Friday, February 08, 2008
This posting is going to relay 2 of my recent experiences with Web 2.0.
I am always trying to come up with quick and elegant ways for my cyber art students to share, investigate, contribute and in short, make online learning a little jazzier. A huge hurdle for online ed in the environment I am working in, is improvisation and alteration on the fly. The majority of a course or semester must be tied up almost as soon as the course begins. The assignments and the weight for each assignment must be decided in advance, so that all students can work at their own pace. This leaves little room for changing gears mid-semester. This also leaves little room for "tech intensive" assignments. It seems a waste or too much of a trial to make an assignment overly complex. The content is lost in all the teaching about this software or that website. Students don't need to have too many tools. They just need the right tools to grab the concept and hold it and make it their own. Too many tools, whether during open studio time or in on online project, distract and water down the learning. I have learned this lesson the hard way a few times.
There is a webquest that has sat in our Art and Music Appreciation class for quite a few semesters. It is a mess. It does not challenge the kids to think or be original, and it usually ends up as a 7 slide powerpoint show. I decided to change not the core assignment and investigation, but the format. Google SketchUp is a wonderful piece of free software that professionals and students are using all over the world to render 3D models of their world and beyond. What if the kids could all "wander through a gallery" and add their own selections of famous art to the gallery walls. The idea was that they would still do the investigations to discover art from specific times and movements, but would have a lot more fun executing the final project. The Web 2.0 component I wanted to insert was a process in which the kids would all upload and download the same virtual gallery from a public site, and that eventually they would publish a group gallery that kids in other classes within our school could visit and edit.
Here is our gallery:
And then I discovered how even with well-trusted providers like Google one cannot depend on reliable access and software at all times. The Google Group I set up for the class did not allow me to upload the SketchUp art gallery. It was an exercise in frustration but also in problem solving. I did not want the Web to work necessarily, I wanted the kids to all work collectively on a single project. Do you have a GOOGLE account? Go HERE and search for "21CCCS Art Museum"
My other experience with Web 2.0?
Over the recent vacation, I (very guiltily) visited Second Life for the first time. It took a few moments to set up, but soon I was a sleek female avatar with an all white futuristic getup. Well, there is not much to do if you are just dropping in to look around. You can look around. Not much is obvious. Similar to the old game Myst, that had no rules and was all about exploration, though it was local and not a networked game...
I was just standing there, not knowing what to do, when another green avatar dropped in. We eventually figured out how to talk, and we both agreed it was lame and we didn't know what to do or where to go or why. She (he?) stole a car and drove past me a few times. I figured out how to fly. It went on like this for about 30 minutes, and then I was "teleported". Someone, somehow, grabbed me and sucked me into a crazy dance club called the VIP Club. It was full of wildly dressed avatars shaking their stuff. A "spell" was cast upon my avatar and she started dancing better than any rela person I ever knew. So I decided to change the costume. I guess I became naked right on the dance floor as I went through costume changes. ALL OF A SUDDEN there were text messages and scolding flying from every breakdancer and mashed-potatoer in the joint! I had unwittingly broken a giant taboo! I got embarrassed and left. Since then, I have received close to 300 emails inviting me into the VIP Club. Have not yet returned to this corner of Web 2.0....
My SecondLife Avatar (lesson learned)
I am always trying to come up with quick and elegant ways for my cyber art students to share, investigate, contribute and in short, make online learning a little jazzier. A huge hurdle for online ed in the environment I am working in, is improvisation and alteration on the fly. The majority of a course or semester must be tied up almost as soon as the course begins. The assignments and the weight for each assignment must be decided in advance, so that all students can work at their own pace. This leaves little room for changing gears mid-semester. This also leaves little room for "tech intensive" assignments. It seems a waste or too much of a trial to make an assignment overly complex. The content is lost in all the teaching about this software or that website. Students don't need to have too many tools. They just need the right tools to grab the concept and hold it and make it their own. Too many tools, whether during open studio time or in on online project, distract and water down the learning. I have learned this lesson the hard way a few times.
