by Beth Ritter-Guth
IT IS ALMOST HERE!!!! Can you believe it?
On Friday, MAY 25th, over 600 educators will gather for 24 hours to share all of the educational goodness going on in Second Life!
To tease you....please feast your eyes upon the schedule of presenters!
To tease you even more....zoom your pixelated-red-eye to the NEW SERVICE being offered by MySLProject at http://www.myslproject.com/ed/ This was created for our conference and will be a resource that ALL of us can use!!! Please go ahead and sign up now (even if you aren't coming to the conference!). It is FREE!
BUT..who on earth would MISS this conference????
What does it cost? NOTHING! It is FREE FREE FREE!
What do you have to wear? Well...we have no dress code, but clothing is preferred.
What skills do you need? Well, you should go through orientation first before signing in, but other than that, we are chalk full of really sweet and nice people, so we will guide ya along.
If you want to attend, all you have to do is register (http://eloisepasteur.net/conference/attend.php) (so we can pass you some 100 freebies at the door) and land yourself at the Welcome Center upon arrival (SLurl http://slurl.com/secondlife/Beethoven/135/205/33.
Do you have questions? Concerns? Donations of freebie stuff? General praise, adoration, or pocket lint? Please im Desideria Stockton.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Automatic Chat Tools for lectures and tours
by Ross Perkins
Both the SpeakEasy HUD tool by Dudeney Ge and the Serial Chat Feeder 2.0 HUD by Janor Slichter are available for free in the "Scripted Gadgets" vendor at the ICT Library on Info Island.
Serial Chat Feeder: Tool 10 of 19
http://ictlibrary.googlepages.com/icttools_chatfeed
SpeakEasy: Tool 17 of 19
http://ictlibrary.googlepages.com/icttools_speakeasy
Short overview: one wears the HUD (appears in top left) and, via the edit tool, drag & drop a notecard you've created into the Contents folder. Upon exiting the Edit screen, it's ready to use! Touching the HUD device makes the text (on the notecard you've created) appear. The Serial Chat Feeder (version 2) now allows the user to load up to 3 card and choose between them.
I have used the chat tool in the past - it is TREMENDOUS help for facilitating conversation, as the bulk of the talk/tour can be activated with a simple click, allowing one to answer questions, call on audience members, send IMs, rez objects as needed, and so on.
Note: When send a long line of text via the chat tool, have a good feel for how long it takes your audience to read it ... otherwise you "sound" like a Yankee (fast talkers) and folks around have a hard time keeping up, especially noobs who do not know how to access their chat history screen.
-----------------------------------
ICT Library on Info Island
http://ictlibrary.googlepages.com
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/51/206/34
------------------------------------
Both the SpeakEasy HUD tool by Dudeney Ge and the Serial Chat Feeder 2.0 HUD by Janor Slichter are available for free in the "Scripted Gadgets" vendor at the ICT Library on Info Island.
Serial Chat Feeder: Tool 10 of 19
http://ictlibrary.googlepages.com/icttools_chatfeed
SpeakEasy: Tool 17 of 19
http://ictlibrary.googlepages.com/icttools_speakeasy
Short overview: one wears the HUD (appears in top left) and, via the edit tool, drag & drop a notecard you've created into the Contents folder. Upon exiting the Edit screen, it's ready to use! Touching the HUD device makes the text (on the notecard you've created) appear. The Serial Chat Feeder (version 2) now allows the user to load up to 3 card and choose between them.
I have used the chat tool in the past - it is TREMENDOUS help for facilitating conversation, as the bulk of the talk/tour can be activated with a simple click, allowing one to answer questions, call on audience members, send IMs, rez objects as needed, and so on.
Note: When send a long line of text via the chat tool, have a good feel for how long it takes your audience to read it ... otherwise you "sound" like a Yankee (fast talkers) and folks around have a hard time keeping up, especially noobs who do not know how to access their chat history screen.
-----------------------------------
ICT Library on Info Island
http://ictlibrary.googlepages.com
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/51/206/34
------------------------------------
Professional Research Group for Educational 3D worlds
by Jonathon Richter
We're looking for more people that belong to (or that can soon join) the American Educational Research Association (AERA) - for a Special Interest Group (SIG) especially for 3D Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life.
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=ARVEL
The Applied Research for Virtual Environments for Learning (ARVEL) special interest group at AERA, " is a community of educators, scholars, and practioners dedicated toward research in and on virtual environments. Using a variety of research methods, we support a diverse approach to understanding the optimal use of virtual worlds and environments for educational purposes. We're interested in developing a comprehensive research agenda, intended to encompass the breadth and scope of learning potentialities, affordances, challenges, and shortcomings of immersive virtual learning environments. "
We must have at least 30 members of AERA to qualify for this SIG - and demonstrate how we are a unique research community in need of a SIG.
Guess What?!? We have 29!
The next member of AERA to commit to paying the $10.00 annual fee will have the honor of fulfilling the minimum number of signatories necessary for our September 15th application. It will then be time for a small celebration - though I would like to continue the campaign until we reach between 60 and 100 signatories.
A healthy SIG for Multi-User Virtual Environments will need an active membership: the number of presentation sessions granted at the annual conference is determined somewhat on the number of proposals submitted through the SIG.
Please consider joining AERA if you are a Second Life resident and higher education faculty member - and sign up for ARVEL!
You can do so by editing the wiki here http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=ARVEL
We're looking for more people that belong to (or that can soon join) the American Educational Research Association (AERA) - for a Special Interest Group (SIG) especially for 3D Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life.
