TEK » games

IQ Games for Geography and History

Richard van Dijk — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:20:14 +0000

On my return from ulearn09 we spent some time as a family playing the two games I brought at the conference The Great New Zealand Moa Hunt and the Terrific Tuatara Trail. Both were great for some basic New Zealand facts and figures and also got us discussing some of these thing with Rylee who despite only being three was enjoying collecting eggs and saying the place names.

There are a number of other games on the site including the Amazing Mammoth Hunt which is world geography as well as an interesting NZ investment game that might be good for economics. Have a look at IQ Ideas.com for their full range. I have to say this one is going to cost my department but it will be money better spent than on another set of textbooks.

And to think this was the first thing I blogged after an ICT conference, I might finally be getting this 21st century learner thing. Multimedia.

Exam Room Cricket

Richard van Dijk — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:07:00 +0000

And so we come to the time of the year where we have to supervise exams. You can’t do marking, you can’t surf the internet on your phone, what’s left? Well being stuck in the hall again I have decided on cricket. The international rules are as follows:

1 Run = Letting someone go to the toilet.

2 Runs = Hushing students walking past the exam room

3 Runs = Handing out extra paper.

4 Runs = Helping a student with an error in a paper or clarifying an instruction

6 Runs = Crossing off the board of time to go.My personal best is 14 runs in a one hour session. Now this game can be expanded to three or five day matches with a suitable prize to the victor at the end. It started off as a bit of a joke but it has made the time pass faster and we are all more alert to hands up.

Happy Examining

Picture Source

iPhone apps my Daughter loves

Richard van Dijk — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:55:02 +0000

Recently Rylee has taken to playing a memory game on abcya.com, she does however find the multiple button mouse difficult so we were thinking about how cool a touch screen would be. I then remembered a review of some of the toddler games for the iPhone OS and to be fair I was amazed with the variety of different games available on the platform.

The touch interface is fantastic for her and I was amazed how quickly she started arranging the words and letters in the correct order. The following video is the two apps that I have brought first.

I did read some interesting comments on the review page of people saying how toddlers using an iPhone was the downfall of society but I think these people need a reality check. Rylee can play the games for about ten minutes and then we do something else. There is no need to hide her from technology when her whole life will be surrounded by it. I mean just imagine if I took the iPhone off Mrs van Dijk after only ten minutes, now thats addiction.

More cool controls for games and breathing earth.

Richard van Dijk — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:17:01 +0000

This from Stuff.co.nz

Systems with motion-controlled gaming, such as the Nintendo Wii, are all the rage but new technology heading for consumers this year goes further, sensing facial expressions, emotions and even thoughts.

Focus your mind to cast a magic spell. Smile or wink and your on-screen avatar does the same. Get mellow and background music matches your mood.

These are some of the possibilities promised by Emotiv Systems – a company founded by four Australian scientists in 2003 – that plans to sell its wireless “neuroheadset” late this year.

The A$300 device for PCs uses 16 sensors that press lightly against the scalp to monitor electrical activity from the brain and face. A built-in gyroscope tracks head movements to control a cursor or viewing angles.

Mind over splatter – New Zealand’s source for technology news on Stuff.co.nz

This comes from the site breathingearth.net which supposedly gives a real time view of co2 emissions as well as basic birth and death rate statistics. Interesting that 47 people dies while I was taking a screenshot. Hmm maybe I could occupy my time differently.