Learning science socially through game creation: - Futurelab

Learning science socially 

through game creation: 

a case study of the Newtoon prototype 

KEY TO THEMES 

OVERLEAF

Key to themes 

We have developed a set of themes to help you 

identify which of our publications and projects 

may be of interest to you. Here is the key to all 

of our current themes - those relevant to this 

publication can be found on the cover: 

Digital Inclusion – How the design and 

use of digital technologies can promote 

educational equality 

Teachers and Innovations – Innovative 

practices and resources that enhance 

learning and teaching 

Learning Spaces – Creating 

transformed physical and virtual 

environments 

Mobile Learning – Learning on the 

move, with or without handheld 

technology 

Learner Voice – Listening and acting 

upon the voices of learners 

Games and Learning – Using games 

for learning, with or without gaming 

technology 

For more information on our themes please 

go to www.futurelab.org.uk/themes 

Background 

Newtoon was developed as part of Futurelab’s Call 

for Ideas (CFI) programme, open for anyone to submit 

an idea for innovative ways of teaching or learning 

with technology. Successful ideas receive funding and 

support in the form of creative input, learning research, 

user-centred design, and technological expertise to 

develop them into working prototypes, which are then 

trialled and evaluated with learners. 

Development and research on the Newtoon project 

was carried out in partnership with St Mary Redcliffe 

Secondary School, Churchill Community School, and 

Soda Creative, who submitted the original idea. 

Project partners 

Soda Creative 

Contributors 

Ed Burton, Hans Daanen, Graham Hopkins, Clara Lemon 

Acknowledgments 

We would like to thank the teachers involved and 

all pupils who took apart in the trials for their time, 

commitment and hard work on the project. 

Thanks to Briony Greenhill, an independent researcher 

who conducted the field trials and data analysis, and 

led the writing of this report. 

Thanks must also go to those who gave their time and 

energy to participate in workshops: Richard Noss, 

Howard Noble, Ken Kahn, Adam Nieman, Elizabeth 

Jeavens, Gaynor Sharpe, Mairin Murray, Leigh 

Jackson, Mick James, St Mary Redcliffe School (Darren 

Wilson, Duncan McAlmont, Angus Gregson), Churchill 

Community school (Chris Cooknell), Ian Rodgers, 

Daniel Sandford-Smith, Richard Brawn, Angus 

Gregson, Frank Martinelli. 

We also acknowledge the support of the DCSF in 

funding Futurelab’s CFI programme, which made this 

project possible.

Contents 

Introduction 03 

1. Executive summary 04 

2. Design process 07 

3. The Newtoon experience 09 

4. Newtoon technology and development 13 

5. Research methods and trials 16 

6. Findings and analysis 19 

7. Recommendations and future possibilities 47 

8. Conclusion 56 

References 60 

Briony Greenhill, Independent Researcher with 

Jessica Pykett and Tim Rudd, Futurelab 2008 

01

INTRODUCTION 

02

LEARNING SCIENCE SOCIALLY THROUGH GAME CREATION 

INTRODUCTION 

Introduction 

Newtoon is a mobile phone and web activity which aims to embed physics 

learning in mobile game creation and play. It enables young people to 

create microgames via a web interface on a PC in a 2D world consisting 

of balls and springs. The games can be trialled and edited on the PC, 

and various physics principles regulating the movement of objects can 

be manipulated via the interface. Each game lasts only a few seconds, 

during which students need to figure out how to play the game. A number 

of these microgames can be aggregated into ‘gamestacks’, shared with 

other players and played on a mobile phone. The Newtoon experience 

allows students to author, play, edit and share fast-paced microgames 

with game rules based on a set of Newtonian and other physics principles. 

The idea was submitted to Futurelab’s Call for Ideas programme by digital 

arts company Soda Creative. 

This prototype is an attempt to inspire children to become more science 

literate and to bridge the gap between learning abstract science ‘concepts’ 

and actually ‘doing’ science through simulation. More broadly, it is hoped 

that by actively constructing science-based mobile games, students will 

be motivated to make use of web applications and mobile phones for 

the purpose of learning. The evolution of a gaming community has the 

potential to invoke an interactive and collaborative classroom culture with 

doing, debating and deliberating science at its heart. This could involve 

exploring the possibilities of a 21st century science curriculum, in which 

there is greater emphasis on understanding how science and scientists 

work in practice, how pupils can relate science to the world around them, 

and how they can use and apply science to the world around them. 

03

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

1. Executive summary 

Developing the Newtoon experience started with idea development, 

literature reviews and teacher consultation, followed by regular concept 

trials and development with teachers and students. Soda Creative 

developed the Newtoon software informed by regular user-testing 

sessions in a secondary school, and Futurelab worked with teachers to 

design a suitable suite of lessons for the research trials. 

Key findings from the trials identified that: 

_ Newtoon is an excellent tool for consolidating learning: learners with 

a little prior knowledge in particular showed clear improvements in 

understanding of key concepts after the trial. 

_ Newtoon had a striking effect on learner engagement: students of all 

abilities and genders embraced the experience with enthusiasm. We 

identified five key drivers behind engagement: authorship; ownership; 

playful/experimental learning; the social value of the games; and being 

involved in authentic, real research and development activities. 

_ Newtoon not only helped learners understand scientific concepts 

but also helped them experience the scientific design processes and 

develop their digital literacy. 

04


1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

NEWTOON NOT ONLY HELPED LEARNERS 

UNDERSTAND SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 

BUT ALSO HELPED THEM EXPERIENCE 

THE SCIENTIFIC DESIGN PROCESSES AND 

DEVELOP THEIR DIGITAL LITERACY 

_ Newtoon presents a challenge to more ‘traditional’, didactic 

pedagogies. The most effective use requires a more dialogic pedagogy 

with the teacher facilitating discussion and actively encouraging peerto-peer 

transfer of learning. 

_ Students who used Newtoon at home tended to involve parents and 

siblings in the process of their learning. 

_ Some technical limitations prevented many students using the mobile 

phones and accessing the website from home, although those that did 

extended their learning through interaction with parents and siblings. 

Another limitation was that for the trial Newtoon could work only on 

certain mobile phones and therefore pupils could not harness the 

full potential of broader collaborative learning offered by transfer of 

content across different handsets. 

_ Newtoon’s create-play-edit-share formula shows clear potential 

to be developed to encompass a wider range of scientific concepts 

and for it to be integrated into various stages of the curriculum as 

both an extension and consolidation learning activity. There is also 

clear potential to broaden the gaming/learning community beyond 

the bounds of a class, a school, or even a country to harness greater 

learning potential. 

05

2. DESIGN PROCESS 

06



THE NEWTOON SOFTWARE AND LEARNING 

ENVIRONMENT WERE DEVELOPED IN CLOSE 

CONSULTATION WITH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS, 

AND DREW ON THE EXPERTISE OF PHYSICS AND 

LEARNING TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS 

2. Design process 

The Newtoon software and learning environment were developed in close 

consultation with teachers and students, and drew on the expertise of physics 

and learning technology specialists. They informed the design of the userinterface, 

the use of appropriate science vocabulary and advised on the 

practicalities and considerations required for using mobile phones in school. 

In addition, they played a key role in determining the curriculum focus of 

Newtoon, advising on broader cross-curricular purposes and informing wider 

discussions and developments on the basis of how students learn science, 

how classroom practices might change and how learning science could be 

made more relevant to the lives of students outside the science classroom. 

Newtoon was designed for use initially with Year 7 students, but could be 

used effectively with both younger and older students. We focused on this 

age group in the first instance in order to address recent changes in the 

Key Stage 3 science curriculum – with an emphasis on how science works 

and how it is practiced. We were also interested in providing engaging 

and memorable experiences for students in a context which might not 

necessarily be taught by physics specialists. In this sense, Newtoon aimed to 

support teachers by creating an environment that excites students’ interest 

in physics and science more generally – through making connections with 

physics inside and outside the classroom, discovering important links 

between physics lessons and possible careers in the games industry, and 

developing better understanding of important physics concepts. 

07


In our concept-testing and user-testing sessions with Year 7 students, we 

found that they were very enthusiastic about gaming, and mobile gaming 

in particular. They enjoyed the competitive element of gaming and liked to 

compete against themselves and others in order to improve. Some had used 

software available to make their own games and were excited to be given the 

opportunity to use games in school to learn more about science. We found 

that students tended to enjoy the social aspects of gaming, gathering round 

the phones to show others what they were doing, explain how to play games 

and compare scores. The microgame format also appealed to them, making 

the development of content ‘easy to learn’ (alone), and the collaborative 

aspect helped them to understand ‘hard to master’ concepts. Students did 

not want to read the instructions of games but intuitively worked out the 

rules for themselves. Working out the rules also involved explaining them 

to others as the phones were handed around the class. 

08


3. THE NEWTOON EXPERIENCE 

A NEWTOON MICROGAME CAN BE MADE 

IN A FEW MINUTES AND PLAYED IN A 

FEW SECONDS 

3. The Newtoon 

experience 

The Newtoon ecology 

A Newtoon microgame can be made in a few minutes and played in a few 

seconds. Game designers (the students) create a microgame using 2D 

balls and springs. Students can define any ball as being controlled by the 

arrow keys and can also apply a simple but powerful ‘game grammar’ in 

which any ball can also be either a goal, a hazard, or a token. The game 

grammar results in a game being won if a token collides with a goal and 

being lost if a token collides with a hazard. Students can alter size, tension, 

level of friction and gravity and make the electric charge of each ball 

positive or negative, to make the game more interesting. 

Students create, play, edit and share microgames in a web application on 

a PC. Microgames can also be aggregated into ‘gamestacks’, groups of 

microgames that can be played in rapid succession online or downloaded 

and played on mobile phones. Teachers can also bring up Newtoon on 

an interactive whiteboard (IWB) to demonstrate games and the physics 

concepts in action. 

09


The Newtoon ‘ecology’ involves a number of important learning 

opportunities. Learners can experiment through trial and error and 

observe the effects. By authoring their own games, young people are able 

to visualise laws of physics and manipulate their parameters with the aim 

of creating exciting and challenging game goals for their friends. 

In an online collection of experimental games, children are encouraged to 

become a community of physics learners, and by sharing and playing their 

games on mobile phones the Newtoon experience becomes a prompt for 

stimulating science talk and reflection in class and beyond. It is referred 

to as an ‘ecology’ because of the way in which it combines different 

kinds of activities, software, hardware and connectivity – promoting the 

technological literacies demanded of a technologically-rich world in which 

computers are not simply resources or tools to be used, but provide the 

context for learning 1 . 

10 

1. Facer et al 2003, p232



The Newtoon trial lessons 

The main Newtoon trial took place with one Year 7 class over a three-week 

period. The teachers introduced the various concepts, and after a brief 

introduction to Newtoon’s features, the students’ existing knowledge of the 

concepts were gauged by the researcher. Students logged on and began to 

play. Newtoon’s designer gave a more detailed guide to game creation. 

From then on, students were immersed in Newtoon, exploring what they 

could do with the application, getting used to the controls and 

experimenting with making some games. Through trial and error, they 

were beginning to change the physical parameters of objects and the 

environment, including gravity, friction, charge, time, the size and location 

of objects to affect the game-play. 

The teacher would give plenaries and demonstrate students’ games, 

sometimes using the IWB. Students were asked to edit and improve other 

students’ games, making use of the science elements, and were also given 

mobile phones to take home to play the games. Students were asked to 

think about what they might be learning whilst playing and creating these 

games and were also given homework to create three games making use 

of gravity, friction and charges respectively. 

Over the period of the trial a total of 187 games were created. 

A subsequent trial took place in a second school (Churchill Community 

School in North Somerset) with the purpose of validating findings and 

informing future development strategies. 

11

4. NEWTOON TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 

12



THE NEWTOON APPLICATION IS ACCESSED 

VIA A WEBSITE THAT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO 

OPEN THE NEWTOON APPLICATION IN 

THEIR BROWSER 

Nokia 6680 

4. Newtoon technology 

and development 

Newtoon components 

The Newtoon application is accessed via a website that allows people to 

open the Newtoon application in their browser. Newtoon itself consists of 

three related parts. Two of the applications run on a PC (the editor and the 

stacker) and the third application runs on a mobile phone. 

One of the main aims of the Newtoon project was to create a microgame 

environment that allows game-play on mobile phones. Developing game 

software for mobile phones at the moment is not for the faint-hearted. 

Mobile phones differ vastly in their capabilities in terms of screen size, 

buttons and processing power. There are various possible choices for 

development environments for mobile phones, ranging from native code to 

Flash Lite. For this project we had two significant choices to make around 

both the development environment and the type of phones the application 

would be developed for. 

13


Given that we aimed to make the application as portable as possible, 

we chose Java as the main development environment (Java Mobile 

Edition CLDC-1.1 and MIDP-2.0 for the phone and J2SE for the desktop 

applications). This had the added benefit that the core of the code used 

on the phone could also be used on the PC. This is especially important 

in a physics simulation game, where small differences in the starting 

conditions can lead to vast differences in the simulation after a while. 

For the prototype we chose to develop for a single type of high-spec phone 

(SonyEricsson K610i) which has good Java performance. Developing 

for multiple types of mobile phones is still problematic - even using 

Java doesn’t guarantee software will run on all phones with the right 

specification. So we opted for this single model of phone for our trials. 

This meant there were limits on how easily the games could be shared, but 

enabled the games to be much richer. Newtoon does work quite well on 

a number of different phones beyond our selected phone, although some 

turn it into a completely unusable game. 

