I’ve tested a number of basic needs for the GA Flash map. What I really need to do now is work on the next level of interactivity – user choice in displayed information. In reading Sims Interactivity: A forgotten art, I would see this particular project as moving from reactive to coactive in my next development phase. This would be a departure from simply showing data (the four districts) to allowing the user to determine what data should be shown. I think I have a good example. The CAES collects impact statements each year on a number of priority areas. I can use this impact data to indicate county extension offices that have concentrated on particular topics. A problem that has been put to me is indicating counties that have taken up issues with water resources. This should be a challenge to fulfill and will add on to the next part of my project.
As to Sims, and the article on interactivity, I enjoyed this and really see that many strides have been made in this area in the past 10 years. To me, the explosion of gaming communities is a major indication for the complexity of interaction that programmers have been able to achieve. I do question Sims statement about interactivity being primarily the instructional technologists domain because there are so many interactive things in our world today that, to me, just don’t seem to be educational. I agree that humans are always adapting and therefore learning, but with an intent towards education? Not so much.
That aside, this paper excites me because I realize how far this field has come in the past ten years and how many cool technologies we have at our disposal – courtesy the entertainment and communication industries. It is a matter of instructional technologists to recognize these tools to be repurposed for educational aims. For instance, the Nintendo Wii unites entire households in gaming, getting people off couches to move their bodies with the games. This kind of technology can be repurposed to teach kids about being active and motivating them to be fit. For adults, technology like this could be utilized to make physical therapy a daily task, done from the comfort of home, with a virtual instructor. As far as simulations go, this concept has been blown out of the water with role-playing games like World of Warcraft, a constantly evolving world that brings people of all nationalities together to play. Imagine a simulated world such as that to learn in, with the ability to make mistakes and connections not possible in the physical world. It would be simply incredible.
Project testing this week:
- caption... success!
- Colored map and captions combined
- Dynamic Captions
- Importing parameters via external .as
References:
Sims, R. (1995). Interactivity: A forgotten art?. Retrieved March 22, 2007, from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper10/paper10.html
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