3D Composition and Understanding Tutorial

To compose with 3D, as the other readings in this chapter have shown, is a very rich and deep topic. For this resource chapter, it is time to learn a 3D editor or application in some depth and consider ways to integrate its knowledge into professional practice. This involves learning many features of the program and using this knowledge to create two products, one that involves your solo effort and one that requires some team discussion with members of your assigned media team. You will be becoming one of the class experts on it. The thought that with a couple of weeks study you can be the class, building and school district expert on anything may seem strange to you. Yes, there will always be experts who know much more than you. Always. But in the rapidly exploding amount of knowledge in the 21st century, there will be many levels of expertise and your many hours study put you far ahead of others. This is the new normal for the ideas in the essay on the Age of Knowledge. It is these skills with learning itself that 21st century schools must teach.

Learning an 3D Composition tool

Study and work through the information and concepts on the prior page on Second Life. The best way to capture "field trips" and creativity in Second Life is to create a screen movie of what you are discovering and the features of this virtual reality program. If you have a different 3D application that you would prefer to explore, please consult with your instructor for discussion and permission.

Media Team Project

With the members of your team, create a folder containing a Word document in which you plan and sequence a thematic series of educational activities that incorporate each of the digital palette elements that your team members are studying into the content areas of your team members. This is the kind of pre-planning that becomes the basis for later lesson plans (which are not part of this assignment). In this document indicate the contribution that each team member has made. Also, add to the folder a file or files of your own contribution that demonstrate your mastery of what you have learned about your media and be clear in the Word document about which files go with which part of the team's sequence of education activities.

Solo Project

Your goal here is to learn your media and to demonstrate and give evidence of your learning by the practice files you create. You will also need to create a folder of file or files that use this accumulation of knowledge to create a media composition that uses imagery to teach an idea or concepts. It may be clear by the text annotation that you put on the 3D comjust how the image will be used to help students learn, or you may need to add information to a Word or Powerpoint file and explain further its instructional role.