14



A MAJOR ADVANTAGE OF THIS METHOD IS 

THAT THERE IS A FUNCTIONING PROTOTYPE 

AFTER EACH ITERATION AND THAT 

FUNCTIONALITY IS PRIORITISED ACCORDING 

TO END-USER VALUE 

Agile development 

For this project we used aspects of the ‘agile’ development approach 2 . 

Development occurred over five iterations, each of which was preceded by 

a process of proposing and prioritising ‘user stories’. User stories describe 

fragments of functionality in terms of a user’s objectives and serve as a 

way of describing and refining the desired functionality without imposing 

premature design or technology on the outcome. After each iteration 

the progress is reviewed and the stories are revised and reprioritised as 

appropriate. A major advantage of this method is that there is a functioning 

prototype after each iteration and that functionality is prioritised according 

to end-user value. It also reduces the need for detailed specification 

documentation. A disadvantage is that the user interface design isn’t 

addressed in a holistic way. Features are added in each iteration, and the 

overall functionality of the system isn’t known until near the end, so ensuring 

that there is a coherent interface can be problematic and it could result in 

significant redesign work being necessary to incorporate the features well. 

To counter this risk some paper-based interface design and user testing was 

done at the beginning of the project as part of the first iteration. 

2. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development 

15

5. RESEARCH METHODS AND TRIALS 

5. Research methods 

and trials 

The main Newtoon research trial was undertaken with a Year 7 class in a 

secondary school in Bristol, working closely with one of the teachers who 

had been involved in Newtoon’s development and who had contributed 

to the design of a suite of Newtoon lessons. The teacher attended a 

preparatory workshop in order to prepare for the lessons and experiment 

with making some games. 

The evaluation explored several key questions, including: 

_ Does Newtoon help students to learn, and if so, what and how 

_ What impact does Newtoon have on engagement and behaviour, and 

teachers’ and students’ approaches and attitudes to physics 

_ To what extent does Newtoon support social learning, and to what end 

_ What is the impact of introducing mobile phones into a learning environment 

_ Can Newtoon support learning beyond the classroom 

16


5. RESEARCH METHODS AND TRIALS 

Data collection was largely qualitative and was collected through: 

_ pre-trial interviews with the class teacher and students from the 

trial class 

_ observations of Newtoon lessons, over a three-week period 

_ post-trial interviews with the teacher and students 

_ analysis of students’ documentation of their experience in bespoke 

game diaries 

_ ongoing observation of activity on the Newtoon website. 

A qualitative analysis of the data enabled us to identify key concepts 

arising and recurring and map out other key issues and findings. 

17

6. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 

18



“I THINK THEY’VE LEARNT QUITE A 

SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT. I DON’T KNOW IF THEY 

REALISE HOW MUCH THEY’VE LEARNT” 

Teacher 

6. Findings and analysis 

1. Learning outcomes differed by ability level 

Although it is hard to generalise from a one-off trial, it appeared that 

learning gains were influenced by both ability level and the extent of 

existing knowledge. Students with good prior knowledge of gravity, friction 

and electric charges appeared to learn the least, but did seem to learn 

much about creating games, particularly enjoying the experience and 

creating games prolifically. Students with some prior knowledge seemed 

to learn the most, while those with poor understandings to begin with still 

had relatively poor understandings at the end of the trial. 

In pre- and post-trial interviews students were asked a range of questions 

designed to assess their understanding of the key physics concepts 

represented in Newtoon. The difference in their ability to answer questions 

provided some indication of the learning that had occurred. 

High ability students gave accurate and confident answers to questions in the 

pre-trial interviews, with some uncertainty about velocity. As a result, there 

was a limit to how much they could learn from Newtoon in its current form. 

19


However, Newtoon did appear to give these students an opportunity to 

internalise a deeper understanding of how physics principles behave 

through simulation of their dynamic interactions. 

“It’s easier to understand when you see it in action on the computer.” 

High ability boy B 

Their prior understanding of the concepts allowed them to focus more on 

understanding processes around games creation, and these students were 

also able to transmit their knowledge to others through the games they 

designed, which reinforced and made creative use of the science concepts 

of which they had a good working knowledge. 

“I can’t say that I have learnt much but I can look at forces in a different 

way and explain them to others in a new light.” 

High ability boy C 

Middle ability students showed a clear and marked improvement in 

their ability to answer questions around the concepts after the trials. 

For these students, a partial understanding of the concepts was tested 

and processed during the Newtoon experience. Before the trial students 

answered questions with uncertainty and deliberation, however in the posttrial 

interviews, questions were answered immediately, often in unison and 

with accuracy and confidence. 

20



“IT’S EASIER TO UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU SEE 

IT IN ACTION ON THE COMPUTER” 


Lower ability students had patchy understandings to begin with, but there 

was evidence to suggest that Newtoon had helped them to some degree. 

Some students answered questions with greater confidence and accuracy 

after the trials, but misunderstandings persisted. 

The reasons behind these different learning outcomes, and their 

implications for pedagogy, are considered in more detail in the discussion 

and recommendations sections. 

2. Newtoon provides a good opportunity to learn 

process skills 

As well as learning around concepts such as the laws of gravity, students 

using Newtoon engaged in the following processes: 

The scientific process, in which the ‘scientist’ observes a situation, 

develops hypotheses, identifies variables, manipulates variables, observes 

outcomes, makes inferences and changes, re-tests and develops 

understanding. 

The design process, in which the designer has an objective, develops a 

good understanding of the user or ‘audience’, designs a prototype, tests 

it with users, refines the design on the basis of insights from the usertesting, 

re-tests and, when satisfied that the design meets the objectives 

with the given user, completes the design. 

21


Digital literacy, in which the ICT-user is able to understand and efficiently 

extract optimal utility from a new or familiar piece of technology in order to 

meet their particular needs. 

Students intuitively used these processes to various degrees, yet appeared 

to be largely unaware that they were engaging in established and widely 

applicable processes used by more competent students and professionals. 

The different extents to which students use these processes - and the 

different quality of outcomes they achieve as a result - provide teachers 

with an excellent ‘hook’ with which to teach these processes and concepts, 

and therefore to potentially ‘customise’ the learning approach. This will be 

discussed further in the recommendations section. 

22



“IT’S OBVIOUSLY CAUGHT A LARGE 

NUMBER OF THEIR IMAGINATIONS… I THINK 

IT WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL AT ENGAGEMENT 

AND MOTIVATION” 

Teacher 

3. Newtoon had a powerful effect on learner engagement 

“It’s obviously caught a large number of their imaginations… I think it was 

very successful at engagement and motivation.” 

Teacher 

Newtoon had an extremely engaging effect on the learners. Their 

enthusiasm for it was evident from: 

_ an observed improvement in classroom behaviour over the three 

lessons, with students becoming engrossed in Newtoon 

_ the quantity of games created – 187 games in three weeks from a 

class of 24 

_ responses from students and the teacher after the trial: 18 out of 19 

students interviewed reported that they “really enjoyed” using Newtoon 

and would “definitely” do it again. 

