move block video - feedback wanted :)

[Damien Kee]

Here's my attempt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBhnWzH4FIs

I'm having interlacing issues that I haven't quite worked out, but will hopefully fix soon.

As the 'move' block is pretty important, I spent a bit of time explaining the configuration panel, and only got example 1 program in.  it's just over 6minutes.  Too long?? 

I'm planning part two to cover 2 and more move blocks in a single program and turning a robot around.

Would love any sort of feedback before I do a final run with it.

Regards

Damien Kee

[Clinton Blackmore]

Hi Damien.

In order of occurrence:

- I love how you zoomed in on the configuration panel

- I love how you went over every element.  (I hadn't thoughts of that power level at 10%).

- It was nice switching to the view of the robot and showing off how the cables are connected.  I really liked the moving arrow.  Do you think it would be possible (and worthwhile) to put an overlay showing 'A', 'B', and 'C' by the motor ports, to make things even clearer to new roboticists in one of the very first videos they are likely to watch?

- Something about the transition between the robot and the zoomed-in configuration panel is mildly unpleasant.  I think it is because the text mores one way and then the other.  A different speed or different transition might look better.

- I understand why you didn't discuss the 'unlimited' movement duration, and you did imply that it would be discussed in another video.  I wonder if it is worth being more explicit and saying, "this will be discussed in another video".  [Alternatively, and perhaps better, when we have such a video, you could add an overlay (and maybe even a link) to this youtube video, pointing people to it.  I also think this is a great situation for having some text that follows after the video, or for having it tagged so it is possible to look at other blocks with the moment option.]

- At around 5:20, the mouse cursor is really jumpy.  It is an unpleasant effect.

- I loved the marker on the wheel.  I didn't recognize it for what it was until the robot started moving, and it was really nice when you picked it up, said what it was, and showed clearly that it went around twice.

If by the interlacing issues, you mean the three pixels or so that change between black and white on the edge of the zoomed-in configuration panel, I noticed it but it wasn't distracting.

That's an excellent video, Damien.  Once we have a proper title sequence, I'd be happy to see it go live.

You asked if the six minutes is too long.  It seems to me it might be possible to have some really short videos that say, "here is one part of this block, and what is does", but it also seems to me that having the big picture first is important for mentally attaching those details too -- that if you see the forest and then the trees, you get a better view of things than if you see the trees but are never shown the forest.  

[I'll be interested to see your 'part 2' video; this does seem like a good splitting point, based on what I imagine will make up the second video.]

While making the videos short is a worthy goal, I think having things clear and unrushed -- as you did very well in this video -- is more important than the final time of the video.

Cheers,

Clinton

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[James Floyd Kelly]

10 minute videos are fairly typical for khan academy

On Aug 15, 2011 8:01 AM, "Damien Kee" <dam...@domabotics.com> wrote:

[Graeme]

Hi Damien – very nice video.

I won't comment in detail, as Clinton has already done that much
better than I can.

However my unanswered question is how this and Clinton’s earlier (also
excellent) video will be used?

This project seems to be taking an “explain the components in detail”
academic approach which is the classic one I (and most other computer
teachers I know) have used many times in years past, both at higher
Secondary and University level.
I’m not sure if this is the best way to aim – Khan himself prefers a
project-based approach; “I recently gave a talk organized by Intel to
computer science and engineering professors at some of the top
universities in the country (including my own alma mater). I was asked
by one of the professors how I would use something like Khan Academy
in the context of an engineering education. I told him that I’d make
projects the primary mode of learning (as opposed to something that
just complements lectures and exercises).“; see: http://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog
entry dated 23Jun2011

Using an Engineering project-based approach, the components are
explained on a need-to-know basis; e.g. a move block is introduced
here with only minimal need-to-know information as part of a project
(using as an example one I put together in a tearing hurry about 4
years ago, apologies for the text and video quality):
http://www.drgraeme.net/DrGraeme-free-NXT-G-tutorials/Ch4/Ch4V1G/04Photo/04ChPhoto.htm

Khan himself seems less concerned with the actual video quality (e.g.
compare Khan’s approach here: http://www.khanacademy.org/video/basic-addition?playlist=Arithmetic
– video quality is lower than Damien and Clinton’s videos, and he
spends almost as much time connecting the context of the mathematics
to the real world as he does explaining the actual mathematics) than
with the overall setting of his videos. He explains how his videos fit
into his overall approach here, http://www.khanacademy.org/about and
comments elsewhere that the quality of the “badges” he awards may be
more important than the individual videos…

He also trials his video lessons in individual schools (something I’ve
also found vital over the years) – are we planning to do this?

