Profaniti Tech

New blog post, by moi!

 http://www.flashbrighton.org/wordpress/?p=215

http://www.hrp.com 

Claims to be the first site to allow navigation through use of the webcam.  I find this kind of stuff really interesting, but trying out this site, I am finding it horribly slow, and unless i sit stock still, without breathing, then I will click the down navigation the whole time.

  This is clearly user error, but resulting in the fact I didn’t really look at their site at all.

  Non the less, a brave experiment, and something to get people talking about you :-) 

I customised a banner for Dconstruct, because i would love to go!  And doing so gives you a chance to win a free ticket.

For your own chance to win a ticket, go to

http://2008.dconstruct.org/buttons/#but1

Choose a customisable button, add your own image to the backdrop and put it somewhere on your website.  Their fav design will win a free ticket to the conference!  Good luck!  

Wordpress clearly hates copy pasta - and i don’t have time to edit the crap formatting at the moment

Books got out of the library to start reading -   A Theory of fun - for game design - Ralph Koster.

This looks really great, and i hope to read it all!

Computer Games - text, narrative and play -  Looks a bit dull - but useful chapters to read include :

4 - Play and pleasure - D, Carr - Motivation and online gaming - A, Burn and D, Carr

9 - Social play and learning - G, Schott and Maria Kambouri

(maybe) 13 - Doing Game Analysis - D, Buckingham

Had a meeting with Thor today - we discussed the following things 

technologies to be used:  Flash/AS3 for the mini gamesvarious input devices - possibly including: Wiimote / Webcam / Dance mat / keyboard and mouse / game pad or joystick / microphone / touchscreen

other works of inspiration : Buzz! for schools (possibility of talking to company) games such as Portal (teaching new abstract concepts) / lemmings (gameplay of learning how to do stuff) - loads more courses such as Ollie Glass / George Bashi’s teaching logo course - (have access to notes and ideas)

Reading -http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/04/202228&tid=6  - theory of fun in game design. Making things move in AS3 (keith peters)  - on order… to help with flash programming….i need more reading on learning theories etc - not sure what to choose from the millions…  e.g. Kolb - http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm plus loads of game specific learning papers if searching for “learning in games pdf” in GoogleEssay Structure - (intro)

General ideas behind learning Piaget / Kolb / ++

(sub section one)Learning programming/computational thinking (sub section two)

Games and learningfun/motivation/ general theoriesgames examplescasual games and justification of mini games

Visualization of abstract conceptsinfo aesthetics blog / logo / ++Interface design and why it is important general theories / embodiment / relentless (case study)

Ideas and justification + prototyping of computational mini games(sub section one)Illustration of mini games (sub section one)User studies - photos/screen shots / questionares Evaluation of project / concussions to tie in theory and ideas for extensions  To do for this week - Flesh out skeleton, and write a paragraph in each about what the chapter will cover.Find as much literature as possible, and add the article titles into the skeleton of the thesis.   Write the bibliography as articals are found and save them in a structured folder system.  This week focus on General learning theories, Teaching programming, and learning/teaching with games. Try and find some games that already teach programming, and see how they do it.

After much chatting to people, and thinking,  i have come up with a preliminary outline for my project proposal and thesis.

Learning through play - use of mini-games to teach computational thinking

This project and thesis will attempt to explore the ideas of learning through play, and how computational ideas can be taught by playing computer games.  It will also look into the idea and effect of more active interaction with the computer.

The theory part of the project will explore general learning, and learning with games, as well as outlining the ideas behind the mini-games to be produced.  There is a possibility of a mini case study, looking atthe “Buzz!” game, created by relentless software for use with key stage 2 pupils.

The practical part of the project will see the prototyping of a number of mini games, made in flash, which will intend to promote computational thinking. Along with this some exploration into more active and involving interfaces, such as the Wii mote, dance mats and other playful input devices will be explored.

Extensions to this project could include research, comparing the games performance on leaning with more traditional methods, and also comparing the games with more interactive interfaces to ones withtraditional computer input.

Rather than posting all of the interesting links i find which might be related to the project here, i have created a tag on del.icio.us as a place to put them all. http://del.icio.us/profaniti/masters_project

http://www.dialogbox.org.uk/Rupert_Wegerif/rwpapers/jaln.pdf

Summary of article

The paper looks at asynchronous (non-synchronised) learning networks by using a case study of “the teaching and learning online” course (TLO) designed for professional educators who plan to go on and develop computer mediated courses of their own.

