Stylish use of long scroll for learning content

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

How far would you have to travel to reach the Earth’s core? And what would you see along the way? Discover what lies beneath…

Really stylish example of long scroll to deliver learning content. Via BBC

Gameplay as an introduction to data mining and taxonomy

Google Feud is an interesting online game using Google autocomplete. It is a good way to open a discussion into data mining and taxonomy.

The game, by developer Justin Hook , is fun and surprisingly addictive. It harnesses the mystery of Google’s autocomplete search function, asking players to choose the next word in a broad query such as ‘Google…’ or ‘I love my…’, the game gives users three chances to complete the leader board, giving a big X with every wrong answer.

What’s interesting about this game is the ease with which it could be used for data mining. If the guesses are recorded and sorted by frequency, it could supply huge amounts of useful data; all from real people, giving their best guesses.

Sorting this data using techniques like those used in taxonomy and cladistics could reveal results to improve future search or autocomplete suggestions. I guess it’s a fairly safe bet Google do this type of thing, and much more, with their search data already.

Now imagine an online retailer selling thousands of products. If data is mined from the searches customers type, rather than from the point of sale, useful information could be gained to reveal the ‘real world’ language customers use to describe what they want. For example imagine two different customers entering a search, one uses ‘laptop bag’, the other ‘laptop case’, would you expect them to get the same products displayed? Or customers searching for ‘lightbulbs’ when the retailer has what they want all categorised as ‘lamps’. Change the categorisation to match the search term frequency and it’s fair to say sales will likely increase. And searches that give a zero return would reveal what a customer wants to buy that the retailer doesn’t stock.

A final thought. Here’s a different, and equally fun online game. Anton Wallén has created GeoGuessr, an experimental game that drops players into a location in Google Street View and challenges them to guess where in the world they’re located.

Could useful data be mined out of it?

 

 

 

Unpicking the instructional design in Google Primer

 

Nice example from the Learning and Development Centre of Excellence demonstrating ‘unpicking’ the instruction design in Primer a new iOS App from Google. Thank you LDCOE.

Thoughts on what we mean by eLearning from Atticmedia’s Matthew Fletcher

http://atticmedia.com/a-broader-view-of-elearning/

Interesting news bulletin from Atticmedia’s Director of Strategy, Matthew Fletcher. He shares some thoughts on extending the scope of what we mean by eLearning.

Using web technology to show scale

I blogged on this subject a while ago. Here’s another example to add. The creator Josh Worth describes it as a tediously accurate scale model of the solar system. I love the simplicity and humour.

The planets are scrolled to horizontally or jumped to via a series of buttons at the top of the page. In addition, Worth includes writing out in the vast nothingness of space to give a better feel for exactly how much of it there actually is.

Thank you Josh.

I was talking about the planets with my 5-year-old daughter the other day. I was trying to explain how taking a summer vacation to Mars in the future will be a much bigger undertaking than a trip to Palm Springs (though equally as hot). I kept trying to describe the distance using metaphors like “if the earth was the size of a golf ball, then Mars would be across the soccer field” etc., but I realized I didn’t really know much about these distances, besides the fact that they were really large and hard to understand. Pictures in books, planetarium models, even telescopes are pretty misleading when it comes to judging just how big the universe can be. Are we doing ourselves a disservice by ignoring all the emptiness?

So I thought I would see if a computer screen could help make a map of a solar system that’s a bit more accurate (while teaching myself a few things about javascript, SVGs and viewports along the way).

Not that pixels are any better at representing scale than golfballs, but they’re our main way of interpreting most information these days, so why not the solar system?

Interesting game based way to learn new words in 9 languages

Ba Ba Dum is an online collection of five free HTML5 browser games that lets you learn words in different languages by selecting the correct illustration of the example word. Developed in Warsaw, Poland by Alexandra and Daniel Mizielinscy, Ba Ba Dum offers five word games in nine different languages and allows you to choose the language that you’re playing in just by clicking on the country’s flag in the lower right corner.

Showing or telling which is best for learning?

I can’t understand a word he’s saying but I’ve certainly learnt something.

In this video a Russian man demonstrates how to open a can of food using only your bare hands. Even though he’s explaining the process in Russian, his demonstration clearly communicates the proper method.

Thank you Grigoryi1

 

 

Nifty little video – everyday things that change your mood

“Everyday Things That Affect Your Mood” is a new video by BuzzFeed. It explores how the things around you can affect your mood and offers simple solutions to foster change. Thank you BuzzFeed

Articulate Social Media Policy eLearning from Hitachi Data Systems

Nice example of social media policy eLearning from Hitachi Data Systems.

Useful advice on localization

Started a project that will require translation into 11 languages and found this as part of preparation and research. Thank you to ingenuiti for sharing.