The Idea Man at Southwest : Weblog

DIY Business ::

I had some positive responses to my last post, so I thought I'd add a little to it.

The class could be a part of a larger series, geared toward cottage businesses and artisans and toward people who don't want to use a tool, they want to make money and they need the tool to do it.  Besides designing it as a series of courses, we should market it as a special series.

Along those lines, here are some other classes as part of a DIY Business series:

• "Life Hacking", using the very popular book "Getting Things Done" and websites such as http://www.lifehacker.com  and http://www.lifehack.org  as texts.
  
• "Starting an eBay Business"
• "Guerilla Marketing"

As I've stated before, community colleges are ideal places to teach DIY courses.

Landscape in Blender ::

In the last class, Zach did an excellent presentation on creating a landscape in Blender, including the modeling of terrain, the creation of grass using the particles system.  Besides the modeling techniques, these are the Blender tools I learned or started learning in the class:  the grid object, the 3D transform manipulators and the stars background.  Besides those and the modeling of the terrain, I was able to really improve the look of my grass, which looked like needly astroturf before Zach's tutorial.  Here's a sample of what Iearned.

Rescheduled Blender class ::

Date:  Friday, April 21, 2006
Time:  12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
Location:  Jennings 10a, Macon Cove Campus
Cost:  Free!
Materials:  bring a flash drive or floppy if you want to save your work.
Objective:  Rescheduled class from April 7 (canceled due to the onslaught of ill-tempered tornadoes and hail the size of bocce balls).  Zach and possibly Justin will demonstrate some of the work they've been doing in Blender and 3D, including, but not necessarily, work with terrain, paths, architectural modeling, etc.

Next Blender class -- student demos ::

Here are the details on our next class in Blender:

Date:  Friday, April 7, 2006
Time:  12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
Location:  Jennings 12a, Macon Cove Campus
Cost:  Free!
Materials:  bring a flash drive or floppy if you want to save your work.
Objective:  Zach and others will demonstrate some of the work they've been doing in Blender and 3D, including, but not necessarily, work with paths, terrain, architectural modeling, etc.

Note again:  we'll be back in Jennings 12a.

By the way, here and here are links to exercises done by Justin and Amber in our Zippin Pippin and Intro classes, respectively.  Excelente!

Why and when should you use Open Source Software in education? ::

Why should you use open source software in education?

1. Because open source software (henceforth called OSS) is "free, as in lunch" (that's usually "free, as in beer" but we're talking about college here, so there will be no beer, even if it's free).  No cost to install in the classrooms, computer labs, in the professors' offices, in the technicians' offices and at everyone's home.  If you got a computer, you can install it.  The most important thing is that students can use it most anywhere, which will only make their skills stronger.
2. Because, outside of operating systems (like Linux) and core operating systems services (like X), most major projects run on both OS X and Windows, as well as LInux and FreeBSD.  With Apache, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice, vlc, Tomcat, Blender (of course!), Audacity, Eclipse, etc., there's no more -- "I have to buy a Mac to use it" or "I  can't use it because I own a Mac"
3. Because, the use of Open Source software imporoves students' critical thinking skills.  What?  Yes, I stand by that statement.  I think the DIY quality of finding, installing, evaluating and using OSS requires that you think for yourself. 
   

When should you use OSS in education? 

I think all the time, with these exceptions:

1. if you're teaching for a very specific demand from the marketplace.  For instance, if you have an employer who needs 50 people proficient in Microsoft Word, then you should use Microsoft Word to teach.  Duh!
2. If the proprietary software tool has such a demanding market position in the job market you're training for that focusing on any other tool, proprietary or open-source, would count as strikes against students trying to get jobs. 
3. If you get the proprietary tool free or very cheaply for both classroom and at-home student use,  it has good market penetration, and your professors already know the application.
4. If there is no good OSS equivalent, at least on the platform you teach on.

