In General

In class with Microsoft Kodu

Posted by: on Nov 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

After a few discussions with our Subject Leader for ICT – Joe Santarcangelo (@santarc) I pursudaed him to look into using the wonderful Microsoft Kodu for our ICT lesson primarily aiming it at KS3 ICT Control modules.

Itching to get my Kodu project rolling, but not being able to use Kodu with our KS3 groups yet (they’re doing modelling with Excel up until mid December) I asked Joe could I hijack some of his Yr11s to get feedback from them on Kodu (and using them as technical guinea pigs to see how it runs on our network – you cant keep a good techie down!)

I printed off some cheat sheets from the Kodu website and some guides given to me by Microsofts Lee Stott (@lee_stott)and Perrins Schools’ Gideon Williams (@gideonwilliams) and hijacked his class Periods 1 and 5.

I’ll elaborate on the activities after I’ve had a few sessions with them but the whole class got stuck in and each student took to it with an eagerness I’ve not seen for a long time.

 It’s quite clear that from the get go that the just the mention of Xbox and game design engages both boys and girls. We literally are talking their language. Couple this immediate engagement with some good, solid lesson plans and I believe Kodu and game design could revolutionise certain modules in our ICT classes.

Here is a very quick vox pop with some of our students with their first impressions of Kodu, not scripted, not planed, purely just their thoughts.

Would love to hear your thoughts….

 

2 Comments

  1. Stuart Ball
    November 15, 2011

    Karl,

    This is great stuff. Can you get to our Forum next week ? We have sessions on Kodu and Kinect going on. The event is Free to attend and in Reading. Details here – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/teachers/archive/2011/10/31/worldwide-telescope-workshop-added-to-the-microsoft-partners-in-learning-uk-forum-2011.aspx

    and lots of other teacher using Kodu.
    We will also be releasing a Kodu Curriculum for the classroom. I fyou email me or follow me on twitter , @innovativeteach , I can send the links.

    Reply
  2. Lee Stott
    November 15, 2011

    Karl

    This is really exciting. Really! Excellent work, I am so glad you found the curricula resources at Microsoft Faculty Connection http://www.microsoft.com/faculty useful.

    Kodu Game Lab is a free, simple to use visual programming language from Microsoft designed to teach children how to make video games while practicing important skills. It introduces the logic and problem solving of programming without the complexity. Kodu builds real world skills while having fun by enabling students to build video games that require them to analyze problems, structure their logic and tell their story.

    If anyone is interested in Kodu you can download this and other great Microsoft Education tools visit http://www.dreamspark.com

    Lee

    Reply

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