Marie is also the only teacher from Scotland to be invited to Microsoft’s E2 Global event taking place in Redmond, Washington, USA this week, and which brings together the world's most innovative educators.

“This is a great opportunity to give visibility to the xGames and Kinect Games for learning. They really enhance the pupils’ learning experience and I believe that educators from all over the world can benefit from them in their teaching efforts.” Marie says.

Both games which Marie uses at her school have been developed here, at West College Scotland, as part of JISC-funded projects led by our Paisley Campus Computing Curriculum Quality Leader, David Renton.

xGames allow learners to compete in teams, using wireless Xbox controllers to answer questions. Teachers can integrate their own contents into the games which can therefore be used to revise any subject. Our Kinect games focus is on mathematics using active learning – by enabling learners to use their body and movements to understand concepts such as fractions, time, money, decimals, and so on.

While we developed the more technical aspects of the games, Marie advised on how to make them suitable for teaching in primary school. She integrated the curriculum and educational contents into the platforms and tested the games in class, which allowed us to fine-tune them.  Marie also trained other teachers locally on the use of games for learning, in partnership with the Renfrewshire Council. She now hopes to extend the games’ reach by sharing her knowledge and experience with educators from all over the world. Great going!

Our games are accessible – free for all educators – at games4learning.co.uk