MG ALBA and Bòrd na Gàidhlig team up with The Glasgow School of Art to offer a new “LearnGaelic” Scholarship

FigureFlight, a music game designed for large touchscreen devices by Alex Horowitz developed to help make music-making accessible. It went on to win a Curiosity Award

MG ALBA and Bòrd na Gàidhlig have teamed up with the School of Simulation and Visualisation (SimVis) at The Glasgow School of Art to offer a new “LearnGaelic” Scholarship it was announced today, Tuesday 4 July 2017. The scholarship is offered as part of a new commitment to developing interactive tools for learners of Gaelic, and will support a Gaelic learner to study on the MSc Serious Games and Virtual Reality at SimVis starting from September 2017.

Serious Games and Virtual Reality represent a large, and actively growing, industry, and this MSc will provide students with the skills to become key innovators in an exciting and rapidly developing area. As part of their programme the successful students will develop games and other virtual reality products to help support the learning of Gaelic.

“Serious Games and Virtual Reality are now multi-billion dollar global markets, not just for entertainment, but with huge impact and potential in education and training, and connecting people internationally and in remote communities,” says Daniel Livingstone, Head of Postgraduate Programmes at the School of Simulation and Visualisation. “We are very excited to team up with MG ALBA and Bòrd na Gàidhlig to offer this opportunity for a student of Gaelic to also learn how to develop new immersive virtual and augmented reality applications that will help support Gaelic learners.”

“MG ALBA is not only passionate about the development of Gaelic across traditional forms of media such as radio and TV but is determined to ensure that the language has a role in the development of new forms of creative media in the 21st century,” adds Donald Campbell, CEO of MG ALBA. “We are thrilled to be supporting the scholarship scheme which will allow someone who is passionate about both Gaelic and virtual reality to enhance their education and career prospects within this hugely important sector. We are also pleased that our LearnGaelic platform will benefit from the knowledge the successful candidate will gain. Serious games and virtual reality is a global industry and we want to ensure the vibrant Gaelic language can play a part in that.”

“Promoting the Gaelic language and encouraging people to learn and use it is at the heart of Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s work and we constantly strive for new ways in which we can achieve this,” says Shona MacLennan, CEO of Bòrd na Gàidhlig. “We are keen to explore how games technology and virtual reality can be used to support learning and usage and we are excited to be a partner in a scheme that can foster new digital learning tools for Gaelic. This is a superb opportunity for an individual to enhance their gaming technology and Gaelic language skills, whilst making a potentially ground breaking contribution to how people learn, use and perceive Gaelic in the 21st century.”

The MSc in Serious Games and Virtual Reality offers students the transferable skills to design, develop and analyse games and simulations for a range of application areas and to conduct interdisciplinary research in the applications of games technology, particularly in healthcare, education and training.

The LearnGaelic scholarship will be awarded to one person, resident in the UK or EU, who is actively engaged in learning Scottish Gaelic, or who has a genuine interest and desire to do so, and who will join the MSc programme in September 2017. Applications need to be submitted before 4th August 2017.

For more information on the Masters in SERIOUS GAMES AND VIRTUAL REALITY and how to apply for an MG ALBA scholarship visit: http://www.gsa.ac.uk/learngaelic

MSc In Serious Games and Virtual Reality: http://www.gsa.ac.uk/seriousgames

For further press information on GSA, contact: Lesley Booth; 0779 941 4474; press@gsa.ac.uk @GSofAMedia

For further press information on MG ALBA, contact: Viktoria Marker; 0141 422 6582; viktoria.marker@mgalba.com

For further press information on Bòrd na Gàidhlig, contact: Murdo Morrison; 01463 225 454 / 07983 445158; murchadh@gaidhlig.scot