Push Development Blog

Building Design Treasure Hunt feedback

2011-11-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

Building Design Treasure Hunt feedback

Class Focus Group, Wednesday, ‎24 ‎May ‎2011, ‏‎9.30am (one week after trial)

Ignoring all the issues on the day, what do you think of the concept in principle?

· Waste a lot of petrol going around to all the houses, has to be a car involved. Besides that, great idea because seeing stuff straight up front. Get idea of texture of house that wouldn’t get off photo.
· Would be better if lot of it situated on one street that has variety of house styles
· Privacy perspective: issues with students turning up outside houses in a group? Residents would be a bit freaked out? (Teacher: used to it? We do this already)
· Could be centred around a few streets or a block. Areas where could walk from one to the other
· Do it in a warmer season? (Facilitator: project had to be completed by June; no choice this time!)
· Using our own phones a bit difficult. Could there be a supply of phones that are already charged? (Facilitator: logistics of project: sudden doubling of group numbers led to phones running out). After 3 hours of using, phone power runs out for some, need to use it for rest of the day.
· People used various phones, had varying speeds of downloading and responding etc

How could it be done better?

· Need to double check that things are in the right spots (teacher: Google lied to me about some locations) (facilitator: lesson is that anything involving geography, have to go there in person beforehand, next time should do it together so get tech and subject knowledge at same time, we can’t assume knowledge of other)
· Do it on bike? (some disagreement in group; how to carry all the stuff?)
· Have options such as ABCD, not just A and B; most of answers were A so were just selecting first one (facilitator: was technical slip, have adjusted system for next time)

What are benefits with doing this with phones and GPS, assuming everything is working fine (or just as good on paper with photocopied map)?

· With paper, can check and have details, server crashing etc won’t be problem
· If no tech issues, phone/GPS is easier. Can just touch option, don’t have to spend time writing down answers.
· Would have been easier to incorporate GPS into next address (don’t have to search yourself for address, does it automatically on phone, tells you how to get there, rather than having to get Melways out)
· In today’s society, technological stuff is so much more used than paper. (Facilitator: feel more comfortable with phone and piece of paper? Answer from one student: yes)

If you just had a list on paper to circle without having to write anything down, would that have made it easier than using the phone or as easy?

· With paper, will still be same order for everyone. With phone, can randomise, more challenging, be harder than everyone having same order. (Can swap notes; find each other).

Did people use own phones with Google Maps to find their way around? If so, did it work?

· I used GPS device in car
· Would have been nice to go backwards - once put answer into device, that’s it, couldn’t change it, couldn’t go backwards
· Yes/no buttons – easy to press wrong ones. Buttons too close together, can touch other one by mistake.
· You needed a group in car (more than two): one person to hold the textbook, one person to have phone, one to have GPS, one to drive

Would you have liked it to be a competition?

· Would have been good, but can’t do it in a car
· Walking would have been good as a competition – challenging, funny. Only have 10-15 questions, reduce number of styles (facilitator: yes, one thing we’ve learned is that it was probably too long, and took longer than we thought to get to places and get answers)

Any other thoughts?

· Use the GPS to help get around.
· Let us choose next location to go to – there were times you would have to go back from street no. 50 to no. 40 (facilitator: if design was such that you didn’t have to go back and forth, would that solve this? Student: probably)
· Even tell us how many we’ve got left to go, which one we’re up to.
· Yes, be nice to know how we’re going, even to have score up in the corner. Or a progress bar.
· There was one point where the address was on a corner and we got it wrong because house was on opposite corner. Maybe choose houses where numbers are in view so it’s not so confusing. (mentioned another example of confusion with house numbers)
· Need to have address and quiz options with right question on the same page. ). Address used to disappear once went to question option screen. (facilitator: has been fixed)
· Instead of style of house specifically, could ask about different elements of styles, such as roof elements. (teacher: could be quite challenging, love to be able to identify things straight up, but suspect would take a longer)

If were walking, would having text book with you be a challenge, juggle phones, books etc?

· In groups, would work.

We were wondering if to do this in groups or individually

· Too hard as individuals. Can’t hold everything.
· And individually there’s nothing to challenge you to learn (teacher: they learn from each other).

What’s an ideal group number if walking?

· Four or so. Could always have six. But then would be more arguing so takes longer.
· And if driving would need to take two cars.
· Three wouldn’t work if driving if have GPS separate from question phone and text book. Someone to hold book, someone to direct driver to address, someone to drive, someone to relate questions.

Teacher: idea of app for text book. What do people think?

· General consensus it’s a good idea.

Project facilitator note:

· Need to note: unexpected/unforseen combining of two groups on same day due to sudden timetabling changes. This doubled student numbers, caused issues with availability of phones and server loads, hence crashing of server. Hence also caused significant delays for groups – staggered starts meant some groups didn’t leave till 4pm. We were lucky that these students were very mature and patient. Lesson: try to make sure there are no surprises on the tech front caused by sudden changes at the program end.

Construction simulation trial 2011: student interview results

2011-09-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Unity version of the construction set of exercises is up and running and Mark has completed his paper workbook that goes along with it.

So this week we tried it out on two student groups. Went pretty well - here are the results of interviews with 19 construction pre-apps immediately after completing the simulation task series. Undertaken in groups of 1 to 4. All were male, aged 16 - 18.

Of 19 interviewed:

Experience with computers? 14
Consider yourself a gamer? 8
Do you use computers for:
- social networking: 17
- consuming media (eg video): 12
- playing games: 4

Had experience with construction work sites? 16
Helped to set up a work site before? 5

Expectations before starting course:
none/don't know: 16
fun because it's a game: 2
sounded interesting because was different: 1

Did you enjoy it? 19
Comments: 'better than writing up'

Do you feel more confident:
- going into a construction workplace? 16
Comments: 'you know what's there...hazards and that'/'not really'
- picking out OH&S hazards? 18
Comment: 'has made them easier to identify'
- setting up a work site? 18
- filling in a Safe Work Method Statement? 9
Comments: 'have already done this'/'our teacher has done it for us'/'same as what I already knew'
- reading building plans and documents? 18
Comment: 'same...knew this already'

Would you like to do other forms of learning in this way? 14
Comments: 'prefer something more hands on'/'it's good because it's hands on'

Next steps with construction project/moving to Unity

2011-07-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

Met this morning with Dale and Daniel from VU Construction. Important points to note:

- following the dev team's successful trial in Unity on Monday we will be moving from OpenSim to Unity for the construction and subsequent projects. All trade development from here to be undertaken under the umbrella of 'Tradesim': http://www.tradesim.com.au/. Looking to work with Mark O'Rourke on his games stuff in Unity in future. There are a number of pros and cons with Unity but it looks overwhelmingly positive in the final analysis, especially easier deployment on the ground (web browser-based delivery, also works with USB 1&2 as no need to have on-board web server on data stick as per OpenSim). Dale is compiling full list of pros and cons.

- PushLMS will be transformed from a standalone product to a plugin for Moodle.

- Unity version of construction world will be ready for this year's construction trial. Dale met with Mark (teacher) yesterday to finalise in-world details and to revise delivery plans. A few small changes - the 'points' system will change to money...sts can earn or lose money. Brings element of competition into doing the exercise.

- we will trial 1-2 groups (of 12-15 sts each) in last week of term before holidays (September 26 - 30). if this works out smoothly, will deliver on wider scale to other groups in first week back (October 10 - 14). Possibility of us not being involved in second delivery - hands off, may just run by itself so only construction teachers needed hopefully.

- discussed wider distribution and promotion of Tradesim. Will be based on partnership with Oztron, which ownd Tradesim. Managed by WERC. We will invite other institutions' trades programs to be involved and will work out licensing model to keep it sustainable.

Snapshot of builds for Tradesim from Tung

2011-07-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Some of our builds for the new Tradesim world.

Download the construction simulator

2011-06-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a downloadable version of our construction sim.

To get this working;

Download and unzip the opensim files. This is the world.
Download and install the Imprudence viewer. This is the software you use to look at the world.
In the opensim>bin directory, run the file Opensim.32bitlaunch.exe. Let this load for a couple of minutes until the console window stops moving.
Load the Imprudence viewer. Log in using the username 'test user.' Leave the password field blank. Set the Grid to 'localhost.'
You should now be in the Isle of VU.

Music venue treasure hunt trial

2011-05-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

Music venue treasure hunt trial

Yesterday two of us met with students from the Victoria University VET music performance program for the music mobile trial. This treasure hunt took the students on a tour of Melbourne music venues in the CBD, ranging from the Palace in Bourke St to the Cherry Bar in ACDC Lane.

This trial did not use GPS because of the difficulty of getting GPS to work well in the CBD. Instead the screens gave students directions to the next venue on the phone (and we also gave them a photocopy of the map below). Once arriving at the venue, the system asked the students between 2-4 questions per venue, and also asked them to take a photo of the venue. At the end, the system presented the group with a pie chart showing the percentage of right and wrong questions. There were no time delays for getting questions wrong - we were conscious of not turning this into a race given the potential dangers of the CBD streets.

Originally we had planned to undertake OH&S and PA/technical audits inside the venues, but then the music staff realised that this would have taken a lot of advance planning to organise, given that many venues are closed during the day (and also given that the program manager was on leave during the prep time and the rest of the staff were stretched for time). Instead, they created questions to be answered from the street outside the venue. Our team then tested the questions the day before and further honed them - this was a good move because quite a few questions still could not be answered by students in their original form (eg 'does the venue have an in-house piano?'

On the day we all met at the Arts Centre. There were 12 students present - three groups of four each. After some instructions from us, the students were given their paper based maps (as seen below) and devices preloaded with the login page. (they chose two iPads and one iPhone...these are maybe seen as sexier? More motivating? More familiar?). They were very keen to get started.

Students were then asked to enter their student IDs but told they could also use their names. We soon discovered the system had not been designed to handle spaces between names. The issue was quickly bypassed by using first names or concatenating both names, and then we were off.

The system was configured so that every group started with the Arts Centre questions (they had been given a tour prior to meeting us). After this initial question set, each group was assigned to a different circuit around the city to minimise the likelihood of groups turning up the venues in a mass, swapping notes, students tagging along uninvolved etc. The venues were arranged in an approximate loop (see map), with groups starting at different points on that loop.

The groups then set out on their journeys. The two of us selected a group each to tag along with and we shot some footage of students answering questions along the way using Flip cameras. One of the groups was temporarily stalled due to connection issues which we would find out later were to haunt them through the entire course of the journey.

One of us comments: the first location was an easy one since we were already there, we simply needed to take the elevator down stairs and snap a photo of the stage door before we could proceed with the next questions. The group of students whose party I had joined were very eager to take photos of one and other which I found rather humorous to say the least. It was great to see them so excited about doing an assignment and having FUN!

The students received instant feedback on how they were doing and were eager to answer questions correctly. Questions were either yes/no (see above) or multiple choice (see below)

At the end, students received a chart of results:

One of us comments: The feeling I received from the students was that they really enjoyed participating in the trial. They liked using the technology and found it a great way to discover venues in Melbourne that were tucked away and would have otherwise gone unexplored.

The other of us comments: Similarly, students were motivated by the technology and by the location-based treasure hunt idea. As performance students many said they found it useful to encounter potential workplaces that they hadn't known existed. Group dynamics in a group of 4 worked well, with students keen to discuss potential answers. They cared about getting the right answers, and were keen to see their score at the end (note - the group that had technical difficulties stuck around afterwards when we met up to complete the trial questions - without having gone to all the venues - so they could find out their score). The negatives expressed by the group were that some questions could have been a little more challenging and relevant (they also mentioned that they would have liked to have seen inside the venues), the course was long (two hours of solid walking) and some interface elements could be improved (options being too close together leading to the wrong one being pressed...this was on the iPad... and no back button).

