Author: timcalvin

Tangential.

That’s what I’m calling my newest project.

It’s in-progress right now- some test shooting and a prototype intro are in the can, so to speak. It’s easily the most complicated self-shooting rig I’ve worked with in at least a very long time, and maybe ever.

Here’s what it is:

Tangential is a series of video podcasts that cover a wide range to topics related to texts taught in High School English classes. I’m not teaching any English classes next year, and I can’t bear to have some of my more fun and tangential talks sit on the shelf. Plus I get bored. So I’m doing all the stuff I really like as videos so others can watch and learn and enjoy.

 

Zork part 2

So my latest video post is here.

But in the meantime, I’ve done some research, as I’m prone to. And I’ve found some interesting stuff.

So Zork is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s an entire genre of work called “Interactive Fiction” that builds on the format of Zork, but expands quite a ways beyond that. Creating them isn’t the most straightforward thing ever, but I’ve found this gadget called FrobTADS that seems built for that exact function. Granted, I’ve just downloaded the thing (and I haven’t even installed it yet…), but it looks like a mostly straightforward nomenclature that it’s using. Interesting, at least.

So my current thinking is to combine attributes of Interactive Fiction with those of ARGs (Alternate Reality Games). I’m thinking about starting a unit inside of a bit of Interactive Fiction, and then having tasks that have to take place out in the real world. Puzzles, maybe, or locations that need to be visited to gain a clue or code or whatnot that then gets loaded back into the Interactive Fiction to gain the next level or step.

My next step is to play with FrobTADS a bit and see what it can do and how it is to work with, and decide if it’s the sort of thing that’s going to be useful without simply adding to the pile of things I have to do.

That and figuring out if students are even going to like this sort of thing. Because if they’re not into this, then…

 

t.

 

SitREP

What a busy week it’s been. Lots going on:

1. My newest (same same but different) Vlog is live, over on my Youtube Channel. I’m back to (currently) recording video podcasts in my car, usually on the way home from work. It’s safe, I promise. I’m hoping to move on to other… venues… but right now my commute is some of the only free time I have. Give it a watch, think a bit, get psyched, and then…

2… take part in Mission #1: The Quest to Find a Good Classroom As A Video Game Platform. Or, TQFGCVGP, as I shall now call it. The Google Doc is here. I’m really excited about this- I hope you are too.

3. I’m teaching a class this summer for EDCO, in Waltham MA. The flyer (as a PDF) is here, and you should totally take it, if you’re interested in starting with iPads in a High School setting. It’s a topic I know a bit about. It’s a two-day session, and we’ll be starting at the basics and moving towards more advanced workflows. You’ll want to bring an iPad- and a smile, ’cause it’s going to be awesome.

4. Numbers of people coming to The 2012 Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative are ramping up, and I’ve been watching Andy and Dennis slave over the schedule to make sure the MANY sessions and MANY presenters all have a chance to share what they know. It’s going to be good, it’s going to be free, and you should, if at all able, come.

5. I’ve headed into some murky water with my latest project in the classroom- it’s too early to say how it’s going, but I’m looking forward to being able to post some of what I (and the students) learn in the next week or two. Suffice it to say that I’ve never done it before, and I’m a bit anxious- which are both good things.

6. I’ve added a “Mission Control” tab to the top of this blog for keeping track of the missions we embark on. I also updated my Setup page to better reflect my current uses/devices/apps. My actual setup changes ever couple of days, depending on what I’m doing, but this update better reflects how I’m currently using it. And lastly, some small updates/tweeks to my About Me page.

t.

New Project! Sort of!

It’s not so much a “new” project as one I haven’t touched in a while.

I’m getting back to The Long Road Home

It’s been gone for a while- and that’s for a bunch of reasons. I was tired. I had (more) kid(s). I gave up using that camera. I didn’t want to be like every other vlogger. I didn’t want to bore people.

But now I’m bored. Not really, I suppose, but I find that if I’m not slightly over-extended, I’m not as productive as I like to be. So this is going to be a way to put my commute to use, and to introduce some texture to the post that I’ve been putting up here.

