 Narrative Choice Architecture and Gamification

The more I play games, the more I realise just how important having choices that are meaningful, or at least feel meaningful.

One of the key features that separates games from other media is that the player is put at the centre of the story and can interact with it, you are not just “along for the ride” as you are in a film or a book.  When you sit down with a book, you start at the start and then read every page until you get to the end (unless it is a choose your own adventure…). The only choice the reader gets is whether or not to start the book and read it all the way through. Read More ...

Using Boredom and Curiosity to your Advantage

by
Curiosity Using Boredom and Curiosity to your Advantage

Curiosity is something that always interests me. I have written about it in the past, but was drawn to looking at it again recently. There are several theories about what curiosity is and how it works; Curiosity Drive Theory, Optimal Arousal Theory, Incongruity Theory and probably more. They all deal with different aspects of what curiosity is.

Drive Theory considers that curiosity is part of a human need to reduce the discomfort felt when we are uncertain about somemthing.

Incongruity Theory suggests that we seek to resolve incongruity (differences) between something that happens and our existing understanding. So if something happens that doesn’t match our preconceived ideas of what should happen, we become curious and want to understand it. Read More ...

Learn to Problem Solve, Play and Have Fun – Not Code

by
Code 1464106451 Learn to Problem Solve Play and Have Fun 8211 Not Code

I keep seeing articles stating why everyone should learn to code. The same message is aimed at adults and children, pointing to a new type of digital literacy needed to survive in the new world.

I myself have known how to do code in one form or another since my dad showed me BASIC at about 5 years old. In later life, my career relied on me knowing how to code as a web developer. I have built many tools and found being able to code of great benefit to me. It has certainly been a skill that I have made use of a great deal in the last 30 years or so. But does that mean my 9 year old should learn, or even my 4-year-old? Read More ...