The group with technical issues had the iPhone. They were troubled by connection issues that haunted them the entire leg of the journey. This shows that the iPads are more effective in such locations, possibly due to larger antennas and receptors (this was also the case with the GPS for the last trial). One of us briefly tested the Android phone and this was worst of all.

The system is designed to continue from where the connection drops off, but for this group it kept restarting the assessment from the beginning. We think that this is due to one or more students entering their names differently (even one character) to the original logins, so that the system didn't recognise this as continuing the previous session. Surprisingly these students were extremely keen to stay back and finish the assessment to find out what all the answers were.

In summary:

- engagement levels were high due to the technology and the location-based treasure hunt elements

- discovery element of venues was stated as being useful for their careers

- questions need to be meaningful and tested thoroughly. If not, it's frustrating.

- we need to make sure everyone types in the same thing every time when resuming sessions (maybe stick to student ids next time?, not names?)

- iPads work better than iPhones and much better than Android phones for constant connectivity in the CBD. They're also better in a group because everyone can see the screen and debate/compare notes

Students, where are you for our second trial?

2011-05-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

After deciding it wasn't the best option to go 'cold calling' on students in the VU Footscray library to take part in our library treasure hunt trial, we thought we'd find a class of first year students from that campus.

So we emailed three colleagues in Education - no response.

So after testing and refining the questions created by the student rovers, we coordinated with a Student Support person for a group of seven students to do the exercise. We bought them two movie tickets each, as suggested by the Student Support person.

And then we waited at the appointed place at 1pm today...and waited. No students - and the support person didn't know where they were either (he had emailed them the day before with confirmation, directions and my mobile number)

Argh.

We later found out that this student support person was in transition and this was his last day on that job. So possibly some issues there. In the meantime, we'll need to find some more students, and write off today.

This, however, has reinforced our finding that working with other program areas can be difficult, that there are other things going on in their areas and their focus may be elsewhere. And perhaps that movie tickets aren't such a strong incentive these days (we had been thinking of an iPod Shuffle as a prize)

Mobile Geo Location Tutorial

2011-05-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Newport Trial

2011-05-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today we performed the first full scale trail of the mobile geo location quiz. Two groups of students had be brought together to perform the online assessment. We provided two iPads, two iPhone 3Gs and 2 Samsung Galaxy Ss for student’s to use. Students were also encouraged to use their own devices provided they were equipped with GPS and WebKit/HTML5 compatible web browsers. A group of students soon emerged iPhones in hand. A number of students also had BlackBerrys which we were surprised to find appeared to have a WebKit based web browser and rendered the application as beautifully as Safari or the Android Browser.

The students were given the URL to enter into their phones and then organised into groups. Everything appeared to be working and we concluded it was safe to send all the students out at once. The production team then returned to the command centre we had erected in the conference room where we prepared to watch the students’ progress via the tracking application. A number of lines had started forming on the map when we received our first phone call. It appeared that a group of students had run into a problem with one of the iPads displaying a blank page. Dale and I went outside to meet with this group to help troubleshoot the problem when we began receiving similar reports from other students.

Upon returning to the command centre we became aware that the server we were hosting both the application and the database on had been brought to its knees by the traffic being generated by the devices. While the downloads from all the devices were not excessive, the tracking code was uploading coordinates to the server every few seconds from over 10 devices. This was likely the cause for the server crashing. While we waited for the students to return to base we attempted to migrate the application to another server, this would have worked had the database not still been on the server which had been brought down. While the students waited patiently we restarted the server and waited for it to come back up.

Taking on-board the lessons from the first attempt we decided to stagger the next set of tests and send out one group at a time limiting them to one device per group to minimise server load. This approach appeared to work and the server remained active for the remainder of the tests. One of our team members who went out with the first group to document the test reported back that the application was placing the correct answer at the top of each multiple choice. This bug was something new that hadn’t been encountered during any of our previous testing and has been resolved by randomising the order of the questions each time they are loaded. The test took over an hour and a half to complete due to the number of locations, 20 in all and the students needing to stop an analyse each location to assess the correct response. The number of questions could have been reduced as there was one style that was repeated and some questions which could have been removed.

Due to the length of the test and the reliance the 3G and GPS which are two of the most battery intensive components on a phone aside from the screen, the battery depleted for one of the groups. Luckily they had a spare BlackBerry from which they could log back in and resume the test. It would have been good to provide the students with in car chargers to mitigate the chances the running out of power.

Some of the students commented that they could have done just as well with a paper based assessment and map of the circuit. This has led us to ponder the advantages of the platforms we have employed. Besides the integrated nature of the app, tracking and instant reporting it does appear that the test could have been conducted as successfully with an analogue paper based model. Another option could have been a desk based assessment using Google Street View or similar service.

First trial today: Building Design in Williamstown

2011-05-11T05:11:00.001-07:00

Today we undertook our first trial with Advanced Diploma of Building Design students at Newport campus. This was a GPS-based activity, where students braved the blustery weather in groups and car-pooled to a series of 20 buildings around Williamstown, where they had to choose the building style. When they got to within GPS range of the location (accuracy varied according to the device type), the PushLMS system sent a question with 3-5 multiple choice answers to the group's device. Once answered, the system sent a new site address to the group.

So, did it work?

Well, yes...and no as well. A number of factors came into play today, which I will explain shortly. Some we had control over, and some we didn't. What follows is the story of what happened today.

The tech guys got to Newport at 8.15am to do a last test of the GPS tracking and system in general. All good, notwithstanding the fact that we had only just got hold of iPads and iPhones to bolster the range of devices we were testing.

We had arranged to meet the students at 9.15am in the Newport foyer - ostensibly 15 or so students who would form groups of three and to whom we would give a device each. But when we got there, twice as many students were waiting - another teacher had fallen sick, so the decision had been made (unbeknownst to us) to combine the planned class with another we had originally planned to test with too, but for which the timing hadn't worked out.

Some students had their own iPhones so we set them up on the system - in the end we only used four of our devices, even though there were now eight or nine groups of three to five students.

Students were quite excited and some were keen to get into it. But they were patient too as we had to spend some time sorting out the bedlam of phones, groups and student logins with the unexpectedly large number of students.

So off the groups went. I went 'embedded' in a car with one group. We turned up at the first address listed on the device, with 30A as the house number. But the number wasn't to be found, and the house the GPS was pointing to said 28. All the groups were then trying to figure out where 30A was (it was indeed meant to be no 28). Apparently this was due to variations in official records of house numbers supplied by staff to our team. The lesson here is that, although our team had tested locations' GPS tracking the week before, we had not done such real-life testing of locations together with the Building Design staff. This would have picked up the discrepancy.

Then the system abruptly decided to stop working - our PushLMS server had crashed. Students were wandering around the street trying to get the GPS to generate the multiple choice options. A few frantic phone calls to base and we decided to herd everyone back to the campus while the team tried to solve the problem (which ended up being server overloading as two or three students per group had tried to access the system). The lesson: we need to do more server load testing. Although we had tested for 3-4 devices at once, we were not prepared for such a big group, and especially not for multiple students logging in with their own devices too.

Once back at campus, the students took a break while the team got the server up again. We prepared a hard copy version of the questions just in case (which really we should have done in advance as a Plan B). Once up, the team decided to release groups to the site one at a time in a staggered manner to not overload the server. This worked, but lengthened the time to undertake the activity and also meant that some groups were waiting for quite a while before they were able to do the activity.

So off I went again, this time with the first group to go. Here's what I observed 'on the road':

- the activity basically worked very well. Students were actively discussing building styles and referring to the text book as they parked near each building to get the list of question options on their device.

- it took longer than expected. The group I was with took over 90 minutes to do 12 of the 20 questions (until one stuent had to leave to pick up her child)

- there was some confusion about directions on how to get to the next site. Ideally we should have included a paper map with sites marked rather then relying on Google Maps on students' mobiles.

- there appeared to be some glitches in our system such as (in our group's case) the correct answer appearing on the top of the list for most questions. Also one or two questions seemed wrong or impossible to answer (again, which a joint staff-tech test would have uncovered), which threw the students somewhat. A student also suggested that an 'undo' button and ability to go back to check addresses would have been useful.

- students were unsure and anxious about whether or not they were being assessed on their responses to the questions (this was also compounded by the glitches listed above). It seems this was maybe not made clear to them in advance. Apparently attendance was compulsory to pass, but beyond that nobody seemed to know what was or wasn't being assessed.

- at least two students using their own phones ran out of power during the exercise

The big lesson

The big lesson, though, appears to be our assumption of the centrality of mobiles and GPS to this activity. Students pointed out that perhaps a list of sites and questions on paper plus a photocopied Melways map would have worked just as well, and maybe better (ability to plan, no crashes etc). This is strangely ironic because it was the mobile capability of PushLMS that led to this activity being devised in the first place!

Our assumption had been that the GPS-generated questions and the 'treasure hunt' element (not knowing in advance where the next site would be) would be engaging for students. Indeed, they may have been, given their enthusiasm at the outset and their keenness to play with the GPS capability of the system (its reading of distance in metres from sites). But although (being a thankfully good-natured group) they seemed to still retain their enthusiasm after the initial server crash and the waiting around, it is possible to see how anticipation can easily lead to disengagement if the technology isn't working as it should. Most of the 10 or so students I spoke to afterwards suggested that paper would have been easier and better.

Which makes the entire mobile-GPS proposition possibly redundant, even though the activity was praised by all students as worthwhile for their learning. In retrospect this seems quite obvious. But that's looking back, in keeping with what Fisschoff (1975) calls ‘creeping determinism’; the sense that solutions can seem obvious or even inevitable in retrospect, summarised by Malcolm Gladwell (2003) as “What is clear in hindsight is rarely clear before the fact.”

So. we've learned a lot today, including:

- don't get seduced by the technology. Sometimes simpler options will do the job as well or better (we usually know that, but it got us this time!) In this case, there was no time trial involved or competition, so no real benefit to using mobiles except for the gee-whizzery of having a question appear when at a location and perhaps collating results and student locations on the fly (as opposed to the library trial, which will involve holding back questions on the mobiles for a minute when previous questions are answered incorrectly)

- Apple devices read HTML5-based GPS much better. The tablets are by far the best, possibly due to their size and therefore antenna size

- our project assumption (for pragmatic resourcing reasons) about focusing on the tech stuff and letting program areas develop and supply content is blatantly wrong and doesn't work. These projects need to be developed and tested hand-in-hand with subject areas throughout the devt phase. It's very hard for VET teachers who are constantly pushed for time - projects like this are just one more extra activity to fit in. As a result (and we've found this with all the areas we've worked with) activities tend to not be fully thought through and checked carefully, despite teachers' enthusiasm and best intentions.

iPad Surprise

2011-05-09T22:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Stefan surprised us with two iPad’s he managed to acquire from Victoria University for use in this project. We were incredibly grateful to be able to make use of them as we now have enough devices for tomorrow’s final test.

The devices needed SIM cards before we could test them and today Stefan came around to the office to pick up the new SIM cards with me. Within a few minutes the SIMs were activated and we were up and running. Stefan dashed off to pick up two more iPhones for tomorrows test leaving me to test our shiny new devices.

Now the team are not known for being big fans of Apple products and we didn’t think too much of the iPads at first. That was until I got them out onto the street to find out what their made of. I was instantly blow away by the lightning speed with which the device found and connected to a satellite, it was literally seconds as opposed to the minute or two we would sometimes wait for the mobiles to connect. I dismissed this performance as being a result of a hot start, Apple being the company they are was probably already tracking the device from the instant we turned it on.

