NMC Orientation Island: Wanted

by Alan Levine

Things are moving quickly this month with development of a new Orientation Island on NMC Campus. We will be offering our own SL account creation form on our site, but also, the main SL site will soon offer newly created accounts options to pick an Orientation Island based on their interests- NMC will be listed as one for education. Thanks to everyone who already contributed ideas for what ought to be included.

We are looking now for landmarks for educational regions that can be offered as places to go once a new avatar has finished the basic orientation, in addition to links or free resources, tools we can offer. This will be made available perhaps as kiosk and/or a handed out notecard. Please let us know by adding to the list on our wiki:

http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/Orientation_Island

In addition if you have any interest in helping out at some level as a mentor or guide (this could make for a great class project as well to assist new users).

This will certainly evolve and grow over time, but the timetable for the public SL site that will make this an option is making us move quickly.

SL at NMC Summer Conference

by Alan Levine

We've just posted a summary of the events from next week's NMC Summer Conference that will have connections and opportunities for participation remotely from NMC Campus in SL (bandwidth, technology flubs, and LL updates allowing) including live video of opening and closing keynotes, live audio from featured sessions, and a few other things- we are especially keen for a good showing on the beta grid June 6 for a live demo of the voice features at the conference opening session.

.

Info and details:

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/05/30/nmc2007/

.

If you are coming to the conference, we've scheduled some times and places where you can meet up with your SL friends in RL ("oh my gosh! you look just like your av!") and we are hopeful some of you can help out in worlds the sessions where we are doing live media. See details and places to sign up on our wiki:

http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMC_2007_Summer_Conference
.

And tag the heck out of stuff with "nmc2007"

NMC Campus Updates

by Alan Levine

---------------------------------

June 6-9 Live form Indianapolis

Second Life Events at NMC Summer Conference

---------------------------------

The annual NMC conference is being hosted by IUPUI and will feature a significant number of sessions related to Second Life and Virtual Worlds. We are right now planning a number of these to have counter parts in SL, including live video streams of the opening and closing keynote sessions, and a live audio stream from a session where we will hold a RL+SL NMC Campus Teachers Buzz Meeting.

Also, at the conference reception on Wednesday, we are going to ask our remote participants to show up at NMC Campus on the beta grid, so we can do a live audio session to and from the conference. I have to let you know the last demo I did for this at a presentation from University of Mary Washington had a HUGE impact on the audience.

We are also exploring some spontaneous audio streams and interviews from Indy.

Look for details sometime next week on the NMC Campus Observer http://sl.nmc.org//

---------------------------------

Educators in SL Survey

---------------------------------

Thanks to the 180+ who have already responded to our survey. There are a few days left before we close it, and we'd really like to push the numbers higher. Please share the survey link widely:

http://tinyurl.com/2csr8v

The information is already shaping our thinking for the future, and you can expect to see the results publicly shared in mid to late June.

---------------------------------

NMC Orientation Island In the Works

---------------------------------

Things are moving nicely along with the development of an Orientation Island to assist educators and students entering SL for the first time. They will use a special account registration form on our site, and rather than being sent to the wild public Orientation, where newbies have been known to get chased by large body parts not normally displayed in public, they will experience the basic orientation of walking, flying etc, but also end at a location full of educational resources and teleports to destinations. Ultimately, this will be also a place where SL educators may return to for refreshers on how to do these things.

We are interested in anyone that wants to share any education resources (thanks to those who already volunteered) or might be interested in participating or help shaping some sort of mentor program.

There are a lot of improvements in the works for the account creation / orientation process from the main SL site as well.

---------------------------------

Howto Event in August

---------------------------------

We are in some early stages for a in world conference in mid August aimed at provided practical lessons, tutorials in building, scripting, machinima, avatar customization, and more of the key things worth knowing. Stay tuned, but we will have a call for presenters ready by mid to late June.

The Audio Channel: Basic questions answered

From a SL newbie:

"I am looking for someone with great patience to walk a relative newbie through what is involved in streaming audio into a parcel. I'm not looking for a stream that is set up already, but one where I can designate what is being streamed, to include live voice (for presentations, etc...). "

From an Expert

Some info...

Live audio streams must be in mp3 format to play on the music channel; I always test the stream first in iTunes or Media Player.

In SL, you need to have rights to edit your land; look under the About Land menu, media tab. You paste the URl into the audio field, which activates the music player for the parcel.

