Org:Foundation/Bf-education/Archive/ML/2004-2005-summary

Mailing list summary 2004-2005

2004
oct 
	Ton R.	setup of mailing list
	Rcas	managment system http://blender.ruicampos.com/mgmt.
nov	
	jseaver	suggested tutorials to use as reference for international audience
	rcas	Idea: small course with its certification
		tools: 	+Xical - Phillip Richdale - Platform for courses and
certifications
			+blenderzine 1 - Alexandre Rangel - Training CD in portuguese
			+ Infrastructure and facilities support-Jono Bacon
			+Courses beta testers - Joshua Seaver
		Proposal: 	1.Define content
				2.Make the movie
				3.Make translations
				4.Implementation, Xical
				5.Review and define goals for the course
				6.Certification content and goals
				7.Prepare deploy and test phase
				8.Review results and define future goals
	Ton R.	Seeks help for maintaining tutorials and pages for educators
	rcas	Offered help for maintaining tutorials and pages for educators and
asked for details
	rcas	management system's update
	claudio	Esbosed a certification program.


2005
jan 	Gustavo Muñoz	started course "introducing 3D for artists with blender"
			Offered spanish translations,colaboration in the certification
program, official colaboration from the fine arts institute (spain)
	Rcas		pointed february as the month to start hitting hard
	Rcas		Asked for opinions for the courses. 
			Added ideas about the coures and their estructure.
	Alarrea		Agreed about the first rcas's question, differed in the second.
			Waiting for the courses to be ready.
	Rcas		Hoped to have first set of courses ready in june/july (english)
			Offered translate it to portuguese, spanish, french and german.
			Was finishing something in the blender source to provide good visual
feedback for the video courses.
			After finish with previous item. Offered the blender shorcuts
tutorial as a proof of concept
			Asked for feedback and ideas.
			Planted the idea of defining standard courses to be later defined as
the official set.
	Gustavo Muñoz	Proposed a way to orginize the courses
			Asked about implementation of the "official" blender course titles
			Asked if certification was due to some hours of teaching blender
			Asked for teacher's certification.
			Asked  who will choose among the courses the official one.
	Rcas		Answered gustavo's questions.
	Gustavo Muñoz	Agreed using Xical. Pointed that the demo is slow.
	Rcas		Offered a link to a small demo in xical
	Ton R.		Angela Plohman assigned to coordinate the education project.
			Goal: to have education/training material developed in 2005
			The 1200 missprints issue.
	Ton R.		BF intended for 2005 an update of the 2.3 guide.
			Idea: parallel book for people who wanted to learn blender and
companion for the official blender certified book
			Proposed title: Blender fundamentals.
			Asked stefano for being the editor and reminded that the content
should  be done based on the help of experienced educators.
	Rcas		Proposed ideas for the guide and feedback about the course
			
feb 	Gustavo muñoz	proposed ideas for the guide and feedback about the
course.
			Proposed the lessons of his course as the basis for the official course
			proposed ideas for the course.
			proposed a revenue system for the official courses
	Rcas		Agreed gustavo's proposals
			proposed a video course along with the advanced books
			idea: certifying teachers that way company/school would be officially
recognized.
	Daniel Labarge	posted a new tutorial realfxstudios
	Daniel Labarge	posted a new tutorial realfxstudios
	macouno		was teaching 3d, planned to use blender but uncertain
			pointed few posts about certification and online lesson publishing
			pointed reasons why certification was not a good idea at the moment
			idea: official manual discount for educators who buy large ammounts
	ton R.		reply to macouno's idea
			missprints issue.
	macouno		proposed ideas for educators materials
	realfxstudios	posted new tutorial
	Ton R.		www.3dny.com contacted me for developing course materials
			asked for references
	Rcas		reply
	Gustavo muñoz	reply
	realfxstudios	posted new tutorial
	realfxstudios	updated website
	Ton R.		introduced natraj to the mailing list
			natraj's letter: was aproacher an indian tv company for blender training.
					 idea: create a blender training section on their website
					 offered the material they developed free of cost in return of
rights and an acknoledgment
					 
	
mar 	hhec		proposed targets for the certification program
			proposed an structure for the certification as a compilation of ideas
in the mailing list
	rcas		Agreed hhec's proposal
			added the diploma's concept before certification
	hhec		agreed rcas's proposal
			proposed a new structure adding the diploma's concept
			questions about who will emmitt diplomas and certificates and gives
hipotetical answers for opinion
	rcas		answers previous questions
	realfxstudios	ideas for training approval
			differs from hhec's structure
			proposed a new structure for certification
	jseaver		opinion: certificate or diploma it is for the initial
"trainers" before general public.
			reviewed commercial companies training and educational methods
	rcas		reviewed commercial companies training and educational methods
			proposal: 	books covering basic and advanced features and DVD's
trouought the e-shop
					innovate aproach of the contents, focus in 3d and CG as the main
content.
			Declared time to start defining specific contents, keeping in mind
the following:
				There is already a Reference Book.
				There will be a series of "Blender Advanced" books.
				The approach should be centered on 3D and CG, not Blender itself
(for that purpose we have the Reference Book).
				The content of the "Blender Basics" series is to be used by people
who may or may not know anything about 3D and CG.
				The "Blender Advanced" series will be used to train experts.
	Ton R.		Opinion: focus on feasible steps:
					to develop good course material (like Blender Fundamentals course book)
					develop a training program for trainers, and a means to certify
them as such
			proposal: training should be targeted to teachers withing training
facilities to help them get new business
				  artists suscribing to "certified" training would get a diploma not
a bf-education certification
				  Setting up a good training program should essentially break the
barrier to get Blender accepted for many professionals out there, who
are not interested to participate in time-consuming web-based communities
				  we could start with defining the structure for how to certify
"Fundamental Trainer" certifications.
			Main benefits of this approach:
				it minimizes amount of work for the BF (we only have to certify
trainers)
				a certification becomes valuable and defines status (only few have it)
				maximum freedom for teachers to structure courses
				clear business model; BF only will 'make money' from certifying
trainers and (optional) educational material. For the rest it's up to
the teacher to define how to do the business locally
	jseaver		reviewed www.animationmentor.com
	jseaver		complains about xical's video and sensitivity to programming
errors
			Offered website with tutorials for students and teachers.
	rcas		explains xical's video problem and solution.
			agrees the sensibility to errors in xical
			calls for alternatives to xical.
	ton R.		Jim hoffman's letter:
				introduced 3d to high school in saskatoon, Sask
				explained plans
	ton R.		reviewed
http://ltc.smm.org/visualize/resources/tutorials/blender/modeling
	jim hoffman	introduced 3d to high school in saskatoon, Sask
			explained plans
	gustavo muñoz	working on translation of video tutos at blender3d.org to
spanish
			asked for space to upload the tutos
			asked for help in adding the audio to the video 
	ton R.		reply jim hoffman's letter
	ton R.		reply to gustavo muñoz space request
	hhec		offered gustavo help translating the tutos
	g muñoz		hhec comm handshake
	jseaver		reviewed an introductory PDF for personal learning edition of Maya
	rcas		opinion about the course's book: it should be a bit more
extensive that The Art of Maya. The Art of Maya is pretty good, but I
find it too basic, it should provide a bit more than that.
	jseaver		www.joshuaseaver.com/3D/ArtofMaya.pdf
	ton R.		asked for  anyone with ideas for authoring/editing books