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=ARVEL
The Applied Research for Virtual Environments for Learning (ARVEL) special interest group at AERA, " is a community of educators, scholars, and practioners dedicated toward research in and on virtual environments. Using a variety of research methods, we support a diverse approach to understanding the optimal use of virtual worlds and environments for educational purposes. We're interested in developing a comprehensive research agenda, intended to encompass the breadth and scope of learning potentialities, affordances, challenges, and shortcomings of immersive virtual learning environments. "
We must have at least 30 members of AERA to qualify for this SIG - and demonstrate how we are a unique research community in need of a SIG.
Guess What?!? We have 29!
The next member of AERA to commit to paying the $10.00 annual fee will have the honor of fulfilling the minimum number of signatories necessary for our September 15th application. It will then be time for a small celebration - though I would like to continue the campaign until we reach between 60 and 100 signatories.
A healthy SIG for Multi-User Virtual Environments will need an active membership: the number of presentation sessions granted at the annual conference is determined somewhat on the number of proposals submitted through the SIG.
Please consider joining AERA if you are a Second Life resident and higher education faculty member - and sign up for ARVEL!
You can do so by editing the wiki here http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=ARVEL
Monday, May 21, 2007
Strong Group of Instructional Videos
by Ed Lamoreux
Just in case you've not noted the YouTube location of Torley Linden's instructional videos. Very helpful collection : http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Torley
Sunday, May 20, 2007
What can SL do for Education?
An SLEDitorial by Chris Swaine
Formal and informal, multiple support networks - from peer to peer through to trusted intermediaries - through to synchronous and asynchronus communication channels Collaborative space. One of SL's huge benefits is the collaboration - both for learners and educational practitioners Enable all learners to experience a greater variety of teaching and learning styles - fab for kinesthetic and audio visual styles! Can help to blur the distinction between the role of the teacher and learner. Different opportunty for greater range of interactions with the teacher The traditional role of the teacher and the learner can become blurred, which potentially puts the learner more in control of their own learning [andragogic /heutagogic approaches] Allows different learning styles to be deployed and adopted - especially for kinesthetic and audio visual learning styles. Alternative environment to support formative and summative assessment - from RARPA [recognising and recording progress and achievement in non accredited learning - http://www.aclearn.net/display.cfm?page=1290] through to virtual portfolios Fabulous opportunity to showcase work in an interactive 3D environment rather than a 2D website, or though paper portfolios Help learners to become more actively involved in designing and carrying out their own assessments. Enables a 3D environment for curriculum areas from marketing and PR to fashion and design, languages to retail. Allows another technology solution to be deployed [working on the premise that the technology should support the learning and teaching and not the other way around!] It is also 'just another tool' that a teacher [or learner] can deploy as part of any learning episode. Enable the curriculum to be more bite sized and delivered anytime - anyplace - rather than the institutional and non flexible 9-5 Monday to Friday. Can link home/school – home / college Help to provide flexible learning pathways Enable learners to co-design, manage and access the curriculum in different ways Downsides
Learning Environment: As an alternative learning environment, it provides:
- an alternative and potentially neutral space away from the 'traditional' classroom, which can be socially inclusive for those learners which the formal establishment has woefully failed.
- enables real time interactions and global alliances which are not constrained by traditional 'location' based environments.
- In 20 years time, we will laugh at what we now call a VLE [Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle etc etc] as being very quaint and 2D
Support Networks.
Learning & Teaching Dynamic
Assessment
Personalised Content
Flexible Curriculum
Responsive Infrastructure
- Technical specifications for running SL are still very high for many users to effectively use SL to support learning and teaching. Therefore, there is a risk of supporting the 'digital divide' - those that have - and those that have not.
- E-safety - this is more about education that setting up yet more barriers [which I.T. departments revel in "How can we make it not happen"!] - but for organisations it is still a real issue from firewalls to learner safety.
- Connectivity - not all places have a decent broadband connection
Evidence and Evaluation
- I would very much doubt there is much robust [robust = key word] evidence yet that virtual worlds DO support learner retention, achievement or attainment. However, I also have no doubt that it is only a matter of time before that starts to filter through. The fact that the community is now over 6.2 million worldwide and at any one time over 20k are in-world suggests that something is good - and it isn't just sex!
Inspection Frameworks
- Certainly the UK, Educational inspectors through OfSTED just couldn't cope with Second Life - they can barely cope with the concept of email! Therefore, there will continue being a struggle using this technology as inspection is a major driver [along with funding]
Short Survey: L$1 per response!
By Chris Hambly...
Just to take your minds off surveys for a sec, here is a survey. 1 linden for each comment
Question, "Do-you-treat-online-relationships-differently-compared-to-face-to-face-ones?"
http://pizzaandmayo.com/2007/05/17/do-you-treat-online-relationships-differently-to-face-to-face-ones/
Just to take your minds off surveys for a sec, here is a survey. 1 linden for each comment
Question, "Do-you-treat-online-relationships-differently-compared-to-face-to-face-ones?"
http://pizzaandmayo.com/2007/05/17/do-you-treat-online-relationships-differently-to-face-to-face-ones/
WANTED: SLURLS to NonLinear Fluid Virtual Spaces and Experiments
By Emin Saglamer (17-May-07)
I am helping a group of architecture students from Istanbul Technical University. Their project is exploring the results of what absolute freedom creates in a virtual environment. When they say absolute freedom they mean, freedom from physical constraints, gravity, etc.
