Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Macromedia: Online Discussion with Prensky

On March 30th at 11:00 AM PST, Marc Prensky will present "Games That Teach" in Macromedia's online Education Conversation Series. Registration is free for this web-based presentation (toll-free phone call required for audio portion).

Event info and registration form

Adaptive Technology

This software is not a simulation or a game, but I think it’s relevant to this blog. This is adaptive communication software that I’m learning to use to help a friend who has ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). This is the same disease that the Stephen Hawking has, and the same software he uses. I don’t want to make light of such a serious illness by referring to this adaptive technology as a game, but it has game like qualities, and that’s a good thing. It means that the user will want to continue learning how to use it. These qualities include a system that learns the user’s habits, and one that has shortcuts, cheats, and rewards. The software comes with a large user manual, but why spoil the fun by reading it?

This software has opened my eyes to a fascinating area of computer-assisted communication that I hadn’t really paid attention to until now. And now I can’t stop ‘playing’ the program. I’ve been blowing off work for the last three days because of this system!

A demo version of the program with limited capabilities can be downloaded from http://www.words-plus.com/website/products/comsoft.htm