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New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/32293-2/

The History of Braille Alphabet

This article is a preamble to a more technical discussion and a coding project which are coming in the next issue. Probably, you have heard about the Braille alphabet. It’s the alphabet of the blind. But do you know its extremely compelling story?

Louis Braille was born in 1809 in Coupvray, France, just 25 miles east of Paris. His father was a harness maker. At the age of three—an age when young boys shouldn’t be playing in their fathers’ workshops—he accidentally stuck a pointed tool in his eye. The wound became infected, and the infection spread to his other eye, leaving him totally blind. Normally he would have been doomed to a life of ignorance and poverty (as most blind people were in those days), but young Louis’s intelligence and desire to learn were soon recognized. Through the intervention of the village priest and a schoolteacher, he first attended school in the village with the other children and at the age of 10 was sent to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris.

One major obstacle in the education of the blind is, of course, their inability to read printed books. Valentin Haüy (1745–1822), the founder of the Paris school, had invented a system of raised letters on paper that could be read by touch. But this system was very difficult to use, and only a few books had been produced using this method.

The origins of an alternative type of code came from an unexpected source. Charles Barbier, a captain of the French army, had by 1819 devised a system of writing he called écriture nocturne, or “night writing.” This system used a pattern of raised dots and dashes on heavy paper and was intended for use by soldiers in passing notes to each other in the dark when quiet was necessary. The soldiers were able to poke these dots and dashes into the back of the paper using an awl-like stylus. The raised dots could then be read with the fingers.

Louis Braille became familiar with Barbier’s system at the age of 12. He liked the use of raised dots, not only because it proved easy to read with the fingers but also because it was easy to write. A student in the classroom equipped with paper and a stylus could actually take notes and read them back. Louis Braille diligently tried to improve the system and within three years (at the age of 15) had come up with his own, the basics of which are still used today. For many years, the system was known only within the school, but it gradually made its way to the rest of the world. In 1835, Louis Braille contracted tuberculosis, which would eventually kill him shortly after his 43rd birthday in 1852.

New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/python-coding-course-nclab/

New NCLab Python Coding Course Teaches Virtual Robotics

In the past, the Python Coding Course in NCLab taught students basic Python skills including for-loop, variables and functions by drawing geometrical patterns. These patterns could be (and still can be) extruded to 3D and exported as STL files for 3D printing

and/or for laser cutting

Despite the popularity of the course and of the free Turtle coding app, we felt that something was missing. How can Turtle coding be called “coding” if there is no decision making? In reality, programming with the Turtle was just computer-assisted drawing.

Recently, however, this changed. We equipped the Turtle with a LIDAR and with two types of color sensors, allowing students to tackle virtual robotics challenges such as following a line on the ground, collecting objects, or navigating through unknown mazes.

The Python Coding Course course was significantly extended and now it includes if-else statements, Boolean expressions and variables, the while loop, and Python lists.

New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/computers-wore-skirts/

When Computers Wore Skirts

Today, the word “computer” usually refers to a powerful electronic machine. But this was not always the case. Before the use of electronic computers, and even before the use of mechanical computers, the computers were human. Among the earliest records of organized human computing was the computation of the trajectory of the Halley’s Comet by Alexis Claude Clairaut and his two colleagues in France in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, thirty five human computers were employed to create the British Nautical Almanac of data that was used for navigation at sea. Many human computers were employed to compile Western European mathematical tables, mainly those for trigonometry and logarithms. The computers were often educated middle class women. In many cases, they stayed at home and received and send back large packets of calculations by post.

New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/full-steam-ahead-issue-6-may-2017/

Full STEAM Ahead, Issue 6 (May 2017)

We are excited to share the sixth issue of Full STEAM Ahead with lead articles by Georgia White (Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE), Western Nevada College, Carson City) and Sarah Gobbs-Hill (Education & Exhibits Director at the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum, Reno). Click on the image below to retrieve the full PDF file.

