Futurelab on learning, social software and games

Futurelab is a not-for-profit organisation in the UK, passionate about transforming the way people learn. Tapping into the huge potential offered by digital and other technologies, it is “developing innovative learning resources and practices that support new approaches to education for the 21st century.”

Three reports and two projects offer some valuable recent insight, but the website contains much more:

The report Social Software and Learning explores the relationship between the emergence of social software and the personalisation of education. It suggests that there is a changing view of what education is for, with an emphasis on the need for young people to develop the skills necessary for today’s evolving global knowledge economy. Alongside this development is the rapid growth of social software, characterised as software that supports group interaction, and by combining these two trends there is significant potential to see a new approach to education.
– Read online version
– Download report (pdf, 994 kb, 71 pages)

Learner Voice is the title of a report on giving more of a voice to the learner. “Despite the vast number of changes in the education system in recent years, learners are seldom consulted and remain largely unheard in the change process. If education is to become more personalised, then the views of learners must be heard. This handbook draws on examples, case studies and research to provide learners and educators with information and ideas for promoting the voices of learners.”
– Read online version
– Download report (pdf, 816 kb, 42 pages)

Teaching with Games was a year-long project supported by Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Take-Two, as well as the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE), investigating the place of mainstream commercial computer games in the classroom. The project aimed to provide practical and informed evidence of the implications and potential of the use of these games in school, and an informed strategy for future educational development requirements, based upon collaborative discussions between industry and the education community. A report, outlining the context, objectives, methods, findings and key messages arising from the Teaching with Games project, is now available.
– Read online version
– Download report (pdf, 1.3 mb, 65 pages)

Enquiring Minds is a three-year research and development project investigating how children can shape their own learning, by changing the emphasis from what they learn to how they learn. Run by Futurelab and funded by Microsoft through its Partners in Learning initiative, the project is essentially trying to put into practice the theories of fully personalised learning.

Create-A-Scape is a new website that provides free resources to enable teachers and pupils to create digitally-enhanced, personalised learning experiences, using HP’s Mediascape authoring toolkit.
– Read project article
– Download article (pdf, 68 kb, 2 pages)

Finally, an article on the BBC website today reports on a Futurelab survey that shows that video games could have a serious role to play in the classroom. The survey, which covered 1,000 teachers and more than 2,300 primary and secondary school students in the UK, found 59% of teachers would consider using off-the-shelf games in the classroom while 62% of students wanted to use games at school.