The games were developed as part of a JISC project and aimed at students in further education colleges – but just eight weeks since release they’re already finding firm fans among pupils in both primary and secondary schools across the UK, including Willows High School in Cardiff.

Gareth Ritter, leader of learning for creative arts at the school, said: “They are brilliant. Most educational computer games are rubbish and the kids can tell. But these are of very high quality. My kids just brought in the controllers themselves and started learning and playing. It’s a great way of testing their knowledge in a fun way.”

The JISC-funded project that created the games was the brainchild of David Renton, from Reid Kerr College in Paisley, Scotland. He and colleagues developed five games for vocational students, typically aged 16 to 21. These students were undertaking primarily practical courses such as hairdressing and construction, but needed an innovative way to learn the theoretical aspects of their subject.

But following a meeting called ‘Partners in Learning Teach Meet’, where staff from further education and schools shared their knowledge and experience, primary and secondary schools are beginning to catch on. David Renton, extended lecturer in computing at Reid Kerr, said: “We’ve found the robots are especially good for younger children, who may be starting to use computer games at home. They are even more enthusiastic than the students - it’s obvious that it enlivens learning for them.”

Four of the games templates are multiple choice quiz games. The fifth game is a robot battle – each team has a battery powered robot which challenges the other robots to answer questions correctly. For each incorrect answer, they lose a tenth of their power. After ten incorrect answers the battery pack stops working and the game goes on until the last robot is left standing.

Teachers can download the games free online from JISC and buy a receiver for £10 to £20 to enable the controllers to work wirelessly with the school’s computers and laptops.

The games can be played on school projector screens and the Reid Kerr development team has added an editor feature for tutors and teachers to input their own quiz questions and images so they can test pupils and students on any appropriate subject. The development team wanted the tool to be flexible, cheap and simple to use. Gareth added: “The content is really easy to upload – even for teachers who struggle with IT skills.”

When it comes to employability, it’s clear that collaboration is a key skill and this type of game has improved collaborative working and communication in a fun and exciting way, while giving immediate feedback in a non-judgmental manner.

David explains: “It can reinforce any subject and change the atmosphere in a classroom – either by bringing a more concentrated element to study at the start of a session or conversely by enabling youngsters to relax and have fun at the end of a taxing subject.”

He said applications for the games were various and had ranged from helping children to learn numbers in French to use for peer assessment to see if students were ready to move to the next stage.

Joan Archibald, learning technologies manager at Reid Kerr College, said: “The scope changes as you go. As you start a project your understanding isn’t the same as when you finish. As you go through the development process, you begin to see that the potential for use is far wider.“

Rob Englebright, programme manager at JISC who commissioned the work, agrees. He said: “It’s great to see projects finding a use outside their original remit. We are encouraging that to happen further by making a grant available from JISC Advance for projects which take outputs from Higher Education and transfer them for use in Further Education.’’

In Rob’s opinion, the games are popular because they play to young people’s view of what technology should be and don’t put any barriers in the way. He said: “They are perfect for use when subjects are dry and more difficult to deliver and don’t lend themselves to active learning.“

He added that using multiple games controllers in an education setting was not widespread in the UK but that this project opened the way for innovation in other games control mechanisms, such as infra red motion sensors used in the Wii.

Images: Students from Reid Kerr College and children from Lochfield Primary School in Paisley