Hi, Jason, > Translating the 12 hour to 24 hour notation of the submission to whichever > the other player is using shouldn't be a > problem. Also the game isn't time zone dependent.
Translating these isn't a big problem technically, yes. Again, I was just thinking that that wouldn't be the kick-ass feature for an educational clock activity. (When I attended a conference in France, the organizer wrote "20h30" on the blackboard and said "the night session begins at twenty-thirty". Some in the audience reponded: "And, what time is it exactly?") > Do you envision that these two kids connect to each other when they > don't understand what the other's language and find a good time of the > day when they can connect, and discuss about an artificial and > abstract concept like time? > > True, perhaps discussions would be less helpful, but I think the time game is > still something that would help. My point is that to get kids understand the sense of time, the programmer doesn't have to build a single "the game"; like what you have on the wiki page, in a game, a kids walks up to the blackboard and write something. There, if the activity has simple yet flexible interaction, they can make more "games". So, the good focus for a programmer would be to provide such a interface. > I think the natural time clock should be close enough to the actual > appearance outside so that the children will connect > the ideas. I wouldn't count on it that much (you know how China deals with timezones, and how summer is like in high-latitute places, right?). It would be nice there is *also* an abstract form of explanation. > Also, the clock can be updated to the time it is right now. Thus in that > way it should be its own > explanation. Ah, but stuff like "60 seconds is 1 minute", "60 minutes is 1 hour", "24 hours is a day", "but the face only has 12 numbers", etc. are not that "discoverable". > It appears that you are a high-school student... That is really > great! Please don't take above as discouragement. I'm really trying > to encourage people who are trying to make educational activity (as > you know, there aren't many for XO.) It is really valuable to see > that somebody (who is young and close to the target age group!) think > about making activity. > > I am a senior at IMSA, and am aware of the development process, so I know > your comments aren't discouragement. Thanks! > Do you know Kathleen Harness? > > Should I? Well, she is helping Etoys activity contents development, and her group at http://www.squeakcmi.org/index.php is for example hosting an "OLPC meeting" (as on the web). Also, she was on a local newspaper recently. When I attended a conference in Chicago, a presenter from UIUC gave a talk. In the talk, she showed a blank map of Illinois and started with a remark: "Welcome to Chicago! But do you know that, outside Chicago, there is a larger area called Illinois?" For an outsider like me, Illinois is one thing so I thought you might know her.^^; -- Yoshiki _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel