Here’s my intro post – what I’m hoping to get out of it

Intro and Questions for RecentChangesCamp 2011 Canberra from Kirsty Sharp on Vimeo.

The problem:

Basically some form letters need to be prepared on a regular basis but the database spits them out as flat text files. No fields, no delimiters, not even regular spacing between different records in the file. So to tidy up the files it has been a manual process to copy and paste from a .txt file into a .doc file, format and tweak so they fit in the plastic windows of the envelopes. All thanks to a new computer system that hasn’t got it quite right yet from that perspective. Paul, our new team member, spotted this crazy workflow and decided there must be a better way. Perhaps mail merge or similar? But what to do when the data is not presented in a logical framework?

Enter Macros and Visual Basic to the rescue!

We worked out the steps that needed to be completed, used a fair bit of Find/Replace and a bit of basic formatting. The only stumbling block depended on being able to input the date. In our macro recording of course the date information in the Find/Replace was hardcoded into the macro. Useful for today but won’t work tomorrow. Input boxes were needed. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what the code or syntax was but I knew it was possible. So a quick googling later, we have a working solution. I think the first time I experimented with macros and visual basic was back in 1994 or 1995.

We need to test the new process for a week, and get some others to test also to make sure we can transfer the solution.

Update: Process has been tested and today (14/12) is being rolled out to other staff members.

I’m a happy geek. Nice to know some skills stick around a lot longer than you think they will. Yes, I am feeling pretty pleased with myself.

As a team we talked about what materials we already had at our fingertips and also which teams either had, or would soon be getting iPads for student use. The Health Services team were a key target as there have been several elearning innovations projects with them in recent times and iPads were on the horizon. Jacquie highlighted the many videos and a Policy & Procedure manual in use by the team, Anita wondered out loud about PDFs with embedded video, and Google then answered a whole series of questions. iBooks on the iPad can display .epub files that have video embedded using the new HTML5 <video> element.

Basically we had to combine the instructions from a few sites

http://amalthia.mediawood.net/tutorials/ebooks/index.html for the overall process

And Liz Castro writing at http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2010/05/html5-video-works-on-ibooks-on-ipad.html for the video part.

It took a few goes to get the steps in the right order but we got there.

Next week I’ll run am initial training session on how to work through this process with my team which will mean documenting the steps a little more and also typing up the html code so we can copy and paste it easily.

Oh, and yes, you can use any word processor that will do the export as filtered html with heading styles, and any html editor that allows you to manually edit the code element.

The output can be viewed in iBooks after transferring via iTunes, and we wait to see which other ebook readers will support the embedded video.

We started with a “round the room” section inviting audience members to state where they are coming from in relation to virtual worlds.

Roger:
Roleplay in a safe environment.
Access to history – immersive archaeology
Art gallery
Design on a human scale – architecture, engineering,
Fashion and jewelry

Potential for small business and employment in Second Life

Angela:
Quest Atlantis is based on 7 core values and relationships, teachers and students are equals.

Credibility of teaching team was enhanced by a team member’s gaming prowess.

WOW, Neverwinter nights, Myst, Age of Empires, etc all offer possibilities for development of key skills.
Commercial games are more restrictive eg can’t build own areas and activities as easily as in other spaces such as SL, Open Sim, RG.

Future? Access is getting easier, including potential to access through a standard browser. Open grids opening up that are meeting the needs of educators including jokaydia grid.

Chris (student) “it was quite annoying as it would be so much easier to build in another environment and bring it in to SL using tools you already had.”

