Again, immediately engaged by virtual world.
Excited about building avatars, even joke ones.
Totally not listening to Dale when he explains how to do stuff from the front, with projected screen. He needs to go to every student group, show them how to do it. But once he does, they are engrossed.
End of session:
Asked the six students if they played games. All bar one did. Interestingly, the one who didn't was the only one who said the virtual world work was, quote, 'shit' and didn't want to do more next week. The others said they enjoyed it and were keen to do more.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Plan for 2011
After talking to Justin, Mark and Dale, and learning from our 2010 activities, here's a revised plan for delivery for 2011:
Beginning-mid February 2011:
- organise 2 weeks of backfill for Justin and any necessary backfill for Mark if needed - we will pay for this. Justin is teaching as of Jan 30 and Mark at end of Feb.
- Stefan, Craig, Justin and Mark to work together to develop immersive activities (keeping Dale in the loop too - Dale will be busy on other projects at that time)
- Activities developed will depend on availability of web in prim feature within OpenSim. If it's not ready, we will have to adjust activities a little.
- Focus on developing in-world activities *and assessment* for three subjects previously targeted: OH&S, Sustainability and Building Docs and Plans.
- Activities to be immersive, where students do or make stuff ,and where there is a sequence of events with consequences for doing (or not) things right
- Assessment to take the form of in-world question-answer tests, to be collected by PushLMS (basically in-world versions of current paper tests)
- USB Stick functionality to be incorporated into project as a subset of activities in trial form eg some activities could be delivered by USB and undertaken individually by students in their own time or in lab. Possibly also some assessment could take place via USB if results can be fed back into PushLMS. But will see how this pans out.
- Plan of delivery worked out in consultation with Daniel
After Feb 2011:
- follow-up week of tweaking/redevelopment undertaken with the team. May involve more backfill
Beginning-mid February 2011:
- organise 2 weeks of backfill for Justin and any necessary backfill for Mark if needed - we will pay for this. Justin is teaching as of Jan 30 and Mark at end of Feb.
- Stefan, Craig, Justin and Mark to work together to develop immersive activities (keeping Dale in the loop too - Dale will be busy on other projects at that time)
- Activities developed will depend on availability of web in prim feature within OpenSim. If it's not ready, we will have to adjust activities a little.
- Focus on developing in-world activities *and assessment* for three subjects previously targeted: OH&S, Sustainability and Building Docs and Plans.
- Activities to be immersive, where students do or make stuff ,and where there is a sequence of events with consequences for doing (or not) things right
- Assessment to take the form of in-world question-answer tests, to be collected by PushLMS (basically in-world versions of current paper tests)
- USB Stick functionality to be incorporated into project as a subset of activities in trial form eg some activities could be delivered by USB and undertaken individually by students in their own time or in lab. Possibly also some assessment could take place via USB if results can be fed back into PushLMS. But will see how this pans out.
- Plan of delivery worked out in consultation with Daniel
After Feb 2011:
- follow-up week of tweaking/redevelopment undertaken with the team. May involve more backfill
Today - first day of Construction trial
Hello from Newport campus.
First group of 6 pre-app students is busy building their houses. All v engaged, chose not to take smoko like last time.
Six boys, 16-17 yo. Nobody's a gamer. (Two staff are!) Don't do 3D, just Facebook etc. But all seemed to take to OpenSim - flying, walking, avatar creation straight away.
As far as building goes, ability varies. One guy is a whiz, the guy next to him much slower. Being helped by his neighbour. But by now (10.15 am, about 90 mins after starting) all are building houses on plans - not many questions being asked at all, getting on with it.
Should note that helping Dale today are Craig and James. Going smoothly for this reason - Dale not running around trying to snswer all manner of requests.
Teachers: Daniel wants to embed with all students next year. Justin and Mark (staff) v keen. Mark here too. Will be running new 'TradeApps' pre App program next year. Advantage - will know students, will have been working with them. Also working with Trade Colleges (TTCs), delivering at Keilor Downs (?)