Contents:

WNC’S Jump Start College Program Leads to Success by Georgia White

Coding at the Discovery by Sarah Gobbs-Hill

NCLab Coding Camp, Susanville, April 1-2, 2017

Famous Cloud Outages

Celebrating National Library Week in Nevada

NR21 Digital Summits – April 2017

Soft, Hard and Applied Skills Taught by NCLab

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NCLab in Public Libraries in Nevada

by Tammy Westergard, Assistant Administrator of Library / Library Development Services, Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records

Every day changes and advancements in technology, accelerates what it takes to live day to day. Everyday learning in the 21st century means level up or be left behind. This is the stark reality. Fortunately, within Nevada’s Everyman’s University System (also known as our public libraries) NCLab is there to explain, demonstrate and inspire. Through their exceptionally designed online learning system, anchored with sound teaching methods and learning design, Nevadans are developing coding skills and abilities essential in today’s workplace. Nevadans are learning at the library how to combine building and problem-solving. This talent will allow them to work, earn a living wage and find purpose in creating tomorrow’s digital tools and solutions necessary to address challenges we can’t even see today.

New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/building-karel-robot-lego/

Building Karel the Robot is an Invaluable Learning Experience for Students

by Dave Riske, Networking Technologies Instructor, Western Nevada College (WNC), Carson City

NCLab’s Karel the Robot is a perfect tool to teach students the fundamental ideas of computational logic and structured design, uncluttered by specific programming language requirements. The premise behind the Karel language is to use a simple syntax structure with simple logic as a starting point and then slowly building the complexity of both syntax and logic. Though students were grasping the concepts presented in the activities in Karel, there was still a tangible component missing. WNC already owned several versions of the Lego Mindstorm NXT and EV3 robotic kits. Therefore I decided to try to externalize Karel the Robot from the screen to the tabletop. Initial requirements were simple:

The robot must look like Karel the Robot.

The robot must respond in a manner consistent with the virtual robot in NCLab.

Students should be able to use a command set similar to the commands available in NCLab to control the robot to solve mazes.

Building mazes for the robot must be easy and relatively inexpensive.

Physical Robot and Playing Field

The robot and the playing field must mimic the environment available in NCLab. The initial plan for the playing field was to use a 4×8 sheet of plywood as a base. This was gridded out in 8×8 squares yielding a playing field of 6 by 12 squares, which could expand easily with the addition of another board to 12×12. This would require careful consideration of which puzzles and mazes to externalize as many of the mazes are larger than the available physical space.

Ultimately, the playing field is a maze. We are currently investigating using foam core, cut in an interlocking method, that will allow us to build an interior wall that can be ‘seen’ by the robot and provide the means to have the robot respond to the environment of the maze. The foam core will also be used to provide a border wall around the playing field.

Initial searches yielded a robot design that looked similar to Karel the Robot and was modifiable with respect to available components within the Lego kits already owned by WNC. This initial build was also modifiable dependent on needs that became evident as the various programs were designed to control the robot. Further work and development will be done on the physical aspects of the robot to simplify the build to one type of standard kit and its associated expansion kit.

During the rebuild of the physical robot to include a single Lego Kit the robot base size grew by approximately 1.5 inches when the EV3 treads system was used. This made the initial design of the field inadequate to hold the robot. Resizing the squares to 12 inches will further shrink the effective playing field.

From left to right: Karel the Robot model 2.0 (single Lego set) and model 1.0 (two Lego sets).

Command Structure

The commands available to control Karel the Robot are Go, Left, Right, Get and Put. These are initially used in sequences and are later combined within decision structures (If statement) and loops (repeat) to enhance both the logic and the syntax of the program as well as provide discussion for the three primary components of programming structure. Our initial intent is to make Karel the Robot as independent as possible with respect to movement, not relying on cues from the maze like line following. Get and Put commands would rely on control of the robot’s screen to display output with respect to number of objects.

With the initial trials with respect to turning the robot, we discovered very quickly that there is an inherent lack of accuracy in the Lego parts. Variations in the motors, power applied to the motors, the treads, the maze and even the battery power all made for variations on the turn. Installing the gyroscope sensor on the robot allowed for measurement of the error, +/- 4 degrees on a 90-degree turn. It was evident that a self-correcting program was needed that would measure and seek the desired turn. Searches revealed programs for selecting the direction of the turn (left or right) and for controlling (and measuring) the amount of turn. Combining these two programs yielded a program that allows for precise turns with self-correction. The correction, however did allow the discovery of the inherent error in the gyroscope measurement. Measurement of the turn, when the gyroscope reads 90 degrees is currently at 90.8 degrees. The hope is that this error is consistent and, therefore, able to be programmed out of the turn.

Future Work

Currently students are working on refinement of the turning function, a true 12 inch Go Function and providing the Karel the Robot with the ability to recognize different colored objects which will be used to distinguish object within the mazes. They are also working on the physical aspect of the maze as additional materials are found which can provide for building.

