Windsor Chairs and Google sketch up...

Making the chairs and embedding them as objects within second life.. this is a steep learning curve... also I am half way through a period High Wycombe furniture workshop so that the museum can connect to the workshop.

I have the Curriculum - all I need now is some You Tube video of bodging stringers, adze work on windsor chair seats and a bit of construction technique and I may get close to combining this with the Curriculum hopefully this will embed within the period chair making environment...  a screen on one wall... this is taking alot of time...

Hopefully an old friend of mine who is an awesome craftsman may have some you tube videos... fingers crossed..

heres Robins blog...  http://treewright.blogspot.com/

and rather sadly heres my attempt at a 3D Windsor chair arm in Google sketch-up... after 2 hours of twiddling..

 

more furniture research for the SL furniture workshop

I am trying to find out what a furniture workshop should look like, so I am a bit disappointed about the Chiltern open air museum website http://www.coam.org.uk/IHistory/History.html, having been there a few years  back for a green wood chair making demonstration...I am a bit upset there is no mention of the Windsor chair or the workshop..

I am currently following High Wycombe furniture history archives http://hwfurniturearchive.bcuc.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewHome  these are not much help either - though it all seems to be post first world war Ercol manufacturing and their contemporaries .. not a picture or reference anywhere to the more craft inspired bodging of the Windsor chair.... harrumph...

Research, reading, ideas etc : The Project Brief

The concept of linking three chairs from the Parker repository is not quite as simple as it looks, I have to chose chairs that are significant (one of which has to be a Windsor chair as they are ubiquitous and it is also useful as there are many resources online that can be tapped).

This also has to be recreated in Second life, I also have to collect learning materials that enables the SL elearning application tool to be valid. I really want a modernist contemporary chair and an early chair from the Parker Collection that demonstrates significant groundbreaking techniques that are still used today... I will have to liaise with John Cross at Sir John Cass to make certain my inital three chairs are the best choices, this will have to be counteredd with Stratford College to qualify pertinence for the existing fine furniture course...the intention would be to add chairs and contemporary workshops as the project progressed. So I am currently reading books on Second life coding, trawling through furniture books, ornamentation books and architectural books to make certain the environments are correct..

Whilst I think imersion in the VR environment with the kind of detail that will be necessary will make the material come alive, it will hopefully push the learner towards a vocational curriculum, it may also serve as a transition tool to enthuse students to get involved with fine furniture fabrication. Trying to find a particular pedagogical hanger to hang this on is tricky, I would like to investigate one of my contemparies modus operandi with her Roman learning environment with regards to justification.

The specification is essentially this:

An open plan museum with open access with chairs as exhibits, the avatar sits in any one of the chairs and is teleported to a contemporary workshop, where the chair was made, and is being made and componentised, there will be a virtual blackboard that embeds video, learning materials, blueprints, history, links and a quiz with learning outcomes, the avatar can then teleport back to the museum and sit on another chair...

This enables engagement, a certain amount of drilling in gathering information and a check of learning outcomes for reinforcement, perhaps the reward could be an apprentice toolkit ?

Should the Student be given contemporary workshop clothing?  ah dilemas....

Have completed the virtual museum building... and some thoughts on collateral elearning???

What with the licencing issues that have closed down the Frank Lloyd Wright Museum in SL I wonder what implication this has for learning material and IPR and estate royalties… most of FLW designs were out of copyright.... very interesting...

I am still following my Luddite stream of criticism and investigating as to whether SL is a sensible elearning environment... Larry Cuban is helping me along as well....are we following the unproven ideas of collateral learning?  the famous 1927 picture of  teaching geography to pupils in an aeroplane in Los Angeles in Teachers and Machines  The classroom use of technology since 1920 L.CUBAN springs to mind...  ah..

I bet the kids remembered the flying experience more than airborne based physical geography, full marks for engagement though..

Heres my Museum by way of distraction: Frank Lloyd Wright eat your heart out... though it looks a bit Petts Wood on reflection...

Maybe Sloodle offers salvation?

The early bird catches the worm? I was invited to a webinar this morning presented by Daniel Jack Livingstone from the University of the West of Scotland...

The session was demonstrating how Sloodle tools could be used to develop interactive educational activities.... Hurrah! Whilst it was a 7 am gig... It was very helpful.

I can now potentially tie an immersive environment to the curriculum and assess as well... Well I think I can potentially do it with personal avatar based web pages... The original development that was demonstrated was equivalent to the HUD systems that the military use, but it offers a dedicated and personalised assessable environment.... Though again the development time does seem astonishing.... it reminds me of the economic principle that dictates that space expands to the time and volume it's given...

ePedagogy and eLearning: Disruptive Technologies may offer perspective?