“I’m enjoying it… The ability to be able to make your own stuff and get 

people to play what you’ve created.” 

High ability boy A 

“I thought it was great that you can make your own games and 

experiment, and play around with things to see what they do.” 

Middle ability girl A 

23


“You get quite involved in it. The time goes really quickly and by the end 

you wish you’d done more.” 

Middle ability girl B 

“If you get to do the project just go up there and do it, don’t you 

worry about anything, because I made seven games and I wish I’d 

done more.” 

High ability girl A 

Enthusiasm did not seem to differ significantly by gender or attainment 

history. However a core group of extremely keen high ability boys, who 

made large volumes of games outside class, did emerge. 

There was some evidence that Newtoon boosted students’ attitudes 

towards physics. 

“Some parts of science can be fun. I always hated science in primary 

school but obviously secondary school science is a bit funner… if that’s 

a word.” 

Low ability boy A 

“It changed my view because it’s more exciting to be doing something 

with computer graphics instead of just looking at things.” 

Low-middle ability girl B 

24



“IT CHANGED MY VIEW BECAUSE IT’S MORE 

EXCITING TO BE DOING SOMETHING WITH 

COMPUTER GRAPHICS INSTEAD OF JUST 

LOOKING AT THINGS” 

Low-middle ability girl B 

“I always hated science and still do, but some science can be fun if you’re 

doing it in a group.” 

High ability boy with behavioural difficulties 

Five key factors seem to lie at the source of this engagement: authorship, 

ownership, playful/experimental learning, the social value of the games 

and being involved in authentic, real research and development activities. 

These drivers are explored further in the discussion section. 

Before the trial students expressed a clear order of preference for different 

types of science learning activities. Active modes of learning such as 

experiments and ‘making stuff’ were favourites for all students. Most 

students reported enjoying and learning from discursive learning in groups 

and whole-class discussions facilitated by the teacher. 

“If you’re thinking, ‘Oh I don’t get that point’ and then if you discuss it and 

someone brings it up and says about it, then you understand it better.” 

Middle ability girl D 

By contrast, passive modes of learning - such as listening to the teacher 

for long periods or copying from the board or textbook - were disliked by 

all the students. 

Newtoon offers an active, experimental, creative and discursive mode of 

learning, and as a result was highly popular with students. 

25


THE NEWTOON EXPERIENCE 

TRANSFERRED THE LOCUS OF CONTROL 

FROM TEACHER TO STUDENTS TO A 

LARGE DEGREE 

4. Newtoon challenges more ‘traditional’ pedagogies 

The Newtoon experience transferred the locus of control from teacher to 

students to a large degree. This resulted in a plurality of activity which the 

teacher in the trials found unfamiliar and challenging: 

“Usually you have a set route. You start off at a point and hopefully by the 

end of a lesson the class will get to a certain point. With Newtoon, you 

start at a central point and it explodes outwards. It’s completely alien to 

my didactic way of teaching... It’s chaos. It’s unnerving as a teacher.” 

The teacher felt unable to employ his usual pedagogical approach because 

of the plurality of activity: 

“They’ll all be going in different ways and different directions… You just 

can’t do it.” 

However, the trials indicate that interventions from the teacher are not only 

possible, but essential for all students to learn science from Newtoon. We 

consider ways in which teachers might change, diversify or develop their 

pedagogy to get the most of this kind of active learning experience in the 

recommendations section. 

26


5. Peer-learning emerged but more could be fostered 

Students appeared to learn from one another through exploring and 

editing one another’s games, and through talking with peers. However, 

peer learning was limited in the trials by behaviour management 

approaches and relatively limited whole-class or small group interactions 

and discussions. 

Learning through editing one another’s games 

It is possible to enter the ‘set-up’ of another student’s Newtoon game and 

see what the author has done with gravity, friction and so on. It can be 

difficult for a player to see which items are goals, hazards and tokens, so 

students frequently go into the set-up to find out how to play the game. 

While there, they also see how the game’s author has used science 

concepts. Students report learning about science and game design in 

this way. 

“I quite like looking on people’s games and seeing how much gravity 

they’ve got and how much friction, then you can put that in your own 

games to see if it works better or worse.” 

Middle ability girl A 

27


“Yeah, because you learnt that if you apply more friction the balls will 

go slower.” 


“Jackie’s game made me realise that you could actually attach [balls] to 

the screen, [and then] I used it on most of my games.” 


Interestingly, students reported that they learnt from each other outside 

class more than inside, because outside they had more freedom to 

communicate. 

“When people asked [for help] I told them how to do it but we didn’t 

actually have much time when we were together to actually do it because 

it’s mostly just lessons.” 

[Researcher: “Could you not help each other in lessons”] 

“Not really, because you’re not really allowed to talk in lessons. And 

also, the people who might want help are on the other side of the room. 

[Student x] made a game I thought was impossible, so I asked him in one 

of our other lessons, and he said it was possible, you just had to use a 

certain tactical move.” 


28



PAIRS AGGREGATED NATURALLY INTO 

GAMING CLUSTERS WHO PLAYED ONE 

ANOTHER’S GAMES MORE THAN THEY 

PLAYED OTHER PEOPLE’S 

Peer learning appeared to be greater within ability groups than between 

ability groups. Phones were shared between pairs of students who 

partnered for the course of the trial. Students chose partners of a similar 

ability level. Pairs aggregated naturally into gaming clusters who played 

one another’s games more than they played other people’s. The clusters 

reflected ability level and social dynamics and a high, middle and low 

ability cluster emerged. Because the greatest learning transfer happened 

through playing and editing one another’s games, the emergence of tiered 

gaming clusters suggests that learning transfer between ability groups 

is not as great as it is within ability groups. This emphasises the critical 

role of whole-class demonstration and discussion of games to facilitate 

learning transfer between ability groups and also the need for teachers 

to think about the best ways to encourage transfer of the skills and 

knowledge that different groups develop. 

6. Newtoon accurately represents science, 

but could cover more 

The teacher felt that the physics content of Newtoon was accurate. 

“It was pretty accurate on the whole. There wasn’t much that should 

cause confusion in there.” 

Teacher 

29


The teacher and the brighter pupils wanted more elements and concepts 

to play with. 

“The software has to be developed slightly more so that you could put 

ramps in, different shaped objects, and different qualities of surfaces. 

Just using springs and balls is a bit limiting.” 

Teacher 

“I would prefer the games if they had one or two more objects to use and 

the programming software was more advanced.” 


It was also suggested that the ability to turn off or isolate variables would 

help demonstrate concepts better to those who were struggling with 

understanding. Conversely, the addition of further concepts or variables 

was felt to be necessary if those with better understanding were to be 

challenged more. 

