Als er ergens wel een generatiekloof zichtbaar is dan is het de ‘gamekloof’ tussen docenten op middelbare scholen en jongeren. De meeste docenten (40+) zijn niet opgegroeid met videogames, terwijl vrijwel alle jongeren (jongens en meisjes) veel tijd besteden aan het spelen van games. Toch wordt er steeds meer erkend dat gamen of ‘spelenderwijs leren’ een belangrijke plek zou moeten innemen in ons huidige onderwijs.
Om de kloof tussen docenten en jongeren op gamegebied te verkleinen is de Gamescool opgericht (www.gamescool.nl). Gamescool is een online leeromgeving waar docenten (en andere mensen die met jongeren werken) kunnen leren om les te geven in het maken van games op school. De nadruk van de cursus ligt op het zelf bouwen van games. Dit levert voor scholen interessante lesmaterie op omdat je voor het bouwen van games verschillende disciplines nodig hebt: wiskunde (meetkunde), animatietechnieken en tekenwerk, muziek en geluidproductie, creativiteit, samenwerken en programmeren. Maar ook de inhoud van de game kan over educatieve onderwerpen gaan: geschiedenis, natuurkunde, economie of welk vak dan ook.
In de Gamescool leren docenten in 6 online lessen en 2 ‘live’ lessen de kneepjes van games bouwen, gamedesign en ook het gebruiken van games in de klas: het toepassen van zogenaamde ‘serious games’ in bestaande lessen om daarmee beter les te geven.
Gamescool is opgericht door Wouter Baars in samenwerking met Pauline Maas. Beiden geven al jaren les aan docenten en aan jongeren in het werken met games of het zelf bouwen van games. Als je het goed doet, kun je met games lastige onderwerpen (bijvoorbeeld in de wiskunde of economie) begrijpelijker maken voor jongeren. Ook de motivatie speelt een grote rol. Het is enorm leuk voor jongeren om zelf hun eigen game te maken. Bijna ongemerkt leren ze belangrijke vaardigheden als het programmeren van een computer en samenwerken.
De docenten die mee willen doen met gamescool moeten rekenen op een pittige nascholing. De cursus vraagt ongeveer 3 uur huiswerk per week. Bovendien moeten de deelnemers verschillende examens afleggen en uiteindelijk zelf een eigengemaakte game inleveren om te slagen. Maar de cursus begint met het spelen van games, want veel docenten die niet opgegroeid zijn met games, kennen het medium helemaal niet. En dat is wel nodig om met jongeren en games te kunnen werken. Op dit moment is een testgroep van docenten bezig met de laatste testlessen. Vanaf 1 april start de eerste groep officiële groep.
Meer informatie over Gamescool: www.gamescool.nl
dinsdag 23 februari 2010
zondag 14 februari 2010
Google Buzz Tips
Leuk overzicht van tips die handig zijn bij het gebruik van Google's nieuwste speeltje Buzz.
Here are some tips that help you use Google Buzz in new interesting ways.
1. Send direct messages.
If you'd like to send a private message to someone, type @ and use Gmail's autocomplete feature to find the email address of your contact. After typing the message, make sure that the private option is selected, click on "Post to other groups" and create an empty group. You could call it "No one", "Empty group" etc. Now you can send your message.
When you send a private message, Google Buzz lets you select one or more groups that will receive message, but you can also include the contacts in your message.
2. Disable email notifications.
When someone replies to one of your Google Buzz messages, Google sends an email notification to your Gmail account. If you don't like the notifications or they clutter your inbox, create a filter that archives or deletes all the messages that are labeled "buzz" (a built-in Gmail label). Make sure you type label:buzz (you could also use is:buzz) in the "Has the words" box and ignore Gmail's warning.
3. Add more connected sites.
Google Buzz lets you import content from services like Google Reader, Picasa, Blogger, Twitter, Flickr, but it's not obvious how to add other sites. Let's say you want to add your FriendFeed profile or the feed of your site. To do that, you need to make sure that the site links to your Google Profile or to one of the services that are associated with your Google Profile.
Google explains how to add a link to your profile and how to include a special markup (rel="me") that offers more information about the link.
<link rel="me" type="text/html" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/your.username" />
Unfortunately, you can't connect the site immediately after you add the link. Google needs to crawl the site before updating the connections. "When the site is re-crawled the mutual claim will be verified and feeds associated with the site will be made available within Google Buzz for the verified user."