New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/31221-2/

Video Games Are Good for Learning

by James P. Gee, (Regents Professor and Fulton Presidential Chair of Literature Studies at the Arizona State University. Member of the National Academy of Education)

What makes video games good for learning has little to do directly with the fact that they are games. Furthermore, video games that are most interesting for learning are not just any video games. Different types of games can have different effects. Puzzle games like Tetris and Bejeweled may very well exercise pattern recognition capacities; Trivial Pursuit games may well make learning facts fun. But these are not, in my view, the sorts of video games which are most interesting in regard to learning.

The video games that I think are most interesting for learning, are digital simulations of worlds that are “played” in the sense that a player has a surrogate or surrogates through which the player can act within and on the simulation and that have “win states” (reachable goals that the player has discovered or formed through his or her surrogate). By the way, in augmented reality games, a person can be playing a virtual role (e.g., urban planner, toxic spill specialist, detective) in a rule system that is designed to play out partly in a virtual world and partly in the real world.

Games are simulations that are focused on problem solving and which players can enter and not just inspect from the outside. Since humans learn best from experiences that are focused on well-mentored problem solving, games are an ideal setting for learning. And, by the way, games have teachers: the game designer and the mentoring and teaching built right into the game design itself.

Video games don’t just carry the potential to replicate a sophisticated scientific way of thinking. They actually externalize the way in which the human mind works and thinks in a better fashion than any other technology we have. We humans think by simulating and testing possible courses of action in our minds before we act. Video games are just an external simulation and testing platform, directly supplementing our minds with the potential to better prepare us to act in the world (Imagine that Presidential candidates had to win at least one game of Civilization before they could run for office).

Writing, digital computers, and networks each allow us to externalize some functions of the mind. Though they are not commonly thought of in these terms, video games are a new technology in this same line. They are a new tool with which to think about the mind and through which we can externalize some of its functions. Better yet, they allow for collaboration and collective intelligence as forms of intelligence than can far transcend our individual knowledge.

Video games are good for learning because, among other reasons, they have the following features:

They can create an embodied empathy for a complex system built as a world focused on particular types of problems.

They are action-and-goal-directed preparations for, and simulations of, choices and actions.

They involve distributed intelligence via the creation of smart tools like the “mods” in World of Warcraft that tell players how to coordinate their play with others.

They create opportunities for cross-functional affiliation where smart teams combine people with different specific deep skills but where each team member can coordinate with each other’s skill set effectively.

They allow meaning to be situated in (associated with) images, actions, goals, and experiences, not just in verbal definitions cut off from the world.

They can be open-ended, allowing for goals and projects that meld one’s personal goals, social goals as collaborators, and the game designer’s goals (the teacher’s goals).

None of this is to say that video games do these good things all by themselves. It all depends on how they are used and what sorts of wider learning systems (activities and relationships) they are made a part of. None of these reasons why video games are good for learning stems primarily from a game’s great 3-D graphics or the mere fact that it is a game in the general sense of “game”. The cutting edge of games and learning is not in video game technology—although great graphics are wonderful and technical improvements are important. The cutting edge is realizing the potential of games for learning by building good games into good learning systems in and out of classrooms and by building the good learning principles in good games into learning in and out of school whether or not a video game is present.

New Post has been published on https://nclab.com/celebrating-national-library-week-nevada/

Celebrating National Library Week in Nevada

April 9th through 15th was the National Library Week. We at NCLab love libraries. They are the only institution in the U.S. where anybody can visit, get help, and learn. No matter his or her age or social status. If you think that schools do this, think again. NCLab is proud to be an integral part of the Nevada library system, providing patrons with easy to access and easy to learn game-based courses in critical 21st century job skills including computational thinking, computer programming and 3D modeling. NCLab was part of a celebration that took place in Carson City on Wednesday April 12. Here are a few photos. The first one shows Jen and Sheila manning the NCLab exhibit. The exhibit included 3D prints and laser-cut designs made by students, textbooks, flyers, stickers, several issues of Full STEAM Ahead, and Chromebooks with live demos of the Karel, Turtle, and 3D modeling courses.

This picture shows the NCLab team. From left to right: Jen (sooner or later, you’ll talk to her on the phone), Sheila (prepares educational materials, and trains and supports teachers), Vas (marketing and sales guru) and Pavel (the guy to blame for making your course too difficult).