I was now walking towards the first location when I received the next big shock. While the mobile devices updated the location between 10 and 30 seconds apart the iPad was updating every second! The GPS reception didn’t drop out even once and the distance remained consistent all the way to the destination. When I got there I was able to get to within a meter of the coordinates. I guess all that extra space came in handy and Apple decided to put a real GPS antenna inside the device. While I’m no more impressed by the device over all, the GPS performance was second to none, the best I have seen to date.

No Turning Back

2011-05-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

To help prevent against cheating or accidental button pressing during the assessments we have had to disable AJAX support on the JQuery Mobile framework. This feature is designed to pre-load the next page and slide it into view with a lovely JavaScript animation. Unfortunately this caching of pages proves a hindrance when creating a quiz with an aim of preventing the user from going back after receiving the result of their answer or accidentally refreshing the page.

We wanted the user to be able resume the assessment in the event that they do accidentally press back, reload the page or the device/application crashes. While disabling AJAX was the first step towards this goal, we discovered yet another form of caching native to most modern mobile browsers which is not currently being used by their desktop counterparts. This caching means that when a user does press back rather than reloading the previous page it simply moves back to it as though they never left without running through the code or reloading scripts. Since this form of caching cannot be disabled under any of the mobile web browsers, this has meant our resuming redirection script cannot be triggered simply on page load but must also be activated by pressing a button, so while refreshing will redirect the user back to the question they were up to, if they go back they must proceed before they are redirected.

While it was a little tricky to implement and has exposed a number of shortcomings of the mobile web platform, our workarounds appear to be working well and will provide a safeguard against this form of cheating or accidental button pressing.

Multi Device Trail

2011-05-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today Dale and I took the Samsung out for a tour of Williamstown. The GPS tracking was quite smooth and we didn't encounter any problems.

We soon discovered that the order the questions had been provided in did not generate a circuit track but rather had us zig zagging back and forth between Williamstown and Newport.

We were sure to enable the tracking application before we left the office but discovered upon our return that when switching between the Mobile Geo location Application and the Google Maps application, the tracking data would stop being transmitted.

We have now been left to consider the best approach for mapping, the current options include an analogue paper based map, Google Maps/Latitude or an integrated map built into the application mitigating the need to minimise the browser.

We had the distinct pleasure of demoing the application to Howard from Flexible learning who was sporting a new Motorola Android device and a lovely red sweater. In configuring his device for the journey we learned that setting your default web browser to Opera can make using the application rather difficult as Opera takes over regardless of the web browser the address was entered from. Since the Opera browser lacks support for the JQuery Mobile framework we have utilised we were unable to use his device.

Below is a screenshot of the built in tracking which helps to illustrate our adventure. The Sony Xperia demonstrated a near perfect line tracing our journey from location to location. The Motorola running Opera traced a faint line outside our office before disappearing from the game altogether. The strangest of all was the line traced by the Samsung Galaxy which continuously defaulted to an obscure point in the distance every time it lost the satellite reception signal.

We also found once again that metal roofs interfere with the GPS signal, some phone faring better than others. The Samsung’s response can be seen above. This resulted in interesting jumps in suggested distance from the location as we drew closer. The Sony had a steady decline updating every few seconds, the Samsung lagging behind and surprising us with spikes of hundreds of meters.

Message from Justin with GPS test results

2011-04-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Ran some more tests with my phone and the galaxy and also borrowed Kaan's for a test run too.

The Xperia seems to be the most accurate and updates the most.

The iphone is very close behind in accuracy although appears to update less frequently (still very good)

The galaxy I think is a lost cause.. both inaccurate and slow update time.

Sean has the result recorded including a drawing of the gps path for each test, I'll post the link so you can view it.

http://s1.pharmatopia.monash.edu/track/map.html

Red & Yellow: Xperia

Blue & Aqua: Galaxy

Purple: iPhone

Perhaps we should try the HTC Desire? If not maybe look at getting another Xperia but not from footscray.

The Gingerbread Trails

2011-04-06T17:49:00.001-07:00

After optimising Android 2.1 (Éclair) to the nth degree we decided to take the leap and trail Android 2.3.2 (Gingerbread) due to its alleged GPS performance improvements on the Samsung Galaxy S. Because Samsung have yet to release the official update to Android 2.2 (Froyo) for our particular device let alone the new Gingerbread firmware, we were forced to go with an official yet unreleased firmware and flash it onto the device using Odin 1.7.

After an initial scare where the phone became temporarily bricked due to Samsung Keis processes still running in the background of my computer, we were able to recover the update and the phone booted up in the new OS. Aside from all the shiny new improvements the stock GPS settings were very similar to the optimisations which I had previously applied under Éclair.

Prior to the upgrading to Gingerbread, Éclair on the Galaxy S was tested alongside Éclair running on the Sony Xperia and confirmed not only that the GPS on the Xperia was infinitely better, but that we had achieved an enormous improvement with the Galaxy S over its stock GPS files and default factory configuration. When we reached the location the Xperia remained locked to the position while the Galaxy S would drift 5-15m, this was an enormous improvement over the 100m drift we experienced originally.

For the Gingerbread trails we went to the extra effort of developing a web application using the Google Maps API's to trace the journey (images of this will be up soon.) We also added upon the location test we had developed to trigger event messages once we got within range of the destination location. What we found was that the accuracy hasn't changed much while the refresh rate seems to have suffered slightly. One big improvement however was we no longer received error messages if the device lost its position, so from a usability perspective Gingerbread seems more desirable. We will be performing further tests today and will be posting some traced maps so stay tuned!

Optimising GPS on the Samsung Galaxy S

2011-04-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

With all the pretty stuff now out of the way we have now shifted our focus towards development. The first bridge to cross was implementing the HTML5 based geo location. We soon discovered that for all its awesomeness the Samsung Galaxy S doesn't fare so well as a GPS device with the factory configuration. To get the most out of this device we were going to need to look at ways of fine tuning the accuracy.

The first method we experimented with involved entering the hidden LbsTestMode menu by keying some numbers into the phone and then optimising the settings. This offered a small improvement but for the level of accuracy we require we needed to take things to the next level.

For the Galaxy S this meant flashing GPS files leaked from JI2 which would involve first rooting the device to gain super user access and then flashing a recovery manager onto the device. Now that the new GPS files have been successfully loaded onto the Galaxy we will be performing more testing and fine tuning alongside the development until we have achieved the desired results. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Browser War Resumes

2011-03-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

After testing the new template in the Opera Mobile browser we had originally decided on at the beginning of the project it soon became clear that we needed to revisit the browser war and evaluate our earlier decisions. While Opera Mobile was originally selected due to the apparent high level of support in the first HTML5 geo location tests we performed it has now become evident that this has come at a sacrifice as Opera displayed poor support for CSS3 and hence the beautiful UI I have generated is virtually unusable.

This has led us to re-explore some of our earlier options looking back on Mozilla Firefox 4 for Android which has now matured to its first release candidate, we also took another look at the default Android browser. At first glance Firefox rendered the UI almost as well as the default browser only the button gradients were missing and the transitions between pages.

While Firefox offers a great solution now that Opera is off the cards, we were keen to maintain all the visual beauty of the JQuery Mobile framework and set out to find a new geo location test that worked in the default browser. After some investigation we manage to accomplish this task and how achieved full compatibility and can now make use of the power WebKit Android browser. Below are some screenshots demonstrating just how different the new template looked in the Opera Mobile browser.

We're tablet ready and honeycomb looks sweet.

2011-03-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peak at how the new interface will look in the new tabbed web browser of Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

New Coat of Paint

2011-03-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

The new look and feel has now been finalised. it's designed to render device displays as small as the iPhone all the way up to table sized devices of 1024px and higher.

Mobile Framework Implimented

2011-03-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

To optimise usability within mobile web browsers we have decided to implement a mobile browser framework called JQuery Mobile. While JQuery mobile is still in development stages at the moment it provides a stable enough platform for our intended use. What you see in the images below was all achieved using this new framework in very little time.

Now Tweeting All New Posts

2011-03-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

We are now tweeting all our new posts to http://twitter.com/VirtualBuilders thanks to Twitterfeed! The service works by aggregating the RSS feed from this blog and posting the title, a truncated description and a tiny URL link to the post on our twitter page. Please be sure to follow us and be notified of any new developments.

Mobile Application Prototype

2011-03-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

With the new test bed device in hand we commenced development of the mobile application prototype, after only a few moments an oversight in the available screen resolution suddenly became apparent. Although the devices high capacity display outputs a resolution of 480x800, websites are handled by the mobile browsers at a default resolution of 320x480.

This still allows for ample real estate and only required a slight re-jigging of the design. Below are screen shots taken within the Firefox web browser under the Windows platform, but more or less represent the current output on the mobile devices.

Meeting today with Music staff re mobile project

2011-03-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today Adam and Steve talked to us about their question sets for the phone project.

Venue questions:

- structured around venue clusters, max of 3 venues per venue? Possibilities: Brunswick, Northcote, CBD, Fitzroy, St Kilda

- issues with access to PAs, desks etc, have to coordinate with venue owners. Will need to scout first to make it as easy as possible

Historical/current treasure hunt questions:

- AC/DC lane, Cherry Bar, Arts Centre etc. perhaps use a paper workbook as well for text input, as pr the construction project?

Next we took this to the students themselves (thanks Steve for that obvious suggestion). In a room with around 15 gathered music students, we gauged that the group seemed to be keen on the mobile idea in general, as well as a prize. They were keen on exploring venues and Melbourne's musical history in the CBD, as well as perhaps looking at music shops and studios.

Steve and Adam will get back to us in 2 weeks with a list of questions once they have formulated and tested them on a dummy run themselves.

Sony Xperias are evil, don't buy them, get a Samsung Galaxy S.

2011-03-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

After researching which phones were the best for our purposes, we came to the conclusion that the Sony Xperia was ideal.
Until we actually bought a few from the 'Phone Supermarket' down the road in Barkly St, and took them home to play with. This ended up being a wise move as we could then return them easily, which would have been a hassle if we got them online.

They are nasty, nasty pieces of work, not just bad but offensively so.

The Android operating system has been beaten up so badly it can no longer function, you start software and there is no way to actually quit. Neither is there a built in way to stop the programs running(you need to download an extra app for that, which I couldn't even manage to do).

My camera worked sporadically(the button to take pictures never actually worked, I had to change it to touch the screen to take shots) and I spent probably three or four hours just trying to get things working.

The software that installs on your pc to manage the phone is even more annoying, with a terrible interface and things like status bars which don't actually reflect your status, they just flash(similar to some microsoft programs).

It drove me mad, and Stefan had similar issues with his phone.

The next morning we returned them for the Samsung Galaxy S, which although a little more expensive has proven to be a great phone - everything just works out of the box. We also have had some difficulty with so-called 'unlocked' phones still being locked to a specific network.

Meeting with VU Building Design re mobile treasure hunt and virtual world activities

2011-02-23T15:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Dale and I met with Patrick White and Sue Habib from VU Building Design. It was a fruitful discussion, with the following outcomes:

A. Mobile phone project

- delivery set for shortly after return from Easter break, (Monday May 2nd for TAFE)
- will be to 2 groups of 18 students. Each group to have 6 teams of 3 students each using a phone. Class length is 3 hours.

- to be in the form of a competition. As per library, if wrong answer is chosen, 1 minute delay occurs before sts being able to try again. (Possibility of annoying animation/sound if they get it wrong?)

- up to 20 question sets. Each set to have initial multiple choice question about the building style. Some will have follow on questions, some not....this will depend on the complexity of the style and similarity to other styles.

