I have been busy uploading some builds to the outworldz site one of those is my small delivery. This a a circa 1940's van and while not a drivable vehicle in that you cannot actually get inside it does a couple of nice little features like the transparency used for the spoked wheels.
The other upload is a model of the Austin 7 (large) from about the same era. Again the vehicle is not drivable, but like the van they looked good as part of the world war 2 sime that I created for me students assignment work.
When I say the vehicle were not drivable this is true, but they did drive themselves around the sim at random and I managed to implement this through the use of a tour script all the good effect
Please feel free to to download and make use of any of my byuils at outworldz and if you have any questions then please visit either Skipper Abel or Aso Galicia in SecondLife for more information
Saturday 21 July 2018
Monday 22 August 2016
Westworld at Kitely
Remember that this week 21st - 28th August features as part of the Kitely History month the period 1800 to 1914 and Westworld, the hypergrid address is grid.kitely.com:8002:History Hub.
And be sure not to miss out on the Grand Ball on August 28th at 11 a.m. Pacific on the Kingdom of Florin region. Please be encouraged to get in role for this one.
If you would like to interested offering an historic world then please contact Serene Jewell in-world or at serenejewell@gmail.com for some lands and plots.
Image courtesy David Kariukiption |
And be sure not to miss out on the Grand Ball on August 28th at 11 a.m. Pacific on the Kingdom of Florin region. Please be encouraged to get in role for this one.
If you would like to interested offering an historic world then please contact Serene Jewell in-world or at serenejewell@gmail.com for some lands and plots.
Monday 8 August 2016
BIO Med Virtual Laboratory
Following
my previous posting on the virtual laboratory this latest blog is by way of a
progress report on that project. The building itself I decided need some small
changes to internal textures, which simply meant renewing floors walls and
ceiling. My first task surrounding the requirements for assets was to construct
some suitable workstations.
Fig 1 |
The screen shot image 1 one show the Centre Workstation.
At present the doors and draws are static, but I can animate these is that’s a
requirement. The gas taps I intend will be interactive as function the functionality
for the Benson Burners, and is the case for power sockets.
Fig 2 |
Fig 3 |
The screen shot fig 3, shows a similar workstation
placed along the lab wall. I managed to download a nice microscope build as an
iar file from opensimcity, and I want to work on these so that the eyepiece
displays the media of a microorganism growth. I have included a negative
pressure cabinet on either end of the workstation, but not sure until I meet
with the team if they will require and interactive features, but far so good I
feel. Please stay in touch for further updates.
Wednesday 27 July 2016
Two new project requests
Following
my presentation at the College HE day on the use of virtual worlds I have
subsequently received two project requests, the first was from our Bio Med team
who asked would it be possible to have virtual lab that students could use to
become familiar with equipment and use. So first things first I went about
setting up a sky platform and installed a build; I actually found this one at
OpenSimCity, and after making a few texture changes fig 1.
Fig 1 |
I met with a couple of
team members, where I am pleased to say they agreed and we talked about some
details of use and functionality.
The second request came from Functional
Skills math’s, and just like with Bio Med, my approach basically was, can we
get the virtual world to do something for us that the vle does not, and of
course my answer to that is provide a simulated life experience, it really is
important I think not to simply reproduce vle or documented content and drop it
into a virtual world. And so my plan is to present students and staff with an
urban set of life experiences, and as a starting point using a café facility
where students can order beverages and food, work out their payment and change,
then sit down chat and enjoy the virtual ambience see fig 2.
Fig 2 |
This is the basic
setup, and I have used an existing urban style sim that we already have running for this. I will be getting my head down for some serious building and scripting
in the days ahead on both projects, So if you are interested then please stay
in touch and as always feel free to comment.
Saturday 23 July 2016
Crypto Island
Finally, I am getting around to mentioning my virtual world
project 2015-16. I am yet to create a final user report for this, but it will
appear in second life along with all the others at this slurl. The project was
named Crypto Island see fig 1
fig 1 |
fig 2 |
The scenario placed my students back in Britain of 1942 see
fig 2,
where they were tasked with decrypting enemy messages, this of course
meant they first had to learn about encryption techniques. The game element I introduced
was for them to decipher the codes before damage from nightly air-raids see fig
3, 4 reached a predetermined value. In the event that the target value was
exceeded, then the encryption would become correspondingly more difficult.
fig 3 |
fig 4 |
Students
start by learning the fundamentals of encryption based situated in an old
factory learning space, see fig 5.
fig 5 |
Where materials are presented on notecard
dispenser boards in a low resource demanding format. The emphasis at this phase
is for collaborative problem solving, making successive attempts at testing and
evaluating their learning using in-world online cryptographic engines. Submission
uses notecards that are returned using covert drop points, in this case public
letter boxes. Once the practice sessions are complete, actual messages are delivered
through telephones placed at various locations around the sim; in order to
retrieve message students would have to wait for a telephone call (ring), at
which point they simply touch on the telephone to receive a notecard; a particular
feature I felt had the further effect of encouraging exploration and
collaboration. Once the cyphers have been decoded, they are once again recorded
on notecards and returned using the drop point network. When all messages have
been correctly deciphered, air strikes will cease, effectively ending the game.
Wednesday 20 July 2016
Rocket Science in the virtual world
This has been a really good year for virtual world projects.
My student project for the academic year 2014-15 level4 and 5 was Rocket
Science. The benefits to my students I feel are twofold: first, in using the
medium, they acquired the knowledge, understanding and competence to complete
the task; second, they experienced the advantages of collaborative, virtual,
social, synchronous communication afforded by the visual learning styles of the
3D environment. Virtual learning would be presented as a signposted, linear,
walk-through workflow series of activities, from Orientation to Simulation, as
shown below in Figure 1.
Fig 1 |
The main learning space comprised three tasks that
cover Boost, Coast and Recovery phases of the rocket’s flight. The stages are
presented as a signposted, linear, walk-through series of activities, carried
out using similar workflows that are presented as: introduction notecard boards, exercise
boards, calculator boards and a drop box. Fig 2.
Fig 2 |
The final simulation stage
draws the together the work of the previous stages. It presented the students
with a full set of flight-profile calculations, dispensed once again from the
notecard board. Upon completion, the notecard was saved and a copy dragged to
the drop-box. Students could then check their results by launching a rocket:
touching the green button at the centre of the launch console table produces a
series of drop-down options prompting for input parameters, after which a
soundscape introduces the countdown and launches the rocket. Figure 3.
Fig 3 |
If you are interested in the
reading more about this, my research proposal report has been published on the
Compass website from the by the University of Greenwich. As an added incentive
for me, I was given the Research Award for 2015-16 for research from BromleyCollege, very encouraging; there is a YouTube you can follow up on if you have moment.
The project in fact received even more exposure when I was
asked to deliver an impromptu presentation to the JISC ConnectMore16 conference
in June.
I have since been receiving requests from within College for
more virtual worlds specifically Functional Skills and Bio Medical science, so
please stay in touch for developments.
Monday 24 February 2014
Treasure Hunt on an Alien Planet
As you can see I have made good use of builds from OpenSim creations as well as creating a fare few of my own.
Comments welcome, regards Vega
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