30



“I WOULD PREFER THE GAMES IF THEY 

HAD ONE OR TWO MORE OBJECTS TO USE 

AND THE PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE WAS 

MORE ADVANCED” 


7. Prototype limitations posed a barrier to learning 

beyond the classroom 

Over half the class did not use Newtoon on phones, for three reasons: 

_ Many did not access instructions about how to get games onto the 

phones, which were written in game diaries (a trial-specific notebook 

students were given). This suggests that most children need to have 

the process demonstrated to them, either by a teacher or a student. 

Students do not necessarily work this out for themselves. 

_ In its current prototype state, Newtoon has only been designed to be 

played on certain handsets, which were given to the students for the 

trial, and therefore could not be played on students’ own phones. This 

prevented Newtoon from integrating readily into students’ existing 

techno-cultural practices with their personally owned tools. 

_ Some students reported being worried about the security of the phone 

and so kept it at home or in their locker. 

Whilst all the students in the trial had computer access at home, over 

half the class had trouble accessing the Newtoon website due to security 

issues and not having Java installed (which enables the Newtoon software 

to run). A small number of students managed to solve the Java problem, 

but most did not. 

31


8. Students who could use Newtoon on phones and PCs 

at home tended to involve parents and siblings 

Students who did access Newtoon from home created games during 

evenings and weekends, and a total of 38 games were created outside 

school time (compared to 149 made in class). Students reported enjoying 

working at home, in their own space, at their own pace. 

“I reckon it was good and we got to do it at home so we could do it without 

a teacher staring over your shoulder.” 

Middle ability girl E 

Most students who used it at home reported involving their parents and 

siblings to some degree. Parents were said to be interested, some helped 

their children understand the science and design games, and younger 

siblings were used to test out games. 

“I used my little brother and sister as guinea pigs. I said to them, play the 

game, and if it’s good I’ll put it on the internet, if it’s not then I’ll discard it 

and make a new one.” 


“My Mum was really, really interested in what I was doing and she kept 

playing everyone’s games.” 

High ability girl B 

32



“I RECKON IT WAS GOOD AND WE GOT TO DO 

IT AT HOME SO WE COULD DO IT WITHOUT A 

TEACHER STARING OVER YOUR SHOULDER” 


“My Dad helped me, ’cause I didn’t have any ideas last night on what to do 

on gravity so my dad helped me with that one.” 


The students that did use the phones reported playing together with them 

on the bus, though seldom at break times. One student also used the 

phone as a testing and editing tool in the game design process. 

“I’d get home from school and go on the computer and make games 

and edit them and then when one of my other brothers was using the 

computer I’d test the games out on the phone and make notes to myself 

as to what I need to edit.” 


9. Science talk starts with the teacher 

Newtoon provided a ‘hook’ for peers to discuss science and game creation. 

While there was a good deal of talk about Newtoon, scientific terms were not 

widely used. However, it was observed that individual students used more 

scientific language in their game titles and game diaries after conversations 

with the researcher, and after plenaries in the third session. In both these 

instances, adults used scientific terms in relation to students’ work. This 

emphasises the important role of the teacher in opening a dialogic space 

and presenting learners with scientific language and tools to continue their 

own conversations about science. 

33


10. Newtoon games were a vehicle for self-expression 

As predicted by Sherry Turkle’s work on online identities (Turkle 1995), 

students seemed to express themselves and deepen their understanding 

of each other through the games. The additional control over the content, 

and to some degree, the form of the lesson both appeared to empower 

learners and provide the basis for more personalised representations 

throughout the learning experience. 

“You get to know more about the person’s personality and how they think 

about things, because if they create a game they usually do it around 

their own personality.” 


“If someone’s really smart, they’ll put something in the game that’s really 

challenging and so it’s a really good game, but if you’re not so smart then 

it can be just like kind of… a silly game.” 

Low ability boy B 

34



STUDENTS SEEMED TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES 

AND DEEPEN THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF 

EACH OTHER THROUGH THE GAMES 

Discussion 

1. Learning outcomes differed by ability levels 

Newtoon as a tool for consolidating learning 

Learning outcomes were influenced by the extent of existing knowledge, 

which suggests that Newtoon has a greater contribution not as a way 

of introducing new concepts, but rather as a tool for consolidating and 

extending learning. However, as further content and familiarity with its 

processes are developed its learning potential is likely to be extended and 

this may include its utility in introducing new concepts. 

“If you already know a tiny bit, Newtoon is great. If you know nothing, 

you’ll need Newtoon and someone to explain it as well, but it will 

definitely help reinforce what that person is saying to you.” 


Newtoon is not ineffective as a way of introducing new concepts: learners 

of all abilities were found to ‘stumble across’ new understandings. 

However, some misunderstandings persisted. This suggests that more 

checks and prompts are required from the Newtoon ecology and the 

teacher in the design of learning activities. 

35


Different types of play have different learning value: higher ability 

students benefited from spending more time in ‘scientific play’ 

Two distinct approaches to Newtoon game creation were apparent. All 

students began with basic, ‘unscientific play’ which involved creating a 

game using balls, springs, goals, tokens and hazards. As students gained 

confidence with the basics their designs became more sophisticated. This 

frequently led them into ‘scientific play’, in which learners alter properties 

such as gravity, friction and electric charges. Scientific play was often 

reasonably random to begin with, but as learners became more confident 

in their understanding of the scientific concepts, they used science with 

more precision to improve their games. Only in scientific play can learners 

fully engage in the critical learning experience related to changing 

variables, seeing what happens, and developing their understanding from 

their observations. 

Higher ability students progressed more rapidly into scientific play, 

and were quicker to recognise how the clever use of science could help 

them make better games. Lower ability students arrived at this stage 

later, or not at all, and were more likely to use non-scientific tactics to 

draw attention to their games. It is likely that the longer students spend 

in scientific play, the more they can learn. For those who remained 

in unscientific play, Newtoon was an enjoyable, creative and playful 

experience but it did not appear to help them to learn much about the 

scientific principles. 

36



AS STUDENTS GAINED CONFIDENCE WITH 

THE BASICS THEIR DESIGNS BECAME MORE 

SOPHISTICATED 

“A lot of the time I didn’t try to use any of the forces, I was just doing 

funny things.” 

Mid-lower ability girl A 

“Some of them failed to grasp the idea of what we were asking them to 

do. They thought it was OK just to make the game. They didn’t understand 

that you had to develop them.” 

Teacher 

This suggests that a teacher using Newtoon should ensure that all 

students are supported to engage in scientific play. However, these 

students did learn about game creation and also some of the principles of 

scientific processes. Further iterations and development of the Newtoon 

experience may also support the development of better understanding of 

those pupils with little or no prior understanding. 

37


2. The engagement effect 

There appeared to be five key sources of engagement through the use 

of Newtoon: 

_ Authorship: Students relished the opportunity to create their 

own content. 

