Digital Ether

Something to think about;

A game about physics, construction and explosions. Build a vehicle to transport an explosive load across rough terrain. http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/nitrohaul/

If you are interested in using the Nintendo Wii in the classroom, then look at http://www.wiiclassroom.com/.
I’ve also head there is a good book about importing Flash games to the Wii. Read the Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator’s Guide (http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Flash-Game-Creators-Guide/dp/0071545255
or http://www.freebooksclub.net/graphics-and-design/flash/3697-nintendo-wii-flash-game-creators-guide.html). And the Pixelfumes blog has some useful resources (http://pixelfumes.blogspot.com/2007/01/writing-flash-for-nintendo-wii.html) See Below;

Opera Browser

• Wikipedia Information of the Opera-based Wii Web Browser

Programming (Wiimote)

• Flash Wii Gesture Recognization
• Wiimote buttons in Flash – Aral Balkan
• Wiimote buttons in Flash – wii.teamxlink.co.uk
• Wiimote in Flash – Quasimondo

Design

• Wii Web Design Guide
• Funny Wii Safety: Missing Pages

Videos

• Video Showing Apparent Full Support of the Wiimote in Flash at DustyPixels

It’s a fairly basic question that does not get asked all that often. One example is the Nintendo DS Brain training (http://www.braintraining.com.au/what.html for the corporate spiel), which promises to improve your thinking logical skills. Also look at Maths Training for the DS. Then there is an article from the times in the UK, Nintendo brain-trainer ‘no better than pencil and paper’, which gives some interesting information from some scientific studies.

The children were split into four groups. The first two did a seven-week memory course on a Nintendo DS, the third did puzzles with pencils and paper, and the fourth just went to school as normal.

Before and after the programmes, the children were set a variety of tasks – logic tests, memorising words on a map, doing sums and interpreting symbols. Researchers found that children using the Nintendo DS system failed to show any significant improvement in memory tests. They did do 19 per cent better in mathematics – but so did the pencil-and-paper group, while the fourth group did 18 per cent better. When it came to memorising, the pencil-and-paper group recorded a 33 per cent improvement, while the Nintendo children were 17 per cent worse. In logic tests the Nintendo children registered a 10 per cent improvement, as did the pencil-and-paper group. The children who had no specific training improved 20 per cent.

Technology can hinder a students progress (see above for memorization), and can be less beneficial than not using technology at all (see logic tests).

And the best way to improve someones results?

Professor Lieury saids “that helping one’s children with their homework, reading, playing Scrabble or Su Doku or watching documentaries instead of soap operas matched or beat the console.”

So, Why use Information Technology at all?

It boils done to a question of student engagement.  Do do you make students interested in a world that has so many entertaining high quality media? Many of the tried and true (and possibly outdated) methods of teaching, now have to deal with the inundation of new technology, which is forcing change. A problem is that teachers are now competing against advertising and other media outlets, and this conflict is in a domain that teacher lack experience.

Innovate is an open access, bimonthly, peer-reviewed online periodical (ISSN 1552-3233) published by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University. The journal focuses on the creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes in academic, commercial, and governmental settings. Our basic assumption is that innovative uses of technology in one sector can inform innovative uses of technology in each of the other sectors.

Read the current issue of Innovate at http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=issue

Go digital or lose out, teachers told.

Just because something is on a computer does NOT make it better. Graphic artists use pencil & paper to brainstorm ideas, do thumbnail sketches, etc. Only once they have an idea of what they are going to produce do they move to a computer to create.
A computer can be a very effective tool, if you have a plan of what you want to do. There must be a focused plan; otherwise it’s just useless churning of clock cycles. And focus can be difficult to maintain with the easy distractions the computer offers.

One thing the digital native suffers from it a desire for stimuli, for new experiences, and becomes distracted by information, entertainment, or what-ever. This is best described by the expression Too Much Information, TMI, which is another phrase for Information Overload.

I notice it in myself, where I sit at the computer trying to do a simple task, but I’m unable to muster the brain power to complete it. I see it in the student I teach, by the fact that I have to keep refocusing them back onto the task they need to complete, and this is in an IT subject like Web Design, or Computer Animation.

And this brings me to the point, which is that with all the multiple stimuli, and easy distraction available in the media heavy digital world, people are loosing the ability to focus effectively for long periods.

Note these two points from the articles;

“Education systems need to protect the ethos or they will be swamped and overtaken by the commercial market.”

“Steal the technology, steal the ideas, use the energy and inventiveness but protect the values you are teaching.”