On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 17:03:39 -0400, you wrote:
I've been enjoying the discussion about best ways to learn/teach origami.
Here's another idea, which comes from 3 elementary school kids in a New
Jersey robotics class.
I've copied their letter below. I've promised to pass along the list's
responses to them. They all know at least some origami, I gather.
I won't be able to skype with them for several days, so I can't report on
the experience yet. If list-member would like to skype with them, please
get in touch with me off-list, and I'll put you in touch with their teacher.
Thanks,
Karen
karenmre...@gmail.com
==
To; Dr. Reeds
Hi, we are kids that would like your help. We are a robotics team and
our parent helper is your friend Mrs F. One of our
activities is we need to find a way to improve the way people learn
something. We chose origami and Mrs. F told us about you.
We want to improve the way people learn origami, our idea is to use
online skyping.
We think its hard to learn from a book because sometimes the instructions
arent that clear and books cant answer your questions. Also we think that
looking at online videos is an improvement but they still cant answer your
questions. We all agree that a class is a great way to learn origami
because its easier to watch people do it than
follow instructions from a book and people can answer questions that you have
and give tips. Even so classes might not be right around the corner, so we
thought about skype. It could be a place where people around the world
could do origami and actually finish it. It has the same qualities as a
class but you dont have to be around the corner.
Thats where you come in. Is it ok if you do a mini skype chat thing
with us that we can record and you tell us the easy and hard parts about
teaching on skype, or if you have done this before tell us the
experience of teaching online so we know how much other people will like it.
Sincerely Max, CALDER , AND SAM
To the gang of four (Karen, Max, Calder Sam),
Skype can indeed be used to make group conference calls when the
groups are small (such as your current one.) When a groups grows much
larger than four, it has been my experience that the quality of both
the audio and video grows increasingly unacceptable. (I used to
participate in conference calls with around a dozen people at up to
eight locations and it was awkward.)
If the 'class' size is going to be larger you will need to find a
program more suited to your needs. Such programs may need special
hardware and/or software. To enable Skype video chat, at least one
person should have a Premium subscription. This provides a video chat
for 5 nodes. Google Hangouts is the cheapest video chat for up to 10
people its totally free for such groups. Not free, GoToMeeting is
one of the most powerful video chat tools for up to 25 people
(Source:
http://www.freemake.com/blog/top-video-chat-software-for-video-calls-with-up-to-25-people/)
Why are extra nodes needed? Well it is just as important that the
teacher can watch the progress of the students as it is for the
students to see the motions of the teacher and Skype isn't great for
handling lots of pictures all at once. (BTW, since the students' faces
may not be in the pictures, it would be helpful to have name tags that
are.)
While books can indeed sometimes be confusing they can also help to
illustrate a critical step. I'd recommend having a special camera
devoted to the book diagrams (if available). A trick I use when
scanning a picture that may prove useful here is to put a black sheet
of paper behind the page being displayed. This can really cut down on
bleed-through from the back side of the page. If you do this you may
need to play with the brightness and contrast settings.
If the diagrams are simply too murky and hard to read, feel free to
fold up the model through each step using relatively high contrast
colors (and high contrast to the color used to draw the fold symbols
on each step.) Feel free to use larger paper for a step when the folds
are intricate. Each student should have his or her own copy of the
instructions for reference.
These are just some thoughts that came to me as I read you email. I
think the idea has merit and I wish you well.
Joe Power