Could you please send me as many SLURLS as you can to experimental non-traditional spaces that have been created in SL? I am not asking for pretty RL simulation spaces. What I am looking for is just like that sim AngryBeth has her Pencil Factory in: Completely off the hook crazy but awesome at the same time — because it forces the user to rethink space and navigation.
You can send your SLURLs or landmarks in world to Troy Vogel.
Could you please send me as many SLURLS as you can to experimental non-traditional spaces that have been created in SL? I am not asking for pretty RL simulation spaces. What I am looking for is just like that sim AngryBeth has her Pencil Factory in: Completely off the hook crazy but awesome at the same time — because it forces the user to rethink space and navigation.
You can send your SLURLs or landmarks in world to Troy Vogel.
E-Portfolio Open Access
By Jonathon Richter (Univ. of Oregon; WainBrave Bernal)
Jeremy Kemp and I presented at AERA last month on the Virtual Portfolio or vPortfolio concept - extending and enhancing the ePortfolio notion into 3D space. The slurl for our work-in-progress spot is here: http://tinyurl.com/ytqjna and we'd really like to collaborate with folks from the Second Life Educators group on ways to build out this idea, literally! :)
While 2D portfolios have traditionally relied, in one way / degree to another on the metaphors of (a) Map, (b) Sonnet, and (c) Mirror - depending upon the purpose of the ePortfolio (who is the audience, who is setting the goals, who is reviewing it - and is it for summative or formative evaluation?) - 3D or vPortfolios may generate new metaphors for collections of student work for the purposes of teaching and learning:
1) the Portfolio as Quest: collections of work can now immerse the viewer in a story, retold when a user ventures through.
2) the Portfolio as built Community: students can "hang out" and create things in a formal or informal setting, making and doing (much like a number of sims in SL - like my home in Chilbo!)
3) the Portfolio as Museum: Students can create a walkthrough (or flythrough) of an interactive exhibit - on a large or small scale.
4) the Portfolio as Marketplace : Students can use an economic scale to see how well the artifacts that demonstrate their knowledge now bear out their own skills.
There may be others out there in SL and other Multi-User Virtual environments - but my belief is that you are using a relatively inexpensive Portfolio Tool with Second Life. There just hasn't yet been a lot of development in any of the above 4 areas - though there ARE examples, of which I would humbly ask folks to submit so we may showcase them at the vPortfolio build on San Jose State's place.
We also are experimenting with the use of SLoodle as a way to capture reflection (via chat and blog tools) so students have a way of narrating why they feel they have met particular standards.
As for 2D, I like Elgg for learner - centered and OSPI for institution-centered portfolios. I've used Adobe Acrobat Writer and HyperStudio (ahem!) as generic tools to create them at Montana State, where I was in a previous life.
TaskStream and Avenet are great proprietary options.
If you or anyone is interested in finding out more about our vPortfolio work, let me know!
Jeremy Kemp and I presented at AERA last month on the Virtual Portfolio or vPortfolio concept - extending and enhancing the ePortfolio notion into 3D space. The slurl for our work-in-progress spot is here: http://tinyurl.com/ytqjna and we'd really like to collaborate with folks from the Second Life Educators group on ways to build out this idea, literally! :)
While 2D portfolios have traditionally relied, in one way / degree to another on the metaphors of (a) Map, (b) Sonnet, and (c) Mirror - depending upon the purpose of the ePortfolio (who is the audience, who is setting the goals, who is reviewing it - and is it for summative or formative evaluation?) - 3D or vPortfolios may generate new metaphors for collections of student work for the purposes of teaching and learning:
1) the Portfolio as Quest: collections of work can now immerse the viewer in a story, retold when a user ventures through.
2) the Portfolio as built Community: students can "hang out" and create things in a formal or informal setting, making and doing (much like a number of sims in SL - like my home in Chilbo!)
3) the Portfolio as Museum: Students can create a walkthrough (or flythrough) of an interactive exhibit - on a large or small scale.
4) the Portfolio as Marketplace : Students can use an economic scale to see how well the artifacts that demonstrate their knowledge now bear out their own skills.
There may be others out there in SL and other Multi-User Virtual environments - but my belief is that you are using a relatively inexpensive Portfolio Tool with Second Life. There just hasn't yet been a lot of development in any of the above 4 areas - though there ARE examples, of which I would humbly ask folks to submit so we may showcase them at the vPortfolio build on San Jose State's place.
We also are experimenting with the use of SLoodle as a way to capture reflection (via chat and blog tools) so students have a way of narrating why they feel they have met particular standards.
As for 2D, I like Elgg for learner - centered and OSPI for institution-centered portfolios. I've used Adobe Acrobat Writer and HyperStudio (ahem!) as generic tools to create them at Montana State, where I was in a previous life.
TaskStream and Avenet are great proprietary options.
If you or anyone is interested in finding out more about our vPortfolio work, let me know!
How about an open source OBJECT repository to enhance education in SL?
A question by Fire Centaur: ...Since we have all of these fabulous educators making great 3D objects for their presentations, why not create a repository where everyone could submit and catalog the objects they've created for their presentations... then, the community would have a rick library of presentation aids to use and share... I think this would be a great way to enhance the current SL education offerings... what do you think?
Jonathon Richeter (Wainbrave Bernal) responds...
We're aiming to do just that! Creating a repository and searchable database of Learning Objects available in Second Life with the help of the whole Community of Practice is precisely the aim of a newly funded "proof of concept" project called SLamander or The Salamander Project.
We have recently struck a partnership with MERLOT ( http://www.merlot.org/) to develop a typology of interrelated dimensions that are useful for educators of all stripes using this mileu.