_ Ownership: The Newtoon experience transferred the locus of control 

from the teacher to the learner. Students reported enjoying working at 

their own pace, working from home, and choosing for themselves what 

to do, provided they were within the Newtoon ecology. 

_ Playful/experimental learning: Students really enjoyed playing around 

with Newtoon’s features and seeing what happened whilst making 

creative and sometimes funny games. 

_ The social value of the game: Games were little nuggets of ‘social 

currency’. Good games that were widely played won attention for the 

author. Students reported that games expressed the intelligence and 

character of their creator. 

38



THE STUDENTS WERE EXCITED AT THE 

THOUGHT OF BEING AN AUTHENTIC PART OF A 

REAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 

IN WHICH THEIR INPUT MATTERED 

_ Involvement in real research and development activities: The 

students were excited at the thought of being an authentic part of a 

real research and development project in which their input mattered. 

Newtoon was new and unusual: playing games in science lessons, 

new people in the classroom and the experience of being listened to 

carefully in focus groups all meant that the trials were a unique and 

reportedly a ‘special’ experience. Whilst this may be said to represent a 

‘Hawthorn effect’, it also highlights the motivational aspect and value 

of students being involved and active in real research activities in which 

they can make connections between the focus of the learning and its 

wider application. 

Particular attention should be given to the power of authorship and play in 

helping children engage and learn. The idea of children actually authoring 

games reflects the constructionist idea that children learn through design 

and problem-solving (Kafai 1996, p72), as well as more current concerns 

that education should be more learner-centred (eg the Gilbert Review, 

DfES 2006). These perspectives argue that learners should be active in the 

creation of knowledge rather than passive recipients. 

“Constructionism suggests that learners are particularly likely to make 

new ideas when they are actively engaged in making some type of 

external artefact… which they can reflect upon and share with others.” 

(Kafai and Resnick 1996, p1) 

39


THE LEARNING ACTIVITIES WHICH MAKE UP 

THE NEWTOON ECOLOGY SUCCESSFULLY 

PROVIDE A TEST-BED AND CONTEXT IN WHICH 

PUPILS CAN EXPERIMENT AND FAMILIARISE 

THEMSELVES WITH PHYSICS PRINCIPLES 

Child-centred, constructionist and exploratory simulations known as 

‘microworlds’ are said to encourage “serendipitous learning” (Hoyles et al 

2002), where learners “through playing, may stumble over and then ponder 

important inspirations and concepts”. As McGrenere (1996, p28) points 

out, microworlds stimulate interactive design, learning from mistakes 

and learner ‘control’. The idea in this case is that the microworld provides 

a forum for playing with rules, and a ‘hook’ on which to hang physics 

learning later on. It appears that the learning activities which make up 

the Newtoon ecology successfully provide a test-bed and context in which 

pupils can experiment and familiarise themselves with physics principles. 

3. Social and collaborative learning 

Newtoon’s form lent itself to social learning. Its whole was made of many 

small parts; it worked precisely because lots of little games were created 

by individuals and played, inspired and informed by a ‘gaming collective’. 

In the Newtoon ecology social learning takes place at the stage of gameauthoring 

(with a particular audience in mind), studying, editing, playing, 

sharing and rating each others’ games, and in informal or teacher-led 

discussions within and outside the classroom. 

40


There is a wide literature on computer-supported collaborative learning 

(CSCL) which explores social interaction prompted by ICT. Some of this 

work has brought together constructionist learning theories with ideas 

about the social construction of scientific (and other) knowledge through 

communities of practice and discourse. Here, the collective production 

centres on the learning process as a community activity, where pupils 

themselves can be regarded as experts, learning from each other, 

assisting each other in solving problems, and working together on publicly 

available group tasks. 

For optimal CSCL, Scardamalia and Berieter (1994) argue that a 

dynamic and interactive learning environment is crucial. The Newtoon trials 

support this in that the evidence suggested that greater learning transfer 

would have been achieved in an environment that allowed more freedom of 

movement, discussion and collaboration amongst the students. Arguably 

the higher sense of ownership and higher engagement facilitated by the 

Newtoon experience appeared to improve behaviour and responsibility 

amongst students and therefore could enable the teacher to focus less on 

behaviour management and more on supporting dialogic, reflective learning 

required during the course of engaging in ‘scientific’ processes. 

41


4. Pedagogic development 

The Newtoon trials support the claims of Mercer et al (2004, p375) who 

emphasise the need to support teachers in ‘dialogic’ techniques in order 

to encourage the “effective use of existing educational software as a basis 

for group activity”. They suggest that the role of the teacher is to guide 

and facilitate “thinking together”, collaborative questioning and reasoning, 

and sharing knowledge through quality talk and interaction. In this case, 

where children are seen as “each other’s resource” (Barnes and Todd 

1977, in Mercer et al 2004, p374), the “class gains an ethos based on 

shared purposes for activity and, especially, for collaboration… The class 

atmosphere becomes more open, interested and engaging”. 

Teachers may struggle with the plurality of activity produced by learner-led 

use of Newtoon. Yet while students will be doing different things, they all 

share similar needs for help with the following: 

_ articulating and checking the accuracy of the understandings they 

are developing 

_ scaffolding their learning so that they are gradually incorporating 

more and more science learning 

_ realising and improving the scientific and design processes they 

are employing 

_ using the full functionality of Newtoon 

42



STUDENTS DOING DIFFERENT THINGS WITHIN 

THE SAME MICROWORLD CREATES A VALUABLE 

OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TEACHER TO MEET 

LEARNERS’ NEEDS 

_ understanding the processes of game creation and the phases and 

types of learning being achieved. 

Students doing different things within the same microworld creates a 

valuable opportunity for the teacher to meet learners’ needs by using 

students as learning resources for one another, thus improving 

the organisation of learning tasks in a mixed ability classroom. The 

recommendations section offers specific suggestions for how this might 

be achieved. 

5. The potential for mobile phone use 

Newtoon’s integration of mobile phones into the design had several aims: 

_ to enable young people to use popular and familiar technologies for the 

purposes of learning 

_ to encourage students to have more ownership of their learning 

_ to make connections between the technological cultures of young 

people and the culture of the school 

_ to encourage communication, social learning and learning beyond 

the classroom. 

43


Researchers such as Scanlon et al (2005, p5) have highlighted the need 

for more research on CSCL with mobile technologies rather than PCs, and 

Newtoon hoped to contribute to this. However, handset standards meant 

that students could only use the handsets they were provided with for the 

trial and could not use their own. Whilst this is a barrier that could be 

overcome technically, within the space and funding of the trials this was 

not possible and this raises broader issues relating to the development of 

educational software for mobile phones. 

6. Representing science 

Expanding possibility 

Newtoon broadens what is possible in a science classroom - for example, being 

able to turn off the gravity in the simulation to see how objects then react. 

