iPost 3.0
… now there is this big eLearning showcasey thing next week for EQ people but I will not be there because I am not, well, really an EQ person (Hi if you are a delegate reading this, I am speaking to you from the past … how weird is that?).
The Learning Place wants to showcase some of the aspects of MyWorld that already exist – a golden opportunity to show some of what has been done already, as a stepping stone to what can be done in the future…
iPost v3.0, step 1 in the tour de-vworld
… so it got me thinking what sort of symbolism is naturally “tourist-focussed”.
I know when I am in a strange place, being a tourist, I head for the big blue “P” signs to park and the big blue “i” signs as they usually mean INFORMATION, so I set about designing an “information post – or iPost for short”. It took 3 goes until I got one that I was relatively happy with, hence iPost3.0. They are made up of 2 parts (w-iPost1.rwx and w-iPost2.rwx, with part 1 being the base that throbs with a red “notice me” beacon, and part 2 the disk with the “i” rotating gently).
Wings3D is a useful mesh sculpting tool, and I am getting good at sculpting custom geometry, and beginning to understand the structure of a rwx file, so eventually I will be able to hack (without breaking) them to add texture, light, shading and other attributes.
DJ gave me a list of itinerary points she wanted to feature, so I set about setting out a trail of iPosts. It became apparent that each iPost would need some form of annotation so the tourists could nav and learn as they were going, without having to wait for a tour guide, so I included with each iPost a notice board with some simple orientation info.
unobtrusive but obvious, such a conundrum
The challenge was to make them visible, but not dominate the areas they sit in – they are, after all merely one way through the worlds. I hope we highlight some of the good ideas and work that has already been put into this world – a beginning in some ways, providing muct potential for young learners.
I used a mixture of teleports (instantaneously “arriving” at the destination when on another world, or where scenery gets in the way) and warps (fast forward travellators for placemarks that are within cooee of each other) and I think the mix works – warps are particularly useful for giving a sense of space, scale, direction and displacement and can be a fun ride.
little known details, cached potential
I discovered an issue that is potentially disorientating – when you teleport to part of a building, you may arrive before the building does, particularly problematic if that location is upstairs – you plummet to ground and then the building arrives around you effectively trapping you. The iPost above is the result of being bounced behind a building with the next jump taking you into it – thereby giving the world a chance to catch up with the traveler – caching the geometry as it were, pre-fetching it before you wind up trapped in it. This all depends on the net connection, bandwidth and so on, not sure i can do much more about that.
I have had a couple of guinea pig cybernauts test it out, it is a circuit – tourists can join it wherever they see an iPost. We can either leave the tourist trail in place after the event, or HIDE the iPosts until they are needed again.
Will it be successful? I have no idea – maybe the punters will tell me. Is there anybody out there?
Up Up and Away … to Sky City
Now this idea occurred to me after a cybernaut (thanks Mitchell) sheepishly took me to a place where he thought other cybernauts had done something naughty – let me explain.
When you clone an object from one that already exists (the first step in Activeworld building), you get to choose the n-s, w-e and the up-down-ness of the newly created clone. Someone had discovered that on the construction planet (Obscura) you could change the up-nicity of an object to 500m or so (waaaay above viewing distance which is typically maxed out at 200m). What makes this neat is they then FLEW up and made a lego raft at that altitude. Far from being naughty, I thought it was brilliant, and an idea well worth expanding.
It got me thinking, that maybe our budding builders need a more realistic challenge (or maybe lego is sooo yesterday man), so came upon an idea for a building challenge.
Welcome Cybernauts to SKY CITY
So I rigged a rusting girder platform, on some “suspensors” some 4oom above our pyramid zone (the lego building zone for noobies), lay down modular flooring, signage and some simple rules and regs, then assembled a collection of components (the lego pieces – shhhh, don’t tell them it is the same thing) they could use to make buildings in a custom “object dock” flying a little above the platform and I think I am on to a good idea.
A high altitude object dock
By giving then carefully chosen objects that fit together seamlessly, and some simple construction instructions, punters clone and place their creations on the expanding platform. They are high enough to have conversation and not flood the ground with it, but the space is sufficiently detached from the main building academy (at least vertically) to be private enough for them to think they are being independent.
humanoid-scaled building
I chose modular scenery, walls etc that were humanoid scale – so when the build rooms and corridors they feel right. I may offer specialist building workshops at altitude – we shall have to wait to gauge the interest but it is certain that we have some interested little people with time on their hands that they are willing to spend in-world, so why not harness some of that creativity.
I also learned something about saved object groups that will be very useful. Once I had made the object bay, complete, I saved that to my hard drive (complete) so I can clone them wherever I want – they maintain their altitude information so I can be on the ground and make one appear some 400m above me almost instantly – pretty neat I think.
Is this going to result in great architecture? I do not know – it will be interesting to find out however. What do you think are the pluses and minuses of this approach – should there be city by-laws, construction codes or is that just complicating things way to much?
POSTSCRIPT:
Some kids just needed encouragement – they are doing wonderful stuff when given a little advice and some personal freedom, I can only be impressed
first buildings go up
Eco feet…
Each journey starts with a single step
So, when visualizing a learning opportunity, I like to see it as a series of “stations” or activities, a journey if you like through the course material that hopefully provides a structured and developmental approach to the unfamiliar, one step at a time.
trail of breadcrumbs
So, we are getting students to investigate their ecological impact on the planet. To do this, they explore an “ecological footprint” – so it seems natural they walk along a previously established path of green footprints.
I like the visual metaphor of the trail of breadcrumbs – it is a universal “follow me” beacon. Students proceed from the rally point to investigate, down a labyrinthal corridor to room 2.3.