We are also working with the good people at San Jose State - particularly Jeremy Kemp and a new group of mentors to assist teachers in SL (Greylin) - to develop the concept on several fronts: Salamander Tool development in Sloodle and a Salamander HUD and in testing things out prior to an official launch.
Right now, for example, we are working on developing the best way to create a slurl nomination and survey-based description tool that would log directly to a database. We will then filter these - possibly asking folks for further info - and then starting to place them in the MERLOT search interface. Next friday we're presenting at the Best Practices Conference on the concept and plan to be releasing more information about the particulars when they are more concrete such that we have capacity for folks to be more involved.
We should be ready for a full public announcement in the Fall 2007 - though this is a way of "getting the word out" now. ;)
Our initial effort, prior to officially partnering with MERLOT, was done here: http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Anyone interested in this is welcome to suggest ideas, or get involved by emailing me: jrichter -at- uoregon . edu
Jonathon Richeter (Wainbrave Bernal) responds...
We're aiming to do just that! Creating a repository and searchable database of Learning Objects available in Second Life with the help of the whole Community of Practice is precisely the aim of a newly funded "proof of concept" project called SLamander or The Salamander Project.
We have recently struck a partnership with MERLOT ( http://www.merlot.org/) to develop a typology of interrelated dimensions that are useful for educators of all stripes using this mileu.
We are also working with the good people at San Jose State - particularly Jeremy Kemp and a new group of mentors to assist teachers in SL (Greylin) - to develop the concept on several fronts: Salamander Tool development in Sloodle and a Salamander HUD and in testing things out prior to an official launch.
Right now, for example, we are working on developing the best way to create a slurl nomination and survey-based description tool that would log directly to a database. We will then filter these - possibly asking folks for further info - and then starting to place them in the MERLOT search interface. Next friday we're presenting at the Best Practices Conference on the concept and plan to be releasing more information about the particulars when they are more concrete such that we have capacity for folks to be more involved.
We should be ready for a full public announcement in the Fall 2007 - though this is a way of "getting the word out" now. ;)
Our initial effort, prior to officially partnering with MERLOT, was done here: http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Anyone interested in this is welcome to suggest ideas, or get involved by emailing me: jrichter -at- uoregon . edu
Student project - open house
A report by Daniel Livingstone (SL/Buddy Sprocket)
My students showed off their in-world project yesterday (18 MAY 2007) - though
it will be on display a couple more weeks. For the Second Life part of the course, they were working with a Scottish theme - looking at education & business uses.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vesuvius/186/92/27
Not nearly as grand as Global Outreach Morocco, but still hope you might find in fun. Please leave comments in the comment box if you do!
P.S.: Money from any items sold goes to a local charity.
My students showed off their in-world project yesterday (18 MAY 2007) - though
it will be on display a couple more weeks. For the Second Life part of the course, they were working with a Scottish theme - looking at education & business uses.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vesuvius/186/92/27
Not nearly as grand as Global Outreach Morocco, but still hope you might find in fun. Please leave comments in the comment box if you do!
P.S.: Money from any items sold goes to a local charity.
Friday, May 18, 2007
SL/RL Event - 6 simultaneous presentation modes!
A report by Jeremy Kemp (San Jose State University)
I had the great pleasure of assisting Dr. Daniel Livingstone of Paisley University as he presented a Colloquium at our island opening "SJSU SLIS" recently.
I had the great pleasure of assisting Dr. Daniel Livingstone of Paisley University as he presented a Colloquium at our island opening "SJSU SLIS" recently.
It was BY FAR the most complex live event I've ever been involved in. We totally geeked out – in six modes.
1) Dan was speaking to a live audience of about 30 faculty.
2) He was being video taped with the stream available on the Web live (and archive coming soon).
3) The video and slide textures where shown in Second Life on the sim.
4) I was projecting my avatar view to a projector on the back wall (so he could look out at his audience).
5) I was transcribing the chat into a Sloodle web chatroom - which was then relayed into Second Life.
6) The audience in-world of about 35 was chatting into a Sloodle chatcast box which was transferred to the web chatroom.
All worked reasonably well. The parts that DID NOT work were mitigated for audience members who just switched modes.
So, for example:
- S0me couldn't view the QT stream. They WERE able to read my chat narrative.
- My SL client crashed!!! I was still able to chat into the Sloodle chatroom on the web.
- Some didn't go into SL AT ALL. They saw the video stream on the web and/or the Sloodle chat stream.
Moral of the story – "network effect" applies likewise to multi-modal presentation. Two modes are MORE than twice as effective as one mode.
Or is that the Titanic effect?
-j
Cef^sl (Portuguese workshop in SL)
By Luis Francisco Pedro (Zes Garfield)
Cef^sl (Portuguese workshop about communication, education and training in SL)
Registrations will close next Monday (May 21st).
Next week (23-25 May) we will host a 3-day workshop at Aveiro University in Portugal.
Main topics are communication, education and training in SL and some presentations can be followed at Universidade de Aveiro island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Universidade%20de%20Aveiro/118/115/38)
Most communications will be held in Portuguese. However, we'll have 2 main events in English: a communication by Robin "Linden" Harper (24th May at 11.00 GMT) and an open discussion on education issues with the presence of Katherine Milton (Ohio State University - 24th May, 19.30 GMT). More information at http://cefsl.blogs.ca.ua.pt.
Cef^sl (Portuguese workshop about communication, education and training in SL)
Registrations will close next Monday (May 21st).
Next week (23-25 May) we will host a 3-day workshop at Aveiro University in Portugal.