Issues that have come up:
- Justin: not enough time to really work on this idea properly. Too much on.
- Dale: technology issues, getting system to work - only just really working properly this week. Has limited scope to do activities planned. Lesson: don't be too ambitious about scope.
- logistics: Hayden (teacher) quit half way through, delays meant not being able to deliver to previously planned groups (ie now preapps only) at end of year, so had to squeeze sessions into 2 hour blocks (students finish in 2 weeks). Also meant that not working with groups that Justin teaches, doesn't know students, what they've learned/been assessed for and when
- web in prim feature (putting webpages within OpenSim) still not available. So we're still using previous version of PushLMS (dialogue box). Web in prim has been promised by OpenSim OS developers by Xmas. This has menat we haven't been able to deliver everything we had planned in terms of activities.
- testing: after discussing activities in place, we have decided to only test for understanding of OH&S rather than Sustainability and Blg Docs and Plans as well, because the latter two activities are underdeveloped (other option is question/answer exercises, but this isn't really too meaningful since they do this on paper already...is basically sugar coating rather than truly new learning). SO giving all students OH&S question sheet at end of first general session (don't want to hit them with paper sheet as they arrive, [possibility of negatively influencing engagement), and then after OH&S session in Week 2.
First group of 6 pre-app students is busy building their houses. All v engaged, chose not to take smoko like last time.
Six boys, 16-17 yo. Nobody's a gamer. (Two staff are!) Don't do 3D, just Facebook etc. But all seemed to take to OpenSim - flying, walking, avatar creation straight away.
As far as building goes, ability varies. One guy is a whiz, the guy next to him much slower. Being helped by his neighbour. But by now (10.15 am, about 90 mins after starting) all are building houses on plans - not many questions being asked at all, getting on with it.
Should note that helping Dale today are Craig and James. Going smoothly for this reason - Dale not running around trying to snswer all manner of requests.
Teachers: Daniel wants to embed with all students next year. Justin and Mark (staff) v keen. Mark here too. Will be running new 'TradeApps' pre App program next year. Advantage - will know students, will have been working with them. Also working with Trade Colleges (TTCs), delivering at Keilor Downs (?)
Issues that have come up:
- Justin: not enough time to really work on this idea properly. Too much on.
- Dale: technology issues, getting system to work - only just really working properly this week. Has limited scope to do activities planned. Lesson: don't be too ambitious about scope.
- logistics: Hayden (teacher) quit half way through, delays meant not being able to deliver to previously planned groups (ie now preapps only) at end of year, so had to squeeze sessions into 2 hour blocks (students finish in 2 weeks). Also meant that not working with groups that Justin teaches, doesn't know students, what they've learned/been assessed for and when
- web in prim feature (putting webpages within OpenSim) still not available. So we're still using previous version of PushLMS (dialogue box). Web in prim has been promised by OpenSim OS developers by Xmas. This has menat we haven't been able to deliver everything we had planned in terms of activities.
- testing: after discussing activities in place, we have decided to only test for understanding of OH&S rather than Sustainability and Blg Docs and Plans as well, because the latter two activities are underdeveloped (other option is question/answer exercises, but this isn't really too meaningful since they do this on paper already...is basically sugar coating rather than truly new learning). SO giving all students OH&S question sheet at end of first general session (don't want to hit them with paper sheet as they arrive, [possibility of negatively influencing engagement), and then after OH&S session in Week 2.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Today's Building Design trial
Dale and I have started the building design trial today in the computer lab at Newport. To note initially:
- only 3 students have come in. (It's a beautiful day outside and the end of the year, and this is an optional activity)
- James H from Melbourne Grammar School is also here to provide technical server support.
- the students are two females and one male. The two females are mothers - and apparently the leaders of the class, which has 3 females and 20 males.
- after some concern about the internet speed, it is now apparent that the Newport lab speed is now excellent (see previous post) so we're using the lab machines instead of the laptops and modems. One of those unpredictable variables...