There is (in my opinion) definitely a place for a web site that
explains the operation of the LEGO components in detail, which seems
to be the direction in which this project is heading, and while this
would (again in my opinion) be useful for strongly-motivated adult or
University students, I’m not sure it would be the best approach for
the middle-school students with whom I mainly deal.

I’ve raised this matter of the fundamental approach of this project
before, with little response. Perhaps I’d better just shut up and
continue attempting to expand my projects…
Graeme.


On Aug 15, 10:50 pm, Clinton Blackmore <clinton.blackm...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Damien Kee]

Graeme,

I think that both approaches (specific detail and project based) have their merits and that has also been mentioned in a few discussions.

What would be great is to have a combination of both so that people can choose what works best for them.

One of the nice things about this project I think will be it's lack of top-down 'rules'.  You contribute here and there where you can, and there will not be a rigid 'you must do it this way'.  If you make a good video that others find useful, it'll get posted, regardless of the methodology used :)

cheers

damo

[Damien Kee]

Clinton,

Good idea about the ABC overlay, i'll put that in. 

I actually quite like the config/robot transition, as it implies that we are coming back to it, but I'll play with transition speed and maybe look at some others.  :)

The interlacing issue is causing the jumpy mouse and the usual upper/lower frame issues when things move vertically.

cheers

damo

[Graeme]

Hi Damien,
Thanks for your clarification.

Since I was familiar with the KhanAcademy approach, the possibility of
this type of KhanAcademy for NXTs got me really excited.

However I should have read Jim’s initial submission more carefully. Re-
reading Jim’s comment I see that what he was actually suggesting was a
much more limited option, a variation of the (in my view) much more
limited traditional computer science approach. What is being discussed
here is what he actually proposed.

The difference between his proposal, and the KhanAcademy approach,
goes way beyond (specific-detail/project-based) methodologies, it
includes such aspects as specific student-to-teacher feedback and
student badges, plus plus… It was the prospect of the whole package
that got me really excited.

Ah well, back to more pedestrian dreams…
Graeme.

On Aug 16, 4:01 pm, Damien Kee <dam...@domabotics.com> wrote:
> Graeme,
>
> I think that both approaches (specific detail and project based) have their
> merits and that has also been mentioned in a few discussions.
>
> What would be great is to have a combination of both so that people can
> choose what works best for them.
>
> One of the nice things about this project I think will be it's lack of
> top-down 'rules'.  You contribute here and there where you can, and there
> will not be a rigid 'you must do it this way'.  If you make a good video
> that others find useful, it'll get posted, regardless of the methodology
> used :)
>
> cheers
> damo
>

> >http://www.drgraeme.net/DrGraeme-free-NXT-G-tutorials/Ch4/Ch4V1G/04Ph...

[Clinton Blackmore]

Hi Graeme.

I've contemplated your question -- the crux of which I took as, "How will this site work, and for whom?" -- a fair bit, and had some excellent conversations about it, but reached few conclusions.  This e-mail is more discussion, with few conclusions.

I'd love to know how much our ideas are coloured by a product of training.  If this is a classical approach we're persuing, things as they've always been done, well, I guess that's just the shape of what we'd consider doing from what we know.

The assertion though, that these videos would be suited for strongly-motivated adults and university students (and not, for, say the ten-year-old kids that I want to work with) really made me take pause.  My wife confirms that children learn differently than adults, and, seeing through the lenses of my own strengths, I am apt to make materials that I would like, and hope that they are useful for others.

I'm not sure how to do it differently.  

I have contemplated reward systems.  I hope that learning robotics is its own reward, although I'm sure it is not for all students, as everyone has different passions.  I see that Khan Academy uses a badges-based reward system, which is used in some video games, and on the Stackoverflow family of question and answer sites, to good effect.

