EduTainment Titles

Mon Jun 22 16:58:24 EDT 2009

To be honest the word 'EduTainment' makes me feel extremely queasy.
----------------------------------------------------
Conservative rant follows.
----------------------------------------------------

There has arisen, in the English-speaking world at least, a theory that 
children
always have to have 'sugar' wrapped round 'the pill' as if, in some way,
educational material is not sufficient in and of itself, and that 
children will
only learn if the information is presented as entertainment. Of course on a
strict diet of edutainment children will be so mentally crippled that when
they actually have to sit down and do some good, honest, hard work they
will be quite incapable. One of the reasons I moved from Scotland (my
country) to Bulgaria (my wife's country) with all its manifest short-comings
(when compared to 'the West') was that the idea of edutainment had not
permeated the system to anything near the extent it has in Britain. As a
result my sons are laying down a serious foundation to life-long learning
instead of playing all sorts of educational games fit for Elementary kids
in the last years of High school.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I successfully marketed a CD (authored in Runtime Revolution) for 12 
year-olds
to prepared themselves for High School entry exams in Bulgarian literature;
no pictures (well, we printed the heads of half-a-dozen Bulgarian authors on
the label side of the CD), only texts referring to literary analysis and 
themes,
and a few multiple choice quizzes on literary content.
The cover made no bones about the CD's content.
It was the 12 year olds who bought
the disk, not a rabble of overly ambitious parents.

This was what the children required (after all, they could rent videos of
cinema treatments of most of the books should they really want a
"visual feast"), and they knew that.
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I am well aware, Sivakatirswami , that your agenda largely consists of
religious instruction. This has, of course, become unfashionable of late.
However, when I was at school (in England) nobody made any bones about
it; you just got on and read your scripture; and by that I mean that the
children's version of Bible stories, Mahabharata, or what ever, was cleared
away with other childish things fairly quickly; and replaced with the
real thing - strong meat! I see a very real risk that if children are 
constantly
fed "the Children's Bible" they will be quite unable to cope with the real
thing when, far too late, it is presented to them. This is rather like a 
friend
of mine, who, when I was  reading 'Robur the Conqueror' (Verne) at 11,
said he would never be able to read it because it had no colour pictures 
in it.
The poor boy had been so 'poisoned' on a diet of picture books that he was
quite unable to summon up any imagery in his own mind.

