Talk about humbling
Well, if you know me, I have a big head. But I really am a very humble person inside, self-esteem can make one act out and I am guilty of that.
But I was blown away by the kind words that Brent Schlenker wrote about my efforts in the eLearning community. All I did was stumble accross Second Life at a time when I was desperately trying to add 3D content to eLearning. I tried with an isometric Flash office space (I think it works rather well and certainly very fast to do). But it is isometric and not 3D.
So then I tried Blender 3D. Apart form an incredibly steep learning curve, render times were far too long making it not practical for our use. I stumbled upon Second Life (doh, missed all the media hype somehow) because two of our clients are in there. One was the aloft hotel built by Electric Sheep. A masterful build that was used as an architectural lab collecting avatar feedback for use in constructing the real hotel. Starwood (aloft) was fantastic in donating their island to Global Kids when they were done. What a wonderful gesture.
So I saw Second Life as a 3D application rather than a 3D social world. I have since gone on to also be behind the scenes of a virtual real estate business, but that is an entierly different story . . .
As a 3D application it comes with physics and lighting already built in as well as avatars (my Make Human models for Blender were pretty sorry looking). And with all the user created content, I don’t need to build Aeron Chairs and coffee makers, I can find those items for mere pennies. So, all in all, it was an easy solution. The toughest part was maximizing the quality and development time in order to make it a viable eLearning tool.
And I love sharing this and will on January 30th via the eLearning Guild’s Online Forum Successful Techniques and Strategies for Navigating Turbulent Times – Fast, Cheap, and Effective e-Learning.
I’m all for fast and effective, but the cheap part? I refer back to the start of this post and my big head, I prefer “economical” to cheap!
*pardon me, do you have any grey Poupon?* =D
subQuark gets facelift for online forums
While working on the online forum presentation for the eLearning Guild, I took breaks by revamping subquark.com and creating new mini Moo cards. The new header image for subQuark is also used in the mini Moos. Mini Moo cards are interesting in their size and a set of 100 is $20. Now you can get business cards for less, but probably not with full bleeds and full colour. Plus, I almost flipped out when I met with a few business Linden’s in San Fran and saw that Linden Lab uses mini Moos! And with mini Moos, you can upload up to 100 pictures/graphics for your set. That’s pretty cool and makes for an interesting variety.
The videos are coming along well for the forum and the DemoFest entry from DevLearn08 has been sized to it’s original size for proper viewing. The version on blip.tv was scaling to 640 by480 resulting in pixelation. The original version was intended for podcasting at 320 by 240. It can be seen on either subquark.com or virtualtqm.com.
Also added were the full text script which should be included in all video eLearning pieces. It’s easy to discuss accessibility but we often fall short as eLearning providers.