“(I) understood it in a different way… Rather than what we do in a normal 

science lesson with just having magnets and putting them together, here 

you can change the strength of the magnets and see how that changes it.” 


The slow motion control and pause functions also help teachers and 

students with descriptions in a way that is not possible with offline 

experiments. This ‘unreal’ simulation facility is a valuable addition to the 

broad range of learning tools and can help students understand the various 

representations of physics that a scientist uses in the process of enquiry. 

44



NEWTOON ALLOWS LEARNERS TO EXPERIMENT 

THROUGH GAME-PLAY AND DEVELOP AND 

DEFINE THEIR OWN GOALS AND REWARDS AS 

THEY EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS 

Making science relevant 

The ability to affect the game-play through manipulation of the various 

variables, testing and re-testing, allows students to actively construct 

knowledge through experimentation. Brandes (1996, p41) argues for a 

socially constructed view of science which “may give [children] an inroad 

to participation in science”. In actively doing science and being a scientist 

- for example, by using physics concepts in the design of engaging games 

for their friends - children may develop a greater understanding of and 

“identification” with science (Brandes 1996, p42). Rather than games 

created with information embedded within them and clear and defined 

routes to achieving rewards, Newtoon allows learners to experiment 

through game-play and develop and define their own goals and rewards as 

they explore scientific concepts. Moreover, students also become aware of 

the relevance of science in game-play. 

Integrating different curriculum areas 

Newtoon provides an opportunity to create games that incorporate 

different areas of the physics curriculum - unbalanced forces, electric 

charge, gravity and friction. This avoids the compartmentalisation of 

curriculum areas 3 . Further content development could help to blur these 

stage boundaries further and allow more diverse and appropriate learning 

materials provided for learners based on their need and ability at a given time. 

3. Normally, the Year 7 module on forces covers balanced and unbalanced forces, friction and 

drag, with gravity, electric charge and velocity appearing in Year 9. 

45

7. RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 

46



THERE ARE ALSO POTENTIAL FURTHER 

APPLICATIONS TO CROSS-CURRICULAR 

TOPICS SUCH AS ENVIRONMENTAL ‘SCENARIO’ 

TESTING AND SIMULATING AND SO FORTH 

7. Recommendations 

and future possibilities 

Content and software development 

_ Currently Newtoon content covers only a limited and discrete 

aspect of the science curriculum. Further content development that 

covers more concepts and aspects of not only the physics, but also 

biology, chemistry and maths curricula would increase its utility 

and applicability to students, enabling more diverse and applicable 

learning content being available based on particular learning needs 

and potential. There are also potential further applications to crosscurricular 

topics such as environmental ‘scenario’ testing and 

simulating and so forth. 

_ Subjects beyond science and maths could be addressed too with 

further software developments. For instance, if more customisation of 

graphics and objects and backgrounds were possible, scenarios from 

history or literature could be integrated into the Newtoon interface. 

Students could then create games based around a particular historic 

or fictional scenario and learn about events around these scenarios. 

47


_ Language learning could be integrated into Newtoon given further 

developments. For example, objects labelled with the beginings and 

ends of words could be edited by students to make them attract to each 

other, giving audio feedback of the word formed if those two halves of 

the word come together correctly. 

_ The development of accompanying learning resources, including the 

embedding of pedagogical prompts (aimed largely at teachers and 

which could be turned on or off) within the software to support timely 

scaffolding of learning would improve the experience. Instructional 

materials to support teachers who are less familiar or comfortable with 

more dialogic pedagogies, and the reasons underpinning these, would 

also be beneficial. 

_ Using more scientific language, such as mass and weight, overtly in the 

game creation elements and adding more objects such as ramps, and 

more surfaces to explore friction in more depth, would all be valuable 

additions to the Newtoon experience. 

48



Developing the Newtoon experience 

_ The development of an online Newtoon gaming community that 

could develop, share, refine and rate material is necessary in order 

to harness collective knowledge and provide a useful source of 

‘quality rated’ materials. A large ‘creative ecology’ of games within a 

much larger network of players would enable new cross-context and 

boundary interactions and learning between students emerge. 

_ The ability to isolate or turn off variables so that teachers can explore 

individual variables with students was thought to be a useful potential 

development by teachers. Conversely it would be worthwhile developing 

content to encompass a wider range of variables. 

_ Further exploration of other technological possibilities, such as 

incorporating SMS and MMS within the Newtoon experience could open 

up new possibilities for more dynamic learning. 

_ Future developments might also look into location-dependent, GPSsupported 

game-play where the variables encountered might be 

configured to behave differently according to one’s location. Utilising 

cell technology might also open up new possibilities around locationbased 

customisation and instructions. Exploring opportunities offered 

through Bluetooth connectivity could also open up further avenues. 

49


50



REMOVING THESE BARRIERS FOR 

EDUCATIONAL CONTENT IS A PARTICULAR 

NECESSITY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

‘GAMING COMMUNITIES’ ON MOBILE 

APPLICATIONS 

_ For designers of other software, much can be learnt from the 

Newtoon approach – with whole learning experiences made up of 

many constituent small steps or parts. The development of learning 

approaches that place the learner in greater control of aspects of the 

learning experience encourages both personal ownership and more 

engagement, and the social aspects of such learning experiences also 

encourage more sharing and peer-to-peer learning. 

_ There are issues to consider if planning to use an interactive 

whiteboard for demonstration. Ensure that the colours of objects 

and arrows used in the games contrast well with the background 

application colour. 

_ Industry might consider the challenges that there are in terms of 

transferring and exchanging content between different handsets, 

models, makes and service providers, and consider the advantages 

greater ‘interoperability’ might bring and new business models it 

might support. Removing these barriers for educational content is a 

particular necessity as the development of ‘gaming communities’ on 

mobile applications, and more traffic as a result, is dependent on these 

being overcome. 

51


NEWTOON IS OPEN ENOUGH TO BE USED IN A 

VARIETY OF SITUATIONS WITH THE POTENTIAL 

FOR COMMERCIALISATION IN THE FUTURE 

Commercial opportunities 

Newtoon is open enough to be used in a variety of situations with 

the potential for commercialisation in the future. It raises many 

commercial issues but could ultimately provide a self-sustaining/ 

revenue-generating opportunity. 

_ Community source ‘user-generated content’ (UGC) development models 

could offer the opportunity of passing a small proportion of revenue 

from micro-payments to individual developers – a micro-charging model 

with payments going to game-makers for popular games. Not true 

open source but ‘community source’ which offers many of the benefits 

of open source but increases revenue opportunities by constraining the 

environment within which users can operate. 

_ ‘Macro modules’ for Newtoon are another potential opportunity. This 

could involve packaging ‘plug-in’ content as part of other learning 

resources. Teachers’ resource packs and lesson plans could be 

bundled with interactive Newtoon content to address particular 

curricular aims. The content could be dynamically developed with 

teachers and learners to be current and relevant (possibly with 

subscription revenue opportunities). 

