I did a quick test of Spore, it's great, certainly has potential for some workshops involving students where we don't have net access, and perhaps good as a backup lesson. Here is the output(as an AVI) after about 30 minutes work.
http://www.spore.com/trial
Friday, June 20, 2008
Random Avatar Observations
This blog is a bit of a mish mash, a catch up from the past couple of weeks when there has been so much happening.
The last few classes
In the past few classes we had the kids working on soccer shirts, then a ball, then a game.
The shirts activity is something that the kids really seem to get into. A note for next year is to start with some Fireworks lessons - but most seem to pick it up fairly quickly and in general their attention (especially the boys) to the details on their soccer shirts (names, numbers, logo, sponsors) was probably better than with most of the other objects we have asked them to make. This lesson possibly left the students who aren't such sporting fans a little segregated, a few such students hung around together and built more fantasy-inspired costumes with wings and more of a goth/emo feel.
The ball lesson was a little more maths inspired but hopefully something all of the students got something out of, and something which with a more simplified script could be a great introduction to physics. Students are given a 'beach ball' which they can modify by changing it's size, material, texture, hollowness, and script (which has several variables including buoyancy). Their task was to find which combination made a good soccer ball for within Second Life, keeping in mind it wouldn't necessarily resemble what worked in real life.
Most students at least had a try and changing a few numbers, and I would say most had a fair understanding of how it all worked.
The game was chaotic but fun, with lots of kids staying into lunchtime in an attempt to score, and interesting people teaming up. Two of the brighter kids cheated, one by clicking the ball(which cna send it in different directions) and the other buy building a big wall which he moved as a goalie to block the goals. Quite admirable really, only the wall should have been transparent and we would have been none the wiser!
Who is going to Sydney?
The teacher team at Debney Park is selecting the seven students who will be able to attend the congress. They will be chosen next week.
The general criteria are;
- Work hard in all classes
- Work well in a team
- No suspensions
- They need a reference from one of their teachers
- Permission from their parents
It will be interesting to see how next terms (new) class goes, considering they won't have that same motivation to behave and work hard.
Sexism
One issue we have had with a student is his attitude towards women, something that has possibly meant him missing out on being part of the group going up to Sydney for the congress.
This is a shame, it was one of the female teachers who I think has made the decision (with support), however I wonder whether taking him up to a conference organised by a girls school would have been a good or bad thing, or if there is some way of letting him know that he has missed out and needs to change his approach.
The school support
One thing which has been essential to the success of the project so far has been the support of Magdi at Debney Park. His patience has allowed us to stay there throughout several stages of us trialling the program, and his willingness to let us experiment with new lessons and enthusiasm when promoting the project to the kids has been essential.
Magdi also has the support of the Principal, who for example will be driving the school bus to the airport for the Sydney trip. It's things like this which I think have made Debney Park an ideal place for us to test the program, they are small but very flexible. Last year some of the students walked the Kokoda trail and the school has a long history (150 years) of helping integrate migrants into the community, so it's nice to be part of that from a totally fresh perspective.
Over the coming weeks I will be finalising the lesson plans for next term with Gene and Magdi. This requires quite a bit of planning because we need to use the Soundhouse studios and Gene 2/3rds of the way through to handle the machinima side of things, and we also need to try and match our activities and outcomes with their curriculum.
Skoolaborate
Once again this has been essential to how well the program is able to run at the moment. The Skoolaborate environment is evolving into a place where things like the mall and the kids own neighbourhood will take on a life of their own, and be teaching the kids some very valuable skills. During many classes the Debney Students have come into contact with kids from all over the world, with varying degrees of 'success' - ranging from insulting them, to helping them by telling them how they can do things, to chatting to them and adding them as friends. One interesting measure of this could be to check each students friends list and see where they are all from (all names have suffixes indicating this).
Building in Skoolaborate
The stores in the mall (which has been moved and needs a bit of work) seemed to have a great impact on the students, especially the freebies which gave them a good idea of what is possible, and gave us more objects which appeal to more people.