Data was collected from participants in a number of ways, including questionnaire and telephone interview in order to get a full range of responses from both people who adopted and participated a great deal in the course, as well as those who participated little or dropped out.

Perceived benefits of the online system:

• People did not have to think “on the spot” and could give more time and consideration to arguments, meaning the more reasoned and better argument is likely to win through over the bullish inceptions or loudest spoken.

• No gender bias in discussions.

• Ability to deviate from the main thread with other points – something difficult in face to face talk.

• More politeness, consideration, thoughtful development and reconsideration and more exploration of topics than in a face to face environment – people could go away, research, and come back with new ideas on a topic.

Perceived disadvantages of the online system:

• Unclear how formal the postings were supposed to be. A tutor on the course remarked in his early posts he would always include deliberate spelling mistakes – although this had the undesired effect of sparking a debate about spelling mistakes in posts, and how people should use spell checkers!

• People who had less access to the system always felt like outsiders. Technological limitations had a direct impact on social status in the group.

Considerations when designing an online course:

• Fair access to equipment and technology is very important to the group dynamic and participation. Technology access actually affected social dynamics within the group.

• All the students on the course should start at the same time, otherwise it will be very difficult to catch up and feel like part of the community.

• “Scaffolding” should be looked at when designing the structure of the course – i.e. more structure at the beginning, and support slowly being taken away until users are working by themselves.

• Short and informal messages should be encouraged – due to comments that it seemed rude to criticise that long and meticulously prepared arguments/posts.

• A warm up / light hearted getting to know people period should be factored in to kick start the community feeling, and to support weaker students and prevent alienation.

• “Threshold” from outsider to insider is important to cross – and could be helped by encouraging the students to take on a leadership task.

• There should be dedicated time at the end of the course for reflection.

Other conclusions:

Threshold – The study talks at length about this threshold from being an outsider to becoming an insider.
People who remained outsiders often had poor access to technology, or felt the group were discussing things too high level for them to understand.
It is core for all collaborative learning for people to feel included, and to get as many people as possible to cross this threshold. Because of this there is some support for dividing groups on perceive ability or understanding – but this somewhat goes against the idea of developing a learning community? Also as mentioned above – giving the student the opportunity to lead a task and build confidence is important.

My thoughts –

To help students catch up – this is an old (in technology terms) study – and new technologies could be used to help this – such as a user edited searchable wiki, or the ability for users to “tag” topics – that way they could flag up what they thought to be useful articles on a topic for those who may have missed it, as well as being able to apply more personal tags such as “judy:toRead” for example.

To minimise the effects of disparages in technology and time, maybe a recommended time to spend online per week to for fill the needs of the course would be a good idea on sign up.

Case study into fast prototyping of games -

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_pfv.htm

Accessability in virtual worlds - 3d enviroments for people who are visualy impaired - graham - also with the wiimote for navigation

Evolution of spanish dance mat software - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4222089.stm - with research into gender, and learning styles (recreation with arduino?)

exploring the itoy and imat for pearent/child collaboration / social learning link - Rose Luckin

Modding and scripting support for games and online worlds - Judith

exploration of graphic particles - Paul Newbury

Nature of games - gap between how addictive a game is vs traditional quality measures - pointers for new game design - peter cheng (1 chapt maybe?)

implementing a gesture interface for the wii remote - different gestures mean different emotions? - social learning tool for kids / autists ? pablo romero

Older people and tech/games - reactions of older people towards technology. questionares! - Geraldine Fitzpatrick
finding evedence to support Wii usability/benifit in older people - Geraldine Fitzpatrick - brain training!!! - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7218103.stm

user centerd study into open streetmap - how people use it, and how the experience could be improved for them - http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Main\_Page) - pablo

Virtual flash tour a chapel and bits in the VA for an interactive kiosk flash and papervision (hmm) - Martin White (was he my proj second marker?)

Virtual twister - examination of trust and firendship of learners, and how that can influence collaborative learning - (Crook, 2000; Jones, 2005; Wegerif, 1998) - development of a physical interface so that users could play at a distance - sensor tech etc- Pablo

twitter/facebook - ideas behind different online personas - what channel data is publised on - Geraldine Fitzpatrick

To do:

Email tutors of these projects and ask for more information / meeting.