WWF Together Fallen City: could a game help us find a solution to society's ills? | The 21st Century The city is ruined. Bored and frustrated residents patrol the night streets, windows are smashed, buildings ransacked – there is no will or desire to fix anything or to understand its value. There is no sense of community any more… A year ago, journalist and author Jim Rossignol approached Channel 4's education department with the idea for a game – a game about broken cities. In 2008, the channel's then head of education, Janey Walker, had made the decision to switch much of the education spending from TV to online, putting aside a significant budget for the development of interactive, web-based projects with an educational remit. "At the time, the data and research showed that a term-time morning educational TV schedule didn't reach tweens and teens in any significant number," says Alice Taylor, who was education commissioner until earlier this year. Channel 4 Education has set out to explore moral and social themes involving everything from death to citizenship through its games.
Kodu Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The programming environment runs on the Xbox, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input. Programming as a Creative Medium The core of the Kodu project is the programming user interface. The Kodu language is designed specifically for game development and provides specialized primitives derived from gaming scenarios. Key Features Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games. High-level language incorporates real-world primitives: collision, color, visionUses Xbox 360 Game Controller for input — no keyboard requiredRuns on XBox 360 and PCInteractive terrain editorBridge and path builderTerrain editor - create worlds of arbitrary shape and size20 different characters with different abilities
Global Warming Explained, In About A Minute : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images On a pleasant day in 2011, researchers roamed San Diego's public parks in search of volunteers to fill out anonymous surveys about global warming. In the end about 270 responses were collected from a mix of park visitors and nearby community college students. The results were sobering. The solution to this puzzle comes from an important asymmetry: the sunlight that hits the Earth's surface is largely visible light, and that light is returned from Earth's surface as infrared light. Michael Ranney, the lead author on the study, offers this 35-word explanation: Earth transforms sunlight's visible light energy into infrared light energy, which leaves Earth slowly because it is absorbed by greenhouse gases. This and related research has led Ranney and his colleagues to launch a new website, howglobalwarmingworks.org, that educates people about the basic mechanisms of global climate change. If Ranney's right, then 52 seconds could make all the difference.
Urgent Evoke - A crash course in changing the world. | The 21st Century | Scoop.it FlowGrid Control FlowGrid Updates 17th May 2006 : v1.1 Added subroutine handling, and the fonts in the boxes are now a consistent size. 17th May 2006: v1.2 Added support for Mimics (see below). Two releases in one day :) 18th May 2006: v1.3 Added nicer looking arrows on the 3 way junction, Turbo Speed, Sound Effects and 3 built in Mimics : a solo traffic light, a road junction, and a zebra crossing. 25th May 2006: v1.4 Added Lighthouse builtin Mimic, small bug fix on Mimic reset. Instructions / Frequently asked Questions It's not very complicated to operate ; but here are some questions about setup and usage. To put objects on the screen, click on them on the toolbar (on the right), then click on the grid in the main window. Download from here ; Feedback and Suggestions or Bugs please via email. This needs the .NET 1.1 Framework to work. Flowol Mimics The program now works with Flowol Mimics that require only Input and Output.
Ecological Footprint Quiz by Center for Sustainable Economy Wikis in the classroom, 2012 edition | The 21st Century It’s been years now since I’ve written anything here, but a conversation today on the Eighteenth-Century Questions Facebook page made me realize I ought to update my reports from Wikiland. I’ve been using PBworks for wikis since shortly after they began the site in 2005. (NB: I have almost always participated in “private” wikis, not anything searchable, and I guarantee to students that, no, a future employer is not going to read their notes on Moll Flanders.) As I reported back in 2007, my first few attempts to include wiki assignments in my classes were failures. Wiki Rule #1: Wiki assignments should create a reason for students to read one another’s work. That was the first discovery. Wiki Rule #2: Participation in the wiki should encourage students to develop their own individual perspectives, rather than turning them into the Borg. Here’s where I start sounding like an anti-authoritarian radical. Wiki Rule #3: Wiki participation should be allowed to create positive peer pressure.
Carbon Connections Teaching Technologies: Tips and Tools | The 21st Century | Scoop.it Accessibility, Equal Access, and the ADA (part one) Just to get us started, check out these simulations that let you experience the web as a person with a visual disability would: blindness and colorblindness. If a simulation isn’t your thing, you can check out the Web Accessibility Initiative’s draft paper on How People with Disabilities Use the Web. Or you can read this wrap-up on how instructors should respond when a student has a speech impairment. You can also take a quick glance at an article reviewing the accessibility of different college and university websites: And here’s a table ranking schools on their ease of accessibility to blind students. Wow, huh? So, all of this invites the following question: How do you make sure your online resources / your online course meets the needs of all your students? One of the most common questions we get regards how to give a student extra time on an online exam. But going beyond exams, what should one do? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Climate change: Rising sea levels hit Maputo, Rotterdam When people talk about the impact of rising sea levels, they often think of small island states that risk being submerged if global warming continues unchecked. But it's not only those on low-lying islands who are in danger. Millions of people live by the sea - and are dependent on it for their livelihoods - and many of the world's largest cities are on the coast. By 2050 the number of people living in delta cities is set to increase by as much as 70%, experts suggest, vastly increasing the number of those at risk. To shed light the impact of rising sea levels, we are taking a close look at two very different cities, Rotterdam and Maputo , and their varying responses to the problem. Much of Rotterdam - Europe's busiest port city - lies several metres below sea level, and this vulnerable position has led it to develop some of the best flood protection in the world. Weaker Gulf Stream Off the Netherlands, for example, sea levels rose by some 20cm in the last 100 years. "We need to invest.
Using Wikis in Science Classes | The 21st Century A Wiki, Hawaiian for quick or fast, offers science teachers the ability to manage their science classroom curriculum and activities, along with providing interactive information for their students. Wikis also provide teachers the ability to work collaboratively with their students on project based learning activities. Teachers can provide students with online group study guides, resources, and links to podcasts. In a sense, Wikis are similar to blogs. Controlled Access for Safety Security of information and safety for students is not an issue, because teachers can limit access or allow open access to specific parts, for example: Teaching Strategies and Techniques Applications of Wiki use in science classrooms are only limited by the creativeness of the teacher and students to support science learning. Students collaborate by: Advantages of this Technology The advantage of Wikis is they involve students in an interactive manner in science class.