Thanks for the great feedback Ian, I hadn't thought about the linguistic challenges of voice-over. Being Canadian we pretty much have two languages on everything (usually French and English) so it wouldn't be a stretch to have two versions. However, I like the minimalist approach of using the animation alone to describe the spatial aspects. It would make the concepts more accessible to a wider range of learning styles.
I do disagree with you about the music, though. Although it may be soothing, I think it may actually increase the cognitive load by having the brain process the musical rhythms at the same time it is building an unrelated spatial model. The approach I would take is to use sound effects that could focus the attention of the movement. The result is that you would have two information paths providing the message. This can actually reduce the cognitive load if it is done carefully. Thanks as well for the grasshopper escapement example. It is a good example of effective repetitive animation. cheers, bob On -Feb2-2010, at -Feb2-20108:58 AM, Ian Clark wrote: > URL embedding is something I must leave to others. I'd be starting > from cold as regards Moinmoin. Maybe we should simply fall back on > html? Remind me why we need anything fancier. > > Voice-over I have strong feelings against. Distracting, ineffective > and culturally dependent. Traditional and reassuring maybe, but only > in your own mother tongue, accent and mannerisms. Nothing going for > it. > > And I say that as an ex-lecturer (and courseware developer). > > Use soothing music. It's only wallpaper. And then only in a YouTube > showcase, not in a serious expository text. > > The same goes for moving text, or "titles" as I think movie makers > call them. Only good for identifying the footage, like a > clapper-board. The effort to read it can distract the viewer from the > object you want him/her to attend to. There will always be > accompanying text. I think the purpose of animation in technical > exposition is to convey spatial concepts non-verbally. Therefore > verbiage is nothing but a distraction. > > I like your use of coloured dots. It conveys succintly that the > content of a given cell doesn't matter: just the interplay between > cells. If you use numbers, or even letters, the viewer wastes > brain-cycles processing these before grasping they are of no > importance. If you need more modal dimensions: shape and size. As > regards shape, chicks and tadpoles may be slightly better than squares > and circles, but one must balance being boring against being > distracting. I'd err on the "boring" side to start with, and spice-up > judiciously. People assume animations have got to be Loony Toons. But > someone prepared to consider programming in any language, let alone J, > needs an attention-span longer than a 5 year old TV watcher. > > The viewer may have to study the animation for quite some time to > absorb its principle. Eye candy soon gets irritating. See the > "grasshopper escapement" animation, halfway down in > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison -and work out how it > manages to be friction-free. Jiminy Cricket would soon begin to grate. > > Further to that example, I think continuous animation loops are good. > (Though it's nice to be able to stop 'em!) > > Take a J primitive which is relatively simple but maybe hard for a > beginner to intuit, like monadic "=" (self-classify). Not something > with bells and whistles like ";:". Personally I'd like to see an > animation of self-classify, because coming from APL I'm still not > altogether comfy with it in my own mind. > > And remember the better it conveys its message, the more trivial and > "obvious" it looks and the less time the viewer spends looking at it. > It's why writers of public notices are always too pompous and prolix: > they don't want to appear dumb. It's really quite unrewarding work, in > a way. > > Ian > > > On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 5:56 AM, bob therriault <bobtherria...@mac.com> wrote: >> Thanks for the review, Ian >> >> It definitely needs to be sped up and, although music could be added, it was >> going to be finished with a voice over and sound effects. I hadn't got >> around to final version, but when I read Oleg's comment about animation, I >> exported the 'work in progress' to YouTube. YouTube does provide a string >> for embedding, but I didn't think it would work within an email. >> >> I would be happy to work on animations as they were needed for specific >> primitives. My experience says that there is a certain level of fundamental >> understanding that is required before animations are really effective, >> before that they tend towards eye-candy (or worse misleading). If you have a >> primitive in mind let me know and we can go through some iterations to see >> how productive we are. >> >> Cheers, bob >> >> ps. you can put videos into J labs as well, by using the jbrowser file and >> calling specific URL's hiding it within the PREPARE section. >> eg. >> PREPARE >> launch_jbrowser_ >> 'http://www.apple.com/ca/ipodtouch/what-is/pocket-computer.html' >> PREPARE >> It has been a while since I have done this and the result is that a whole >> browser window will open, but when refined this may have some possibilities. >> I'm not as sure how this will work with the new browser interface. bt >> >> On -Feb1-2010, at -Feb1-20106:43 PM, Ian Clark wrote: >> >>> I like it, Bob. >>> >>> The minimalism may arise from it being a first effort, but it shows >>> it's neither necessary nor wise to over-egg the pudding. >>> >>> Minor crits: could do with being sped up. Needs music. YouTube has a >>> library of free soundtracks: you can just attach one for now. >>> >>> YouTube movies can be easily embedded in your own html file. Stefano & >>> I have done it. They generate you an <object> to copy/paste. See >>> source of http://www.maxclark.me.uk/undeadtree/interspex.htm for an >>> example. >>> >>> But how to do it with MoinMoin? >>> >>> So... are you offering to do a 15 second movie for each J primitive? >>> >>> Ian >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:08 PM, bob therriault <bobtherria...@mac.com> >>> wrote: >>>> Hi Oleg and Ian, >>>> >>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODxv498p4ME >>>> >>>> This isn't about a specific function, but is an animation i put together >>>> to explain why it is useful to organize information into arrays. I >>>> developed it on keynote, but haven't yet put a soundtrack to it. It's not >>>> really high end, but it wasn't too hard to put together either. Let me >>>> know if you have more specific ideas for animations. >>>> >>>> Cheers, bob >>>> >>>> On -Feb1-2010, at -Feb1-201012:50 PM, Oleg Kobchenko wrote: >>>> >>>>>> From: Ian Clark <earthspo...@googlemail.com> >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>> One winning instructional strategy, including Gilman and Rose, >>>>>>> is telling a story for each piece of material. Such stories, >>>>>>> among other things, may revolve around exo-paradigms. >>>>>> >>>>>> When I used to program in FORTH (sign of a mis-spent youth) one >>>>>> well-beloved primer in the FORTH community was illustrated with >>>>>> engaging but instructive cartoons. Thus the standard word SWOP was a >>>>>> little two-headed dragon that did what you'd guess with objects on the >>>>>> stack. Can anyone remember the book and remind me of its title? >>>>> >>>>> Starting FORTH, by Leo Brodie >>>>> >>>>> http://www.forth.com/starting-forth/sf2/sf2.html >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> This is fun stuff all right. And a good read for a vacation. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> What I was thinking for APL/J for a long time was >>>>> an interactive or animated illustrator of the operations, >>>>> especially those that manipulate multidimensional and >>>>> nested structures. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> I know someone (http://www.leelamaria.com/) who could do us a wodge of >>>>>> cartoons like that. Shall I try to get them interested? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
