Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Once the students developed the board I taught
them to size and position the boards, and to add
colors and textures (images) to the different parts
of these boards. The final product was simplicity
itself. I had the students provide me with digital
versions of the best map they had produced in the
early GIS software laboratory portion of the class.
I then uploaded these textures (there is a minimal
charge for these) and had the students apply these
textures to the display boards. I organized these
boards into a large display so the students could
peruse their work and that of their fellow students.
These posters were also displayed to the public
during a day devoted to GIS called National GIS
Day. I left the posters up for several weeks so
the students would have an opportunity to view
them over time. This simple learning object al-
lowed the online student to interact and view
other output without ever leaving their homes.
Moreover, several professional GIS people who
are residents of Second Life were able to view
their work as well. The project was viewed many
times by the students' avatars over the six weeks
they were on display.
This learning object was simple, and helped
form a learning community but it did have some
serious limitations. First it required a substantial
investment in time to teach the students how to
create (rez) the prims, resize them, and add tex-
tures. It was particularly difficult to do this using
text-based chat especially because many of the
students had difficulty with the Second Life user
interface. For example, one student was unable
to receive one-on-one directions through the IM
(Instant Message) window because he was hav-
ing difficulty negotiating the frequent movements
from the chat window to the IM window and the
building/avatar screen. This student admitted that
multi-tasking was something he struggled with.
This suggested to me that I needed to rethink the
timing and sequencing of any project that involved
using the Second Life building tools.
Recognizing that I wanted the students to enjoy
building necessitated two fundamental changes
in my approach. First, I needed to set aside time
for teaching building skills independent of the
assignment itself. Students experience enjoyment
when they experience success. Taking a slow,
step-by-step, approach where minimal skills are
learned at any given time seemed more appropri-
ate. Additionally, I created a scenario in which
the results of the activity were not just achievable
but also fun.
To make this effective I had to first decide
what specific Second Life building skills were
needed for the upcoming exercise. The exercise
I wanted to have the students perform required
them to learn how to 1. Retrieve the contents of
a box of supplies, 2. Rez a cube, 3. Resize it,
4. Texture (color or place a pattern on), 5. Add
contents and 6. Make sure the permissions were
set so what they produced could be shared with
me as they returned the assignment.
Prior to the actual building tutorial I required
the students to view several YouTube videos
produced by Torley Linden specifically aimed at
the required skills for this work. To make their
first build easy I employed a single prim. I kept
the nature of the object they were making secret
so they would be surprised. I taught the students
to create a cube, to resize the cube in the shape
of a flat panel that their avatar could easily stand
on, and to add a color to the prim. I then taught
them how to put a texture (an image) on a single
side of the prim. In this case I had already pro-
vided them as part of a box of supplies with the
texture that was a multi-colored pattern that said
“My Trampoline” on it. At this point the students
were intrigued.
Next the students were required to open up
the prim that they had just textured with the “My
Trampoline” image and select its content tab. I
taught the students how to move objects into the
contents of the prim. In this case I had provided
them with two Linden Scripting Language scripts.
One was a script that produced a sound like a
trampoline and the other boosted the avatar that
walked across the trampoline high in the air and
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