Main topics are communication, education and training in SL and some presentations can be followed at Universidade de Aveiro island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Universidade%20de%20Aveiro/118/115/38)
Most communications will be held in Portuguese. However, we'll have 2 main events in English: a communication by Robin "Linden" Harper (24th May at 11.00 GMT) and an open discussion on education issues with the presence of Katherine Milton (Ohio State University - 24th May, 19.30 GMT). More information at http://cefsl.blogs.ca.ua.pt.
Free Land Grants for UK Community Development in SL
By Chris Eggplant (Chris Swain) ...
Education UK island is a not for profit educational island being constructed in Second Life to provide a 'safe' location for U.K. virtual education and community development.
Following on from our free education land grants programme [applications close 1st June], we are now launching our free community development space programme, which offers the opportunity to apply for one of three plots of land in Second Life to support or enhance community development, social inclusion, regeneration or the democratic process for one academic year.
Applications are invited from UK organisations or groups [England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland] whose work in community participation, development, engagement etc can be extended or enhanced by using the simulation and creativity tools available within Second Life.
These could also include local or regional community organisations, such as resident associations, environmental groups, or maybe groups building communities of practice or support around areas such as safer communities, tackling racism, promoting community integration, sexual health, mental health etc. We are keen to see some innovative ideas.
Partnership applications and/or local authority led projects are fine as they may fit in with the local authority e-Government agenda.
In addition to the free land grant, the programme will also offer successful organisations:
- A one off startup grant of $10,000 Linden Dollars.
- A dedicated and password protected audio channel.
- Access to other island facilities.
- Access to a community of support for the duration of their project.
- A hosted project weblog.
You can download further information and an application form from: http://www.sleducationuk.net/?q=node/14
Applicants are asked to submit a completed application form, along with a delivery schedule / plan by Monday 2nd July 2007.
Successful applications will be announced by mid July 2007 and plots of land will be transferred as soon as practicable after that, so organisations or groups can plan for the inclusion of Second Life delivery within their work from that time onwards. The land will be granted free of all charges until 31st July 2008.
Documentation should be submitted in electronic format to: chris at sleducationuk . net
We would be grateful if you could forward this message onto other colleagues who you think may be interested in applying.
Request for contributions: SL's Konstrukt magazine
From Alexander Kanaev...
... With so many accusations about SL lately, we believe it is important totell the world that Sl has a great potential for creative and innovative ideas. With this in mind, we are trying to devote the next issue of theKONSTRUKT magazine to education.
We are looking for articles on the following topics:
- benefits of SL as an educational platform;
- successful experiments of using SL for educational projects;
- methodology of teaching in a fluid 3D environment;
- tips to institutions establishing or thinking of establishing a presence in Sl;
- the rationale, hopes and lessons learned from institutional "in-world" presence.
Of course this is just a wishlist, and we would be more than happy to listen to what you are willing to share. Ideas, results, problems and advice - anything you would like to share with the community, we are happy to give you a platform to do so. The issue is planned for the 16th of June, and because of limited space, we would ask you to get in touch with us asap.
With best regards
Chaos Venera
Anna Grant
About theKonstrukt: we are a free magazine about SL, available in .PDF format. We are an analytical publication, mostly focusing on WHY things are happening in SL instead of just describing places and events. Visit us in-world or just download your copy at www.thekonstrukt.com
... With so many accusations about SL lately, we believe it is important totell the world that Sl has a great potential for creative and innovative ideas. With this in mind, we are trying to devote the next issue of theKONSTRUKT magazine to education.
We are looking for articles on the following topics:
- benefits of SL as an educational platform;
- successful experiments of using SL for educational projects;
- methodology of teaching in a fluid 3D environment;
- tips to institutions establishing or thinking of establishing a presence in Sl;
- the rationale, hopes and lessons learned from institutional "in-world" presence.
Of course this is just a wishlist, and we would be more than happy to listen to what you are willing to share. Ideas, results, problems and advice - anything you would like to share with the community, we are happy to give you a platform to do so. The issue is planned for the 16th of June, and because of limited space, we would ask you to get in touch with us asap.
With best regards
Chaos Venera
Anna Grant
About theKonstrukt: we are a free magazine about SL, available in .PDF format. We are an analytical publication, mostly focusing on WHY things are happening in SL instead of just describing places and events. Visit us in-world or just download your copy at www.thekonstrukt.com
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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
"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
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
"Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund" in SL Raises $1,000 US
In an effort to provide Second Life residents with a means of supporting the "Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund," SL resident, a RL Virginia Tech faculty member, Milosun Czervik (Ross Perkins) initiated an in-world fundraising campaign on April 19th. Hundreds of SL residents have been donating funds via donation boxes and vendors, where they can receive a Hokies t-shirt to wear on their avatar.
After a silent auction, held this past week on EduIsland (see the Chronicle of Higher Education web report), the goal of raising L$300,000 has been reached. The funds have been converted to US dollars via LindeX, yielding $1,085 US.
Once the money has been deposited to a PayPal account and can be accessed, Perkins will write a check for the full amount to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Next up? Perkins plans to initiate a new campaign to raise more funds for the Memorial Fund and scholarships that have been started in memory of the victims of the April 16 tragedy.
More information about the SL-based memorial can be found at:
http://milosuns-musings.blogspot.com/search/label/04-16%20Memorial
After a silent auction, held this past week on EduIsland (see the Chronicle of Higher Education web report), the goal of raising L$300,000 has been reached. The funds have been converted to US dollars via LindeX, yielding $1,085 US.
