Tuesday 13 March 2007
There was a buzz at Sony's supercool "3rooms" media centre in London's Brick Lane for the launch of its education partnership with schools services company ConnectED - and it wasn't just for the preview of Relentless Software's engaging key stage 2 game, Buzz! The Education Quiz (pictured), which has enjoyed far-sighted support from the Department for Education. An impressively wide range of teachers and educators mixed with games and software developers to enjoy a glimpse of the promise offered by Sony's ubiquitous games technologies. They heard from teachers involved in the second round of school pilot projects to evaluate Sony consoles like the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and the PlayStation Portable (PSP), software developers who are changing their product lines to take into account the potential of handheld computers (see SUMS Online, above) and were given insights into how Sony's strategies for open standards and internet and wireless technologies could bear fruit for schools.
While education has long experienced the allure of technology companies - and witnessed many false dawns - the immediate attraction of Sony is the sheer volume of its handhelds and consoles already in the hands of UK learners in their homes (and pockets where the PSP is concerned), and the current aoption of a wide range of devices for education roles. Projects to develop the use of handhelds in schools have mushroomed following pioneering work carried out in Dudley and Wolverhampton, and key, positive reports from Futurelab and Goldsmiths College, London (e-scape project), have added to the confidence.
Richard Owen, deputy head, at Maplesden Nokes School, Maidstone, reported back on the enthusiasm and creativity of the children involved in the project at his school. They started with a small number of teachers in subjects where it was felt most relevant - English, media studies, ICT and art - with the intention of building up the numbers of those involved. "When students got their hands on these these things you could see that this was going to be very different," he said. I was amazed at how quickly they grabbed hold of the devices and began using them. The staff had to let go." They needed no explanations to start manipulating images on PSPs for art, he added.
PSP maths software from SUMS Online
The attraction for developers was explained by David McAll, who changed the technology strategy of his company, SUMS Online, after his extremely positive involvement in the Wolverhampton mobile learning project. "I could see the way education is going," he said. Now all his maths software works on whiteboards, PCs, Apple Macs, handheld computers and now PSPs. His software licences (from £474 per annum for a primary school) allow schools to put his software titles on any machine they like, in school or in students' homes. It's a model that has no hidden extras.
Espresso Education, which now has its popular software in half the UK's primary schools, was also present. It has versioned Espresso to work on handhelds in Wolverhampton, and even on the Nokia 800 tablet. It's presence was thought to be significant and the company is likely to be considering the PSP as a possible platform too.
The first multimedia education contender for the PS2, Buzz! The Schools Quiz (above) immediately engaged everyone who took part in the demonstrations of its lively virtual-reality gameshow, and underlined the wisdom of the bridge the DfES has been trying to build between developers and education. The DfES demonstrated a prototype at this product at the annual W3 games conference and exhibition in the US in 2006.
Head of technology futures at the DfES Dou Brown said that potential had increased since the early talks with games companies at the instigation of David Puttnam. Then the games companies considered themselves "anti-establishment" and were wary of a relationship with education (a point agreed by Sony's UK boss of computer entertainment Ray Magure), and computer gaming was still though of as something perhaps anti-social and perhaps harmful for young people.
With wider access to technology and the internet, which is being actively supported by schools minister Jim Knight, and with "platform agnostic" information, "It's a moment when things are coming together for the benefit of education and for the games industry, and for the benefit of the economy," added Doug Brown.
While there is some way to go, the implications of using what Sony has already sold into homes was not lost on educationists. Ian Usher, e-learning co-ordinator for Buckinghamshire's School Improvement Service, was able to access student survey materials created on Moodle in his local authority within minutes of using the wireless facility on a PSP. It's the feedback from learners and educationists like Ian that will realise the technology's potential., and that's where the excitement lies. And the innovations are still coming - visitors got to play with a tiny new add-on digital camera (rrp £35) that offered a suggestion of creative possibilities of a device that's main function, so far, has been for viewing and experiencing multimedia material.
Sony PlayStation 3 preview 'awesome' - and not just games
But the future revealed by a later sneak preview of Sony's new PlayStation 3 was even more radical. Besides the expected gaming capabilities, which were, in the words of gamers, truly awesome, we saw a machine that could throw around high-resolution graphics, video clips and DVD movies like a manic juggler. With wireless capability and a USB slot for an add-on hard drive it took on the appearance of a networkable beast for all sorts of media work and remote access. Suddenly the (around) £400 price tag snapped into focus as it performed media tricks that a similarly priced PC simply could not approach.
When you tie this sort of performance to open standards, wireless technology and access to media and other data via a browser from any location, then Sony's vision, immediately attractive for homes, is certainly not incompatible with schools.
More information from:
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www.connectededucation.com
www.sums.co.uk
http://uk.playstation.com/pdcf/index.jhtml?locale=en_GB