4. Link to a Google Buzz message.
If a message is public, it has a permalink that could be used to share the discussion. Gmail shows the links without having to use additional options, but it's not obvious that the timestamp of the message is actually a permalink.
5. Quickly open Google Buzz.
If you've enabled keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, type g b from any Gmail view and you'll open Google Buzz.
Some other useful shortcuts:
Shift+l - like a message
m - mute (ignore) a conversation
r - add a comment
p / n - go to the newer / older conversation
o - expand conversation
6. Hide Google Buzz's counter.
Google Buzz's message counter is distracting, so it would be nice to hide it. Unfortunately, there's no Gmail option that lets you hide counter, but you can hide the link to Google Buzz. Drag "Buzz" to the "X more" drop-down and you can hide the Buzz label.
7. Subscribe to a Google Buzz account in a feed reader.
Google posts each public message to the user's profile page. Open the profile page and click on the orange icon displayed by your browser to subscribe to the feed. A Google Buzz feed has an address that looks like this:
http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/<USERNAME>/public/posted
8. Find public Google Buzz messages.
If you thought that Google Buzz's search box is restricted to your social connections, think again. Google Buzz's search feature shows the latest public messages that match your query.
Some useful searches:
author:<insertname>@gmail.com - find all the messages written by a specific user (you can also use a partial name instead of an email address)
commenter:<insertname>@gmail.com - find all the messages that have a comment from a specific user
has:photo, has:video, has:link - restricts the results to messages that include photos, videos or links (for example: vancouver has:photo)
source:flickr, source:twitter, source:reader- restricts the results to messages imported from Flickr, Twitter, Google Reader (for example: vancouver source:flickr)
9. Save searches
You can bookmark your favorite Buzz searches by enabling the Quick Links feature from Gmail Labs. After performing a search, click on "Add quick link" and add a name for your bookmark.
10. View Google Buzz photos in a slideshow
When you upload photos to Google Buzz, they're added to Picasa Web Albums. If you click on a thumbnail, Google Buzz will open a lightbox to help you quickly navigate between images. Unfortunately, there's no option to view the images in a slideshow, but Picasa Web Albums has this feature and there's a small link that opens the photo album. Click on "view all" and you can select the slideshow option, export photos using Picasa or print photos.
11. Add rich text messages
You can use the same tricks that work in Google Talk to write rich text messages:
*bold message*
_italic message_
-deleted message-
12. Google Buzz on a map
Use the address of the mobile Google Maps interface to see Google Buzz messages from all over the world. There's also a list view for nearby messages.
{ Thanks, KosciaK. }
via Google Operating System door Alex Chitu op 13-2-10
Here are some tips that help you use Google Buzz in new interesting ways.
1. Send direct messages.
If you'd like to send a private message to someone, type @ and use Gmail's autocomplete feature to find the email address of your contact. After typing the message, make sure that the private option is selected, click on "Post to other groups" and create an empty group. You could call it "No one", "Empty group" etc. Now you can send your message.
When you send a private message, Google Buzz lets you select one or more groups that will receive message, but you can also include the contacts in your message.
2. Disable email notifications.
When someone replies to one of your Google Buzz messages, Google sends an email notification to your Gmail account. If you don't like the notifications or they clutter your inbox, create a filter that archives or deletes all the messages that are labeled "buzz" (a built-in Gmail label). Make sure you type label:buzz (you could also use is:buzz) in the "Has the words" box and ignore Gmail's warning.
3. Add more connected sites.
Google Buzz lets you import content from services like Google Reader, Picasa, Blogger, Twitter, Flickr, but it's not obvious how to add other sites. Let's say you want to add your FriendFeed profile or the feed of your site. To do that, you need to make sure that the site links to your Google Profile or to one of the services that are associated with your Google Profile.
Google explains how to add a link to your profile and how to include a special markup (rel="me") that offers more information about the link.
<link rel="me" type="text/html" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/your.username" />
Unfortunately, you can't connect the site immediately after you add the link. Google needs to crawl the site before updating the connections. "When the site is re-crawled the mutual claim will be verified and feeds associated with the site will be made available within Google Buzz for the verified user."
4. Link to a Google Buzz message.
If a message is public, it has a permalink that could be used to share the discussion. Gmail shows the links without having to use additional options, but it's not obvious that the timestamp of the message is actually a permalink.
