We recently negotiated Individual Learning Plans (ILPs).  This is something we do with all our learners.  It gives us an ideal opportunity to discuss with them what they hope to achieve in terms of improving literacy.    

We gave a brief introduction to Fridge Magnets but the group are reluctant to use any form of planning.  They’re going to need lots of encouragement to use the Fridge Magnet tool.  We decided to have a group discussion to help them to think about their storylines.

Our group continued to build on their knowledge of using the toolset and editing their landscapes.  There has been lots of testing and editing. 

They’re already discussing building interiors – alarm bells ringing with us – we’ll have to work fast on this one to keep ahead of the game!

We’ve generated a great deal of interest and other tutors are keen to be involved. 

Helen and Stephanie

Our first session was taken up with learners completing the online questionnaires.  We gave learners a short demo on how to access the toolset but kept this short as we were they were just itching to get started! 

Despite it being a mixed ability group, everyone was able to create some part of a world.  A couple of learners were careful about what they were putting into their worlds and others were throwing in a bit of everything including numerous smoking volcanoes and crackling fires!

We feel, so far, that it’s been a very positive and promising start, with learners engaging immediately with the game.

We planned to start at the end of April but because of a technical problem, we didn’t get started until mid-May. 

The problem was we couldn’t access any of the videos including the pre-test computational video.  The Council network doesn’t allow bandwidth in Community Learning & Development settings.  We asked our IT team to permit access for the purposes of this project but it was a resounding no!

But don’t tell IT, we discovered, with a little tweaking, we could access the video on one PC!  Hooray!  We linked this to a projector and read the statements to our group. 

We would very much like to have used the Getting Started video and Cathrin and Andy are working very hard to put it onto a DVD for us.

So, we did finally get started but more about that to come…

 Helen and Stephanie

We thoroughly enjoyed our training session at the Dalmahoy, tiring, intense but fun!  We really enjoyed meeting everyone and hope we can all keep in touch. 

We had a great time creating our own fantasy worlds and felt a bit bereft when the laptops were taken away!  We’re hoping our learners will feel the same sense of ownership of their worlds when they start soon.

Our IT technician has successfully installed Adventure Author on to one PC.  We’re currently waiting on additional RAM to upgrade the other PCs – this has slightly delayed our intended start date.

We’ve now identified our first group and plan to start with them at the end of April.  We’re really excited at the learning possibilities offered by Adventure Author and can’t wait to get started.

Helen and Stephanie