apr
	paul chong	expressed ideas for the publisher.
may	
	ton r.		2.3 manual issue
	jseaver		2.3 manual issue
	ton r.		2.3 manual issue
	rcas		2.3 manual issue
	ton r.		2.3 manual issue
	G. Muñoz	2.3 manual issue
			planned some larger courses
	ton r.		2.3 manual issue
	G. Muñoz	2.3 manual issue
	daniel labarge	2.3 manual issue
aug
	Dhenton		looking for classes resources
	ton r.		reply dhenton
	dhenton		offered publishing on the web his material (if classes....)
	Chris stones	intend to write a series of how to use blender
			asked for someone to host the videos
	
oct
	carsten tigges	teacher orginizing an educational project some material
already made and the rest will be published as it becomes ready
	jseaver		been teaching to teens constantly
			experience teaching maya
			offered help to carsten tigges
	jseaver		offered an overview of his student's works
	ross jardine	teaching students 13-15
			offered help reviewing educational material
	pascal companion   Bentot des tutoriaux pour former des jeunes à
Blender ;-)
	rcas		reply carsten
	ton R.		link to a summary of 2005 conference (in education)
	ewout		Migration guides should be secondary to the main manual
			There should be separate manuals covering specific areas
			A quick start material is needed for "instant satisfaction"
			Concerned about consistency in style
			Offered to make an overview of style elements and combine them in a
styleguide
	tom M.		proposes to identify target market as a to-do
			samples of migration guides
			reviewed Zbrush at pixologic
			intention: develop training tools
	carstentiges	software demo ready
			Offered help on education
	rcas		reply carsten
	tom M.		reviewed sketchups
	tom M.		idea: create an intro to OOP structured on blender
	Dhenton		debates tom M.
			
nov	carsten	T.	preparing sample chapters for a book about "general 3d -
related to blender"
			asked for opinions about content of the book
	matt K.		discuss and gives opinions and ideas to carsten about the book
	Rcas		discuss and gives detailed opinions and ideas to carsten about
the book
	tom M		ideas related to newbies and the game engine
	hhec		some opinions about the carsten book issue
	ton R.		hhec's letter:
				described a self sustained plan for teaching and rising funds for
foundation
	luigi monaco	entered a project in the educational section
			asked for feedback
	
dec	Tom M		competition for a "cheat sheet"
			sample cheatsheets from other vendors
			asked for a keyboard map layout in the cheatseet (present the
reference's layout)
			links to a quickstart sample
	rcas		proposed a meeting. Presented scope and goals for the meeting.
	carsten T.	announces progress related to the book he anounced on november
	rcas		link to wiki's agenda, minute and log
			propose topics for next meeting:
					times for meeting
					name for the channel
					purpose of each team


2006
jan 	tom M		reviewed a 3dcg  book at
http://www.joetainment.com/Plone/thecgtextbook/
	Bas van Dijk	links to a dutch blender course
	rcas		goals for 2006 in bfeducation:
				Worldwide workshops for Blender
				Help on the creation of the Training Book (for teachers)
			goals for 2006 in bfdocboard:
				Work closely for the creation of the Training Book
				Help organize things for a better workflow between the developers
and the docboard
				Translating the missing parts of the Books to Portuguese
				Help with the creation of the new set of Books
			proposes topics for next meeting:
				Who will actively be in "charge" of bf-docboard, mostly for coordination
				The focus of each board, to avoid overlapping
				Define goals for 2006 for each board
				Create a proposal for Blender devs of a better workflow between Devs
and Docboard, mostly for more up to date Documentation
				Define standard week day and time for Meetings
	rcas		topics for next meeting
			
feb 	rcas		job oportunity in bulgaria
	theodore dounas	interested in participating in a blender workshop
(bulgaria)
	spiderworm	asks for help on becoming a blender teacher
	theodore	idea: apply for funding like EU dissemination of knoledge
			offers: a little research, and present pottential oppurtunities in
next meeting
	ton R.		reviews http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/blank/browse.asp? 
	hhec		notes from the meeting
	rcas		next meeting topics
	rcas		rui's plans for libre graphic meeting.