Project 1: Mixed media super Joy lessons

The project which will be undertaken will focus on the experience of mixed media digital lesson. The lessons will focus on the utilization of the interactive whiteboard, pen input, interactive and video media. The lessons should follow a structure which is easily translated to any topic work in order to create a solid order and understanding. The lesson plan is designed to work with the TV room environment at JOY school.

The order and deliverables of the lessons:

• A handout with extra information about the topic work needs to be created and given to the students in a prior lesson, or the first hour of the lesson. This will give you student a certain amount of background on the topic, so that they won’t feel lost watching the videos.

• The class should be split up into groups to create a competitive element to keep their attention, and give the slower students a slight buffer so they feel more relaxed. Points will be kept, depending on the situation.

• The interactivity (for now) will be based around PowerPoint. Interactive elements within the presentation will collaborate with the media (i.e. use of extensive hyperlinks to link to WebPages and video).

• The presentation will feature a “splashscreen”, which will form the initial basis of discussion. This page will display the essentials of what the students will be watching. Pictures and short sentences. This page can feature a quick activity, 5-8mins, it can include lists, discussion questions, what do you know about the topic? etc…

• The teacher gives out the organized questionnaire handout, this sheet will be only one page of writing, sectioned off into the videos, and a final conclusion area. 

• Next, the videos themselves. It is important that the students understand, or are able to anticipate the topic and the questions there of, in the videos. So the presentation page will contain “What to look out for:” with a brief description of how to find the handouts answers.

• Once the video is played, the teacher must use their own discretion to stop the video at vital points to discuss the topic with the students. Getting the students to stand-up and write on the whiteboard, or circle things and talk.

• After each video, a mirror of the handout video section will be displayed on the screen, the students will need to fill this out on the whiteboard one group at a time, with all members having to contribute.

• This is repeated for each video topic. If other types of media are presented, for example: 3d models, google maps, websites; then, the interaction relies on the topic area.

• Finally a video conclusion question should be completed in groups. This will be written on the handout, the teacher must then snap a picture to display on the big screen, with said group reading it out. This late stage can be conducted in a number of different ways, with the final conclusion being written directly on the whiteboard and saved using the jpeg save function.

This lesson plan, suits all topic areas, it’s simply a framework to which content will be created. It doesn’t deviate too much from the existing structure, but the interactive elements differentiate it from the existing. There is more focus on group work, and more explicit chances to interact with an added element of involvement. The student can manipulate the contents of the screen for the whole class to see, either by writing on the whiteboard directly, through the interactive pens, writing and taking a picture, or even by tablet computer (if/when splashtop software is installed).

No plans attached

I've been thinking for so long how to get the optimum experience for being creative in my own house, trying quite terrible ways of adding colour by using painted pieces of Styrofoam... which evidently did not work, in fact they discolour very easily in the Taiwanese summer Sun. So I'm left wondering what to do, what to do... after witnessing the painting or repainting job done at joy I'm left reminded of the fact that I was contemplating painting the house, and improving the lighting... all this equates to an understanding that I'll be staying in my household for a while yet... maybe even in the short term it is worth it.... cheap paint... a day spend painting and tidying, it might improve the experience of living in the house I am living in.

In addition I want that creative space defined, where, what defines it... Some sort of lab type experience. Creativity comes from others, yet I don't have others to be creative with. What does that mean?

....

Quick blog post... talking about mobiles... and other stuff.

Completely unrelated to my recent job changes which will come into effect after John makes his appearance at Joy, I still retain the passion for mobile devices. In fact, my infatuation extends to jabbering talk to Helen when she tried to wake me up the other day, I was talking about camera comparisons, when actually I was trying to make excuses to get out of washing up before having to cook dinner, the tired mind works in crazy ways, or I'm just crazy... I blame it on my infatuation.

Anyway, I've just purchased a HP pre 3 from eBay for eighty smacks, Damn, that's a lot of mazooma for a hobby... trying to justify it in terms of UI experience is quite rich, oh well there is an element of truth in that no doubt. But I just can't wait to have that device and people second looking at it, thinking what's that... I guess it takes a certain kind of person. I have no idea how many people actually bought this device, would be an interesting thing to know how many were produced. It was the last gasp of a dying company, and OS... so I can't imagine there were many.

So far:

HTC legend
Nokia e70
HTC touch diamond
HP Pre 3

I must make a list of important mobile phones, hardware revolutionised, software experience specialties... etc. To get the list started:

HTC Google nexus one
Samsung galaxy nexus
Nokia n9
Kyocera echo

Plus many more: obviously it is not practical to think to buy them all... but some cheaper ones going on eBay would be great.

There's my thought for the day... I should be getting my phones in the near future, a few weeks or so. I will update, and hopefully take a more academic approach to reviewing analyzing these devices.

Bye.

Note 10.1 UCD point of view...

The ubiscape blog is not only for my research and musings, but to try my hand at writing about different 3c technology which I own or have owned...

So for my first review I am going to talk about my soon to be sold Samsung note 10.1 device. This piece of technology as with all devices has good and bad points. Although, I'm not going to go into features and quirks individually, but to breath in an experience overview.

Ergonomics:

My previous experience with tablets before using this device was confided to an iPad 1 (which I bought soon after release), the iPad 2, and, and a cheap Android gingerbread device from HK. Although, I had used many of the other Android honeycomb tablets on the market in the past few years.

