Tuesday, April 06, 2004
It's amazing how the comments you folks make from day to day and the things you do in the classroom are catalysts for the things we do within Star-W. Below is a short exchange that Janine and I had after I asked about the half day on Thursday and whether I should come in. A single comment on her part sparked action on something that I had been thinking about for a long time, but never had opportunity to put into practice because I was out of the classroom.
On 4/5/2004, Janine Riggins writes:
The 22nd works for me. Unless there is some way that we can fit technology into the Easter egg hunt I have planned. Hmm....
Art Responds:
LOL! Ask and ye shall receive.
Easter Eggs have long been a significant part of computer programming. In technological terns, an Easter Egg is programming code that is not documented. It is put there by the programmer as an "addition", often without the knowledge of the company that markets the program. In recent years, Easter Eggs have become an important part of computer gaming, and are now known as "cheats". Cheats are hidden short cuts in programs that help the user get to the next level. There are significant lessons that education can learn from the gaming world and specifically cheats. I've made a few presentations on the topic.
Getting back to the original topic, here's a link to a page that documents Easter Eggs in all sorts of programs. My favorite one was back in Word 97. There was an entire 3-D pinball game that was hidden in it!
http://www.eggheaven2000.com/
Art
On 4/6/04, Janine Riggins writes:
Oh, how funny!! I can't wait to show this to the kids. They LOVE, love, love all of the secret moves on their game systems, and I have often overheard them sharing little tips about what works on which game!! They'll love this little techno. tidbit! Thanks!
Art Responds:
Your Easter Egg comment has caused me to take another look at what we will be doing in the summer and reminded me of something I came up with two years ago that others high up in the educational pecking order have encouraged me to actively pursue. I've often thought about it, but have never had the opportunity to do it. Now I do. I think this summer, one of the things we will keep in mind as we build our activities is the building in of cheats. Here's an article I drafted a while back, but never finished or published. I'm going to write this incident up and send it off to the rest of the Star-W crew.
Big6, NCLB, and Cheating
We already know that the Big6 is a process that is validated through research, but often you need something extra to move forward at a desired rate. If we are going to make adequate yearly progress and fulfill all the requirements of No Child Left Behind we should be learning to use technology in ways that allow our student to cheat their way to learning and higher order thinking.
Now before you contact the Commissioner of Education and tell him to revoke my teaching certificate, you might want to read on a little further and learn about another definition of cheating of which you may not be aware.
If I called you an expert cheater you would probably be offended, but yesterday I was in a conversation with a group of cheaters who would be proud of carrying that label. These cheaters were teenage gaming enthusiasts. These cheats knew how to take advantage of hidden shortcuts in popular video games that allowed them to advance through levels, acquire power or weapons not available to no cheaters, and gain the advantage over the machine or other players in a multi-player game.
Cheats are hidden shortcuts that are inserted into all of today’s video games by programmers. They are there for a very good reason. Most video games are difficult and the only way you can achieve certain goals is to be very talented, extremely cleaver, and very skilled, or know about the built in cheats.
Cheats allow children to have success when the have reached a point where their skill will take them no further. It allows them to move forward without reaching a frustration level that make them abandon the game as being impossible. By accessing the cheats, the child often gains insights into the strategies and conditions that will allow them to achieve the same results without accessing the cheat the next time they play the game.
Cheats allow the students to learn and grow. The challenge to the student is achieving the desired results without cheating, but cheating allows them to learn and grow to the point where they can abandon the cheats and succeed on their own.
There are magazines and TV shows devoted to cheating. Invariably, the best gamers are accomplished cheaters. While some cheaters actually do use cheats to cheat in the context we understand cheating, the vast majority of gamers use cheats as a way of becoming more accomplished without cheating.
Computer programmers build in safeguards against cheating in the context that we understand it. For example, it is difficult, though not impossible to cheat in multi-player games. The keystrokes to invoke the cheats are often long and complicate. While playing against others, it would be extremely difficult to invoke many of the more powerful cheats, because the action is such that the time it would take to invoke the cheat would result in losing the game.
