When it is about studying, we tend to procrastinate the start. The students are reluctant to go to the classroom, to quiet and focus on the teacher and the coming wisdom. The same happened to me when I was holding a demonstration class for 14-year-old kids, having difficulties to get them into the computer lab. Then, to my surprise, when the class was over, I had difficulty to get them out.

I was presenting a lesson from my interactive science course. They were totally immersed in the software. It was quite a long ago, I don’t even say that my program was amazing. In hindsight it was fairly primitive, aligned to the available technology of that time. However the level of interactivity won over the kids. The freedom to manipulate the content is far more meaningful for us than a video.

I made hundreds of simulations for various subjects with Actionscript. It was easy to learn, however from next year (2020) no web browser will support Flash players, so all my precious content is frozen in time. The good thing is that when a door is closed, others doors open. There are more and more tools to create simulations and other interesting, contemporary components.

The fuss-free way is to find good websites where you can use their content for free.

One of the best website for simulations is Phet  (owned by University Colorado). They also started with Flash, but they switched to HTML programming in time.  You can find there plenty of lightweight and heavier simulations for maths and science, at every level from primary school to university. A good thing about them that you can embed their simulations into your content.

Then if you are creative enough, you get down to create your own stuff. There are free website tools to do it, too.

After years of frustration about my flash content I came across Scratch. It is the product of the prestigious MIT. You must try it. I worked as a Scratch tutor for a while in Dublin, discovering its immerse programming power coupled with simplicity. The kids playing with Scratch were 8-16 years old. Those, who didn’t have any inclination to code, made funny animations. Others came up with programming ideas and created games. With Scratch even a 10-year old can learn and practice the basics of programming. No coding needed, just drag the command lines into the stage. The online software also has a plenty of “sprites”, characters and background images. Anyone can knock together a simple simulation within hours. Moreover, you can also remix other players’ products.

You can check my simulations here.

3D images and VR are also attractive components in learning content. I am a keen Blender user, too. It is a free 3D software toolset to create models, animations, movies and video games, too (moreover simulations can be also done, but there is some difficulty to use them outside Blender). In fact, it does everything you can imagine, or even more. I started to learn and use it four years ago. I created my first model, a microscope, after 3 hours of learning from tutorials.

[blender src="https://patchlessons.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microscope.html" width="100%" height="500"] [/blender]

It is very simple to start, then it becomes very complex, so after four years I am still a learner. I create models and export them into HTML files, then embed into my content. I also make videos with it. I learnt recently how to do lip-synch, so Pandora can speak now.

I also use MakeHuman, another free software, to make 3D characters. It is fun even if you don't want to create anything in Blender. In MakeHuman you get a basic human shape and you can control a lot of properties with sliders.

Topping up the free content creator tools I recommend two image editor software: Inkscape is a vector graphics to substitute Illustrator and Gimp is an alternative to Photoshop. Because they are good. And free. I am a mean girl.