Innovating education in South Africa: Formula D interactive presents a virtual, yet tangible Chemistry Lab.
Formula D Interactive recently developed a Virtual Chemistry Lab, as a safe, low cost alternative to the standard chemistry laboratory in schools. The heart of the system is a so called object recognition table. The interactive platform consists of a 50″ High Definition rear projected screen prepped with lots of computing power. Sophisticated pattern recognition technology allows users to navigate content information by placing physical cards onto the table’s glass surface.
ibali – speaking public furniture design to inspire citizens
ibali is a public furniture design concept designed by Johan du Toit and Michael Wolf from Formula D interactive in their spare time. ibali offers an extra service to city dwellers: It inspires. A recent city branding initiative gave Cape Town the title: City of Inspiration. Cape Town and its citizens are rich with inspirational people and stories that are linked to specific places and streets in Cape Town. ibali – space of inspiration aims at creating islands of inspiration in the city allowing citizens to step out of the stream of everyday life to get a dose of hope and inspiration.
Toppling Godsigner – Jenna Mervis talks to Cape Town’s Mugendi M’Rithaa about Transformative Design
“…Participatory design is almost a reaction against taking the end-user for granted. We’re saying that there is an embedded or tacit knowledge which the consumer has that will enrich the design process. Designers too can learn something in this relationship. We learn more about the context and the consumer becomes more visually literate, more design conscious. It is actually in our interest as designers to co-create with the consumer, because then they start to appreciate our role and our work even better…”
The Open Budgets Game: A serious game for civil society organisations
In this Pecha Kucha style talk, Michael Wolf presents the potential of serious games and edutainment to enhance learning. He uses the example of the Open Budgets Game, which has recently been designed by Formula D interactive, Michael’s design company.
How to design technology tools for the classroom of tomorrow (Part 1)
I recently spoke at a workshop with the title “The South African classroom of the future” at CSIR, Meraka institute in Pretoria. In my presentation “Tools for the classroom of the tomorrow” I discussed the following 4 questions:
- What are technology tools for learning?
- How do technology tools benefit the classroom of today?
- What are the requirements for the design of tools for the classroom of tomorrow?
- What are the key technologies for the classroom of tomorrow?
In this blog post I will deal with the first 2 questions.
Technology Education versus Design Education?
It is a chicken-and-egg-question: What drives innovation? Technology or Design? What inspires what and what came first? One can follow an an interesting debate around the subject in a post (and comments) by Bruce Nussbaum in Businessweek. Don Norman has an interesting point when shaking the tree with his statement Technology first, invention second, needs last. But what is actually the essential difference between technology and design?
The IBP Game: World wide learning through online gaming
The IBP – game is an online learning game designed for the International Budget Partnership. The umbrella organisation offers training and knowledge resources supporting civil society organisations around the globe focussing on budget advocacy and monitoring. In the scenario based learning game, players travel to the imaginary country of Polarus. The user takes on the [...]
Using e-Learning Games to inform Didactic practice
The following abstract was written as a proposal for a conference paper. It is therefore a work in progress and will be updated as the paper evolves. So please comment. This proposed article will aim to introduce readers to the opportunity of using lessons learned from the electronic game art form in their didactic practice. [...]
Requirements for computing devices in education
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This is what the world’s cheapest computer may look like |
| Recent rumors about India’s launch of a 30 USD computing device for education sparked some thoughts on requirements for devices that should rather be cost efficient than provide excessive functionality that is not required by the user group. | |