sydney opera house

finally I found the best reference web site in my mind that I was trying to look for quite a while.
http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/sections/tours/virtual_tour/vrtour2.asp

Shared objects

for the ranking function:
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/flash/8/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00002661.html

MFA Thesis (3) outline - second draft

Thesis Statement:

Traditionally, people learn a language with an instructor in person. Today, there are many study materials used as teaching aids and for self-study that allow people to have a more diversified means to learn a language. However, self-study language materials are still lacking in many ways, particularly in interaction and immersion. My goal is to design an interactive experience for supporting learning the Chinese language that can be used to as a teaching aid for instructors who teach native English speakers Chinese.

Outline:

1. Overview

1-1 Traditional methods of language teaching- interviews with Chinese language teachers
1-2 Existing language teaching materials- survey of teaching materials

2. Interactive teaching materials
2-1 Strengths and weaknesses of existent teaching materials
2-2 How those materials affect language learning?

3. Different materials for different studying purposes
3-1 Writing
3-2 Speaking
3-3 Listening
3-4 Character and Vocabulary
3-5 Reading

4. Apply interactive interface materials to teaching language
4-1 The relationship of an interactive interface and language instructor
4-2 If interactive interface can substitute Chinese language instructors?
4-3 How interactive interface can enhance Chinese language instructors?
4-4 Immersion

5. Conclusion

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In second draft, Professor suggest me add a concept about "Immersion". The most effective way for learning a language is immersing in an environment where people speak only that language. How to create such an environment for interactive learning materials? It is impossible having a real person talking to you. In my project, however, "chat room" may be a good idea for this purpose. Learners can practice chinese typing and talking with other chinese speakers via internet at the same time. Otherwise, I am thinking to add a recording function into my project, learners can record their pronunciation then play repeatly, and compare the original one.

Progress 15

After prototype presentation, the hierarchy of my navigation need to be revised. Get rid of the opeing button and enter the main intetface directly. Highlight the section(room) while mouseover, so that users can be aware of where they are at. Thinking about change the index map to a more appropriate place and how to utilize adequately the empty space. I have to remember one thing, simple is the best.

Transition animation rendering is done. Video shooting and editing is done. I am redesign the interface and working on whole structure of programming in actionscript. The biggest problem I need to figute out is how to code the "ranking function"???

Interface - rooms rooms!

Living room

dinning room

Stairs

Kitchen

Bedroom

Recent reference websites

http://www.designmeltdown.com
http://www.netdiver.net/

http://www.sonystyle.com.mx/lounge/
http://www.stadia.ru/
http://www.fillypa.com/
http://www.agencynet.com/
http://rm.images.at/
http://www.saltedherring.com/
http://seven-degrees.com/
http://www.kylehaapala.com

Progress 14

Interface design is pretty much done. There are couple videos need to be shot and edited in this week. Now I am more working on functionality and coding in Flash. Need add some different type mini games, test the navigation and map panning.

Content research (12) New Concept

One Professor shared a new idea which he got from GDX with me. "Serious game" : intended to not only entertain users, but have additional purposes such as education and training. They can be similar to educational games, but are primarily focused on an audience outside of primary or secondary education. Serious games can be of any genre and many of them can be considered a kind of edutainment, but the main goal of a serious game is not to entertain, though the potential of games to engage is often an important aspect of the choice to use games as a teaching tool. A serious game is usually a simulation which has the look and feel of a game, but is actually a simulation of real-world events or processes. (quote from : Wikipedia) It is a whole new trend in game field. I may apply some ideas into my projects

I found a lot references from internet, here are some I have read or viewed in this week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game

http://www.seriousgames.org/

http://www.seriousgamessummit.com/

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/play.html?pg=6

http://www.serious-game.fr/wordpress/index.php (it is french, I just views some graphics)

http://www.nextscale.com/

http://seriousgamessource.com/

http://gvo.odorudaisousasen.com/2006/05/serious_gaming_gvo.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9077