EDAD660 (2011)

Allison and I were talking this morning about how cool it would be if someone invented the ability to wirelessly transfer electricity. As luck would have it someone has already figured this out! Check out this video for a demo!

Scratch is a great tool to develop small, interactive multimedia projects that can easily be embedded into your blog or website. To get started using Scratch, visit the Scratch website at http://scratch.mit.edu . Once there go ahead and download a copy of the software – Scratch is available for both Macs and PCs. You should also sign up for a free Scratch account – this will let you easily publish your creations to the online Scratch repository. Scratch lets you “embed” your games (just like Youtube and the other Web 2.0 tools we covered) so you can easily incorporate your project into your blog when you’re done.

Scratch Basics

When you first start up Scratch you’ll be presented with the following window. I’ve labeled each part of the window – I’ll be referring to these names throughout the tutorial.

In the stage you should see a small orange cat. His name is Scratch, and this is his world. Unfortunately he doesn’t do anything yet. We’re going to start off by giving Scratch some actions, also known as a “script.”

You should notice that the left side of the screen is filled with colored puzzle pieces. These are actions -we can snap together multiple actions in order to write a “script” that Scratch will follow. Let’s write a script to tell Scratch to move to the right when we hit the right arrow key.

1. Click on the Control button in the Action Library. A new set of puzzle pieces will appear
2. Drag the second puzzle piece (”When space key is pressed”) and drag it into the Scripts panel

   

   figure 1

3. Use the dropdown in this puzzle piece and change it’s value to “right arrow”
4. Next we need to tell Scratch what to do when the right arrow is pressed. Click on the Motion button in the Action Library and find “change x by 10″. Snap this puzzle piece onto the bottom of the “when right arrow key pressed”

   

   figure 2

5. Hit the right arrow key on your keyboard. Scratch should move to the right!
6. Repeat this process for the left arrow key. You can drag more puzzle pieces into the window – pieces don’t necessarily need to be connected to one another. Make sure that Scratch moves by -10 instead of +10 when going left! Here’s what the screen should look like.

   

   figure 3

7. If you want Scratch to be able to move up and down you can repeat the process with one important difference – you need to change Scratch’s Y position instead of his X position when moving up and down.

   

   figure 4

8. You might notice that Scratch doesn’t face in the right direction when moving around the screen. We can fix this by creating different “costumes” for Scratch. Click on the Costume tab – you should see a panel like this:

   

   figure 5

9. Let’s create a costume for each of Scratch’s directions. We already have one in which he is facing to the right so we need 3 more. Click Copy 3 times next to costume1. Rename each costume so that it reflects the direction we will be working with.

   

   figure 6

10. Click Edit next to the “Left” Costume. Click the “Flip Horizontal” button to flip Scratch around.

    

    figure 7

11. Click OK to go back to the costume view. Now Click the Script tab to go back to our script view. We need to tell Scratch to change his costume when he moves in a particular direction. Click on the Looks button in the Action Library and drag out the “switch to costume” puzzle piece onto the script that makes Scratch move to the right. Set the puzzle piece so that it changes to the “Right” costume.

    

    figure 8

12. Congratulations! Scratch should now change direction!

Next we’re going to give Scratch a friend to play with. Every character that exists in your game is considered a Sprite – you can add new sprites by clicking the tools beneath the stage. Let’s go ahead and create our second sprite.

1. Click on the “choose a new sprite from file” button.

   

   figure 9

2. Go into the “Things” folder and select the Banana sprite. You should now see your second sprite on the stage.

   

   figure 10

3. Click on the banana and use the “Sprite Name” text box to rename the sprite – call it ‘Banana’

   

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4. Now we’re going to tell Scratch to do something when he comes in contact with the Banana sprite. We’re going to need to write a new script for Scratch that does the following:
   • Continually check to see if Scratch is hitting the banana
   • If so, have Scratch say “Yum!”
   • If not, have Scratch say nothing
5. Click back onto Scratch so that his movement scripts are showing. Click on the Control button and drag out the “When Flag is Pressed” puzzle piece. Also drag out the “forever” and “if / else” puzzle pieces and arrange them like so:

   

   figure 12

6. This script says “When the Flag button (AKA the game’s ‘Start Button’) is pressed I should continually (forever) ask myself a question. If the answer to that question is true, I should do something. If it isn’t true, I should do something else.” Let’s fill in the pieces. Click on the “Sensing” and drag the “touching” puzzle piece out – snap it into the diamond shaped block next to the word “if” and change the drop down so that it says “Banana”

   

   figure 13

7. So now we have our question – “If I’m touching the banana sprite” – next we have to tell Scratch to do something if that is a true statement. Click on the “Looks” menu and drag out the “Say” puzzle piece. Drag it under the word “if” and snap it in place. Change the text to something more appropriate (”Yum!”)

