CTU Summer 2012 Celebration

Students from CS 855 and EM 825 joined graduates from prior classes and members of our learning community in a celebration at the end of Summer 2012 term.



Click here to view Lyr Lobo's Celebration Summer 2012 video on Animoto.

In Second Life, DJ Astoria Luminos hosted the music stream of hits from the 70s and 80s as we distributed gifts and discussed our plans after the term ends.

If you missed out on the treats and would like a copy, please contact Lyr Lobo in Second Life.

Highlights from 33 Classes with Lyr Lobo in an Animoto Video

To celebrate our Second Life classes from 2006-2012, here is an Animoto video with highlights from 33 classes. More detailed videos are offered in the Blog archives.

Animoto video by Lyr Lobo

Today, Colorado Technical University hosts 4-7 classes per term in Second Life. Animoto creates free 30-second videos from your images and turns them into a music video. The music in this video is Winds of Change by Jap Jap and available in Animoto's royalty free music collection.

CTU Celebration for Winter 2012 in Second Life

Wonderful Celebration party with EM 210, EM 835, EM 840, CS 820 and CS 855, plus some of DCS 3 joined us! *cheers*

Electronic Textbooks Anyone?

Want a portable color display that receives inputs from my smart objects and is as thin as cardboard? Watch the end of this video as it demonstrates how thin. From CES 2009:

Our class podcast using Gabcast

Futuring and Innovation class examples #1 - Summer 2010 Demo Podcast

We used a cell phone in class to create a quick podcast. Many thanks to everyone for participating!

How to access the file and player html:
http://gabcast.com/gc1/index.php?a=pub&id=35436#

Animoto Video of the Hostage Rescue Game

Back to the Future

It is great to see you again during our Fall term at Colorado Technical University. Thank you for posting your research plans and accomplishments in your class introductions.

On Saturday, October 10th, I gave a workshop on Emerging Media as a Mind Amplifier at the Doctor of Management Symposium. I'll be holding an abbreviated version of it during the DCS Symposium this week. The photo shows William Kamkwamba demonstrating a windmill that he created out of a bicycle as noted in one of the Ted Talks videos.

During this Fall 09 term, I am teaching two of my favorite classes, CS 820 Usability and Interaction and CS 855 Futuring and Innovation.

CS 820 uses an empirical testing approach to identify how to understand and support people and their interaction with systems better.

CS 855 examines the future by reviewing past forecasts and predictions, examining think tank processes, and studying what scholars use today to strategize and impact the future.

I'll post notes on this blog for both classes and highlights from my research for you to enjoy.

Our Second Life sessions include 30 minutes of course content, 20 minutes of Second Life skills and 10 minutes for research discussions and tips. If you wish to meet after our sessions, let me know.

And now, back to the future! *cheers*

How Music Changes a Video

Here is a version set to contemporary music of our Constitution Day and Colorado Technical University Class of 2009's Graduation Party footage, held in Second Life. Many thanks to our guests from the DM and DCS degree programs for playing the trivia game and helping us celebrate!


The slogan for the day, featured on one student's shirt, reads:

Come to the Dark Side
We have cookies!

Congratulations to our graduates! *cheers*

Preparing for Graduation - Second Life Style!

In our CS 855 Futuring and Innovation class, we discussed the Animoto class activity and took a field trip to the NMC Orientation island's Educator Freebie Center to check out the tools, toys and avatar content.

We used the Game Design group voice channel so we could hear everyone even while traveling around Second Life.

Animoto is a fun, easy to use tool that takes your images, sets them to music and animates them. The free account allows you to create 30-second videos out of 8-15 slides.

While animated slides set to music may be foreign to some of us, the class found the Animoto videos stimulating and interesting.

At the end of class, one student modeled the NMC's regalia, and looked fine in his graduation cap and gown. This is our class's last doctoral course and we are looking forward to graduation. *cheers*

Our next class features a discussion of the final projects and observations from Technology's Promise by Dr. William Halal.

During our Second Life skills session, we will discuss presentation styles and tips for hosting conferences and seminars in Second Life.

Animoto Video - Second Life Summer 09 Classes

Our Week 8 class focused on analyzing alternatives for a modified Delphi process and a review of how Christakis' Energy Efficiency case study employed group work in their voting process. Our virtual world content creation activity examined how to create a heads up display (HUD) device.

As a retrospective from our CS 855 Summer 2009 classes held in Second Life, I created this 30 second CS 855 Summer 2009 Animoto video. The images highlight the discussions and virtual world building sessions held on Acheron LV426.



With Animoto, you can upload your images, drag and organize them, add text, set them to music and add a title and description before finalizing your video.

Creating a Heads Up Display Device

When creating a 3D HUD, the root prim may need to be rotated. Our sample HUD, the Boracay Hitchhiker's Guide to Second Life distributed by Corwin Carillon, had a 270 degree rotation on the y axis. This HUD uses images, landmarks, scripts and a notecard for associating the images with a category on the menu.

