Who knew?

Who knew what it would take to get a simple game for kids released in the App Store? Engineering - my speciality - was just a small fraction of the work. But we’re getting close…

Inch Worm is scheduled for release on September 6th. Whew!

Inch Worm Beta Testing

Beta testing is underway. Let me know if you'd like to help. 

Rick Meyers
rick@whitepixels.com

Inch Worm Testing

Big Picture

“I love this game.”  -  Jack

“What I like about it: it’s tricky a little.”  -  Hazel

“OK good. No. Not good.”  -  Aaron

“Oh, man.”  -  Brian

Getting Stuck

“I won the first one.”  -  Devan

“Great. Now I’m stuck.”  -  Titus (with a smile)

“Just to tell you, there’s a big trap.”  - Oliver

“Oh, I trapped myself.”  -  Joey (with a smile)

“I have an idea.”  - Sophia

Cherries

“I love cherries.”  -  Sophia

“I need a snack first.”  -  Violet (before eating a cherry)

“Grab that cherry at the beginning.”  -  Aidan 

Acorns and Snails

“The acorns are the hardest.”  -  Leif

“I forgot I can’t go to the edge.”  - Zachary

“Snails these days never listen!”  -  Simone

Strategy

“I know the secret.”  -  Emmy

“I just have to plan things out.”  -  Elsie

“There are actually two ways to get through.”  -  Charlie

“I’m not going to tell you the answer. It’s pretty obvious.”  -  David

“Finally. Took me long enough.”  -  Sean (big smile)

Bottom Line

“This game is actually quite fun.”  -  Titus

“Addicting.”  -  Michelle, Patti

Many thanks to everyone who tested Inch Worm. Each of you helped make Inch Worm a better game. Watching you play forced me to fix things.  ;-)

Testers:  David, Charlie, Ryan, Isabel, Violet, Jack, Brian, JD, Jude, Beth, Aaron, Josiah, Micah, Aidan, Devon, Jenn, Leif, Juliet, Birger, Zachary, Sophia, Simone, Hazel, Jenny, Oliver, Sara, Emmy, Elsie, Erin, Erik, Titus, Jeremiah, Joey, Patti, Matthew, Sean, Sally (wants to swipe), Kathy, Dennis, Erin, Michelle, Wes (the voice of Inch), Jeff (color consultant), and Karen (solved all the puzzles, multiple times).

Playing and Learning

"Play is a big part of how kids learn."
  
           zoopz.com

"For kids, especially kids under the age of 12, playing is learning and learning is playing.… So when we think about playing and we think about learning, the distinction between the two is very blurry and I think that as an organization, as an industry, we need to be a little bit more aware of that…" 
  
           Debra Levin Gelman
           http://uxpod.com/design-for-kids-an-interview-with-debra-levin-gelman/
           http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-kids/

"Better games. Smarter kids."
  
           whitepixels.com

Favorite Kids' Books

In designing educational games for kids, some of my inspiration comes from children’s books. Here’s four of my all-time favorites:

Doggies
by Sandra Boynton

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle

Mouse Paint
by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Make Way For Ducklings
by Robert McCloskey

I’ll never match this level of quality or appeal, but it’s nice to at least know where I’m aiming.

What are your favorites?

Aplia Values

       

It's been a couple of years since I retired from Aplia. Before I forget, here's some of the values that helped make Aplia a great place to work.

Hire people that are smart and nice.

    They can learn everything else.

Get to know your users.

    Figure out what would make life better for them.

Design the best product for students and instructors.

    Everything else (sales, profits, ..) will follow.

Keep the design simple.

    White pixels are free!

Build a little. Test it with users.

    Then build some more. Then test it again.

Measure it. Fix it.

    Then measure again to see if you fixed it.

Give bugs top priority.

    Don’t build more if you have bugs.

Avoid add options for this and that.

    Add an option, go to jail.

Developmental Math

Here's an update to an earlier course profile.

Developmental Math Courses

 • Arithmetic, geometry, pre-algebra, algebra

• Mostly 2 year schools

• Many small sections

• Students test into the course

• Usually non-credit

 • Usually one term

 • 50% drop rate

Instructors

• A few lead instructors - full time

• Many adjuncts - freeway flyers

Students

• Generally struggling in school

• Many non-traditional students

• Resent having to take the class

• Lack basic math skills

• Fear math

Key Challenges

 • Course: Ferocious drop rate

• Instructors: Time, especially for individual attention

• Students: Math skills, motivation, fear, time

Quantitative Literacy

Here's a brief profile of one of my favorite math courses.


Quantitative Literacy Courses
• "Math for real life."
• "The last math course you'll ever take."
• Personal finance, understanding statistics, charts, graphs, ...
• Understanding the news, reading the newspaper, ...
• Primarily 4 year schools
• Viewed as innovative
• Satisfies minimum math requirement

Instructors
• Ph.D. Math professors
• Chose to teach this course

Students
• Often weak math background
• Happy this course if offered, chose to take it

Key Challenges
• Instructors: Time, especially for individual attention
     Selling the course to the administration
• Students: Math skills, fear of math

Math for K-8 Teachers

Math for K-8 Teachers Courses

• Full year course

• Huge books, tons of material

• Taught in Education department

• 4 year schools

• Simple arithmetic through geometry, algebra

• Manipulatives

• Conceptual

• Required for education majors

Instructors

• Ph.D. education (or math) professors

• Tend to like the course

Students

• Future K-8 teachers

• Sophomores, juniors, seniors

• Math skills vary considerably

Key Challenges

• Tons of material

• Students must recognize multiple approaches

• Instructors: Understanding it all, time

• Students: Breadth of material, concepts

GigaOM Infographic

A beautiful infographic prepared by GigaOM outlines the size of the iPhone App economy. Go check it out. We'll wait.

iPhone Apps

$250 million revenue in December 2009

$175 million (70%) goes to developers

$75 million (30%) goes to Apple

iPhone Sales

Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in Q4 2009 (not counting Touch)

Guessing $150 / phone, that's $1.3 billion, plus carrier subsidies

iPhone Contracts

Users spend an average of $4.37 per month on apps

Users spend (my guess) $80 per month on connectivity

Interesting.

