June 23, 2009

By: christina w. from Philadelphia, PA
Comments: 13

I do not know where I have been that I missed this software. As a teacher, I am a fan of free useful software for students, since there are few public schools that can afford the commercial ones.

For other fans, I would like to suggest Kompozer a WISIWIG web authoring that is compatible with both Mac and Windows. The advantage to this one is that students can use it at home and at school.

Posted By: christina whitt
On: 11/13/2008 10:42:36 AM

I currently am working on a perspective and architectural rendering project with my students. I have them complete a one point perspective drawing from observation, then complete a hand rendered interior drawing of a room in their dream house. Finally, I have the students render the exterior on Google Sketchup. I have found that complete the Sketchup rendering has helped their understanding of the design process because it has eliminated some of the problems they encounter through hand rendering. I highly recommend it(it's free) if you want to explore this type of design with your students.

Posted By: Elijah Sproles
On: 11/13/2008 12:39:58 PM

What age group are you working with? I'd really like to try using Sketchup in my classroom. I had the opportunity to work with it at the Design conference in New Orleans. Did it take long for the students to learn it?

Posted By: christina whitt
On: 11/14/2008 7:20:01 AM

I teach grade 9-12 art. It is very easy to use and can be downloaded from google for free. They have a brief tutorial in the program, but you can create a wonderful three dimensional architectural renderings in a short amount of time. I think it is great for middle and high school! They pick it up very quickly!

Posted By: Jennifer Szeto
On: 11/30/2008 1:34:14 PM

Did you show students the video tutorials provided by GoogleSketchup when teaching them the basics?

Posted By: christina whitt
On: 12/2/2008 7:11:35 PM

I reviewed the basic tools and showed them how to use each tool. I told them there is a tutorial if they wanted to use it. I als gave them a handout with the function of each tool.

Posted By: Theresa Ferrer
On: 12/12/2008 5:49:59 PM

I use it with middle and high school students in a project where they re-design their hurricane ravaged neighborhood. You can import a Google Earth Image into a Sketch-Up file and build right on top of it. It helps the kids perform neighborhood planning at the right scale and in consideration of the assets and absences that are clearly visible in the Google Earth image. They love it. They are really proud to produce plans that have such a professional appearance. They learn Sketch-Up faster than my Interior Design college students at LSU! They especially love applying the realistic materials to floors, walls, fences, swimming pools, etc. and editing the mapping to make it look really sharp. They also enjoy importing things like motor cycles, cars, people, and street lights to bring life back to their design. It's a very healing project since the neighborhood we work with the most is almost completely demolished and abandoned at the moment. They present their designs to the master planners for the city of New Orleans who are consistently blown away. Google Sketch-Up has really empowered them.

Posted By: Karen Lennan
On: 12/15/2008 9:43:08 AM

What a fantastic idea! I have never heard of sketch up, and our students just finished neighborhood mapping projects with their social studies teacher. They had so many sugestions for improving their neighborhood, but no springboard to take this further. I will definitely suggest sketch up to her. Thanks for sharing. Karen Lennan

Posted By: Phyllis Santiago
On: 12/29/2008 7:02:33 AM

Thanks for the info on google sketch up. I had heard about it while we were in NY but I did not have a chance to review it. I'm going to see if a design teacher will work with me next semester when I run the project connected to the book we're reading. It would make for a great collaborative effort.

Posted By: Joanne Toft
On: 12/29/2008 8:39:02 PM

Sketch up is an easy program to learn. My son introduced my to it this summer when he was designing our deck replacement. He is 18th and moved quickly through the program showing me how my students could use this for our park designs we had worked on last year. Enjoy and have fun. Joanne Toft

Posted By: Viktoriya D'Agostino
On: 12/30/2008 3:13:18 PM

Thank you for the suggestion, I looked into this program and I think my kids are going to love it. I teach math and this could help in many ways. I used Geometers Sketch Pad before and Maple and Mathematica and Google Earth and other programs to help encourage design and other ways of doing math. A lot of my students enjoy being on the computer and drawing things and designing things, but I just need to work on a lesson that is appropriate and has a meaning so students aren't just playing. If anyone used this in a productive way I would appreciate suggestions, I am still working on a lesson for my class.

Posted By: Daniel Nelson
On: 2/28/2009 5:42:31 PM

Sketch up has helped some of my technical directors visualize their set designs for our musicals and plays.

Posted By: Vincent Goeddeke
On: 3/1/2009 7:10:00 AM

I was not familiar with google sketch pad before I read this post. It is a really cool tool. We are just about to start a three-dimensional unit with the kindergartners that I teach. I might use it to help them learn about some attributes of the three-D shapes in a whole group lesson.

Posted By: Gineff McKinney
On: 6/4/2009 1:39:49 PM

I love it! I could seriously use this tool to share with my third graders as the wade their way through the study of the ancient civilizations... they can go to the site and search columns and check out models of them... this is cool!

Posted By: Suzanne Claeys
On: 6/23/2009 6:33:36 AM

I do not know where I have been that I missed this software. As a teacher, I am a fan of free useful software for students, since there are few public schools that can afford the commercial ones.

For other fans, I would like to suggest Kompozer a WISIWIG web authoring that is compatible with both Mac and Windows. The advantage to this one is that students can use it at home and at school.