The Machine is Us/ing Us
March 19, 2008
First, watch The Machine is Us/ing Us — and watch closely because you have to read along! — then give your reaction on Moodle in the form of a paragraph. In your response, you should relate what you saw to what we have been learning in this class. Include two or more examples of how assignments in this class are connected to the subject of this video.
Tagging
March 18, 2008
First, check out the tags people have already put on their blog posts in Moodle. (Easiest if you go directly to the blog list.)
Second, watch Social Bookmarking in Plain English to find out another use for tags.
Third, read the Wikipedia entry about tags.
Now go back to your previous blog posts and add tags to each one. You should have 3-5 tags per post.
Then write a paragraph giving two examples:
1. How you might use tags to help other people find something you created and,
2. How you can use tags to find something you need.
To find examples, you might also want to look at Tags on Flickr, or Tags on del.icio.us. You’ll find this assignment called “Tagging” on Moodle, ready for you to submit your work.
PowerPoint Testing
March 17, 2008
This is the last week before Spring Break. In that time, we have 4 class meetings. Of these 4 meetings, 3 of them will last 1 hour and 1 of them will last 2 hours. This is turning into a word problem. How many hours of class do we have? Right, 5 hours of class this week.
Now, there are 5 computers that we can run the PowerPoint certification test on. The test happens to take 50 minutes, which you can round up to an hour. So how many opportunities are there for testing during class time? Right again, 25 testing opportunities. That should cover everyone. But you can also choose to test after school by appointment.
First things first: everyone register with Certiport. Use your real name and address, and pick a username and password you will be able to remember. I can not retrieve your password for you, so choose wisely.
But I’m freaking out and I’m not ready yet!!!!!1
Don’t worry. There are several things you can (and must) do if you haven’t yet taken and passed the test:
- Look at the Exam Skill Standards from Microsoft if you want to know what will be covered on the test.
- Use the FunctionX Tutorials to learn about anything that you don’t know already
- Take a Powerpoint Training online. There’s a lot of interesting information, so try to stay focused on the topics covered by the test.
Finally, remember that if you don’t pass on your first attempt, you will be able to try again. So if you don’t do as well as you want, the impact on your grade is not final. But spring break will be less fun if you have to study, so let’s try to get 100% of the class to pass this test before Friday!
UV 101
March 17, 2008
This week’s assignment is called UV 101. If you missed the demo, you might want to read about the hypershade panel. Here are some notes on the assignment.
Page 1 (Dice)
You may find it easier to turn off the grid in the UVTE. (View > Grid)
You may also find it easier to work with the texture as a rectangle instead of a square. (Image > Use Image Ratio)
Be sure that you understand the Cut UV Edges and Move and Sew UV Edges commands.
Page 2 (Spaceship)
Paint Selection is just one way to select faces. The important part is to create a new Quick Select Set for each part of the ship.
In step 4, there is a typo. It should read “Make sure you
have deselected everything before building a new selection”.
In step 7, it refers to “Edit Polygons > Texture >
Planar Projection” which is now just “Create UVs > Planar Mapping”.
Everything is due before Spring Break. If you create something you think is cool, post it on the Gamestepper Forums.
Blogs vs MySpace
March 14, 2008
First thing, open Google Reader and see what’s new in your RSS feeds.
Today’s discussion topic is posted on Moodle: Blogs vs MySpace.
Compare and contrast the value and utility of blogs versus MySpace
(and/or FaceBook). You should write about one paragraph, and include
examples or references to the things we’ve learned about or done in
this class (the FaceSpace project, RSS, etc.)
In summary: First check Google Reader, then log in to Moodle and give your opinion.
RSS and Blogs
March 12, 2008
Watch these two videos: Blogs in Plain
English and RSS in Plain
English.
The first one should sound familiar, based on what we’ve been studying. The second video introduces some new information, and you can go back and watch it more than once if you like. Today we’re going to get set up to use RSS with blogs. Google Reader is an online RSS reader. Since everyone here uses Google Docs, you already have access to using Reader as well.
Remember when you first found a blog and posted about it on Moodle? I want you to find that same blog and if it has an RSS feed (which almost every blog in the world does), add it to your Google Reader. Then find at least two more to add. You can use the blogs found by your classmates and posted on Moodle, or you can search for them yourself. I’ll want to see everyone’s Google Reader on Friday, so make sure you get it set up today! Oh, and find some blogs about things you’re interested in keeping up with. It’s more interesting for you if you subscribe to things you want to know about.
PowerPoint Pretest
March 10, 2008
As you know, you’ll be taking the Microsoft PowerPoint Specialist exam in order to get your certificates. Before we jump into that, you will be taking a pretest in order to help you get a sense of how the test works and what will be covered.
The practice test is located on your desktop, accessed through the icon that says “DDC”. After starting the program, you’ll need to create a new account (please remember the password) and then get to the PowerPoint practice test. There are 60 questions, and I expect it will take most people more than one class period to finish the practice test. There is built-in help if you get stuck.
Very important: As you work, keep track of which questions you got right, and which questions you missed. If you miss a question, write down the fact or information or skill that you need to learn in order to be able to answer the question correctly. Please do this all in a Google Document, and share the document with Mr. Chun. Your document will show that you’ve done your work for these class periods.
Blog Followup
March 10, 2008
Find a partner in the class. Read their blog post from last week, and then write your own new blog post (all on Moodle). In your new blog post you should:
1. Link to your partners’ original post
2. Either agree or disagree with their opinion and evidence
3. Offer some new information (and a link)
So your new post should have at least two links in it. Make sure you know how to create links! If your partner doesn’t know how, please help them.
Utopia Project Reflection
March 10, 2008
Today, you’ll need to find someone else in the class to work with. If you did your Utopia project in a group, you must find someone outside of that group. Show them your video and then watch theirs.
After watching, give your partner feedback on their video project (by email) and cc Mr. Chun. We’re looking for constructive criticism, so try to offer comments that your partner could act on. Then, based on the feedback you get, make a plan to improve one aspect of your movie before Thursday.
Suggested improvements that would work for most projects: Add detail to models, add or improve color/texture on models, improve camera animation path, edit video to include multiple scenes. If you know how to do something that your partner does not (in Maya) please help them to learn how they can implement your suggested improvements.
Blogging on Moodle
March 7, 2008
As you investigated yesterday, blogs are written by people in order to share information and opinions about a topic of personal interest. Today, you’ll be writing about a topic of your own interest.
After you log in to Moodle, read my blog post there and read the linked articles. This is what you’ll see:
Blogging is a Unique Form of Writing
What does a blog post look like on Moodle? Like this!There are many
types of writing, from academic papers and essays, to letters, to emails, to
text messages. These each have their own style and conventions. Here are Ten
Tips for writing a blog post, which I think is a great list of things to
keep in mind as you begin. I like the shortness of that list, but a longer
article like How
to write good posts is also useful.Notice that this post has (as suggested):
- links to other web sites (use the link button
)
- information structured in a list
- an opinion
- a length under 250 words
These are all ways to make your online
writing more interesting to others, and easy for them to read and understand.
Try it yourself!
Once you check out the linked articles, think of a topic you’d like to write about today. It should be something you know about personally — something you have an opinion about. You can write about things that are currently happening in the news, about recent games or movies, about sports, about politics, about school, or about anything else. Just have something to say on the topic.
To write in your blog, click your own name in the upper right corner of the screen. Then click the “Blog” tab and click “Add a new entry”. That’s it!
