Mouse Party

Mouse Party

This is a very successful e-learning lesson on the effects of various drugs on the body, in this case, experimental mice.

Colorful, attractive, and humorous animation provides an effective  attention-getting device. The cool music track evokes the sense of being at a drug party, not that I would know that personally.

The user immediately engages with the material by being invited to pick up one of many variously stoned mice hanging out in a lab cage. You can point to see which drug each mouse is imbibing, and then pick it up with your rubber gloves and drop the wriggling culprit in a chair. From there the user is introduced to the learning content, systematically presented using diagrams, animation, and audio.

Instructions were clear, including text, arrows, and voice-over narration, so I had a clear idea of what I needed to do next. My confidence was further increased by clear navigational controls.

This site would be highly relevant to high school health students studying the effects of drugs, and I shall recommend to our school's health teacher.

Itzabitza - Creativity & Reading in a Drawing Program

A small Seattle-based company called Sabi has recently teamed up with Microsoft to develop an interactive drawing/reading program called Itzabitza for the Microsoft platform. The game is unique because of its ability to recognize drawings and create interactions with the drawings that have been created.

The goal of this educational egame is to inspire creativity and promote reading in target audience of children ages 4+. As children draw, their drawings come to life. The program is able to recognize what has been drawn with the help of a drawing recognition program incorporated into the game called Living Ink. Because the game can recognize what has been drawn, the characters in the game can interact with it in natural ways. So for example, if a child is asked to draw a house, the computer will recognize the various elements that compose the house that is drawn and insert interactive components. A door and windows will appear, and once they have appeared, they can be opened. If the child draws doors, windows, or chimneys for example, the program recognizes them and uses them in the story. The characters can enter the house that has just been drawn by the child, climb the stairs, and be visible in the window on the second floor.

Children play the game by initiating quests. Each quest will prompt them to move or to draw. When they draw, their drawings become a part of the story. Part of the motivation, in addition to seeing your artwork incorporated in a story, is that you can only proceed to the next quest, or story line, after you have received enough stars. This unlocks the next quest.

The game has received high praise as an enticing way to inspire kids to read. Words, when they appear are clickable and can be read aloud. As the child begins playing, words will appear that will begin the quest. Once a child chooses a word, the child is prompted to do something related to that word.

More info.
Itzabitza Website
The Itzabitza Blog
Itzabitza Video Demo - Highly recommend the demo video. It's pretty amazing.

Heidi Thibodeau AKA Heidi Beezley