Storyboard using Prezi

For my project, I choose a character that is both historical and is popular in Lego world. This character is a master builder and a perfect cartoon teacher. His name is Vitruvius  and I created a 3D model of him in SketchUp.

Vitruvius is going to be the instructor and will show learners how to do most of the basic SketchUp commands. My idea is to present SketchUp in a friendly and accessible way. In using Lego as a metaphor and as a vehicle for teaching 3D design, the intention is to remove the inhibition that most people experience when trying to learn new software.

I will deliver my lesson on the class website and there I will make videos animation using Vitruvius to help explain and demonstrate: http://3dbuildingsketchup.weebly.com/

I created  a simple storyboard that shows several frames of how this instruction may look.

http://prezi.com/tgfnp_urxu6v/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

The intention is to create a whole narrative of all the skills each lesson will cover.

And have and outline of the full structure of my course. 

Storyboard using Prezi

For my project, I choose a character that is both historical and is popular in Lego world. This character is a master builder and a perfect cartoon teacher. His name is Vitruvius  and I created a 3D model of him in SketchUp.

Vitruvius is going to be the instructor and will show learners how to do most of the basic SketchUp commands. My idea is present SketchUp in a friendly and accessible way. In using Lego as a metaphor and as a vehicle for teaching 3D design, the intention is to remove the inhibition that most people experience when trying to learn new software.

I will deliver my lesson on the class website and there I will make videos animation using Vitruvius to help explain and demonstrate: http://3dbuildingsketchup.weebly.com/

I created  a simple storyboard that shows several frames of how this instruction may look.

http://prezi.com/tgfnp_urxu6v/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

The intention is to create a whole narrative of all the skills each lesson will cover.

And have and outline of the full structure of my course. 

Environment Selection for my 3D class

This was a big week for me, I got married! We had a lovely wedding celebration on Sunday. I did not want fall behind on my project so I did as much as I could on Saturday to choose a learning environment that is suitable for my 3D SketchUp class, and to build a mockup sample.

I decided not to use VR worlds yet. I do not underestimate the potential and benefits of immersion in 3D worlds. I am not sure these worlds a suitable for general  education yet.   

I will use a Weebly site to deliver my education materials and make links to videos on YouTube that will have 3D animations: http://3dbuildingsketchup.weebly.com/ .  I may use BlackBoard as a place to contact my students, deliver grades and have discussion groups.

I created a 3D model of a character that will be my teaching 3D model helper. His name is Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 BC, died after c. 15 BC), commonly known as Vitruvius, was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer  and military engineer during the 1st century BC.The  Lego movie made Vitruvius famous again by having him bring together all the Master Builders for a meeting in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

In this simple short video, I show how it is possible to create  a simple animation using SketchUp. This is by no way anything close to Machinima, but I enjoyed many effective learning animations that don't have any fancy special effects.

I prefer to create more educational content than spending hours learning animation, just to have a character that can move its hips while walking. 

"The Lego Movie" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJDhE1tfBoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfzws2YBy9M

Abstract

Abstract

My selected project for Advanced Seminar is to design an online learning environment that introduces the skills of spatial literacy. The lessons I will be teaching will enable students to learn in a very short time (4-6 weeks) how to draw 3D objects and create spaces that others can visit and use. The class will be using SketchUp Make which is free 3D design software for students. Most 3D software uses similar commands to create objects and platonic shapes. Knowing the principles of spatial construction in 3D can easily translate from one application to another.  I want to explore Unity and see if it is possible to create a learning environment using it. The project will have a class website that will be enhanced with video tutorial and images.  At the completion of the course, students will be able to model shapes with accuracy  and create homes or classrooms that look realistic and are built to the right scale. 

