“In The Doghouse”
Posted by Peter | Filed under Games
Here is an excellent bit of innovative gameplay: “In The Doghouse” requires you to get a puppy from one room in a house to another by sliding and rotating rooms around to make a clear path for him. It is 2d (side-on) and resembles the classic slider puzzle in the way you solve it. Wonderfully original concept; I love it! (Graphics and music are good too!)
“Word Vine” — learning your compound nouns
Posted by Peter | Filed under Games
In browsing Miniclip.com, I discovered this quite simple but excellent game: Word Vine. The objective is essentially to link several small words together into a kind of vine shape (each word being one leaf of the vine), such that the links (or stems) represent compound nouns (that is, words that are made up of smaller words). For example, you might link “post” to “man”, because it makes the word “postman”. You might also link “post” to “office”, and so on.
The game starts out at a very simple level, but soon gets quite tricky. One of the particular difficulties is when the compound noun has a totally separate meaning from the smaller words that make it up. A fairly good knowledge of common English words certainly helps, although it can be played entirely by trial-and-error too, for those who may have a smaller vocabulary. It also needs a pretty good short-term memory, and a little lateral thinking sometimes. (The vine structure is pre-defined when the level starts, so you sometimes have to figure out how to re-orient all your word links to make them fit).
From a gaming perspective, the concept is nice and easy to learn, and the interface is very responsive. The graphics are moderately simple, but very effective. I believe all the levels in the game (with the possible exception of the beginner levels) are randomly generated, so it is replayable, and you couldn’t cheat by stealing somebody else’s answers!
It is a good game, and I reckon it could make quite an effective casual addition to English learning, whether by native or foreign speakers.
Computing for Everyone!
Posted by Peter | Filed under Uncategorized
Budgetting for computing facilities is an odd area sometimes. As many will point out, the cost of the outlay can be quite high (although it is reducing), and the ongoing cost of maintenance can be very difficult to meet (schools in Australia are seeing the negative consequence of bad planning in this area). However, it is also noted that computers can help to save money too, whether by reducing the need for printed material, or allowing colleagues to meet ‘virtually’ instead of having to travel great distances.
Some people have the budgetting fairly well sussed (or just have a big budget!), to the extent that computers practically seem to be a dime-a-dozen for many of us, which is a wonderful privilege. The perceived value of computing facilities is evident in the very fact that initiatives such as OLPC and Classmate PC exist.
Unsurprisingly, education is a major proponent of computing facilities, given the ease with which so much reference material can be stored and searched using a computer (I often wish books had a ’search’ button!), as well as the effectiveness of word-processing assignments over hand-writing, and so on. I have no idea how many computers my university has, for example, but given the number of students across the campuses, I wouldn’t be surprised if the number is into the thousands; there are numerous labs for all students, and it is expected that everybody (no matter what they study, from art to nursing) has some IT literacy.
However, it is worth remembering that not all people are so fortunate in their budget for such things. Computer prices in Pakistan have seen a 20% increase lately, which is adversely affecting educational institutions, which need to increase their tution fees in response, which in turn puts more strain on the students. Worrying too is the situation at the Eastern Ilinois University, where the campus computer labs are too expensive to keep open, so some students are required to buy their own laptop for use on campus instead. Meanwhile, some teachers in Ireland are struggling simply due to apparent strange spending priorities.
Clearly, it is an important area. There are drives to press forward the goal of “computing for everyone”, especially where education is concerned. I am certainly in favour of more people having the knowledge and access required to use things like the Internet, although I wholeheartedly agree that too many people are not educated properly about computing (even those who are regarded as ‘computer literate’ seem to lack fundamental knowledge sometimes).
Having said all that, I doubt there is much that can really be done to rectify the present problem situations, except to learn from the mistakes that are already being made! Maybe make plans more realistic, and remember to help people make effective use of computing opportunities.
Community Etiquette
Posted by Peter | Filed under Software, Websites
I recently had a run-in with somebody on the community forums for an open source piece of software. I was trying to give advice to folks, based on my experience of the software (which is what community forums are for, right?), and this individual took it upon himself to rather harshly decry much of my assistance, because there were points with which he didn’t agree.
I won’t say where or with whom this occurred, but simply that I view it as a rather unnacceptable behaviour for somebody who claims to be supporting a community-based software project. Communities are full of lots of people of varying levels of knowledge and expertise, and not everybody will always agree on the best way to do anything. Even if a person is flat-out wrong, getting angry at them (or worse yet, talking angrily to other community members about them by name on the public forums) is a sure fire way to alienate and push people away. This is the kind of attitude that breaks up communities.
What’s my response? I’m not 100% sure yet. Part of me wants to leave that particular portion of the community forums alone because I don’t want to cause unnecessary dispute, and yet perhaps the bigger part of me knows that unless somebody sticks it out against this guy (and hopefully wears his attitude down), he’s going to keep doing it to other people too. Community forums belong to the community, not to any individual
Fantastic Contraption
Posted by Peter | Filed under Software
I’m a stickler for a good bit of physical modelling, especially when it’s used in games. We’ve seen quite a few Flash games of this type lately, but here’s one which is just different enough to stand out: Fantastic Contraption.
