It is already May and I have been so incredibly busy I completely forgot that I had a web site to update.
My life is full of joy again, what with all the charity-related and film-related activities I've been doing for fun. And work is going well, a little quiet right now as all our projects are on temporary hold. Business is making some changes, so we are just waiting those changes out and I am confident we will move forward with a new "gusto."
This month I'll be visiting SMART Technologies in Calgary. I look forward to working with them to push their products outside the normal education market and into my world of insanity. It's a good kind of crazy, in which we imagine ways to use technologies to create effective and enjoyable learning experiences that have never been tried before. And then we look at the business side: affordable? scalable? alternatives? learning outcomes?
I'm most looking forward to Dust or Magic's AppCamp, however. I'll be presenting a synthesis of thoughts that were inspired by WD Imagineering practices in attraction design - entertainment experience design is directly applicable to learning experience design. The inspiration was also fed by my studies at Indiana University, and then spills over to the ever-growing list of IWB, iOS, and Android app products we are planning at work. More on that below. AppCamp is a great way to learn and get in the right frame of mind for creating children's media of all types, and has a very strong education focus, so it's absolutely right up my alley. And we toast marshmallows on the beach.
If you are interested, or you missed it, the presentation is about "Work and Play" in learning products. Some types of learning require a certain level of Work, but learning may become boring or tedious without a certain balance of Play. Where does your product fall on the Work-Play spectrum? And what types of work or play are appropriate for your target audience? The presentation poses questions and allows developers to determine their own answers. LINK TO BE PROVIDED SHORTLY.
