As most of us are away, HTML and CSS are simply some of the best things in the world: after all, without them, where on Earth would we be? We wouldn’t have the world wide web , we wouldn’t learn about new software, heck, I’m pretty sure some of us would just die. So to [...]
Have you ever watched a kid pick up an iPad for the first time and just go with it?
Some parents have found that the same is true for their of children who have autism. The iPad is a great way to support learning and communication in that it is user-friendly and easy for children- and parents- to understand.
Here are two videos that were shared with my by Liz Ditz, author of the "I Speak of Dreams" blog. The first video is of a boy with autism. The second video is of his little sister, interacting with the iPad to watch a "home-made" social story about a family trip to a coffee shop, created in the "Stories to Learn" app.
YOUTUBE INFO:
"Another too-cool app for his iPad, this one all about writing as well as spelling (http://itunes.apple.com/app/iwritewords-handwriting-game/id307025309?mt=8). For each letter in the word, the app says the letter, has him trace it in super-easy guided steps, and his written letter replaces the original letter in the word (at top of screen). When he finishes, the word appears in his handwriting. The program then spells it and pronounces it, displays a kid's illustration of the word -- and Leo gets to shake the original letters into a hole in the corner of the screen. LOVE IT."
STORIES TO LEARN
YOUTUBE INFO: "Our family (and a friend) worked together to make this social story about visiting our local coffee shop for my son with autism. We used Stories2Learn (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stories2learn/id348576875?mt=8), on our iPad. It was so easy! And he loves it. In fact he loves it so much I had to have his sister demo it, as he loves to play the voiceovers over and over again. :)"
I’m sorry for vanishing without a trace for nearly a month, and I’ll like to explain what happened. I took a vacation, a trip down to see my girlfriend in Chicago and celebrated the fifth year we’ve been dating. I took a break from writing on the blog, but did visit the forum as often [...]
I came across a link to Planet in Action's video demonstration of 3D sound in Google Earth, thanks to a post by Nate Torkington in O'Reilly Radar. WOW!
The company shows that a 3D sound engine works nicely within the Google Earth environment. Planet in Action tweaked the Soundmanager2 library from schillmania.com, resulting in a sound3D javascript object that can be used to program geo-located sounds in Google Earth.
The 3D sound concept, in my opinion, will be useful in creating immersive interactive educational experiences, especially if students have access to newer interactive whiteboards with decent sound systems.
Below is the video from Planet in Action, along with a bit of promotional information: The video is of a port in San Sabastian, Spain. The "sound landscape" is realistic, and a range of sounds, from various spots in the scene, can be heard during the exploration.
"Google Earth is a highly detailed 3D representation of our entire planet. Rather than just looking at it, why not play on it! PlanetInAction.com brings you top quality ideas, applications and concepts that will let you experience your planet in a whole new way." -Planet in Action
Thoughts:
My bet is that this concept will play out very well in the future in family rooms outfitted with large displays and decent surround sound systems.
By the way, Planet in Action's work strikes a chord in me. One of my HCI team travel planning projects that used Google Earth in the demonstration prototype. We focused on cruise travel planning, mostly because I had lots of pictures and video clips from my cruise trips vacations and other travels. I even worked on part of the project while I was ON a cruise ship. (That was before the economic downturn.) Below is a video of a cruise ship model that Planet in Action created for a cruise line, for use in Google Earth:
Celebrity Constellation Virtual Fly-by
SOMEWHAT RELATED
As I mentioned in my previous post, "Video Experiments: Sea Life Medley - Extended version with music", I'm experimenting with some ideas to create interactive educational video clips for future use on higher-resolution interactive whiteboards and other large touch-screen surfaces.
Part of my motivation stems from an immediate need for "touchable" content for the students I work with who have more significant disabilities, including autism- and of course, my colleagues. All of the classrooms in the program have IWBs- mostly brand-new SMARTBoards - - we also have a SMARTTable that is begging for more content.
As I worked with students using my video clips and a new SMARTboard, I noticed that students have a strong desire to touch what they see on the screen. If they could stop the video and further explore item of interest, for example, the jellyfish in the above picture, it would be great.
Imagine putting your hand on the jellyfish, and having the power to explore it as a 3D model! If you are a grad student or researcher who is working on this concept, or something related, please let me know.
Getting back to the 3D landscapes/soundscapes in Google Earth- this is something that I'd like to try at school. I'm wonder if PlanetinAction allows for touch-screen interaction so that students who are at the SMARTBoard can easily explore the 3D-sound enabled scenes in Google Earth.
