My experience with educational use of computers stretches
back for years & with GUIs about 12 - so for what its worth
this is why I think embedding objects in scrolling fields
is a good thing:
['adolescents' is to be taken to mean pupils/students
between 12 and 22 - no offence intended]
On opening an educational multimedia program (such as those
authored in Hypercard, RR, MC and so on) the first reaction
is impulsive: the pupil clicks on every clickable thing in
sight - all very interactive and guaranteeing that the
amount of information absorbed by the pupil is minimal!
If I wish my target audience to do some reading (OK, I know
that in certain parts of the world reading is being played
down - I am an old-fashioned reactionary) I have to find a
way to stop the "mindless clicking" - there seem to be 2
solutions to this:
1. Just present windows filled with text alone . . .
I have found (I've actually tried this!) that pupils go
"off the boil" quicker than I can snap my fingers - a 19th
century text book on-screen is a major turn-off.
2. Embed the 'jazzy buttons' in a scrollable text field
and let the pupils know that the REWARD (Oh, No, not a
behaviourist!) for reading the text will present itself in
due course - admittedly some 'bright' pupil will just
scroll down until he/she finds the clickables and miss out
the reading.
HOWEVER, I do believe that by embedding multimedia buttons
/ movie-players in the text this will minimise crazy
clicking.
While a large part of the world is hooked on the "I want it
now" idea, and the servicing of the minimal attention span.
I want to SLOW PUPILS DOWN so that they absorb information,
see multimedia in a meaningful CONTEXT, and are forced to
pay attention for more than a 2 second sound-bite.
Sincerely, Richmond Mathewson
__________________________________________________
See Mathewson's software at:
http://members.maclaunch.com/richmond/default.html
_______________________________________
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Think Different Store
http://www.thinkdifferentstore.com/
For All Your Mac Gear
---------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
use-revolution mailing list
use-revolution@lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
