Ferris Wheel video sequence - seeking approval

[Clinton Blackmore]

All right, I've created a sequence of videos to demonstrate simple motor motion and using a button (and computer control) in Enchanting.

The video sequence is here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4358DBD815D9C6E9

I'd love thoughts from the overarching to minutia.  Do you like the flow, and format?  My wife thinks I should show the construction of the Ferris Wheel in the first video.  I have been working on building instructions, and will link to them from that video, but good heavens, as much time as it takes to put together a nice video, building instructions are worse!

Cheers,

Clinton Blackmore

[Dave Parker]

Very nice Clinton! (I approve)

The overall flow seems to work fine, and you get a lot of content
across in a short time. The production quality and effects are
totally awesome.

I guess my main comments would be:
1. At the default 360p in a window (not full screen), you can't see
the text on the Enchanting blocks and thus can't follow it in detail
2. The pace of your videos is really fast, which I personally like and
is exciting to watch, but I wonder if you will lose people who don't
know Enchanting at all, or intimidate teachers (many of whom need a
nice slow and obvious place).

So I guess it looks more like videos to show off what Enchanting can
do, or to give people who know it a bit some ideas of what to try,
rather than a starting tutorial for beginners. If that's what you
intended, no problem at all. In any case, you can always go back and
add more videos that show certain things in more detail if you want.

I am looking at a very slow pace for my NXT-G videos, to try to keep
kids and teachers following along. And I am certainly worried about
it being too slow. We'll see how it goes. I am hoping that faster
students will be able to skip forward, but if I just bore them all the
time, then it won't help... We'll see!

Again, great work Clinton.

-- Dave

[Dave Parker]

Having your title slide in the beginning worked out better than I was
expecting, because you made it so quick -- too quick for most people
to read really, but now I realize that you can always pause if you
want to read it, so that's interesting and nice. I will experiment
with a similar title at the beginning and see how I like it.

-- Dave

[Clinton Blackmore]

On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 5:57 PM, Dave Parker <bl...@nxtprograms.com> wrote:

Very nice Clinton!  (I approve)

Thank you  : ) 

The overall flow seems to work fine, and you get a lot of content
across in a short time.  The production quality and effects are
totally awesome.

I guess my main comments would be:
1. At the default 360p in a window (not full screen), you can't see 

the text on the Enchanting blocks and thus can't follow it in detail

That's true.  Its a tough one.  I can zoom in on the script as it is being built, but then you don't see where new blocks come from.  Or I can zoom in and follow the mouse, but then I think you'd dizzy.  There are two things I hope will mitigate this:

  1) people can watch in HD

  2) If the RVA site turns out to be like a blog (and I think it may -- one post per video), then I can post a graphic of the script (and maybe even a copy of the script for downloading).

  If anyone has other ideas, please let me know.

2. The pace of your videos is really fast, which I personally like and
is exciting to watch, but I wonder if you will lose people who don't
know Enchanting at all, or intimidate teachers (many of whom need a
nice slow and obvious place).

Gee, it seems so obvious to me!  : )  I can see that I'd better test these videos on real users (but I've got a robotics course coming up in a month and hope to have a few videos ready for then).  I suppose I haven't really stopped to explain some of the nuances (like the difference between stopping by braking or coasting).  The flip side is to go too slow that you lose people, too.  

 

My hope is that:

1) people will pause and rewind as needed -- this is the great power of video, and is why Khan's cousins preferred his videos to live instruction

2) people will ask questions and help to help me know what they don't know.  [A place for questions will thus be important.]

[and 3), after a number of people watch it, youtube provides analytics that help you see which parts of the video are most watched.  That is likely where people are saying, "Did you see that?!" or "What on earth is he talking about?"]

So I guess it looks more like videos to show off what Enchanting can
do, or to give people who know it a bit some ideas of what to try,
rather than a starting tutorial for beginners.  If that's what you
intended, no problem at all.  In any case, you can always go back and
add more videos that show certain things in more detail if you want.

Hmm...  Well, I do, in fact, intend it to be a tutorial for beginners.  Again, I'll have to test it with my next class (but would be happy to make the videos public before then). 

I am looking at a very slow pace for my NXT-G videos, to try to keep
kids and teachers following along.  And I am certainly worried about
it being too slow.  We'll see how it goes.  I am hoping that faster
students will be able to skip forward, but if I just bore them all the
time, then it won't help...  We'll see!

It is a hard balance, isn't it.  I also think that is one benefit of having several people making videos; we'll all strike the balance differently, and students will be able to find someone who is teaching them at the right pace!

 

Again, great work Clinton.

-- Dave

Thanks, Dave.

 

-----------------------------------

I'm glad you like it.  It is up for three seconds.  I think that it is there long enough so someone can pause, and short enough to not be a distraction.  I do wonder if five seconds might be better, but it is a trade-off.  I look forward to seeing your experiment.

Clinton

 

[Clinton Blackmore]

In re-reading your e-mail, Dave, I feel to add that these videos are for someone beginning to use Enchanting who is already familiar with Scratch.  I think adding some videos on Scratch ("virtual robots", anyone?) is not a bad idea, but as there are already several good resources for it, I don't see a pressing need.

In my robotics courses, students learn Scratch first (although not deeply), which helps them when they move on to robotics programming, be it in NXT-G, Enchanting, or other languages. One huge benefit of Scratch is that (aside from possible race conditions), things are deterministic, and you don't have to deal with cleaning up sensor data or a motor refusing to turn two degrees more; it is a much friendlier environment to start off in than working directly with the robots.

Cheers,

Clinton