   

   figure 14

8. If Scratch isn’t touching the banana we want him to say nothing. Drag another copy of the “say” puzzle piece out and snap it into the “else” position. Erase the message so that Scratch says nothing when he’s not touching the banana.

   

   figure 15

9. Click on the flag button and try out your game. Scratch should say “Yum!” when he’s touching the banana and nothing when he’s not.

Audacity is an audio editing program that allows you to record, mix, and add special effects to your sound files. It is completely open-source, and is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Here’s how you can get started with a new audacity project:

1. Open up Audacity. A screen simliar to the following will appear:
   

   Audacity startup screen

2. Make sure that you have a microphone installed. You can use the built-in microphone on your laptop if need be, but a USB powered external microphone will really help to make your audio come out crisp and clear.
3. Click on the record button (#1) and begin speaking. A waveform will begin to appear (#2) as your voice is detected by the microphone.
4. Click on the stop button (#3) in order to stop the recording.
5. Click the rewind button (#4) and play button (#5) to listen to your recording.
6. To trim your recording make sure that the selection tool is clicked (#6) – then highlight the portion of the audio that you would like to cut. Click on Edit->Cut to extract the selected area.
7. To record a second clip, click the record button (#2) – a second waveform will appear beneath the first.
8. To reposition a clip, click on the slider tool (#7) and slide the desired clip back and forth.
9. Using the volume adjustment tool (#8) you can increase or decrease the volume of a specific clip.
10. Your can import other audio files (WAV, MP3) by clicking on Project -> Import Audio. The audio file will appear as a new waveform. Here is a small collection of sound effect files to get you started.
11. You can also apply special effects to your audio clips – this can be accomplished by selecting a portion of a clip using the selection tool (#6) and then using the Effect menu.
12. When you are finished working on your clip you should save your project by clicking on File -> Save.
13. You can export your project as an MP3 file by clicking on File -> Export as MP3. Note that Audacity does not come pre-loaded with MP3 export capabilities – you can add this feature into the system by installing the free LAME MP3 Conversion Library (available here).

With your newly created MP3 file you can create a soundtrack to a video, remix a song or even create your own podcast.

You can easily invite additional users to contribute to your blog by using the “Add New” link under the “Users” panel in your blog’s dashboard. When you add a user to your blog you will be asked to specify an access level – here’s a rundown of what each type of user can do (Source: http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities)

1. Administrator – Somebody who has access to all the administration features
2. Editor – Somebody who can publish posts, manage posts as well as manage other people’s posts, etc.
3. Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own posts
4. Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish posts
5. Subscriber – Somebody who can read comments/comment/receive news letters, etc.

Google Earth is a free downloadable application that lets you view the world, explore interesting places and create your own customized “overlays” that can be used to help convey a wide range of topics in your classes. Here’s how you can get started

1. To begin, downnload a copy of Google Earth by clicking here.
2. Install the package on your computer.
3. When finished, launch Google Earth. A screen that looks like the following should appear:
   