Khader's Full Project Proposal 3D Space Design

Abstract

My selected project for Advanced Seminar is to design an online learning environment that introduces the skills of spatial literacy. The lessons I will be teaching will enable students to learn in a very short time (4-6 weeks) how to draw 3D objects and create spaces that others can visit and use. The class will be using SketchUp Make which is free 3D design software for students. Most 3D software uses similar commands to create objects and platonic shapes. Knowing the principles of spatial construction in 3D can easily translate from one application to another.  I want to explore Unity and see if it is possible to create a learning environment using it. The project will have a class website that will be enhanced with video tutorial and images.  At the completion of the course, students will be able to model shapes with accuracy  and create homes or classrooms that look realistic and are built to the right scale. 

The Need

In the beginning of the course, I will show the students a video that I will be creating. The video will cover the applications of spatial thinking in many fields, including architecture, game design, physics and city planning. I will show how they will benefit from acquiring this knowledge in their everyday lives.

To reach the widest audience, my class will have a website that is will deliver each week's lesson in the form of a detailed video tutorial. There will be practice exercises for them to create and upload to the 3D warehouse. The warehouse is free and available anyone to view models and download them to so the whole class can view them in 3D and learn from the group effort. The class can have a link to Blackboard LMS which will allow students to communicate with me and each other.

The Scope

To create engagement and a sense of community it will make sense to run this course as a closed course every 4-6 weeks, so a whole group of students can learn together.  This is a good place for situated learning.

In week two, the assignment will be to design a custom desk. The learners will be working on a real-world challenge and have to take into consideration measurements of their own bodies and to invent a desk that is unique and personal to them.

I brainstormed on how I will structure my course and what material I will cover and in what sequence. As you can see from bubble diagram below.

To make the class is fun I will start with a Zoom meeting(https://www.zoom.us/) to introduce all the students to each other and to make sure we can learn as a community of learners.  I will use Join.me , a great application that allows the teacher to share the screen and demonstrate computer skills with all participants, and to meet one a week and answer questions that students may come up with.

Requirements 

Students who sign up for this class will need to have a computer that can run 3D design software. Most PC's and Mac's that are at least 4 years old can do this task. It is also necessary to spend 4-6 hours a week practicing.  I  recommend for my students to keep a sketchbook to brainstorm and record their ideas."Before students had access to CAD, drawing was the foundation of their work and was believed to be necessary during all the developmental stages of a mechanical design"(Brown, p55)

Ethics:

One ethical issue with building and sharing 3D models is the issue of copyright. Often students download pre-made models and don't consider that plagiarism. I want to focus on how to create projects that are authentic and reflect their own design ideas but still be allowed to use objects made by others. It is acceptable to use models of cars in one's own city if you design the city itself but give credit to the maker of that car.

Timeline:

 Week One:

Introduction to 3D design

Online meeting on Zoom.

Video on YouTube of the basic commands in Sketch Up.

Read essay on Visual Literacy and respond to it on Discussion

Post your first shape to 3D warehouse

Sketch an object in your house using a pencil on paper an  post it to class discussion

 Week Two

Design an assembly of many objects . Use copy and rotate commands

Creating Groups.

Read an essay on space composition and reflect on the essay with class.

Post a group of shapes you designed to the 3D warehouse and give constructive critique to your classmates.

 Week Three

Designing Spaces. How to create spaces for people.

Design and build a mini house using SketchUp

Read article on the importance of public space

 Week Four

Design a learning village with your classmate collaborate and decide which part you want to design. think of a theme that can make the design cohesive .

Exporting to Unity. 

Evaluation:

Students will send their finished 3D Models to the 3D Warehouse. All the files there can be downloaded by me and other students and evaluated.

I use a rubric for evaluation that takes into account accuracy, smart use of the software, creativity and the ability to problem solve.

Students have to meet 4-5 bench marks to receive a certificate of completion.

References:

Brown, Polly. "CAD: Do Computers Aid the Design Process After All?."Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology and Society 2.1 (2009): 52-66.

Nelson, B. C., & Erlandson, B. E. (2012). Design for Learning in Virtual Worlds: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Educational Technology . New York: Routledge.