5. Quickly open Google Buzz.
If you've enabled keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, type g b from any Gmail view and you'll open Google Buzz.
Some other useful shortcuts:
Shift+l - like a message
m - mute (ignore) a conversation
r - add a comment
p / n - go to the newer / older conversation
o - expand conversation
6. Hide Google Buzz's counter.
Google Buzz's message counter is distracting, so it would be nice to hide it. Unfortunately, there's no Gmail option that lets you hide counter, but you can hide the link to Google Buzz. Drag "Buzz" to the "X more" drop-down and you can hide the Buzz label.
7. Subscribe to a Google Buzz account in a feed reader.
Google posts each public message to the user's profile page. Open the profile page and click on the orange icon displayed by your browser to subscribe to the feed. A Google Buzz feed has an address that looks like this:
http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/<USERNAME>/public/posted
8. Find public Google Buzz messages.
If you thought that Google Buzz's search box is restricted to your social connections, think again. Google Buzz's search feature shows the latest public messages that match your query.
Some useful searches:
author:<insertname>@gmail.com - find all the messages written by a specific user (you can also use a partial name instead of an email address)
commenter:<insertname>@gmail.com - find all the messages that have a comment from a specific user
has:photo, has:video, has:link - restricts the results to messages that include photos, videos or links (for example: vancouver has:photo)
source:flickr, source:twitter, source:reader- restricts the results to messages imported from Flickr, Twitter, Google Reader (for example: vancouver source:flickr)
9. Save searches
You can bookmark your favorite Buzz searches by enabling the Quick Links feature from Gmail Labs. After performing a search, click on "Add quick link" and add a name for your bookmark.
10. View Google Buzz photos in a slideshow
When you upload photos to Google Buzz, they're added to Picasa Web Albums. If you click on a thumbnail, Google Buzz will open a lightbox to help you quickly navigate between images. Unfortunately, there's no option to view the images in a slideshow, but Picasa Web Albums has this feature and there's a small link that opens the photo album. Click on "view all" and you can select the slideshow option, export photos using Picasa or print photos.
11. Add rich text messages
You can use the same tricks that work in Google Talk to write rich text messages:
*bold message*
_italic message_
-deleted message-
12. Google Buzz on a map
Use the address of the mobile Google Maps interface to see Google Buzz messages from all over the world. There's also a list view for nearby messages.
{ Thanks, KosciaK. }
donderdag 11 februari 2010
dinsdag 9 februari 2010
Google Chrome Safe Mode
Handig, snelkoppeling maken van Chrome zodat deze ook in safe mode kan starten; dat is zonder thema's en extensies.
Firefox has an option that lets you temporarily disable themes and extensions, so you can still use your browser even if one of your add-ons is buggy. It's called safe mode and it's "a special Firefox execution mode that can be used to troubleshoot issues in Firefox. In Safe Mode, you can reset some settings or disable add-ons that might be the source of the issue. By comparing Firefox behavior in normal mode to its behavior in Safe Mode with various items disabled, you may be able to diagnose issues."
Google Chrome doesn't have this feature, but you can open an incognito window to temporarily disable extensions.
If you want to create a shortcut that opens Chrome in incognito mode, duplicate an existing Chrome shortcut, right-click on the shortcut, select "Properties" and append this flag to the target value: --incognito (don't forget to add a space to separate the flag).
via Google Operating System door Alex Chitu op 8-2-10
Firefox has an option that lets you temporarily disable themes and extensions, so you can still use your browser even if one of your add-ons is buggy. It's called safe mode and it's "a special Firefox execution mode that can be used to troubleshoot issues in Firefox. In Safe Mode, you can reset some settings or disable add-ons that might be the source of the issue. By comparing Firefox behavior in normal mode to its behavior in Safe Mode with various items disabled, you may be able to diagnose issues."
Google Chrome doesn't have this feature, but you can open an incognito window to temporarily disable extensions.
If you want to create a shortcut that opens Chrome in incognito mode, duplicate an existing Chrome shortcut, right-click on the shortcut, select "Properties" and append this flag to the target value: --incognito (don't forget to add a space to separate the flag).
woensdag 3 februari 2010
Chrome OS Tablet Concept
Chrome op de tablet is toch ook erg mooi, vooral dat multitouch principe. iPad krijgt hier een geduchte concurrent mee, dus dat is altijd goed voor de prijs...
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