Next class in Blender: Zippin Pippin ::

Here are the details on our next class in Blender:

Date:  Friday, March 17, 2006
Time:  12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
Location:  Jennings 10a, Macon Cove Campus
Cost:  Free!
Materials:  bring a flash drive or floppy if you want to save your work.
Objective:  I'll demonstrate how I've been modeling and animating the Zippin Pippin, the roller coaster at the now defunct Libertyland.   This will also be a springboard for a collaborative class project, for those so inclined.

Please note that this is in room 10a, not 12a.

See you there!

A success. ::

I've enjoyed teaching Blender, but this makes it especially gratifying. 

As a speaker/teacher, I aim to be not-boring, edifying, entertaining and inspiring.  In that order. 

Teaching and Subject Matter Authority ::

This is the first class I've ever taught.  The question I have for teachers is this:  how do you handle parts of the subject matter that you are not expert in? 

The subject matters I'm most likely to teach are Blender and Unix/Linux.  A strong common denominator of these is their awesome power.  There's so much to each of them.  You can use them every day, which I do, and still know a fraction of their functionality.  Take, for instance, the Unix/Linux command ls.  I use it easily 20 times a day, but usually with the same switches (e.g., "ls -la").  So how would I teach ls?

Do I: 

1. tactfully avoid those parts I don't know?
2. frankly state I don't know those parts? 
3. recite what I've read but maybe don't understand (for instance, what I've read in a manual or from a tooltip) and move quickly on; Or
4. know every part of the subject matter?

To date, I've chosen number 2).  Unfortunately, used too much (or at all) I could erode student confidence in my teaching ability or worthiness. Number 3) is dangerous because students will eventually pick up on the fact that you're just reciting the text.  Number 4) is more admirable because you would know everything you're teaching, but it risks (along with number 3) of overwhelming the students, and you, with details that are perhaps less important.

Perhaps number 1) is the best bet.  The 2 metaphors I see for teaching are teaching as performances and teaching as tours.  Both of these metaphors require preparation -- you have to know your lines and you have to know where to direct your tour's attention and to direct their attention from.

Getting into materials and projects with Blender ::

Here are the details on our next class in Blender:

Date:  Friday, March 3, 2006
Time:  12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
Location:  Jennings 12a, Macon Cove Campus
Cost:  Free!
Materials:  bring a flash drive or floppy if you want to save your work.
Objective:  Short tutorial on materials and textures, then discussion of individual projects we want to work on.

I always learn better and easier when I work on projects rather than exercises.  Exercises like Gus building are essential, but doing my own projects has always pushed me harder and motivated me more than exercises.  Also, if I do a project, I'll have something unique to show and hopefully build on for other work I do in Blender.

For those who weren't able to attend the 2nd class due to weather, I'll try to find a video tutorial covering the rigging, skinning and animation of Gus.

"Unschooling" ::

An extension of home-schooling, "unschooling" is when parents give their children total freedom to learn and explore whatever they choose.

Is it a goofy idea, or a good idea that sounds goofy?

I don't know whether it's the truth, or just conditioning by old-school types (literally) , that makes us think any idea to mix fun and learning is goofy.  "No pain, no gain" may be as true in intellectual endeavors as physical (if it's true there), but I do feel strongly that long-term pain is a real disincentive to gain. 

That said, a real problem with goofy-sounding ideas is that there's always goofy people who will use that idea to justify their pre-existing goofiness.  Another problem with goofy-sounding ideas is there's always some anti-goof who will use the fact that goofy people gravitate to goofy-sounding ideas to justify the rejection of new ideas.  What's that called -- a straw man, a goofy straw man?  (I had a sixth-grade teacher who was an anti-goof.  She really hated the teachings of Dr. Spock and would occassionally stop her teaching to regale us with another Dr. Spock-induced horror story.  My favorite:  the time she went to a dinner party at a Dr. Spock-influenced household and while they were eating, the kids hung the dog!!!  Of course, telling these stories to a bunch of sixth-graders was pretty goofy itself).

So how do we know whether an idea is good or goofy?  By testing the idea and seeing what the results are.  By exposing ideas to science rather than emotion.

