Even more games- dance! Week 6

Dance to Advance

When we were first told we would be using the dance mats we were all very excited.
However, I don't think any of us really knew what to expect and as most of our knowledge of dance mats consists of dancing away to 'I will survive', we weren't too sure how it would apply to a primary class of 30.

But then in our class we were introduced to the delights that is 'Dance to Advance'; about as far away as you could go from Gloria Gaynor (much to the fortunes of the children!) Dance to Advance is described as being a way for students to 'dance their way to greater understanding and concept retention'. And it does just that!  Instead of trying to tap out the moves on the screen onto the dance mat, as does the versions many of us know, it wants you us to tap out the correct answer to the question on the screen. You can see this idea more clearly below.


Here, children need to find out which of the presidents
pictured was assassinated



As you can see, a question appears in the centre with 9 possible answers surrounding it. In this case, pictures of presidents are being used as the answers. The child would then need to work out which was the correct answer and step/dance into the place that they think was right e.g. if they thought the answer was President Obama they would step to the top left corner. The dance mat links to the game and would then provide instant feedback by letting the child know if they were correct or not. The game often comes with 2 dance mats so the children are able to compete against each other.

Dance to Advance has excellent cross-curricular links. It is easy for the teacher - or even the child - to come up with their own question and answers and therefore can be linked to any subject. In our ICT lesson I chose to do a Geography quiz, where the children needed to link the country to the correct flag. A video of this is shown below, which also highlights what happens when an answer is correct or incorrect.

 

 

 

 

 



Dance to Advance would also benefit EAL students, as the questions can be done with pictures or sounds and therefore they can be included easily.

 

There is no doubting how much fun this would be to use in the classroom and how much the children would enjoy it. It is highly interactive and such an enjoyable way for the children to learn and with the unlimited cross-curricular links, it would be ideal to have in a class. However, in all the schools I have worked in I have never seen one and unfortunately that leads us to their downsides; the cost. At $399 (Leading Digital) they do not come cheap, especially when only two children can use them at a time. As you have noticed, I have also used dollars and this is because they are still not very easy to come across in the UK, which is another downfall of the product.

So overall, whilst a great product and one I would absolutely love to use and could quite happily see myself enjoying making up the quizzes to, I do question how realistic it is to have these in a school. The cost is quite a lot for something not everyone can use at once and they don't seem to be something many UK schools have and therefore may be quite tricky to get hold of or persuade your school to purchase.

 

Simulation and Adventure Games

 

Whilst most of the ICT lesson was spent looking at the dance mats and coming up with programmes for them, we did have a small amount of time to look at simulation and adventure games. The idea of simulation games isn't far off programming as children still need to analyse and problem-solve, as they take on a role that is meant to replicate a situation. In these situations, they explore possibilities and try out different solutions. These simulations can range from anything, from building your own rollercoaster to playing your own adventure game, as in Machinarisum.

 

Other than being enjoyable for the children and encouraging problem-solving, they can also be used cross-curricularly. For instance, when designing your own rollercoaster, it is important to think of the angles and distances that the rollercoaster will have to travel. Otherwise, the rollercoaster won't work. Kent ICT has a whole range of ideas for different simulations ranging from geography based ones such as Dumptown - a recycling simulation to history simulations such as being transported back to the Tudor time.

Again, these simulations do have some great cross-curricular links and are enjoyable for children. They are also a lot cheaper than Dance to Advance. I am disappointed I didn't get more time to play on these. However, I think it is something I definitely plan to use in the classroom, perhaps as an introduction to some topics such as the Tudors. I will definitely have fun in researching various simulations before I get in the classroom to know what is best for the children!