[sugar] Re: Memorize Activity: exciting new ideas.

[Simon Schampijer]

Hi Eben,
Sorry for the long delay in my reply.

Eben Eliason wrote:
> I've recently had some inspiration regarding the Memorize activity.
> (The reason for which I refer to it as Memorize, and not Memosono,
> will become apparent shortly.)
>
> We should take serious advantage of the nature of the game - which
> depends on matching pairs - by turning it into a flashcard style
> learning tool.  Right now we've got some composers, with audio cues.
> It's a step above average, but in the end, you just find the two cards
> that match. What if instead, half of the cards were pictures, and half
> of the cards were the corresponding words; or half of the cards are
> numbers, and the other half are simple math problems that have equal
> values; or half of the cards are pictures of instruments, and the
> other half are their sounds, etc.  There are many variations on this
> idea, and all of them would help teach kids a different skill.  The
> simplest variation would be simple picture matching, which we should
> keep for the young kids, but there would also be modes for learning
> vocabulary, math, music, etc.
>

The composers game is a really old version. The focus
was on sound/pictures by now. I like the idea of taking this further. The
modes picture only - sound only - picture and sound had been on my list
so far.


> Additionally, expanding the dictionary of possible cards (by a lot)
> seems pretty necessary, since the fixed set of composers gets old
> after a few plays.  Each set should have a large number of cards, and
> the cards shown in any given game should be chosen randomly from the
> set when the game starts.
>

The cards gets randomly chosen at the startup already. At the moment there
is a text file where by putting the names of the files the game can be
extended. This must be made possible from within the gui now.

> Now, getting to the really exciting issue, we should also make this
> game extensible, so that educators in each country can create
> expansion sets to install.  That makes it infinitely scalable to
> different age groups, and removes the core problem of localization.
> They can make the game relevant to their country, their age group,
> their current topic of study.  Talk about a good way to study for
> exams...the kids could even make sets themselves!
>

Ok, the plan is to make two modes.

1) Create a game ( a button for recording
with the mic, one for taking pictures with the camera...).

2) Play the game (on one machine)- share with others in mesh mode


> I think if there's any way to get this into G1, we'll have an
> extremely powerful teaching tool that will be a great way for each
> country/school to explore the mesh capabilities.  It also gives the
> teachers a simple entry point for creating educational content,
> disguised as an entertaining game. I'm a UI guy, and I'd be happy to
> help out with the visual design for this.  Do those of you on the
> implementation end of things think we can accomplish such a goal?  I
> think it would be awesome, and go a long way to supporting the idea of
> the laptop as an educational tool.
>
> - Eben
>


I think the game can really be a nice tool as well. It is good to know 
you as a UI person are happy to help out
for the visual design. It took quite a while to make the icecream pictures
for the latest version :)
I am busy at the moment with my university project but hope to be back 
on the
train soon.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Simon