Who is the competition for – well my Reception(/Kindergarten) son can play the programme and create a working bridge, and my A-level(/Grade 12) students should be able to understand the engineering dynamics of tension/compression and the necessity of iterations.

I created a basic bridge – now the competition is on for my students to create a workable bridge for less – I wish them luck.

As a teacher I wish for two things; a) that students enjoy and learn from the experience, and b)  they also realise that there is a gap (if only small in some cases) between that of an experienced teacher and their own – we can all learn through play, but age and previous experience are an important facet of life. I may not be invinsible, but to beat me my students will need skill and/or initiative to win that should be beyond their years (and is certainly beyond their curriculum)!

Notes:
West Point Bridge Designer 2010 can be downloaded here – it is a free PC only programme.
There is a US student prize competition though others int he world may participate in a non-prize competition.
For teachers ther e is the option to set up a local contest using a Local Code from West Point – well worth doing.

@nahowie for updates on how we’re doing

Terry put it online today, and thanks are due

Worth doing as I point out, and Peter has the knowledge and experience to make sure all can benefit from it.

Follow via Twitter: @nahowie @terryfreedman

We have worked together on developing our business and economics skills in bringing a Zoo worth $0 to being worth $1.5M. Along the way we have worked through challenges (each steadily harder and longer), and spent time working our the various permutations as to what to do next. My son has also been improving his literacy and numercy skills as he had to tell me what the messages were, how much we’d made, how much we still had to make (and time it would take) to get another animal/staff/equipment etc. He’s also learnt a great deal about animals, as there are notes on the 80+ animals we have our zoo, and also in developing a systematic approach to sorting through ensuring that the same types of animals are in the same area of a zoo.

What an amazing game – and best of it is free!! Also as a father is was so good to see my son engrossed in his learning (without always appreciating the skills he was displaying) and  I felt good in having spent so much quality time with him. 

I can remember wanting to get the likes of Civilization into my school many years ago, but it a) just cost too much, and b) took too long to accomplish something worthwhile. Here the programme is free, and it’s simple, but in a sophisticated simple way. There are still enough permutations to ensure that those playing can enjoy the challenge, but also few enough so that you can see the success of your achievements.

My son appreciated at the end of the weekend how you don’t magically create a business – you have to work hard,  juggle lots of possible options, and before you make those decisions go through all the options and select one you feel is right. Oh and if you like the topic (he likes animals) you get to learn some great facts too!

Well done RockYou!, I can see understand they recently received $50M in venture funding (article) – a very educationally appealing game for students from 6ish upwards (and as we’re all life-long learners which includes us all), and also to facebook.

RockYou’s twitter
My twitter

What I’m looking for are things that are practically possible at my particular school, both in the administrative and the teqching side of the school. Day to day one can get so involved with what is going on that great, simple, ideas can pass one by. Hopefully by spending time at such an event as this and focussing in on lots of areas that others have already experienced one can improve the learning experience at one’s own school. 

Given I’ve configured a Moodle site as a test (both of my ability, but also to try an be inventive/creative with what is being taught), I and the colleague who is going with me can discuss both the actual content and layout of the site.

And if an internet connection is available then perhaps I’ll even practice my twitter skills!!

So I’m also now @nahowie, and following the tweets many others but (trying to be careful whom I follow!)

The results that have been achieved so far are given here:

That’s over 12 years worth of processing in just over six months.

Given that the school PC lab computers are on, they may as well be put to some humanitarian use, and it has no impact upon what students can do in their lessons. At the same time this is a clear example of grid computing and hence can be used in the lessons.

Marist College have a great explanation of how they use World Community Grid to help as part of thier Green initiative.

If you are interested in the World community Grid then here is a link to information about them.

 
This one was about a programme I have used, but never very much, Adobe Bridge CS4. It is called Bridge CS4: 10 Things Designers Need to Know. I find in watching these tutorials that it is the shortcuts, and tips that you come away feeling you can best use. These are the things you know you want to know, but never have the time to really take in from a book and digest, especially in programmes such as Bridge which I use infrequently. 

However here Ann-Marie Conception’s demonstration, whilst aimed at developers, could be used in a classroom setting. The number of times I have had students take digital photos from multiple cameras and mobiles and then tried to sort through them is numerous. Adobe Bridge CS4 allows for easy renaming, and grouping to collections. Adobe Bridge CS4 is a high-powered replacement to Windows Explorer (and Mac equivalent) in the main, and all its advanced features that put Widows Explorer to shame can be found in other high-powered photo packages I’m sure. However most schools buy a School License from Adobe, and Bridge comes as part of it.

I have also had students experiment with pdf portfolios, and using Bridge they can simply create pdfs from multiple pictures, or create a Web gallery (both of which I had tried before watching the tutorials), having first created their list of files into a collection for ease. 

As I’m in the process of putting my home photos onto flickr the ease of using tags within Bridge means I may just do this now; before I always thought of such things as too much of a pian, especially when you have lots of photos to do.

Well done lynda.com and Ann-Marie for another great tutorial.

Here is a wordle image of the text in this blog post.

Then, upon watching an episode of “Trumpton“, and subsequent interview with Gordon Murray, I realised that this would make an excellent introduction lesson starter to animation.

If students watched an episode and the interview as a starter they could then calculate how many frames where needed per episode (and then for the whole Trumptonshire trilogy).

Then, creating after creating a non-violent initial animation they will compare how many frames they had created to an episode of Trumpton, and therefore how many seconds of real film would be created.

So now I’ve written the lessons and uploaded them to the BIS edu2.0 VLE ready for use.

Which means I get to watch an episode in class, and re-live my dim and distant youth - ace!

Here is a wordle image of the text in this blog post.

Had major problems with my students accessing the xtranormal website to create their movies. My Grade 5/Year 6 class were very disappointed at not being able to use it. I had them type up their scripts in a word processor instead. Having e-mailed xtranormal via their website, they responded within a couple of hours, apologizing for the delay and assuring me that the problems encountered had now been resolved. Given my students are using this programme for free, and love it, I felt that this response was great.

Second thanks is due to the team at pcspecialist.co.uk team. Ordered another custom laptop from them (an international order that they coped with even though they are really a UK only company), and they texted me to let me know it’s on its way as well as e-mailing me. Their excellent communication throughout the quick build process makes them worth getting another laptop for; especially when this one is for my wife!

And when I get home I find a couple of parcels from Sun Microsystems with my free gifts for doing so well playing their free Identity Hero ICT/network game. Great for student prizes in a network competition that I’ll run next term.