Once the money has been deposited to a PayPal account and can be accessed, Perkins will write a check for the full amount to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Next up? Perkins plans to initiate a new campaign to raise more funds for the Memorial Fund and scholarships that have been started in memory of the victims of the April 16 tragedy.
More information about the SL-based memorial can be found at:
http://milosuns-musings.blogspot.com/search/label/04-16%20Memorial
Web interoperability
J. Kemp writes, "I always thought Web interoperability was the "killer app" for Second Life. Here are a few others that look very promising:"
Weather data - http://tinyurl.com/ycjatd
Trivia - http://www.sltrivia.com
Chatbot f/m Web database - http://tinyurl.com/2mbzcr
Reuters News and Blog HUD - http://tinyurl.com/2khcer
I did a quick vid on reference experiments:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=e8dWmxwK8Os
See the very last segment on the SLQuery tool.
SLBLD List, Jeremy Kemp, 14MAY07
Weather data - http://tinyurl.com/ycjatd
Trivia - http://www.sltrivia.com
Chatbot f/m Web database - http://tinyurl.com/2mbzcr
Reuters News and Blog HUD - http://tinyurl.com/2khcer
I did a quick vid on reference experiments:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=e8dWmxwK8Os
See the very last segment on the SLQuery tool.
SLBLD List, Jeremy Kemp, 14MAY07
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)
.
.
SLED Listserv, Alan Levine, 15MAY07
CoSN K12 International Symposium Streaming Video
CoSN has made the entire day of the International Symposium: Using Games and Simulation for Engaged Learning available online in streaming video:
http://www.k12schoolnetworking.org/2007/symposium/agenda.cfm
There's an agenda posted on this page, you can generally judge where in the four chapters of video various sessions occur. There's some good stuff in there.
Mark Prensky kicks it off with a keynote based on his new book, "Don't bother me Mom - I'm learning". Lord (David) Putnam gives a good presentation in the afternoon session. Both of these have individual links to their videos from the agenda.
SLED Listserv, Stan Trevena, 15MAY07
Monday, May 14, 2007
Miscelleneous notes from Jeremy Kemp
Check out this 2005 groundbreaking study on ways to maximize learning "transfer" in simulations: http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/rgoldsto/pdfs/CASfade.pdf
The key phrase is "concreteness fading" or the assertion that REALISM in a simulation is not in itself a key goal. Most helpful is a coordinated movement of the sim from realistic to abstract representations.
Time spent heightening realism in Second Life is often WASTED time. And we should focus more on the juxtaposition of easy verisimilitude (low load) with meaningful abstraction (making principles salient).
Example:
I have a script that illustrates the "Flocking" algorithm:
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=SL_Swarming_Script
You can make cool groupings of fish, water molecules, etc. Show this to a high school student and they might enjoy the spectacle (concreteness).
But by studying and dissecting the underlying script (abstraction), they might better master the concepts of mass, friction and force.
This paper asserts that students show less errors on future exams if they are presented the concrete representation FIRST followed up by the abstraction.
Second Life is uniquely effective at helping us instructional designers experiment with this technique because of its flexibility.
Take that to your administrators. :-)
--J
SLED Listserv, Jeremy Kemp, 14MAY07
The key phrase is "concreteness fading" or the assertion that REALISM in a simulation is not in itself a key goal. Most helpful is a coordinated movement of the sim from realistic to abstract representations.
Time spent heightening realism in Second Life is often WASTED time. And we should focus more on the juxtaposition of easy verisimilitude (low load) with meaningful abstraction (making principles salient).
Example:
I have a script that illustrates the "Flocking" algorithm:
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=SL_Swarming_Script
You can make cool groupings of fish, water molecules, etc. Show this to a high school student and they might enjoy the spectacle (concreteness).
But by studying and dissecting the underlying script (abstraction), they might better master the concepts of mass, friction and force.
This paper asserts that students show less errors on future exams if they are presented the concrete representation FIRST followed up by the abstraction.
Second Life is uniquely effective at helping us instructional designers experiment with this technique because of its flexibility.
Take that to your administrators. :-)
--J
SLED Listserv, Jeremy Kemp, 14MAY07
Learning Inquiry Issue 1, Volume 1
The first issue of the Journal Learning Inquiry is now online.
The first issue is centered on the theme "The Futures of Learning"
and has contributions from many leading scholars from an extensive
range of fields.
The Futures of Learning
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t73064v85621/
- Editorial: Introducing Learning Inquiry
Jason Nolan and Jeremy Hunsinger - Imagining, seeking, inventing: the future of learning and the
emerging discovery networks
Gary Natriello - Learning from instruction: the case of mathematics
Erik De Corte - Metaphysics and learning
Helen Verran - The paradoxical future of digital learning
Mark Warschauer - Learning, change, and the utopia of play
Stuart Moulthrop - Critical media literacy is not an option
Douglas Kellner and Jeff Share - Implementation of knowledge management in organizations
Katrin Winkler and Heinz Mandl
SLED List, Jeremy Hunsinger, 14MAY07
Second Life and Learning Object design
From Barry Spencer to the SLED Listserv (13MAY07):
Hi everyone Skipper Abel here and anyone that has met up with me in SL or teleported over to my beach house at Shimmer Island will know that I am looking at SL as an extension to my work in using the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment at Bromley College.
.
Just lately I have been thinking about how Learning Objects should be in SL. I have created a number of these in RL and used them in my teaching. In fact you will find two of them that I put together using CourseGenie in my C tutorials at the Island, but these are typically web based Learning Objects, and I am thinking that when it comes to SL, I should try to make them use some of the unique features that are available.
