| news stand |
latest news
the most recent dispatch from the field... (more) |
archives
catch up on previous news postings... (more)
|
email list
Sign up to get email reminders when there is new news... (more)
|
| |
| recent news |
august 22, 2000
Project update and Fay Canyon hike (more)
|
august 16, 2000
Havasupai Canyon Hike (and flood)... (more)
|
august 09, 2000
Slickrock mountain biking near sedona (more)
|
august 06, 2000
To Phoenix & back, weather á la Flagstaff ... (more)
|
Just like that the .az part of this trip is nearly wrapped up. Tomorrow I will spend my last day here in Flagstaff, work my last day at the CREATE office of NAU, grab my last cup (or two) of coffee from Macy's, and then head home to Phoenix by evening.
Today was a bit frustrating at the old keyboard! After making some major important interface changes for my main project, somehow all of the edits I was doing on my file managed to corrupt the structure, and images were damaged, and little chunks of programming were flung all over the wrong places. Oh well, it is only computer stuff and with time, is something I can fix. The world goes on.
But fortunately I have the support of some great books written for Macromedia Director. If you look at the photo, you will see I had a little fun in PhotoShop with the titles- I am counting on the authors, both of whom I know and respect, not to sue the pants off of me for libel. Hi Bruce! Hey Gary! (Just for the sake of politeness, see the real information on Bruce Epstein's Lingo in a Nutshell and Gary Rosenzweig's Advanced Lingo for Games).
We also poked in a brand new building for Biology and Biochemistry, which adjoins the Science building that houses the CREATE offices. The centerpiece of this building is a large lecture hall, cleverly named "Lecture Hall 130" that must seat 200 people in a room built for learning by technology.
The tiered rows of seats all have excellent views of the presentations the instructors can provide using 3 computer/video projectors on 3 screens that can be raised at the click of a button. All of the student seats will have data ports connected to the high speed network. It has not yet arrived, but the instructors podium will feature computers, video/DVD decks, pad cameras, and a touch screen control panel. There is no sign of a chalk board anywhere.
If you have been trying to access any of my project links, today I moved them to the main CREATE web site, so you can find my "skunkworks" at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~create-p/alan/ -- the old links will send you here, but the pages should load much faster from one of the college's web servers as compared to the desktop host where it has been up to now. I will be continuing to work on the programming of these projects over the next month, as I hope to use them as demos for my site visits. Paul S, our chemistry faculty who developed the idea for our "Ideal Gas Law Game". is eager to use this for his first semester at Yavapai Community College in Pescott.
Sorry Sprocket, but Fudge and Skamper at home would not like it if I brought you home!
Well it is probably time to say something prophetic here at the close of my stint in Flagstaff. The cool breeze and gentle rain outside should provide some inspirations... Over the next days I hope to summarize the .az part of this sabbatical; look for this in the what & why section. I greatly appreciate the support and interest from my colleagues at the CREATE project who made my stay here not only comfortable but fun too.
And now I look forward to visiting home and loved ones for 5 days before getting on the big bird to kiwi land.
