One of my passions is sailing, and recently I’ve been preparing my steel mono hull sailboat for some long-term offshore sailing and discovery. I named the boat Learnativity, because one of my motivations is to experience some serious learning as I prepare for and embark upon this new adventure. To date, the boat is certainly living up to it's name!.
Sailboats require lots of ropes, so knots become a very important and significant part of your life aboard. I was a boy scout once (actually a Queen Scout, as they are called in Canada) and so I used to know how to tie lots of knots, but I’ve certainly forgotten most of them. This is the forgetting part, not the UNLearning part! So I was delighted to find some assistance with learning and practicing various knots in the form of a web site called Animated Knots created by Alan Grogono who is known as “Grog”.
Whether you care about knots or not (sorry, couldn’t resist), I would STRONGLY encourage you to check out this site, because it is a fantastic form of great content design and design for learning. As with many powerful designs, this one is elegantly simple and is something that can be easily implemented and used for a wide variety of skills and applications.
Alan has provided a simple way for the learner (in this case, someone who ties knots) to see very clearly how the knot is tied. He breaks up the process into individual steps that he has photographed, but instead of laying these out as static graphics with supporting text (as I suspect most learning resources would do), he came up with a very smart and simple layout and method that shows each step AND lets the you see each step in sequence or as a fluid animation.
He does this with a series of step-by-step photos, displayed in a single window. A set of numbered boxes is displayed below the window. Rolling over a box brings up the photo for each step one by one. By running the cursor over the series of numbers, you can tie and untie the knot at any speed you like, focus on just one or two steps of the process, and pause anywhere along the line. You can also choose from a fast and slow automated animation that is a repeating loop of each step. Smart, simple and it works!
As usual, pictures are much better than words for both tying knots and understanding this model, so check out this example of how to tie a bowline, a very handy knot for creating a secure loop at the end of a rope, or on any point along a rope or line. And for all you overachievers, check out how to tie a bowline with one hand!
I imagine that we can all benefit from knowing a few knots. The site has knots for boating, climbing, fishing, scouting, search and rescue, household, and decorative applications.
It’s VERY much worth checking out. You’ll “knot’ only learn how to tie some knots, but you’ll see a very effective way of designing content to help people understand and learn. What other applications can you imagine for this great design?
As always, be sure to send me your comments, reactions and experiences.
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