Game to Learn at BETT 2012.

Game to Learn exhibited for the first time at the BETT show earlier this month at the Olympia Exhibition Centre in London. 

The BETT show is the world’s leading event for educational technology where education professionals can evaluate and purchase a comprehensive range of ICT products and services.

The exhibition began on Wednesday 11^th of January and lasted until Saturday 14^th. It was anticipated that around 80,000 delegates attended the event, with a large number being international visitors. With it being our first year at such a large event, there was great excitement about how the exhibition would unfold.

We met many interesting people from all around the world, including education authorities from Ghana, Israel and Russia. The international need for the educational software was staggering and our belief in Gamification has been further reinforced by the feedback we received. From a young age children are becoming interested in games and without doubt there is an opportunity to use games to develop their learning for a wide range of subjects.

The BETT conference gave us a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate our new Game to Learn Ipad App as well as MyDoodle Game, an early release version of our Build a Game software.

MyDoodle Game enables young children to use their imagination to tell stories by building their own game (now available on iTunes and PC). Both of our demonstrations were well received and some interesting questions were raised. We were given a number of new requirements for our next release including foreign language and problem solving elements.

BETT provided us with the chance to meet exhibitors who share a similar vision to ourselves of using innovative software to engage young children and promote learning. A highlight was our meeting with Titus from Ingenio, a company based in Singapore. Ingenio provide a software called Moomba that teaches music to pupils aged 4-7.

The delegates and exhibitors we met emphasised just how much technology and innovation such as Gamification can have such a profound impact on learning. We are taking these positive messages forward with us as we look excitedly on what will be a big year for Game to Learn.

We were also invited to workshops and listened to discussions on various topics including new techniques to improve the performance of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. A particular focus was placed on the benefits of mobile technologies such as Ipads in the classroom. The most inspiring workshop was hosted by Achievement for All, a UK charity which supports schools to improve the aspirations, access and achievement of learners and young people. The workshop discussed the recent Achievement for All initiative in 450 schools which was shown to have had a profound impact on the outcomes of pupils with Special Education Needs and Disabilities.

If you were there at BETT we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did. We look forward to BETT 2013! Watch this space for more exciting developments…

You can visit the Game to learn website at http://www.gametolearn.net and ‘Like’ the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/gametolearn for more information!

Northern Ireland Web Company is Game to Learn

Bangor based business, Omnisoft Services, which specialises in social media and gamification, was at the BETT (British Education and Training Technology) exhibition in London to launch a major new education initiative called Game to Learn. Pictured is Peadar Loughrey, researcher for Game to Learn and Shirlee Beggs, Operations Manager at Omnisoft.

A Northern Ireland web company has launched a major new education initiative called Game to Learn. Bangor based business, Omnisoft Services, which specialises in social media and gamification, was at the BETT (British Education and Training Technology) exhibition in London last week to launch ‘Game to Learn’ and its sister initiative, Game to Change which is aimed at community groups. Game to learn offers learning solutions for Key Stage One and Key Stage Two pupils through trackable gaming solutions that integrate gaming and learning into a single package which can be used in the classroom and at home to complete homework and extend the learning experience. Andrew Cuthbert, CEO of Omnisoft Services which created the online learning tool, said “Through Game to Learn we are trying to bring learning into the 21st century. Gaming has been proven to help improve children’s performance through increased engagement in a fun and relevant medium and is a great way to encourage pupils who may not be interested in traditional learning methods to take part in classroom initiatives. We have worked closely with teachers and the national curriculum to create a solution which works for educators and the children benefiting from it and we’ve had very positive feedback from the schools currently using online tool.” Game to Learn is an interactive game to encourage learning. Through the online game, pupils can create and personalise their own online character and persona. They can then log in to their own account both in school and at home when completing tasks and homework. The online learning tool allows pupils to enter virtual worlds, engage in quests and adventures whilst completing educational questions along the way, before progressing onto the next stage or adventure. Game to Learn evolved from a pilot exercise involving up to 250 schools across the UK with teachers regularly providing feedback that their pupils enjoy using Game to Learn as it has proven to be a great way of getting the whole class to interact with the learning process. Typically, in any class, there will be pupils at risk of falling behind because they don’t enjoy school or can’t relate to the subjects and the method of teaching. By bringing gaming into the mix, it provides a new and fun method of learning and gives pupils control over their education because they can use it at home too. The online learning system includes thousands of questions written by teachers which are preloaded into the software and is compliant with the National Curriculum in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Teachers can also set additional questions specific to their subject areas. Gamification refers to the use of game design techniques for non-game related tasks and can be used to help solve problems and create processes for engaging a target audience, for example alcohol awareness and social responsibility among young people. Omnisoft’s Game to Change software package can be used to tackle social issues and aid the behavioural development of young people, a generation which typically uses modern technology to communicate and interact. You can visit the Game to learn website at http://www.gametolearn.net and ‘Like’ the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/gametolearn for more information!