Socially Responsible Uses for Technology

Do Now:

Please find a partner that you would like to work with.  Choose carefully.  With your partner, brainstorm a list of objects you use in daily life that require microprocessor technology.   Please use chart paper and markers.  Be creative.

With your partner view at this slide show.

Answer the following on your chart paper:

• What makes the use of the technologies highlighted in the slide show interesting or new? 
  
• What needs might they fulfill? 
  
• In what ways might they represent new ways of thinking about computer technology?
  

We will discuss your responses together.

Next, we will, as a class, read this article entitled My Life in a Video Game (Batteries Not Included).

Questions for Group Discussion:

a. What is the purpose of each technology highlighted in the article?
b. How does each work?
c. What populations of users might benefit from this technology?
d. What social or personal need does it fulfill?
e. Why privacy issues are raised by the increased use of the technology?
f. Why does Tom Igoe suggest that embedded computing might not always be worthwhile?
g. Why do some students in his degree program leave "more Luddite than when they come in?"
h. What products do you think would benefit from advanced microprocessor technology?
i. Why might the widespread use of microprocessors become overwhelming or boring for users?

 

Click on the picture to your left.  This shows a script that controls a bouncing ball.    To import the script and the sprite, Click Here.

You will want to examine the script, and, using the diagram, make your own adjustments to what you want your sprite to do.  Again, this program is hands on and you will need to continue to explore and learn is pairs.

FYI, here is a screen shot of Scratch with the important features labeled.  

Scratch Basics

This is a sprite

It can be any thing, person, or place you want it to be. You can control what a sprite does. They can only do those things if they know how to do them. Sprites already know how to do some things, but it is your job to make sprites do more complicated things by using the few simple things that they already do know how to do. So in a way, you are teaching the sprite what to do. You can teach it to walk, run, jump, talk, or anything else you are clever enough to teach them to do.

You can tell a sprite to do something it already knows by putting a Script Block into the Script Window. To pick which Sprite you are controlling, select it from the window on the bottom right. Your sprites can be seen in action in your World Preview Window.

To give the cat a simple walk, you must tell the sprite how to do the following:

1. Move in the direction you want to walk
2. Move your legs
3. Move to the keyboard
4. Turn around

Tell the cat to move by dragging  to thescript window. 

A positive (+) # number moves →to the right. A negative (-) # number moves ←to the left.

You can activate script blocks by double clicking their colored areas. Try it out.

Sprites can have different costumes. They can switch between →← costumes to change the way they look. This sprite has 2 costumes already. The cat’s legs are in different positions. If it switches back ← and forth→ between these costumes, the cat will look like it is taking steps. 

Click 

 i

n the Top Left Menu.

Find 

 

and drag it into the script window.

You can connect blocks on their tops and bottoms. 

These two blocks tell the cat take one cat-step to the right.

Why does the block say 10 steps?

Here, ‘steps’ means: # number of pixels → to move in the direction that the sprite is facing. You will learn more about this in Lesson 3.

Pixels are tiny blocks of color that are combined together to make images.

When Script Blocks are connected, they activate together, starting from the top.

One way to respond to the keyboard is to

 add

to the top of a list of commands. The commands will then start when a certain key is pressed.

      

  you can find this command by clicking control in the Top Left Menu  

                   

Drag 

to the script window and snap it to the top of your list.

Change the keystroke to right arrow instead of space.  

Click the Green Flag to start your scripts.

From here on, you will start seeing this image: 

 

When you see this, it means that you should click the Green Flag and test out your program.

Now that there is a cat sprite that can walk to the right, you need to make one that can walk to the left.

The Stamp is a World Tool. Stamping a sprite makes a copy of it.

Make a copy of the cat sprite by stamping it.

Select Sprite 2. You can use this new sprite to walk left.

Each sprite has its own Scripts, Costumes and Sounds. Everything gets copied when you used the stamp tool.

It is best to name a sprite after what it is.

Change the name to “catLeft”.

Click the Costumes Tab

Click the Edit button to edit costume2.

The editing window will open.

Click the Flip Horizontally button to make the cat face the other way.

You must do the same thing for the other costume.

If you have not done so already, rename the sprite that is facing right, to catRight.

To make the sprites work together, you have to only have one showing at a time. It is easy to hide and show sprites as long as you can figure out when to do it.

You want catLeft to show when the left arrow is pressed and hide when the right arrow is pressed.

You want catRight to show when the right arrow is pressed and hide when the left arrow is pressed.

Click in the TOP LEFT Menu.  Find  

 and 

.

Make the sprite hide and show when it needs to for both sprites.

Both of the sprites are just different views of the same cat so you want both sprites to move at the same time even if they are not showing.

Now you need to make sure that both sprites are in the same spot.

If both sprites are not showing, you can show the one that is hiding by right-clicking the sprite’s button (control click for Mac) and clicking ‘show’.

You can drag and move sprites. A good way to put them in the same spot is to align the tips of the ears.

 

Test out your program by pressing the left and right arrow keys.

Save your project so you can use it later. Save it as “Lesson 1” in a new folder “Lessons”.

To make a new folder, click the new folder button in the save window.

Scratch Tips and Tricks

Open up the scratch program. In your Internet Explorer Browser, please go to the Scratch Tips and Tricks document.  Please try the tips within Scratch.

Ms. B

Gaming Trends

You will be paired in groups of two according to the information you gathered on Wednesday. Your work will be handed back to you and you are to sit with your partner. Together, you will:

Review the following article: NY Times Gaming Trends focusing on the following questions:

a. What have been some common stereotypes about video games and video game users?
b. What has changed and why?
c. What new audiences are being drawn to gaming? Why?
d. Who changed the trend?
e. How have users responded to the shift?
f. Why have consumer companies been surprised by the shift?
g. What might this shift suggest to companies about their understanding of consumers who use their products?
h. How might the online gaming trend mirror the popularity of social networking sites?
i. How do you think players from different countries communicate when playing the same game?

ALSO....
View snippets of the games featured in the article at Harmonix (http://www.harmonixmusic.com/), Activision Blizzard (http://www.activisionblizzard.com/) and Vivendi (http://www.vivendi.com/corp/en/home/index.php); or other popular games on a Web site such as Game Rankings (http://www.gamerankings.com/), Game Trailers (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22768.html) or Spike TV's 2007 Video Game Awards (http://www.ifilm.com/show/23733).

THEN....
Groups should work toward formulating predictions about future trends in gaming. On chart paper, write short statements, two or three sentences, describing the trends you will consider in greater detail. For example, you might decide that the next trend is an online version of Wii in which global participants compete in tennis or bowling, and hold a Wii World Series. If so, you might cite reports of the role of Wii in combatting couch-potato syndrome in kids, the trend toward intergenerational, international gaming and the stock prices for Wii.

Third World Farming: It's Really Not a Game

Since we have been simulating the life of a third world farmer, it is time to take a look at these countries using Google Earth.  You should already have Google Earth installed on your computer.  If not, please let me know and I will install it.

Click on the link below and map out the countries I assign to you individually.

Third World Countries

You will then take a "thumbtack" to create a place mark on the Google Earth.  In the details, you will include the country name, population, the Gross National Income (GNI) and the natural resources.  

Ms. B