When editing the tour HUD, use Edit Linked Parts, a command on the upper right corner of the object edit menu, below the radio menu buttons. Edit Linked Parts allows you to edit a single prim within an linked object, in this case, the images and landmarks within the Contents tab.

Social Media's Impact on a Modified Delphi Process

While some modifications to the Delphi process reduce the number of iterations while preserving anonymity between respondents, Christakis used mixed methods with face-to-face participants, small groups and dialogue during a later iteration's voting process.

Our discussion focused on whether today's collaborative tools offer opportunities for tailoring and using the Delphi method. The class noted excellent reasons for using private responses vs. open collaboration, yet remarked on how online collaboration may encourage increased participation from the contributors who are less outspoken.

See you in Second Life! *waves*

Second Life Class on Campfire and Genie Chair Rezzers

This week's CS 855 Rezzer 2 Class featured using and creating a rezzer with one linked object.

Each student received a folder with sample rezzers for a campfire meeting and for a genie chair rezzer and a second folder with instructions on how to make a campfire meeting rezzer.

The genie chair's instructions were designed by Vanilla Jessop and the chair depicted at the left was created by Lyr Lobo. When you move the rezzer box, the chair moves with it.

The campfire meeting object was designed by Lyr Lobo.

The class discussions included the Delphi wiki activity, comments on the student blogs, the Structured Design Process and the August's Global Learning Forum event.


How to make a campfire meeting rezzer

By Lyr Lobo, a.k.a. Dr. Cynthia Calongne
Seating animation scripts by Lyr Lobo
Builder's Buddy Scripts created by Newfie Pendragon

1. Click the Build button on the bottom of your display window.

2. Rez a box (a cube - click the first icon on the Build menu and drop your cursor to the ground). Name your box Campfire rezzer on the General tab. Check the permissions at the bottom of the General tab to Modify and Copy.

3. Click the following Campfire rezzer texture and copy it to your inventory.

(a campfire rezzer texture is visible in Second Life)

Next, you will texture your cube with the Campfire rezzer texture.

4. Select the texture tab and select the big woodgrain texture box in the center left.

5. Look for your Campfire rezzer in your Textures folder or search for the texture Campfire rezzer, highlight it and press the Select button.

6. Select the Contents tab and drag the Builder's Buddy Base Script into your Campfire Rezzer box. It is located in your folder, but if you misplace it, click this Base script to copy it to your Scripts folder.

(a script called the Builder's Buddy Base Script is visible in Second Life)

Next, we will stop working on the rezzer box and rez the campfire meeting object in step 7.

7. Drag the object called Lyr's Campfire Meeting - no script from the folder (provided in class or available from Lyr Lobo) and drop it on the ground from your How to make a campfire rezzer folder.

8. Move the campfire meeting object about 1-2 meters from the rezzer box. Use the General tab and rename your campfire meeting object, removing "no script" from the title.

9. Drag the Builder's Buddy Component Script into the campfire object's Contents tab.

(a script called the Builder's Buddy Component Script is visible in Second Life)

10. When your campfire is in the right position and elevation, stop editing your project. Click the Campfire Rezzer box that has the base script inside it and click the Record button on the menu at the upper right of your display. It records the current position of the campfire from the box.

11. Take the campfire into your inventory (right click it and Take). Edit your Campfire Rezzer box that has the base script in it.

12. Drag the campfire meeting object into the Contents tab of your box. You should see the Base script and the campfire meeting object in your box.

13. Take your box into your inventory. Nothing should remain on the ground.

To use your Campfire Rezzer:

14. Drag the Campfire Meeting Rezzer to the ground (the base box).

15. Click the box and select the Build command.

16. The campfire appears and relocates itself to your recorded position.

To remove your campfire:

17. Click the box and select the Clean button. The copy of your campfire is deleted.

Enjoy your new campfire rezzer. If you make changes to it, repeat the earlier steps and record the new location. *smiles* Be sure to put a new version of your campfire inside the control box and delete any older versions after making changes.

You could make a rezzable environment with several objects each with a component script inside it. Once it is ready, click the Record button to record the locations, take all of the objects into your inventory and drag them into your base object for use.

Lastly, if you do not change the primchannel in both the base object and every component script that is used in the project, you may find that a similar base object deletes your objects. Use different primchannels inside your script (near the top of it) to avoid communication conflicts between objects.

Have fun! *waves*

Lyr Lobo, a.k.a. Dr. Cynthia Calongne
Colorado Technical University
August 19, 2009

Is that a Holodeck in your pocket? An introduction to rezzers

Tonight's class in Second Life included Second Life rezzer tips and an introduction to Christakis's case studies.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could create content that appeared when requested and disappeared when it is no longer needed?

