Sculptris: 3D modeling software

Tonight I have had some fun playing with a new tool. I will not be putting in my creation just yet as I need to do some work on them. At the moment they look more like something out of an alien movie.

From the Sculptris image library

From the Sculptris image library

The program I downloaded was called Sculptris. It is free 3D modeling software for Windows (there is no Mac option). Sculptris is designed to create models of sculptures and 3D objects with an almost hand-made aspect. It allows you to sculpt a figure in three dimensions,is based on a ball. It is really very simple and reasonably intuitive to use and requires no special knowledge of 3D modeling. I simply started to shape  the “ball” with the different tools just as though it were a block of clay.

The designer, Tomas Pettersson, created this application for his own enjoyment as a hobby and it is free. He does envisage developing it further and states that any donations to him would be used to help him fix any problems.  It amazes me that someone has spent so much time and effort creating these tools and are willing to share them with us.

It is an amazing tool and to get a better idea of how it works have a look at the videos below. They show, in a much more effective way than I can put into words, just how to create images using this program.

This looks as though it might be a good tool for students in the visual arts area. They could use this program to design models for claymation models or sculpture projects. I haven’t used it a lot but it might also be useful in other subject areas where models could be created such as geography, geology and science.

Reading options and DailyLit

I have been doing a lot of reading in the holidays. It is nice to read widely and without feeling guilty about work for school that I could be doing. I have also been working on updating some tools I created for the crime fiction genre and I have been trying out some of the Flickr and Google tools to help students with (or give them some alternative approaches to) some of the class novels. I have also been doing some reading about e-books and books on-line

I tend to do a fairly good job of finding the time to read. I always have a book with me, in my bag. Any time I find myself waiting in a queue, I can pull out my book, rather than sitting or standing with nothing to do. (I really hate the loud mobile conversations that many others seem to have to have with whoever is on the end.) I also listen to audiobooks when I am driving, especially when I have 3 hour drives into the country. I am always looking for ways to encourage our boys to read, and for them to have positive reading experiences. I thought that I should have a look at the some of the other options for reading. DailyLit is just one option.

DailyLit is a free service that brings books (also free) (particularly classic books in the public domain) as excerpts, right into your inbox in convenient small messages that can take less than 5 minutes to read. For instance, reading The Count of Monte Cristo, via DailyLit, meant that the emails were about 500 words per day, about the size of an average email or blog post, and that title was free. This is not just an option for your computer, it also works perfectly well on a Blackberry or whatever other PDA you may have.  Sometimes there’s a small charge for the e-book (usually a modern book) but there are plenty in the free category.

Using DailyLit with students.

There is something about DailyLit that I believe could appeal to a number of the students at school. I think lot of boys would like to like to read serial e-novels. It could increase the anticipation of what is in the next chapter. This might then really heighten the interest for a positive experience.  It could also make the idea of reading the classics less daunting.

A lot of boys don’t always read regularly. They read in spurts, often when it becomes necessary to write about something they have read for class assessment. This could encourage them to read each day.

It could make it easier to analyse the books as well. The strategy would be to write about each section as it is read, rather than trying to think of something after the book is finished. The boys could look at individual characters, quotes, or storylines, in easily digestible parts on a daily basis. They could also be encouraged to try to anticipate what might happen next or examine how they believe a character might react to the situation.

There is also the possibility of some sort of on-line book club.  A group of students could negotiate and choose to read the same book and have the same sized parts posted at the same time each day. (You can choose how often or on what days you wish to receive instalments). An on-line chat area /blog/wiki could be set up for them to share their reading experiences. This could be done within a class, across the school or with students from other schools.

There are many genres to choose from and the numbers of books that are on offer is increasing all the time. You can browse by titles, authors or categories or enter in a discussion about some author or title, current piece of writing.

You can receive new updates with news of current offers and  has various features, including a To-Read queue, reader ratings and reviews, and a members page.

Have a look and try it out. I would be interested to find out if anyone has used this with students.

Images and words: using, manipulating, playing

Whilst I was on-line this morning up popped a couple of emails, One was sent by a teacher and it included the photograph below.

I looked around the web and found a blog, CFRU 93.3fm Election Radio, which posted the photo with the following text

It would seem that the credit crunch is having a really significant impact in the UK.

Even those more fortunate than most are having to make difficult decisions to ensure that their standard of living is maintained.

I don’t know if they created the photo but it certainly brought a laugh to students and teachers alike. I had a great discussion last week with the boys in the reading club/group. We started off talking about some books, then got om to how the media manipulated readers by the language used in their stories and finally discussed the economic crisis and the speeches made by politicians (what do they really mean?)

I was sitting in the library and around me there was a display of newspaper headlines for this year. I had collected these news banners for the morning delivery of papers over this year. So many words in bold print saying…?

These headlines have caused quite a bit of discussion with the students when they have come into the library over the past week.

I then started thinking about what activities you might base on these headlines. They could be the basis of some interesting approaches to language.

Free social networking icon set for Bloggers

Just for a change of pace, here is a set of free, non-standard icons, for non-commercial use by bloggers, designed by those at Templates.com.

This is a lovely (and free) icon set of the most popular social websites. They are placed “in a bottle” for bloggers and consist of 10 icons:

•  del.icio.us, DesignFloat.com, Digg.com, Facebook.com, Ma.gnolia.com, Reddit.com, RSS, StumbleUpon.com, Technorati.com, Twitter.com
• Each icon is produced in the following sizes: 80х80, 64х64, 32х32.

You can learn more about the creation process of this Icon set on the Templates.com blog.