IEP Goals :  Expanded Core Curriculum Games for Visually Impaired Students

IEP Education

ObjectiveEd.com is our new company where we are building ECC games for vision impaired students, based on a child’s Individual Educational Plan. 
The student’s progress in acquiring skills in our ECC-based games are stored in a private secure cloud, available to the IEP team in a web-based console . 
If you are a Special Ed Teacher , press for additional information on learning about these types of games as a tool for maximizing student outcomes, relating to their 
IEP Program .

Basketball Attempt #5

In my last blog, I talked about how the wrist-snapping gestures for dribbling and shooting the basketball went over like a lead balloon.

Based on everyone’s suggestions, I switched from phone actions to screen gestures.  In the  normal setup, you pick your shot by first double tapping the screen, then scrolling through a menu of shots: hook shot, jump shot, post shot, free throw and dunk shot.  The shots only work when appropriate; you can’t do a dunk shot unless you are directly at the basket, and you wouldn’t do a free throw when you are at the basket.
For those users that like drawing the shot gesture on the screen, I created an option to do that.  A post shot in real life involves turning around in a circle as you jump up and slam the ball into the basket.  To select a post shot, you can also draw a circle on the screen.  For a hook shot, you draw an upside-down vee shape, similar to the action of a hook.
To dribble the ball, you just tap the screen, and you hear the ball bounce.  I created an option to let you snap your wrist when holding the phone, as if you were bouncing the ball.
Everyone liked the new gestures, but now people thought the court layout was too artificial.  I created the court as a 9 row by 9 column grid, labeling each row from the letters A to I, and the columns as the numbers 1 to 9.  The basket is at A 5.  As you move around the court, the game stated your position, such as D 3.
One of the testers said she didn’t get the feel of the basketball court, so I changed the entire game to give directional location and distance from the basket.  For example, when you start, the game says you are 40 feet from the basket, and the basket is at 12 o’clock.  When you move forward and the to left, the game says you are 20 feet from the basket, and the basket is at 2 o’clock.
Almost everyone liked the new positioning, so I’m now working on the coach games.  In the coach games, a coach tells you where on the court to go, and what shot to make.  The next phase is to add other players to the game, and give you a way to determine where those players are.  This will be a great way to build up your basketball skills so you can play a complete game.