This year, our Year 9 Robotics elective has undergone some significant changes.  For the first time, we are using OpenSim plus Scratch 4 OpenSim.  Students create their own 3D virtual object then create scripts to apply actions, movement, etc… You can learn more about this project from our previous post with Captain Rob Otics as well as our post featuring a tutorial about using Scratch 4 OpenSim.

We’ve invited one of our students, Ellie, to be interviewed about her participation in our Robotics Project.  Here’s what Ellie had to say…

Ellie, you’ve created an amazing spiral staircase design!  Where did you get the inspiration for your design?

I thought about LEGO and the Harry Potter Castle. The spiral staircase is an amazing design, and I added my own twist to it, putting it in a transparent cylinder so that avatars don’t fall out and other avatars can see through.

How did you use Scratch 4 OpenSim in your design?

I used the Scratch 4 OpenSim software to change the colours of the stairs.  When an avatar stepped on a step, it would change colour.

This has been your first experience using OpenSim, what have you learnt?

I have learnt so much from this first experience!  There is only a little to learn before you are creating complicated designs and attaching scripts from Scratch 4 OpenSim.  I feel confident enough with the program now to create just about anything.  The only thing that I need is time to do it!

Ellie, thank you for participating in our Robotics Project and congratulations on your fabulous work!

Other useful links:
Download Scratch 4 OpenSim
Download the lineSegment Script (You will need to save this text file and use the code to create your own lineSegment Script in OpenSim.  You will need to add this Script to every programmable object along with your own Scratch 4 OpenSim Script.)

Good luck to our new Begonia Island residents and we look forward to seeing the results of your research work!

Although we had some technical difficulties just prior to the event, our “Plan B” was put into action and this, together with the incredible professionalism of The Ed Tech Crew hosts, Tony Richards and Darrel Branson, resulted in a great inworld event!

The event was recorded and streamed live by John Wilson from onlinevents.  We would like to extend our sincere thanks to John for doing such an incredible job.  When we first discussed ways to record and stream the event, we felt that this was something that was best left to the professionals and onlinevents certainly delivered!

Thank you to everyone who was involved:
The Ed Tech Crew – Tony Richards and Darrel Branson
John Wilson from onlinevents
Our Virtual Worlds Project Team
The students from The Hewitt School (New York), MacICT (Sydney) and Northern Beaches Christian School (Sydney)
Special Guests – Steve Collis (Northern Beaches Christian School) and Dean Groom (Macquarie University)

You can visit The Ed Tech Crew site to download the audio and view the show notes.  For the next few months, you can view the video of the inworld event on the onlinevents site.  If you would like to visit The Ed Tech Crew set, join us on Begonia Gardens on ReactionGrid.  The movie below will show you how to access our public OpenSim space and also take you on a tour of the set.

Thanks again to everyone involved and a very Merry Christmas to you!

Well, we’re almost there!  On Friday 17th December, we will be welcoming The Ed Tech Crew to Begonia Gardens, our public OpenSim space hosted by the team at ReactionGrid.

Tony and Darrel will host a “Christmas Special” that will be broadcast live by the wonderful John Wilson from Onlinevents.

Apart from their “Christmas Wrap Up”,  Tony and Darrel will also chat to one of our students who is a member of our school’s Virtual Worlds Project Team.

A special Ed Tech Crew set has been built on Begonia Gardens and will feature work from students around the world.
We have everything from Christmas angels to the Parthenon to a Virtual Worlds Carnival!  Very special thanks to the wonderful educators who have contributed to the display.

How can you be part of  The Ed Tech Crew Christmas Special?

The event will take place on Friday 17th December from 9:00 – 10:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time). Please click here for information regarding other time zones.
Click here to view the live stream.  Viewers will also have the ability to participate in the event via the chat facility on the live stream page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed recently by The Ed Tech Crew regarding our school’s Virtual Worlds Project. It was a nerve racking and exciting experience but one that was so much fun thanks to the wonderful Ed Tech Crew hosts, Tony Richards and Darrel Branson.  Click here to listen to the Episode 141, Welcome to My Virtual World.

During the episode, we joked about an “Ed Tech Crew In-world Podcast”.  I should have guessed that Tony and Darrel would be up for the challenge and so we are now planning an “Ed Tech Crew Christmas Special”.

There is a lot to organise in a short space of time so we are hoping that you will be able to assist us. Our Virtual Worlds Project Team are creating items for an Ed Tech Crew set for the event and we would love to include screen shots of your school’s work in Virtual Worlds.  Whether it be OpenSim, Quest Atlantis, Teen Second Life or another platform, we would love to feature it on the set!

Please email your favourite screenshot to <begoniaisland at gmail dot com> together with your school name and any other information you would like to share about your school’s work and we will include it in the display.

Stay tuned for more news regarding The Ed Tech Crew In-World Podcast!

A few months ago I read a magazine article about crop circles and looked at the beautiful patterns and thought, “That would be a great OpenSim building activity”.  At the time, we were still working on our first project, TechnoSpirit, so I “filed that one away”.

I had discussions previously with one of our Junior School teachers who was already involved in our school’s Quest Atlantis Project.  Roger was keen to learn more about the OpenSim building tools and how they could be used within the Maths curriculum.

Months passed and Roger spoke to me again about OpenSim building activities but this time he was keen to include it as part of the Year 5 Extension Maths curriculum.  In particular, the students were going to be focussing on Geometry in Term 4.  Could a virtual world be used to teach Geometry?

