GamesCon shines a light on digital learning during lockdown
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Although their GamesCon event couldn’t go ahead this year, the digital team at Northern Alliance encouraged schools to submit their fantastic examples of digital learning online to celebrate young people’s achievements and inspire their peers.
Participants have now been provided with a digital certificate and their work has been highlighted on a dedicated website.
One of the highlights from Hermitage School in Argyll and Bute is a PowerPoint presentation as well as a game called Even Fish Have Rights submitted by Logan Brown.
The GamesCon competition, which is aimed at learners in Primary 6 and 7, asks students to create a game in SCRATCH linking into the theme of 5 Rights and helping young people to stay safe and understand their rights online.
Submissions also included the outputs from a brilliant collaboration between Burravoe and Cullivoe Primary Schools in Shetland.
They created an eBook about their shared learning and embedded some Scratch games into their book too.
There were also a number of games submitted from Orkney, PowerPoint presentations created to explain a host of different games including the Flappy Bird game created by Drakies Primary pupils in the Highlands.
St Joseph’s School in Aberdeen also put forward lots of entries, showing off their teams’ video as well as game creation talents.
In Aberdeenshire Crimond School pupil Mila honed in on the dangers of social media and how young people can protect themselves while using platforms including Tiktok, Facebook and Snapchat.
Digital skills development officer Susan Sey, who works as part of Education Scotland’s North Team and alongside colleagues from each local authority which is part of the Northern Alliance collaborative, has championed the whole idea of the GamesCon event.
She is keen to ensure each learner’s digital learning journey is celebrated and said: “It is absolutely fantastic to see how our young people have interpreted the 5 Rights theme.
"I was tickled pink when I saw Even Fish Have Rights and the many other great examples of this year’s submissions on the blog – I’d definitely encourage you to have a look.
“Developing a good understanding of how to stay safe online is perhaps even more important than it ever has been and I’m really pleased to see the digital journey our participants have clearly enjoyed this term.
"Thank you to all those young people who took part and teachers, parents and carers for supporting this important area of work too.”
Teachers, pupils and parents alike can also share their stories of how digital is being used to support learning at home via social media, by using the hashtag #learningathomescot.
Case studies continue to be picked up and shared as part of a national Digital Learning Community.
