Learning2gether Episode 502

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In the USA where my VSTE friends were convening in Discord and talking each other through their preparations for the day’s event, it was Monday evening, December 7. But for me on the other side of the world it was almost 9 in the morning of Tuesday December 8. Still, in deference to my friends, I go along with how they like to call their monthly event: “VSTE Minecraft Monday”.

This Minecraft Monday was streamed in Discord by K4sons and recorded in Camtasia by the mysterious alter ego Streamer Vance, who made it available for replay at https://youtu.be/y3RExV7vcMw

My VSTE friends, two of whom were also moderators in EVO Minecraft MOOC (and some other VSTE folk who are occasional EVOMC participants), were in Discord getting set up for their regular monthly event. I had offered to record it. There are various ways of doing this, but the easiest way for me is to use Camtasia since I bought a copy years ago and Techsmith still honors my license after all these years and not only that, lets me download and install the software onto multiple devices at any given time using the same purchase key. Camtasia is the quickest way to get a screencast up and running unless you plan to stream out to the Internet as well, in which case OBS (Open Broadcast Software) is usually my choice; it’s free but trickier to configure, therefore takes more time to pick and choose what you want to record and test beforehand. Camtasia costs a couple hundred dollars, but I’d already bit that bullet, and it is pretty good at recording whatever part of the screen you want to include and whatever sound is coming out of the computer, and getting your mic sound if you tick it in, and and your web cam if you choose to include that. I just have to test it once, and it’s usually good to go.

I had arrived in Discord early to find out if K4sons (a.k.a. EVOMC21 co-moderator Kim Harrison) was going to stream the session in Discord (‘stream’ here means stream someone’s screen in Discord, but visible only to others with permission to view that group’s doings in Discord; and the stream can’t be recorded in Discord). I had offered to record that if that was what they were going to do, in which case I would need to bring along Streamer Vance, one of my alter egos, to assist. Teacher Vance, my Minecraft character, can be in Minecraft and record that in Camtasia on one computer, but Teacher Vance would become quite disconcerted if he were having to track both his view of Minecraft and a stream from someone else’s perspective taking place on one patch of laptop computer screen real estate (and Camtasia itself records a region of the screen which would consume a large part of that real estate). So I invented an imaginary sidekick Streamer Vance whose job it is to go onto another of my computers, insinuate himself into Discord there, and record the stream. However, in order for me to record a stream in Discord, Streamer Vance would need to become a member of the VSTE Discord group

This meant that K2sons had to add the new member to the group while trying to get set up for the event, but she’s pretty good at that, so well before start time Streamer Vance was happily in place and testing the setup, and giving us the thumbs up that all was good to go.

We waited for Show Time! K4sons had sent an email just four hours before the two Vance’s had got out of bed in the morning which said:

Take a break from your shopping and decorating to reconnect with your VSTE Minecraft friends. Tonight we will play with changing skins and resource (texture) packs. Let’s dress up Minecraft for the holidays!

And what a great session, as I noted on Facebook …

Among the items presented were:

• the John Smith legacy resource pack: https://resourcepack.net/john-smith-legacy-resource-pack/
• And two sites for dressing up your personal avatar in Minecraft
  • https://www.minecraftskins.net/
  • https://www.minecraftskins.com/

Toward the end of the session (we were playing in survival mode) we were attacked by phantoms, flying mobs in Minecraft that appear at night, seemingly out of nowhere. Here’s what they look like when they are dangerously bearing down on you. It’s rare (for me) to get a screenshot of them:

Here are the same phantoms once Jaz had kindly gone to sleep, and switched the lights back on for all of us:

Burn in peace, duckies!