There is a webquest that has sat in our Art and Music Appreciation class for quite a few semesters. It is a mess. It does not challenge the kids to think or be original, and it usually ends up as a 7 slide powerpoint show. I decided to change not the core assignment and investigation, but the format. Google SketchUp is a wonderful piece of free software that professionals and students are using all over the world to render 3D models of their world and beyond. What if the kids could all "wander through a gallery" and add their own selections of famous art to the gallery walls. The idea was that they would still do the investigations to discover art from specific times and movements, but would have a lot more fun executing the final project. The Web 2.0 component I wanted to insert was a process in which the kids would all upload and download the same virtual gallery from a public site, and that eventually they would publish a group gallery that kids in other classes within our school could visit and edit.
Here is our gallery:
And then I discovered how even with well-trusted providers like Google one cannot depend on reliable access and software at all times. The Google Group I set up for the class did not allow me to upload the SketchUp art gallery. It was an exercise in frustration but also in problem solving. I did not want the Web to work necessarily, I wanted the kids to all work collectively on a single project. Do you have a GOOGLE account? Go HERE and search for "21CCCS Art Museum"
My other experience with Web 2.0?
Over the recent vacation, I (very guiltily) visited Second Life for the first time. It took a few moments to set up, but soon I was a sleek female avatar with an all white futuristic getup. Well, there is not much to do if you are just dropping in to look around. You can look around. Not much is obvious. Similar to the old game Myst, that had no rules and was all about exploration, though it was local and not a networked game...
I was just standing there, not knowing what to do, when another green avatar dropped in. We eventually figured out how to talk, and we both agreed it was lame and we didn't know what to do or where to go or why. She (he?) stole a car and drove past me a few times. I figured out how to fly. It went on like this for about 30 minutes, and then I was "teleported". Someone, somehow, grabbed me and sucked me into a crazy dance club called the VIP Club. It was full of wildly dressed avatars shaking their stuff. A "spell" was cast upon my avatar and she started dancing better than any rela person I ever knew. So I decided to change the costume. I guess I became naked right on the dance floor as I went through costume changes. ALL OF A SUDDEN there were text messages and scolding flying from every breakdancer and mashed-potatoer in the joint! I had unwittingly broken a giant taboo! I got embarrassed and left. Since then, I have received close to 300 emails inviting me into the VIP Club. Have not yet returned to this corner of Web 2.0....
My SecondLife Avatar (lesson learned)
# posted by aaron schnittman @ 11:01 PM 
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Thanks for the information about Google SketchUp. In light of the reading on free and / or open source software, it is nice to have some additional $0 cost options to propose. It is unfortunate that it did not fulfill the sharing expectation for the class. I generally find myself most often frustrated by this aspect of software.
I think that your Second Life experience should be added to the Worst Case Scenario Handbook! With all due respect, I had tears in my eyes from laughter. In all seriousness, your posting taps into what is the unknown for many of us. I mentioned related safety concerns for students in the class discussion board. When one sees that a top profession in Second Life is a "dancer" or "hug maker," it is hard to imagine leading students into this space to learn. There seem to be legitimate academic opportunities, but I have not yet come to understand them. Many colleges and companies are setting up in this space, but this is absolutely one instance where it would be helpful to have real human contact to explain the benefits prior to jumping in.
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I think that your Second Life experience should be added to the Worst Case Scenario Handbook! With all due respect, I had tears in my eyes from laughter. In all seriousness, your posting taps into what is the unknown for many of us. I mentioned related safety concerns for students in the class discussion board. When one sees that a top profession in Second Life is a "dancer" or "hug maker," it is hard to imagine leading students into this space to learn. There seem to be legitimate academic opportunities, but I have not yet come to understand them. Many colleges and companies are setting up in this space, but this is absolutely one instance where it would be helpful to have real human contact to explain the benefits prior to jumping in.
# posted by 
: 5:24 PM
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