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Adventure playground |
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IntroductionWelcome to my adventure playground page - this is a demo area for me to try out various kinds of interactive resources. Those that work well will find their way sooner or later to other parts of the site - and some already have. They are brought together here, partly for teachers and students who want to find things in one place, and partly for other Web designers who would like to borrow the ideas here. This page currently uses I-frames - but this means that users can find help with some activities by looking in the status bar of the browser. Designers can get round this easily either by using Javascript to open the games in a new browser window without a status bar (as I do on other pages) or by using a script that causes some other text to display in the status bar. In practice, if teachers want to use this page with students, just hit the F11 key - and hit it again when you want to restore the normal browser view. (Note - this works in Internet Explorer but not Netscape Navigator). This maximizes the window area and hides the status bar. Sentence generatorThis activity will help you learn to analyse parts of speech or word categories in language structures you find. You will build up complete sequences, but not in the way that you construct utterances naturally. The frame contains another frameset, each grid of which displays a separate HTML document. The programming uses the <A> tag and the HREF and TARGET attributes - especially to exploit hyperlinks in the document loaded in one frame which cause new documents to load in a different named frame. The first time you do the exercise it may be slow, as the pages come from the remote server. On this page I have used an I-frame, so you can look at the status window of your browser to see what is happening. As a task for students, the frame works best in a new Window, opened by Javascript, that does not display a status bar.
Surreal sentence generatorThis simple machine illustrates how words of different categories can form grammatically standard utterances on a common pattern. In most cases the result will be a statement that is not and never will be true of any event in the real world. This may help to clarify a difference between standard forms of sentence grammar and the truth or usefulness of an utterance. “Harold were kill at the batle OF Hastings” on the other hand contains several non-standard forms, but is recognizable as a useful statement of (generally accepted) historical truth. This activity uses forms and drop-down lists organized in a table. It is very easy to construct - you can copy the HTML by viewing the source code for this page and looking for the comment that reads “HTML FOR FORM BEGINS HERE”. Click on the arrow to the right of each word category box, then choose from the options. You can reset the form as often as you like. The possibilities are almost infinite. See who can make the most weird statement. Teachers may like to ask students to illustrate one or more of the resulting sentences and make these into posters for display.
Poem commentary - timed presentationThis commentary is a timed multi-media presentation. If you have a slow Internet connection, there may be some delay before the audio track begins. If you play the presentation again, you should not experience the delay. Note that this demonstration only works in Interner Explorer Version 6, and later. Other browsers will display all of the timed text at once.
Interactive poem commentaryThis version of the commentary allows the user to choose a subject. A mouse-over will make the relevant section of comment appear in a text box.
Matching exercisesThese exercises are fairly easy to construct - if you do not know how to write them, then you can use simple authoring programs such as those distributed by Half-Baked Software. Once you have created a few, you can easily adapt the script to learn how to control things more effectively. However, teachers should beware of creating exercises that are determined by what the software can and cannot do. Matching exercises are good for learning by reiteration - but they are not suitable for all kinds of learning in any subject. They can cause teachers to force students into mechanically repeating or recreating basic models or forms. The three exercises below will test existing knowledge, but students can repeat the tasks until they know the facts the exercises reveal - assuming that someone wants to know this information.
General sports quizThe quiz below uses a slightly different script, that gives a score and indicates the true answers to each question.
A simulation gameThis game is a fairly enjoyable test of knowledge for some people - but if you know nothing about Olympic history, you can use it to learn. It is a simulation based on a series of HTML documents. As with the first sentence generator, you can use the status bar to find a clue to the answer. If you want to open the simulation in a separate window, click on the link below. If you run through the simulation once, it will load more quickly on subsequent attempts at the game.
I have copied this resource from a page of activities I have written for the EU Project Babelnet site. Click on the links below to go to this site. There are links to pages for learners of English, of French and of Spanish - these will open in new windows.
Media matching exerciseThis is quite similar to the matching tasks above. The difference is that this one gives feedback as soon as you enter an answer - it does not wait for the user to click on a button to ask for the score. You can correct wrong answers, but cannot alter the score without clicking to start the game again.
Decorated textThis is a simple animation effect applied to a poem. Use the links below to change the poem in the frame.
Use the links below to choose a different text.
Using pop-up commentsThis is another simple effect applied to a poem. Move your mouse cursor over the text and you will see questions for the reader.
© Andrew Moore, 2002; Contact me
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