ABSTRACT
When researchers from the Open University visited Zoe Andrew’s classroom in the early 1990s they found the air humming with the noise of purposeful activity. Zoe’s class of 8-year-old children were working in small groups around different tables. Each group was preparing some text and pictures about an aspect of Viking life. The walls of the spacious modern classroom were covered in colourful displays. At the back of the room, in a corner next to a sink, there was one computer on a trolley with three children sitting around it on stools. They seemed very engaged in what they were doing, staring at the screen, sometimes talking and pointing but without really looking at each other. The software that they were using, Viking England,1 was a kind of adventure game that allowed them to role-play as a group of Vikings raiding the coast of England to get treasure from the monasteries. They apparently found this very motivating.
