Hi Everyone, please post your thoughts on these and any ideas that you can think of.
This is a great community and together, over time, we can all help make it even better. You never know what the designers may or may not have thought of or decided upon. Don't make the mistake of not giving your ideas & opinions because you think, " oh, they must have thought of that."
Thoughts i've had to make the programs even better-IMHO
Please keep in mind that i'm fairly new to it so my perspective is going to be very different from a real expert of the programs ( you & designers ) or a parent who's been using it and customizing for a year.
Also, im not a tech designer guy. i have very limited understanding but i have encountered , with my websites & designers, something that i was convinced was really a small change/add but everyone "in the know" informed me it was in fact a very big file size, complicated, expensive change
I've just read what I've written and realized that most of these are long term version 3,4 or 5
.
So, for what they're worth, here are my suggestions.
1. clarification on my, earlier request, locking out all keys but the arrows suggestion- I've never used what u have now so u may already have it.
i think this would work best if it's locked out after we have a lesson highlighted and click play or double click on the highlighted lesson.
2. Custom Settings- I'll use an example first. I am a big golf fan. While i was out of work waiting for surgeries and my wife was home on bed rest waiting for Wyatt, i was given Tiger Woods Golf for the PS3. We played a lot and got to know the game pretty well.
EA sports had began a forum for the game and , apparently, only recently, last year???, actively asking & encouraging forum users what they wanted to see in next years game. U may want to check it out, they use a lot of non professional 1 take video "message from the designers" to begin a category to discuss.
Anyway, one big suggestion that i think totally relates to LR custom settings is club selection/club tuning. In LR it's custom settings.
There are many different courses in the game. each course requires a slightly different approach.
in TW10 you were allowed to have whatever 14 clubs you wanted and you could " tune " them however u wanted as well. Just like real pros.
It takes some time doing this so the suggestion was to allow "Multiple bags" so you could take the time and set up a few different custom bags and each time you played, u chose which bag to use.
Give us the option of ...Going through all the options and click " save custom setting #1.Give us the option of setting up and saving multiple "custom setting lessons".
This way we could set up different approaches/custom settings for different days to keep things interesting for our child.
Ex. Option 1 is the all set ready to go basic and recommended?? settings you have now.
Option 2 is totally random every time
option 3 is a mix of a word from many different categories?? etc.
You already have lots of good info in your manual. Lots of individual choices really are great but can be overwhelming.
A) I really appreciate recommendations from the experts. You and your team. It's a really good selling feature that they work "right out of the box". I just loaded parallels again today ( so i can use LR on my Mac ). Since the last time i did, they've added some of these to help with choices.
As a busy parent...
i'd appreciate it if you create a few " suggested or highly recommended " templates /setting choices based on your expert knowledge, clinical studies, parents reports etc.
Maybe have pop up screens or flyout navigation buttons to explain why you chose each setting
or even a few of the important ones??
Still want options for us to create our own. Maybe have pop up screens or flyout navigation buttons to
explain the pros & cons to help us chose each setting.
***I'd like to see ... all the setting options in one place and on one long page. I was a bit confused by the override option .. it seemed to cancel out???? anyway, the page would have all the sections u have but that would make it a lot clearer IMO.
GO through all your choices and at the bottom, click " save these custom settings ".
Let us name them also. Maybe we have 2 or 3 kids of different ages with different preferences and levels.
Then you could have a page that shows your different choices and with one click, off we go into the curriculum.
oh wait.... do we now have the ability to choose a custom curriculum from all the down-loadable content? same concept as above with different kids. Not just pick one category at a time but create a " favorites list"?? for a week or so. Or, for different kids, a way to keep track of where each child is in the curriculum?
Basically the WHOLE reason behind most of my suggestions come from letting me set things up once, when Wyatt is asleep, so i don't miss ANY time at all with him because i'm doing anything else. Fire & forget.
When he's awake, i want the program to be up & running and i just press play and i can concentrate on being with him in this really amazing learning experience.( Thank you LR & LM )
3. Pronunciation speed- i haven't gotten to the phonics part yet and i really like the option of changing colors for each syllable. What about option to
have the recorded pronunciation be slightly broken up for each syllable? maybe repeated at a few different speeds. ask a speech & language Therapist/pathologist..... wait a min, that's my mom.......
Ok, I just talked to my mom, see her posts as
Extreme Bartending Grandma ( I tried to create a link here to her posts but i don't think it worked. Can we do this? How please? ) for her extensive experience and wisdom.
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/wife-scared-of-tv-and-computer-learning-programs-doing-harm/msg60943/#msg60943 Under this topic-
Wife Scared of TV & Computer Learning Programs Doing Harm
She has some fantastic suggestions that i think will not only make it a much better learning platform, it's a great selling feature because these were suggested by a real speech expert.
Many people "sluur" because they don't move mouth enough or open it wide enough. Watch announcers as examples of good speakers.
People learn in many different ways for everything and in different ratios. The more " multimedia" we can make it, increases the chances of better learning.
Mom says, " it's vitally important to encourage understandable speech, and this program can do it all.
u aim for
1. the correct # of syllables,
2.a close approximation of the correct vowels
3. the correct first or last consonant
Karen Young suggests that you
film a real person, Film close up on the face, mainly the mouth. Show it 3 times.
For each section, Start with a little wider shot and then you zoom in..
as they...
point to their mouth and say " watch my mouth"....Say each word 3 times ...
1. regular speed but exaggerated mouth movement. open mouth wide enough for 2 fingers to fit in mouth.
2. slow motion, clearly broken up into syllables, like the colors
3. repeat #1
you always end with correct pronunciation so they learn properly and don't get habit of speaking slow & exaggerated.
Alternate male & female ( i'd suggest an actual speech pathologist so they have good diction and have years of experience doing what mom suggests ).
You only have to get 2 shots for each word per person if u go male & female.
Next option......
in order to really hear the breaks for each syllable, add a sound in the background of a metronome. Tap, tap, tap.
ie. el/e/phant . do the same as above. regular speed and slow motion. tap/tap/tap.
Do this for both the printed word and the face option.
Also,
Encourage people to gently tap their child's hand for each syllable and for each speed. This way, they not only...
- hear the correct sound,
- they see the mouth moving properly
- and they see the printed word broken up by colors ,
- now they FEEL it as well.
Maybe a category of 2 syllable words, 3 and 4???4.
Can u please give option of making the screen size full screen for the tips & videos pop up screen. it's very hard to read or see what you're highlighting in the videos. Maybe u have this but I just don't know how
5.
Library Home- present the cost of points right with the title & first description. It would save lots of clicks & therefore time. Lots of people have slow internet connections still.
I really like having the preview of the icons. Did i notice that some don't have a preview? if so, it would b nice if it was mandatory.
I think that's all for now
, I have a few more for the forum but once i got going, i've spent way too much time on the computer. Resting now.
Thank you KL for considering our requests, however long they, possibly, may take to come to fruition in version 6.
It's fun to participate, even a little bit, in the creation of something that i believe is a positive force in the world and will continue to cause ripple effects for years to come.
Digg
