Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Discussions with Patrick and Justin on Construction/Blg Design Project
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.
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.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Latest on construction/building design OpenSim project
Summary of latest meetings and technical developments:
- Construction trial now to take place over 2 weeks: weeks of November 29 and December 6:
- 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)
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Today's meeting with Construction teachers and Dale on delivery of virtual world workshops
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)
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)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Illuminating day today at Newport campus teacher training day
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.
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.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Merle in opensim
Using what we already did here in opensim, the plan at the moment is to run a virtual avatar starting with this.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Aescelpia, Sterile Clean Room Update
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.
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