To understand how rezzers work, we examined a simple rezzer, an object that copies and renders new objects when touched, and how rezzers work. Our example uses the Builder's Buddy rezzer design by Newfie Pendragon with its base and component scripts.

We rezzed and tested the Builder's Buddy interface, building and cleaning up our component objects, then discussed the primchannel variable in the Builder's Buddy program.

A primitive is a basic shape and the channel is a communication path. Prim = a primitive shape. A primchannel is a channel that the object uses to communicate with other objects. It is a variable name in this program.

Objects communicate over negative or positive channels. Avatars only use positive channels. The local chat, our default text chat channel, is channel 0 (zero) and does not require specifying the channel number to use it.

When objects are communicating only with other objects and not receiving instructions from a user over a channel, then use a negative primchannel (a negative number).

Our first task is to ensure that the base and component scripts use the same prim channel. You want to reset it to a matching number in both scripts so your object is not sending instructions and listening over the same channel as other objects.

When we did not reset the prim channel number, one student could request his rezzer to clean or delete his component object and everyone's component objects were deleted.

Next, we linked the primitive shapes into an object by editing a prim, holding the shift key, selecting the remaining objects and using the ctrl+L command to link them into a single linked object.

The four prims in the image to the left are linked. The prim with the yellow outline is the parent object. Child objects have a blue outline around them in edit mode.

After a brief study of rezzers and linked objects, we tore down the tree house with a single command and rebuilt it with a second command.

Next, we discussed a review of the Christakis' case study from Chapter 14 on how to get a drug developed and to market faster [1]. In addition to being an excellent example of using SDP to facilitate change, the case studies also illustrate alternative research methods using an action research approach.

Rather than read the case studies passively, we urge scholars to consider how to employ the method as a catalyst for social change.

As we shift to online collaboration, we recognize that document management may be insufficient for stimulating effective communication and rapid change. Christakis' observes that the 3-6 days of dedicated workshops accomplished the tasks that would normally take weeks or months to complete [1].

Next week, we will continue our discussion of Christakis' research and develop some new Second Life skills. To obtain a copy of the rezzer exercise folder, send an instant message in Second Life to Lyr Lobo.

References
[1] A. N. Christakis and K. C. Bausch, How People Harness their Collective Wisdom and Power to Construct the Future in Co-Laboratories of Democracy, 1 ed. Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age Publishing, 2006, pages 93-98.

Great Thoughts - The Futurists

In our Week 5 class, we discussed the following thoughts about the future. This extends last week's discussion, when we observed that there is no single method for predicting the future.

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Albert Einstein)

"Any useful idea about the future should appear to be ridiculous." (Jim Dator)

"A part of our future appears to be evolutionary and unpredictable, and another part looks developmental and predictable. Our challenge is to invent the first and discover the second." (John Smart)

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” (Albert Einstein)

“Forecasting is not a respectable human activity.” (Peter Drucker)

After discussing the semantics and how we would re-phrase them, one student closed our session with the following quote.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of the Future" - Clarke's third law).

Next week, we will examine how Christakis describes the SDP method and discuss a case study from his book during our Second Life class session.

Visit the CS 855 Summer 2009 list of blogs to the right to view the student discussions each week. The topics range from inspiring videos from Ted Talks, our opinions about the Horizon Report's predictions, the use of collaborative Web tools and our reflections on the future.

CS 855 Week 4 Classes in Second Life

We gathered twice this week to discuss our perceptions of the myths and truths that are associated with creativity and innovation.

Does creativity require creative people? Bill Breen raises the question in The 6 Myths of Creativity. Our responses ranged from no, anyone can have creative ideas to yes, when they are stimulated by necessity (a requirement) or executed by talented individuals who have the tools and skills to envision these ideas.

Each of us has the opportunity to meet the creative challenge.

Does technological innovation have a method? Scott Berkun, in the interview about his book The Myths of Innovation, notes that in retrospect, the stories of how certain innovations evolved may seem as if they were derived from a logical progression of steps. Yet, if the creators of each incremental development were interviewed, the failures and uncertainty associated with evaluating and rejecting alternative approaches would surface. There is no single method.

While we did not constrain our discussion of creativity and innovation to technology, one of our focal points in this course is to understand how new ideas become future technologies.

Near the end of class, we created content in Second Life, using the building tool to develop a one prim design that began as a tube, evolved into a 1) one prim stool, 2) twisted into a fountain and 3) rotated, stretched and textured into a Tiffany lamp.

The term prim is describes a single primitive shape, one of the beginning shapes offered in the Second Life building tool. These shapes a cube, prism, sphere, cylinder, torus, tube and ring. There are also modifications to these basic shapes and a sculpted shape available in the SL building tool.

Next week, we will meet on Thursday (August 6th) from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM Mountain time. The first and last half hour will include some Second Life content and skills while the middle of the class will explore futuring and innovation concepts.