- the 'web in prim' function in OpenSim is not ready yet - the open source developers have not completed this function, which is up in Second Life. One of the issues with working with Open Source...deadlines are sometimes unpredictable. Instead, Dale has gone back to the previous version of the PushLMS, and the questions provided by Sue in the in-world assessment exercise (to happen after lunch) appear in a dialog box rather than on the clipboard. You need to be nimble, adaptable and able to probelm-solve on the spot in this space (which may make some more risk-adverse educators nervous)
- so far, two of the students seem to be very engaged in OpenSim - Dale is currently showing them the ropes. The third, the male, came in later after a dental appointment and after some cajoling by the other two students.
- the morning session happening now is the virtual world intro...Dale is going through avatar modification and building
- before we started this morning, a couple of unrelated students were in the lab and a teacher. One of the students (male) was immediately drawn to the virtual world and wanted to try it out - no prompting involved.
- both female students were familiar with computers, Autocad etc. Male student also (inc social networking)....he'd also done a multimedia course and knows 3d software such as 3d studio max. One female used to work in advertising. None of the students play computer games for recreation. Male said Second Life 'isn't really his thing'.
- only 3 students have come in. (It's a beautiful day outside and the end of the year, and this is an optional activity)
- James H from Melbourne Grammar School is also here to provide technical server support.
- the students are two females and one male. The two females are mothers - and apparently the leaders of the class, which has 3 females and 20 males.
- after some concern about the internet speed, it is now apparent that the Newport lab speed is now excellent (see previous post) so we're using the lab machines instead of the laptops and modems. One of those unpredictable variables...
- the 'web in prim' function in OpenSim is not ready yet - the open source developers have not completed this function, which is up in Second Life. One of the issues with working with Open Source...deadlines are sometimes unpredictable. Instead, Dale has gone back to the previous version of the PushLMS, and the questions provided by Sue in the in-world assessment exercise (to happen after lunch) appear in a dialog box rather than on the clipboard. You need to be nimble, adaptable and able to probelm-solve on the spot in this space (which may make some more risk-adverse educators nervous)
- so far, two of the students seem to be very engaged in OpenSim - Dale is currently showing them the ropes. The third, the male, came in later after a dental appointment and after some cajoling by the other two students.
- the morning session happening now is the virtual world intro...Dale is going through avatar modification and building
- before we started this morning, a couple of unrelated students were in the lab and a teacher. One of the students (male) was immediately drawn to the virtual world and wanted to try it out - no prompting involved.
- both female students were familiar with computers, Autocad etc. Male student also (inc social networking)....he'd also done a multimedia course and knows 3d software such as 3d studio max. One female used to work in advertising. None of the students play computer games for recreation. Male said Second Life 'isn't really his thing'.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
message from Patrick - proposed change is fine with Dale and Stefan
message from Patrick last Thursday 28 October:
Hi Team,
I had a chat to our prospective participants yesterday.
After much negotiating (which included the offer of pizzas for lunch) they have agreed to do one long session on the 17th Nov.
The session on the 10th was at a critical point in their assignment/test program.
I am proposing that we now have them for 4-5 hours so that we can give them the initial orientation, a break and the then institute the formal process to facilitate the review.
Proposed hours are 10-12 and then 1-4.
Can you please indicate if this can be accommodated.
Cheers
Patrick
Patrick White
Program Manager
Advanced Building Studies
Hi Team,
I had a chat to our prospective participants yesterday.
After much negotiating (which included the offer of pizzas for lunch) they have agreed to do one long session on the 17th Nov.
The session on the 10th was at a critical point in their assignment/test program.
I am proposing that we now have them for 4-5 hours so that we can give them the initial orientation, a break and the then institute the formal process to facilitate the review.
Proposed hours are 10-12 and then 1-4.
Can you please indicate if this can be accommodated.
Cheers
Patrick
Patrick White
Program Manager
Advanced Building Studies
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