Learning the game

Solutions for young people with barriers to learning are being addressed by educational software that incorporates video gaming technology. Peter Muir meets the star of the show …

Sam is the star of a virtual reality game you will not find in the local Virgin Megastore. 

He is cool, fun, and street-wise. He also has a serious job to do in helping young people overcome their learning barriers. 

The proliferation of virtual gaming products in the High Street bears testament to the huge success of the 3D interactive environment as an entertainment platform. In today’s home, the Playstation and its counterparts are as commonplace as music centres, DVD and VHS players. 

Developed and implemented by AdVal Learning Solutions (ALS), What-Next? is an e-learning program based on gaming principles. It employs Sam and other fully animated Avatar characters in believable scenarios and realistic environments.

For use in both classroom and as an off-site resource for KS3/4 students (13-16 year olds), the program has been developed for (HTI) Heads, Teachers and Industry. 

HTI is a national social enterprise that works in partnership with education, business and government to enhance school leadership and develop the enterprise and employability capabilities of young people. 

Its Leadership Centre offers school leaders a wide range of professional development opportunities, including national qualifications, skills-based training and secondments of up to a year into a non-school environment.

The HTI Trust, which originally commissioned the program, identifies and researches school leadership and employability issues and develops practical solutions to address them. 

Research findings

‘What-Next?’ is based on the findings of an HTI study investigating the provision for young people with barriers to learning as they embarked on the transition from school to the world of work. 

The study found that 25% of people with barriers to learning are unemployed in comparison with *15 % of people with disabilities to their limbs; 14% of people with hearing problems and 13% of people with visual impairment. (Editor Note: *DfEE statistics 1996/7)

'”It was clear that some young people were not being sufficiently helped in getting onto the first rung of the employability ladder,” says Special Education Needs teacher Russ Castle, who has been seconded as project lead in the program’s development and implementation. “What-Next? addresses this omission.” 

Program content draws on HTI's work in the field of ‘emotional intelligence’, the capacity to manage emotions and relationships with others effectively. 

The program covers five emotion areas: anger, happiness, fear/anxiety, sadness/grief, and emotion in the workplace. These contain 32 storylines in which the learner explores what triggers the emotion in themselves and others, and how to deal with that emotion. 

Extensive teacher notes, activity sheets, certificates, printable reports, and ideas for further work are included to support the program.

“These youngsters are often disaffected and disengaged by formal education,” says Russ Castle. “ They may be disenfranchised either through exclusion or by a lack of social skills which are at the heart of emotional intelligence. 

“The 'What-Next?' materials had to be highly engaging, non-threatening and specific to their needs.” 

The program works by being interactive, visually stimulating and with the minimum of written text. “In effect, being closer to a video game than a lesson, which is why it works,” says Castle.

Learners meet and are guided by Sam through situations that they themselves may have experienced, such as dealing with an awkward customer during work experience. 

Says Castle: “He is very personable, talks in a street slang, and most importantly, needs the learner's help to get through the day.”

To make this experience even more personal, Sam’s identity can be adjusted by the teacher to reflect the learner's own gender and ethnicity. 

A warm, off-screen mentor's voice provides advice and explanations to help guide the learner. But the main learning is developed through the relationship with Sam, his friends and the adults who populate Sam’s world.

At the end of each storyline, the learner can enter and explore Sam's town. 

Virtual town

In this virtual reality gaming environment, the learner is asked to complete a simple work-orientated task such as ensuring that cheques presented at the clothing shop are completed correctly or swatting flies in the café's kitchen. 

There are 9 activity locations and the learner has to locate the correct building by exploring the town. As they do so they can pick up litter to earn 'credits', meet friends, and hear and see the various things that are going on. 

On completion of the task, the learner is presented with a question, based on the storyline emotion they have just completed. 

“There are no real right or wrong answers to this assessment, although on some questions choosing an inappropriate answer will get them ejected from the town,” says Russ Castle. 

“If they answer appropriately, then they are awarded more credits and given the opportunity to get back to Sam's house and ring his or her doorbell to get a bonus question.

In order to ground the learning gained in reality, a series of vox pops are presented at the end of each of the five emotion areas. 

These short videos show small groups of street-credible teenagers talking about how they have dealt with the various emotions described in the programme. 

“These discussions were unscripted, and come across as real and 'powerful' stories,” says Russ. “They are shot in a high impact 'MTV' style and are often highly charged, but draw together and reinforce the threads of the learning.”

What-Next? is being marketed in CD-Rom format with complementary teacher’s manual primarily to organisations involved in preventing youngsters from disengaging from further education, training and work. To date, 700 copies have been shipped, sold mostly in ones though multiple orders are also common. 

“Some local authorities have bought quantities ranging from twenty to seventy copies,” says Russ. 
“Telford and Wrekin has recently bought seventeen copies of What-Next? for every secondary school in the Authority. Berkshire Conexions have bought twenty-five for youngsters who had been excluded from schools.” 

Connexxions and related career services have been targeted by HTI as have bodies and networks responsible for childcare such as the Secure Accommodation Network, a Prison Service subsidiary for the detention of youngsters. 

Other secure accommodation units within local authority social security divisions have expressed an interest in the programme. “With the absence of parental control in these units, it’s clear that this programme can help youngsters in their care,” says Russ.

Favourable response

Response to ‘What-Next?’ has been highly favourable within the Looked After Children network also. Birmingham Looked After Children Service has acquired a licence to provide every child within its care with What Next? 

"The programme was used with a Year 11 pupil in the Looked After System at Worcester’s Lacer school to assist with integration and socialisation into school in order to avoid exclusion,” Russ reports. 

“He used it once a week and it gave him time to think about appropriate strategies to use in social situations. The student enjoyed the format of the software as it was non-judgemental, user friendly and of course the "game" element of the software was fun. The school proposes to use the software in supporting young people in the Looked After System in the future."

In Hampshire, local authorities have supplied outreach workers within Looked After Children teams with What-Next? to help children in homes and with foster parents. 

Trinity Lane School in Newbury report that What-Next? makes a contribution to several key areas of the curriculum, PSHE and Citizenship at Key Stage 4 in particular. “It has a strong focus on personal development and it provides real support for some students with difficulty controlling their emotions,” said a spokesman. 

“It also links into our restorative approaches to discipline and acts as a focus for students on "putting it right" when they make mistakes. Students clearly like the idea that if you 'get it wrong' you are able to try again to get it right. 

“We think it also has a significant role to play in providing answers to problems for students who lack self-esteem and we suspect the increase in confidence will in turn improve team-building skills.”

Russ related a teacher from a referral unit reporting how the programme had been used with a looked-after student in Year 11 who was particularly difficult to engage. 

“The teacher said the boy had a great deal of change going on in his life and was not able to access full time education. However, in a recent support session he not only engaged with the software but was able to concentrate on it for about thirty minutes without intervention. 

Russ added:

“This level of independence is an achievement as his attention span was usually about five minutes. He was clearly engrossed and thinking carefully about his choices.”

William Atkinson, Head Teacher at Phoenix High School, London, summed up: 

“Proof of educational software is whether it is relevant and meets children’s learning needs in a way that they can relate to. ‘What-Next?’ certainly meets both requirements.”

www.hti.org.uk

www.adval.co.uk

Ends

Issued April 2005 on behalf of Adval Learning Solutions by Bob Little Press & PR (BLP&PR) 

Media contact: Peter Muir BLP & PR tel 01296 715228 email blp&pr@pmpr.co.uk 

Sales contact Oliver Wright AdVal tel 01296 388100 email oliverw@adval.co.uk