‘More than just a spiel’ – a playful games workshop on SpatialChat
Posted on: 20 June 2024 by Hanna Magedera in 2024 posts
The University of Liverpool hosted an online workshop on the use of games in language teaching. The online workshop allowed for a wider geographical reach and accessibility to participants from Aberystwyth to Galway and from Bristol to Edinburgh.
On 14 June 2024, the national Higher Education Games in Language Teaching network organised the first online edition of a two-hour games workshop in cooperation with the UoL Centre for Innovation in Education (CIE) and the Centre for Teaching Excellence in Language Learning (CTELL) of the University of Liverpool. This was a cross-institutional event led by Hanna Magedera with Lena Nielinger from the University of Liverpool and with lecturers from the University of Manchester, Dorit Fellner-Whitgreave (German), and the University of Nottingham with lecturers Tina Notthoff (German) and Jane Lowe (Japanese). Rob Lindsay, educational developer from CIE, designed a visually captivating interactive workspace using the platform SpatialChat where participants of the workshop could mingle and network, but most importantly try out analogue and online games in break-out rooms.
In four break-out rooms, participants tried out games and play traditional games with Dorit, culture and language-based games with Jane, online games created with WISC with Tina, and advanced-level speaking games with Hanna.
In the virtual plenary room, more games were introduced to participants including games for Chinese language designed by UoL lecturer Lei Peng, and an interactive Padlet allowed participants to share their own ideas, providing a wealth of tools put together by the organisers.
DAAD-Lektorin Lena Nielinger facilitated chat communication during the conference, as well as ‘walking around’ and helping where needed, while Rob expertly managed the technical side of this workshop.
How it all began
During the pandemic, staff employed a variety of innovative techniques to enhance the engagement of learners in online teaching with quizzes and online games. After the pandemic, however, there was a demand to return to more hands-on teaching practices to enhance community building.
The analogue games workshops for language teaching started in November 2022 at the University of Liverpool in collaboration with University of Manchester German lecturer Dorit Fellner-Whitgreave and then continued to the University of Nottingham and King's College London with a series of six workshops so far. This lead to the foundation of the UK-wide network HE GILT! Higher education Games in Language Teaching by Hanna and Dorit in January 2024.
Outlook for the Future
The network will continue to expand to include secondary school teachers even more. We will continue to run face-to-face and online workshops. Join our Facebook group to share and exchange ideas: HE GILT Higher Education Games in Language Teaching | Facebook
We will repeat this workshop on Friday 6 September from 4 till 6pm.
Limited places available, invites will be sent out via AULC (Association of University Language Communities).
Positive feedback praised:
- The range of games presented
- Lots of interesting ideas and inspiration for future learning and teaching
- The practical demos...was a good insight into the potential for these
- The platform SpatialChat and the wealth of ideas
- Sharing other people's ideas on how to make an engaging lesson
- Language learning could be fun
Participants trying out the SpatialChat features:
Keywords: Workshop, Languages, Teaching, Language learning, Centre for Teaching Excellence in Language Learning, Centre for Innovation in Education, CTELL, German.