EDUFun

Graphic/Web Design - How It Is Used in Business

I am presenting on Graphic and Web Design in Business today to students of MacArthur High School's "Business Image Management & Multimedia" class.  Here are several websites that give great examples of innovative graphic and web designs that we will be checking out:

Live Search
www.live.com

Cool Microsoft Silverlight & DeepZoom Demos
www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

Surface – Designing for next generation multi-touch displays
www.microsoft.com/surface

PhotoSynth – Take part in 3D photo browing and deep zoom technology today
www.photosynth.net

AutoCollage by Microsoft Research - Automagically create unique and fun collages of your digital photos
research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/autocollage/

Channel 8 - Microsoft Education Blog
channel8.msdn.com

Imagine Cup - Worldwide Student Design & Technology Competition - 2009 Cairo, Egypt
imaginecup.com

Microsoft DreamSpark Program - Free Microsoft tools for students: Expression Studio, Visual Studio, SQL Server, Windows Server, XNA Game Studio, …
www.dreamspark.com

Microsoft Virtual Labs – Free fully online labs you can complete from any internet connected PC.  You will print out the PDF lab instructions and connect to our remote virtual lab environment by installing a small ActiveX control in your browser.

• ASP.NET Web Development Labs – web development
  msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/aa740364.aspx
• Microsoft Expression Web Labs – web design
  msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/aa740378.aspx
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 – programming and design - Includes Silverlight Monster Factory lab.
  msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/cc136637.aspx

CareerForward - What do you want to be when you grow up?

Free Online Career Development Course Now Available to 16 Million Students Nationwide
Microsoft, Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual University offer CareerForward to help students prepare for a 21st-century workplace.

Every child and many adults still wonder, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” This is an excellent online career development course that Microsoft and Michigan partnered to create to help students answer that question.  Topics include globalization, career planning, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.  Microsoft has now made this great resource available free of charge to all middle and high school students as well as their teachers, counselors, and parents at http://review.careerforward.org/careerforward.  Help the young people in your life use this course to plan a roadmap for their future.

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams & Time Management - Dr. Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams - How to Live Your Life
Given at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) - Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Book:  http://www.thelastlecture.com/
His Website:  http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

Maybe you’ve already seen this or read the book, but if not be sure to watch Randy Pausch’s amazing 1:16hr last lecture.  For some background, Dr. Randy Pausch passed away this past Friday, July 25, 2008 at the age of 47 after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer.  He was a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University who helped create Alice, educational software that teaches students computer programming in an intuitive and fun 3D environment.  Randy was loved by his wife, 3 young children, and many students, faculty and friends who he inspired to chase their passion.  On his website there are many more examples of his amazing ability to inspire others to be efficient with their time and enjoy to the fullest the time they have left.

Randy also gave an excellent follow on talk on Time Management which he knew first hand was the most important commodity we have.

Excellent Time Management Talk
Given at the University of Virginia on November 28, 2007
Video (86 min):  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758
PPT:  http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy_Time_Management_UVa_2007_slides.html
PDF:  http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/RandyPauschTimeManagement2007.pdf

This is a lengthy talk (86 minutes), but it's chock full of tips, like emptying your inbox but keeping all your email, creating a manageable filing system, using the 80/20 rule to focus your efforts on the stuff that matters most, and planning your day, week, and year.

Key Actions from the Talk:

1. Get a day-timer or PDA and use it
2. Put your TODO list in priority order (not due date order)
3. Complete a time journal, or count hours of TV for 2 weeks and learn from it

Good Books:

• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow (Book - 2008)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People By Stephen R. Covey
• The One Minute Manager by Spencer Johnson Kenneth Blanchard (Book - 1996)
• Time Management for Teachers: Techniques and Skills That Give You More Time to Teach by Cathy Collins (Book 1987)
• Taking Control of Your Work Day (CareerTrack Audio Seminar) by Dick Lohr (Audio Cassette - 1994)

Microsoft Visual Studio Middle School Power Toys 1.0

The  is a software package created by Microsoft to help middle school students learn about computer programming. It consists of the five components described below.