We can learn a great deal about designing lessons from game programmers and gaming theory. Aside from cheats, there are other features of many games that engage children. They can enter the game at any level their skill will allow. They get instant feedback. They can start, pause, or stop at any time they choose.
While these attributes are desirable in education, they are very difficult to implement. However, it is possible for us to build cheats into our curriculum. The cheats can be in the form of tools that allow the students to do complicated or mundane task quickly and efficiently. Here are a few possible cheats. Many of them are on the Big6 Technology Resources list and or other Big6 technology tip sheets. Be aware that while these are all free resources, some may contain ads or require registration to access the material.
Printing - If you want to print a section from a web page, highlight the section then go to the print menu. Most people know that you can print a page or range of pages, but many miss the option that allows you to Print the Selection.
Citations – Here are three citation makers that allow the students to input raw data and turn out properly formatted citations. Explore them to determine which offers the best solution for your grade level.
Search Engine Math – Use the + and – operators in front of words to include or exclude pages from your search retrieval.
Search Engine Selection – NoodleQuest [ http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/ ]http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/ is a tool that asks you a series of questions about your search and then provides you with a list of the best search tools to use for your query.
Calculations and Conversions – There are literally hundreds of online calculators available. Here are a two links that will cover most of your needs.
[ http://www.calculator.com/ ]http://www.calculator.com
[ http://www.efunda.com/units/index.cfm ]http://www.efunda.com/units/index.cfm
US History Images and Primary Sources – It never ceases to amaze me how many people are not aware of the Library of Congress site [ http://marvel.loc.gov/ ]http://marvel.loc.gov/ and specifically the American Memory Collection that is the first link on the page.
Images – Clicking on the Images tab at Google.com will hook you up with images to match your search term. It even provides you with information you need for proper citations that you can create with any of the citation makers listed previously. You can also visit [ http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm ]http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm or [ http://www.ditto.com/ ]http://www.ditto.com
There are hundreds of other sites that provide you with resources and tools to get the job done faster and better. You can grow your list by becoming a member of some the appropriate educational mailing. A great selection of lists can be found at http://www.edwebproject.org/lists.html
**************************************************************************
I'm perfectly capable of learning from my own mistakes.
I will surely learn a great deal today!
**************************************************************************
On 4/5/2004, Janine Riggins
The 22nd works for me. Unless there is some way that we can fit technology into the Easter egg hunt I have planned. Hmm....
Art Responds:
LOL! Ask and ye shall receive.
Easter Eggs have long been a significant part of computer programming. In technological terns, an Easter Egg is programming code that is not documented. It is put there by the programmer as an "addition", often without the knowledge of the company that markets the program. In recent years, Easter Eggs have become an important part of computer gaming, and are now known as "cheats". Cheats are hidden short cuts in programs that help the user get to the next level. There are significant lessons that education can learn from the gaming world and specifically cheats. I've made a few presentations on the topic.
Getting back to the original topic, here's a link to a page that documents Easter Eggs in all sorts of programs. My favorite one was back in Word 97. There was an entire 3-D pinball game that was hidden in it!
http://www.eggheaven2000.com/
Art
On 4/6/04, Janine Riggins
Oh, how funny!! I can't wait to show this to the kids. They LOVE, love, love all of the secret moves on their game systems, and I have often overheard them sharing little tips about what works on which game!! They'll love this little techno. tidbit! Thanks!
Art Responds:
Your Easter Egg comment has caused me to take another look at what we will be doing in the summer and reminded me of something I came up with two years ago that others high up in the educational pecking order have encouraged me to actively pursue. I've often thought about it, but have never had the opportunity to do it. Now I do. I think this summer, one of the things we will keep in mind as we build our activities is the building in of cheats. Here's an article I drafted a while back, but never finished or published. I'm going to write this incident up and send it off to the rest of the Star-W crew.
Big6, NCLB, and Cheating
We already know that the Big6 is a process that is validated through research, but often you need something extra to move forward at a desired rate. If we are going to make adequate yearly progress and fulfill all the requirements of No Child Left Behind we should be learning to use technology in ways that allow our student to cheat their way to learning and higher order thinking.