It’s not going to be the same as before. I was pushing a new episode every day. That’s too much- too much for you to watch and too much for me to do. I can’t be good that often- and I’d rather be good than frequent. So I’m going to aim for one a week. There might be weeks where there’s more than that, and there are going to be weeks with less. But I’m shooting for an average here.

I’d really like to thank ZeFrank here- his earlier videos (“The Show”) were always something I looked forward to, and introduced me to the rough format that I use. His new stuff (“A Show”), and specifically, An Invocation for Beginnings really go me ready to go with this. I start shooting today, heath permitting, and we’ll see where it goes.

I’d like it to be a conversation. I’d like you to be able to tell me where you want this to go. I’d like to do things together. Make things.

Let’s make stuff.

I’ll start.

 

t.

 

Closing in…

…on the end of the year, and like every year, the wheels are starting to come off.

I’m not sure what it is that leads to the fatigue that we all feel towards the end of the year, but it’s here again. I’ve been trying to fight it off- but I’m having some trouble. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve chosen a sleepy summertime novel (To Kill a Mockingbird, btw) to end the year, and it’s lulling me in, or if I’m somehow not as creative right now with cool new projects.

I’d like to blame the very warm early, early spring we had- I’d love to say that because they were exposed to summer to early, they’ve already shifted to that mindset.

But I’m not sure that’s true.

What I fear, and what I’m starting to think might be the actual reason for the fall-off, is this: We don’t have enough variety in what we do. If we were a restaurant that you were eating at for 185 days, we’d have a menu that is too short and we’d be sick of everything on it. Almost every activity that we do is based in the same sort of physical space- sitting at desks and whatnot. Almost every activity involves writing things down in what looks an awful lot like analytical writing. It doesn’t seem to matter much what subject we’re talking about, it all sort of looks the same.

I’m wondering if now is the time of year to bust out the left field jams. The wacky stuff. If we’re a dinner serving hamburgers and fries, now’s the time to announce that we’re dabbling in molecular gastronomy. We’re adding tuna tartar with an avocado foam and sesame crisp.

 

t.

 

Classroom Displays

There are very few absolute truths in displays, but this much I know: Larger is always better.

As a result of that simple fact, I am a strong proponent of HD projectors in classrooms- and as I’ve covered here before, I don’t really care for IWB’s. That’s not to say they can’t be used well; I just mean that I, personally, don’t have any use for them. And, given their small size, I don’t like that they don’t allow me to pull my projector back and make the image on the wall bigger.

What I’m starting to see, however, is the difference between the same information presented on the same size display in different ways. I’ll take twitter as an example- here are a couple of truths I’ve discovered:

1. The faster the update cycle on twitter, the better the audience response.

2. The larger and easier to read the text, the better.

3. The more posts shown at a time, the better.

Numbers 2 & 3 are clearly in conflict with each other- the larger and easier you make the text to read, the fewer posts you can show at a time. But here’s the kicker: there’s nothing out there that does this. There are individual tools that address any one of those points, but nothing that completes the package. To whit:

1. The fastest update cycle I’ve seen is via Today’s Meet, in which case it’s very quick. But it’s not twitter, and there are problems surrounding abuse/username/and-so-on that aren’t trivial to fix.

2. The largest and easiest to read twitter client is Trickle for iOS. But it’s not a full client and it only shows one post at a time. Also, I’ve not been able to get the video from that app to output to a projector via a wire. Yet.

3. The highest post density can be created using Monitter, but it’s has lag, occasionally re-loads everything, and isn’t super readable.

This basic notion seems to apply to other places- Google Docs, for example, is a great tool for use in the classroom. But displaying a Google Doc on a projector is a less-than-optimal experience. Given the limited space on screen, the browser bar and menus kill real estate- and to get the Doc readable for the whole classroom, you’ll need to bump the font size way up- say, 24pt. Between those two factors, you’re only seeing a slice of the document, and if it gets larger, they’re not much you can do. What I’d like is a projector setting in the menus. Actually, Today’s Meet has this- it optimizes the display for use with a projector- and it’s a lovely thing.

It’s not enough that we think about presenting information in the classroom- we need to be deliberate in how that information manifests. You’d never hand out a printed packet set in 8pt font- but we have no problem projecting 12pt at a distance of 30 feet. We need to step back and think about the visual clutter, the readability, and the overall layout of the displays we present.

t.