Meanwhile, those of us on the EVO Minecraft MOOC server noticed that we were prompted in November to accept a resource pack that turned our world into fall colors. After Thanksgiving, another resource pack was offered that has thrown us into Christmas, with wreaths on the doors and snow on the ground (fortunately the paths we’ve painstakingly made are still visible 🙂

Here’s the view from the top of my house these days:

It seems that the Resource Packs that our EVOMC21 server admin Zzidkha has prompted us to install are running on the back end, but if you want to install your own resource packs, in your Minecraft Settings window you click on the button that says “Resource Packs”  and this is what I see in mine:

It looks like we can revert to the default look or load in the classic view, both built in (I tried it though; didn’t work, still got the resource pack imposed on us from the server). If you want other options you have to install them on your computer. But after this session, we can now see now how to install service packs more to our taste and just run them at will when we launch Minecraft.

Promotion and Feedback

Here are K4sons’s instructions on how to join Minecraft Mondays each month

Minecraft Mondays occur on the first Monday of any month at 8 PM Eastern time on the VSTE Place server
minecraft.vste.org:11002. (GMT -5)

Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world

You must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95.

1. Download and install the software.
2. Make sure you have installed and are running version 1.16.4.
3. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP: minecraft.vste.org:11002.
4. Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter.
   Email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name.

Discord

Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device.

1. Download and install it for free.
2. Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple.
3. Our channel is https://discord.gg/cp9tsWz

It helps us to be able to play Minecraft in one screen and listen via Discord with earbuds or headphones.

Promotion on Facebook

This post was made to the EVO Minecraft MOOC group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc/

Earlier Events

Sun 6 Dec 0800 UTC Minhaaj Rehman interviews Vance Stevens to discuss their life and career trajectories so far this century

https://learning2gether.net/2020/12/06/minhaaj-rehman-ceo-of-psyda-co-interviews-vance-stevens-to-discuss-their-life-and-career-trajectories-so-far-this-century/

Sat-Sun 5-6 Dec two-day OpenSimulator Community Conference

From 5-6 December 2020 starting at about 3pm GMT (Sat) the OpenSimulator Community Conference takes place on the AVACON grid. Come join us for 2 days of learning all about OpenSim.

• To register for the conference, please use this LINK.
• Here is the link to the SCHEDULE.
• All of the sessions will be livestreamed. https://www.youtube.com/c/AvaconOrg/live
• You can hyperjump there with any avatar in OpenSim, here is how:

To HyperGrid jump to the OSCC conference grid:

• Click the Map button at the bottom of your screen
• In the Search text field on the right side of the map, paste this link: http://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/   (note the trailing slash)
• Click the Teleport button at the bottom of the screen to teleport to a Landing Zone on the conference grid where there will be maps & info signs.

New to the conference and interested in creating an avatar?
If you registered and requested a new local account be created for the OSCC Conference Grid, you should have received an email with the login details. View this step by step video and visit the Login Info page for instructions on how to download an OpenSimulator viewer and more information about how to connect to the grid. If you have a Local Account from a previous OSCC event and have forgotten your password, use the Forgot Your Password link to reset it.

Sun 6 Dec 1630 UTC Heike Philp presents on EVO storytelling in virtual worlds at the OpenSim Community Conference

On Sunday 6 Dec 2020 Heike Philp will present a short 20min session about her EVO session coming up (9 Jan – 14 Feb 2021 EVO Storytelling in Virtual Worlds), showcase EduNation in OS purposely built for EVO, but perhaps there to last, and she will mention her latest EU funded project proposal EXCALIBUR.

When:
6 Dec 2020 at 4:30pm GMT (UK time) or 8:30am SL time; World times
Heike Philp: ‘Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and Anvil, is rightwise king born….’

EXPO Zone 4
Also Heike created an expo area/ booth on Expo zone 4 where you will find more information about EduNation in OS, the upcoming EVO session and EXCALIBUR. Here is the link to the expo:
hop://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/OSCC%20Expo%20Zone%204/112/179/26

Looking forward to seeing you there!
Rgds Heike

Here is my screenshot of the crowd at the last session in the conference

Here I am testing my ability to embed a video I can’t get the plugin to accept at this page
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142108218/Video_Tutorials#EVOMC21Tutorial12SafarifromTrenchshelter1toMountainbase2toMineshelter3

___________________________________________________________
This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

The date of this update is December 10, 2020 09:00 UTC