EDIM 514 Week 3_Discovering Something New

In this week's larger project we were tasked to research websites that were new to us from a list provided. Within the websites, we were to find different apps / websites to explore and experience. I liked this assignment, because having the freedom to explore is always more fun than being "placed in a box" of one website. The last grad class I took, I actually had Kathy Schrock as my professor, so I already have used her website. I have known about eduteacher.net, but I have never really looked into it. I finally did just that, and I thought it is a really cool site. The first thing i noticed about the site is that it is very easy to navigate and filter to a subject area you are looking for. While looking through eduteacher.net, I filtered through the different areas and found two website that relate to what I teach. The first was 3Dtin.com.

I teach an engineering class where the students 3D model / 3D print designs to problems solving challenges for a big portion of year. The students mainly use my classroom set of computers because of the software that I need to teach cannot be installed on the one-to-one devices (Google Chromebooks) my school provides the students. Although the students mainly use Autodesk Inventor to do their 3D modeling, I try to find free online 3D modeling websites and apps for the students to use for extra practice. I am sorry to say this, but 3Dtin.com will not be on that list. Before even trying it out, I noticed that it got a rating of 2/5 stars. Most people would skip right over it with a bad rating like that, but I wanted to try it because I figured it may have been too difficult to grasp for some people who may have rated it, hence the bad rating. That may have been the case, but I still would give it a bad rating.

Positives About 3Dtin.com:

1. Online tutorial videos to explain how aspects of the website work.
2. They provide a community forum, feed, and chat room.
3. You can create and account using your already excising Google, Twitter, or Facebook account, login easily, and save files online.
4. Templates of 3D geometric shapes are provide.
5. You can browse other people's designs and edit them on your own account.

Negatives About 3Dtin.com:

1. The tools seem easy to use, but they aren't.
2. Rotating your view to actually work within the space is difficult to do.
3. The community forum, feed, and chat room tends to not work. I tried it in 3 different browsers. Never worked for me.
4. The 3D objects you can make are nothing more than a visual or fun model to make. They couldn't easily be exported, detailed enough to use, or 3D printed.

Next I looked into Software I could use. I found Blender! This software is awesome. Blender is another 3D creation source that also works with image editing, animation, and video editing. It cannot be used on my Student's Chromebooks because it needs to be installed, but I can use it within my Graphics Design class. Currently I teach an introductory level of Graphics design. I used to teach 2 levels of it, but my engineering enrollment numbers went way up and I lost the graphics classes. Now that I have them back, they are decimated and under enrolled. I am trying to grow the class back up and create a new and exciting outlet for my engineering students who liked the 3D modeling, but isn't up for all of the high level math and hands on application the engineering classes require. Blender is exactly that. It not only is an open source website, there are also thousands of step-by-step tutorials online that provides a teacher and student curriculum to design and create what they want. As far as how I look to use it within this year, I plan on using it as a visual art form. I found that the introductory tutorials, allow the users to create a simple 3D scene and position the camera in an interesting point of view. From there my students, can export a jpg (image file). Since my graphics class has transitioned into more of a visual design class dealing with digital photography, Photoshop, and Illustrator, this work perfectly.

Evaluating the website some more, I think it looks like a typical software website with tabs to learn about the features of the software, information about the company, a support system, and About tab, etc.  Although there are tons of free tutorials online, the website also provides a store where you can purchase books, movies, etc. for additional training from a Blender professional. Overall, the website and software look very promising for teachers and students. Check out a cool video below of its capabilities.

Finally, we were to choose a website from Untangling the Web to analyse. I chose to analyse Sumopaint.com. I chose this because once again my graphics design students cannot install Adobe Photoshop on their Chromebooks. Since the students save their work to their school Google Drive account, it uploads it to Google's Cloud storage. That means, although the students cannot install software on their Chromebooks, they can however open and edit their Photoshop files with some online apps that attach to or work with Google. I was hoping Sumopaint would have been one of them. From my experience with Sumopaint it won't let you open Photoshop files, even if you download and install Sumopaint as a program. It will let you open image files, but only certain resolution files. In order to open images that are higher memory due to having a hire resolution, you must purchase the pro version. Without actually purchasing the pro version, I personally can only tell you what I saw in YouTube videos and what I read on their website about the pro version. To be honest, I don't really feel that it is even worth purchasing. The free version and pro version really lack features and tools that are needed for high school or beyond designing within a class like I teach. It almost reminds me of KidPix from back in the day. That's how outdated this website is. 

Looking further into the website though instead of just Sumo Paint itself, the website is linked to the Sumo company. The company itself is not amazing at anything, but it is good at its account information. As a user, you have the ability to create an account that links with some of your other already created accounts like Google and save your work online. The account tracking the website provides keeps track of everything from inquiries, help tickets, and purchases. Would this be relevant though if the programs worked that well? The answer is no. At best, Sumo Paint could be used within a normal class for a normal visual, but not in a graphics design class that focuses on outputting a quality product that could be marketed. There are much better free online apps like Pixlr Editor that have many more tools and features like Photoshop and allow you to open up Photoshop or Corel Draw files. For that reason, I decided to choose this website to be the website I emailed with suggestions.

"Dear Sumo Paint Customer Service Rep,

I am a high school teacher in a graduate course that was tasked with analyzing a website app. I chose to analyze Sumopaint because I was hoping my students could use it within the class I teach. After playing around with it, I came up with a few suggestions and or questions if I am wrong. The first suggestion would be to include an ad banner to make some additional income. This income would offset the more that you are getting from the purchasing of the pro version. I say offset it because I feel that you should provide the features of the pro version on the free version and drop the purchasing all together. This may sound harsh, but its realistic. There are many more  all free online websites and apps that have more tools and features than your pro version even provides. Correct me if I am wrong, but as a user I cannot open Photoshop files or higher resolution images because of the memory limit? I know your pro version lets the user open higher quality images. If you incorporate the pro version updates to the free version, more people would use it because of this. Last, but not least, condense some of the brushes into 1 brush tool that has all of those options. This will allow you to create and install more tools within the tool bar.

Please do not take any of my suggestions as negative criticism. It is nice that you even provide a free version in general. I only make these suggestions because I see the capability is there for more. Please feel free to respond with your thoughts. Thank you.

Jon Jarrett" 

If the company responds, I will be sure to post it to this blog!

References:

 3DTin. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.3dtin.com/ 

 Blender Demo Reel 2013. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XZGulDxz9o 

 Photoshopping in your browser. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.sumopaint.com/home/#