- GPS to trigger questions when buildings are reasonably far apart. If too close, questions will be triggered by completion of previous set, with new instructions (eg...'go three houses down to 136 Williamstown Road')

- sts to refer to text book on location. Library has 15 copies.

- sts likely to car pool.

- we will work out a 'loop' of locations, with groups starting at random at various points until they complete the loop.

- everyone to meet up at a cafe afterwards?

B. Virtual world activity

- to occur in Semester 2 (times tbc)

- focus on building framing, trusses etc

- students to go into virtual world and answer questions on building houses, triggering animations of things being built (aka Construction). Likely to leverage construction buildings currently being built by Craig.

- Patrick to finalise assessment details for this activity

- possibility of sts observing entire process of house being built as animation. Could be in-world and/or exported as machinima, stills

- Patrick to develop exercise details by mid March

Battle of the mobile web browsers!

2011-02-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

Now that we have selected a winning device it was time to find the right web browser for the project. Android users are spoilt for choice when it comes to HTML5 compatible web browsers, with the default Android browser, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile and even a new Mozilla Firefox Beta in the works. The pivotal criteria for the project being geo-location, it was crucial that the browser had support for the geo-location API's of HTML5.

While all the above browsers claim to have such support, it wasn't until we got an Xperia into the lab that we could actually put this to the test with a real world demo. We quickly learned that the native web browser on the Xperia X10 running Android OS 2.1 was incapable of even rendering the embedded Google maps applet. Next we decided to trail Mozilla Firefox 4 for Android which is currently in beta 4. We got a little bit further rendering the map applet however the geo-location positioned us in St. Kilda, quite some distance from our humble Footscray office.

Lastly we tried Opera Mobile which is currently available from the Android Market. Almost instantly the page loaded with our location accurately displayed. So excited by the accuracy of the geo location I quickly ran outside to verify the results. Refreshing shop front by shop front Google accurately returned the address of where I was standing. I quickly ran back to the office to share the results with the team, we had our browser!

Mobile project device selection

2011-02-10T01:26:00.000-08:00

After yesterdays careful comparison of the top 5 Android devices currently on offer in Australia we have decided to eliminate the HTC Desire and Motorola Defy based on screen size, while the HTC Desire HD and Samsung Galaxy S were eliminated based on price. This left us with the unlikely favourite of Sony's Xperia X10, which up until late last year coped some negative press due to delays in firmware updates.

While the press may have contributed to the more competitive price, when purchasing 10 devices it quickly stacks up as a saving of over $2000 compared to the next favourite, the Galaxy S. The X10 also had a clear advantage over the other devices in screen real-estate as well with a slightly higher resolution display than the more expensive Desire HD and Galaxy S. When an additional 54 pixels could mean an extra answer in a quiz, this weighed heavily in it's favour. Now all that's left is securing the devices.

Numbers of words on Android mobile screen for questions and answers

2011-02-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

From Dale and Tiago's research:

Based on the example mockup (see Tiago's post below), we can fit 86 words on the screen without needing to scroll (preferable). As a rough guide, this equates to a maximum of 54 for the question and 8 for the answers, given four multiple choice options.

Meeting about 'library treasure hunt' trial involving mobiles and student rovers

2011-02-09T18:18:00.001-08:00

This morning we met with Rob McCormack, student rover coordinator for VU Learning Support Services. Rob will run the trial for the library mobile treasure hunt. (one of the 3 trials we are running for this project, which will see us working with VU TAFE Music, Library/student rovers and Building Design).

This one looks very promising, in terms of both its impact and possibility of future expansion.

Here's what we're looking at doing:

- competitive lunchtime activity (30-45mins) involving new students, working in pairs with guidance from the rovers, answering 15 questions related to finding things throughout the library and thereby learning how to use the library

- to be run during one week in May - five lunchtime sessions involving 12-16 new students per day

- grand prize to be iPod shuffle (or similar) with daily prizes of double movie passes

- total of 75 questions to be developed by Rob and rovers - 15 question sets with randomly rotating questions appearing from a pool of 5 per set (similar activities but different answers to eliminate cheating). Questions to be developed by end of March. Can be trialed on paper in April by rovers.

- if students answer wrongly, system will give them another question from the same set until they get it right, then will move on to the next set

- at the end of doing the exercise, system screen will appear with time it has taken them to finish the 15 questions. Will take this to the rovers who will note the figure down. Fastest times for day and week will win presents.

- at the onset, participants to type in VU student numbers. Rovers to offer advice on how to answer questions throughout exercise

- treasure hunt to be promoted by rovers in advance (ie is voluntary, opt in activity)

Mobile Geolocation Project Research

2011-02-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

Requirements

Platform: Android OS

Geo location: GPS based

Display: Large

Resolution: 240dpi

Performance: Capable of running web apps well

Recommendations

Firmware: Android OS 2.2.1

Geo location: GPS and Assertive GPS

Display: 4”

Resolution 480x854.

Performance: 1000mhz CPU

Device Comparison Matrix

Android HTML5 Compatibility Test

Android OS 2.1: 151

Android OS 2.2: 176

Android OS 2.3: 176

Android UI Examples

Available Screen Real-estate Mock-up

Victorian Elearning Innovations Online Expo

2011-02-08T01:56:00.000-08:00

Here are all the other 2011 Elearning Innovations projects in Victoria funded by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, including our Mobile Phone Project.

http://www.netvibes.com/framework_innovations#Victoria_2011

Meeting VU Music regarding mobile project

2011-02-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we met Adam Hutterer and Stephen Rando at Kindred Studios in Yarraville, where the VU TAFE music program is based. They took us on a quick tour of the facilities, which are developing rapidly and offer good scope for future projects.

We then discussed how the mobile phone project might work with their students.

They had a lot of good ideas including;

- A tour of Melbourne music venues, crawling from Brunswick St Fitzroy, through the city, to St Kilda.

- Venues include live music venues, studios, music stores, and places of historic musical interest.

- a 'treasure hunt' tour of the Kindred facilities as a form of orientation for new students (for future extensions of the project)

Questions may cover aspects such as;

- Technical setups: PA arrangements, acoustics, stage setup, venue size etc

- OH&S: hazards and risks, mitigation strategies in place etc

- Melbourne music history: sites of former venues and scenes

We will meet them again in a month, by which time we will have some precise parameters for them to work with, including how many words can fit on the screen for questions and answers.

Virtual world construction project - teacher development, Feb 2011

2011-02-02T19:50:00.000-08:00

We've had three very productive days at Newport campus. Justin, Jason (who has been able to join us for the full three days) and Mark have been brainstorming, with input from Craig, James and me, their ideas for developing the virtual world activities and assessment for the three competencies we're targeting for the Cert II Pre-apps:
- VBQM697: Workplace Safety and Industry Induction
- VBQM698: Workplace Procedures for Environmental Sustainability
- VBQM708: Workplace Documents and Plans

This is where we've got to:

- we will take a hybrid, 'mix and match' virtual world and paper-based approach to these competencies

- activities will be delivered to students in their first couple of weeks at VU. They will have largely arrived straight from school etc with little introduction to the construction industry or its practices. So this will form a kind of introduction to how things work in the industry.

- all three units will be integrated into one in-world sequence of activities supplemented by one paper-based workbook covering all three units. Students will use the workbook to progress through (as before) - but particular sections will refer students to the virtual world to undertake specific activities and assessments, which will cover some but not all aspects of the units' learning objects (ie those aspects where the virtual world can add value to the learning and be relevant to the learning outcomes). This currently already happens in the Sustainability unit where students are referred to the online EPA Carbon Footprint calculator.

- the rationale here is for students to become familiar with what they will see in the real world including paper-based audits, safe work documents and building/site plans, yet benefit from the use of virtual in an integrated way (eg using paper-based audit documents to do safety audits of the virtual building site).

- Justin will spend the second week of his non-teaching time developing the resource workbook.

What the guys are working on now is the details of the activities. The story here is this:

- students arrive as builders' labourers

- they have to undertake an OH&S audit of the virtual building site to be promoted to supervisors

- once promoted, they enter the virtual building site office, complete an offline safe work statement, and are directed to their own empty site (each student has their own) as well as their paper site plans in the workbook

- they then go through a series of stages of setting up the site with OH&S and sustainability considerations as part of this (based on in-world multiple choice questions). This will end the OH&s and sustainability part of the exercise

- they then start 'building their house' on the site, which will involve the Workplace Documents and Plans unit - interpreting the 2D plans, orienting themselves, and understanding the symbols etc

Students will enter the world with 100 points that they have to keep. Every time they choose a wrong answer to a multiple choice question, they lose a point. This method is to ensure that they take care in considering answers (not just click at random until they get a right answer), which they can research through the information in their workbooks.

Above is a copy of the flowchart for the project todate, based on the brainstorming on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Mobile phone project: email from Stefan to participants, Jan 2011 (for some context)

2011-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone.

Dale and I met today to finalise our virtual world plans for 2011.

As discussed previously, we will support Sue, Justin, Jason and Mark to undertake virtual world training and to work out activities with us.

We would like to do this in February 2011. Can you please let me know if this suits, and if so, when in Feb?

We would like to spend a full day undertaking virtual world training (our colleague Craig will do this with teachers), then I and Craig will work individually with teachers to finalise/create/refine virtual world activities and assessment in OH&S, Sustainability, Building Design and Building Documents. We will also need to identify class groups we will be working with.

This year, we will learn from 2010 by using technology that is already in place and we know works (that is, the quizzes that involve students using the blue dialog boxes to answer questions). This is not as advanced as the ‘clipboard’ system we had planned to use – the dialog box options only include yes/no and multiple choice questions. But the technology behind the more fancy clipboard option is still not in place in OpenSim (although it’s been promised for months), and so we will opt for the safe option so we can deliver as planned.

The other thing we are developing this year is the option of putting some virtual world activities onto USB data sticks. We’ll do this and test it out in class. We will compare the old USB1 standard with the current USB2 standard and the forthcoming USB3 standard, which is faster but hasn’t been widely adopted yet. This will provide useful information for those who want to do virtual world activities that are portable and self-contained.

So, as a next step, could you all let me know:

1.When in Feb you’d like to work together to develop activities and assessment quizzes

2. What class you’d like to target in 2011

Thanks a lot,

Stefan

Server requirements for Opensim - an email from Will to Nick, Monash IT

2010-12-13T14:39:00.001-08:00

OpenSim is alpha (or pre-alpha depending on who you ask) software, so reliability and performance is not particularly easy to achieve. Getting it to perform well means getting better hardware than is generally required for other server applications.

The core of OpenSim is a MySQL database, which can get quite large. This means that the server needs to have plenty of RAM and fast disks in order to keep the queries running quickly. Of course, the larger the database becomes as more objects are created, and textures uploaded, the MySQL server will chew through more and more RAM, so it is important to have an excess from the very start.

OpenSim is also a physics simulator, and runs scripts that perform certain actions inside the world. This is done with the CPU, and in quite a highly threaded fashion. Given the option, it may be wiser to choose a CPU (or CPUs) that have more processing threads over the clock speed.

Having said all of this, the RAM and disks are the most important, as the MySQL database is essentially what drives the server. CPU power is also important to have so that the whole thing doesn't die when physics are being simulated.

I am of the understanding that the server might also be used for other purposes, your budget is about $4000-$5000, and your regular server is the R710. So:

CPU:

It appears that the R710 comes with 2 processors (I'm not too sure), so I would say that 2 Quad Core Xeons would suffice. The clock speed should probably be more than 2.2ghz or so.