Ah.... following on from my thoughts and how to nail down the benefits or value of Second Life as an elearning environment (or have pedagogical worth), I have arrived at the pithy question of Christensens concept of Disruptive Technologies....

As far as I can gather this is a concept or reality where a  new technological innovation presents change or benefit that effectively makes redundant old processes; akin to replacing old coal gas with north sea gas, or the Fax machine with email attachments....

However there are some innovations that have been less disruptive than initially thought as the return on investment questions the initial worth. Supersonic flight springs to mind as does Nuclear Energy when compared to conventional power generation.

When I consider  VR AR or simulated learning environments I wonder whether their less than utopian access plus the cost of build and exclusivity of use can be compared to the Concord.....  

I need to investigate further... as the caveat is that the word affordable is often mentioned in the same sentence as  Disruptive Technologies..... Ho Hum #2

Heres the Harley in second life...

it is essentially a shivel head bobbed chop, without exhausts as yet...

ePedagogy - a Myth? I want Corroboration...

I get the feeling that the return on labour with perhaps the majority of most eLearning projects will be small and of potentially small pedagogical value:  especially when measured to the amount of effort that has been put into the construction of the edifice/product/tool whatever....

I reckon that for eLearning to have value it has to have measurable outcomes: a 1000 years of conventional learning  always had assessment to make certain that what was being taught could be measured as correct or valuable ... essentially using hypothesis, this is established from Pythagorus to Gestalt. This culmination of this  formalised learning finally modifying into a post Second War pragmatic group based tutilege process, that which our generation has grown up with.

eLearning seems to stress customisation and embedding the student, the onus being that what the student finds helpful will make them learn..... We have all seen Bill Gates on webinars espousing the virtue of choice and self determination enabled or (nare dare say) enhanced with the Microsoft toolset - the world truly is our oyster here.... 

But back to the grit and grist of real learning... Does this set that the minimum requirements are monitored? Does the student or learner really understand the input process?  How can we measure outcomes?  for elearning to work from a pedagogical perspective we have to have eAssessment.... ah.... now that adds even more labour and some really tricky labour at that....... ho hum....

Further to Pedagogy; objectives and validity

I have been putting my mind to the validification of the second life elearning project. I have a project which holds together:  it is essentially a 5 chair (realworld) timeline travelogue from  the Parker collection tied to a second life environment where the avatar is essentially the student visitor immersing in the techniques and the environment of that chair construction - this is then combined with current fine furniture cuuriculum from City & Guilds...

The second life enviornment is essentially a 3D "Dorling & Kindersley" experience tied to adult curricilum and aiding learning outcomes.. Whether this has benefit from a utilitarian principle is doubtful, Im kind of with Larry Cuban on this one... http://markmail.org/message/uall7hg3m3va2x53  “Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom” Larry Cuban

I suppose pedagogically I will get more value from the exercise than the punter will, I will be able to fabricate doric columns and build the character of 3D ornamentation Ware & Stafford of the "Illustrated Dictionary of Ornament" eat your heart out...

and another built model

this time is a Shovelhead bob Harley - this one is a lot more correct and accurate though its more spartan than the speedy twin which was my first attempt... which I think has a bit more mojo

Pulling the strands together: the subject rather than the rendering environment

This module is like a plugboard..

I have the connection with John Cross at the Sir John Cass foundation and the benefit of the Parker collection to build on, I have the connection with Colin Eden Eadon at Statford college with his superb fine furniture course, I have the furniture curriculum from City & Guilds, Im investigation pegagogical imperatives to validate the VR environment.. and I can just about build/render in SL though  Im still some distance from scripting...  Im assembling my ideas slowly but surely

Pedagogical help from Nigel Medhurst: is it Etienne or Arsene?

Our tutorials are always fun when it comes to trying to justify our projects from the perspective of validity. I have yet to find any Pedagogist (?) worth his or her salt that doesnt talk in infernal metaphors all the time, I am trying to find someone who has determined the precepts of the subject... the closest we thought we got in the last tutorial was Wenger though we seemed to hit more Arsenal than Educational in websearch, though here is the site we were trying to find:

http://www.ewenger.com/

http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/Conference/Documents/Workshop_3.7.pdf

More building more reading more issues with the isometric perspective

I am finding copying components  in the same plane seem to mysteriously go out of the plane.. also for the life of me I cannot seem to make bending tubes or get things to cut where I want them to cut.. anyway Ive nearly finished the clasic twin,  but cutting and shutting the exhaust is exhausting so I have currently given up...