Software: 

http://www.sketchup.com/

https://store.unity.com/

Khader's Full Project Proposal 3D Space Design

My selected project for Advanced Seminar is to design an online learning environment that introduces the skills of spatial literacy. The lessons I will be teaching will enable students to learn in a very short time (4-6 weeks) how to draw 3D objects and create spaces that others can visit and use. The class will be using SketchUp Make which is free 3D design software for students. Most 3D software use similar commands to create objects and platonic shapes. Knowing the principles of spatial construction in 3D can easily translate from on application to another.  I want to explore Unity and see if it is possible to create a learning environment using it. The project will have a class website that will be enhanced with video tutorial and images.  At the completion of the course students will be able to model with accuracy shapes and create homes or classroom that loo realistic and are build to the right scale. 

The Need

In the beginning of the course, I will show the students a video that I will be creating. The video will cover the applications of spatial thinking in many fields,architecture, game design, physics and city planning. I will show how will they benefit from acquiring this knowledge to their everyday lives.

To reach the widest audience, my class will have a website that is will deliver each week's lesson in the form of a detailed video tutorial. There will be practice exercises for each student's to create and upload to the 3D warehouse that is available anyone for free to view models and download them to so the whole class can view them in 3d and learn from the group effort. The class can have a link to Blackboard LMS which will allow students to communicate with me and each other.

Scope

To create engagement and a sense of community it will make sense to run this course officially every 4-6 weeks, so a whole group of students can learn together.  This is a good place for situated learning.

In week two the assignment will be to design a custom desk. The learners will be working on a real-world challenge and have to take into consideration measurements of their own bodies and to invent a desk hat is unique and that is personal to them.

I brainstormed on how I will structure my course and what material I will cover and in what sequence. As you can see from bubble diagram below.

To make the class is fun I will start with a Zoom meeting(https://www.zoom.us/) to introduce all the students to each other and to make sure we can learn as a community of learners.  I will use Join.me , a great application that allows the teacher to share the screen and demonstrate computer skills with all participants, and to meet one a week and answer questions that students may come up with.

Requirements 

Students who sign up for this class will need to have a computer that can run 3D design software. Most PC and Mac that are at least 4 years old can do this task. It is also necessary to spend 4-6 hours a week practicing.  I  recommend for my students to keep a sketchbook to brainstorm and record their ideas."Before students had access to CAD, drawing was the foundation of their work and was believed to be necessary during all the developmental stages of a mechanical design"(Brown, p55)

Ethics:

One ethical issue with building and sharing 3D models is the issue of copyright. Often students download pre-made models and don't consider that plagiarism. I want to focus on how to create projects that are authentic and reflect their own design ideas but still be allowed to use objects made by others. It is Ok to use models of cars in ones own city if you design the city itself but give credit to the maker of that car.

Timeline:

 Week One:

Introduction to 3D design

Online meeting on Zoom.

Video on YouTube of the basic commands in Sketch Up.

Read essay on Visual Literacy and respond to it on Discussion

Post your first shape to 3D warehouse

Sketch an object in your house using a pencil on paper an  post it to class discussion

 Week Two

Design an assembly of many objects . Use copy and rotate commands

Creating Groups.

Read an essay on space composition and reflect on the essay with class.

Post a group of shapes you designed to the 3D warehouse and give constructive critique to your classmates.

 Week Three

Designing Spaces. How to create spaces for people.

Read article on the importance of public space

 Week Four

Design a learning village with your classmate collaborate and decide which part you want to design. think of a theme that can make the design cohesive .

Exporting to Unity. 

Evaluation:

Students will send their finished 3D Models to the 3D Warehouse. All the files there can be downloaded by me and other students and evaluated.

I used a rubric fro evaluation that take into account accuracy, smart use of the software, creativity and the ability to problem solve.

Students have to meet 4-5 bench marks to receive a certificate of completion.

References:

Brown, Polly. "CAD: Do Computers Aid the Design Process After All?."Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology and Society 2.1 (2009): 52-66.

