EduTainment Titles

[Sivakatirswami]

We are doing a feature story in Hinduism Today on the Snakes and Ladders 
game, stay tuned.

There are numerous versions in existence. We just got an incredible book 
on Indian board games.
A marvelous resource....the chapter on Snakes and ladders is huge.

I'll see if I can find addresses where you can buy these.

Why bother creating an online version?

Because you are tired of coding back end production publication 
production tools/web apps and want to do something more interesting, fun 
and useful for the end user...  just kidding (not really....)

Many reasons:

1) kids are addicted to the screen. You may not be able to get them 
purchase a the physical game, but you can certainly get them to play it 
on online, better this than "shoot 'em dead, drag her by the hair" games...

2) You can build a very rich version of "teachings" which are a bit more 
in the language of today's youth. I think with a slight "challenge" 
addition, it could be even more enticing. Right now all you do is roll 
dice and then you land on a square that has something useful to learn... 
but an additional step could be added to require that the player make a 
choice of fill in a response to a question etc. (Lots of what was sent 
to me has examples of this in the language learning category)

3) If the kid is begging mom to let her/him use the computer, and mom 
has control over access, here is something she can offer, while she does 
the laundry. I actually had another marvelous coloring application, 
Mystic Mouse that was delivered in the computer via the net... I will 
resurrect that thing once the plug-in is settled down....... I had one 9 
year old girl "register" saying "This is the only thing my mother will 
let me do on the computer,  I like coloring the pictures, the colors 
stay inside the lines...." (btw, a b/w outline GIF.. if you use the 
paint tools the fill tool will automatically stay inside closed paths... 
so making coloring books is easy)

You can be sure this little girl had lots of coloring books and crayons 
in her room, those cost money, my app was free.

4) We know Dr. Stevanne Auerbach, Institute For Childhood Resources... 
popularly known as "Dr. Toy" because she believed that learning should 
be fun and that children can learn thru play...her books and products 
are very, very popular.  She visits us here from time to time.

10 years ago she was rather adamant about the importance of "hands on 
play-learning" and frowned on computers...

 2 years ago she reluctantly admitted, "Young people are in front of 
their screens... we may not like it, but that's the reality. We have no 
choice now but to make good use of this new channel."

OK everyone, don't keep the titles coming I appreciate all the input so 
far.

Sivakatirswami




(Nicolas Cueto wrote:
> A reply plus a request...
>
>   
>> I think this was really cool....
>>
>> http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1414_jain/snakesandladders/
>>     
>
> The Flashgame was "cool" (egads, what a word!),
> and I see myself being able to recreate it over a
> weekend with Rev.
>
> But the true excellence of that game lay with the
> cloth-board itself (how beautiful!) and the use of
> shells instead of a dice (so tactile and fun!).
>
> Which begs two questions:
>
> ... if one had the actual cloth and shells, why bother creating
> an online version, especially for young learners?
>
> ... and if one hadn't the cloth, does anybody know where
> similar ones can be ordered online? :-)
>
> Thanks for the post... and any replies.
>
> --
> Nicolas Cueto
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>
>