I have just built a sky-soccer stadium(yet to be scripted) as our soccer match in class went very well, except the ball kept going out of bounds.
I will be writing up our planned activities for the Skoolaborate wiki, we are also hoping to have a demonstration machinima film made to show at the congress. We may need to arrange some extra classes with the kids who are going to Sydney.
Flemington Film Festival
I have the permit forms for the film festival and hope to get full plans completed over the school holidays, including a budget, applications, sponsorship/support requests, a website to take and display entries, and whatever else we can come up with.
Taking students from Debney Park to Melbourne Grammar as mentors
A great opportunity has arisen where we can take some of the Debney Park kids to the MGS Leadership Conference which is July 28-30th, right before we go to Sydney. This is a great opportunity and is right up the Avatar Project alley in regards to social inclusion.
http://workshop26.wordpress.com/
TAFE Classes
Once again I have TAFE classes (5 all up) starting next semester. One thing we haven't considered at meetings is if we wish to do a similar kind of thing with the TAFE students, and if we can get any more research data out of it.
The effects of using Second Life VS the effects of using Cutting Edge technology
I think one thing that we might need to keep in mind for the research is that there are almost two seperate things which have influenced the project. One is the Second Life software itself, the other is the fact that we are using cutting edge 'new media.' One example of this is how the Debney kids are getting to travel to MGS - this is in part because of the social nature of the software, but realistically is more because they have cutting edge skills. When more kids know how to use Second Life it will be a different story. At the moment we are aware of every Australian kid in Teen Second Life (they are all in Skoolaborate) - so it will be interesting to see how (or if) this changes.
Reference from the HB guys
I popped past the Horse Bazaar office and Sim referred me to an Alan who wanted a youth oriented tech workshop done for a Brimbank council festival in mid September. I am looking into the Spore creature creator for this(no net required) and will drop him an email, it might be another good chance to get the kids out in the real world.
The last few classes
In the past few classes we had the kids working on soccer shirts, then a ball, then a game.
The shirts activity is something that the kids really seem to get into. A note for next year is to start with some Fireworks lessons - but most seem to pick it up fairly quickly and in general their attention (especially the boys) to the details on their soccer shirts (names, numbers, logo, sponsors) was probably better than with most of the other objects we have asked them to make. This lesson possibly left the students who aren't such sporting fans a little segregated, a few such students hung around together and built more fantasy-inspired costumes with wings and more of a goth/emo feel.
The ball lesson was a little more maths inspired but hopefully something all of the students got something out of, and something which with a more simplified script could be a great introduction to physics. Students are given a 'beach ball' which they can modify by changing it's size, material, texture, hollowness, and script (which has several variables including buoyancy). Their task was to find which combination made a good soccer ball for within Second Life, keeping in mind it wouldn't necessarily resemble what worked in real life.
Most students at least had a try and changing a few numbers, and I would say most had a fair understanding of how it all worked.
The game was chaotic but fun, with lots of kids staying into lunchtime in an attempt to score, and interesting people teaming up. Two of the brighter kids cheated, one by clicking the ball(which cna send it in different directions) and the other buy building a big wall which he moved as a goalie to block the goals. Quite admirable really, only the wall should have been transparent and we would have been none the wiser!
Who is going to Sydney?
The teacher team at Debney Park is selecting the seven students who will be able to attend the congress. They will be chosen next week.
The general criteria are;
- Work hard in all classes
- Work well in a team
- No suspensions
- They need a reference from one of their teachers
- Permission from their parents
It will be interesting to see how next terms (new) class goes, considering they won't have that same motivation to behave and work hard.
Sexism
One issue we have had with a student is his attitude towards women, something that has possibly meant him missing out on being part of the group going up to Sydney for the congress.
This is a shame, it was one of the female teachers who I think has made the decision (with support), however I wonder whether taking him up to a conference organised by a girls school would have been a good or bad thing, or if there is some way of letting him know that he has missed out and needs to change his approach.
