Educational uses for Rev -- profs talk to gamers?

Gregory Lypny gregory.lypny at videotron.ca
Sat Aug 14 17:19:16 EDT 2004


Actually, Erik, on the face of it I would have to side with the 
biologist; although, as I wrote previously, my question would have 
been, why a web site?

Animations do have educational value, some more than others, but 
generally marginal.  There isn't enough bang for the buck unless a lot 
more is done to entice students to explore.  Students will appreciate a 
sine function much more by tabulating its values, writing those on a 
piece of paper, and then graphing them on a piece of paper.  They are 
actively engaged, with knowledge running up the pencil, through the 
arm, up into the brain, and then hopefully back down again to the 
pencil.  A spreadsheet is a good second-best.  Animations, on the other 
hand, can be viewed passively, like television.

	Gregory


On Aug 14, 2004, at 2:23 AM, Erik Hansen wrote:
>
> perhaps because they don't see computers as
> more than a gimmicky folder file?
>
> when i suggested to a biologist that her plant
> growth
> website could do even more with animation
> showing incremental progress, the reaction was
> a defensive "oh yes, and i could add some waving
> arms!" no, she was not a programmer.
>
> a math prof felt that animating the progress of
> a mathematical function was a cop-out, not real
> thought.
>
> a class in neural networking i once took
> had  step-wise representation of a function's
> progress in a Variable Watcher and in a graph.
> i never would have gotten the idea from the
> prose.
>
> many "get" the concept of a sine wave only
> after seeing a visual representation.
>
> maybe the profs should talk to the game writers?
>
> Erik Hansen



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