• Sort Designer Control is a supplementary teaching tool developed to help middle school students learn the basic concepts, algorithms, and implementations of popular computer sorting algorithms. It supports bubble and insertion sorting. The control generates initial values automatically and demonstrates intermediate states in the sorting process. It also generates sorting source code for both Visual Basic and C#.
  
• Search Designer Control is a teaching tool developed to help middle school students learn the basic concepts, algorithms, and implementations of popular data search algorithms. It supports binary and sequential searches. The control generates initial values automatically and demonstrates intermediate states in the searching process. It also generates source code for both Visual Basic and C#.
  
• Using the Visual Sort Designer and Visual Search Designer Controls teachers can easily develop a sample program to demonstrate the fundamentals of sort and search. They can also customize the control's appearance by simply dragging the control onto a form and setting its properties. These visual demonstrations help in teaching programming concepts and improve students' interest in learning.
  
• Visual Declarative Designer is an intuitive variable declaration tool designed for novice programmers. During the coding process the student can declare variables of various types and generate the corresponding source code. Visual Variable Declarative Designer provides a visual approach to variable declaration. Teachers in the Information Technology (IT) field can use this designer to teach students the basic concepts of variable declaration and naming, variable types, access modifiers, and initial values.
  
• Assistant Class Designer is a visual class designer for novice programmers. This designer guides students through the processes of adding classes, properties, methods and events. The designer also generates the corresponding source code for new classes. By using this designer, teachers and students can easily create and configure complicated classes. Assistant Class Designer provides an intuitive and interactive method for designing classes and helps students to understand key object-oriented programming concepts such as classes, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.
  
• Visual Programming Flow Chart is a supplementary teaching tool designed to help students understand program control flow. It generates flow charts for functions and saves them in the JPG picture format. This tool is easily activated from the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) by simply right-clicking on a function name and choosing “Generate flow chart…” from the context menu. The resulting flowchart can be customized by changing its colors and other effects. This visual tool provides an intuitive way to explore source code, to examine its control flow, and to identify logic errors.

Microsoft Visual Studio Middle School Power Toy 1.0 system requirements:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and above
  or
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and above.

Fun Brain Teasers For Kids and Adults

These brain teasers can lighten the mood and provide a nice diversion for kids (and adults too).  When I speak to elementary school students about important skills to learn to work at Microsoft or any job for that matter, I stress the importance of hard work and good problem solving ability.  Here are some of my favorite brain teasers because they are fun for most any age (elementary and up).

Please share your favorite kid-friendly brain teasers.  Answers further below.

QUESTIONS

1. You need to transport a 3 items: a Wolf, a Sheep and a Hay Bale across a river on a boat that can only hold 1 item at a time.  If left together the Wolf would eat the Sheep, and the Sheep would eat  the Hay Bale.  How do you avoid something eating something else while transporting each item?
   
2. How do you get 4 members of your favorite rock band to a concert that starts in 17 minutes.  They have to cross an old bridge that can only hold 2 of them at a time.  Each member walks at a different speed:  1, 2, 5 and 10 minutes to cross the bridge.  By the way, it is night, and they only have 1 flashlight.  So each pair has to cross together sharing the flashlight and walking at the speed of the slowest person.    What combination of 2 walking over and 1 coming back to return the flashlight (no tossing it back) will get the entire band to the concert in 17 minutes?
   
3. Connect 3 rows of 3 dots using a straight line (do not lift your pencil) that only changes direction 3 times.
   
4. A farmer has an L shaped field (2 units square with a 1 unit square cut out of one corner for the farm house - like squares A, B or C).
   
   He wants to give an equal size and shape portion of the field to each of his children when he dies (every child must get 1 unbroken plot of land).  As each child is born he computes the size and shape required.  How would the farmer do this if he had:
1. 1 child (simple)
2. 2 children (simple)
3. 3 children (simple)
4. 4 children (hard)
   
5. You have a balance beam scale and 7 balls.  1 ball is slightly heavier but requires the scale to know for sure.  What’s the fewest number of measurements required to determine which ball is heavier than the others?
   
