Sunday, November 25, 2007

A Croquet Winter Wonderland



It has emerged as a type of practice here in the United States for people to begin putting up holiday decorations on the weekend after our annual Thanksgiving celebration. In keeping with this, I offer this link to a new video from the folks at EduSim. In this one, they use a projected Croquet space in combination with a very compact eBeam input device that converts any surface (in this case a regular wall) into an interactive surface. The result is an on demand and relatively low cost interactive white board solution ($800-900 US) that, in combination with a data projector ($600-2,500 US) and Croquet software (free), may represent the beginnings of an economical alternative to traditional in-classroom visual communication boards (the typical front-of-the-classroom whiteboard/bulletin board installation is comparable in price). Could this be the earliest manifestation of a new form of broadly available classroom media for K-12?

3 comments:

assistivetek said...

Hi Julian:

I am intrigued with your comments and have been wokring with the mimio Xi for the past several years training teachers how to incorporate them into classroom lessons. I am very interested in the Croquet Consortium and how you see these applications being integrated into the classroom. You can also access my blog at;
http://assistivetek.blogspot.com
Regards
Brian

Lynn Marentette said...

Julian,

I looked at Brian's blog and discovered that like me, he is also a school psychologist who is involved with assistive technology. This is encouraging.

I'm interested in how Croquet-based applications can be used in inclusive classrooms, following the guidelines of Universal Design for Learning. I think there is much potential here!

Lynn Marentette, NCSP

Interactive Multimedia Technology Blog
TechPsych Blog

assistivetek said...

Hi Lynn:

Yes- the concept of UDL and Croquet is a great match for multiple representations, multiple means of expression and certainly engagement!

Brian
http://assitivetek.blogspot.com