I've been "off the tether" for most of the week since our last class and as a result have some catchup to do. All of you have been working on your projects some of which (PowerPoint creations) have some minor issues, while others are progressing well. I'll try to troubleshoot anything I can from here today.
Before we begin this week's topic, I'd like to add something that pertains to Wikis, covered in our class last week. I stumbles across an entry entitled, Censoring History Won’t Work. It deals with
a wiki entry that with the passage of time has become a violation of German law and the reality of the impossibility or retracting information from the Internet after it has gotten out there. See http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/murderer-wikipedia-shhh Convicted Murderer to Wikipedia: Shhh!
In class this afternoon, which is going to be in my office again, we'll be taking a look at Google's Sketchup program. Let's classify it as one of Google's most powerful special tools. It's offered in a couple of version levels of which the basic (although certainly robust) is free for download by anyone. The basic version is "open source", can be accessed from a flash drive, doesn't need to be installed on a computer's hard drive, and therefore leaves no "footprint".
I''d like to give you a personal anecdotal example of how I used SketchUp. My 23 year old son was working in Asheville, NC. He's very "outdoor oriented" and spends much of his free time mountain biking, mountain climbing, hiking, and canoeing. It was natural that he came across an ad (Craig's List or other somesuch venue) offering an Old Town canoe in exchange for some construction work to be performed.
Two women who owned an old garage needed two corner posts replaced and estimated that it would take someone roughly 10 hours to complete. Tom contacted the women and then called me for advice. Actually he had no clue how to do the work, but he is in good shape, honest and dependable, and resourceful (I happen to be one of them).
After discussing it with him including details of the agreement (materials, hourly rate should the work run over the 10 alloted hours, etc.), I tried to get him to visualise how the work would be done safely. I wasn't confident that we were on the same page, so I decided to use SketchUp to show him exactly how to do it (one picture is worth a thousand...), by drawing him a 3D model and sharing it with him.
His only connected computer belonged to his employer, so he wasn't comfortable using a non-approved program on it. In spite of my assertions about the "no decernable footprint", he said he wouldn't use SketchUp on the computer. For that reason, I knew I'd have to use a different format for him to view my creation.
And so I recorded my SketchUp file, as I used its "Rotate" tool to view it in 3D, using a program (not open source and not inexpensive) called Camtasia Studio. I put the file on a CD and mailed it to Tom. He got it and he "got it", did the work successfuly, and received his canoe.
I'd like you to take a look at the file by going to http://cgi.mec.edu/~groves/SketchUp/corner_jack2.avi Please take five or six minutes to do so.
Please remember it is one perfect example of a practical use for SketchUp. Had my son had the Internet connection then that he does now, he could haveve used his own computer and we could have done to whole lesson online without the aid of the US Postal service.
BTW I've since found an open source program that does much of what Camtasia does. I've used it with teachers and it's free. It's called CamStudio and it's a great program.
Let's look at a couple of definitions and blurbs about SketchUp:
From SketchUp's site:
Can we use Google SketchUp in our school lab?
Yes, Google SketchUp can definitely be used in school labs. In fact, we believe that Google SketchUp is perfect for most K-12 schools. There's no licensing to worry about, and students can download and install it on their computers at home as well. Simply download Google SketchUp onto your computers and you are off and running. If you later decide that you want to try SketchUp Pro in your school, click here for more information about our educational lab licensing for Google SketchUp Pro.
I found this rich little trove at a blog named Assorted Stuff.
http://www.assortedstuff.com/stuff/?p=298
Its author has this to say,
My name is Tim Stahmer and currently I’m an Instructional Technology Specialist working in the Office of Instructional Technology Integration for an overly-large school district on the Virginia side of Washington DC. What else do you want to know?
What is this blog all about?
Mostly it’s my observations on the state of public education in the United States and the perpetual efforts to reform it. That, plus comments on instructional technology, blogging and the read-write web (aka Web 2.0), various forms of media, digital rights and fair use, a very small dab of politics, and the everyday oddities of life that pop up. Which is why the site is called Assorted Stuff. I probably could have called it Constantly Distracted but I didn’t.
