Next week,
Buy the texts for the class:
Google SketchUp Cookbook, O'Reilly
ISBN 978-0-596-15511-7
Google SketchUp for Site Design
ISBN 978-0-470-345244-2
- be prepared by having watched and practiced using these tutorials -- make sure you have have covered the beginners' fare.
- Differences between games, models, simulations, and virtual worlds
- Play analog multiplayer game
- form teams for client and production
- go over syllabus and co-create rubrics, criteria, scheduling, and checklists
- virtual tours through architecture in PS3 games
- begin sketchUp
What we covered in the first class:
What is virtual -- almost
What is a World -- beliefs, perceptions, existence, imagination, people, environment, atmosphere, area, time, surroundings, interaction, memory, container of objects, self, place, IT -- THAT.
Measurement -- You should assess, measure and evaluate your environment. This is what will make your work stand above the rest. Data talks -- no need for sales talks.
Barbell Factory was an example of this. Student comments.
Tools, toys, pivots, activity theory
Play provides a transitional
stage in this direction whenever an object (for example a stick) becomes a
pivot for severing meaning of horse from a real horse. The child cannot yet
detach thought from object. (Vygotsky, 1976, p 97).
Thus play seems essential to development, and the role of the pivot ( a toy, representation, or even a game) is important in aiding that early childhood development, where children may move from recognitive play to symbolic and imaginative play, i.e. the child may play with a phone the way it is supposed to be used to show they can use it (recognitive), and in symbolic or imaginative play, they may pretend a banana is the phone. This is an important step since representation and abstraction are essential in learning language, especially print and alphabetical systems for reading and other discourse. There are as many types of play as there are people and cultures. A few types to consider are:
• Recognitive, or Mastery play – learning how to use objects
• Creative play – playing with aesthetics
• Deep play – learning about risk and danger
• Recapitulative play – den building, hiding, climbing
• Dressing up – experimenting with identity
• Rough and tumble play – testing your own strength
For this reason play and gaming, structured forms of play, may be reasonable predictors for comprehension and problem solving. In play, we create models; try on roles; and experience the world in the safety of play. Play may also expand comprehension in surprising ways, but often activities involving play are seen as non-academic—therefore non-educational, lacking rigor and thus, not really learning (Dubbels, submitted).
