Monthly Archives: November 2009

Designing a Gaming shop

A speaking activity on the subject of gaming that requires no connectivity in the classroom. Level: Intermediate Topic: Designing the layout of a gaming shop Language Focus: Future clauses with if, when etc Time: 20 – 30 minutes Preparation Download a copy of the gaming shop worksheet and print off enough copies for each pair [...]

Get hip with Hapland – A Live Listening

Level: Intermediate Topic: Vocabulary within the game Hapland Listening Focus: Instructions & directions Time: 20 – 30 minutes Game: Hapland Screenshot of the game Hapland (what you see is what you get) Hapland is a point and click game which takes place over the space of one screen.  Basically, in the screenshot above you can see [...]

Tube Crisis – puzzle game for conditionals

Tube Crisis is a short point-and-click puzzle game that is good for stimulating conversation with (upper-intermediate + ) learners if you are lucky enough to teach in a connected classroom (i.e. one equipped with a computer and data projector and/or interactive whiteboard) Language: descriptions of people, relative clauses and the difference between first and second [...]

Spotlight on Digital Play Innovators #2 ‘Lil Poison’

The World’s youngest professional video gamer Manyparents complain that their children waste too much time playing video games and not enough time on their schoolwork.  Maybe it’s because they are worried that their children won’t study hard at school.  If they don’t get good exam results they won’t grow up and get a good job [...]

Spotlight on Digital Play Innovators #1 Jane McGonigal

To launch a new series entitled ‘Spotlight on Digital Play Innovators’, here’s a brief profile of Jane McGonigal, Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future, whose ground-breaking work on alternate reality games (ARGs) has led to a lot of excitement about how the power of games can impact the real-world. [...]

Dictionary work with online point-and-click game ‘Blue Beanie’

Level: Pre-intermediate Topic: Doing a crossword/ Using a dictionary. Focus: Vocabulary in an online game walkthrough. Time: 1 hour/ 1.5 hours Preparation: Download a copy of the walkthrough for yourself and a copy of the crossword and crossword clues for each pair of learners. Game: Blue Beanie A young ghost has his blue beanie hat [...]

Runescape – An interactive reader

The Game Runescape is a very popular online role playing game where players can interact with each other within a medieval style fantasy world.  It has a short tutorial which serves to walk new players through some of the simple every day in-world activities such as choosing what their character looks like (physical features and [...]

Why playing videogames better than reading books

Are books on the way out in education? Will their role be taken by educational games? The Digital Educational Revolution The explosion of technology that is taking place in schools has led to a number of ideas being put forward related to the death of the book in education. More and more, laptops are being [...]