Re: [kidsgames] K_games_for_learning

[Jeff Waddell <jeff@smluc.org>]

Hello Heinz

On Sun, 7 Nov 1999, Heinz GÖD wrote:

-->Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 21:20:20 -0800
-->From: Heinz GÖD <heinz.goed@austro.net>
-->To: kidsgames@smluc.org
-->Subject: [kidsgames] K_games_for_learning
-->
-->Bregenz, 7.11.1999
-->
-->Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
-->
-->In the internet I found the LGDC and Kids Games.

What is the LGDC?

-->One of my hobbies is efficient learning. On that occasion I got some 
-->ideas to computer games for
-->learning „boring" syllabus, who is dividable into short 
-->learning-portions, p.e. orthography,  dates in
-->history, formulas in chemistry,....

ok

-->One of these games is described further on the text.
-->25 years ago I wrote computer programs by myself (especially FORTRAN), 
-->but that is not enough for today
-->and therefore I am seeking people, who would like carry out this project 
-->with me. I contact You because
-->I like the philosophy of LINUX and because I believe that the game goes 
-->well with LINUX.

You will have to let us know more about what you want to do?  Do you have
a bunch of FORTRAN code that we just need to translate into C or compile
with the gnu FORTRAN compiler, or are we talking about porting the ideas
from these games?

-->To be fair to You I have to say that I had offered the idea at first to 
-->EduGames then to Microsoft -
-->both in the internet established as game developers, LINUX and his 
-->philosophy I found later — but both
-->didn’t answer - I suspected this and therefore I had safeguarded the 
-->copyrights by a publication before.

I'm not sure what this may or may not mean.  If you do things the "LINUX"
way then your copyright WILL be retained and you will LICENSE the use of
the code you have copyrighted so that other's may reuse it and modify it
to suit their own needs (GPL--> see GNU project www.gnu.org).  I'm not
sure what you mean when you say "both didn't answer".  LINUX is a Unix
like operating system that has been placed under the General Public
License (GPL) by its ORIGINAL creator Linus Torvalds.

-->I would be glad, if You had the time to a short reply.
-->

Please join our project and feel free to contribute whatever code, ideas,
or content you wish to share....

-->E-mail:    heinz.goed@austro.net
-->(or
--> Heinz GÖD
--> Vorklostergasse 45
--> A-6900 Bregenz
--> AUSTRIA                 )
-->
-->Sincerely
-->                        Göd
-->
-->
-->SNAKE: a Learn ‘n’Play-System for „boring" syllabus
-->Snake (= symbol for the convolutions of brain) devours the 
-->learning-portions.
-->
-->It is a system for learning and consists of 3 parts.
-->PART1: The learner edits the needed learning-portions, p.e. game=das 
-->Spiel...,HCl=hydrochloric
-->acid...,753v*Rome..., either typed by himself (and checked by a 
-->background-program) or copied from a
-->memory.
-->PART2: Game
-->The learning-portion will be played at random on a patch of a labyrinth. 
-->The learner has to get a snake
-->from a ‘pool of snakes’ and he has to steer the snake so, that the snake 
-->devours the learning-portion.
-->If the snake approaches the learning-portion, the learning-portion hops 
-->or jumps away or vaults the
-->snake — it is also difficult to catch the learning-portion , that gives 
-->the possibility of more levels.
-->As soon as the learner is succeeded in devouring a learning-portion the 
-->following one will be inserted
-->in another place of the labyrinth and the learner has to devour this 
-->learning-pörtion too...and so on.
-->If the snake knocks her head on the wall of the labyrinth, so the snake 
-->is unconscious for a time
-->(p.e.10 sec) and the learning-portion grows and flashes during this time 
-->( the aim of the game is to
-->learn the learning-portion! ). If the learner doesn’t want to wait, so he 
-->can get another snake from the
-->‘snake-pool’ and can continue the game. As soon as the „old" snake awakes 
-->from her unconsciousness, she
-->creeps slowly steered by the computer through the labyrinth. If the 
-->learner touches this „old" snake
-->with „his" snake, the two snakes struggle a certain time (p.e.10 sec) and 
-->the learning-portion grows and
-->flashes during this time. The learner has the choice to wait or to get 
-->another snake....To eliminate
-->snakes the player has to bite with „his" snake into the tail of the other 
-->snake.
-->The skilfuller the learner is, the faster he has devoured all 
-->learning-portions with „his" snake — and
-->probably with his brain too.
-->PART3: With an examination program the level of knowledge will be tested, 
-->on that occasion the
-->learning-portions will be putted in a row according an algorithm and the 
-->reliably known
-->learning-portions will be eliminated.
-->Details: The walls of the labyrinth simply lines with soft color, the 
-->learning-portions must stick out,
-->the snake has to force down the learning-portion slowly — character by 
-->character and transparent (so
-->that the entire learning-portion is visible).
-->
-->Learning-systems of this manner are favorable — in my view — because they 
-->join work with game (reward) —
-->in which will be learned too — and because reliably known 
-->learning-portions will not repeated
-->unnecessarily. I think that the parents take up positively such 
-->Learn’n’Play-Sytems.
-->
-->That’s only an outline.
-->If You are interested in this idea, I like sending to You a description 
-->with more details.

I think that this could be useful, I'm not sure I understand everything
you say here, but that is probably just a communications difficulty which
has no bearing on the merit of the idea.  If you are amenable to the
licensing terms outlined in the GPL or similar "open source" licenses such
as the BSD license and the Artistic License of PERL then we want to work
with you to bring you games into the free software world.

Thank you for you time, and I apologize for the time it has taken me to
reply..

Sincerely,

Jeff Waddell
jeff@smluc.org



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