Maree Swanson (Virtually Here) presentation.
Networking in virtual worlds is one aspect which is an added bonus of her project. Maree gave a brief introduction to her project. A major reason for adding virtual worlds to her existing blended online program for Certificate 2 in Hospitality was enriching the social presence for her learners.
Maree showed us a video from EducationAU about virtual worlds and gaming. “Immersive Learning: it’s game on”
students were scattered around the state with Yr 11-12 students based in District High Schools, with a few Yr 10 students enrolled in Cert 1 units also.
Practicalities: informed parent consent, networking access, cyber safety education, updating of policies.
Students were in SL/RG for 90 mins per week for 10 weeks including getting started, role plays and assessment. Invited two hospitality experts to come as guest speakers who mainly joined in via Skype although one did already have an avatar.
Pods for reflection / discussion, tool purchased from Terra Incognito (UQ).
Would not be able to determine full competency from this activity, but there are a myriad of different ways in which evidence can be gathered from SL, and it is part of a broader blended learning delivery of the units.

Specifically talking about her journey through virtual worlds, and. Her discoveries about their potential for education, beginning in the nineties through to the present time.
Background as a drama consultant, first experiences were in The Palace (1999) which was then later part of PhD research practice (2005). The text transcripts were showing both the participation in the world and and awareness of the ‘performance’ of the scene through asides as narration comments. Happening through 2005. Seems to have heavy associations to script writing and film production with imagery and scene development activites. Students maintained character blogs to track their journey and weave the different elements of the story together. Fan fiction was one of the outputs from the participants (10-18 year olds) in Angela’s PhD research. Also significant off-campus work by students.
Then moved her work into Second Life.

Showed video “Second Life – educational uses” from You Tube www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA

NMC did the SL Build for her of Virtual Macbeth. virtualworlds.nmc.org/portfolio/virtualmacbeth/ This was OzCo grant project to bring gaming, drama, multimodal experience to work with post grad students showing what could be done with a text from the literary canon in a new media world.
Angle then gave a preview of various elements of the virtual physical space and how they relates to scenes and states of mind in the play and experienced by the character.
Feeds any images or other media tagged with specified tag fed into the Virtual Macbeth wiki.

back to the question “Are we there yet?”
At the moment second life is probably the best space for educators. Yet there are issues also – eg technical, cost, set up, some limitations, on campus use… So some people are starting to look elsewhere such as Open Cobalt which is in alpha.
Slides from this keynote www.slideshare.net/anya

Maree Swanson highlighted how students were encouraged to dress in appropriate personal presentation for the hospitality industry when setting up their avatar. Learners are supported by a local workplace assessor to organise work placement as well. Learners were allocated tasks to complete within the environment of the Marksman Hotel in Second Life and Reaction Grid, and submit photos of their work, and fill out ‘notecards’ explaining what and why they chose to do things. There were a number of challenges eg accessing SL and RG, information sessions for parents and local schools with informed consent.

Dealt with a whole lot of implementation issues. Should be in report so would be good to have a copy for others to refer to. Created a real sense of class group and immersion with others in a virtual presence. Also got some of the support teachers to participate in SL but not all did. Where they did participate it made a real positive impact.

ELOTS – electronic library on touch screens

One of the issues with the workplaces Bruce Milne works with, is the low levels of access to computers, combined with low levels of IT literacy. They have loaded the necessary workplace documents onto the touch screen, organised under icons for different types of information. Bruce really stressed the simplicity of the interface and the usability. Future plans include using a server model for multiple touch screens on a site which is simplifying document management. Also looking at how it might be deployed on mobile devices.

Ralph Berry: Hydro wanted to use their own digital system rather than TSI – Learning Seat is what they are working with. ( not recommended) Designed from the outcomes to be assessed rather than what TSI wanted to teach. Flexbility to complete learning in the workplace looking at low bandwidth options. Talked about identifying duplications in the learning and assessment activities which meant they went from 8 to 5. Also issues with expectations of the Hydro’s online learning system.

Scaffolding

Sean Crane explained how Scaffolding is a common course for many in the construction industry, and there are different height restrictions for licences. There is both a drag and drop interactive as well as a DVD version. 2 days filming to make a 15-17 minutes of finished footage. One positive Sean highlighted was the importance for the project management of setting dates and sticking to them. Animations are integrated within the video combined with footage. The interaction went down really well with the scoring aspect.