8bitBiologist
-
Posts
20 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Knowledge Base
Posts posted by 8bitBiologist
-
-
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 ^.^
-
OK folks, I am throwing in the towel. I think it will simply take someone much better at scripting to figure this one out - if its even possible.
This is a script for the second learning game on this activity. The game is thus - there is a giant tree and to either side of it, a small factory, car, house and stump. Above it is the earth, rotating, with a shimmering red arura around it. The game is about global warming. The tree shrinks over time and as it shrink, the red aura around the earth becomes more opaque representing global warming.
Now, the mechanics of the thing - The player can click on the tree, effectively "planting" a tree and reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmopshere. So in the script there is a simple counter and set text. Whenever the tree is clicked, it subtracts one from the counter. The text (millions of tons of CO2) goes down by one. AFTER 1 second from game start (llMinEventDelay?) there is a llSay that informs the player that the Industrial Revolution has begun. In turn, this begins a timer event that automatically adds 1 to the counter as more CO2 is added to the atmosphere. After 10 seconds, , there is a Say that says that now cars are invented, and the SetTimer becomes +2 per second instead (since it supercedes the last one), and I have other such events until the 500 becomes 1000 at which time the game is over.
The prims of the factory and houses etc are llListening for the llSay and will get bigger when they hear that.
The tree itself will change scale based on the inverse of the CO2 - so the more CO2, the smaller the tree gets. Maybe llSetScale(<500/count,1.0,500/count>); ?
The opacity of the red aura will change with a llSay after the update() that looks for if ( counter > 600) say something like "It's Getting Hot". THe red aura is Listening and will change to maybe 0.5 Alpha and so on.
I would make this separate scripts in the object but they all run off of that one integer count and I don't know how to carry that constant to other scripts since it is constantly changing by the clicking. Anyways, here is the little that I have;
// Doc: count the current touches
integer count = 500;
update() {
llSetText("Millions of Metric Tons of CO2 in atmosphere = "+(string) count, <1,1,1>, 1.0);
}default
{
on_rez(integer p) {
llResetScript();
}
touch_start(integer p) {
count = count-p;
update();
}state_entry() {
update();
llMinEventDelay(5.0);
llWhisper(0,"The Industrial Revolution");
llSetTimerEvent(1.0);
}
timer()
{
count = count+1;
update();
}
}This is what I have been playing with but it's not working and I don't think I am making any progress. Any insights or maybe similiar scripts that I could use to help me would be appreciated.
-
Thank you so much! The on_rez was there because the entire thing is part of a linkset that is in a holodeck. We will have dozens of these activities that the kids interact with then derezz when they are done. Would I still need it since that is the case?
-
Hey guys!
I am working on a script for an activity I am going to use in class. The activity involves students trying to click on a prim with a plant texture. Blocking their path are these dancing clouds. It represents the amount of sun the plants are getting and the students are trying to click on the plants as much as they can.
I have a script that will keep track of the times the student has clicked the prim and it displays a text saying that they have managed to give the plant so many kilocalories of energy. However, I need to simulate how some energy is lost as heat. I would like to add to the script a bit that basically has 1 taken from total counters every 5 seconds.
Here is the script;
// Doc: count the current touches
integer count = 0;
update() {
llSetText("Energy Absorbed = "+(string) count+" kilocalories", <1,1,1>, 1.0);
}default
{
on_rez(integer p) {
llResetScript();
}state_entry() {
update();
}touch_end(integer p) {
count = count+p;
update();
}
}It is less important but I would be a nice visual if I could get the number of counters reflect as amount of Glow from the prim somehow so the plants would get brighter with more clicks but at the same time, get dimmer if they lose too much energy.
Thank you in advance for your help!
-
Hi! I justwanted to drop a line to say that we have a similiar program at the high school where I teach. We've had our Second Life program for a couple of months now and I'd be glad to share what we have learned. Also I'd be happy to help as an educator.
-
I am very much interested in this. In fact, I have been thinking of the educational applications of Second Life and may be able to apply for grants for what you are suggesting from a federal source, if it is applied to the classroom. Let me know if you would be interested in making this project focused on making the headset for purposes of classroom immersion (which would be no different than for any other purpose) and collaborating with a high school teacher. We could speak about this project further. I could pen a grant and provide a high school class to test the hardware. A kickstarted would be fine but I think I could get us access to a few large High Tech Ed grants at Federal and State levels, as well as some private company grants that focus on instructional technology. The combination with an interface that makes the keyboard unncessesary would be great.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr
Topics to cover - comments?
in Second Life Education and Nonprofits
Posted
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.