

Video-game interface for Khan Academy ... built on Google Maps - spolsky
http://bjk5.com/post/1664635835/constellation-knowledge

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jbail
Bravo! This is really cool. The JavaScript is clean, a pleasure to read and a
learning exercise in and of itself. Extra bonus points on the user interface,
which looks incredible.

I just got into watching some Khan Academy on Roku and I'm loving it. I
haven't tried any exercises, but this makes me want to.

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kamens
Thanks! Check out Jason's work designing the UI here:
[http://shipordie.com/post/1670651184/first-iterations-the-
ne...](http://shipordie.com/post/1670651184/first-iterations-the-new-exercise-
dashboard) and let us know if you have any feedback. We'll be getting a bunch
of solid data from real students soon as they use the interface in an upcoming
school pilot.

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rodh257
I've long thought that Google Maps API was great not just for the maps, but
for other uses. I did something a bit similar a few years ago for a university
project: <http://qut.rodh.org>

I've used the maps API but rejected the whole maps/satellite imagery part of
it, and added my own map of the university. In the back end the vending
machine staff can move and place the vending machines on the map. It uses the
long/lat functionality (but not the real long/lat values) to work out the
closest machines to you etc.

The javascript isn't nearly as nice as the Khan Academy one (was one of my
first Javascript heavy sites) and I'm sure there's a few bugs (site hasn't
been used in years). Perhaps with HTML5 there might be better ways of doing
this but Google Maps has a great framework now for doing some cool cross
browser things.

Nice work!

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chrisbroadfoot
Very cool. I love to see our API being used in creative ways.

Great write up, too. There are some nice techniques in here that would be
useful for other developers (restricting viewable bounds, restricting zoom
levels, custom map tiles, using custom overlays - MarkerWithLabel).

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aik
Pretty cool. What are the long-term plans with stuff like this? How is it
helping education & learning? Because it looks like a game people will be more
motivated?

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jasonrr
Our current belief is that there are several game mechanics and game-like
visualizations that will help students measure their progress and maintain
momentum. We don't know this for certain, but there is already anecdotal
evidence that these kinds of things are motivating students at the Khan
Academy. In the short term, the plan is to collect a lot of data to see
exactly how these kinds of features impact the students and teachers that use
them.

~~~
aik
Interesting. If you don't mind me asking, do you work for Khan Academy or are
you just helping out on the side?

It makes sense that such an environment would increase motivation (and
increase learning as a result). Our (I'm in the same field) goal with
education technology is really the same goal I believe a teacher should have:
to create and sustain the optimal learning environment to maximize student
learning. Currently there's not much out there that does this well.

I'm interested in hearing more about this. Feel free to e-mail me if you want
to bounce around some ideas!

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kamens
Jason and I started out helping on the side and just recently began working
full-time on K.A.

Always willing to chat about this stuff -- let us know what you're working on
at some point.

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jaekwon
this is better than anything i had imagined so far. blew my mind, awesome.
looking forward to using the API.

