Reactable Teachers Concept of Interface in 5 Minute Lesson
The Reactable is an amazing new instrument developed in Spain. It’s got a tangible interface, meaning you move the icons around - rather than point and click.
I’ve been slightly obsessed with these videos (1, 2, 3). I’m not sure if it’s the retro prague rock sound or the completely cool little blocks that thrill me the most.
Searching for a reason to show the videos in class, I realized it would be a great way to talk about the difference between command line and GUIs, and what a huge difference that’s made, making computers accessible to non-computer scientists.
The kids were agog (admittedly, it was first thing in the AM). There’s something so compelling about being able to touch what you normally click. We had a good discussion about what it would be like to be able to move your iTunes or Word around like that. They made some pretty creative comments.
Now I need to think of a way to work the Puppy Monorail into class.
both via Boing Boing