what is needed ...

[Trevor DeVore]

On May 21, 2005, at 4:11 PM, Marielle Lange wrote:

> Dear educators,
>
> Would the persons involved in this discussion object in having me  
> copy their email content on the wiki? I have several replies going  
> in different directions. I find it more productive when I am able  
> to organise the content.

I wouldn't object.

> SNIP...
>
> It should be companies like Blue Mango taking up.... I had been  
> thinking of creating a company like that as well, but for the  
> education rather than the corporate business. When I look around,  
> National funding bodies are quite happy to spend huge amounts of  
> money on projects that are nothing more than running seminars to  
> learn "web-design" skills (which requires limited skills on the  
> part of the teacher)... there is no seminar organized to tell you  
> how you can use these new skills to either make your life easier or  
> improve your teaching (requiring a person with a higher level  
> expertise in different domains). However, I am not sure I could  
> make a living out of it.

Eventually we would like to move our Blue Mango Learning System into  
educational institutions (we actually have history software that is  
used in some courses at BYU).  Our approach is different from what  
people are used to (Macromedia tools mostly) and when things aren't  
the norm there is always hesitation to adopt.

Right now we work mainly on Ultrasound training.  With new advances  
in ultrasound the doctors and sonographers are having to grasp new  
concepts that are difficult to understand.  The points I listed in my  
previous email are VERY important in this sector.  In the past it  
could take a few months to create training for a machine and when it  
is upgraded 6 months later the company is left with a $60,000 CD  
coaster because the training material isn't relevant any longer.  We  
provide a solution that addresses the issues they face.  They seem to  
like that.

> SNIP...

> (4) On web-deployable... I agree with the fact that this is seen as  
> an handicap by users. However, in my view better teaching practices  
> can be achieved with web-aware applications like the ones you can  
> develop with revolution. This should be a strength rather than a  
> weakness of RR...

I agree.  Our system is written in Revolution.  You can run it  
locally, over a network or over the web.  We can cache web content so  
that the next time the student opens the program there is no need to  
wait for it to download.  We have much more control of the user  
experience this way and thus can create a better learning  
environment.  IMO the browser just gets in the way.

> SNIP...


-- 
Trevor DeVore
Blue Mango Multimedia
trevor at mangomultimedia.com