How the streaming is generated requires a service that can generate the stream (usually something you pay for), and you connect your audio sources via a tool that can do Shoutcast style communication form your audio source to the streaming server. We've done this via just the mike in a computer, via a device that bridges from a telephone (so guests can be on a conference bridge), or Skype.

Some details on our methods from NMC are at

http://cogdogblog.com/2006/08/20/we-can-all-be-radio-stations/
http://cogdogblog.com/2006/12/20/audio-casting-setup/

by Alan Levine of NMC

Wednesday Voice Beta Demo at NMC

Wednesday, May 16

12:30 -1:00 PM PDT/SLT

.

Live demo of SL's voice features on the beta grid...

.

If anyone is available, please find your way to NMC Campus (beta grid! of course) Main Welcome Center -- NMC Campus (128,225,42)

.

Details: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/05/14/voice-demo/

.

SLED Listserv, Alan Levine, 15MAY07

SL Artist Filthy Fluno Speaking Thursday

Details just in.. SL artist Filthy Fluno (aka Jeffrey Lipsky http://www.jeffreylipsky.com ) will be providing a live audio discussion Thursday, May 10, on NMC Campus (5pm PDT). He will be showing a video that demonstrates a time lapsed view of the creation of a painting, as well as sharing his ideas on the capabilities of virtual reality to bridge the international divides of technology, culture, creativity, and artistic expression. Come learn about how art happens in SL.

Join us on Teaching 2 (135,124,22) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching%202/135/124/22

Details: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/05/08/flithy-fluno/

Posted to SLED Listserv on 09-MAY-07 by Alan Levine.

On NMC Campus This Week

Digital Print Making from University of Wisconsin-Madison

Monday, May 7, 9:00-10:00 AM PDT

We have a special session scheduled for NMC Campus Teachers Buzz on May 7 at 9:00am PDT. Hosts RuArt Semaphore and Magda Voss help us welcome Prof. Michael Connors and the virtual design team at University of Wisconsin-Madison to learn about work with Digital Printmaking students in Second Life.

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Besma/167/45/122

Info: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/04/24/print-making/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eduserv Symposium: Virtual worlds, real learning?

Thursday, May 10, 1:00 - 9:00 AM PDT (U.K. day event)

This year's symposium will attempt to look past the hype surrounding virtual worlds such as Second Life and evaluate whether they offer real opportunities for learners at UK educational institutions. The symposium is intended for policy makers, practitioners and technologists working in the areas of information and communications technology and e-learning service delivery in UK HE and FE institutions. You can participate in one of the venues in Second Life, one is on NMC's Teaching 3

Info: http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/symposium/2007/

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching%202/137/130/22

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Filthy Fluno Comes to NMC

Thursday, May 10, 5:00 - 6:00 PM PDT

Filthy Fluno, a.k.a. Jeffrey Lipsky will create a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork that expresses the culture, people, spirit and history NMC. This artwork will be unveiled to the greater NMC and Second Life communities with a discussion of the specific creative process and its artistic formal elements. Following this discussion, Mr. Lipsky will walk-thru the process of uploading artwork into Second Life, installing it into his virtual gallery, and demonstrating the capabilities of virtual reality to bridge the international divides of technology, culture, creativity, and artistic expression.

Location and details TBA at http://sl.nmc.org/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will Richardson Visits for NMC Teachers Buzz

Monday, May 14, 9:00 AM PDT

Blogsar Lumpen (a.k.a. Will Richardson) writer of Weblogg-ed http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ visits for next NMC Campus Teachers Buzz Session.

Location and details TBA at http://sl.nmc.org/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted to by Alan Levine to SLED Listserv (07 MAY 07)

NMC Spring 2007 Survey on Educators in Second Life

Since March 2006 the New Media Consortium (NMC) has been actively engaged in the frontier of virtual worlds with the establishment and expansion of its NMC Campus in Second Life. To further our understanding of how educators are using Second Life as well as to better frame the demographics of this audience, we are conducting an online anonymous survey open now through May 25.

If you are an educator (faculty, staff, student, adminsitrator) and have an active Second Life account, we appreciate your willingness to answer our 42 item survey available at:

http://tinyurl.com/2csr8v

It may take you from 15-30 minutes to complete. No personal information will be collected or used in this survey. All results will be made available on our NMC Campus Observer web site
( http://sl.nmc.org/) in late June 2007.

We appreciate the generous cooperation of the educational community we have met and connected with this year in Second Life. Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and/or students.

Posted to SLED listserv, 01 MAY 2007, by Alan Levine