Therefore while I can see the place and the use of 'edutainment' as a
way of easing children into learning, I would be wary of getting too
obsessed with it; lest (c.f. my earlier reference to 'Maya') it swamp
the educational aspect. It is perfectly possible to present educational
materials in an interesting and absorbing fashion without cheapening
it all with "tainment".
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Through the summer months my work-load is somewhat lighter,
and I shall essay to upload to my website some screenshots of my
EFL programs with notes on the target ages they are aimed at; so
that everybody can see that the "tainment" can be minimised at
a comparatively early age just as long as the child's attention is
held.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sivakatirswami wrote:
> Lynn and Richmond:
>
> Thank you so much for all the insights into the "industry standards"
>
> All very useful. I have added this to my respository of production 
> standards resources. You have offered some really useful points.
>
> A few simple replies before I go off the deep end of musing.
>
> 1) I totally agree that content is king, not software wizardry. Thanks 
> for the reminder.
>
> 2) It's not that I'm "focusing too much on the techology here." as 
> Lynn saw it... rather I'm interested in the *delivery channel/ 
> mechanisms*
> 3) My original request was: can I buy some/see some titles? Richard? 
> Let me see your stuff! (smile)
>
> One could conclude from you comments (simplistically)
>
> "Make and deliver standalones; forget about the internet except as a 
> shopping mechanism"
>
> i.e. If you can get the client(s) to download (purchase, get on CD... 
> whatever) a standalone that has excellent (even if technically 
> simple)  content, clearly branded which runs easily on any machine, 
> without an internet connection, then probably you will be reaching a 
> larger audience in the long run because the connectivity issues are 
> bigger than anyone wants to admit.
>
> <deep end dive>
>
> But this simply leads to more questions
>
> Au contraire... , I already have a number of titles, for free, on the 
> internet. If you look at access logs, I see a lot of traffic to these 
> pages, but not a lot of downloads.
>
> http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/children/dws_youth/
> http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/children/yamas_niyamas/
>
> (I think if you try these you will have to agree I'm not into super 
> technology... the one complaint being they lack sound...)
>
> Meanwhile:
>
> PDF's here:
>
> http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/children/SaivaHR_course/
>
> on the other hand are downloaded at the rate of 2000-3000 a month 
> consistently year after year.
>
> Our Vedic Calendars 
> "http://himalayanacademy.com/resources/panchangam/"  get (and this is 
> no exaggeration) 200,000 plus downloads a year. (my goodness we should 
> start charging something, if only $1.50 each)
>
> What does this tell us? I don't know for sure. Perhaps our "packaging" 
> is just lousy, or the resistance to downloading executables is higher 
> than  one might expect, which then militates against your thesis that 
> people will only use a product that can runs off the internet, but 
> they don't want to "get" it off the internet, but I don't want to go 
> into physical CD production (sales packaging, shipping order handling 
> etc...), catch 22.
>
> Our Hinduism Today Digital Edition (Rev desktop thin client, PDF 
> manager) on the other hand has been downloaded 15,000 copies. Why? 
> higher profile, strong need?
>
> Sidebar: I deal with an asian/indian/malaysian/mauritian/singaporean 
> audience, which is frankly (sorry to say it but it's true) easily 10-5 
> years ahead of the US "admin" establishment in terms of moving forward 
> in the digital revolution, at least at home...if not always in 
> schools, but even in some schools, where you may have a high 
> resistance to internet connections in  a US context, there will be 
> little to none in a similar Asian context where the admin is so 
> technically advanced they have no problem dealing with filtering 
> content etc. So whether the paradigm of a paranoid "protect our kids 
> from porn" edu, universe should inform our decision moving forward is 
> yet another question mark.  Well obviously we want to protect our 
> kids, but there are lots of ways to protect without shutting down the 
> pipeline completely.
>
> But, if Flash is any model to measure by, even a modicum of success in 
> getting people to download a plug-in to run stacks in a browser is 
> likely to blow away the "numbers" of those who may never download an 
> executable, which, by our experience so far, is still quite low/high 
> resistance. Since band width is still an issue, obviously a "small 
> modules" model will be needed.
>
> So, there I came full circle: I would like to see some e.g titles of 
> good edutainment ware.
>
>
>
>> Dear Sivakatirswami,
>>
>>  In all the institututions I have worked in where I have
>> prepared education content delivery and reinforcement programs
>> over the last 15 years the following have held true:
>>
>> Most programs have been held on a local server (SIUC,
>> UAE University) or on individual computers (St Andrews,
>> My school). In the case of the UAE that was because that
>> is a conservative society with a conservative educational
>> ethos who did not want their students to have internet
>> access.
>>
>> At SIUC and St Andrews the applications were for use by students
>> on specific programs in specific computer labs.
>>
>> In my own school I have no internet access at all as it is not required.
>>
>> At St Andrews we ran some tests and found that programs on individual
>> machines tended to run faster, and load more quickly, than when 
>> stored on
>> a server. As Hard Drives are not the most expensive items on an 
>> educational
>> institution's budget storage space never came up as a problem.
>>
>> Lynn Fredricks wrote:
>>> Hi Sivakatirswami,
>>>
>>>  
>>>> With the advent of Rev Stacks running inside a browser, there is 
>>>> interest here in our shop with the idea of doing educational 
>>>> stackware.
>>>>
>>>> The perception that such titles by CD would probably never do well 
>>>> compared to
>>>>
>>>> a) distributing printed materials
>>>> b) PDF's of the same
>>>> c) Some Browser app
>>>>
>>>> led to us never putting any energy into educational stackware.
>>>>
>>>> The "run a stack in a browser" changes the equation, big time.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> You might be focusing too much on the techology here.
>>>
>>> Almost every major educational software company and major academic 
>>> press
>>> house in the USA has licensed Valentina. Most of them are using 
>>> Director, a
>>> few Ive pursuaded to get into Revolution.
>>> One thing is clear to me though is that they choose solutions that 
>>> have lean
>>> tech requirements and focus almost entirely on the content itself. 
>>> Here's
>>> sort of a short list of what I see in common between them:
>>>
>>> 1. Focus on the content. Almost all work they do is towards making the
>>> content compeling to their audience - really rich audio, interesting
>>> graphics and video and the like. "Interesting" meaning, it may 
>>> either be
>>> very special and on topic, or it could be fun or exciting on the 
>>> branding
>>> side.
>>>   
>> Yes, Yes, Yes: your first goal is to engage the student, and, 
>> presumably, not
>> have them so "turned on" by the jazzy technology that they lose sight of
>> the content you want them to focus on.
>>> 2. Minimize recommended configurations. They make sure the titles 
>>> can work
>>> without a web browser, best even without any internet connection at 
>>> all. A
>>> lot of school labs which account for very profitable volume sales 
>>> will have
>>> highly controlled internet access. If it cannot run without an internet
>>> connection, its often a "no buy".
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> My own applications are "bog basic" in terms of technology: I could,
>> if I wished, have all sorts of jazzy extras (and I take out my 
>> frustration
>> in not being able to use them by lobbing them at Use-List members).
>>
>> However, an exercise in self-discipline is required here, and one must
>> eschew the bells and whistles lest one lose-sight of the rationale
>> behind the whole exercise (I believe the Sanskrit term for this type
>> of distraction is 'Maya' - and, about 5 feet from the keyboard I am
>> using right now I have a statue of Lord Shiva with his foot firmly
>> placed on the back of a Mara; an agent of Maya).
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>
>>> 3. Easy to use local management. If its an application that benefits 
>>> from
>>> "lab" level administration, make the teacher side of it easy to set 
>>> up. A
>>> lot of Valentina customers get our Bonjour add-on because they can 
>>> simplifiy
>>> a lot of lab level configuration by using it.
>>>   
>> Just bung the programs on the classroom server.
>>> 4. Protect Privacy. This is a big one - if your software tests
>>> understanding/comprehension/etc, then make it secure.
>>>
>>> 5. Branding. Just one title doesn't really cut it; come up with several
>>> titles that can have a shared brand. When you ship your first title, 
>>> make
>>> sure you can transfer your branding efforts to new titles.
>>>   
>> And, something that I think is very important here; a fairly 
>> standardised,
>> and recognisable interface style. So that when a student fires up one of
>> your applications s/he can say "Ah, one of those programs" and feel
>> comfortable and relaxed; and, as a consequence, open to new
>> instruction.
>>
>> Once in a while I go "funny" and try out a new interface style in a
>> program - always a mistake - the kids I teach, have, over a period of
>> time, got used to the 'Richmond style' and respond well to it - and when
>> faced with a new interface get seriously discombobulated. Now as my main
>> aim is to "shoe-horn" some English into the kids' heads, a change in 
>> interface
>> is merely churlish and counterproductive.
>>> In most cases - these companies do not push the limit of what 
>>> Director (or
>>> Revolution) can do - they don't want to, because it means they won't 
>>> be able
>>> to be used in so many schools.
>>>   
>> Push the limit?  Everything I do could be done with RR version 1. 
>> Surely 'pushing
>> the limit' is beside the point: most children who have access to 
>> computers are
>> having their heads stuffed with (pardon the expression) COMPLETE CRAP 
>> that
>> pushes the technogical limits of whatever it is developed in 
>> everyday, at home.
>>
>> Now children have rather better criteria than adults normally give 
>> them credit for;
>> and, very quickly, if the content of your applications is engaging 
>> and interesting
>> they will fast forget that is doesn't push the limit.
>>
>> I have interleaved my remarks here as a way of showing how, oddly 
>> enough, they
>> largely coincide with those of Lynn Fredricks.
>>
>> Richmond.
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Lynn Fredricks
>>> President
>>> Paradigma Software
>>> http://www.paradigmasoft.com
>>>
>>> Valentina SQL Server: The Ultra-fast, Royalty Free Database Server
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>>>   
>>
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