Friday Special Blend
Friday August 14th, 2020 with Chris White
Hour 1: Jamie Anderson ('Spectracular'), Jim Deacove (Family Pastimes Cooperative Games). Hour 2: Shirley McNaughton (Blissymbolics), Sheila White

Hour 1 Interview with Jim Deacove (Family Pastimes, Perth, ON) and Jamie Ferguson (Emory & Henry College, Virginia) about the role of games in teaching content, concepts and cooperation. The website for Family Pastimes, founded in 1971 by Jim Deacove to develop and promote cooperative games, is www.familypastimes.com. For information about Jamie Ferguson's 'Spectracular' game for teaching spectroscopy, see https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/spectacular-spectracular-organic-chemistry-app, https://thewolfbird.com/spectracular-project and https://thewolfbird.com/spectracular-educational-impacts. Hour 2 Chris White and his sister, Sheila White, talk with Shirley McNaughton C.M., Ph.D., ARCT. In 1971, Shirley began her groundbreaking work using a visual language called Blissymbolics as a communication channel for children with cerebral palsy who lacked functional speech. 49 years later, that work continues for Shirley locally, nationally and internationally -- see www.blissymbolics.ca (Canadian website). The song 'Blues with Margareta' at the end of the hour features improvisations from members of the Bliss i-Band Shriley started at Don Heights Unitarian Church in Toronto. Group members use a variety of physical adaptations to control iPad-based musical instruments. The musical director is Aaron Lightstone. See a video of the i-Band performing 'Blues with Margareta' here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wzrab71nv9ng4ld/Blues%20with%20Margareta.MOV?dl=0 'Mr Symbol Man', co-produced by The National Film Board and Film Australia, paints an intriguing portrait of Charles K. Bliss, creator of Semantography and Blissymbolics: web.https://archive.org/details/mrsymbolman 'In the Land of Invented Languages', Arika Okrent, Spiegel & Grau, N.Y. 2009. This fascinating book describes Charles Bliss's visits to the treatment centre in Toronto, and also describes Esperanto, Klingon and other invented languages. Blissymbolics are widely used in the Swedish school system -- see https://www.blissonline.se.