In conversations with my wife, we thought, wouldn't it be awesome if learning robotics was somewhat like a game in which you are free to explore different areas and gain new skills as you do so.  I was specifically reminded of "The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past", a best-selling Nintendo game from the early 90's.  One of the great things about the game is that as you proceed on your quest, you gain new items (such as a boomerang), and then, immediately after you've obtained the item, you need to use it to proceed on your quest.  The item is its own reward, and it gives you new and needed abilities.

So, by analogy, with the Mindstorms Academy, (or, perhaps "NXT quest"), there could be a world map and you go on different quests -- each of which are projects -- and you learn new skills along the way.  (Cool! I just learned how to use the motor.  Yeah, well, I just finished the line follower quest!  That was awesome!)  

A huge advantage that Khan Academy has is that math answers can be checked by a computer, and people do not disagree with the answers.  I'd love to have a way for kids to give feedback or record progress.  What could they do?  They could post photographs.  They could post a reply video on youtube.  They could click a box claiming that they've mastered a task, and we could take their word for it, and perhaps let them carve their initials into the world.  (See, it says right there -- "I was here").  We might come up with some sort of virtual robots for them to program, or drill that they know how NXT-G blocks are supposed to fit together ... but theory and practice seem to differ in robotics more than they do in math. 

Methinks that to do things right, though, you'd need a human to check on the pupil's understanding.  I just don't see that we'd have a good way to check, or enough people willing to do so (but would be delighted to have a twist in my thinking).  Perhaps it could be like getting a yellow belt in Karate -- you learn the moves, do the work, become adept at the topic, but when you are really ready, you have to demonstrate that to someone learned in the craft.  (Hmm... That sounds distinctly like, "you have to pass a test").

[Another 'hmm' -- the stackoverflow family of sites gets around this problem by letting other users of the system upvote and downvote questions and answers, which in turn increase (or decrease) a user's reputation in the system.  It is very much a distributed system of rewards, not requiring specific mentors.  Also, as users gain reputation, the system trusts them more.  I wonder if we could apply something like that.]

Two other comments on showing that you've learned something:

- the Scratch site allows students to upload their work, and let other people comment on it, and that seems to be enough reward for many users

- Strangely, LEGO's site where people can show off their work -- NXTLog -- just doesn't have the same appeal for me, and I'm not sure why.

Let me get back to discussing the project-based approach.  This is something I really like Jim's books for -- kids have a challenge to work on, instead of acting in competition.  I've been planning to use some of his books in an intermediate-level course, for people who already have a grasp on the fundamental building/programming blocks for the NXT.  [Perhaps I could use it in a beginner course if there were materials such as we want to make readily available, for kids to learn something as soon as they need to know it.]

Graeme, do kids work through your project materials without much prodding?

And back to "how is the site designed to be used?"  I know as a robotics mentor, I would be delighted to introduce a project and, as pupils get stuck, point them to a video that helps them fill in the gap in their knowledge, confident that if they want to succeed, they'll learn the information and use it right away.  [If I did not misunderstand, this is very much what Khan was suggesting -- create projects that create a need for students to learn and apply the material].  I do see, however, that that really leaves a gap for kids who've got an NXT for Christmas, built all the models, played with the remote control features, and haven't got a clue what else to do with it, and I don't see how to address that.

You also asked, 

[Khan] also trials his video lessons in individual schools (something I’ve

also found vital over the years) – are we planning to do this?

Any thoughts on how we might do that?  We certainly want some mechanism whereby videos are approved for widespread use, and this sounds like a great way ... but I'm not quite sure how.  In like manner, I've done up some simple building instructions; how do I test them before unleashing them upon the world -- or do I just go for it and iterate as I get feedback?

I also want to ensure that insofar as it possible, videos are done with context, or at least in a concrete way that students could repeat the task themselves.  Further, I do think that videos teaching specific skills and videos building on them to do projects are a great way to go, and within our mandate.  I also like the idea of issuing challenges -- and this might be an especially good place for kids to reply, and demonstrate their prowess.

I would love to have ways to bring children in and have them demonstrate that they are learning.  If anyone has ideas on how to do this, please share! 

I'm not certain if I've fully grasped what you think would be an effective way for us to go, Graeme, and would like to learn more.

Cheers,

Clinton Blackmore