NEWS: Making history

INSTEAD of the conventional role-playing game where the gamer just aims and kills to earn points, Form Two student S.Sarvesh, 14, has designed a unique quiz/game to test a player’s knowledge on what has been taught in History at local schools.

In fact, little did he know that the game he created for a competition would actually help his friends build up a keen interest in history.

He decided to develop the game for Microsoft’s inaugural Kodu Kup competition with help from schoolmate Eng Kok Leong.

Sarvesh and Kok Leong showing Farad (standing, left) and Zainuddin the game they created for the competition.

It took him by surprise when Kok Leong began to show a serious interest in the subject, which the latter had previously viewed as “dull and dry”.

“At first, I thought he would not be enthusiastic about my idea of coming up with a game that quizzed players about what we learnt in history at school.”

“It turned out that he liked the game very much and actually found it useful for it helped him remember dates and understand facts better when preparing for History tests,” said Sarvesh after conducting a demo of the games he developed over the past few weeks.

The Kodu Kup also made history in his school — SMK Taman Bukit Maluri, Kuala Lumpur.

“We were never allowed to play computer games in school before,” said Sarvesh.

“This is the first time that we are allowing students to play computer games in school,” said ICT teacher Zainuddin Zakaria.

“We want to encourage children to produce their own content and be creative,” he added.

Launched in July, participants must develop a computer game using the Kodu Game Lab — a simple and visual programming language developed by Microsoft Research.

Malaysia has been chosen as one of the first three countries in the world to host the competition, together with Australia and Singapore.

Schools, students and teachers stand to win attractive prizes including notebook PCs, an XBOX 360 Arcade console gaming system, along with various Microsoft software and hardware.

At the end of the competition, students, aged between nine and 15, will be judged on the design and creativity of their games, the flow or gameplay, the depth of the game and what they learnt through development of the game.

Microsoft Malaysia education director Farad Alhusaini said that with its touch of fun, Kodu could be used as a learning tool that would give children a headstart in technology.

Farad acknowledged that computer games, while not usually seen as a learning tool, had the potential to be educational, if students themselves took the opportunity to participate in a competition such as the Kodu Kup.

“Instead of wasting their money and time at cyber cafes, students could take the opportunity to acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

“Do something interesting with your friends. Create and share your works with your peers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zainuddin said the challenge is for students to “think out of the box”.

As such, Zainuddin said he refrained from giving his students too many instructions.

“A teacher’s role is to be a facilitator in the competition.

“It will kill the students’ creativity if we give too many instructions and dictate what they should do,” he opined.

Responding to the concern whether students would neglect their studies when spending too much time in developing and testing games for the competition, Zainuddin said students must know how to manage their time effectively.

“We also ask for full co-operation from parents to ensure that their children do not neglect their studies and spend, say, only two hours a day on the game development,” he said.

In Microsoft’s efforts to build “School 2.0” – schools for the future – with the use of technology in education, Farad said teacher training was important as ever.

“Teachers need industry exposure so that they are are well-prepared and confident to lead their students. Schools also need to be flexible when responding to the teaching and learning trends,” he said.