Operating System:

I forgot to mention this before, but OpenSim is written in C# (.NET) so it can run on both Windows and Linux. .NET is native to Windows of course, so there is added reliability and stability there. We used to run OpenSim on Linux, and it often had problems. I would advise running Windows.

RAM:

As I said before, RAM is important considering that OpenSim relies heavily on a MySQL database. Not only this, but OpenSim caches most things in memory, so memory is used quite a lot. I would recommend a minimum of 8GB, but the more you have, the more room there is for MySQL.

Hard Drives:

The drives need to be fast, but massive amounts of space is not required. I would recommend using 15K drives, and RAID is obviously preferable to keep redundancy and perhaps more speed. Our OpenSim database is about 1.8gb with about 200,000 rows in total, so disk space will be used quite slowly. Even a 146GB 15K drive would probably be fine for quite some time.

Having said all of this, if you can get better parts, definitely go for it, especially in the CPU and Disks. I wouldn't think any more than 12GB of RAM is required, so any extra money should be spent on getting a faster CPU or faster disks.

If you want some more information on OpenSim, there is extensive information on their wiki at http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

Will.

Week 2, Group 2

2010-12-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

5 students in this group.

Once again, students noted in the short focus group at the end how much they enjoyed the virtual world activities and that it had helped them learn OH&S.

First pair v adept in OH&S. Lots of conversation to answer questions correctly.

Not though for following pair - took ages to do quiz, quite noteworthy lack of knowledge about asbestos and its effects and handling procedures.

Construction trial, Week 2, Group 1

2010-12-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

Very interesting session.

Trialed OH&S exploratory and door quiz exercises with 5 students. (one/two at a time, with others continuing to work on their buildings)

First one solo. Realised he was asking us and other sts about the questions throughout, gaining knowledge. We then decided to continue the trial in pairs, which worked well - sts bouncing off one another to answer the questions and find the unsafe practices.

Gave them same paper test as last week - initial impression is that they have been filled in to a much greater level of detail, will be interesting to see marked results.

Also noted need to develop exercises in tandem with students. Throughout they were pointing out things we had missed in-world (as construction luddites) such as other unsafe practices eg planks of wood lying on ground. This will help us greatly. We will also need to add more unsafe examples in the exploratory exercise, as well as examples that ARE safe.

One interesting thing that came up is the issue of prompts in relation to the exploratory exercise. Our team was prompting students at times to look for more examples ("you got 2 to go" etc). Should we prompt? Our conclusion is:
- yes - if we want DEVELOP knowledge, to facilitate the most amount of knowledge gain
- no - if we want to TEST knowledge (want to replicate real life, where workers need to be alert to unsafe practices)

General impression is that, if familiar with virtual worlds, sts don't need much in the way of guidance to do the tasks except for something at the beginning of the structured door quiz to give them some context

Focus group at end - univerally positive, want to keep doing it, see it as fun and that they've learned more about OH&S

Issue of trees - pranking:putting trees into others' buildings etc. Big 'No Trees' message on whiteboard

Snapshots from the last two sessions at VU Newport

2010-12-01T02:43:00.000-08:00

3rd construction group, week 1

2010-11-30T18:48:00.000-08:00

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.

Plan for 2011

2010-11-30T16:13:00.001-08:00

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

Today - first day of Construction trial

2010-11-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

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.

Today's Building Design trial

2010-11-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

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'.

Speed test at VU Newport

2010-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

The NBN is here!

message from Patrick - proposed change is fine with Dale and Stefan

2010-11-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

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

New image of PushLMS structure from Geoff

2010-10-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Discussions with Patrick and Justin on Construction/Blg Design Project

2010-10-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Had a chat with Patrick yesterday.

We worked out that:

- 6-10 building design student volunteers would do two virtual world sessions of two hours over consecutive weeks: Weds Nov 10 and 17.

- they will focus on the OH&S stuff in the first, and the house building/design in the second.

- this won't involve any assessment since they have already been assessed on OH&S earlier in the year, plus it's getting to exam time then (too late in the year, too much else on). As a result we will have to treat the Building Design activity as a kind of feeler or tester, as we did with Construction last year. We will just look at if it increases engagement levels or not. It's not ideal for reporting, research etc, but is the best we can do at this stage.

Patrick would like to roll this out as an assessable activity in 2011. But this depends on if we can get it funded, since the current project funding runs out this year.

Also spoke with Justin. We will use the existing assessment tests given to the construction guys for our pre and post tests for OH&S and workplace docs. For sustainability, Justin will compile a short test this week based on his longer assessment task.

Latest on construction/building design OpenSim project

2010-10-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

Summary of latest meetings and technical developments:

- Construction trial now to take place over 2 weeks: weeks of November 29 and December 6:

3 groups of 5/6 students each from the Cert II in General Construction Pre-Apprenticeship program
each group undertakes one on the three virtual world-based activity sets from the three competencies: OH&S/sustainability/workplace documents
For pre-test, use existing theory assessment exercises. Give it to all sts before they do the study (to get baseline knowledge), then again at end (Note: only some pre-App sts do this as part of their training, some are assessed in integrated way, building houses etc...it depends on the circumstances - but in this case they will all get the sheets)

- Building Design trial to take place on November 10. No comparison group. Will look at measuring engagement levels (focus group before and afterwards) plus maybe compare with results from previous years

Today's meeting with Construction teachers and Dale on delivery of virtual world workshops

2010-10-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

Lots has come out of today's meeting:

Delivery;

- Push LMS system still being developed. Some issues with staffing (Will has bowed out, Craig has taken over, has meant some delays)
- also some issues with OpenSim viewers (Hippo) not displaying some OpenSim textures etc, now using Kirsten's Viewer)
- looking at delivering to the Cert II Construction pre-apps only (VET in Schools students leave next week, so have missed chance to work with them, but pre-apps still around until mid-December)
- Justin away for first 3 weeks of November, so looking at doing workshops weeks of Nov 29 and Dec 6 (Daniel to confirm)
- computers in Newport labs: graphics cards aren't up to displaying some OpenSim content (eg gum trees, figures). May need to upgrade cards to 512k (as initially listed in specs!)
- need to work out revised time for delivery with Building Design guys
- process of developing software is, in Dale's words, 'predictably unpredictable'...never really know if plans will translate into reality, especially in areas like this that nobody has done before

Assessment and research:

Chatted at length to Justin and Jason today. Notes:

- Workplace safety and env. sust. (OHS)/Workplace procedures for env. sust (Sust.): these competencies are delivered and assessed throughout course, not standalone (embedded in other subjets). Not formally assessed at Cert II level, more observational etc throughout year. Similar for Cert II and Cert III...can be applied across both (though Cert II is more practical and Cert II Ihas more design elements)
- Workplace documents: this one is assessed 'stand-alone'
- OH&S: OpenSim activities based closely on A3 sheet given to students to break up day of theory connected with assessment for 'white card':

- Daniel: refer to 'scenario based delivery'
- suggestion from Shelley re research: work within one group. Do OH&S baseline test pre-day, then again afterwards. Some sts to use A3 sheets, others OpenSim. (former have option of using OpenSim too if they want, to be ethical)

Illuminating day today at Newport campus teacher training day

2010-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Had a great day today with Dale and the teachers from Building Design (Sue, Patrick) and construction (Justin, Mark...Hayden can't make it anymore, hence replaced by Mark, and Jason is on leave) plus Daniel (coordinator). Howard from E-works visited too.

The day has been a mix of brainstorming activities, demonstration of what we've done for Howard, planning and training the teachers in the OpenSim virtual world. The enthusiasm of the teachers is evident. Mark (new guy) had some great ideas on sustainability activities in the construction area. He is a gamer and keen.

Building Design (the simpler of the two planned suite of activities):

- On track to do training with Sue and students from weeks 2 -4 of term 4 (September). Will involve building houses from plans

- Idea emerged of using PushLMS to do a mobile GPS-based project on building styles in the Adv Dip of Blg Design, and to apply for this in the next round of AFLF funding (due September 20)

Construction (more complex):

- buildings and areas of Isle of VU to be completed in next few weeks (over holidays)

- Daniel's input: we will aim for having the system ready for delivery to ALL VET in Schools Cert II students (170) by early 2011, assuming that pilot is all OK, and then all pre-App Cert II students in 2012.

- 2010 pilot: we can either do it in next 6 weeks (Daniel's current lot of VET in Schools students, 1 day a week) or wait until November for next group. Flexible, can do teacher swap for the day so that Mark and Justin can do the training whenever suits. Fine to work the same way as last year: 3-4 hour sessions weekly with 6 students at a time. This seemed to work well.

- Dale and Mark/Justin currently planning new activities to include in their activities.

Merle in opensim

2010-08-08T02:16:00.000-07:00

Using what we already did here in opensim, the plan at the moment is to run a virtual avatar starting with this.

Aescelpia, Sterile Clean Room Update

2010-07-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

The SL viewer issues;

Version 2.1.0 of the Second Life viewer doesn't allow clicking on web prims(the clipboard). After uninstalling this and reinstalling the old viewer web prims were once again interactive;

http://download.cloud.secondlife.com/Viewer-2/Second_Life_2-0-1-203797_Setup.exe

Another issue is having the camera view zoom off after clicking the clipboard. This can be remedied by unclicking the 'Auto-Zoom' option in the web prim properties.

Likewise the issues with 'unauthorised websites' can be changed in the web prim properties, you can add a list of sites to a whitelist or simply turn that function off. We need to test what works best here.

Internet browser issues;

The admin side of the site will only be accessed by teachers and admins. Explorer is frankly way behind when it comes to web standards and we are really waiting for them to fix their program rather than us having to ruin good code to get it working on a few pcs. If possible we will recommend using Mozilla Firefox or Chrome(at least at the beginning) which both work beautifully.

LMS Interfaces;

Will be redesigned this week, then tested as extensively as time allows.

VU island terrain

2010-07-26T04:00:00.001-07:00

The wonderful Elena Hurse created some .raw terrain maps for us, 6 all up. They look even better than what I sent her to replicate.

The island from above using the map view.

The island from the top left of the 'V', I am standing on the road there(which has room for parking, it's wide), just to give you a sense of scale(it's big).

2010-07-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

The island from above using the map view.

The island from the top left of the 'V', I am standing on the road there(which has room for parking, it's wide), just to give you a sense of scale(it's big).

Maths and music education tools for Second Life and Open Sim

2010-07-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

This is a demonstration of several learning tools we have developed in conjunction with Debney Park Secondary College and Soundhouse for use in the virtual world Second Life.

The first tool is for use in the teaching of year seven maths. It allows students to explore the mathematical relationship between the size of 5 objects and their volumes.

Upon clicking the volume machine students are presented with what type of shape it is, and option to modify it's height, width, and length.

This will cause the shape in the machine to change, showing the students what the new volume is.

The equation which causes each shape is shown at the top of each volume machine.

There are five different volume machines, a cube, a cylinder, a cone, a pyramid and a sphere.

The aim of this tool is to help students understand practical applications of mathematics in an engaging 3 dimensional environment.

The second tool is a couple of simple scripts which will allow students to create virtual musical ensembles.

The first object contains a script which will play a single sound once.

The second object contains a script which will play a continuous loop, until the object is clicked again.

Using these scripts, students are able to build their own instruments and place their own pre-recorded sounds inside.

Music Scripts

2010-07-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

These two script can be used to make a musical machine. There are two different scripts, the first script will play a sound once. The second script will start a loop playing when it is touched and will stop when it is touched again.
To use each script simply create a prim place the script in the prim as well as the sound to be played.

