Through the Google Glass

WFU Instruction librarian Amanda Foster adjusts Google Glass for a student. Credit: WFU/Ken Bennett

In a class called Accessing Information in the 21st Century, instruction librarian Amanda Foster is using a new technology tool to do just that.

It's Google Glass or just Glass, as the techno giant likes to call it. While it's been widely covered in the media, chances are most people have yet to see it first hand. Foster is interested in examining the possibilities of how Glass or related technologies could be used in the future, particularly in the educational setting for teaching, learning and research.

Glass is a type of wearable computer headset, similar to a pair of sleek glasses and displays information on a mini screen in the upper right corner of the wearer's field of vision. Wearers can communicate with Glass via voice commands to search the Internet, take pictures and video, play games and more.

"We are very curious to see how it's going to work in the classroom. We don't know yet how it's going to impact education, and we don't know if it's even a good thing or what kind of contributions it can make," said Foster, whose class is designed to teach students how to conduct research in the library. "It's kind of an interesting case study in and of itself. But librarians are also really interested in informational literacy -- how we access information in the 21st century and what the future of that is going to look like."

The idea for Foster's class is to have students use Glass as a catalyst to research, discuss, explore and reflect on information-related themes, such as privacy, social responsibility and the future implications of technologies in medicine, business, education and gaming.

"Google Glass brings about a lot of interesting questions related to privacy and our social interactions with other people," she said.

Foster got the green light and funds to experiment with Google Glass from Lynn Sutton, vice provost and ZSR Library dean.

So she jumped in, bought the device and taught herself how to use it. "It was definitely a trial and error process and that's what the classroom experience was like at first, too," she said.

Foster purchased one device because of the expense and had to come up with creative ways for a class of 15 to 20 students to use it. She planned projects for them to work together in small groups of four. They conducted scavenger hunts in the library, taking pictures with Glass to prove their success and used the video function to make tutorials on how to use library databases. Another project had them conduct research on a topic specific to Glass such as privacy and related laws and social interactions. One of the most enjoyable assignments was performing skits about the do's and don'ts of using Google Glass -- demonstrating what is appropriate behavior in public when you're wearing the device, Foster said. "The students are really interested in the social aspect of it, of wearing this thing on your face and how that might enhance or impede social interactions. That is something we've been able to explore."

A student's perspective

Freshman Chris Schafer said he took every opportunity to wear Glass that he could because he wanted to test its capabilities.

"I absolutely loved Glass, mainly because it's so new and rare to the market," he said, adding that he would likely purchase his own device if the price came down.

Schafer was even able to show Foster something new about Glass. "I was able to discover the wink feature for taking a picture that Ms. Foster could not even figure out," he said, "so I had the Glass programmed to my wink only, and as long as I winked hard enough, a picture would be taken."

So far, Foster is the only instructor on campus trying Google Glass though she is aware of university professors elsewhere who are using it and blogging about it.

"ZSR is known across campus as well as in the academic library community for encouraging innovation and taking risks," said Sutton. "I was happy to support Amanda with her creative proposal. Where better to investigate the intersection of technology and privacy than a library classroom with Wake Forest students?"

Foster said the most successful aspect of using Glass in class is how students were really engaged with the content. "While there's room for improvement, I think it has potential to be really successful in higher education," she said. "It's been a wonderful way to bring about discussion on these interesting information-related issues that are at the heart of how we access information and what the future of that is going to look like."

Source: Wake Forest University

Video game teaches kids how to code

A screen shot for the video game. Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - San Diego

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have successfully funded on Kickstarter a new and improved version of CodeSpells, a first-person player game they developed that teaches players how to code.

The game's previous iteration, developed by UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. students Sarah Esper and Stephen Foster, has been in use in dozens of schools throughout the world for more than a year. The researchers have been using the game as a platform to learn about the best ways to teach children how to code. They have presented their findings at a wide range of academic conferences, including the upcoming Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research Nov. 20 to 23 in Koli, Finland.

In this latest paper, "CodeSpells: Bridging Educational Language Features with Industry-Standard Languages," the researchers demonstrate that after playing CodeSpells for either four hours over four weeks or 10 hours over seven days, children ages 8 to 12 were able to write code by hand in Java.

"It is the goal of CodeSpells to provide a rich experience of computer science education to students who may not have access to an educator," Esper said.

Researchers now want to make the game more attractive and more fun to play. But they need funds to improve the game's graphics and coding interface. Enter Kickstarter, where the project has already met and exceeded its $50,000 fundraising goal.

"We want the game to be educational, but our biggest goal is to make sure it's fun," Foster said.

He and Esper have co-founded ThoughtSTEM, along with UC San Diego biochemistry Ph.D. 

student Lindsey Handley, to teach children ages 8 to 18 how to code, via onsite classes and video games, including CodeSpells and Minecraft.

In its previous iteration, CodeSpells sent players on quests, which helped them master spells, written in Java. This new version is more open-ended much like Minecraft -- a so-called sandbox game. The players are wizards that can modify the world around them at will. They can build mountains and valleys, levitate objects and start fires. They do so by using Blocky, a visual programming language created by Google, or Javascript.

The hope is that players will come up with their own quests. Researchers also hope that as players tinker with the game, they'll come up with their own exciting spells and share those. The goal is to create a vibrant online community, much like the one that has developed around Minecraft.

The game will feature several modes out of the box, but players will be able to create their own modes too. They'll have the tools to create everything from modes to survive in the wilderness to modes to balance an eco-system. They can even create multi-player magic-based sports to play with their friends.

The game will feature four elements: earth, fire, water and air, which the players can manipulate via spells. So far, computer scientists have completed an early version of gameplay for earth magic. The Kickstarter will fund the development of magic for fire, air and water, with an alpha version to be released on Christmas Day 2014, a beta version in June 2015, and the final copy of the game's creative mode to be released September 2015.

If the Kickstarter exceeds its $50,000 goal, the game's multiplayer functions will be enhanced. In addition, the game will add a fifth element, life, which would give wizards control over animals and plants within the game. That feature would be released in summer 2016. By early 2017, players would be able to create their own species and custom characters within the game.

Rewards for the Kickstarter range from a digital copy of CodeSpells for a $10 donation to access to district-wide licenses for CodeSpells in alpha and beta versions and computational thinking courses to a teacher at each school within a school district for a $5,000 donation.

Source: University of California - San Diego