Mateja Slevec, OŠ Marije Vere, Kamnik
Educational didactic games are appropriate for children of all ages regardless of their prior knowledge. With thoughtful preparation and use of didactic games pupils are usually more motivated, attentive and show a greater interest in their work. The knowledge they gain in usually long-lasting. Interactive didactic games can be a product made by pupils using Alice (a programme for making interactive didactic games which is available online and it is also free). This programme is easy to use and can be already used by children in the third grade. Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes animations easy to create. It allows pupils to learn basic programming skills by using only two buttons, drop and drag, to shape animated animals, cars or people. The immediate opportunity to see how this programme works gives them a chance to a better understanding of the basic programming skills and concepts while creating these animations themselves. The programme allows them to make their animations alive, pupils can also make deeper and more profound dialogues according to the theme provided. While using this programme pupils strengthen all eight crucial life-long competences. Since the programme also allows different themes that support the animating process it is also useful for many different school subjects for repeating and practicing. This programme can be also used by teachers during lessons and other school activities in elementary school. The collection of all animations made throughout the year is a nice overview of the pupils work and a great inspiration for the generations to come. Pupils are able to upgrade their animations in the following school year and use their newly acquired skills and also begin to understand why the basic knowledge is so important.