.
So I would like to invite anyone who has the time to pop over to Shimmer Island and try this first attempt out.
.
I have rezzed the object, a short computer history lesson onto the ground floor of the beach house with a sign board next to it, just click on the screen then stand back and watch. At the moment I am only looking at the media apsects of the project, which uses chat, textures and objects, stuff like navigation will come along later. If you do have time to come over and take a look, I would of course appreciate any feedback please, an IM would be fine , just let me have your impressions, the whole thing only lasts just over 4 minutes.
.
ART and Web 2.0
Anthony Fontana would like to invite all of you to participate in his research:
There are three perceived art experiences in Second Life. The first is recreation of the real; mimicry to the point that a work of art may be purchased, taken home, and hung above a virtual couch. The second is that of a performance or happening in which the audience and experience become part of the artwork.
The third is that which is built by both the artist and the audience. Web 2.0-type collaborations and common space peer production are arguably the most important phenomenon happening in Second Life or on the internet. One good example would be Machinima, or machine-cinema, in which director and actors must work together to create a narrative.
In my own recent artwork, I seek to engage residents interactively, allowing them to add to the work I have started. How this affects meaning, who "owns" the work, and how the collaboration between artist and audience is valued remain vital questions.
Please visit the interactive exhibit opening this Thursday, May 17th at the Heldscalla Foundation.
3 Opening receptions: Thursday, May 17th at 10pm BST. 9pm EST. And another at 9pm PDT.
For more information visit:
http://www.heldscalla.co.uk/Anthony%20Fontana.html
SLED Listserv, Anthony Fontana, 12MAY07
There are three perceived art experiences in Second Life. The first is recreation of the real; mimicry to the point that a work of art may be purchased, taken home, and hung above a virtual couch. The second is that of a performance or happening in which the audience and experience become part of the artwork.
The third is that which is built by both the artist and the audience. Web 2.0-type collaborations and common space peer production are arguably the most important phenomenon happening in Second Life or on the internet. One good example would be Machinima, or machine-cinema, in which director and actors must work together to create a narrative.
In my own recent artwork, I seek to engage residents interactively, allowing them to add to the work I have started. How this affects meaning, who "owns" the work, and how the collaboration between artist and audience is valued remain vital questions.
Please visit the interactive exhibit opening this Thursday, May 17th at the Heldscalla Foundation.
3 Opening receptions: Thursday, May 17th at 10pm BST. 9pm EST. And another at 9pm PDT.
For more information visit:
http://www.heldscalla.co.uk/Anthony%20Fontana.html
SLED Listserv, Anthony Fontana, 12MAY07
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Call for participation in a survey about SL teaching practice
About three weeks ago Lili Luo launched a survey to study the current teaching practice (especially pedagogy) on SL, but only 15 responses have been received so far....
Could you please take 5 minutes to complete this survey and share your experience teaching a course in SL?
Here's the survey URL: http://senna.sjsu.edu/survey/phpq6/fillsurvey.php?sid=2
Luo promises to compile the results and send it to the SLED listserv.
SLED Listserv, Lili Luo, 10MAY07
Could you please take 5 minutes to complete this survey and share your experience teaching a course in SL?
Here's the survey URL: http://senna.sjsu.edu/survey/phpq6/fillsurvey.php?sid=2
Luo promises to compile the results and send it to the SLED listserv.
SLED Listserv, Lili Luo, 10MAY07
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Just Ask the Avatar in the Front Row
"Colleges and universities head into virtual worlds, and student learning and psychology are changed forever."
by Neal Starkman, published on May 1, 2007, in Campus Technology.
by Neal Starkman, published on May 1, 2007, in Campus Technology.
A. Sandberg on Converging Cognitive Enhancement (uvvy island, 23-MAY-07, 10am SLT)
Eudoxa will hold a seminar at Uvvy Island in the virtual world of Second Life on Wednesday May 23rd at 19h00 Central European Time (13h00 EST, 10h00 PST)
http://www.eudoxa.se/content/archives/2007/05/presentation_at_1.html
http://uvvy.com/index.php/Sandberg230507
Dr. Anders Sandberg, research director at Eudoxa and research assistant at the Oxford University ENHANCE Project and Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, will talk about his recent publication together with Nick Bostrom from the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University
Their paper Converging Cognitive Enhancements reviews currently available technologies for cognitive enhancement and their likely near-term prospects for convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science and how cognitive enhancement is ideal for achieving convergence.
The paper Converging Cognitive Enhancements is published in the Annals of the New York Academies of Science Progress in Convergence: Technologies for Human Wellbeing and edited by William Sims Bainbridge & Mihail C. Roco of the National Science Foundation.
The Eudoxa think tank is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Their focus is on discussing the societal effects of emerging technologies with dynamist thoughts on experimentation. Eudoxa has published books and reports in Swedish, Danish and English.
Taken from posting to SLED Listserv on 10-MAY-07 by Giulio Prisco
http://www.eudoxa.se/content/archives/2007/05/presentation_at_1.html
http://uvvy.com/index.php/Sandberg230507
Dr. Anders Sandberg, research director at Eudoxa and research assistant at the Oxford University ENHANCE Project and Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, will talk about his recent publication together with Nick Bostrom from the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University
Their paper Converging Cognitive Enhancements reviews currently available technologies for cognitive enhancement and their likely near-term prospects for convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science and how cognitive enhancement is ideal for achieving convergence.