   Google Earth Opening Screen

4. To search for a place, simply click in the blank labeled “Fly-To” (#1 on the image above) and click the tiny search button. The global will reorient itself to zoom in on your desired location.
5. You can manually move around the globe by clicking and dragging it around. You can also use the three tools on the very right side of the screen to adjust your orientation as well (#2 in the image above)
6. You can store placemarks on the globe just as you can in Google Maps on the web. To do this, simply navigate to a place that you would like to mark and click the “Add Placemark” button (#3 on the image above.) You can change the name, detailed description, color and type of placemark by using the dialog box that appears.
7. Placemarks are stored in the Places panel (#4 on the image above.) To visit any of your places simply double click on the placemark inside this panel.
8. You an edit an existing placemark by right-clicking on the mark in the Places panel (#4) and choosing “Get Info.”
9. You can delete a placemark by right-clicking on the mark in the Places panel and choosing “Delete.”
10. You can also add in shaded regions to the maps. Clicking on the “add polygon” button (#5) will bring up a menu simliar to the “add placemark” menu. When this appears you can begin clicking on the map to draw a shape on top of the land or ocean. In the dialog box you can specify the color, transparency and description for this shaded region. If you make a mistake when you are drawing your shape you can simply grab one of the small corners with your mouse and move it back into position.
11. There is also an “add path tool” next to the “add polygon” tool (#5.) This lets you add in an un-filled shape.
12. Finally, you can overlay an image on top of the map by using the “add image overlay” tool (next to #5 as well.)
13. You can control the visibility of items on the map by checking off their corresponding checkboxes inside the Places panel (#4.) You can also right-click on the places panel to create folders to organize your items. Folders themselves have checkboxes associated with them – checking or unchecking a folder will cause all places inside that folder to appear / disappear accordingly.
14. You can record a “tour” in Google Earth as well. Tours allow you to pre-record movement on the globe that can be played back at a later date. Tours can be recorded by clicking the “Record a tour” button (near #5.)
15. The paid version of Google Earth has a “create movie” feature that will let you export a screencast of your Google Earth creation to a movie file. Unfortunately we are not using that version in class. However, you can use your newly acquired Jing skills to capture a tour!
16. Before you quit Google Earth be sure to save your places (File -> Save)

Here’s how you can incorporate the “Google Analytics” feature into your blog. This feature will allow you to easily track who is visiting your blog, where they are coming from, what browsers they are using, etc. Here’s how to get started!

1. Visit: http://www.google.com/analytics/
2. Log in using your Google Identity.
3. Click “Add Website Profile”
4. Paste your blog address into the box labeled “Please provide the URL of the site you would like to track.”
5. Click Continue
6. A new page will appear with a bunch of HTML code in a white text box. Select this code and copy it using EDIT->Copy.
7. Click Finish
8. Open a new window and sign into your blog
9. Click Appearance -> Widgets
10. We need to add in a place to hold this code on your blog. You can do this by adding a text widget to your sidebar. Paste the tracking code information into the widget body – feel free to leave the title of this element blank.
11. Switch back to the browser window that has Google Analytics running and click “Check Status” to verify that you’ve set up your blog correctly. Click Finish when you’re done.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up tracking on your blog! Google Analytics tracks information on a daily basis, so you won’t begin to see tracking information until tomorrow.

• Could PowerPoint be stifling learning?
• Better Learning with Sites and Sound

Allison found a great article last night that talks about how “disfluent” fonts, such as Comic Sans, can actually increase student compression when compared to fonts that are more easily readable.  I wonder what the folks over at “bancomicsans.com” would say about that!

If you’re interested, here’s a quick documentation about the development and use of the Comic Sans font:

And while we’re talking about fonts, feel free to take this little quiz to find out what font type you are!  My type was “dot matrix”

http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

Today we covered a lot of ground, including:

1. Both Rayna and Ayah presented their Web 2.0 exploration projects to the class.
2. We then talked about how a computer understands and processes digital images along with which image formats to use (JPG vs. GIF / PNG).  The full presentation I gave is available under the Lectures tab at the top of the blog.
3. Next we talked about Digital Cameras and how they work.  That lecture is also available under the Lectures tab.
4. From here we talked about a number of digital imaging related topics — all of these topics are available on the blog as their own posts:
   1. How to buy a digital camera
   2. 3D Photos & Analgyph Images
   3. Using a Digital Camera in the classroom
   4. Flickr
   5. Design tips for teachers (available under the Lectures tab)
   6. Design resources, including color and font resources

Just thought I’d share a few more 3D photos with you from my trip to Sakkara and the Great Pyramid Complex today!

Remember, you need the 3D glasses that I passed out in class to view the images.  Make sure that the red filter is over the your left eye.  Also, expand the pics to fill the full screen – they look a lot better than the tiny versions that appear below!