#ctec

Merry Christmas , Happy Holidays to one and all .

Been making up some alternative X-mas star dec’s to hang for the festive season .

The first is Voodoo resins stain-glass C-tec with front & back glow liner cogs from beyond wood products .

2nd is 2 Kirinite glow stars from @gpsagenciesltd joined with inlaid cyflect glint&glow and orange SOLAS reverse.

3rd is kirinite tiedye gitd  from @gpsagenciesltd with inlaid cyfect front with moon glow tape reverse and orange SOLAS .

All with candy cane coloured ties .

A student from my class recently blogged about the creative technologies studio paper and some of the concerns they have with it [1]. I can relate with many of the points Oscar makes and I would like to share my own point of view which may compliment Oscar’s thoughts.

“What I do not see the value of is spending a majority of our time in studio drawing our feelings on paper, playing with string and making paper boxes to help us understand concepts that are just as easily grasped through verbal communication in far less time” --- Oscar Randle

I think drawing our feelings on paper, playing with string and making paper boxes are all effective methods of exploring concepts (when used appropriately). I don’t feel like these methods have been used in the studio paper appropriately, some of the activities feel forced, these activities are being used in an attempt to engage the students. Unfortunately it is reducing my engagement.

“Sometimes I feel like i’m back in primary school.” --- Oscar Randle

There are some very good aspects of primary school, hands on learning, emphasis on creativity and exploration. The fact that this paper shares these values is not a bad thing. Instead I would point to situations when the class is asked “What did you learn this week?”. At university, learning does not consist of simply knowing that ‘America is a country’. University learning is at a much higher level where understanding and concepts are very important. A response such as “I learnt about Wi-Fi!“ does not capture the spectrum of research, concepts and understanding which should accompany the statement.

“It was my impression that these next three weeks were supposed to be about forming our groups and developing a concept for our project. But what have we done so far?”  --- Oscar Randle

This is a good point. I made comments to one of the lecturers last semester that it would be nice to have more activities where we can get to know other people in the class. There have definitely been more activities this semester but they have not been ideal for getting to know people. I do know quite a few people in the studio but there is still half of the class who could be wanting to work on a project which I would be interested in and I would not even know. I do think it would be healthy in such a studio environment for us to be forced into teams with people we do not know so well.

My main critique of Creative Technologies here is that the lecturers all appear to have different views and visions for the subject. There is a claim that this is good, having people from different fields is good, they have a different set of ideas. I believe having different ideas is only a strength when there is a common goal. It is essential that the field is formalised so that each lecturer can integrate their expertise into a defined subject. Personally, I believe that the subject should transition into a study/application of connections and interactions. If there is no formalisation, I worry for the future of this course.

Warm Up // Studio III // Put Down That Drone

Warm up blogpost, to get back into it!

This look in any way familiar? (Probably not, it was a lot smaller). This is the sunflower grown from the tiny seedling that I got from @creatingcharlottepj and @smythiecreativetech at the end of last year. 

This year I’m taking the ‘Put down that drone’ studio, which has a focus on storytelling, so I’m going to warm up into it by dramatizing the story of this sunflower. 

For two weeks it lived in it’s two inch square pot on my windowsill in Auckland, waiting until I went home for the holidays. The plant was only a couple of inches tall and had two tiny leaves when I took it home. Getting it home was stressful enough, carrying it by hand through a taxi-ride, a two-hour bus-ride, and then a twenty minute car-ride, but by some miracle it made it home alive and unbroken. 

That’s where I made a mistake. 

Confidently I put the seedling out into the front garden, certain that from here it’d be okay. But when I looked out twenty minutes later, things weren’t looking good. The plant stalk was lying flat on the ground, and also a couple of feet from where I’d planted it. Checking on it I found that the stalk had been snapped completely in two, from either one of the roaming dogs or chickens that live on our property.

Emergency care ensued. I scooped the plant up and put the cut stalk into a pot of potting-mix, and put it inside next to a sunny window in the hopes it would recover. 

Over the next couple of days things weren’t looking good. The plant looked progressively worse and worse each day, almost keeling over and giving up. 

Then after a week, it shot up again! 

Several pot transplants later, and this is what it bloomed into. I was concerned that even if it did grow, it wouldn’t flower, or that it might be too fragile to survive to bloom, so I was happily surprised. 

A stash of 14 and 22mm handmade Cog beads for a good French customer hence the French Patriot beads .

