And the journey continues . . .

An old Chinese proverb says that the longest journey begins with but a single step. Our recent Globaloria training weekend seemed to me to be a first step in our journeys along the Globaloria pathway. Based on that introduction it looks like it will certainly be an exciting and educational journey.

Now two weeks later I find myself taking steps two and, maybe, three. I have spent time working on my Flash skills and actually posted (with Angie's kind assistance) two Flash screens for our game. The idea was to create something that made words look like they were 'raining' down on the screen, for the player to choose from. Well, I must confess that I can now have words do just about anything we need them to do, except maybe for singing. I have not been able to work that out yet, maybe for steps four and beyond of the journey.

As resources for Flash learning I am of course using all the great info, demos, etc. on the main Globaloria educator's page. In addition I also use an online resource for software training that has video tutorials for all types of software programs. It is a subscription service that my school subscribes to. If you would like to see it go to lynda.com

A powerful educational moment . . .

For many years I have been a very avid photographer. I have taken thousands of rolls of film and loved every minute of it. But it wasn't until the digital revolution that replaced film that I came to realize how really limited my capabilities were. So for me, one of the most amazing educational moments came when I first turned on my computer just a few years ago and used Photoshop software for the first time. The realization that my photography efforts would be limited literally only by my imagination was a powerful moment. With Photoshop I could 'tinker' to my heart's content and truly learn at my speed and convenience.  

Blogs I like to follow . . .

I have listed two of my favorite blogs to the right. These are both photo oriented so do not have a direct relationship to what we are doing with our Globaloria workshop, but they are excellent examples of full-featured blogs. Both provide links in the text of the post, are very well designed, and integrate video frequently throughout.

First experience with games . . .

Today at the Globaloria workshop I had my first experience with computer games designed for education. Of the games I tried the one that got my attention and interest was Free Rice. This game addresses hunger and allows the player to actually accumulate real rice grains that will be donated. The game is relatively simple but engaging based on the moving graphics of rice added when the correct answer is given and removed when an answer is missed.

Angie's comments about this game were similar, except she did not seem to find anything that she wanted to learn from this game. I would like to know how the motion of the rice grains was achieved. Neither of us commented on the usability of the game.

Globaria blog #1

It begins