Loop Sound Script:

//loops a sound
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llLoopSound(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_SOUND,0), 1.0);
state on;
}
}
state on
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llStopSound();
state default;
}
}
//Script end

Play Sound Script:

//plays a sound once
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llPlaySound(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_SOUND,0), 1.0);
}
}
//End script

Maths Volume Machine Scripts

2010-07-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

The following scripts are for the maths volume machine. The machine will calculate the volume of an object according to the dimensions given by the user. There are 5 possible shapes Cone,Cube,Cylinder,Pyramid and Sphere. After the dimensions have been entered the shape will change size to show the difference in volume.Colored beams of light will appear to go into the prim that is changing shape while it is changing.

To use these scripts place the control script in the root prim. This will be the prim that the user touches to start the machine as well as the prim that the results will be shown above.

Then place the slave script in the prim that will be changing shape.

To use the particle script place a prim above and below the prim that the slave script is in. Then place a copy of the particle script in each. Place the down particle script in the prim above and the rising particle script in the prim below.

Then select all of the prims selecting the control prim last and link them all.

Particle Script for all shapes

2010-07-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Place this script in the prims above and below the prim that is changing shape.
These will be the prims that the colored beams will be coming out of.
Make the prims that the particle script is in the colour that you want the beam to be.

Rising Particle:

vector colour;
default
{
state_entry()
{
colour=llGetColor(ALL_SIDES);
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="start")
{
float rate = .1 ;
float age = 1.0 ;
integer count = 10 ;
llParticleSystem( [
PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK,
PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK,
PSYS_SRC_PATTERN, PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_DROP,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT,(integer) count,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE,(float) rate,
PSYS_PART_MAX_AGE,(float) age,
PSYS_SRC_ACCEL,(vector) <0,0,1.0>,//change to <0,0,-1.0> for down particle
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN,(float) .5,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MAX,(float) .5,
PSYS_PART_START_SCALE,(vector) <.1,1,.1>,
PSYS_PART_START_COLOR,(vector) colour, // Start Color, (RGB, 0 to 1) set to colour of the slave prim
PSYS_PART_END_COLOR,(vector) <1,1,1>,
PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE,(float) 5.0,
PSYS_PART_FLAGS,
PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK |
PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK |
0 ] );
llResetScript();
}
else
{
llResetScript();
}
}
}

Down Particle:

vector colour;
default
{
state_entry()
{
colour=llGetColor(ALL_SIDES);
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="start")
{
float rate = .1 ;
float age = 1.0 ;
integer count = 10 ;
llParticleSystem( [
PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK,
PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK,
PSYS_SRC_PATTERN, PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_DROP,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT,(integer) count,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE,(float) rate,
PSYS_PART_MAX_AGE,(float) age,
PSYS_SRC_ACCEL,(vector) <0,0,-1.0>,//change to <0,0,-1.0> for down particle
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN,(float) .5,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MAX,(float) .5,
PSYS_PART_START_SCALE,(vector) <.1,1,.1>,
PSYS_PART_START_COLOR,(vector) colour, // Start Color, (RGB, 0 to 1) set to colour of the slave prim
PSYS_PART_END_COLOR,(vector) <1,1,1>,
PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE,(float) 5.0,
PSYS_PART_FLAGS,
PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK |
PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK |
0 ] );
llResetScript();
}
else
{
llResetScript();
}
}
}

Sphere Scripts

2010-07-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

These scripts are for the Sphere shape.
To use these scripts place the control script in the root prim. Then place the slave script in the prim that will be changing shape.

Control Script:

// this script is placed in the main control prim for a sphere
key id;
float radiusSize;
float volumeSize;
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
id = llDetectedKey(0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"Cone",id);
state radius;
}
}

state radius
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
radiusSize=(float)message;
state display;
}
}
state display
{
state_entry()
{
volumeSize=(4.0/3.0)*PI*((radiusSize*radiusSize)*radiusSize);
llInstantMessage(id,"Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Radius is: "+(string)radiusSize);
llSetText("Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Radius is: "+(string)radiusSize,
<0.0,>, 1.0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"reset",id);
llResetScript();
}
}

Slave Script:

//place in the prim you want to change shape for a sphere
//global variables
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float radiusSize;
float volumeSize;
integer channel;
integer shape;
integer phantom=FALSE;
vector top_size=<1.0,1.0,0.0>;
vector startSize=<2.0,2.0,2.0>;//starting size of prim
string usermessage;
key id2;
//dialog list items
list listc= [".2", ".4", ".6", ".8", "1", "1.2", "1.4", "1.6", "1.8","2"];
list listd= ["0.1","0.2","0.3","0.4","0.5","0.6","0.7","0.8","0.9","1"];
list liste=["Yes","No"];
string menuHeight="Please Enter Height:";
string menuRadius="Please Enter Radius:";
string menurestart="Would You Like To Continue";
//============================================
//user defined functions
primsize()
{
float z= lengthSize;
float x= lengthSize;
float y= widthSize;
llSetScale();
}
primshape()
{
llSetPrimitiveParams([
PRIM_PHANTOM,phantom,
PRIM_TYPE,shape,
PRIM_HOLE_DEFAULT,
<0.0,1.0,0.0>,
0.0,
ZERO_VECTOR,
<0.0,1.0,0.0>]);
}

spherevolume()
{
volumeSize=(4.0/3.0)*PI*((radiusSize*radiusSize)*radiusSize);
}
reset()
{
llSleep(2.0);
llResetScript();
}
//======================================
//Script states
default
{
state_entry()
{
channel=(integer)llFrand(1000.0);
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
id2=id;
usermessage=message;
if (message=="Square")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cone")
{
shape=PRIM_TYPE_SPHERE;
primshape();
state radiusState;
}
}
}
//state to get radius
state radiusState
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuRadius, listd,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
radiusSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)radiusSize,"");
lengthSize=radiusSize*2;
widthSize=lengthSize;
llOwnerSay("Length"+message);
if (usermessage=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Square")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Cone")
{
spherevolume();
state display;
}
}
}
//state for display size
state display
{
state_entry()
{
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"start","");
llSleep(4.0);
primsize();
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="reset")
reset();
}
}

Pyramid Scripts

2010-07-15T04:18:00.000-07:00

These scripts are for the Pyramid shape.
To use these scripts place the control script in the root prim. Then place the slave script in the prim that will be changing shape.

Control Script:

// this script is placed in the main control prim for a pyramid

key id;
float heightSize;
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float volumeSize;
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
id = llDetectedKey(0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"Pyramid",id);
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
state width;
}
}
state width
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
widthSize=(float)message;
state length;
}
}
state length
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
lengthSize=(float)message;
state display;
}
}
state display
{
state_entry()
{
volumeSize=(1.0/3.0)*widthSize*lengthSize*heightSize;
llInstantMessage(id,"Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Length is: "+(string)lengthSize
+"\n Width is: "+(string)widthSize);
llSetText("Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Length is: "+(string)lengthSize
+"\n Width is: "+(string)widthSize,
<1.0,>, 1.0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"reset",id);
llResetScript();
}
}

Slave Script:

//place in the prim you want to change shape for a pyramid

//global variables
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float heightSize;
float volumeSize;
integer channel;
integer shape;
integer phantom=FALSE;//Select TRUE for Phantom prim FALSE for normal.
vector top_size=<1.0,1.0,0.0>;
vector startSize=<2.0,2.0,2.0>;//starting size of prim
string usermessage;
key id2;
//dialog list items
list listc= [".2", ".4", ".6", ".8", "1", "1.2", "1.4", "1.6", "1.8","2"];
list liste=["Yes","No"];
string menuLength="Please Enter Length:";
string menuWidth="Please Enter Width:";
string menuHeight="Please Enter Height:";
string menurestart="Would You Like To Continue";
//===========================================
//user defined functions
primsize()
{
float z= heightSize;
float x= lengthSize;
float y= widthSize;
llSetScale();
}
primshape()
{
llSetPrimitiveParams([
PRIM_PHANTOM,phantom,
PRIM_TYPE,shape,
PRIM_HOLE_DEFAULT,
<0.0,1.0,0.0>,
0.0,
ZERO_VECTOR,
top_size,
ZERO_VECTOR]);
}
pyramidvolume()
{
volumeSize=(1.0/3.0)*widthSize*lengthSize*heightSize;
}
reset()
{
llSleep(2.0);
llResetScript();
}
//=========================================
//Script states
default
{
state_entry()
{
channel=(integer)llFrand(1000.0);
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
id2=id;
usermessage=message;
if (message=="Pyramid")
{
shape=PRIM_TYPE_BOX;
top_size=ZERO_VECTOR;
primshape();
state Height;
}
else if (message=="Cube")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
}
}
}
//state to get height
state Height
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuHeight, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)heightSize,"");
if (usermessage=="Cube"||usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
state width;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder"||usermessage=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
}
}
}
//state to get width
state width
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuWidth, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
widthSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)widthSize,"");
state length;
}
}
//state to get length
state length
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuLength, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
lengthSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)lengthSize,"");
llOwnerSay("Length"+message);
if (usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
pyramidvolume();
state display;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cube")
{
llResetScript();
state display;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
state display;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
state display;
}
}
}
//state for display size
state display
{
state_entry()
{
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"start","");
llSleep(4.0);
primsize();
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="reset")
reset();
}
}
//Script End:

Cylinder Scripts

2010-07-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

These scripts are for the Cylinder shape.
To use these scripts place the control script in the root prim. Then place the slave script in the prim that will be changing shape.

Control Script:

// this script is placed in the main control prim for a cylinder
key id;
float heightSize;
float radiusSize;
float volumeSize;
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
id = llDetectedKey(0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"Cylinder",id);
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
state radius;
}
}
state radius
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
radiusSize=(float)message;
state display;
}
}
state display
{
state_entry()
{
volumeSize=PI*(radiusSize*radiusSize)*heightSize;
llInstantMessage(id,"Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Radius is: "+(string)radiusSize);
llSetText("Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Radius is: "+(string)radiusSize,
<1.0,>, 1.0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"reset",id);
llResetScript();
}
}

Slave Script:

//place in the prim you want to change shape for a cylinder
//global variables
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float heightSize;
float radiusSize;
float volumeSize;
integer channel;
integer shape;
integer phantom=FALSE;//Select TRUE for Phantom prim FALSE for normal.
vector top_size=<1.0,1.0,0.0>;
vector startSize=<2.0,2.0,2.0>;//starting size of prim
string usermessage;
key id2;
//dialog list items
list listc= [".2", ".4", ".6", ".8", "1", "1.2", "1.4", "1.6", "1.8","2"];
list listd= ["0.1","0.2","0.3","0.4","0.5","0.6","0.7","0.8","0.9","1"];
list liste=["Yes","No"];
string menuHeight="Please Enter Height:";
string menuRadius="Please Enter Radius:";
string menurestart="Would You Like To Continue";
//=========================================
//user defined functions
primsize()
{
float z= heightSize;
float x= lengthSize;
float y= widthSize;
llSetScale();
}
primshape()
{
llSetPrimitiveParams([
PRIM_PHANTOM,phantom,
PRIM_TYPE,shape,
PRIM_HOLE_DEFAULT,
<0.0,1.0,0.0>,
0.0,
ZERO_VECTOR,
top_size,
ZERO_VECTOR]);
}
cylindervolume()
{
volumeSize=PI*(radiusSize*radiusSize)*heightSize;
}
reset()
{
llResetScript();
}
//=======================================
//Script states
default
{
state_entry()
{
channel=(integer)llFrand(1000.0);
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
id2=id;
usermessage=message;
if (message=="Square")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cylinder")
{
shape=PRIM_TYPE_CYLINDER;

primshape();
state Height;
}
}
}
//state to get height
state Height
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuHeight, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)heightSize,"");
if (usermessage=="Square"||usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder"||usermessage=="Cone")
{
state radiusState;
}
}
}
//state to get radius
state radiusState
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuRadius, listd,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
radiusSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)radiusSize,"");
lengthSize=radiusSize*2;
widthSize=lengthSize;
llOwnerSay("Length"+message);
if (usermessage=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Square")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder")
{
cylindervolume();
state display;
}
}
}
//state for display size
state display
{
state_entry()
{
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"start","");
llSleep(4.0);
primsize();
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="reset")
reset();
}
}

Cube Scripts

2010-07-15T04:12:00.000-07:00

These scripts are for the Cube shape.
To use these scripts place the control script in the root prim. Then place the slave script in the prim that will be changing shape.

