Wolsey Academy operates as a non-profit, with every penny we make going to one of our charity partners or into the Ipswich Initiative, funding good works across the town and county. Search for Wolsey Academy to see our website for more details and to purchase resources at a discount.
Wolsey Academy operates as a non-profit, with every penny we make going to one of our charity partners or into the Ipswich Initiative, funding good works across the town and county. Search for Wolsey Academy to see our website for more details and to purchase resources at a discount.
Overview: This lesson covers innovations in video game consoles from 1961 onwards. It has a relay activity followed by a written paragraph with peer assessments. Complete with differentiation sheets, plenaries, starters, lesson plan and pedagogy justifications.
Cardinal’s Corner: Do not be deceived.
This is an incredibly rich and well written book. Yes, it is about video games. But that does not in any way detract from its quality as a piece of writing. The author, David Sheff, is famed for having done one of the last interviews with John Lennon and his articles have appeared in all sorts of publications. It is essentially a history of one of the most culturally important companies of the late twentieth (and early twenty first) century. Nintendo as a company is over a hundred years old and the stories goes right back to its early days in Kyoto as a maker of card games (I’ve actually been lucky enough to visit their original office when on vacation).
I got this book free with a computer game magazine when I was in high school. I read it all in about a week – not bad for a 13 year old kid. When I came to re-read it as an adult I found it equally as fascinating and if pushed I would say this was probably my favourite book of all time. It is oozing with anecdotes and provides a depth of historical contexts – from how the Nintendo company survived the second world war to a Cold War legal battle with the Soviet Union over the video game rights to Tetris.
A fascinating read – and one that be found on pdf here.
Video games are a hugely important part of our recent culture, they’re something that all our pupils are familiar with and they provide a hugely important learning tool. Even commercial games are uniquely powerful at teaching children. I was once astonished in one of my worst Year 9 classes when a child started talking with some confidence about the work of Leonardo De Vinci and asked, entirely unprompted, “Wasn’t he important during the Renaissance?”. Of course, what had he been playing? Assassins Creed. That same game series incidentally hires historical consultants to get as an accurate picture of the past, in the same way that Hollywood movies do. One of the Assassin Creed games features an accurate model of Colonial Boston – based on maps and drawings of the times – in which the player explores and meets key characters, like Benjamin Franklin. I also, perhaps flippantly, swear that is a good grounding in Civilization 2 that got me my GCSE in History and an unhealthy obsession with Sim City that let me cruise to top grades in GCSE Geography. Games are not to be dismissed as learning tools.
Indeed, my hunch is that in the near future games will do most of the teaching for us. Keep checking back at Wolsey Academy’s Learning Worlds page to see how that’s coming along.
Hope it helps.
A 20 lesson series that takes students through 4 time periods: Ancient (Romans), Medieval (Normans, Plantagenet), Industrial (Ind Rev) and Modern (Internet, Fashion, Sport).
Each lesson is fully resourced with everything you need to teach it contained within the PowerPoint itself (no drama with dozens of word files).
The lessons are as follows.
Roman Life in Pompeii
Roman Medicine and Galen
Norman Feudal System
Norman Domesday Book Analysis
The Medieval Church (Becket)
Medieval Life
Medieval Life Game Booklet
Factory Life
Working in a Coal Mine
Child Labour in the Factories
Public Health Problems
Public Health Solutions
Public Health Source Work
Political Uprisings - Luddites
Black History - William Cuffay
A History of Video Games and their impact
Fashion Through Time (History Club)
World Cup History (History Club)
Impact of the Internet on Society
Impact of the Internet of the world of Work
Wolsey Academy, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission.
#BetterTeachingBetterPlanet
Hope it helps.
A series of 20 lssons on late 20th and early 21st Century History. Each lesson is designed to cover a range of historical and exam skills to build up students knowledge and exam skills ready for any exam board.
Those lessons are:
Modern Britain – The Windrush Generation
Modern Africa – Apartheid
Modern Europe – The European Union
Modern World – A History of Video Games
Modern World – Shigeru Miyamoto & Nintendo
Modern World – Space Telescopes
Modern World – Manned Space Flight
Moden World – Interplanetary Probes
Modern World – Mars Rovers
Modern Britain – Margaret Thatcher
Modern World – Iranian Revolution 1979
Modern World – Gulf War 1991
Modern World – Afghan War 2001 – 2022
Modern World – Iraq War 2003
Modern Technology – Deepmind, ChatGTP & AI
Modern World – Dubai Miracle
Modern World – Sovereign Wealth Funds
Modern Technology – Quantum Computing
Modern World – History of Environmentalism
Modern Technology - Blockchain
Wolsey Academy operates as a non-profit, with every penny we make going to one of our charity partners or into the Ipswich Initiative, funding good works across the town and county. Search for Wolsey Academy to see our website for more details and to purchase resources at a discount.
Use code ‘WOLSEY’ for 10% off at the Wolsey Academy Web Store
Please help us, help you, help them. Thank you.
Hope it helps.
W