Now before you contact the Commissioner of Education and tell him to revoke my teaching certificate, you might want to read on a little further and learn about another definition of cheating of which you may not be aware.
If I called you an expert cheater you would probably be offended, but yesterday I was in a conversation with a group of cheaters who would be proud of carrying that label. These cheaters were teenage gaming enthusiasts. These cheats knew how to take advantage of hidden shortcuts in popular video games that allowed them to advance through levels, acquire power or weapons not available to no cheaters, and gain the advantage over the machine or other players in a multi-player game.
Cheats are hidden shortcuts that are inserted into all of today’s video games by programmers. They are there for a very good reason. Most video games are difficult and the only way you can achieve certain goals is to be very talented, extremely cleaver, and very skilled, or know about the built in cheats.
Cheats allow children to have success when the have reached a point where their skill will take them no further. It allows them to move forward without reaching a frustration level that make them abandon the game as being impossible. By accessing the cheats, the child often gains insights into the strategies and conditions that will allow them to achieve the same results without accessing the cheat the next time they play the game.
Cheats allow the students to learn and grow. The challenge to the student is achieving the desired results without cheating, but cheating allows them to learn and grow to the point where they can abandon the cheats and succeed on their own.
There are magazines and TV shows devoted to cheating. Invariably, the best gamers are accomplished cheaters. While some cheaters actually do use cheats to cheat in the context we understand cheating, the vast majority of gamers use cheats as a way of becoming more accomplished without cheating.
Computer programmers build in safeguards against cheating in the context that we understand it. For example, it is difficult, though not impossible to cheat in multi-player games. The keystrokes to invoke the cheats are often long and complicate. While playing against others, it would be extremely difficult to invoke many of the more powerful cheats, because the action is such that the time it would take to invoke the cheat would result in losing the game.
We can learn a great deal about designing lessons from game programmers and gaming theory. Aside from cheats, there are other features of many games that engage children. They can enter the game at any level their skill will allow. They get instant feedback. They can start, pause, or stop at any time they choose.
While these attributes are desirable in education, they are very difficult to implement. However, it is possible for us to build cheats into our curriculum. The cheats can be in the form of tools that allow the students to do complicated or mundane task quickly and efficiently. Here are a few possible cheats. Many of them are on the Big6 Technology Resources list and or other Big6 technology tip sheets. Be aware that while these are all free resources, some may contain ads or require registration to access the material.
Printing - If you want to print a section from a web page, highlight the section then go to the print menu. Most people know that you can print a page or range of pages, but many miss the option that allows you to Print the Selection.
Citations – Here are three citation makers that allow the students to input raw data and turn out properly formatted citations. Explore them to determine which offers the best solution for your grade level.
Search Engine Math – Use the + and – operators in front of words to include or exclude pages from your search retrieval.
Search Engine Selection – NoodleQuest [ http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/ ]http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/ is a tool that asks you a series of questions about your search and then provides you with a list of the best search tools to use for your query.
Calculations and Conversions – There are literally hundreds of online calculators available. Here are a two links that will cover most of your needs.
[ http://www.calculator.com/ ]http://www.calculator.com
[ http://www.efunda.com/units/index.cfm ]http://www.efunda.com/units/index.cfm
US History Images and Primary Sources – It never ceases to amaze me how many people are not aware of the Library of Congress site [ http://marvel.loc.gov/ ]http://marvel.loc.gov/ and specifically the American Memory Collection that is the first link on the page.
Images – Clicking on the Images tab at Google.com will hook you up with images to match your search term. It even provides you with information you need for proper citations that you can create with any of the citation makers listed previously. You can also visit [ http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm ]http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm or [ http://www.ditto.com/ ]http://www.ditto.com
There are hundreds of other sites that provide you with resources and tools to get the job done faster and better. You can grow your list by becoming a member of some the appropriate educational mailing. A great selection of lists can be found at http://www.edwebproject.org/lists.html
**************************************************************************
I'm perfectly capable of learning from my own mistakes.
I will surely learn a great deal today!
**************************************************************************
