ANDREA wrote: I know very well that the only reason why the boys stay tuned on what they see on the screen is that it looks very nice, filled with music, sounds, images, movies, moving without gaps, so giving the real impression of a space walk, not of a C class ugly movie.
This is obviously helped by the addition of my speech, that varies a lot, accordingly with the age of the students (remember, I have students from 6 to 18 years old).
I absolutely agree with the things Andrea stated. When I use Celestia in the classroom, I know exactly where I am going and what I am going to say. Without Frank's guided lessons, a script or a specific task for the boys to lock on to, there is nothing immediately gratifying to a typical human (regardless of age or nationality). In Celestia, once you've seen one star, you've seen them all. That goes for planets too. It's hard to gauge and compare objects. Perhaps a lua script that lets you click "compare to" and select another object which splits the screen and goes to the same distance that you are from the original object. I mean what's comparative planetology without a comparason?
Keep in mind I am talking from the perspective of a vaguely interested student, not myself. I can go for hours on Celestia and have, but I find it most gratifying when I am giving a presentation, be it to kids, students in class, to my parents or other adults. I have been using Celestia as a visual aid more than anything else for years. There is no way of describing astronomical measurement better than with 3d visuals. A movie wouldn't suffice becase you cannot make it DO what you want, and pictures only do so much.
For Celestia to be a true educational 'student' tool, it must contain information, photos, links to websites, etc., all accessable through the interface, not necessarily all contained within the program itself. And, said interface must be, for the purposes of education, easy to use. The lua interface is shaping up nicely. In this regard, what I would like to see in the interface is the ability to add links to files, photos and movies stored locally or on the internet. A Celestia repository of information on different celestial objects of some sort could even be worked out I suppose.
Anyway, I really appreciate all the work that people are doing. I know this is a long term project that will give large paybacks in the future. We just need to keep pushing forward.