If you burrow down one level to http://www.assortedstuff.com/stuff/?p=298#resources, you'll find a great deal of information regarding SketchUp. We'll linger here a bit, say for 20 mins. or so. While you're here, I'd like you to look over the Intro section and read the Overview. Then please go and view the three short related videos entitled, Making a quick model, Slapping on some paint, and Switching on the sun.
Activity:
This activity is designed only to familiarize you with yet one more aspect of Google. Please go through with that in mind-no tests!
If you look down from there, you'll see a section about SketchUp's 3D warehouse, some of which I'll copy here
Google’s 3D Warehouse is a site where anyone can upload a sketch they’ve created in SketchUp and share it with the world. Some of these have also been included in the 3D Buildings layer of Google Earth.
While you may not be ready to contribute to the collection, exploring the work of others in the Warehouse will give you a good idea of just what’s possible with this software (and the Pro version) along with a little inspiration.
Open the main page of the Warehouse find the section for 3D Building Collections. Use the left and right arrows to find the Ancient Rome collection and click to open that section.
On that page find the model for Trevi Fountain and (skip this download section, which you can do later on if you wish) download the version for Sketchup 6 and open it in Sketchup.
Play around with that model and see what you can do with the sketch. Click on any of the edges with the selection tool to see all the pieces of the sketch.
Zoom in on one of the statues in front of the building and then use the Orbit tool to look at it from the side. There’s no statue there! It’s just a picture of the statue and that’s a technique you can use: use photographs to make your drawings more accurate.
You’re likely to find a model for almost any well know (and some not so well known) structures in the Warehouse. So, let’s use the search tools to find something specific.
- Skip over the search box and click on Advanced Search.
- In the Find items with all of these words in the title box enter Sturbridge.
- In the Item type section, change the Find items that are models with this complexity popup to Simple.
- Use the find models with this file type popup to select SketchUp (.skp).
- Check the box next to Show only downloadable models.
- Click the Search 3D Warehouse button in the top right corner.
The search results page shows a collection created by the same person of buildings in an historic town in Massachusetts called Old Sturbridge Village.
In the search results choose the Village Printing Office, which at the time this was written was the third choice in the third column.
Download the model and open it in Sketchup. This one is much less complex than the Trevi fountain so it should be easier to see how the model was constructed.
In both the Sturbridge page and the Trevi page, you may have noticed the little Google Earth ribbon 
. That means this particular model can be seen in the 3D Buildings layer of Google Earth.
To find many more of them, do some exploring in the recently opened Google Earth 3D Gallery. Here you’ll find tours that will take you to a variety of collections of 3D structures, many of which you can click on and download to study in SketchUp.
Next we're going to take a look at a few short videos (4-7 mins.) that will give you a better idea of how SketchUp works and what it can do
Please go to the following link to view:
Part 1 - Concepts (3:08)
Next go to:
Part 2 - Drawing Shapes (6:09)
and on to:
Part 3 - Modify Tools (4:43)
and finally to:
Part 4 - Create a Chair (8:43)
Bonnie Roskes is, my estimation, the SketchUp diva. You can view her profile at Roskes Profile. Her name is everywhere you'll look for information on SketchUp and she's authored a number of texts on the subject.
She has provided us with a site, http://3dvinci.net/teacherguide/Teacher_Guide.htm, that offers a number of lesson plan/projects for a number of subjects and grade levels.
Please take the next 20 minutes or so to try to locate two that you find applicable to your classroom or two that could be modified to be so.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Math Forum take a look at what they say about themselves:
The Math Forum Is...
... the leading online resource for improving math learning, teaching, and communication since 1992.
_We are teachers, mathematicians, researchers, students, and parents using the power of the Web to learn math and improve math education.
_We offer a wealth of problems and puzzles; online mentoring; research; team problem solving; collaborations; and professional development. Students have fun and learn a lot. Educators share ideas and acquire new skills.
Take a look at a couple of examples of how they use SketchUp to clarify geometric concepts:
http://mathforum.org/sketchup/videos.html
and be sure to view the short videos (the first two) on 2D tessellations and Hirschhorn Tiling. We'll set aside 15 minutes to do so.
Finally, if you're interested in trying out SketchUp 7, you can download it by going to http://sketchup.google.com/product/gsu.html. Save the installation file to your flash drive if you'd like, and install it there.