Also colouring the components at the end is laborious - one can occasionally effect a global texture and colour with an extended highlight (shift mouse click) but its a bit hit and miss - also some textures dont seem to take colour well - and there doesn't seem to be a common theme....

Also more irritatingly I lost the qualities menu (with all the shape editing parameters and qualities editor)  - I thought I had minimised the menu but I hadn't... and I didn't manage to get it back... pah..  but hey heres the bike -  it wouldnt necessarily ride that straight in the real world as the frame is a bit bent.. and the wheels are not true though Its as straight as I can get currently... it will pass the SL MOT and Ill try and sell a few when theyre engined...

So to fiinish it needs the exhaust, the frame tubes need to be a bit bigger and I want it to be a duplex frame  at the front and the right hand stanchion is a bit long - it HAS got a rather nice rocker style leopard skin seat cover on it.. it has the look of a Bianchi/Terrot/Gilera and the engine looks like an OHC Jawa (though they were singles)- I want to do high level siamese exhaust and the mudguards are more valenced than I'd like - but hey - it looks like a classic twin..

Still getting the hang of the build in Second Life

Well I thought I had better stop building furniture elements until I went to see the gentleman who is responsible for the real world collection as I dont want to build stuff that I wont use but I still need to practise, so I thought I'd build a motorbike that I can sell in SL later on.. I wonder whether I will be able to get it to work as a motorbike? also I wonder how much overhead the detail adds to the ability to add functionality, I think the bike is either a Terrot or a Mondial I havent made my mind up yet, there is a touch of the Jawa as well.. anyway Im starting to understand the isometrics..  I will want to colour this machine  so I guess that will be interesting

heres some detail:  its a bit rudimentary but Im only 6 hours and 4 builds into SL

and theres more building

I wonder how I can get the avatar to sit astride the shaving horse... tricky coding I fear...

Joining up the dots pedagogically

I have hopefully managed to arrange some NVQ content and information to fit with the furniture museum exhibits. This evening I went to the Building Crafts College which was founded by the worshoipful company of Carpenters in 1893, and was shown around the institution by Colin Eden_eadon who is the senior Tutor in the fine Woodwork department, he likes the idea of a virtual furniture museum to link up with formative elearning for his course.. so we are getting the strands together... I must say the college is absolutely wonderful, I missed a trick I should have studied there... the wood and stone work is something to behold... british craftsmanship at its best...

http://www.thebcc.ac.uk/pages/contact_us/location_map/default.aspx

http://www.thecarpenterscompany.co.uk/pages/useful_links/default.aspx

http://www.instituteofcarpenters.com/

http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frames/browse2?inst_id=91&coll_id=7263&expand=7263A
 
I can now go to The John Cass Foundation with potentially slightly more focus...

Learning Script and building Objects

I read the first introduction to Scripting code on the SL main page http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Help:Getting_started_with_LSL which seems ok ish... but if I am honest not much fun...  and to develop my object building I have built a Pole Lathe and a Workshop bench for the furniture museum... gradually getting the vibe well maybe..

the Pole lathe needs some rope to connect and the treadle to pivot, and the cabinet makers bench looks either a bit japanese or at worst IKEA, its a start - Im not looking forward to the Roccoco period....

Early attempts at Building and scripting in Second Life

SL scripting and building, the first real attempts

Its been a long day, as its past Midnight, In an attempt to re do the first exercise in Second Life from the lab - where Alan sent me the app script  many times and it appeared only when I left and re logged on... so I built the whole control box again... I think it worked though I am uncertain as the object seems to have disappeared again.. though a dialogue came up telling me where an object was in terms  of coordinates... so eight hours later Im not that certain Im that competent - rather worrying..

I have also installed a new graphics card on my server so I have 2 machines that now function with second life and a book arrived from amazon - the introduction to Linden scripting language... I wonder whether I will become proficient enough in the time available... its quite a concern..

Within the Linden environement it is also difficult to build objects rapidly as they dont snap to perspective... not useful  in 3D on an isometric view when the depth of field is hard to guage... this is tricky... and time consuming...

Interestingly enough I initially got a PCI express graphics card that wasnt correct for the mother board, when I went back to the store and was explaining what I was trying to attempt - the tech support fellow said " ah....second life that was the game where all the players dress up as little girls and there was a lot of trouble with the police...   this is not inspiring me with a great deal of confidence I must say...