The basic permise is, as usual, get the red block/ball into the goal area. Unlike many other physics games though, you have no apparent limit on what you can use to achieve it (i.e. no ‘budget’). It is also a little simpler in some ways, because the complexity of contraptions you can build is somewhat limited. However, the challenges have been very well designed to fit, and it is an enjoyable intellectual exercise, as well as being mighty good fun!
I will, however, remark that the interface is not nearly so responsive as I would like. In all fairness, this is a problem I find with a great many Flash components these days — either my computer is older than I like to imagine, or programmers are getting even less concerned about efficiency (or more likely, both!). That being said, it is a game that is well worth a play about with. The facility to save your designs online for other people to access is pretty nifty too.
(Not Quite) Virtual Teachers
Posted by Peter | Filed under Education, Virtual Worlds
The BBC carries a video report about teachers making videos (’vodcasts’) to help pupils revise material. While I somewhat challenge the claims of ‘virtual’ and ‘interactive’ made in the report, I do believe this is a positive use of technology… to a certain extent.
I have learned a lot of interesting stuff by watching some educational videos on YouTube and elsewhere on the web (check out the awesome Periodic Table of Videos, for example), but I think it’s crucially important that pupils aren’t lulled into a sense of it being OK to rely too much on ‘after-the-fact’ learning resources. Learning is a process by which information is absorbed and retained. In the same way that mobile phone address books have destroyed people’s ability to remember important phone numbers, these kinds of quick-fix education hits run the risk of reducing pupils’ retention of the material if they are over-used or over-emphasised.
I am still positive about it though. Carry on, but tread carefully!
Culture for the New Generation
Posted by Peter | Filed under Uncategorized
Here’s an initiative that I like the look of in England: free theatre tickets for people under 26 (on the quieter nights of the week). I think if I were a more gregarious sort of chap, living nearer a decent theatre or two, then I would certainly take in some productions more often than I do… and being imminently back on a student budget (as many under 26’s are), free tickets would make the prospect that good bit more appealing!
I am often dismayed by the relative lack of culture in society, and by how starkly my comparitively rich and varied background contrasts with the fairly narrow and uninspiring upbringings of many of those around me today (no offence intended!). Looking back at a photo album of my childhood (which my family put together for me as a 21st birthday present a few years ago), I see lots of wonderful activities, including clubs, sports, theatre, outings, and much more. I got a great chance to do many things, and I believe I am a better person for it.
I knew somebody who did youth work in a YMCA for many years. I seem to remember they once worked hard to put together an adventurous trip for the kids, involving things like rock climbing and canoeing and so on, but instead of excitement, the kids couldn’t care less. They couldn’t see the point.
I believe the richness of a person’s upbringing has a great impact on their future attitude towards life. I have often shocked and surprised people by even the most trivial knowledge of areas outside my usual sphere of involvement and interest, and yet to me, such breadth and diversity of knowledge and experience is a wonderful privilege which should be pursued. Instead, many people seem to push away everything which they don’t need to know; it’s creating societal ruts which entire families and generations are falling into.
My conclusion? Promoting diversity and stimulating broader interests in the lives of young people is crucially important. This theatre initiative is a great step, and is naturally in keeping with the idea of making museums and libraries freely accessible. What we need now is more encouragement to use these facilities, and positive demonstrations of why they are useful. Many of the problems of violence and drugs and such like in some communities are attributed to there being “nothing else to do”, when perhaps there is actually plenty to do, but there’s just nobody telling them how or why.
Learning From New Media
Posted by Peter | Filed under Software
It’s almost becoming fashionable to use games in education now, to wit various schools in Scotland which are apparently introducing Nintendo consoles to their Primary education programmes with great enthusiasm, while elsewhere, games are being used to help pupils practice for their SATs. I must admit to a hint of skepticism regarding the motive and alleged results of ‘improved performance’ — isn’t there a risk that this is something of a quick-fix solution to waning pupil attention?
My doubts aside, it is good to see modern methods being employed early on; presenting material in a more exciting and engaging form tends to encourage people to take it in more readily. I remember a prime example of somebody working for Amnesty International — he asked a group of teenage girls if they knew what conflict diamonds were, and to his surprise, they did! Apparently they had seen the (excellent) movie “Blood Diamond” (which was partly supported by Amnesty International), and had decided to stay away from diamond jewellery as a result. Had they not seen that movie, the chances are that they would never have known about the situation at all.
I could even cite a couple of examples from my own life. When I had to study for my Standard Grade Physics exam, I bought a computer game which contained all the syllabus notes and test questions. It was certainly nothing like the truly game-like material we’re seeing now, but it was just interesting enough to encourage me to study. In a totally separate and more recent case, I played the brilliant “Delta Force: Black Hawk Down” action PC game, and was amazed when I later realized how much knowledge of those real-life events I picked-up, just by having fun during my off-hours. (I am usually terrible at learning current affairs or history!)
