Flying

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Bafta’s decision to create a video games award for October has got to be a welcome development. Kenworthy’s statement that “video games are a growing art form, a key art form” is good news indeed. Maybe more educators – particularly those involved in the new creativity movement in the UK – will sit up and take notice. But, of course, we need some good models of how to recognise and use this new art form in school settings.

Flying through the air over a colourful landscape with a group of teachers in Barnsley, earlier this week, raised similar questions for me. Here we all are…exploring a virtual world, changing our sex, the outfits of our avatars, getting used to the control keys, but not yet really getting to grips with how we could make use of all this in the classroom. As usual we’re behind… BUT I think I’m gradually becoming more tolerant of that. There’s important and innovative work to be done. It’s a whole new ball game – Katamari-like, in fact.