Kelsea Wall

As we near the end and graduation is approaching. It's a nice time to stop and reflect.

This semester has been a rollercoaster and I must admit, one of the most difficult. As I had a lot of personal things happen and poor groups (not studio). I feel I did not accomplish all I could. Although, I am very proud of what we accomplished this semester and achieved what we set out to do there will always be that feeling like we could have done more.

A task I set myself this semester was to learn something new. I decided to make a game which uses NFC tags. I'm not the best at coding and used a lot of tutorials and help from Stefan but I am happy with the outcome.

As we were setting up we had a bit of trouble. The laptop needed to be updated or downgraded, to run my game properly. It was a bit unfortunate as I had swapped the laptops with another student who needed one that could use mac setting and mine could. The game had worked properly on that one and didn't really think twice about it but it was also the weekend so there wasn't much I could do about it. Thank goodness for Stefan as he came through and helped fix the problems. The next thing that went wrong was the NFC tags. They would work one minute but won't the next, which caused me a lot of anxiety and stress. In the end, we got it running but was unsure if it would work properly. I had programmed the game to work with a mouse just in case so it can work either way. All you have to do is to unplug the Arduino.

Next time, I would solder the board together to ensure a better connection. I did try but because the wires I was using weren't the best quality they would break and I didn't want to run the risk of it breaking on me. I am also not very confident when it some to soldering, especially when it comes to soldering a board.

Here is the game, working with the NFC tags

Its been a long time coming but we are here. 

Base

5

As mentioned in my earlier post, our game is going to be similar to Word Cookie.

Where you have a bunch of jumbled up letters and you have to correctly place the letters in a sequence to create words. 

Something similar to this but more aesthetically pleasing. 

References

Before the break, we had a critique session with Andy and Yvonne about our project and if we would continue with it. Daniel and I agreed that we really liked the outcome of Dyslexi-AR and wished to refine it a bit more. When we spoke with Ruth regarding our project she said it would be good for all children in early childhood. Not so much for children with Dyslexia. As this was the main reason why we choose to do the project it was a little disheartening to hear it wouldn’t benefit them as much but also great to hear that it was a great project and could go further if we choose to. 

So Daniel and I choose to continue with it and refine it more. Now, the project is based around Homophones, decoding and physical play.

We refined the theme from spelling without an overarching theme to identifying the different homophones and spelling them with 3D models. 

Changing the blocks to 3D printed letters allow the children to explore more and will allow them the freedom to do whatever they want. Which is what Ruth mentioned in our meeting. Young children with Dyslexia love to experiment so allowing the children to play around with the letters and create new combinations will give them a sense of play and learning. Another thing ruth mentioned that children with dyslexia also get quite frustrated when things go wrong so we need to ensure, if they get an answer wrong, they feel motivated to continue. 

Andy commended us on continuing the project, as a lot of students tend to move away and go in a different direction. With help from Stefan, we will be able to create something amazing. 

What Next? 

I need to continue to program the game, next post will go in-depth about the game style we wish to do. 

3D modelling 

Buy RFID tags 

RFID reader

Program RFID tags. 

Daniel will be doing;

Images for the homophones 

I just, just ARDUINOOOOO... Pulling this old beauty out of my closet where I thought I would never, in my life, touch again but HEY, here we are.

I'm actually really enjoying it and it's not thaaat difficult. Just a lot of trial and error... and maybe contacting Stefan for help a lot ;)

My first test with NFC tags and reading them... Next step, re-writing them...  Send me your thoughts and prayers.

Better Education  Open Creativeness  Individuality Creativity Your Way  New School 

Figuring our five different directions is difficult because we are continuing our project from last semester. 

Marketing Dyslexi-AR

Refining our design of Dyslexi-AR

Refine our idea to target children with Dyslexia 

Social experiment 

Last semester, last project, let us make it the best.

Last semester we tacked dyslexia in the classroom and trying to improve their experiences. The responses we received were great. A lot of people loved the projects and even were put in contact with a few other people to further it. Ruth Gibbson was amongst those who were interested. Ruth has based her thesis on people with dyslexia. Our group meet with Ruth to discuss our project and potentially taking it further. Ruth explained at this point our project would be great for all young children in pre-school but didn't target children with dyslexia. While reflecting upon this it was great we did achieve a different way of teaching young children but I also felt a bit disappointed within myself that we did not achieve what we set out to do. Ruth gave us some reading materials and suggestions if we decided to continue with this concept.

Daniel and I decided to continue with this project and refine it. With the assistance of Ruth and Stefan we will be able to achieve great things.

With the guidance of Ruth, we need to be able to give our young audiences the ability to do whatever they wish, without constraint and allow for false positives.

I am a bit concerned about it just being Daniel and I as we have similar thought process and ideas.