e-Learning: Making a Flash game and quiz

Alright, I have made my first attempts at creating a Flash game and quiz. I used a simple drag and drop script we had in Flash class to make a human body game. I think this type of game might be useful to learn about the organs of the body. My game is really simple, but I can see how if expanded upon, this could be an effective learning tool. Check it out here.

Also, I did a lot of research on how to make a quiz in Flash and found a good tutorial here. Again, it is a very simple quiz application, but it could be good for a site used as a supplement to other classroom tools.  The tutorial used an xml file to control the content and an Actionscript file to control how the quiz functioned and looked.  I had to use questions that were short because I could not figure out how to wrap the text from an XML file in Actionscript (P.S. Does anyone know how to do that?). Check out the quiz here.

The latest: e-Learning science site

Ok, so I have been adding more and more content on my science site. Here are some of the changes I have made recently:

• I added a little rollover for the top navigation.
• For each one of the five branches of science that I have, I now have a main page, a news item (blog), and a video page.
• I made it so that when you’re in the Physics portion of the site (for example), the Physics label on the left side stays up.

Check out the changes: http://outsidethenormdesigns.com/science/

This coming week I’m going to work on building content of my own. I am hoping to be able to make a Flash game and quiz for one of the scientific branches on my site… I’ll keep you posted

e-Learning: New additions to the science website

Ok, I have added a few things to my e-Learning website. I made an intro page where the user can choose which branch of science they want to learn about, with rollovers for the main sections. Any thoughts on the design? Also, I was wondering if anyone knew why this page looks insane in Internet Explorer. Did I mention I love IE? Just kidding.

UPDATE: I realized how to get around the problem in Internet Explorer by doing exact positioning in CSS for the ’splash’ page.

Also, I’ve played around with a few background colors for the design, but haven’t settled on one that I totally like. Any thoughts?

Nest Buildin– Design concept for Flash site

I have to do a product site for my Flash class, and I have been working on a concept for a site that sells handmade products. Any thoughts about this design?

e-Learning Progress

Ok, I’ve coded the basic shell of my site. See what you think…shell of the site

Below is the basic design of the site:

My learning objectives

My e-Learning site is focused on the topic of science for elementary school children. My original idea was to have a site that my brother could use as an elementary school teacher to supplement what he is teaching in his classroom. Originally, I was just going to focus on one science topic: the Desert, which is something that kids learn about in school in Phoenix. However, I decided to broaden the range of topics a little bit to cover Biology, Astronomy, Ecology, Physics, and Archaeology. For each of these topics, there will be blogs, videos, games, and quizzes associated with each.

Server Side– New Design for Layout

So, I’ve kind of gone back and forth on a layout for Designing for Server Side. I’ve played around with a few designs and have settled on the one below. Does anyone have any thoughts? P.S. it is for a ficticious company that sells and rents independent movies. I’ve included a couple of variations…

e-Learning: Taking a short online course

I had no idea how much free education there was on the internet. It’s amazing. This week I originally thought I would try out a course on the Open University UK site, and found a cool lesson on desert ecology. While I appreciated the in-depth information and the subject matter, I realized I wanted to look at something more interactive, perhaps with video and sound elements (even though I will keep the Open University site as a reference).

Instead, I cruised through some of what is offered in iTunes U. In previewing many different podcasts and vodcasts, I noticed that a lot of what is offered in iTunes U are either audio or video recordings of university lectures. While this can definitely be valuable, that’s not totally the direction I wanted to take with my e-Learning site. I want to do something more with motion graphics, video, and audio.  That’s why I was pleased to find a course by a PBS station in Boston…

The course I checked out can be found on iTunes if you search for “WGBH Earth,” and select the course titled,”WGBH Earth and Space Science.” In this series there were 12 short courses ranging from the solar system, to solar eclipses and infrared light.  Even though the subject matter is not completely related to what I want to cover in my site, I thought it was valuable for me to see how the information was presented. I thought the videos and animations that PBS put together were in interesting and informative. Below are some of the things I took away from watching.

1. Simple illustrations/ animation can be effective

Even though some of the illustration and animation was simple (and at times admittedly slightly cheesy) it was really effective for the purposes of learning.  Watching these lessons made me realize that when it comes to e-learning, it’s more important to present the information clearly than to have a mind-blowing design.

For example, while this illustration is very simple, it was effective in teaching about how a solar eclipse works.  The artist did a good job distinguishing between the different elements and showing how they moved. This means to me that while I definitely care about making the design look good, it is far more important to actually get the lesson across to the user.

2. Present the information at a steady pace

The lessons that are worthwhile in this series keep the information going at a reasonably fast pace. I noticed during some of the slower lessons that I was getting a little sidetracked. However, with information that came a little faster, I wasn’t bored, and could always rewind if I missed something.

3. It’s important to include audio

Also, there were a couple of lessons that just used type and visual elements to convey the message. It made me realize how important sound really is in conveying a message. I found myself wanting a lot more from the lessons that did not use audio and I didn’t gain much from them. Again, I’m more of a visual learner, but I can tell having audio and narrator definitely helps in learning.

Overall, I appreciated the lessons I went through on iTunes U and will carry over what I learned into my final site.