6. Calculate 24 for each set of 4 numbers.  You can use each number only once as listed but they can be in any order and these operators can be used:  + - x / ()
   
1.  1     2     3     4  =  24 (easy)
2. 10    10     4     4  =  24 (medium)
3.  7     3     3     7  =  24 (hard)

ANSWERS:

1. This is a simple permutation and combinations problem, but helps to build confidence for the next similar, but more challenging problem.
   
1. Take the Sheep over first.  You don’t have to worry about the Wolf eating the Hay Bale while you are gone.
2. Come back and take the Wolf over second.  When you drop off the Wolf take the Sheep back with you (this is the trick).
3. Leave the Sheep back where you started and take the Hay Bale over third.
4. Finally go back and take the Sheep over again.
   
2. Supposedly Microsoft gives interviewees around 20 minutes to complete this problem. I’ve seen adults pull their hair out and never figure out the answer or write a program to determine all possible permutations and combinations until they get the answer.  I’ve also seen a 5th grader work the answer out in her head in 2 minutes.
   
1. The 1 and 2 minute members walk over together with the flashlight and the 1 minute member carries the flashlight back (2 minutes over + 1 minute back = 3 minutes).
2. The 5 and 10 minute members walk over and the 2 minute member you left over the bridge carries the flashlight back (10 minutes over + 2 minutes back = 12 minutes, 3 + 12 = 15 minutes have passed so far).
3. The 1 and 2 minute members walk over a second time to complete the trek (2 minutes over, 15 + 2 = 17 minutes total).
   
   NOTE: You can send either 1 or 2 back during the first trip and the result is the same.  The trick is to get the fastest members over first to be ready to run the flashlight back.  You then minimize the effect of the slowest members by having them cross together.
   
3. This problem literally involves “thinking outside the box,” which is a good hint to help someone solve it.
   
   
4. This is a common factorial problem in geometric form. A good hint to give if someone is stuck is to ask, “What if the farmer had 6 or even 12 children?”
   Click here for PowerPoint slides with the answers
   
5. 2 measurements (or 1 if you get lucky).  This is a practical example of a binary search algorithm.
   
   Weigh 3 balls on the left side and 3 balls on the right side of the scale. If they balance then the heaviest ball is the 7th that wasn’t weighed.  You got lucky and found the heaviest ball in 1 measurement!
   
   If they don’t balance, put 1 ball from the heavier set of 3 on each side of the scale. If they balance then the heaviest ball is the 3rd that wasn’t weighed.  Otherwise the heaviest is the one that tips the scale.  You found the heaviest ball in 2 measurements.
   
6. The 3rd one is really tricky until you think to use your elementary school fractions knowledge.
   
1. 1 x 2 x 3 x 4  =  24 (easy)
2. ((10 x 10) - 4) / 4  =  24 (medium)
3. 7 x (3 + (3 / 7))  =  24 (hard)

WorldWide Telescope - Change the way you see yourself in the universe

RoboChamps - Microsoft launches virtual robot programming competition

Popfly Game Creator - The Popfly family just got a little bigger

Starting today, game creation is now officially accessible to everyone.  You don’t have to be a physics major or hard-core coder to create your own personalized game using the Popfly Game Creator.  In fact, you can create your first game in three easy steps through Popfly’s intuitive interface.

1. Select your actors:  Choose from nearly 400 pre-built actors in categories like people, vehicles, power-ups, and more.  Can’t find what you’re looking for? Import and create your own.
2. Set the scene:  Pick a background, select some sounds, and position your actors through a visual designer.
3. Bring your game to life:  This is where the magic happens.  Using Popfly, you can specify behaviors on your actors and scenes that define how they should interact. Use Popfly’s intuitive user interface to define events, set properties, and specify actions without writing a single line of code!  If you want more control, define a custom behavior in JavaScript.

Creating Games has never been easier.  To learn more and build your first game head over to www.popfly.com

EDUFun - Making education fun for kids of all ages through innovative use of technology

My goal for this blog is to allow parents, students, teachers/professors and administrators to share questions, ideas and resources on innovative, effective and fun uses of technology in and outside the classroom to facilitate life-long learning.  Please share your thoughts using Comments or send me a note directly.  I want to hear from you.