8bitBiologist

I neglected to take video of the charades I'm afraid, but we are working on shoes this week. Here is a picture of that! They just started today.

I have to peel them off their seats to go to their next class every day! The love it. This friday the project is charades - they are learning to make poses and animations and will ahve to animate their character to pantemime using an object that another class has to guess. I'll try to get a video of that one too. What surprised me was that there were 2 kids that had already experimented with making animations prior to class!!

Aww! Thanks everyone for the great comments! I'll be sure to share with the kids - they'll love to hear feedback!. As far as the avatars - its OpenSim, and I had to make sure to get some skins that had "underwear" - no nudity. These teenage avatars fit the bill, at least for now. But I will keep my eye out for higher quality avatars.

Here is a video showing the highlights from the fashion show the kids did. This is after 1 weeks of learning to make clothes. Not bad!

I do still appreciate the offer Chic. Maybe if this class grows I can have them in SL their Junior and Senior year, where there is a broader range of content. As I was telling VRprofessor, you may very well be right - this may be (probably is) waaaaay too much. I will be seeing what gets cut as we get into it. Thoughts as to which topics might be the most tedious or least rewarding in terms of useful skills?

Thank you VRprofessor! Sound advice - yes I do realize this is a bit ambitious but as you say, until you've taught the course once, you won't have a good idea what part of it is a keeper and which components are not practical. I imagine this run through will allow me to better focus the course for the following semester. Unfortunately part of keeping a focus is using this VR platform as a way to tie together the other aspects of digital media. That's why that seems to be the focus although really, they are getting a broader range of skills (or that is the intent). Like with GIMP - I won't be able to teach all of GIMP, but they'll learn a few uses of it and if they enjoy using it, maybe they will take the initiative or learning more on their own. That is the thought, at least ^.^

Thanks Ohjiro!! :matte-motes-big-grin:

Thank you Kim! We do have a small plot in Second Life that we use. However, we have two full regions in an OpenSim that we used to make extensive teaching units for the kids. Unfortunately to have that same sort of space in SL is cost prohibitive for us. What is the goal of the class? - I wanted to give kids a general overview of the sorts of things that are involved in virtual worlds. That way they could maybe find one or two that they could independetly study more thoroughly. For the most part the kids come in with no experience in virtual worlds. To what sort of class would you expect the students to go on after this if they take an interest in the subject, and what prerequisites will that require? - Here in the high school there isn't much to follow up but they can start to figure out if a career in graphic design, additive manufacturing, character animation etc is something they would like to persue as they think about college. Which skills are you an expert at and able to teach yourself? What sorts of guest lecturers or consultants are available to fill in the gaps? - I wouldn't call myself an expert in any of these skills really - as a teacher, that keeps my time pretty short. I have a Virtual Worlds certificate from UW and have some knowledge of all of these. I have not been able to set up any guest lecturers - it seems much of the community has its own projects that it is tied up with. Thank you for the links! I do have the Advanced Content creation book that I use as a bible all the time! I do have some other books I often use for reference and I would love to speak more!! I'll shoot you an IM. Maybe we can meet in world sometime.

Thanks for all the great advice Marigold!! "Week 2 - I can't comment at all on this, for having been in Second Life for over seven years and not having been introduced to Gimp or any photo-shop type of software, I would not have the first clue. I have, however, acquired free templates for clothing and furniture from the Second Life Marketplace, which I have customised. I don't know how relevant this would be to your students." - well my goal is for them to pick up on a braod range of skills that could be applied to not just SL. So if they did learn a digital art program like GIMP maybe they could go on to be digital artists compeltely outside of SL or virtual worlds. "Week 6 - I would actually have this one earlier than Gimp. Building is the easiest way to see results from your efforts. Adding basic textures will be easy, because the inventories all contain a library with textures in, until Gimp/similar is taught and then building could be come back to. Perhaps your students could choose just one or two aspects to go more advanced on. Some people prefer building to making clothes (ie me), some people are talented with animations, others with creating textures." -Great point! Maybe I will do just that and slide this up earlier. " Week 7 - Building Accessories - Prim Hair Project; Change your 'do Week 7 - Don't forget to get your students to take lots of photos so they can compare how their avatar's appearance evolves. Also don't forget to have them save a copy of every version of their avatar. Week 8 - Building accessories - Attachments: Jewelry, purses, shoes and other small objects Project; accesorize. Week 8 - Working with micro prims takes special patience. I think there is a video tutorial on youtube by our own Torley Linden on this for a bit of added homework." -again great advice. I can do both of these - I think they will enoy putting together a photoalbum of their virtual world. I'll see about tracking down that tutorial. " Modify a basic system avatar Dress a basic system avatar Move/walk/run/fly Interact with other people Create objects in Second Life Explore" -I could narrow down the topics and spend, say, 2 weeks on each. I was just going for exposing them to as much as I could and letting them decide which topic they wanted to explore further after this class.

