ISSUE 5 ; 05/11/08

ILT NEWS
EGG SUCKING
APPLYING FOR UNIVERSITY

EGg Sucking is NOW on sharepoint along with everything

else you need to keep up to date with college happenings.
You can’t help but have noticed your
new homepage, the Bath College Staff
Portal https://sp.citybathcoll.ac.uk
but have you had time to explore
yet? Everything you need to keep up
to date with college goings-on can be
found there.
The green tabs across the top take you
quickly to the college’s various sites; Moodle,
mail, the college website and the student
intranet.
On the right hand side you have got important
resources including the college phone book,
jobs bulletin, college calendar, Celcat and
most importantly Egg Sucking!!! There is
also a link to the Principal’s Blog.
The main body of the page is given up to
announcements and college news. Verica
Mazakovska updates this regularly.
At the moment I am staring at a reminder that
there is a college open evening coming up but
recent announcements have included news
of student successes and information about
collaborative projects with other colleges.
To catch up on recent announcements you
need to click on Announcements in green to
go to the news archive.
If you need cake or a kitten, check the Sales
and Wants board. Just below this is the Events
section with useful reminders of Parent’s
Evenings, Prize Givings and Parties.
The left hand side has the kind of content that
you used to access in shared folders or public
folders. Each curriculum area has their own
folder and the college’s most important forms
and documents can also be located here.
If you need to make an announcement to
everyone just contact Verica and she will get
it on to the staff portal.

ILT TIP OF THE WEEK

Why not spruce up your Moodle and

add a bit of bling to show off on the
Open Evening?
Polish it up a bit and get it looking smart
and shiny. Use the add label function to
add pictures and animations.
As well as livening up your page for
visitors it will also provide landmarks
for your students, making it easier for
them to locate material, for example
the performing arts students can easily
locate their Alice Website Production
Forum on Moodle because it is next to
the white rabbit.
If your Moodle is filling up with long
lists of links and documents it might
be worth while breaking it up a bit
with some smart images or fancy
typography. One very smart looking egg.


 ISSUE 5 ; 05/11/08
RESOURCES ROUNDUP
http://www.toondoo.com
This fabulous website allows students and teachers to quickly produce
and publish their own cartoons and electronic comic books. It is easy to
use and a lot of fun. You only need to register your email address and
away you go. Have a look at what other students have produced; french
projects, history books, science comics ... fabulous. See below my own
work of genius, produced in ten minutes of messing.
EGG SUCKING
APPLYING FOR UNIVERSITY

EGGHEAD games is one of participation and taking

Academic and provocative
theories and debates on
the subject of ILT
Serious Games
“Serious Games” is a term used to describe
computer and video games developed for a
purpose other than pure entertainment, for
example, in the military, health, social policy and
education. The Apply Serious Games event (10
July 2008) was intended to explore the state of
the debate in this area, as well as to showcase
some recent developments.
There was also a strong dose of marketing and
business speak, though this probably shouldn’t
be seen as surprising given that video games are
a major corporate phenomenon produced and
sold in a multi billion dollar international industry.
And this is my point: if we are truly serious about
“serious games” then we have to be very serious
indeed about the role of this industry in debates
about our health, lifestyles, social policies and
education. Opening the conference, Prof. Richard
Bartle claimed that “the army plays games, and
not for fun reasons.” Quite. So if games are to be
played in schools, what might be the reasons?
Lord David Puttnam (chairman of Futurelab
amongst other things) provided the main
keynote. Suggesting that video games seem to
many children to be “an antidote to school,” he
argued that public policy makers and the games
industry need to be involved in a dialogue with
educators. Whereas, according to Lord Puttnam,
many children experience school as a process
of “being done to,” their experience of playing
part. The games industry might therefore
bring to the current educational debate
its expertise in making content accessible
and lively while motivating players to
continue to overcome complex and
difficult challenges.
Through playing games, he claimed,
players may be able to develop a more
subjective view of events and issues, to
develop their personal understandings
and empathy as well as to experience
alternative worlds or versions of the real
world that would otherwise be unavailable
to them.
Lord Puttnam’s particular interest is in
how climate change can be tackled, and
he sees games as having a role here. How
might serious games illustrate and allow
players to explore the effects of climate
change? One response was provided by
Gobion Rowlands of Red Redemption,
who make “socially conscious games,”
in the shape of the free game “Climate
Challenge” (winner of the 2008 European
Green IT award).
The game allows players to control the
future of the planet by taking on the
role of EU president for a year, and it
uses accurate data provided by the
intergovernmental panel on climate
change (IPCC). With over 2 million users
to date, this is an example of a serious
game that remains entertaining. In
Rowlands’ words, “fun does not have to
be vacuous.”
http://flux.futurelab.org.uk/2008/07/14/
serious-games/