After a few more hours with second life.. a few tutorials later

Well I've watched the first coding turorial and I understand it! And...I have no watched two or three SL building You Tube tutorials, which makes it all seem a lot less fearsome than  I thought.I am faiirly certain I can mock up a few chair workshops and some chairs some techniques some background and a seminar room with a a presentation screen with real pics... 

However it is going to be very laborious... Ive also odered the book

"Introduction to Linden Scripting"   though it seems to have some poor reviews - maybe it will be a good reference, as far as I can make out so far it seems that we actually have to code inside the SL browser - which makes me feel a bit claustrophobic.. oh well ever onward.. though I 'd like to be able to see the wood for the trees..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Linden-Scripting-Language-Second/dp/1604390042/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288301230&sr=1-3

I have bought a brand new laptop to do this work ( a Toshiba C650) which has a nice spec and a reasonably large screen but SL renders like a gameboy ATM...  I have fond memories of an earlier Toshiba; in 1986 I had a Tosh T3100 which was the first ever portable laptop - it was £2000 and had a pre windows orange plasma screen - I ran Lotus 123 and quickbasic in DOS on it and was as proud as punch...

Complexity of build vs relative merit second Life as a VRLE...

The Virtual Reality Learning Environment....

I am now four or five hours into Second Life, I have met absolutely no one..... so the question of popularity is high in my mind... my own and or second life...

Im going through the tour of SL and I reckon that learning the interface alone will put off most learners... and then there is the immense development overhead.. Im not enjoying the user interface or experience and the look of how to build is seemingly complex as well.... I wonder whether the effort is worth it...

I reckon that if the experience is not immediate enough the learner will not use it, if a Student Learner can "borrow" a ready made avatar and negotiate an alien environment without a lengthy immersion session  then we may be in luck... EPIC and Caspian offer a single person avatar presented with scenarios, in second life the path to learning is embedding as the sheer variation within SL offers exponential outcomes (only some of which will be valid)  - this then begs the question then whether the learning of the environment is more important than the stuff we are trying to impart - is the content getting a fair crack of the whip.....?

If I can place my avatar in a closed environment that offers little distraction and learning tasks that are simple, fun and engaging  then potentially Im winning pedagogically..  its not looking good atm..

Further to the virtual Furniture Museum

work work work... I think I can link the C&G fine furniture qualifcations  pedagogically to the Sir John Cass Foundation Chair museum via trade schools and examples of practice, The need to have an expert primary resource,  in the old days an apprenticeship was 5 years and the practical elements of contemporary furniture courses are based on less "tool" time... ho hum considering that my last module effort was maked back for too much partisan content...

Further to this, on this module Ill have 5 paymasters: Nigel Alan ( my Met tutors) John Cross (Sir John Cass Foundation) Stratford College and City & Guilds... (there are at least 4 or 5 parties here to keep happy as well..)  which doesnt bode well...

Also the upcurve on this is an enormous tech overhead in putting anything meaninful in the lovely Second Life..   (scripting language and 3D object renderers...) as I dont have a machine that works well with it Im considering spending some of my hard earned on a Net book.. oh well <second> life can only get interesting.. Im uncertain I have the ability to nail the scripting language and the content even before I have to consider pedagogical value or virtue.... and by the nature of Lindens liscencing agreement there is no universal access.. am Im not certain a film set has any pegagogical value at all... pah....

Which project to chose?

Well the next thought is what project, the synergy of project 13 is fate potentially, maybe seven years ago I tried to start a part time restoration and conservation course at Sir John Cass foundation in the Commercial Road, which is a continuation of the London school of furniture, which I had studied cabinet making at in an earlier life.

Many years ago at school when asked what career I wanted to follow I suggested Furniture design and was laughed out of the class which seemed to feature many future brokers and lawyers at that time ( bet they are all doing something totally different these days )

So that and managing to get the name of the chap at the trades college at Stratford who is responsible for City & Guilds fine woodwork at London skills 2010 is conspiring to formulate something in my mind..

Blog for the Second Life project

Right ho, Alan Hudson my course supervisor has given me a list of second life projects most of which I am finding rather uninspiring, I essentially have two paymasters here, in that as I have to complete the assignment for the MSc, I am morally obliged to build something that my sponsors (my employers) might be able to use or develop further.

Also it has to be said that I am rather unconvinced with second life as an environment that has universal access, as I feel elearning should be ostensibly utopian in nature.... Ah a moral dilemma