BlackBoard on Mad Money ::

I saw Mad Money's Jim Cramer give a bullish rating last night to the Learning Management System company Blackboard.  Good reasons: growing market, little or no competition.  Yet it does have competition, not only from proprietary companies, but especially from open-source initiatives like Sakai and Moodle.  In fact, I would say the continued presence of these efforts is a much greater long-term threat than WebCT would be if it were to stay separate.  Probably not a threat to existence but certainly a threat to absolute dominance.

Followup on Blender classlet, Part I ::

I think the class went well.  After my too long intro (too formal and/or boring given the classlet's informality), we got underway building Gus, the Gingerbread man.  Gus is the first tutorial in the official Blender manual and based on our experience yesterday, a good beginning for Blender newbies.  I think everyone picked up the frequently-used hotkeys and were able to get most of Gus built.  The main problems I saw yesterday were:

1. (mis)placing the cursor when adding extra meshes.  I think that's due to our looking at the cursor in 2D, like this: 
   
   
   
   when in may be out of place in 3D (e.g., further behind or in front of where we think it is) like this: 
   
   
   
   You can either inspect the object in 3D using different views (NUM1, NUM3, NUM7), then move the cursor to where you want it to be (probably on Gus' body, in this case). Or you can select the object (Gus in this case) you want snap the cursor to, then hit SHIFT-S, Cursor->Selection.
   
2. constraining movement to an X, Y or Z axis using the MMB button.  Getting this is, I'm afraid, something that will come with trial and error (and lots of CTRL-Z).

As promised, here are the support links from my presentation:

• the Blender Manual (I included it on the CD but this is the dynamic wiki that's more likely to be up to date, including new info on the mirror modifier).
• http://www.blender3d.org:  the official Blender website.
• http://www.elysiun.com:  excellent forums and forum archives.
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender
• http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/:  video tutorials

I also think you should check out Orange, the Open Movie Project to see the workflow of a movie in progress using Blender.  This is the project that will not only release the final movie under a Creative Commons License, but will also release the work files under that same license, allowing anyone to do their own version.

For those who want to continue with the classlet, the next class will be in two weeks.  Details:

Date:  Friday, February 10, 2006
Time:  12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
Location:  Jennings 12a, Macon Cove Campus
Cost:  Free!
Materials:  bring a flash drive or floppy if you want to save your work.
Objective:  Animate Gus, the Gingerbread Man.

How hard should school be? ::

My classes should prepare me effectively for my most likely career destinations; any culling or self-esteem building, if they exist at all, should be byproducts of that.  Effective preparation.  For law school, that would be the bar exam.  If I can pass all my classes, but not the bar exam, then my classes were weak.  But if my classes are harder, and I had to study more and often feared failure, but passed the bar, then I think the school has got it right. 

Teach me and grade me on what I need to know to succeed in the most likely settings.  Don't make it easier; and if you make it harder, do it to strengthen me, not to weed me out. 

By the way, this essay entitled "The Perils of JavaSchools" by Joel Spolsky and this report on high bar exam failure rate among University of Denver Law School grads (via the Volokh Conspiracy) were the catalyst for this pearl of wisdom.

Southwest receives major gift from Medtronic ::

The Commercial Appeal reports that Medtronic Sofamor Danek has given Southwest a major gift for our new Nursing and BioSciences building:

Saying it is investing in its own future as well as the community's, Medtronic Sofamor Danek donated $1 million to Southwest Tennessee Community College on Tuesday.

The money will go toward an $11 million state-of-the-art nursing and natural sciences building, which the college is constructing to meet a shortage of qualified people to fill nursing and biosciences jobs.

Not only is the new building going to be important to Southwest and Memphis, the designs I've seen are beautiful.  Thank you, Medtronic Sofamor Danek!

free workshops as marketing tools. ::

Amber O'Daniels is giving a free workshop for prospective students of her acting classes:

This is a workshop that gives a synopsis of what the entire class is about. Each time I offer a class I try to give a free workshop so that people know what they are getting or figure out what they want. I only wish all classes had a free workshop before I signed up for it... This is your chance as a possible student to see what I do and to ask all sorts of questions before committing to an eight week class. It is also a way for me to get the message out there in hopes of filling up the next class.