Control Script:

// this script is placed in the main control prim for a cube

key id;
float heightSize;
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float volumeSize;
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
id = llDetectedKey(0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"Cube",id);
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
state width;
}
}
state width
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
widthSize=(float)message;
state length;
}
}
state length
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
lengthSize=(float)message;
state display;
}
}
state display
{
state_entry()
{
volumeSize=lengthSize*widthSize*heightSize;
llInstantMessage(id,"Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Length is: "+(string)lengthSize
+"\n Width is: "+(string)widthSize);
llSetText("Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Length is: "+(string)lengthSize
+"\n Width is: "+(string)widthSize,
<0.0,>, 1.0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"reset",id);
llResetScript();
}
}

Slave Script:

//place in the prim you want to change shape for a cube
//global variables
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float heightSize;
float volumeSize;
integer channel;
integer shape;
integer phantom=FALSE;//Select TRUE for Phantom prim FALSE for normal.
vector top_size=<1.0,1.0,0.0>;
vector startSize=<2.0,2.0,2.0>;//starting size of prim
string usermessage;
key id2;
//dialog list items
list listc= [".2", ".4", ".6", ".8", "1", "1.2", "1.4", "1.6", "1.8","2"];
list liste=["Yes","No"];
string menuLength="Please Enter Length:";
string menuWidth="Please Enter Width:";
string menuHeight="Please Enter Height:";
string menurestart="Would You Like To Continue";
//===================================================
//user defined functions
primsize()
{
float z= heightSize;
float x= lengthSize;
float y= widthSize;
llSetScale();
}
primshape()
{
llSetPrimitiveParams([
PRIM_PHANTOM,phantom,
PRIM_TYPE,shape,
PRIM_HOLE_DEFAULT,
<0.0,1.0,0.0>,
0.0,
ZERO_VECTOR,
top_size,
ZERO_VECTOR]);
}
Cubevolume()
{
volumeSize=lengthSize*widthSize*heightSize;
}
reset()
{
llSleep(2.0);
llResetScript();
}

//==================================================
//Script states
default
{
state_entry()
{
channel=(integer)llFrand(1000.0);
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
id2=id;
usermessage=message;
if (message=="Cube")
{
shape=PRIM_TYPE_BOX;
primshape();
state Height;
}
else if (message=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
}
}
}
//state to get height
state Height
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuHeight, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)heightSize,"");
if (usermessage=="Cube"||usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
state width;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder"||usermessage=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
}
}
}
//state to get width
state width
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuWidth, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
widthSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)widthSize,"");
state length;
}
}
//state to get length
state length
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuLength, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
lengthSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)lengthSize,"");
llOwnerSay("Length"+message);
if (usermessage=="Cube")
{
Cubevolume();
state display;
}
else if (usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
state display;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
state display;
}
else if (usermessage=="Cone")
{
llResetScript();
state display;
}
}
}
//state for display size
state display
{
state_entry()
{
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"start","");
llSleep(4.0);
primsize();
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="reset")
reset();
}
}
//Script End:

Cone Scripts

2010-07-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

These scripts are for the cone shape.
To use these scripts place the control script in the root prim. Then place the slave script in the prim that will be changing shape.

Control Script:

// copy from here down
// this script is placed in the main control prim for a cone
key id;
float heightSize;
float radiusSize;
float volumeSize;
default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
id = llDetectedKey(0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"Cone",id);
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
state radius;
}
}
state radius
{
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
radiusSize=(float)message;
state display;
}
}
state display
{
state_entry()
{
volumeSize=(1.0/3.0)*PI*(radiusSize*radiusSize)*heightSize;
llInstantMessage(id,"Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Radius is: "+(string)radiusSize);
llSetText("Volume is: "+(string)volumeSize
+"\n Height is: "+(string)heightSize
+"\n Radius is: "+(string)radiusSize,
<0.0,>, 1.0);
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"reset",id);
llResetScript();
}
}
//End of first script

Slave Script:

//copy from here down
//place in the prim you want to change shape for a cone
//global variables
float lengthSize;
float widthSize;
float heightSize;
float radiusSize;
float volumeSize;
integer channel;
integer shape;
integer phantom=FALSE;//Select TRUE for Phantom prim FALSE for normal.
vector top_size=<1.0,1.0,0.0>;
vector startSize=<2.0,2.0,2.0>;//starting size of prim
string usermessage;
key id2;
//dialog list items
list listc= [".2", ".4", ".6", ".8", "1", "1.2", "1.4", "1.6", "1.8","2"];
list listd= ["0.1","0.2","0.3","0.4","0.5","0.6","0.7","0.8","0.9","1"];
list liste=["Yes","No"];
string menuHeight="Please Enter Height:";
string menuRadius="Please Enter Radius:";
string menurestart="Would You Like To Continue";
//====================================
//user defined functions
primsize()
{
float z= heightSize;
float x= lengthSize;
float y= widthSize;
llSetScale();
}
primshape()
{
llSetPrimitiveParams([
PRIM_PHANTOM,phantom,
PRIM_TYPE,shape,
PRIM_HOLE_DEFAULT,
<0.0,1.0,0.0>,
0.0,
ZERO_VECTOR,
top_size,
ZERO_VECTOR]);
}
conevolume()
{
volumeSize=(1.0/3.0)*PI*(radiusSize*radiusSize)*heightSize;
}
reset()
{
llSleep(2.0);
llResetScript();
}
//==========================================
//Script states
default
{
state_entry()
{
channel=(integer)llFrand(1000.0);
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
id2=id;
usermessage=message;
if (message=="Square")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (message=="Cone")
{
shape=PRIM_TYPE_CYLINDER;
top_size=ZERO_VECTOR;
primshape();
state Height;
}
}
}
//state to get height
state Height
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuHeight, listc,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
heightSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)heightSize,"");
if (usermessage=="Square"||usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Cylinder"||usermessage=="Cone")
{
state radiusState;
}
}
}
//state to get radius
state radiusState
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(channel,"", id2,"");
llDialog(id2, menuRadius, listd,channel);
}
listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
radiusSize=(float)message;
llMessageLinked(LINK_ROOT,0,(string)radiusSize,"");
lengthSize=radiusSize*2;
widthSize=lengthSize;
llOwnerSay("Length"+message);
if (usermessage=="Cylinder")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Square")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Pyramid")
{
llResetScript();
}
else if (usermessage=="Cone")
{
conevolume();
state display;
}
}
}
//state for display size
state display
{
state_entry()
{
llMessageLinked(LINK_ALL_CHILDREN,0,"start","");
llSleep(4.0);
primsize();
}
link_message(integer sender_number, integer number, string message, key id)
{
if (message=="reset")
reset();
}
}
//end of script

Structure for courses in push lms

2010-07-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

Bug list for opensim and WI

2010-07-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Opensim

11/07/10 - crashed editing my avatar

Cake WI

- remove previous and next 'links,' remove header

- spelling, management(could be mgmt)

OpenSim Interface

2010-07-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

User Management: http://s1.osvr.net/opensim/users

Click "Create User" in the top left to create a new user.

To edit a user, click the pencil icon.

To delete, click the red icon.

If a user is broken or can't login, click the icon

The same goes for adding and editing regions on the Region Configuration page http://s1.osvr.net/opensim/regionconfigs

How to build worlds - Amazing CG short

2010-06-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

3d enabled links

2010-06-29T00:29:00.001-07:00

http://sl.daleglass.net/#stereo

Snapshots from the development of the Virtual Patient

2010-06-28T19:47:00.001-07:00

Using AVmaker

Snapshots from the development of the Sterile Clean Room

2010-06-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Project videos

2010-06-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

AI Bot Videos & Links

2010-06-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

http://arsecondlife.gvu.gatech.edu/

http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/lab/research/arsecondlife/using-the-ar-second-life-client/

http://geriatricsvirtualworld.geriu.org

OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES

AI Nexus Forum

New Technology @ OSDC

2009-11-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

I have been attending the Australian Open Source Developers Conference run by the Australian Open Source Developers Club over the last couple of days. Very interesting conference which never fails to stimulate the mind and open up new possibilities with emerging and existing technology.

I had my TUG and OSVR cap firmly on my head for this conference and have come across some technology that lends itself to the cause and possibly may even allow TUG and OSVR to get to our goals quicker.

The first main stand out technology I have been introduced to so far is the Microsoft Cloud Computing platform called Azure (www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/). Azure is a windows based virtual hosting platform which allows us to run windows software (in our case hopefully the opensim server) on a platform that easily scalable! Potential for this is quite massive and Microsoft have really moved into the cloud computing market with this product. I have been told I will get some free tokens to use the Azure platform from the Mircosoft representative here at OSDC :) We will see where this takes OSVR!

The second bit of cool technology is based around a Business Rules engine written in Java called Drools. The presenter demonstrated creating a simple HTML interactive Questionnaire UI using AJAX calls to a web service which in turn employed the Drools rules engine to organise the presentation of data (in this case questions and answers). This small example could prove to be a good place to start investigating how we could adapt a rules engine model to control the business rules for the TUG engine (well in TUG's case to control the flow of a training course or Question and Answers sessions). We would need to find an equivalent for our programming language (Java is not really our style :P) or perhaps do a port to our preferred language.

Anyway I am off to hear about more interesting things that may or may not be useful for OSVR or TUG.

Geoff T

Meeting - Sunday 30th August

2009-08-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

Today I(Dale) had a quick meeting with Will, our lead programmer, and the scripting is almost done!
Next weekend....fingers crossed. Legs crossed. Everything crossed.

Videos - animoto promo and one about testing video for TUG

2009-08-03T02:34:00.000-07:00

Team meeting - Agile

2009-08-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

This blog hasn't been updated because our work has been so disjointed and sparse lately - which is part of what this meeting helped address.
The meeting was attended by Will and Geoff and myself.
One of the main things to come out of it was how such a disjointed group can communicate and work together effectively. This has been on of the issues with staying productive and keeping everybody in the loop with what is happening elsewhere.
Geoff, our server admin - for lack of better words - is bloody brilliant. He explained how we can use Agile which is what larger and better organised software companies use for projects.
In my own (probably oversimplified) terms - this gives us all clearly defined roles, allows us to tell a 'story' about what is supposed to be happening, then to define a product backlog to start working through, one task at a time. This will allow for better planning, estimates, and troubleshooting. That is about where my understanding of it ends at the moment, but it seems like a winner so far. This system can then also be used for OSVR.
Our current target date for having the system up and running is Sunday August 10th. I am more confident about that after the meeting than I was before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
http://www.agile-software-development.com/2007/09/how-to-implement-scrum-in-10-easy-steps.html

TRAC

2009-04-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Geoff has installed TRAC to assist with productivity.

Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management. Our mission is to help developers write great software while staying out of the way. Trac should impose as little as possible on a team's established development process and policies.

It provides an interface to Subversion (or other version control systems), an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities.