On a final note, I loved the lamp of a guy in one of the videos I watched, see if you like it…

Designing for Server Side

So, I just realized I haven’t posted my ideas for my site for Server Side yet.  In this class we are supposed to design a site that has a shopping cart feature, and also have some other features that will bring a unique user experience. I decided to do a website that sells and rents independent movies. I wanted users to be able to search and find the exact movie they want through a set of criteria that they choose; like genre, era of the movie, whether it won any awards, etc. I think it would be cool to help people find the movie they want, because I have spent too many hours in the video store staring at the aisles of movies, not being able to pick one. I would also like to build in some ability for the user to flag movies they want to rent in the future and also make recommendations to other users.

I went back and forth with the name of the company I wanted to select. I ultimately went with the name “Eight Reels” after doing some research on early independent film making. Independent films of course are those that are not produced by a major movie studio. As film making progressed and became more expensive, it became harder for those not producing with a major studio to create a film. Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The original terms called for Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith and Chaplin to independently produce five pictures each year, but by the time the company got under way in 1920-1921, feature films were becoming more expensive and more polished, and running times had settled at around ninety minutes (or eight reels). It was believed that no one, no matter how popular, could produce and star in five quality feature films a year.

I sort of liked the way “eight reels” sounded, and thought it was appropriate for an independent film website.  Here are some of my logo sketches.

e-learning: Three tools

There are a lot of tools that can be used when creating an e-learning environment. I’m going to check out three this week that I am not as familiar with.

Podcasting

I have said before, I am definitely more of a visual learner, but I am starting to be converted into being a fan of podcasting. In building this e-learning site, I would like to accommodate different types of learning styles. My brother has a podcasting website called The Teacher’s Life that chronicles (as you guessed it) his life as a teacher, and I definitely have gotten a lot out of listening to that. There is a ton of potential when it comes to auditory learning and it is definitely worth it to me to look into.

I found what I think is a pretty useful article on how to put together an educational podcast called Teaching & Learning with Podcasting.  Here are some great points the author got across:

• Not every topic is right for the podcasting format. As the article points out, “most students listen to podcasts as they perform other tasks (i.e., riding a bus, driving, exercising, walking to class, etc.).” For this reason it is important to choose a subject matter that is not overly complex for a podcast. Make it succinct and highlight the main points you want to get across.
• Have a clear goal for the podcast before you create it.  Do you want it to be entertaining and fun or do you want to elaborate on a complex subject? Your goal will shape the final output of your podcast.
• Be creative with your content. I think it might be hard if you have a series of podcasts to give them continuity, but also spice up each one. I think you’d have to do a lot of planning before creating a podcast in order to make a quality experience for the user.
• Don’t just read a script. The article gave what I think is great advice: be yourself and sound natural, but also be enthusiastic.

Photosharing

When I think of photosharing, I usually don’t immediately think of e-learning applications, but I am starting to see how this type of activity could be applied. It seems like using a site like Flickr for educational purposes is fairly new, because I found it a little difficult to find very official articles on the subject. However, I did find some interesting tidbits along the way that show the potential in how photosharing can be used in e-learning.

• Photostreams One application for e-learning that Flickr has is the ability to create sets of photos or photostreams. This way, learners can quickly and easily navigate through a series of related photos, and read descriptions appropriate to each. I found this article called Using the Online Photo Community Flickr for Science Education that described how educators in California were using Flickr as a way for students to see groups of related science images, which also allowed the students to ask questions and make comments. This seems like a fun, interactive way to learn science. Here is an example of an educational set of photos on Flickr.
• Annotation One of the really cool things about sites like Flickr is that you can add notes to particular parts of an image in order to focus on specific objects. One example I have this used for educational purposes is this art history example. The annotations allow students to hone in on certain parts of the painting, and discuss the artist’s technique and meaning behind the subject matter. This seems to work especially well with a complex image.
• Geo-tagging I could see geo-tagging being another great feature in Flickr for e-learning. Clearly, for a geography assignment, it could be really effective to use the geo-tagging feature to help students identify various historical locations on a map. One video blog by a K-12 teacher that I stumbled upon shows users how to use features like geo-tagging in Flickr for education, which I think is really useful.

Social Networking 

Finally, I wanted to see what kind of e-learning applications social networking has, specifically through the site Ning- which is an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Again, this must be a pretty new development in the e-learning realm because I had some trouble finding formal articles about the subject, but I was able to find some related resources.

I found this support page on Ning that was created specifically for educators. I think this is cool because it gives a forum to teachers who are trying to implement this technology in their classrooms. Also, some of the Ning experts write blogs about how to better use Ning. One thing I like about Ning is that it gives you the ability to request ad removal for an educational site.  This way you wouldn’t have to expose kids to unwanted advertising.

I think people are now familiar with the process of social networking, so it wouldn’t seem that difficult for a user to create a profile for an e-learning site. I just wonder if people are too accustomed to using social networking sites purely for fun, that it would be difficult to steer them in a more educational direction. I could see a social networking feature being useful, especially in a professional, corporate learning setting where users can share ideas within their respective teams, and have certain learning objectives they need to meet.

Interactive Motion Design- Rollover

Ok, here is my rollover assignment. I wanted it to look like the pufferfish is getting scared by the sting ray, but I’m not sure if that worked out… good times though.