App Development is Big.

iPhone sales are Bigger.

Data plans are Biggest.

CourseSmart on iPhone and Tablet

Thousands of textbooks, including books from Cengage, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill, Worth, and Wiley are already available on the iPhone. The screen's a bit small, but the convenience factor is huge, and the books rent for 6 months for 1/2 the price of a paper copy. Check out a video here.

CourseSmart seems to be getting ready for the Apple Tablet. This could be very interesting, as soon as Fall 2010. Check out the video here.

Apple Tablet in the News

This morning the Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, and many others are reporting more rumored details of the Apple device.

They report an announcement scheduled for January 27th in Yerba Buena in SF, with availability in March. They predict a larger device, with a 10" diagonal screen. They also predict a price between $800 and $1000, which would include free Wi-Fi, but not cell phone access.

Should be interesting...

Apple Tablet

Here's my speculation on the much-rumored Apple Tablet. I'd love to hear your comments.

In short, it's a thin paperback-sized device, based on the iPhone, with a new emphasis on movies, TV shows, books and periodicals.

Features

• "There's an App for that."

• Internet In Your Pocket - Safari, Google, Flash

• Personal Video - Movies, TV, YouTube

• iPod - Music and Photos

• Video Games

• Books, Magazines, Newspapers

• Cell phone, video chat, text messages

• View PDFs, Office documents

Technical Specifications

• 7.5" x 4.5" x 0.5" tablet

• 6" x 4" color LCD display (960 x 640, 160 dpi)

• Multi-touch screen, on-screen keyboards

• 14 ounces

• WiFi, cellular, bluetooth

• GPS and accelerometer

• Video camera (640 x 480)

• Camera (4 Megapixels)

• Battery life up to 10 hours

• Tablet OS (extended iPhone OS)

• Available March 2010

• $499 with contract

Predictions

• Apple announces Tablet Developers Conference.

• Apple announces cloud storage for movies, TV shows, music, ....

• Apple revamps iTunes stores for movies, TV, books, magazines.

• Ivy League University announces Tablet for all Freshman.

Again, this is all speculation. Comments please!

Wired on iTablet

Large-screen color tablets, when they finally arrive, will rock the world. Here's Conde Nast's take for Wired Magazine.

Turn down your sound, then click here.

This Year's Freshmen

Most of this year's Freshman were born in 1991. For many of us, that seems like yesterday. To relate, we've got to be careful about our historical perspective.

For these students...

• Text has always been hyper.

• The KGB has never officially existed.

• Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.

The Beloit College Mindset List is a great way to jog our thinking. See this year's full list here.

American Government

Here's another brief course profile, this time from the Political Science Department.

American Government

Really US Government

Taught at 2 yr and 4 yr schools

General Education requirement

Requirement for transfer to 4 yr schools

Lecture, quizzes, papers, mid-term, final

Textbooks

Brief

14 chapters, 380 pages, 25 pages per chapter

13 chapters government structure, 1 policy

Brief growing in popularity (due to lower cost)

Comprehensive

20 chapters, 650 pages, 32 pages per chapter

16 chapters structure, 4 chapters policy

Texas

Adds 7 chapters on Texas government

Professors

Both faculty and adjuncts

Most are education oriented

Often tech-phobic

Students

Both freshman and sophomores

Both non-majors (mostly) and majors

Some had HS Civics, others didn't

Many lack college reading and writing skills

Many are politically naive

Others follow Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

Charter Cities

How can a struggling countries break out of poverty if they are trapped in a system of bad rules?

Paul Romer is developing a radical new model of growth and governance, which calls for the establishment of city-scale special administrative zones.

View Paul's TED talk here, and visit his foundation's web site here.

Aplia Fall 2009 Courses

For Fall 2009, Aplia is offering an amazing 30 courses in 12 different disciplines:

Accounting

Principles of Accounting

Financial Accounting

Fundamentals of Accounting

High School Accounting

Managerial Accounting

Business Communications

Business Communications

Business Law

Excerpted Cases

Legal Environment of Business

Decision Sciences

Management Information Systems

Operations Management

Developmental Reading

Developmental Reading: Mid-Level

Economics

Principles of Microeconomics

Principles of Macroeconomics

Principles of Economics

Survey of Economics

Intermediate Microeconomics

Money, Banking, and Financial Institutions

International Economics

Advanced Placement Economics

Finance

Financial Management

Preparing for Finance

Management

Human Resources Management

Organizational Behavior

Principles of Management

Marketing

Principles of Marketing

Philosophy

Introductory Logic

Statistics

General Introductory Statistics

Introductory Business Statistics

Statistics for Psychology

Taxation

Individual Income Taxation

California Coast Photos

Waddell Creek (x2)

Moss Landing

Business Statistics

Completing our trio of statistics courses – three very different courses.

Business Statistics

• Business school requirement

• 4 yr. schools

• Comprehensive course

• Broad list of topics (metrics, probability, inference, regression, time series, decision analysis, ...)

• Real business data (relatively clean)

• Skill oriented

• Often uses Excel

Instructors

• Business School / Economists / Statisticians

• May have taught this course for many years

Students

• Business school majors (business, economics, finance, accounting, ...)

• Less fear of math

• Interested in decision making

Challenges

• Breadth

• Regression, inference, hypothesis testing