Saturday, November 1, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Here is how to visually program the Microsoft Kinect using Quartz Composer and Synapse.
After following the tutorial, this is how it was for me... (first ever composition done with Quartz + Synapse + Kinect)
After following the tutorial, this is how it was for me... (first ever composition done with Quartz + Synapse + Kinect)
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Usually when thinking about kinesthetic activities, the immediate picture seems to be a person moving and conducting a hands-on experiment. However, kinesthetic learning also entails tactile perception, which many touch screen devices today provides meaningful tactile educational games. For example, games on the iPad involve the mechanisms of drag, drop, move, etc. to accomplish a goal. Students can program with touch, dragging and dropping programming blocks into place. Using more advanced tools, the game could be programmed to respond to physical stimuli, like tapping the screen or shaking a tablet. The games that require these touch-based movements could assist the kinesthetic learner.
Monday, October 6, 2014
A requiring argument regarding distance learning is that online classes lack to provide personal, face-to face conversations.
I personally disagree with that claim because there is a variety of tools to communicate in a personal and meaningful way online. For example, there are software like Adobe Connect that allows the user to connect with classmates and the instructor through asynchronous and synchronous modes of communication in the same virtual space. In the video above, the idea of "personal" conversations is taken to a new level through gesture recognition technology. The software being developed by University of Florida allows students and teacher to be ina virtual space like an actual classroom, where the argument of not having face to face conversation does not really exist.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
The more I think about the Kinect and other interactive technologies, the more I think about how it is human nature to move. Yes, as mentioned in a previous post, there is evidence that some people have a prefered kinesthetic approach to learning, but I the idea of having kinesthetic activies in the classroom goes beyond addressing a student's learning style. Dr. John Medina in Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School makes an excellent argument about how our current educational environment does not address the essential human need to move! He references evolution to understand this perspective:
Friday, October 3, 2014
A learning style encompasses many characteristics, but researchers have widely identified three main essential perceptual preferences: visual, auditory and body/kinaesthetic. While kinesthetic is recognized as a learning style, it is one of the most undervalued in schools. Many students seat in the classroom for the entire school day without experiencing any form of physical activity that can possibly lead to meaningful learning. Given this sedentary nature of today’s classroom, and my interest in gesture recognition programming, I decided to explore this perceptual preference that is often not recognized by instructors.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
How did I became insterested in Kinesthetic Learning and gesture recognition technologies?It is a bit of a long story...
Since the beginning of my undergraduate program at UC, San Diego I developed a great interest in gesture recognition technology. Body movements seems to me like the most natural, liberatory, and novel approach to human-computer interaction. My interest lead me to installation art that uses the Microsoft Kinect to disrupt viewer's passivity in a gallery space. Participants in this kind of art form engage in a unique interaction, which thinking about it critically, it can be consider a performance in where the stage is set up for the user to embody. I encountered very interesting and worth-exploring arena of concepts using this technology during my years in the Interdisciplinary in the Computing and the Arts Major (ICAM).
