A Dozen “Edutainment” Application Bundles
A Dozen “Edutainment” Application Bundles
Definition
SEARCH WAS THE GREAT NEW FRONTIER. Sodden with copycats, it has become anhydrous. As Science Fiction writer Harlan Ellison has noted: “We are entertaining ourselves out of existence.”
The Principia Mathematica by Russell and Whitehead would have been a thin book indeed, if it had as its base the language of the Hip Hop culture. It would have to run something like, If I break out your front teethes, I will write my thesis, as an if-then nest. However, the problem is not with Hip Hop—it is just faddish and entertainment. The question is more profound: How far can an illiterate market expand for the new breed of media now emerging?
Below are described a dozen possible education application bundles for a new media model. An “Edutainment” bundle is interactive instructional content, which:
- Produces measurable and meaningful learning outcomes
- Engages students at the appropriate level
- Adheres to standards acceptable to schools, governments, and philanthropies
Search, like Rock and Roll, will never die. But it will not thrive until it diversifies and partners with Media, Not-for-Profit, and aims to build new generations of users via educational application bundles.
THE DIRTY DOZEN
Application Bundles of the Future
(1) Online Writer & Bot Reader for emailing social messages/hearing essay read back by synched avatar.
(2) Automatic Essay Repair
(3) Automatic Essay Scoring with club privileges
(4) Fill-in-Blanks for breaking news stories/ earn points and prizes.
(5) Arrange headlines in ascending order for points.
(6) Reading Machine. Level diagnosis and spelling/pronunciation hierarchy.
(7) Best Sentence evaluator.
(8) Flash Games.
(9) Drag and Drop Parts of Speech, etc.
(10) Write-By-Phone. Assorted Activities. Alliance with long-distance carrier.
(11) Make your own newspaper and distribute by moving blocks of standard online editions.
(12) Interactive TV DVD’s connected live.
SEARCH ENGINES HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD. However, that changed world has also mutated search engines. Looking for the next “big idea,” there are a lot of chefs in the engine, and poaching is not being done to just eggs. The time has come for a new vision, comprehensive, as outlined above, at least in a preliminary sense.
Links
(1) http://faculty.mdc.edu/sdonahue/
(2) http://www.writenowabc.net/ifocos/ifocos.aspx
(3) http://www.writenowabc.net/
(4) http://googlescriber.com/
Steven Donahue is a professor at Miami Dade College in Florida. He is a member of The National Press Club, The Society of Professional Journalists, and The National Writer’s Union. He has published over 100 articles and numerous self-published books, as well as submitted E-Testimony to the Congressional Web-Based Education Commissioner’ report. He has developed sophisticated software programs, some of which provide language training for the U.S. Military in Afghanistan and American K-16 students. He has contributed to the Operation Enduring Freedom Language Task Force (OEFLTF) at the Defense Language Institute and presented before the Director of Central Intelligence’s Foreign Language Committee (DCIFLC). His work has been covered in The Chronicle of Higher Education, National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. His hobbies include chess and the violin. For more information, visit http://faculty.mdc.edu/sdonahue/ http://faculty.mdc.edu/sdonahue/dozen.doc
