Homo sapiens continuus. The emergence of a new species of learners
Date: Wednesday April 9, 2008Posted in: education, girls in computing, gaming
Various interesting articles presenting a profile of the new generation of learners
Emily - The Connected Ape by Robert Hart
A 7 pages pdf presenting data of internet presence and community participation for a typical teen.
Of interest: “Emily might be “slow” at school, but she’s like a hurricane online. Her mobile connected lifestyle has changed her educational and social experience.”
Emily: the connected human
A lead on article on the same subject
Most kids want educational video games in school, survey shows. … So?
An article introducing survey results on kids use of video games and their expectations to be given video-games for learning.Of interest : “Only 3% of elementary school students say they do not play video games of any kind.”
A quite interesting article on teachers observing imbalance of powers taking place when playing legos in the classroom. It describes the strategies these teachers set up to try to get the kids reflect on the issues of power, ownership and equity and how these reflections are used to encourage the adoption of more collaborative behaviors.
Why we banned Legos
Their Space. Education for a digital generation
Date: Thursday February 14, 2008Posted in: education, reports and trends
An interesting report by Hannah Green and Celia Hannon published by www.demos.co.uk
[Description reproduced from their website]
“Their Space: Education for a digital generation draws on qualitative research with children and polling of parents to counter the myths obscuring the true value of digital media.
Approaching technology from the perspective of children, it tells positive stories about how they use online space to build relationships and create original content. It argues that the skills children are developing through these activities, such as creativity, communication and collaboration, are those that will enable them to succeed in a globally networked, knowledge-driven economy.”
Tutorials to learn Flex and Actionscript 3
Date: Thursday November 8, 2007Posted in: flex, courseware
In the context of my learning of the Flex framework, I had that somewhat crazy idea. To solidify my learning, I set up to write tutorials.
They have been written on the Edutech wiki, of University of Geneva. Why there and not on my own wiki. Because there, I can more easily benefit from feedback and comments from like-minded persons. Sometimes you have to stop hoping that other persons will come and collaborate with you and be the one to go on another wiki and collaborate there ;-).
Tutorials on Flex and Actionscript 3
One level is already complete, the one for absolute novices. That’s right, even if you have never programmed before in your life, you should nevertheless be able to follow these tutorials and get started. Feedback and comments can be left on that wiki (you may need to register for this).
Free Adobe Flex Builder 2 for students and instructors
Date: Friday October 26, 2007Posted in: education, flex
After announcing reduced pricing for Flex Builder 3 ($299 rather than $499), Adobe is now offering Adobe Flex Builder 2 at no cost to students and faculty at educational institutions worldwide, starting early November.
Adobe advances Web 2.0 in education, Press release @ Reuters UK
Two months into Flex Programming
Date: Monday October 15, 2007Posted in: learning object, flex, courseware
Two months or so into learning Flex. I start to have all basics covered. Add media, adding animations, adding sound, using variables defined in the html document that contains the loader, and much more.
Check out the Flex Gallery
Perhaps of particular interest, an early version of a Tile-Based Game Engine. Fully working. There is of course room for improvement.
Using 3D software to pimp up learning content
Date: Monday October 8, 2007Posted in: assets, courseware
I gave a try to Poser today, toke me about an hour to create these 3 versions of a character.
Don’t be impressed, that’s one of the characters provided with the app. To get there what you do is choose a figure from a menu, choose some haircut from a menu, choose some face expression in a menu, then choose some pose in a menu. Poser is a heft price tag, not really affordable for the hobbyist.
Other products exist in a cheaper range. Take Sketchup, for instance. 3D scenes with the possibility to drop in 3D static characters. 100% free for education!
If you don’t have an artisic drive, no worries. You can find a repository of free 3D content at the 3D warehouse. Alternatively, you can find professional 2D and 3D content at websites like content paradise or turbosquid.
There is a brand new industry that has emerged that tries to give hobbyists like me the tools and assets to produce impressive content without me having to follow a 3 year training in design. So they claim, at least. For my part, I found most useful to read books that explains basic principles of design and composition.
What could be interesting is if services where created like rent a coder that would let you develop learning content on the cheap. Rent a graphic designer to produce four to ten 3D avatar that you are then free to re-arrange the way you like, in infinite number of poses. Rent a learning designer to give you feedback on the (educational) quality of the learning content you have designed. Rent a creative writer to create a story to offer the common elements of a set of lessons. I dunno. I am curious to see if that kind of services, targeted to an education market will appear and how long it will take.
Free Education Online: Full list of UC Berkeley Video Lectures
Date: Wednesday October 3, 2007Posted in: open, courseware
Massive list of resources to get a free education online. Courses organized by coursename, teacher, how many videos.
They also have a bunch of videos on you tube/ucberkeley
