Video produced by the Social Media Partnership, in Birmingham, UK.

Each game has been designed to provide key skills and learning in a number of areas including travelling to and from work, money management, personal hygiene and supermarket shopping. Those involved in supporting people aged 16+ with learning and/or sensory disabilities can use the games with their learners to help them develop independent life skills and prepare them for working life.

The exhibition will highlight how the games can be utilised as part of a blended learning approach and visitors will also get the opportunity to talk to the developers, users and games testers and to see the games in action.

Karen Rutherford, Communications Team Manager at BID Services says: “This exhibition celebrates the completion of this important work which culminates in the release of serious games that really tackle the issue of upskilling those with learning and/or sensory disabilities, in a fun, yet serious way. The feedback from the tutors and students throughout the testing phase has been very positive and the games have proved to be an excellent learning tool, helping the students to improve their computer skills and gain greater confidence.”

There is no charge for the exhibition and delegates will receive all of the games on a memory stick, to allow them to disseminate and use the games to support vocational skills training.

Those wishing to attend the exhibition should complete the registration form below and forward it to Lisa Davies at BID Services via email lisa.davies@bid.org.uk or fill in the online registration form.

Click here to download the Stakeholder Conference Registration Form

Click here to download the Stakeholder Conference Flyer

For more information on this story or to arrange an interview please contact Jeannette Harper, Marketing, PR & Campaigns Manager on tel 0121 246 6100 or email: jeannette.harper@bid.org.uk

The Mini Mapper has been especially developed to facilitate interface with the GOET suite of games via use of  Nintendo Wii Controller.

Each game has been designed to provide key skills and learning in a number of areas including how to travel to/from work, personal hygiene, money management, improving maths skills, and supermarket shopping.

With the development phase over, the games have moved into test and the BID Services Life Skills students have spent five weeks putting the games through their paces. Whilst initially apprehensive, the ease-of-use and interactivity of the games have allowed the students to quickly build up enough confidence to test the games for themselves. The feedback from the tutors and students throughout the testing phase has been very positive and the games have proved to be an excellent learning tool, helping the students to improve their computer skills and gain greater confidence.

To recognise their achievements, a presentation evening will be held on Tuesday, 20^th July, at the Deaf Cultural Centre, Ladywood, Birmingham, where all of the students will receive a Certificate of Achievement. The event will be attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Birmingham, along with student’s parents, carers and friends.

26^th and 27^th October 2010

Call for papers

For full information about the conference and to see the paper submission dates, please visit our ‘Events’ page

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and practitioners working with interactive technologies to explore and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability. We have a particular focus on the use of gaming hardware and software to implement accessible solutions, interaction design using new input/output devices and the increasing impact of ubiquitous computing on our everyday well being.

The conference provides an excellent opportunity to showcase practice and to mainstream research ideas and outcomes. It will introduce a wider audience to key findings and products from research and will illustrate how practice feeds back into and informs research. The conference will create a forum for two-way communication between the academic and practitioner communities and particularly welcomes user led presentations and work shops.

The programme will include presentations of papers, workshops, and an exhibition space for demonstrations and posters. This event is held in partnership with GameCity and delegates are welcome to GameCity events including the opening drinks reception.

Please click on the link for the full interview

http://platform-online.net/2010/02/interview-david-brown-penny-standen/

‘Game On Extra Time’ aims to support people with learning disabilities in getting and keeping a job by helping them to learn more independent living skills and skills that will help them in their working day. A money management module has been added to the curriculum.

In addition, GOET is developing games for the mobile phone that will provide a personalised memory timeline – giving prompts throughout the day to remind the client of important things to remember to do to prepare for leaving the house and throughout the working day.

Game On Extra Time is being delivered by European partners network consisting of project leaders Nottingham Trent University, Greenhat Interactive and bid services, all UK based, Imotec, specialist in mobile technologies based in Lithuania and University of Pannonia from Hungry.

bid services role is to ensure all of the games produced are accessible and relevant to Deaf people in the UK, a role which the charity feels is key to the project, as explained by bid services Training Officer Lynda Leddington; “Our role in Game On Extra Time is to help develop the curriculum by focussing on the creation of meaningful and suitable training to match the needs of students and the realities in the work place.”