The school support
One thing which has been essential to the success of the project so far has been the support of Magdi at Debney Park. His patience has allowed us to stay there throughout several stages of us trialling the program, and his willingness to let us experiment with new lessons and enthusiasm when promoting the project to the kids has been essential.
Magdi also has the support of the Principal, who for example will be driving the school bus to the airport for the Sydney trip. It's things like this which I think have made Debney Park an ideal place for us to test the program, they are small but very flexible. Last year some of the students walked the Kokoda trail and the school has a long history (150 years) of helping integrate migrants into the community, so it's nice to be part of that from a totally fresh perspective.
Over the coming weeks I will be finalising the lesson plans for next term with Gene and Magdi. This requires quite a bit of planning because we need to use the Soundhouse studios and Gene 2/3rds of the way through to handle the machinima side of things, and we also need to try and match our activities and outcomes with their curriculum.
Skoolaborate
Once again this has been essential to how well the program is able to run at the moment. The Skoolaborate environment is evolving into a place where things like the mall and the kids own neighbourhood will take on a life of their own, and be teaching the kids some very valuable skills. During many classes the Debney Students have come into contact with kids from all over the world, with varying degrees of 'success' - ranging from insulting them, to helping them by telling them how they can do things, to chatting to them and adding them as friends. One interesting measure of this could be to check each students friends list and see where they are all from (all names have suffixes indicating this).
Building in Skoolaborate
The stores in the mall (which has been moved and needs a bit of work) seemed to have a great impact on the students, especially the freebies which gave them a good idea of what is possible, and gave us more objects which appeal to more people.
I have just built a sky-soccer stadium(yet to be scripted) as our soccer match in class went very well, except the ball kept going out of bounds.
I will be writing up our planned activities for the Skoolaborate wiki, we are also hoping to have a demonstration machinima film made to show at the congress. We may need to arrange some extra classes with the kids who are going to Sydney.
Flemington Film Festival
I have the permit forms for the film festival and hope to get full plans completed over the school holidays, including a budget, applications, sponsorship/support requests, a website to take and display entries, and whatever else we can come up with.
Taking students from Debney Park to Melbourne Grammar as mentors
A great opportunity has arisen where we can take some of the Debney Park kids to the MGS Leadership Conference which is July 28-30th, right before we go to Sydney. This is a great opportunity and is right up the Avatar Project alley in regards to social inclusion.
http://workshop26.wordpress.com/
TAFE Classes
Once again I have TAFE classes (5 all up) starting next semester. One thing we haven't considered at meetings is if we wish to do a similar kind of thing with the TAFE students, and if we can get any more research data out of it.
The effects of using Second Life VS the effects of using Cutting Edge technology
I think one thing that we might need to keep in mind for the research is that there are almost two seperate things which have influenced the project. One is the Second Life software itself, the other is the fact that we are using cutting edge 'new media.' One example of this is how the Debney kids are getting to travel to MGS - this is in part because of the social nature of the software, but realistically is more because they have cutting edge skills. When more kids know how to use Second Life it will be a different story. At the moment we are aware of every Australian kid in Teen Second Life (they are all in Skoolaborate) - so it will be interesting to see how (or if) this changes.
Reference from the HB guys
I popped past the Horse Bazaar office and Sim referred me to an Alan who wanted a youth oriented tech workshop done for a Brimbank council festival in mid September. I am looking into the Spore creature creator for this(no net required) and will drop him an email, it might be another good chance to get the kids out in the real world.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Some example stores for Skoolaborate
Today I lept into the timehole that is Second Life and did a demo store in the mall selling lighting (so the kids can get an idea of how they can sell things they make);
As well as a freebie warehouse with crates full of goodies, so everyone can stock up their inventories a bit.
Classes continue at Debney, at the moment we are working on superhero comics in pairs.
As well as a freebie warehouse with crates full of goodies, so everyone can stock up their inventories a bit.
Classes continue at Debney, at the moment we are working on superhero comics in pairs.
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