Lynn and Richmond:
Thank you so much for all the insights into the "industry standards"
All very useful. I have added this to my respository of production
standards resources. You have offered some really useful points.
A few simple replies before I go off the deep end of musing.
1) I totally agree that content is king, not software wizardry. Thanks
for the reminder.
2) It's not that I'm "focusing too much on the techology here." as Lynn
saw it... rather I'm interested in the *delivery channel/ mechanisms*
3) My original request was: can I buy some/see some titles? Richard? Let
me see your stuff! (smile)
One could conclude from you comments (simplistically)
"Make and deliver standalones; forget about the internet except as a
shopping mechanism"
i.e. If you can get the client(s) to download (purchase, get on CD...
whatever) a standalone that has excellent (even if technically simple)
content, clearly branded which runs easily on any machine, without an
internet connection, then probably you will be reaching a larger
audience in the long run because the connectivity issues are bigger than
anyone wants to admit.
<deep end dive>
But this simply leads to more questions
Au contraire... , I already have a number of titles, for free, on the
internet. If you look at access logs, I see a lot of traffic to these
pages, but not a lot of downloads.
http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/children/dws_youth/
http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/children/yamas_niyamas/
(I think if you try these you will have to agree I'm not into super
technology... the one complaint being they lack sound...)
Meanwhile:
PDF's here:
http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/children/SaivaHR_course/
on the other hand are downloaded at the rate of 2000-3000 a month
consistently year after year.
Our Vedic Calendars "http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/panchangam/"
get (and this is no exaggeration) 200,000 plus downloads a year. (my
goodness we should start charging something, if only $1.50 each)
What does this tell us? I don't know for sure. Perhaps our "packaging"
is just lousy, or the resistance to downloading executables is higher
than one might expect, which then militates against your thesis that
people will only use a product that can runs off the internet, but they
don't want to "get" it off the internet, but I don't want to go into
physical CD production (sales packaging, shipping order handling
etc...), catch 22.
Our Hinduism Today Digital Edition (Rev desktop thin client, PDF
manager) on the other hand has been downloaded 15,000 copies. Why?
higher profile, strong need?
Sidebar: I deal with an asian/indian/malaysian/mauritian/singaporean
audience, which is frankly (sorry to say it but it's true) easily 10-5
years ahead of the US "admin" establishment in terms of moving forward
in the digital revolution, at least at home...if not always in schools,
but even in some schools, where you may have a high resistance to
internet connections in a US context, there will be little to none in a
similar Asian context where the admin is so technically advanced they
have no problem dealing with filtering content etc. So whether the
paradigm of a paranoid "protect our kids from porn" edu, universe should
inform our decision moving forward is yet another question mark. Well
obviously we want to protect our kids, but there are lots of ways to
protect without shutting down the pipeline completely.
But, if Flash is any model to measure by, even a modicum of success in
getting people to download a plug-in to run stacks in a browser is
likely to blow away the "numbers" of those who may never download an
executable, which, by our experience so far, is still quite low/high
resistance. Since band width is still an issue, obviously a "small
modules" model will be needed.
So, there I came full circle: I would like to see some e.g titles of
good edutainment ware.
Dear Sivakatirswami,
In all the institututions I have worked in where I have
prepared education content delivery and reinforcement programs
over the last 15 years the following have held true:
Most programs have been held on a local server (SIUC,
UAE University) or on individual computers (St Andrews,
My school). In the case of the UAE that was because that
is a conservative society with a conservative educational
ethos who did not want their students to have internet
access.
At SIUC and St Andrews the applications were for use by students
on specific programs in specific computer labs.
In my own school I have no internet access at all as it is not required.
At St Andrews we ran some tests and found that programs on individual
machines tended to run faster, and load more quickly, than when stored on
a server. As Hard Drives are not the most expensive items on an
educational
institution's budget storage space never came up as a problem.
Lynn Fredricks wrote:
Hi Sivakatirswami,
With the advent of Rev Stacks running inside a browser, there is
interest here in our shop with the idea of doing educational stackware.
The perception that such titles by CD would probably never do well
compared to
a) distributing printed materials
b) PDF's of the same
c) Some Browser app
led to us never putting any energy into educational stackware.
The "run a stack in a browser" changes the equation, big time.
You might be focusing too much on the techology here.
Almost every major educational software company and major academic press
house in the USA has licensed Valentina. Most of them are using
Director, a
few Ive pursuaded to get into Revolution.
One thing is clear to me though is that they choose solutions that
have lean
tech requirements and focus almost entirely on the content itself.
Here's
sort of a short list of what I see in common between them:
1. Focus on the content. Almost all work they do is towards making the
content compeling to their audience - really rich audio, interesting
graphics and video and the like. "Interesting" meaning, it may either be
very special and on topic, or it could be fun or exciting on the
branding
side.
Yes, Yes, Yes: your first goal is to engage the student, and,
presumably, not
have them so "turned on" by the jazzy technology that they lose sight of
the content you want them to focus on.
2. Minimize recommended configurations. They make sure the titles can
work
without a web browser, best even without any internet connection at
all. A
lot of school labs which account for very profitable volume sales
will have
highly controlled internet access. If it cannot run without an internet
connection, its often a "no buy".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
My own applications are "bog basic" in terms of technology: I could,
if I wished, have all sorts of jazzy extras (and I take out my
frustration
in not being able to use them by lobbing them at Use-List members).
However, an exercise in self-discipline is required here, and one must
eschew the bells and whistles lest one lose-sight of the rationale
behind the whole exercise (I believe the Sanskrit term for this type
of distraction is 'Maya' - and, about 5 feet from the keyboard I am
using right now I have a statue of Lord Shiva with his foot firmly
placed on the back of a Mara; an agent of Maya).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Easy to use local management. If its an application that benefits
from
"lab" level administration, make the teacher side of it easy to set
up. A
lot of Valentina customers get our Bonjour add-on because they can
simplifiy
a lot of lab level configuration by using it.
Just bung the programs on the classroom server.
4. Protect Privacy. This is a big one - if your software tests
understanding/comprehension/etc, then make it secure.
5. Branding. Just one title doesn't really cut it; come up with several
titles that can have a shared brand. When you ship your first title,
make
sure you can transfer your branding efforts to new titles.
And, something that I think is very important here; a fairly
standardised,
and recognisable interface style. So that when a student fires up one of
your applications s/he can say "Ah, one of those programs" and feel
comfortable and relaxed; and, as a consequence, open to new
instruction.
Once in a while I go "funny" and try out a new interface style in a
program - always a mistake - the kids I teach, have, over a period of
time, got used to the 'Richmond style' and respond well to it - and when
faced with a new interface get seriously discombobulated. Now as my main
aim is to "shoe-horn" some English into the kids' heads, a change in
interface
is merely churlish and counterproductive.
In most cases - these companies do not push the limit of what
Director (or
Revolution) can do - they don't want to, because it means they won't
be able
to be used in so many schools.
Push the limit? Everything I do could be done with RR version 1.
Surely 'pushing
the limit' is beside the point: most children who have access to
computers are
having their heads stuffed with (pardon the expression) COMPLETE CRAP
that
pushes the technogical limits of whatever it is developed in everyday,
at home.
Now children have rather better criteria than adults normally give
them credit for;
and, very quickly, if the content of your applications is engaging and
interesting
they will fast forget that is doesn't push the limit.
I have interleaved my remarks here as a way of showing how, oddly
enough, they
largely coincide with those of Lynn Fredricks.
Richmond.
Best regards,
Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com
Valentina SQL Server: The Ultra-fast, Royalty Free Database Server
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