Hopspots challenges children’s competencies At Bagterpskolen in Hjørring and Herningvej Skole in Aalborg the teachers and pupils love Hopspots. We talked to Anja Godtliebsen, teacher and IT-advisor at Bagterpskolen, and Henrik Bundgaard, after school care worker and head of pre-preparatory classes at Herningvej Skole, about their experiences with Hopspots. At Bagterpskolen Anja has borrowed Hopspots for 4 months in total during the past year. She particularly took Hopspots in, in her role as IT-advisor because as she says, “she knows what’s good” and thus she books ahead in order to make Hopspots available at her school. At Bagterpskolen everyone from the first grade and all the way up to the 6th grade have tried Hopspots and Anja says, “they are all equally eager to use it and even the older children find The Chase and Mix’n’Match fun”. According to Anja, Hopspots is ideal for getting children to move while learning, because it does not take a lot of preparation time to use it during class, and she says “it’s nice to be able to bring Hopspots into the classroom and it is something that the children think is fun and when they even learn something [...]

“The child comes out in us” – HOPSPOTS IS FOR EVERYONE Today Hopspots is used in several other places than the Danish primary school, namely also in SENs, in child therapy and now also at health centres. Based on a demand for using Hopspots in other places than schools, which have so far been our primary target group, we have the past couple of months examined what Hopspots can contribute with to an older target group and we got great feedback. Our examination among other things consisted of user tests with the elderly and interviews of professionals who have also tried Hopspots. Among other places Hopspots have been implemented at Hjørring Sundhedscenter to great amusement for younger as well as older people in Hjørring. Hopspots is here used for both interactive training for people with brain damages and dementia, for groups of children, and for people in rehabilitation. We interviewed Lene Ellgaard from Hjørring Sundhedscenter about her experiences with using Hopspots for an elderly target group. The experiences in Hjørring together with our own tests show that also elderly people can benefit from using Hopspots, particularly when it comes to physical training, mental training and social skills. [...]

BETT show in London In week 4 Hopspots attended the BETT-show in London. BETT is short for British Educational Training and Technology show, which is held in January every year. BETT is a great chance for everyone within the educational field to get new ideas and inspiration for new ways of using technology in teaching. At the show we met both giant companies such as: LEGO, INTEL; MICROSOFT; as well as small and newly established companies. We were located together with all the newly established companies and it was a great experience! There were so many new ideas present in that one room, and it was vibrating with activity. It was quite the adventure examining the BETT FUTURE area, our area. Even teachers, headmaster and distributors from all over the world found the place extremely inspiring. The whole world was there! We talked to people from all over Europe, South America, South Korea, and even New Zealand. What an experience! We have been jumping and laughing a lot. Hopspots’ target audience is children between the age of 2 and 10, and children with disabilities, but the teachers also saw potential in using Hopspots for older [...]

The winning school looks forward to combining play and learning in the teaching! CONGRATULATIONS to the winning school, Egebakken Specialskole in Aalborg, which won a set of Hopspots for a month! Kenneth Vestergaard who is the headmaster at Egebakken expressed that Hopspots is going to be a total hit at the school. Even the pedagogues had great pleasure out of trying Hopspots on the demonstration day. We asked Kenneth Vestergaard about his thoughts on movement in school and how the school is going to use Hopspots. Movement in school is very important and it is related to learning which is why he thinks that Hopspots will improve the children’s learning. “Movement and learning, body and brain are related”, the headmaster Kenneth Vestergaard says. It is important that children get to play while learning, and also that they learn while playing. Egebakken is a school for children with ASF. It is thus important that it is not just the traditional method where children are sitting down an entire day that’s being used. “I believe that Hopspots can make them feel like they get a break while learning and moving [...]

THE SCHOOLS’ HOPSPOTS METHODS We know that it varies how the different schools and institutions implement Hopspots into the everyday school life and thereby include digital technology and movement in the teaching. Even though we offer start-up help and feedback it is great to see that the schools themselves do such a good job at finding a rhythm that suits them and their children. Here we made an excerpt of the different Hopspots-methods used at some of the schools that are currently using Hopspots to create active learning. Seeing it, may inspire others to get started using Hopspots. At Uglegårdskolen in Solrød Hopspots resides in the Centre for Learning. Britt is the IT-advisor and manager of Hopspots as well as the person that gets the other teachers started with using the games. Once a week the interested teachers can book a Hopspots lesson for their pupils. In that way the teachers get experience with how to use Hopspots in their teaching. Uglegårdskolen looks forward to getting a second set of Hopspots, which will allow more teachers to use it with their pupils, and the school will make themed presentations for the teachers to introduce [...]