I have set up a room for this activity, and had to decide how to lead students in a linear way through a developmental sequence without tying them down so strictly they cannot investigate in an order that also suits their own style. Fortunately I had a lesson plan (thanks Deb) and so sort of used that as the skeleton for the area.
So, just inside the door of the room, we take students through what amounts to a rationale of what we are going to do and why that is a valid thing to do. I want to believe that students will read this but hope that their teachers have also done some of the ground work prior to the in-world experience; seeing this cold would be hard work for younger punters I suspect.
I used a “power point” metaphor here, but presented each slide on a separate screen – an information walk of types – the red foot trail emphasizing the start here and walk to here – I think it is clear.
some formal reference material
We then dive out to some robust reference material – each of these screens spawns a webpage in the in-world browser – one is a reference site on ecological impact that contains a fair bit of reading and some snarly vocab – the other is our glossary from our Wiki (a work in progress) which I think will help de-goddldeygook the references. The aim here is to allow them to become informed about issues and measures – with real classroom intervention this has the potential be a rich experience.
now for some personal calculation
Punters now calculate their personal eco foot print – the site linked here is a neato flash learning object that delivers, via a series of point and click survey questions, the number of hectares their personal ecological footprint measures. They need this information, and it is nice and accessible, the language and visuals guide you in well thought out stages.
go green, care and share
On their journey, they have formed opinions and got ideas on what are ecologically sustainable practices, good green things to do … so we ask them to post a “top tip” to a database-managed collection and then explore other contributions.
Next we ask them to use a little value judgement, and place their own personal eco footprint somewhere on a coloured continua (low impact .. high impact) – this necessitates a world-skill, that of making positioning and describing a new object.
how to recipe
Rather than just presume punters would know how, I thought making the process explicit was a good idea – we have seen some random, clumsy and inexpert spawning of response objects so far, so a little world-skill building is a good idea.
rainbow graph
The visual metaphor of “cold” to “hot” I thought would resonate, and asking them to place it in a non-quantitative way should also get them thinking in comparative ways, at least that is the aim.
We have cybernauts in here next week, guess the proof of the design will be in the successful completion, and abundance quality discussion, idea sharing and (dare I hope) learning.
What do you think?
Walk a mile in my …
One of the activities we will be getting punters into is the calculation of “Eco Footprints”. Problem #1 – where to house this activity; Problem #2 – how would they find it when ready to do it.
It got me thinking what an “eco footprint” might look like … to me I see green barefoot prints… yeah, I know, my analyst is worried also.
…so, I fired up Wings3d and pretty soon realised I had no idea what a foot print looked like, so got my foot wet, stomped on the concrete outside, then sort of modelled the outline of that foot.
Sculpted feet
When I got one right, I duplicated, flipped and then set about smoothing the top edge so they would be bumpy but sexily so, coloured them green, exported the pair of feet as one object, then each separate foot as it’s own object so i could use them together or apart. I experimented with the cartoon model, only including 4 toes but it just did not look right, so messed around with the toe placement until I had something that would strike fear into the heart of a shoe fitter (Athletes foot, let me see you fit that!)
I must admit to giggling with glee when I first brought them in-world – they are perfect (well, I think they are).
Follow what trail?
You start and follow the trail, down the corridor into classroom 2.3 – nice visual metaphor and I am happy with the result – am sure I can use these footies elsewhere also, nature trails, critical paths and the like.
It is nice when an idea so completely matches the end result, particularly when you have to construct all the elements of the solution, then have it make sense to little people.
Just thought I would share. Say “Hi” to your Mum for me.
Got Class…
So I have been chipping away at a large building that will house a bunch of stuff on sustainability, eco footprints and other environmental issues and found myself building this old-style education building. It is growing on me, like the mould is growing on the rising damp, or the moss is growing on the poorly drained pavers in the playground.
Anyways, it is a large space, so needs division – in this building there is a W-E corridor that bisects the building, doors lead off to theaters, break out areas, classrooms and the like…
A dank corridor
…and it is beginning to develop some interesting characteristics. I am quite happy with the styling, it reminds me of somewhere I have actually been, but for the life of me I cannot put my finger on where. Never mind, i am sure it will come to me.
The theater needs some breakout spaces, discussion pits and places to learn stuff so i have begin kitting out rooms for various purposes.
Conversation Zones
To take a large area and subdivide it for people to have conversations is easy – to stop the chat leaking in between groups – no so easy. I have used zones here to block world chat, so they can sit in small groups and discuss stuff without having to hear other groups in the room – little “cones of silence” which I think will work ok. We shall see this week when we have punters in and chatting.
A conventional classroom
I also made a more conventional space, a classrooms – you know, the old school model of kids in rows – I figure some things should be inflicted virtually as well as physically 😛 I would gather this space would be useful for gathering the troops, explaining something – we shall see.
Theater Mezannine
I also, at least temporarily, kitted out the theater mezzanine with a big table, some chairs, display surfaces and a podcast piano – I figure it would be useful to be able to stream podcasts – would like to stream real live feeds but I guess that is something I still hope Activeworlds can do. Funnily, I also made a naughty chair, over in the corner – I can imagine a virtual teacher suggesting a virtually naughty kid sitting in it.
Oddly, and you can see the visual remnants of this in the faint but discernible rectangular prism lines through the far wall, when you set a zone to be visible, its outline shows through most everything for miles around … this is odd and I am not sure if I like it much at all.
Once I had the floor plan for upstairs sorted, walls fitting seamlessly, cornices and doorways in place, signage, lighting and aircon ducts etc, I cloned, lowered and voila the bottom floor is not complete also. Much to my chagrin however, I discovered that my side doors did not align with the central corridor on the ground floor, but a little superficial wall massage and it looks like it was always as it now is.
