Nikos Theodosakis: "And then we go beyond the technology issue of making movies and explore how we can use this powerful tool to engage students, to enhance curriculum, and to transform education." http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com/profile4.php
The idea of enhancing curriculum through a movie making medium in the classroom is an interesting proposition. This intrigues me because I think I have viewed curriculum as static, somewhat of a fixture in the classroom. To enhance curriculum would mean this medium would somehow transcend the page and give it life.
A colleague of mine once said, "I prefer the approach of uncovering curriculum as opposed to covering curriculum." I believe Theodosakis navigates this terrain to inspire engagement. Curriculum should be considered as a verb rather than a noun. It serves to inspire constructing meaningful learning experiences.
Garageband '11: http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
"With 22 new genre-based lessons (40 in all), you can pick up the basics of piano, guitar, or even both. Video demonstrations, synchronized notation, and instrument animations make lessons fun and easy to follow."
This is an absolutely brilliant addition to Garageband. It is completely in line with what Neilsen has to say on animation (as quoted in ePortfolio Chunk 3) involving two or more states. In terms of the addition of video demonstrations, it will be interesting to see how Apple approaches this. How much information will be addressed in each segment and how long will each segment be? Nielsen (2005) argues for video to "keep it short, less than one minute." It is also important to limit the amount of information provided in each segment. Czerwinski & Horvitz (2002) recommend we "let a previous task item fade from memory before introducing a new one." I will be interested to see Apple's tutorials in light of this research.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
ePortfolio Chunk 5
"Try not to overcomplicate icon designs. Be wary of placing too many items into an icon design, or overly illustrating an icon."
http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/7-principles-of-effective-icon-design/
Icon design is a tricky proposition. It must be recognizable, simple, consistent within the context of what is around it, and sensitive to cultural considerations. Recently I led my grade 3 / 4 class through an inquiry into petroglyphs. We examined various glyphs from the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Milk River, AB and began to imagine the stories they told.
To further illustrate the power of storytelling through this medium, I had my students design their own petroglyphs using Google Sketchup. They chose a family member and designed a series of icons that would represent that person's likes and dislikes. This was not an easy undertaking for some of these students. The idea that a story could be revealed through a series of abstract images was difficult for them to grasp. Yet, this is indeed what we are asking consumers to do when we design an icon for a specific product. Designers have very little real estate to work with and must convey a message within a considerable set of constraints.
"Since nothing is perfect, and, indeed, since even our ideas of perfection are not static, everything is subject to change over time"
The Evolution of Useful Things (Petroski, 1992)
Petroski's statement interests me in how it pertains to icon design. Not only will the form of consumer products evolve over time, but so will a iconic lexicon shift as well. We have an inventory of icon staples, such as those that denote trash bins on our desktops or male and female washrooms. Yet as demands shift in our pursuits of perfection, this will necessitate changes to iconic representation.
http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/7-principles-of-effective-icon-design/
Icon design is a tricky proposition. It must be recognizable, simple, consistent within the context of what is around it, and sensitive to cultural considerations. Recently I led my grade 3 / 4 class through an inquiry into petroglyphs. We examined various glyphs from the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Milk River, AB and began to imagine the stories they told.
To further illustrate the power of storytelling through this medium, I had my students design their own petroglyphs using Google Sketchup. They chose a family member and designed a series of icons that would represent that person's likes and dislikes. This was not an easy undertaking for some of these students. The idea that a story could be revealed through a series of abstract images was difficult for them to grasp. Yet, this is indeed what we are asking consumers to do when we design an icon for a specific product. Designers have very little real estate to work with and must convey a message within a considerable set of constraints.
"Since nothing is perfect, and, indeed, since even our ideas of perfection are not static, everything is subject to change over time"
The Evolution of Useful Things (Petroski, 1992)
Petroski's statement interests me in how it pertains to icon design. Not only will the form of consumer products evolve over time, but so will a iconic lexicon shift as well. We have an inventory of icon staples, such as those that denote trash bins on our desktops or male and female washrooms. Yet as demands shift in our pursuits of perfection, this will necessitate changes to iconic representation.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
ePortfolio Chunk 4
Amazon.ca recommends I check out the Columbo Mystery Movie Collection '91-'93. I am pleased with this recommendation as I adore our dear lieutenant and look forward to adding it to my collection. A week later, Amazon emails me another recommendation for the book, Nursing Care Plans: Nursing Care and Diagnosis. This I find less appealing and I wonder why the company would suggest I purchase this text.
In The Design of Future Things, Norman suggests "the new kinds of intelligent machines...are autonomous or semiautonomous: they create their own assessments, make their own decisions. They no longer need people to authorize their actions." (p. 36). I do not view the Amazon recommendation system as intelligent; it is simply based on a personal and collective browsing history and is essentially a monologue imposed through this website. Amazon allows its users to manually modify recommendations, but it is unable to intuit these modifications on its own. I do, however, see this type of recommendation system evolving toward a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines. Norman uses the examples of elevator sensors and automobile stability controls to illustrate a movement toward this type of relationship.
Norman also reminds us of the constraints of deepening the relationship between humans and machines. He argues that "the lack of common ground is a major cause of our inability to communicate with machines" (p. 50). How can I communicate with Amazon? Presently I have a keyboard and mouse as my input devices. I can manually intervene and determine why Amazon recommends I purchase a nursing text (turns out a friend did some searching and changed the course of my search history). How could the system determine this search pattern was anomalous without a common ground? Norman says that humans "can learn from their past experiences and modify their behavior accordingly," however, "machines can barely learn" (p. 53). Bridging the gap and creating common ground is therefore a considerable design challenge between connecting humans with machines.
In The Design of Future Things, Norman suggests "the new kinds of intelligent machines...are autonomous or semiautonomous: they create their own assessments, make their own decisions. They no longer need people to authorize their actions." (p. 36). I do not view the Amazon recommendation system as intelligent; it is simply based on a personal and collective browsing history and is essentially a monologue imposed through this website. Amazon allows its users to manually modify recommendations, but it is unable to intuit these modifications on its own. I do, however, see this type of recommendation system evolving toward a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines. Norman uses the examples of elevator sensors and automobile stability controls to illustrate a movement toward this type of relationship.
Norman also reminds us of the constraints of deepening the relationship between humans and machines. He argues that "the lack of common ground is a major cause of our inability to communicate with machines" (p. 50). How can I communicate with Amazon? Presently I have a keyboard and mouse as my input devices. I can manually intervene and determine why Amazon recommends I purchase a nursing text (turns out a friend did some searching and changed the course of my search history). How could the system determine this search pattern was anomalous without a common ground? Norman says that humans "can learn from their past experiences and modify their behavior accordingly," however, "machines can barely learn" (p. 53). Bridging the gap and creating common ground is therefore a considerable design challenge between connecting humans with machines.
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