Sunday, June 21, 2009

I had a play on the DSi!

Went along to a friend's bbq last night and the little girl that was there had a DSi, so of course I pinched it and sat in a corner by myself to explore the new toy. Well, actually, I asked the 8 year old to show me how to work the camera etc because it was much faster to learn it that way.
I had a blast with the photo editing functions - you could really have fun with it. And I can see the educational possibilities too. You ask learners to point the camera and take a picture of a kitchen counter you had set up, and you ask them to indicate the areas of risk with some graffiti. If I had another DSi, I would have explored the sending of pictures back and forth. This would have enabled discussion using Pictochat on whether the learner/s had been successful in assessing the risks. That's just one example I've thought up. It's a similar type of activity to using the Wii for identifying risks (http://inclusivity.rsc-yh.ac.uk/case_study?id=139).
I thought the sound recording and editing functions were equally fun - not sure how useful this is but it's great to be able to record and then slow down or speed up the sound or change the pitch. I was already impressed with my Chinese Coach game for the DS as it allowed me to record my voice and play it back together with the correct pronunciation to compare. I'm sure the DSi and future games will be even more creative. Look forward to getting a DSi!