This document is licensed under a "Creative Commons Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Austria“ Licence (“Creative Commons Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Österreich”). Further details see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/at/
Author: Klaus Hammermüller, Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart, talkademy.org
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Introduction
This deliverable presents the collection of content that was produced in the AVALON project. This document helps readers to find and use these resources.
By the nature of the project a wide range of content has been produced and is available on different platforms. This content is available after the end of the project as it is intended to maintain the content. However some services that are not under our control might be discontinued at some time in the future. Therefore we feed copies into the repository.
The document consists of 3 parts:
1. An overview of available content and how to find it
2. An overview of some of the key 3D-scenarios
3. A section dealing with content creation, focussing on the needs of a typical user (e.g. a teacher)
Available Content from the Avalon project
Here you find a summary of the types of available content and where to find them:
Key 3D scenarios provided by AVALON for reuse by educators
In this section you will find a short overview and illustration about the key contents available. It does not describe every detail but shall provide a first impression about the most important 3D scenarios.
Avalon Island
The Avalon island is an entire region, devoted to education. You can access and use it and it's contents following this link: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/23/223/58
Impression |
Description |
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Overview about the region from the initial meeting point. You will start there if you follow the link above. |
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The central AVALON town which served most of the pilot courses well. It includes the "business barn" and a lot of different locations to explore. |
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The meeting room where all the project meetings took place. Accomplished with some whiteboards and media-prims all relevant project information are available when needed. |
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The sandbox area where everyone can build and create individual scenarios. It was used for the big conferences like SLanguages, hands-on workshops and for the use of the holodeck scenarios. |
Educational Holodeck Scenarious
You can receive the following holodeck scenarios, and some additional pre-packaged scenarios, at the AVALON Island in Second Life following the link: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/23/223/58
There is also an exported version of these scenarios which can be modified or transferred to other virtual world platforms like opensimulator.org. These packages can be accessed using the open-source portal on http://avalonlearning.eu . (They are stored in the repository, see links above).
Scenario |
Description |
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3D contents of a team room, which is a multi purpose scene facilitating project work in an informa |
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The UKnow stage has been used for the graphical user interface configuration demonstrator which allows people new to virtual worlds to participate. It is a typical TV set stage and may be used for all kind of quizzes. |
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The conference room is used for negotiation training, meetings and discussions. |
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The exhibition stand or conference both, used in more open presentation situations. In this case it was used to present talkademy as one of the AVALON partners at the online conference. |
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A multi purpose business office, in our courses used for HR talks |
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A formal presentation stage. It can be used to present alone or in teams. It is useful in language education at advanced levels and any subject requiring a formal presentation. |
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A office situation. It can be used to pitch ideas alone or in teams. It is useful in language education at advanced levels and any project based student work. Well it's kind of a special office... we call it "devil's advocat office" |
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A TV show like stage. The "Avalon 1, 2 or X stage" can be used in different languages for vocabulary, grammer and phrases training. It is especially useful for participants new to education in virtual worlds. |
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The labyrinth is an intersting environment for different types of language activities and team assignments. |
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The marketplace is a small shop with a variety of goods to be used in typical role-play situations.
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Teacher Tools
see WP4-2 "2D / 3D integration", especially the following section:
http://avalonlearning.pbworks.com/w/page/7682883/WP4-2+2D+%E2%80%93+3D+Integration#Toolsforrealtimefeedback
Creation and maintenance of content
In order to run a live learning event a lot of different content needs to be in place. This section discusses issues around content creation and re-use of existing content (e.g. from the Avalon project).
We will address basic content (that only needs basic IT skills to be produced) in the first part and go on with advanced topics in the second part. The last part gives a brief overview of using streaming media.
Basic content
If you are a beginner, you will probably get along with those:
Advanced content (requires advanced IT skills!)
If you are an advanced user, you might want to improve your learning scenarios using the following:
WHAT ?
|
WHY ?
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HOW ?
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Objects |
Building objects (e.g. furniture, stages, props for role-plays, ...) gives you the option to fine-tune the used environment exactly to your needs. |
Fortunately there are many places in Second Life where you get objects for free (search for 'freebees'). If you want to create them on your own, check out this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSzh_QTE00
|
Sculpties |
Sculpties are specific complex 3D objects (e.g. a vase)
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They are actually modelled in 2D format. Check out: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide
and:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEAM1GCzk74&feature=relmfu |
Clothing |
Special clothing makes certain scenarios (e.g. role-plays) more immersive. As a teacher, you might want special clothes for your own avatar to adds to your avatar's identity.
|
Fortunately there are many places in Second Life where you get clothes for free (search for 'freebees'). If you want to create clothes on your own: Note, that clothings of an avatar is a special form of texture, where template requirement are to be considered. See: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials |
Terrain (RAW) |
Modelling the surface of an island help creating exactly the atmosphere you need (e.g. flat tropical island)
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The landscape of an island is determined by a special texture which includes additional meta information (e.g. height of the landscape, applied texture, etc.).
There are multiple terrain editors available.
See http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Tips_for_Creating_Heightfields_and_Details_on_Terrain_RAW_Files
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR5tZN4BVSw
for more details.
|
Animations |
Animations give avatars a body language. In most cases you won't need special animations, but there are cases where it might make sense (e.g. gestures that are typical in a certain culture).
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There are many animations available (for little or no money - search for 'freebees'). Complex animation and gestures are modeled in a specific format by using special tools, e.g. poser.
Check out: http://my.smithmicro.com/tutorials/1773.html
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-3c_aC-O4
for more information.
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Scripts
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Scripts are useful to attach a certain behavior to an object (e.g. open a door when an avatar clicks on it)
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Use a software development environment with support of mono and the linden script language . Check out this for all necessary information:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal
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Streaming Media
Streaming media is a powerful tool for various types of usage. We want to highlight two of them: It might be created before a course (preparing a learning scenario) or live by capturing a action learning event.
Pre-production of streaming media
WHAT ?
|
WHY ?
|
HOW ?
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short audio clips (max. 10 seconds) |
Audio clips help in creating a rich 3D environment including sounds from objects (e.g. from nature, machinery or other objects one expect to produce sound)
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Use recording tools, e.g. audio recorder included in a PC operation system.
For more information, see: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sound_Clips
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Streamed audio (any length)
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It can be streamed live to the 3D environment creating a background sound (e.g. music)
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The recording is similar like the short audio clips (see above), but it is delivered using a web streaming service.
For more information, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ34pB39GCQ
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Streamed video clips (this method is rarely used because the stream is hard to control and has a significant latency)
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It can be streamed live to the 3D environment creating a framed video on a wall.
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A special format and streaming service is needed, for details see
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/How_To_Show_Video_in_SL
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Live production of streaming media
WHAT ?
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WHY ?
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HOW ?
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Video clips
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There are several reasons why to produce a video of a live event: For documentation purpose, for giving feedback to the participants (maybe including annotations), for producing machinimas, etc.
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There are different tools on the market, like fraps, camtasia, IshowU (Mac).
Check out this page on the Avalon-wiki for more information:
http://avalonlearning.pbworks.com/w/page/33047585/Machinima%20-%20Recording%20in%20Second%20Life
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Streaming video
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Live broadcasting of an event is a great way to include people from 'outside', e.g. for mixed-reality events.
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There are several ways how that can be done. The simplest way is that on in-world participant screen-shares with a web conferencing tool (e.g. Elluminate). The other way is to use a streaming service like e.g.
UStream.com.
For more information see WP4 GUI configuration handbook
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