Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Tag: ds

  • Interactive response systems

    [Esperando a Missa começar][]
    [Creative Commons License][] photo credit:
    swperman    As we investigate ways to use mobile Internet
    devices in our classrooms, it hit me that they could be used as an
    interactive student response system (ISRS). Since current ISRSs are
    around \$100 per person, why not invest in a more useful device such as
    the iPod Touch, Sony PSP, or Nintendo DS (with Opera)?

    I found one company that already is thinking this way, Pocket Mobility
    with their Quizzler Pro     product. Me on the other hand, loves the
    challenge of coding something up myself.

    Has anyone worked with ISRSs? What did you like? What didn’t you like?
    Is this something I should look at as a summer project? 🙂

    [Esperando a Missa começar]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66012103@N00/2368050904/
    “Esperando a Missa começar”
    [Creative Commons License]: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
    “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License”

  • Your assignment: 20 minutes on your DS before school

    Scottish authorities [have begun other trials of ‘More Brain Training
    with Dr Kawashima’ on the Nintendo DS][] in 16 schools:

    A 20-minute burst of the ‘brain training’ exercises on Nintendo’s DS
    console at the start of the day apparently improves performance in
    maths tests by as much as 10 per cent, according to a Scottish study.

    The results of the completed 10 week study certainly are fascinating:

    In a maths test at the end of the trial, their performance improved by
    an average 10 per cent, and the time to complete the test also dropped
    from 17 minutes to 13 minutes and nine seconds.

    Pretty impressive results, although I don’t know what game they’re
    talking about, unless it happens to be Brain Age 2. Checking Amazon UK
    shows a DS game called More Brain Traing, which may just be a relabel
    Brain Age 2. I guess I’ll have to do some more checking. What a solid
    return on your investment though. It would cost a class of 25 \$3,750 to
    outfit the entire class with a DS. Throw in the DS Browser and you have
    even more ways to integrate it into your classroom.

    How long until a company comes out with a mobile version of Brain Age 2
    that you can play from any mobile computing device?

    [have begun other trials of ‘More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima’ on
    the Nintendo DS]: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3552834.ece