Thursday, June 23, 2005

EP Category 2: Learning and e-Education



This category is also a favourite one. The EUROPRIX.nl organisation receives many entries in this category. The entries usually range from applications for schools to training programs for companies. The school products range from websites for small kids to primary and secondary schools. The training products are intended for companies like ABN, but also for self training. Surprising was the very high level of the entries this year in terms of content and multimedia. But some products which have a big product name in the print book market failed to come through the first selection. But the boys of Ranj did it again with the successor Pool Paradise to the award winning CD-ROM production Professionals.

Three products were nominated:

Maassen Consulting – KENNISSENnet (www.kennissennet.nl)
KENNISSENnet offers children in the higher classes of the primary schools support with writing of their projects. A pupil can coolaborate in these projects with another pupil, even from another school. This Internet application has been developed by Maassen Consulting, a software development and consulting comapny, specialised in interactive communication and knowledge management, e-learning and e-business. The website enables young children to communicate remotely. This communication is either through a forum or a chatbox. After a child has logged in, he or she can invite a friend to collaborate on a project, for example about mushrooms. If the other child is interested, he or she can accept the invitation and start working on the project. When a child – with or without a friend – has chosen a subject, he or she can fill in a form telling what he or she is eager to learn about the subject. A pupil can also maintain a log and a planner. The teacher is of course not excluded. Teachers can monitor the progress of the children by looking at the logs, view the forums and review complete projects. The website has been built with Maassen Consulting own software. Flash is used for the navigation.
www.kennissennet.nl

Ra.NJ. – Professionals II (Pool Paradise)
Because the popularity of electro technical and installation studies among new students are decreasing RANJ has developed a complete 3 dimensional game. This game is programmed in macromedia director. The game Professionals II – Pool Paradise is designed in such a way that students will get a feeling of the training in a playfull manner. Not only the concept of the game but also the cool graphics, ensures a nice game with a lot of possibilities. The game centers around the construction of a swimming paradise. The player has convert an old swimming pool to a completely new swimming paradise. All technical aspects involved in this conversion are built into this game. For instance, the player has to realise that he has to build a heat exchange first before he can pump the water back into the paradise. If the player is not able to find the solution by himself, he can contact a variety of experts on this subject. This brings an learning element into the game. There are different levels of difficulty. This comes in handy if the player wants to expand his knowledge about a specific part of elektric or installation techniques. With the second version of professionals released, RANJ has combined learning, attention and pleasure all in one game. Professionals II – Pool Paradise is an unique game concept with a highly developed technology and excellent graphics, which take the pleasure in learning to a higher level. The promotion of the electrical and installation studies in a way as RANJ does is enlightening and seems to work in practice.
CD-ROM - www.ranj.nl

Teleac/NOT – SchoolTV Beeldbank (Voor Peuters en Kleuters)
On the website of SchoolTV Beeldbank (Image Bank)young children, toddlers, can learn about colours, shapes, emotions, senses and yet much more in a playful way. This interactive website was assigned by Teleac/NOT and developed by employees of Teleac/NOT, IJsfontein and Q42. The imagebank contributes to the social-emotional development of toddlers and is also linked to the main goals of primary school. Therefore, the website has been developed in close collaboration with the Dutch schoolwebsite Knowledge Net. The educational movie clips are specially produced for children who can not write or read yet. This also holds for the navigation. An animated character named Kiko points the child to what is clickable and explains its use by moving the pointer of the mouse over a button. One of the many themes can be selected by the child on the website. For instance food, animals, feasts and everybody is different. The themes are indicated by icons. One or more movie clips are available per theme. A toddler can also read a small text, print an assignment or take a look at movie clips. These can be viewed and printed as much as the child wants to. The technology used to create the Image bank is available as open source. The application has been built with Flash. The movies have been wrapped into Flash and are seamlessly integrated in the design.
http://beeldbank.schooltv.nl/index.jsp

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