_ Branded Newtoon versions could fit with particular events, for example the 

Olympic Games. Alternatively special prizes such as a Newtoon ‘X’ prize to 

achieve a particular aim could dramatically drive usage and uptake. 

52



Opportunities such as these raise many commercial questions: 

_ Who owns user-generated and often iteratively developed games 

_ Is it right to profit from user-generated content 

_ What is the potential of creative commons policy here 

_ People could use the software for free, and games are shared freely but 

duly accredited to the maker 

_ How do you enable the distribution of the game which could be a cost 

to the pupil who downloads games to phones 

Using Newtoon in the classroom 

_ Many students are likely to be more familiar with ‘games logic’ and 

features than many teachers. Therefore teachers might think how 

they can best harness this ‘expertise’, how they might incorporate 

more peer-to-peer learning, and the implications this has for their 

pedagogical approach to Newtoon activities. 

53


_ A good deal of learning transfer happens when learners play and 

edit one another’s games. It is useful to encourage them to do this. 

Enabling dynamic learning environments that support learners’ 

movement and discussion will support greater instances of peer-topeer 

learning and sharing of learning materials. 

_ Newtoon can provide an excellent consolidation activity. It may be 

best for teachers to first introduce concepts and then ask learners to 

create games using those concepts in order to process their learning. 

Alternatively, another approach may be to ask students to explore 

Newtoon first and then discuss the concepts as they are playing the 

games and feeding back in plenaries using students’ work 

to demonstrate. 

_ Teachers can take the opportunity to discuss and make explicit both 

the scientific and design processes that can and do emerge to varying 

degrees during game creation and play, and illustrate the best ways to 

approach both. 

_ Timely instructions and plenaries relating to aspects such as how to log 

on, how to get games onto the phones and the basics of game design 

need to be communicated effectively by teachers, as students will not 

necessarily work them out for themselves or access or follow written 

instructions. They should also familiarise themselves with the various 

stages and ensure that all students are reaching the stage of ‘scientific 

play’ as this is where some of the most important learning occurs. 

54



THERE IS A NEED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 

INTO THE BEST WAYS FOR CAPTURING AND 

ASSESSING EVIDENCE OF LEARNING DURING 

THE NEWTOON EXPERIENCE 

Further trials and research 

_ Further trials with different age groups, such as primary pupils, would 

be of value as they may give us more insight into the applicability and 

utility of the content and Newtoon experience for learners at different 

stages and ages. 

_ Further research in different contexts would provide interesting 

insights that could indicate what approaches work well and why, for 

example: in classrooms where teachers have different pedagogical 

approaches; when activities take place over longer periods of time; 

where learning activities occur outside of the science classroom. 

_ Research over longer periods of time with control groups might present 

a better picture of the various learning impacts of Newtoon. 

_ There is a need for further research into the best ways for capturing 

and assessing evidence of learning during the Newtoon experience. 

55

8. CONCLUSION 

8. Conclusion 

During the trials there was clear evidence to demonstrate the potential of 

Newtoon to support learning inside, and possibly beyond the classroom. 

However, with further technical, content and pedagogical developments its 

potential could be much more significant. 

The learning experiences offered through Newtoon are dynamic, discursive 

and active. This is extremely appealing to learners, yet brings its own 

challenges in terms of approaches to the management of learning and 

activities in the classroom. The diversity of tasks, pace of activities and 

the varied stages learners are at in any moment call for more dialogic 

and collaborative pedagogy. To fully harness the personalised learning 

possibilities of technology-enhanced learning experiences like Newtoon 

may require a more complex and sophisticated approach to managing and 

scaffolding learning, for which educators will require support. Moreover, 

it may also require more flexible approaches to the use of time, space, 

learning opportunities and organisational approaches that can mediate the 

possibilities for learning. 

56


8. CONCLUSION 

DURING THE TRIALS THERE WAS CLEAR 

EVIDENCE TO DEMONSTRATE THE POTENTIAL 

OF NEWTOON TO SUPPORT LEARNING INSIDE, 

AND POSSIBLY BEYOND THE CLASSROOM 

Newtoon’s create-play-edit-share nature was perceived by students as 

being ‘highly engaging’ but ‘low stakes’, in that they felt safe to explore and 

start again should their initial attempts prove unsuccessful. This sort of 

approach encourages learners to take risks and be more creative in their 

game construction. Despite the open-ended, playful experience Newtoon 

offers, learning goals are firmly embedded within its ecology. Learners 

control game creation and this offers intrinsic rewards and self-motivated 

goals, whilst endorsement from their peers and/or teacher for creating 

scientifically informed, interesting or exciting games provide extrinsic 

goals and rewards. The highly social aspects of this sort of learning activity 

can clearly encourage communication of ideas, sharing of knowledge and 

collaboration between learners, and between learners and teachers. The 

potential for peer-to-peer learning opens up a range of opportunities to 

pool existing skills and knowledge during classroom interaction. Moreover, 

possibilities of transferring learning materials between machines and 

applications also offers great potential for extending and sharing learning 

experiences between home and school environments and also between 

friends, family members and other learners. 

57

8. CONCLUSION 

NEWTOON REMAINS AN EXCITING PROTOTYPE 

AND WITH FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IT 

OFFERS GREAT POTENTIAL FOR LEARNING 

AND TEACHING 

The use of new technologies and computer games resonates with many 

learners’ broader experience of popular techno-cultures. The increased 

feelings of ownership and control engendered through the Newtoon 

ecology can empower and motivate learners. The constructivist nature 

of the learning occurring means learners are more active, creative and 

involved in their learning experience. The playful and experimental 

dimensions also resonate with the experimental nature of scientific 

processes and the 21st century science curriculum. 

Whilst the mobile phone element of the Newtoon experience was not 

fully explored in the trials, there was clear evidence to suggest that this 

was an engaging element that offered possibilities for future learning. 

Indeed, the understanding that pupils were creating games that could 

be played on mobile phones acted as a significant incentive. Whilst 

there are understandable concerns around the management of mobile 

phones in schools, evidence from the trials suggested that although 

some initial issues did arise, they were relatively easily overcome as they 

were beneficial to the learning experience. This suggests that broader 

consideration might be given to the transformational learning possibilities 

of these commonplace tools. 

58

8. CONCLUSION 

The Newtoon experience was successful to a large degree because the 

technical developers had a good understanding of the subject content 

and how this might translate into interesting and exciting game-play. 

Furthermore, they had a grounded knowledge of the elements that 

contribute to the development of interesting and engaging game-play 

environments and the accompanying creative processes that place the 

learner, or player, in control of developing their own content. It appears 

essential to incorporate all of these elements in order to produce 

‘authentic’ games which retain both significant creativity and 

learning utility. 

Newtoon remains an exciting prototype and with further development it 

offers great potential for learning and teaching. 

59

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