Overview The last date to submit CTET 2024 application form is today, November 27, 2023. Candidates can fill CTET Online Form 2024 by visiting the official website- ctet.nic.in. It is advised that candidates should submit their applications now and not wait. Last date to apply online for CTET 2024. Earlier, CBSE had extended the last date for applying online for CTET 2024 from November 23 to November 27, 2023. Candidates have to enter CTET campus number/name in the online form and download CTET confirmation page 2024 after submitting their applications online. The last date for final verification of CTET application fee 2024 has been extended to December 2, 2023. CTET Form Correction 2024 window will be open from November 28 to December 2, 2023. CTET Application Form 2024 link was activated with this notification on the official website. CTET January 2024 exam notification and application form was released on November 3, 2023. The official CTET notification 2023 for January session was released by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the form of an information bulletin containing important details related to the exam. CTET 2024 exam will be conducted on 21 January 2024. CTET January 2024 session is the 18th edition of the exam. Candidates willing to appear for CTET exam should visit this page regularly for latest updates regarding exam date, application process, eligibility criteria, admit card, exam pattern, syllabus, answer key, result, qualifying marks and other necessary details. Needed Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) is a national level examination conducted to test the eligibility of candidates as primary (classes 1 to 5) or elementary (classes 6 to 8) teachers. Candidates have to qualify the exam to get eligibility to teach in central government schools like KVS, NVS etc. CTET Notification 2024 has been released by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for the January session. CTET January Notification 2024 has been released on the official website ctet.nic.in. CTET Notification 2024 PDF is released as an 'Information Bulletin' which contains details of exam, syllabus, languages, eligibility criteria, exam fee, exam city and important dates. CTET Notification 2024 PDF download link is shared below. Candidates are advised to read the CTET Notification PDF thoroughly as it contains details related to the conduct of the examination. CTET 2024 exam will be conducted offline in pen and paper mode on January 21, 2024. Notification CTET Notification 2024 has been released by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for the January session. CTET January Notification 2024 has been released on the official website ctet.nic.in. CTET Notification 2024 PDF is released as an 'Information Bulletin' which contains details of exam, syllabus, languages, eligibility criteria, exam fee, exam city and important dates. CTET Notification 2024 PDF download link is shared below. Candidates are advised to read the CTET Notification PDF thoroughly as it contains details related to the conduct of the examination. CTET 2024 exam will be conducted offline in pen and paper mode on January 21, 2024. Pattern CTET Exam Pattern 2024: CTET exam consists of two papers: Paper 1 and Paper 2. Both papers consist of 150 multiple choice questions (MCQs). CTET Paper 1 consists of questions from five subjects, Child Development and Pedagogy, Language-I, Language-II, Mathematics and Environmental Studies. On the other hand, CTET Paper 2 consists of questions from four subjects- Child Development and Pedagogy, Language-I, Language-II, Mathematics and Science or Social Studies/Social Sciences. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) prescribes the exam pattern for CTET exam in the official notification. There has been no change in the CTET exam pattern over the years.

Syllabus CTET Syllabus 2024: CTET exam is conducted offline in pen and paper mode. CTET 2024 exam will be conducted on 21 January 2024. Candidates who are planning to appear in the 18th edition of CTET exam should start their exam preparation from now on. CTET 2024 exam consists of two papers – Paper 1 and Paper 2. CTET Paper 1 is for teachers of classes 1 to 5 and Paper 2 is for teachers of classes 6 to 8. CTET 2024 syllabus includes section-wise topics for both the papers and what questions are asked in the exam. CTET Paper 1 comprises of subjects from five sections – Child Development and Pedagogy, Language-I, Language-II, Mathematics and Environmental Studies and CTET Paper 2 syllabus comprises of subjects from four sections – Child Development and Pedagogy, Language-I, Language-II, Mathematics and Science or Social Studies/Social Sciences.

Studio 4 Semester 2 2021:

This project is about showing how we as humans are affecting the earth and other animals. We plan to show this by gamifying the idea, which means combining two of our passions. We thought of this idea, while we were discussing global warming and it led to us thinking about how humans are impacting the earth’s environment and other animals. We believe it is fairly known but not much impact has been made on it. We intend to show people the effects the human impact has on the natural environment and animal’s through our game experience. We start off by exploring a snow forest, which has avalanches come down. As the player explores, he will find a cabin but no one else around. In our first scene we showcase the impacts of snow from global warming on this site. But also showing the relationship between humans and wolves in this area. How they each affect one another. We will continue to develop more scenes which show the change in environment and animals through different interactions. We are using 3D modelling software such as Blendr for the models and using Unity as our game engine to implement the player and other mechanics, such as movement. 

My group divided the work into three parts, Unity coding, 3D modelling and story narrative. My focus was on the unity coding, which wasn't too much of a challenge, as my other course synthetic realities taught me quite a bit. The trickiest bit was editing scripts to make the player move and be binded to specific keys and the mouse cursor. At the end I just put together the models and added physics into the scene, along with creating some textures and adding them, I then recorded gameplay of the demo showcase. It didn't have the feel of a full completed game but was still good for starting mid this year, learning was fun and these skills will help in future projects or developing this one further. 

Digital Fabrication Semester 2 2021:

This Project is a lightsaber of my own design, inspired by other lightsaber designs. I chose to do this as my project as star wars has always been a passion of mine. The intent is to have the hilt of the lightsaber 3D printed or individual parts of the hilt 3D printed, with the light coming from LEDs and a circuit board and the saber being made from a hard plastic or copper tubing. The LEDs and tube will emit a light illusion with a added sound and slow fade on and off, using the Arduino Nano or a smaller circuit. I plan to go out of the box and make the lightsaber crystal openly visible, with the LED inside it emitting a heartbeat like light and having it draw activated by tapping the crystal with conductive tape.

The original hilt that I had designed for the prototype provided a simplistic, clean look. The purpose of the top gap was to provide a type of small hilt guard but after feedback, many people suggested making it a bit bigger and less round. The second hole is something to display the lightsaber crystal and to also act as an activator for the LED’s, which I intend to keep the same. Unfortunately due to lockdown, I was the only member in my family working, which led to me missing many of the lectures, but was able to get feedback from classmates and they let me know what I missed. The main things I intend to change is the bottom circuit holder being wider than the rest of the saber, in order to have a more balanced feel. As well as adding grips on the holding parts of the saber, to prevent slipping or dropping. Besides these changes, I was overall happy with my unique and less robust looking prototype which strayed from most lightsabers, I intend to implement colour. Unfortunately due to lockdown, I was unable to get my design printed for a overall physical feel but decided to continue the design anyway, using size references from my styrofoam size model. This however did not provide a very accurate weight representation, but will be okay for display purposes.