Something tells me the ideas are all still a little jumbled up yet… we’re seeing a mix of casual and formal learning happening together. Perhaps over time, the different layers will begin to separate, and educators will be able to confidently utilize new media in the classroom.
Wii: Kids vs. Grownups!
Posted by Peter | Filed under Games
We had a fun-night in my church earlier, at which we ate plenty of good food, and more importantly, hooked up a Nintendo Wii to the big projector in our main hall. We played the Bowling game in “Wii Sports”, and what was interesting was the different ways in which people learned the controls.
The ages ranged from 4 to about 80, so we had a “grownups” round first, then a kids round. Most had never played a Wii before. The Bowling game is a little trickier than some of the others to master, because you have to hold a trigger button on the controller, swing it like a bowling ball, and then release the button during your swing as if you were releasing the ball. Physical assertiveness and timing are important to success.
The younger to middle-aged adults generally learned how to play gradually, and did moderately well, relying a lot on luck. Most of the ’senior’ adults though, to be honest, failed miserably. (No offence guys!). Most struggled to remember which button to press, and ended up pushing others at the same time (perhaps down to issues of dexterity and their first use of a totally alien device); nearly all took a long time to understand how a gesture with a controller bore any resemblance to bowling; they also struggled with complete dissociation between gesture and screen (much akin to the trials and tribulations of technophobes learning to use computer mice, I suppose!); and finally, coordinating the hold-and-release of a button with a physical gesture was impossible! Some released the button too late in the swing, and others simply didn’t release it at all. Some also mentally separated both parts of the action…. press-then-release the button, then swing, or vice versa. It was… ‘interesting’!
The really young children, on the other hand, had a wonderfully natural absorption of the entire concept. It took them a couple of attempts to figure out how to hold the controller (their small hands making it particularly difficult), but admist their ‘creative’ gestures, they absolutely thrashed the adults! Most of them don’t have games consoles at all, and yet their natural curiosity discovered and learned things like pushing the directional pad to alter the trajectory of the ball before the swing.
One child was the exception to the rule though. He understood what he was supposed to do quite quickly, but could not master the skill to the same level as the others. I surmise that his natural shyness resulted in reduced physical confidence, causing him to sub-consiously dampen his gestures in ways which adversely affected their effectiveness.
Anyway, it was a fun night, and we had plenty of laughs. It ended with a quick men vs. women round, in which the men beat the women 124 to 97! 
Putting educational technology where it belongs
Posted by Peter | Filed under SLOODLE, Software
The Deccan Herald carries a positive article about the use of technology in education. It is sometimes surprising to think, as can be read in the article, that the concept is comparatively young (at least in relation to widespread usage across the curriculum). Despite many well-intentioned failures of innovation, there is still a drive to further use the technological advancements of the modern day to improve education.
It is easy to make broad-based generalisations and expectant assumptions which turn out to be wrong. Certainly the ubiquity of computing these days demands that solid literacy skills are taught — I have often heard it noted by University lecturers that the seemingly most ‘literate’ computer users can turn out to be the least competent at common tasks, such as using styles and document outlines when preparing a report in MS Word. However, using technology in education ‘just because we can’ is likely to be a doomed course from the outset.
If I had lots of money, I wouldn’t go out and buy the fastest car just because I could afford it; I would obviously look for aesthetic quality, but (being a programmer) I value functionality higher. The same should be done with technology in education: just because we can financially afford the flashiest looking new bit of software that comes out doesn’t necessarily mean it will benefit the process.
A prime example is the educators I see from time to time who jump into Second Life, without really considering their goal in using it. As a wholehearted contributor to the Sloodle project, I definitely believe in the potential of the platform for education… but potential does not equal results. Educators and institutions can spend large amounts of time, effort and money, investing into it, and get pretty much nothing out but a deserted sim and a handful of lukewarm students who wouldn’t use SL outside class time even if you pay them (as many educators do… in L$!).
As Sarah Robbins discussed in her keynote session at SLCC08, you need to deliver what you promise, so you need to promise realistically! Doing ‘real life’ stuff in Second Life is effectively a waste of time, which is probably why early concepts for the Sloodle project were abandoned (such as re-creating a Moodle course page exactly 3d). We need innovative thinking and radical change… but we need to do it gently sometimes too.
Going back to the original Deccan Herald article above, I was very pleased to see the mentions of “networking” and “collaboration”. These are what it’s all about, just as with the schome project (”not school not home”) running on TeenSL, which brings teenage students together to function and operate effectively as peers with those who would (in any conventional setting) be the ‘teachers’.
Undoubtedly, formal education and qualification still needs a great degree of guidance and support, so I do not forsee the student-teacher relationship ever going away completely. However, among the greatest strengths I see in these collaborative, social, “constructivist” approaches are these: learning how to learn, and learning how to enjoy it!