Trac allows wiki markup in issue descriptions and commit messages, creating links and seamless references between bugs, tasks, changesets, files and wiki pages. A timeline shows all current and past project events in order, making the acquisition of an overview of the project and tracking progress very easy. The roadmap shows the road ahead, listing the upcoming milestones.

Outcomes of today's meeting with Jann and Jennifer, Hairdressing/Personal Services

2009-04-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hairdressing program is flexible and self-paced, with students starting every two weeks in some areas and with the goal of completing around 80 days of study.
Two groups of hairdressing classes being delivered in high schools
Students have varying levels of motivation and responsibility. Some are rough diamond Western suburbs kids
Some admin issues with teachers having to sign off multiple times per completed task per student. This is more of an admin/mgt issue and implies a separate project (perhaps web-based signoff as per ATOM system). Suggested discussing with CI Design Studio, who would talk to Matt Ward to build a system.
Possibility of using Ning or similar social networking environment in conjunction with SL.
Jann suggested might be good for Dale to go to Hair Expo in Sydney - June long weekend - for further inspiration and glamour factor!
Looking at starting Second Life delivery in Second Semester (beginning July 13) with Cert II Pre Apprentices in Hairdressing
Work with Jennifer Walsh, other teachers and students to develop program collaboratively
Three units of competency targeted: Work Effectively in Retail Environments, Follow and Use Health & Safety Routines at Work, Apply Safe Work Practices
In these, focus on: designing salon, how to dress appropriately for salon, OH &S, basin and reception skills
Discussion of embedding printable Certificate into TUG Engine
Will need to run SL sessions at CI, Flinders Street due to King St computers and web not making the grade. Probably will need to be during holidays pre-July 13 - that's when labs won't be fully booked. Details tbc
We're going in this coming Monday to develop program further and meet students

Aerial view of the progress so far

2009-04-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

When I took an aerial shot of our build in Second Life earlier tonight, I was struck by how similar it was to something I knew well in my childhood, and by the realisation that we are just building a more complex version for bigger kids.

Some snapshots of the TUG Personal Services build

2009-03-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

We have been making good progress on the TUG Personal Services build.
The basic idea behind this is a large mall with two halves.
The first half the students must answer questions to 'buy' a range of products, including all they will need to make their own salon.
The second half is where the students can build their own salons.

Sitting around waiting for it all to happen.

An overview of the back half, where the students build their own salons.

Inside one of the sample stores, the Art store.

A couple of the sample stores, selling rugs and mirrors.

A view of the front half(those horrible tiles will change!)

The view from out the front, lots of shop items in the car park ready to be loaded in.

TUG Personal Services Preview

2009-03-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Server plans and open life/open sim

2009-03-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

We have been playing around a bit the last couple of weeks with both Open Life and Open Sim as an alternative to Second Life.
The advantages (typed on a train on a Monday morning) for us in using this are;
- Firstly and most importantly we have an aspergers/autism project coming up(which is not the same as this but will be related in many ways) - and there is no possible way we can be taking autistic 15 and 20 year olds into either Teen Second Life or the main Second Life without breaking their terms of service. For this reason a private grid is essential.
- Considering our previous attempt at this with Second Life (which cost a lot, was very frustrating and got us nowhere until we joined Skoolaborate) open source is very very attractive.
- Power to do what we want when we want, and not stress so much! Also the power to give each school it's own island to manage as they wish, without having to stress about what a conservative school overseas thinks. Private locked off environments have so many benefits.
- Cost - we are looking at the same cost for several open source islands as one second life island.
One issue educators face is the fact that they might want a space, but only for a couple of hours per week. Second Life charges on the basis that the space is yours and can be full of people all the time, but this is not what we need. Our setup will allow half a dozen or more island to be set up, with a limit of around 40 people. What this will mean is that many classes will be able to have ongoing spaces and activities within the world, but only a limited amount of people will be able to use it(our hope is around 40-50 or two classes).
- Research - and this is the real killer. If we are running our own world, then there is little we cannot monitor, at the moment in SL we are quite restricted. The TUG Engine will be making a start on many of these tools.
I am sure there are more, I will come back and post more about this after I have worked on a new proposal.
This project also needs a name!

For the server, at the moment we are looking at ozservers.com and most likely the Core 2 Duo E8400 (2x3.0Ghz) 6.0 Ghz option.

Team update

2009-03-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

We have a new member on board to help with the server side of things, Geoff (Fof) from Brisbane. He will also be looking into a php stats engine for us.
This now means we have a great team on board, including the uni staff it looks something like this;
Stefan - Project Manager
Dr John Martino - Researcher
Dale - Developer/Designer
Will - Head Programmer
Peter - Virtual consultant/builder/scripter
Geoff - Network/Server admin
Our one remaining need is someone to help Will out with the in world scripting, he is a very busy boy!

Construction update

2009-03-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since the last blog post but things are progressing at top speed.

Meeting in world with Gumby/Peter, our virtual consultant.

Prototype for the control panel, it needs more bells and whistles. The actual build is 90% complete, it's mainly the scripting and tug engine that now needs to be installed.

Gumby/Peter making a hammer

A selection of the goods we have gathered/created to add a bit of decor to bare corners.

My avatar standing at the reception desk.

Rolling along very nicely, an update with snapshots....

2009-02-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

During the past week we have made a lot of progress.
Firstly we have chosen a name for the engine which will drive it all, TUG, and established a website at http://www.tugengine.org. This is quite an exciting development as we realise many of the wider applications this work can have. We are currently hosting this on my own server but will need to find a seperate space as it has the potential to be quite server intensive.

Below are some pictures with descriptions, they tell a better story than words are able to.

First up is a pic of Will's work, these are the various states for the control panel, which he has communicating with the website.

This is the scoreboard, which is recording each avatars time as well as the questions they answered correctly or not, all feeding from the website.

Each door will have a panel next to it as you can see below, that the student can click for a question. The first door will have one question, the second two, the third three etc....all fed from the website database (meaning teachers can update them). We are also working on a web based control panel for the virtual environment.

The yard.

Some logos which will form part of a game. Students will be asked a question and have to click the correct image to win a prize/access.

Inside the maze/factory.

Safety ladder.

Facade of the factory.

Looking from the left hand side, yard to the left, factory behind it.

TUG Safety Gear, including a hardhat, vest and boots. These must be put on before entering the site.

Long range snapshot

2009-01-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

A quick update after a few days work

2009-01-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

A quick progress report after a few days work.
The project is going very well, we have had very few setbacks so far. The building you see below is the 'maze' area, a large factory which students will gain access to by answering correctly. The scripting for the game is also going well with Will already well into building the engine.
Construction wise we are now down to the creation of interactive features, the foundation is set. Next up is several different door types and the question and answer interface, as well as several other game like features (eg shoot the correct symbol) which I will create in conjunction with Will.

The 'maze' or factory building.

Inside the maze, upstairs.

Elevator.

Inside the maze, upstairs.

Students will have to answer questions correctly to open the doors and continue. Te interface for this is one of the next tasks.

Forklifts will be available for students to ride after they have completed the main maze, to explore the rest of the build(which will include the outdoors construction area with house examples etc).

Downstairs.

Some of the vehicles in the lot outside. This will be fenced off, with a construction site next door.

Will (Programmer) - Progress made so far (3 hours of work and chats):

Database:

Database structure has been created.
The database will hold all information such as questions, answers, difficulty levels, sets (subjects), users, and user sessions

PHP Back-end Script

The interface between the Second Life script and the Database.
The Second Life script calls to this script and its various functions to:
Get questions and answers,
Get difficulty levels,
Create User sessions.
There are the functions that have been completed so far, although there are more to come.

Second Life Interface

This script is the interface with the PHP script.
This is at its early stages, but it can already interface with the PHP and catch errors if they occur.
The proof of concept for this script has been created, with a difficulty selector.

All of the scripts are 'transformable', meaning that they are able to be used in different situations.

Welcome to the Construction Island Blog

2008-10-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

The purpose is this blog is to follow the planning and execution of a construction themed island for Victoria University's Faculty of Technical Trades and Innovation.

The general idea is to build a virtual environment where Construction Industries students can learn through play.

Below is draft map of one possible way the island could work, followed by some further details about the space.

A construction themed island in the Victoria University Second Life space featuring;

- Induction workshop. Signs/video showing how to interact with objects and the environment in Second Life. Students must pass a few simple tests(including putting on a hardhat etc) before they receive their vehicle and are allowed 'on site.' We need to discuss ways to incorporate real induction training tasks into this area. Uniforms, hardhats, safety vests, rules, safety videos etc...

- Self rezzing transportation for visitors/students to travel around the island in(perhaps forklifts/excavators or something in theme?)

- Structure examples, including footing, flooring, walls, roofs

- A house in several stages of construction (a replica of the normal ones built) which follow the correct sequence of a real build

- The 'house of symbols' some kind of obstacle course/mad house which has symbols, signs, and definitions which much be correctly identified to proceed.

- Ecological design area - or can this feature throughout?

- Design area - some top house designs from around the world

- A game show/quiz kind of show section. There are several scripts within Second Life which enable group based theme show type games to be played. Need to investigate possible ways this could be used more (both on slexchange and with Daniel).

- Reward system - prizes, utes etc?

- Sandbox

- Train track or similar that takes u for a guided tour

Massive construction venue

120mX120m, with no escape to neighbouring second life islands, no flying

Students must work either alone of as a team to get through the maze before they can explore freely

The appearance of the area will be a run down, industrial, island with old factory type buildings dotted around it(textures from VU on nicholson/buckley perhaps?) with landscaped areas in between. From a distance it will look abandoned and wild, but upon entry there will defined paths and transportation which lead the students between areas.

One focus of the design will be to keep the students engaged in this space, making sure they don't want or need to travel to other areas of Second Life.

Required;

Land - we will need another island to be added to the one VU currently has, the nature of a few of these builds means they will take up a lot of 'prims' which are basically building blocks, and limited for each island. Our island would not need to take up the whole space (it would probably be around 150m X 150m floating in the middle of the space (which is 256m X 256m) however we would need all of the area's resources.

SL Scripts and Objects to buy (prices in Lindens, $1000L = $4USD approx)

There are a lot of models already available which we can adapt for our own uses. We would need to sit down and go through checking what is relevant and how we can tweak some of them for our own purposes.

Eg. Gyrotech construction models

http://www.gyrotech.net/construct.php

Quiz machines/Theme show type games - for the house of symbols and the class quiz area.

Self rezzing vehicles, guided tour pack (gts - $3800 lindens)

Decor

A selection of eco/well designed houses

4wd $1250 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=405746

atv quad $800 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=712922

excavator $2000 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=893438

car wreck $400 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=777041

ind warehouse $700 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=813571

in warehouse $20 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=814031

corner factory $800 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=574942

ind house with water tower chimn $500 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=617171

7up warehouse - $750 http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=images&ItemID=624086&ImageID=910775

neko warehouse $600 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=738548

mine lift ride $2500 - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=225972

hardhat - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=660032

password controlled doors - http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=800265

To make/mod in SL

Vehicles

Landscaping, paving, roads, structures, decor

Structure examples, final example house (high detail/prim)

Mazes

SCRIPTS NEEDED - Peter Rocco / Will?

Have to wear hardhat and other PPE then answer a series of induction questions correctly to open first door

timer script from first door to last, based on hardhat perhaps? scoreboard at the end?

Multiple choice script A

use chat to open doors, users must say the right letter 'eg, type 'a' then press enter' or they get a 10 second penalty before they can try again - questions and answers change each time

multiple choice script B

where users must get one or more answers right(perhaps by clicking prims red/green true/false) before the door opens - a few combinations

self rezzing Vehicle scripts

guided tour

Other games?

All questions hook up to an online database so they can be easily updated.