With Roger’s experience in Quest Atlantis, he understood the value of immersive environments and how adding a simple narrative to this project would increase student motivation in the virtual world.  And so “Planet Orbis” was born! The students would be extra terrestrials from the imaginary planet and be known as “Orbisites”.  They would be on a mission to communicate with the people of earth via geometric patterns that would be created in-world.

So how was this project actually organised?  Our private grid is made up of four sims.  One is used as the  Begonia Island Sandbox and the remaining three are being using for the Planet Orbis Project.  One sim has been created as Planet Orbis using an incredible OAR file that is based on actual Mars terrain data!  Two sims have been devoted to a wheat farm where the crop circles will magically appear and, rather than leaving the terrain as flat grass land, the students can explore a farm house and surrounding area that is being created by a member of our Virtual Worlds Project Team.

And so, last week, we welcomed fourteen new Orbisites to our virtual world!  The orientation session went just as expected.  The students watched the “Planet Orbis Mission Movie” with excited yet bewildered looks.  (Who did that strange alien voice belong to? )  They walked, ran and flew around the sims until OpenSim crashed.  They discovered how to edit their appearance so that their extra terrestrial avatars became something that would be right at home in any Doctor Who episode.  They learnt about the Mini Map and Map features in OpenSim and that you can use coordinates to navigate your way around the sims.  They were enthusiastic and excited as most of the students had never ventured into a virtual world.

I’ve noticed that all virtual worlds sessions seem to finish in the same way – students leave feeling happy and enthusiastic about their learning and I leave feeling incredibly proud of their achievements.

It’s hard to believe that our OpenSim Project was officially opened to students just a few short months ago in May.    Since launching this project, it has been a real privilege to be involved in both face to face and online conferences and presentations.  Recently, we were asked to share our TechnoSpirit Project at the Ignite 2010 Conference held at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

The Ignite 2010 Conference is organised each year with both face to face and virtual worlds sessions that are held “in-world”.  Therefore, I was able to be a presenter without leaving my home!

The focus of the presentation was how we created the TechnoSpirit sim using existing OpenSim resources as well creations by our Virtual Worlds Project Team.  We also looked at how the use of virtual worlds can motivate reluctant learners, even when the topic may seem unappealing to them at first glance.

Special thanks to Dean Groom (Manager, Educational Development Group, Learning & Teaching Centre, Macquarie University) and Jo Kay (Freelance Digital Designer and Educational Technology Facilitator) for their wonderful assistance in preparing for the presentation and Adrian Bruce for the in-world images.

Yesterday I noted a tweet by Maria Korolov, the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business.  Her tweet said, “OpenSim on a USB Stick…”  When I first started researching the use of OpenSim in education, I recall reading something about this however, I was still getting my head around the basics of this kind of virtual world and had no idea of the possibilities it offered.

So what does “OpenSim on a USB Stick” actually mean?  By downloading and installing the required files to a USB Stick, you can then use your 3D viewer software, for example, Hippo OpenSim Viewer, to access your “local grid”.  Therefore, you create an OpenSim grid that runs directly from your own computer and USB Stick.  Whilst this is not a multi-user environment, there are still a number of advantages that I will outline shortly.

Maria’s tweet had a link to the Tasmanian Polytechnic Wiki, featuring the incredible work by Roger Stack with detailed instructions and video tutorials about the process.  After watching the tutorials and reading a blog post by the wonderful Ener Hax regarding her experience with the setup process, I decided I was up to the challenge and would give it a go!

My technical knowledge is very, very limited but Roger’s video tutorials are excellent and I found that within 30 minutes (in between preparing our Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner! ) I was running an entire OpenSim grid directly from my USB stick!

There are a number of clear advantages for educators wishing to utilise this feature:

• For educators who are investigating OpenSim as a virtual worlds platform, this is the perfect way to explore the features and possibilities.  You can “try before you buy”.
• Our private grid is made up of four sims, all of which are being used for our current projects.  OpenSim on a USB Stick offers me the opportunity to continue experimenting in a virtual space.  I can import and export items that I build in this space, just as I would on our regular private grid.
• I have previously blogged about the use of OpenSim Archive files (OAR files) and their exciting possibilities.  There are many wonderful OpenSim users who kindly share OAR files.  I can now upload these OAR files using OpenSim on a USB Stick to explore them prior to use on our private grid.  As mentioned above, this is particularly useful when all of the sims on our private grid are being utilised for other projects.
• I also love the idea that OpenSim on a USB Stick offers you the ability to explore, create, test, etc… and then “surprise” the students with something on our private grid that they have not seen at all.
• Whilst I have not tested this myself as yet, I am hoping that the USB Stick can be used on another Windows PC with a 3D viewer installed and also without the need for an internet connection.

Overall, I can see that OpenSim on a USB Stick will offer us even greater flexibility and a valuable testing space to continue our school’s Virtual Worlds Project.

Sincere thanks to Roger Stack for sharing his amazing work!

At today’s meeting, we talked about creating planets using the OpenSim building tools and one student showed a particular interest in this.  By the end of the session, he had not only started work on his own spacecraft, but also created his own planet (yet to be named!) with two sets of rings that rotated vertically.  Although he said this was quite accidental, we all agreed that it looked awesome!

We then discussed the possibility of creating replicas of the planets of our solar system.  An internet search for “planet textures” brought great success in the form of the Planet Texture Map Collection Site.  This site provides beautiful textures with free versions to download.  You can then upload the textures to your OpenSim Inventory and use them to create the planets.

Witnessing the work of our students made me think of all of the times I’ve heard the statement, “Make a poster about…”  This is just one example where virtual worlds offer a highly engaging and richer learning experience for our students.

Option 1: “Make a poster about the solar system.”
Option 2: “Create your own 3D solar system – and fly through it!”