Professor Woodie Flowers on Educational Reform

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by IKE

Where can I sign up? No seriously, this is very exciting stuff.

Yes indeed, exciting times indeed !!!

Yesterday I had to give two lectures that 1/3 paralleled Woodies lecture, except I gave a shorter lighter version.

Today I had a meeting with a university professor and we talked a lot about this potential new wave of educational material, specifically we were talking about the visualization techniques used to describe the EM field and The Inner Life of a Cell. This professor claims he is crazier than me, which is a tall order, but he has a theory about using video games to educate.

( are you listening Dave, Woodie ? ) - What if this years Autodesk Visualization contest theme could be an example of using 3dsMax to create an educational animation that describes a mathematical, chemical, biological, or other STEM concept.

For example: Recently I spent an hour talking to a 3rd grade class about engineering. They lobbied for two things. One they wanted a bunch of magnets. And secondly they wanted a video game to do something, I can't remember what. Pokemon or something.

What if - we had a visualization tool that demonstrated the fields around a simple bar magnet. The do some gaming and connect two end to end..... show some more fields. Let the kids do something interactive to help them grasp the concepts. And then we give them the magnets. And then we have them explain how they really work.

Simple concept - Powerful insight

Any takers ??

PS. For students in Northwest Atlanta area, "Corky College" will be conducting animation classes, 6 to 9 pm, Tuesday, Thursday, starting June 2nd. Let me know if you want to enroll. Tuition is $ 0.00