Just as our collaboration started, lockdown led to the closure of the museum, but we quickly realised that there was just as strong a need for the sorts of activities we were planning - activities which develop children's digital literacies through informal, creative activity.
Every week the National Videogame Museum provide a live stream on YouTube with fun and educational activities to encourage children 7+ and people of all ages and abilities to get creative with videogames at home.
Every Tuesday and Friday at 11am on YouTube you can try your hand at animation, coding, storytelling and design. You can also access all the previous sessions on the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwMKP8ZU01k
The NVM are really keen to share the work created by children, too and to develop a creative community.
Free Educational Resources from the NVM: www.thenvm.org/nvm-at-home provide step by step support for each activity.
Today you can start your journey into Twine - a free creative tool for making interactive, adventure stories. This has drawn on recent research by Dr Becky Parry, who suggests that you shouldn't be too surprised if your children create some quite dark, unexpected and bizarre stories in this form and that this can be very productive.
Becky comments: "The different narrative threads of Twine enable children to tell stories of their own lives in combination with the influences of popular culture and print fiction. This process will enable them to explore how they are feeling about the current pandemic from a safe distance and it is common for them to create funny and boundary crossing stories!"
We are also delighted to be able to announce that we will be working with NVM and MakerFutures to provide online makerspaces for children and their families. These are currently being designed to ensure they are accessible and appropriate for children with disabilities and this is being supported by the iHuman research network.