Thank you for the comment Perrie! I don't expect the kids to be experts of any one of hte topics here, just wanted to expose them to a broad view of topics so they can then maybe pick one or two that they can go forward with and specialize in. What would you suggest for the content of this intro curriculum? Just stick to prim building maybe? I am open to suggestions. And yes, I am doing everything in OpenSim.

Actually I cannot take the students to Second Life - they are going to be as young as 13 ^.^ I am not confortable exposing them to the "public at large" of the SL community. However it may be that I bring one or two folsk taht I know personally to our Sim to speak with the kids for special seminars. Great idea!

Thanks for the comments Drake! " Lets start with this... Electronic Arts is a trademarked name.. I would change the name of your class. The kids may get confused. Why do you think high school kids need a strong foundation in making things in SL? " -that is the title of the course as designated by the state department of public instruction, not a title chosen by me. And the class is not strictly about SL - actually, its been hosted in OpenSim - it's about kids picking up a number of good digital skills and being exposed to a number of digital art areas such as clothing design, digital art, coding, etc. " Week 1 - Intro to Virtual Worlds, Walking around , Inventory, changing your avatar, etc - the basics Project: Customize avatar and show off 90 minutes a day? to do all that? Good luck. Week 2 - Intro to Gimp - making clothing from templates Project: Make a custom outfit How fast can you make a full outfit? It would take me longer than that and i have been doing it for years. Week 3 - More Gimp - Making your own skin from templates Project: Make your own custom skin You want them to learn to make a custom skin in a week.... " Well its 90 minutes a day for 5 days in a week so 7.5 hours per topic. I looked at many online tutorials and it seemed like I could cover the basics in that time. I guess I'll find out soon enough if I can't =) How would you suggest I go about it? " You have a 3d printer?!!?? " - we do! To asnwer how I would show them to do this; Tutorial on Prim Hair for example

Thanks for the comment Chic! Well which topics would you recommend? I wanted to give a nice, general overview of the different aspects. That way folks could figure out, and persue what it was they wanted to focus on.

Hi everyone! I am a high school teacher in North Carolina and I have the opportunity to teach a course being called Electronic Arts. In it I plan to cover all the different aspects of Second Life/OpenSim. I have 18 weeks divided into two 9 week periods. I will be seeing the kids for 90 minutes daily. I plan to spend one week per topic, with a culminating project at the end of each week and at the end of the 9 week period. I am sure I can't cover every last aspect, nor every aspect in full detail, but I wanted to give them a strong foundation on many basics. Comments and opinions welcomed. So the first 9 weeks I was thinking this; Week 1 - Intro to Virtual Worlds, Walking around , Inventory, changing your avatar, etc - the basics Project: Customize avatar and show off Week 2 - Intro to Gimp - making clothing from templates Project: Make a custom outfit Week 3 - More Gimp - Making your own skin from templates Project: Make your own custom skin Week 4 - Qavimator - Introduction to poses and basic animations Project: Strike a pose Week 5 - Qavimator - Facial expressions and advanced animations - Project: Charades Week 6 - Introduction to Building in World - the basics Project; Unique furniture with Textures Week 7 - Building Accessories - Prim Hair Project; Change your 'do Week 8 - Building accessories - Attachments: Jewelry, purses, shoes and other small objects Project; accesorize. Week 9 - Culminating activity - run way; Fashion show. Develop walk and 3 unique outfits with accessories to show off. ----------------------------------- Week 10 - Introduction to Avastar and Mesh Project: Make a simple mesh object Week 11 - Shape Project; Make custom non-human avatar shape Week 12 - Mesh Clothing and Hair Project: Fancy Accessories Week 13 - Mesh Objects and Minimizing Prim Load Project: House with Furniture, minimum prim count Week 14 - 3D Printing - Designing Objects to Print Project: Making something to take home Week 15 - Intro to LSL language Project: What does this script do? Week 16: Scripting continued: More complex states, dialogs, timers, listens Project; Fair Ride Week 17: Cool Stuff - Particle Effects, HUDs Project: Start working on final project Week 18: Working on final project; Final Project: Play. As a group, put on a full play including scenes, props, animations, live voice acting, special effects, etc.

Actually that one I corrected in one iteration - yeah I copy the scripts, then modify them. That bit I did catch earlier but apparently had not fixed in this draft. I wish I had that time =) to take classes. In 2 weeks from today I will have some 40 students taking my Biology classes, and these activities are part of their curriculum. This one is just one of many. Luckily most of the others are not as complex but I do wish I had the time to be both a teacher and a programmer. It's either winging it and using the help of folks in the community or the kids this fall get pen and paper. Who wants that?? So any help will be appreciated. I didn't see the code widget. I will use it from now on! And I do know exactly what I want the script to do, as outlined, but..just don't know how to get it there. I'll bench this activity and work on others until someone can pipe in with a good solution. Still have about a dozen or so activities to sctript ^.^