My exhibit area consists of a welcome sign, start here box, picture of the Eiffel Tower, nine question panels and three colored boxes for people to click on to receive a gift of a black scarf, a landmark to the Eiffel tower in Second Life and a URL to learn more about the Eiffel Tower. I also tried to label items so that the display made more sense. Here is a listing of the scripts that I incorporated in my exhibit:
Avatar receives greeting in the chat window
Avatar touches an object and receives a landmark
Avatar receives a URL
Object rezzed when correct answer written in chat (I am still trying to get this one to work)
Notecard vendor script
Hovering text script
Initially I was going to have an Eiffel Tower picture that had nine squares in front of it to represent questions but I couldn't figure out how to make the squares disappear after someone answered the question. Here's a picture of what that looked like:
I then came up with the open area concept so that people could wander around freely. I also incorporated the "phantom" option to each piece of the display so that people could just walk through an item to get inside the display if they wanted to. I also made sure that the back of objects looked exactly like the front so that it would provide a 360 degree visual. Here are some pictures of my open display:
7 Steps of Interactivity
Level 0 - this reminds me of many of my undergraduate classes where the instructor speaks, the students listen and follow along the PowerPoint presentation. I remember not being a fan of PowerPoints because students are usually provided with copies of the presentation and can read them on their own time. There is no need for the teacher to read them to the class word for word.
Level 1 - this reminds me of a lot of literature classes that I attended where we as a class discussed stories, poems, etc. Having the teacher ask questions before moving on was essential to overall understanding of a concept.
Level 2 - I don't think I have experienced this much, but can see the value in skipping back and forth. It may serve as a strengthener for learning a particular concept.
Level 3 - some of these concepts remind me of science classes that I have previously attended where it was necessary for the teacher to have different questioning strategies to ensure that all students understood a particular concept.
Level 4 - I think that this level can be applied to students learning in a virtual environment. Students learn how to do things and become immersed in what they are learning.
Level 5 - I think that this level really applies to learning in a virtual environment such as Second Life. Students create unique content and can apply their own individual elements that make their projects unique.
Level 6 - Again I think that this level applies to learning in a virtual environment. Students are provided with basic parameters for completion of a project and this enables the students to be as creative as they want to be. This often allows for students to come up with several different ideas and projects about the same topic. The instructor at this phase most definitely serves more as a coach or spectator.
Level 7 - By allowing students to be creative, it really makes them responsible for what they learn and how well they do as far as the grade that they receive.
I believe that interactivity is absolutely essential to student learning. When a student sits in a classroom and just listens to a teacher, it tends to go in one ear and out of the other. When a student is allowed to be part of what they are learning through immersion, they are more apt to retain the content they are learning about.
Favorite Script Project
My favorite script project has to be giving a "URL" to someone. This can be attained by clicking on the pink "Learn More" box at the end of my display. By providing another link about a particular topic, it provides further understanding and continued research about that topic. I think it is essential to encourage students to want to learn more about a specific topic on their own. It can only lead to bigger and better things. Here is a top view picture of the box:
Progress with Second Life Skills
So far I think that learning how to create a Holodeck has been the most fun and the most challenging at the same time. The fun part was coming up with and implementing a room that made sense. The challenging part was in completing the many steps to ensure that in the end the Holodeck would work. It was quite satisfying seeing the end product come to life. I think that using a Holodeck would be most beneficial in a classroom environment. I say this because a user can have several rooms contained within a single Holodeck, which would require less land. This could be beneficial for schools with limited budgets. Recent Readings/Viewings
This week I chose to investigate how to script by looking at a few videos on YouTube. The first video, "An overview of Scripting in Second Life" provided a good basic overview of scripting. This video discussed scripting, states, events, default and on/off.
The next video was entitled, "Scripting Tutorial for Second Life linden scripting language." I learned that "default" is used in every script to begin scripts. The "touch" option is used to tell when someone touches an object. All codes have to be inside events. If codes are outside of an event they will not work. I also learned about the types of variables that are used (integer, float, vector, rotation, string and key).
I also read an article about the "Isla Sonoita Virtual Community." It is an educational community in Second Life that is for educators that do not have a lot of funding. Thsi space is provided to enable educators to build and do research in a 3D environment. This virtual community has an agreement that everyone must abide by if they wish to remain part of the community. This agreement is called the "Isla Sonoita Covenant." This covenant is quite strict but I can see how it would deter people with bad intentions. To read more about the Isla Sonoita community, please go to: http://sites.google.com/site/islasonoita/announcements/home.
No comments:
Post a Comment