Trying to remove the paradigms of what I think a tablet or small computer should feel like, the note was nice to hold initially. I didn't care about the clammy plastic, or the creak on touch backing, even the large bezel around the screen. But, looking back my mind was clouded by the s pen functionality. The aspect of the large screen just doesn't fit. It's hard to exactly put your finger on it, it's not a natural shape, landscape isn't the way forward for tablet usage, when held in the hand at least. Granted, natural computer interaction is much more intuitive in the landscape display paradigm, but pen based tablets are definitely an exception to the rule. In fact, in holding the device you want to tilt it to portrait, but you have the feeling that you shouldn't be doing that... it screams at you via the stereo front facing speakers (which are located on each side of the screen) to tilt it back into landscape... telling me to use it in a way that doesn't feel right. On top of everything else the differing grade, colour and shape of the plastic on the device's sides make it uncomfortable to use any other way apart from landscape. The silver plastic comes away from the edge of the screen glass when held, twisting away allowing crumbs and other artifacts to creep into the gap. The tablet is quite thin, feeling thinner than most tablets out there, but it doesn't feel spectacular, it is actually quite drab. It all equates to a disappointing ergonomic experience. The design language is all mixed up, something is lost in translation. It takes design language from many different sources. It says "I am a traditional pc", because of its desktop UI and natural landscape orientation. "I am a note pad" because of the s pen. "I am a media consumption device" because of the stereo speakers... mixed.

Interface:

It's hard to title the different aspects of the note's design, this is because they're all interrelated. The main correlation is between the screen aspect ratio (therefore device size ratio), Samsung touch wiz version of android, and how the s pen is used. These all equate to a feeling of space waste, not utilizing the screen... with such a low definition screen, it's not acceptable.

The s pen itself is awesome. There isn't anything else quite like it at its price point, if you wanted a tablet with this functionality for less than £500... the note is your only real option (other than the new note 8.0, which incidentally why I'm getting rid). Although the UI is quite bright, blue and fruity; it's very functional. How you would potentially feel about the experience in the software all depends on the usage type. If you use it as a media consumption device then it's a good Android device, although you may be put off by the screen which is quite soft. If you use it as a media creation device, ie drawing pictures, photo editing and video, it's a good device. But, it doesn't have the portability that is required to make it a real choice for a portable idea capturing device.

To round it all up, the device is a nearly product which if it wasn't for the s pen functionality would be yet another mediocre Android tablet. Not a premium experience, but a premium price point. Price shouldn't be an issue when describing UCD experience, but it must contribute to how you perceive a product... it is part of the experience. Yes the s pen at the price is novel, but apart from that the experience is compromised by the cut corners.

This isn't an academic review... merely an attempt to restart the cogs of intrigue and renew the descriptive art of writing well. I must read more books of design to restart that intrigue. I must work less, but work at new goals. I must move forward for me, I can't feel burdened to joy.

Decisions can be more easily made when the time exists to think about them properly.

New path at Joy school

Here we go

Today I discovered that my job at joy cram school might be taking a slight change for the better. I'm going to reduce my hours in order to spearhead the technology in teaching drive at the school. This means that I will take charge in planning and organizing the classes, of a digital medium.

The types of digital interactions include but are not limited to, interactive whiteboards and tablets... of any kind which connect to the internet. The two sets of students that will be catered for are quite different age groups, tales of joy & super joy. Both with completely different philosophies of teaching.

Plan of action

Create a syllabus, or basic lesson plan for each case... one which is more extreme in its use of technology, one which utilizes more recognizable methods. Ease of use is paramount as it must be used by a range of technophobic teachers.

Big bezel for drawing on my tablet...

Ok... So the galaxy note 10.1 is an ugly bugger, but actually it's an amazing drawing tool. For years I dreamed about purchasing one of those wacom  graphics tablets with an inbuilt monitor, but they always had a price tag above £1000. Along comes the 10.1, it is reasonably cheap and does so much more. Great.

But, there are some flaws... One such flaw it's the small bezel, which means you have to curl up your hand like a strange sloth in order to draw in the corners.

My mockup hack solves this to an extent. It's simple corrugated plastic cut to a larger size and blue-tacked. Easel. There just might be a market for this. I want my 3d printer!!!

iPad one modded for teaching

Case Examples

I've created a simple digital teaching augmenting device. Simply put, it's an old iPad which has a series of rare earth magnets on the back to connect it to the ubiquitous whiteboard located in all of the classrooms at my cram school in Yuanlin Taiwan.

I've used it in many scenarios of teaching different types of student, ages and levels. One of the first things which does grab students attentions is the basic fact that it is an iPad... it is technology... it is stuck on the board. I have used it with video, in small groups. Simple gif animations for flash cards... but the main use I've gotten out of it is the simple cue card creation on the fly. Using my finger on the touchscreen instead of wasting dry erase markers scribbling on paper.

Visibility is the only issue in terms of using the iPad in this way, one modification I have made is putting a non glare textured screen protector on the device. But all in all the maximum brightness lcd panel is very visible, possibly more so than pen and paper.

I'm sure there have been countless more technically in depth creations using the iPad in simple educational settings, using collaboration, active student involvement, hands-on configuration of interactive media. But, this is just my down and dirty prototype. As older tablets become commoditized to the extreme, then we can take advantage of this by using them in more adventurous situations where the device can be flung around, and interacted with.