Nelson, B. C., & Erlandson, B. E. (2012). Design for Learning in Virtual Worlds: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Educational Technology . New York: Routledge.

Software: 

http://www.sketchup.com/

https://store.unity.com/

In my literature review on Spatial Literacy in Education

In my literature review on Spatial Literacy in Education, 3D Design and in the Virtual World. I featured and quoted an article called "Understanding and nurturing spatial literacy"

by Sarah Witham Bednarz and Karen Kempb. I am adding a link to it below:

http://3dspatialliteracy.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/5/3/17539689/understanding_and_nurturing_spatial_literacy.pdf

The article is  important to anyone who uses any virtual education method or any form of education that encourages exploration. The nature of virtual reality is visual.  Students and teachers can benefit from having visual and spatial skills. Many sciences including physics, chemistry, and biology require an understanding of space and structures that live in it.

For example, this educational video entitled, "What is the shape of a molecule?" uses 3D models of molecules in order to teach their structure more effectively than using words alone.

In my own field, aArchitecture and design, the knowledge and skill to describe space is essential to the practitioner.  I am often surprised with how hard it is for some of my college students to draw a simple sketch of a box or tell me what shape the front of a drawer is.

 I have taught STEM or STEAM classes to school children and I think that teaching Science ,Technology Engineering, Art and Math is very valuable to young people's development.

The technology aspect of teaching could include Virtual Reality, Social Networking and any applicable technology that can assist in learning. Most of STEAM projects are set in situated learning. (Nelson and Erlandson). Invention and design cannot happen without the ability to describe new ideas in words and sketches.    

"The U.S. National Academy of Sciences found that spatial thinking, a key component of spatial literacy, is at the heart of many great discoveries" (Bednarz, Kempb  pp:18). In some of my elementary school classes, I encourage students to draw diagrams of their own classroom. Being able to draw a room requires getting measurements and learning scale. Each square on the graph paper equals half a foot in reality. This skill helps the student understand abstraction.  Drawing the room in 3D perspective is a different skill than drawing a diagram from a bird's eye view.  Once the student understands this idea, it is easy for them to make a model of it in 3D using a computer and posting the design into a virtual reality environment.

In their definition of spatial literacy, Bednarz and Kempb argue that knowledge of spatial thinking can lead to higher order spatial thinking and problem solving. The paper discussed the value of spatial knowledge to geography. I want to take it a step further and talk about the geography of virtual reality. The ability to navigate that digital geography is going to be essential iIn a world where Web 3.0 is taking shape in 3D and in virtual space. We need to have the skills to build these digtal 3D spaces and use them.   

Many concepts in science like the discovery of the double helix (the structure of DNA) or mapping how a disease spreads is not possible without great imagination and the ability to think in complex 3D shapes.   

We need to teach students how to visualize connections between structures. They can see, remember, and analyze the static and, and moving relationships between objects. Students who can use spatial diagrams in a variety of modes, models and media to describe these 3D forms are empowered to be more inventive and creative. 

Using science and imagination are the foundations of human progress.   Albert Einstein beautifully coined the phrase, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Note:
Bednarz and Kempb referred in their article to Learning To Think Spatially, which is available for free: http://esrik12gis.emich.edu/k12/PDF/Learning%20to%20Think%20Spatially.pdf

REFERENCE:

\

Bednarz, S. W., & Kemp, K. (2011). Understanding and nurturing spatial literacy. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 21(International Conference: Spatial Thinking and Geographic Information Sciences 2011), 18-23. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.07.004

Nelson, Brian C. and Erlandson, Benjamin A. Design for Learning in Virtual Worlds (Interdisciplinary Approaches to Educational Technology). New York, NY: Routledge, 2012.

http://3dspatialliteracy.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/5/3/17539689/the_learning_process_of_scientific_imagineering_through_ar_in_order_to_enhance_stem_literacy.pdf