The paper Converging Cognitive Enhancements is published in the Annals of the New York Academies of Science Progress in Convergence: Technologies for Human Wellbeing and edited by William Sims Bainbridge & Mihail C. Roco of the National Science Foundation.
The Eudoxa think tank is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Their focus is on discussing the societal effects of emerging technologies with dynamist thoughts on experimentation. Eudoxa has published books and reports in Swedish, Danish and English.
Taken from posting to SLED Listserv on 10-MAY-07 by Giulio Prisco
SLEDBuilders Listserv
If you are in charge of building a campus or designing instruction in 3D, I invite you to join the _SLEDBuilders_ mail list.
http://lists.simteach.com/listinfo.cgi/sledbuilders-simteach.com
Did you know...
- Info Island Archipelago is funded by a diverse set of grants and the International Spaceflight Museum was co-founded by a PhD in Aeronautics?
- The two tiers for builders and scripters? Whether you buy services with micropayment or contract with professional who accept university POs, fees range from $5/hour to $80+. Fully decorated university sims are running $10,000-$20,000?
- A four-sim corner will accommodate nearly 100 avatars and may be rented by the day for as little as $40?
- The ICT Library has a demonstration rezzer tool that will let your faculty choose from dozens of classroom settings at the touch of a button?
- Stanford University has a private island used only for research and MIT purchased their island in a unique way after dealing with some legal issues with the TOS?
- You can find campus squatters in skyboxes by "Disabling Camera Constraints" and peeking up there?
- You can log visitors to your email account with a simple script and then offer them membership in your marketing group?
- Creating a "Student Peer Mentor" program may help your faculty get in and comfortable?
These are the kind of issues we will be discussing on SLED Builders.
Posted to SLED Listserv on 10-MAY-07 by Jeremy Kemp
ACHUB MediaCamp07: RL Meet-up in UK
Chris Hambly (SL's Audio Zenith) is planning to put together a REAL-LIFE meet-up around SecondLife, and other social media, in the not too distant future. He writes...
"A big event is being planned for October in UK (ACHUB MediaCamp07), as an "unconference", but I'd love some small barcamp style socials before then, and you'd all be welcome to come along, or set your own up under the ACHUB concept.
We have the ACHUB (http://audiocourses.pbwiki.com/) wiki which has some good events already listed in, any of you can set one up too, there are some basic rules listed, follow them and you can make things happen for sharing ideas and experiences as an ACHUB.
Very informal get togethers, all about sharing, all free, all unconference style.
I'll aim to get a barcamp meet-up in London, UK, fairly soon, so watch the wiki for details. Will be great to have a beer with some of and chat away like uber geeks.
Posted to SLED Listserv 09-MAY-07 by Chris Hambly
"A big event is being planned for October in UK (ACHUB MediaCamp07), as an "unconference", but I'd love some small barcamp style socials before then, and you'd all be welcome to come along, or set your own up under the ACHUB concept.
We have the ACHUB (http://audiocourses.pbwiki.com/) wiki which has some good events already listed in, any of you can set one up too, there are some basic rules listed, follow them and you can make things happen for sharing ideas and experiences as an ACHUB.
Very informal get togethers, all about sharing, all free, all unconference style.
I'll aim to get a barcamp meet-up in London, UK, fairly soon, so watch the wiki for details. Will be great to have a beer with some of and chat away like uber geeks.
Posted to SLED Listserv 09-MAY-07 by Chris Hambly
Calling all educators: Help needed for non-profit focus group
Sarah Robbins, ("Intellagirl Tully") is the Director of Emerging Technologies for Media Sauce ( www.mediasauce.com). She writes...
One of my first projects is to help out with a focus group for the People's Burn Foundation, a national non-profit organization, working with Campus FireWatch to develop a fire and burn safety program for college students that will help reduce the number of fire-related deaths to college students.
We need your help recruiting college students to participate in the focus group. The purpose of the focus group is to gather feedback from college students after they watch an 8 minute documentary about burn injuries and to determine a campaign strategy for teaching college students about burn and fire safety. "After the Fire," a Pulitzer Prize winning documentary, follows the story of two college students tragically burned in the Seton Hall fire and their recovery process.
The focus group will last approximately an hour, beginning with the video and concluding with a feedback session.
The first session will be on May 21 at 1pm SLT at the ACHUB. All participants will receive $L300 for their time.
This is a great cause and will also provide high education value for students who choose to participate. I hope that those of you who teach media design, communication, or teaching/training will see this is a valuable opportunity to expose your students to really great digital storytelling. The video is bound to spark great discussions about the use of various media and emotional appeal in video.
If you have a summer class or students doing work in SL please forward this along. If you bring a class we'll give you an extra L$ incentive (which is always handy for class expenses).
Contact Intellgirl Tully in-world for more details.
Posted to SLED Listserv on 09-MAY-07 by Sarah Robbins
Learning In a Digital Culture
Eight week course for educators (pilot). Called Learning In a Digital Culture, the course meets on our DeVry GSP Island, but also includes blogs, VOIP, and other components from the culture. Content is split between an experiential romp through SL, and a review and discussion of traditional adult learning theory and how new experience impacts those theories.
Jamison is teaching the pilot which now includes 20 educators, half faculty and half administrators, one fourth with prior SL experience and 3/4 full-blown noobs.
Contact "Virtual Bacon" in-world for more details.
Taken from posting to the SLED Listserv on 09-MAY-07 by John Jamison
Jamison is teaching the pilot which now includes 20 educators, half faculty and half administrators, one fourth with prior SL experience and 3/4 full-blown noobs.
Contact "Virtual Bacon" in-world for more details.
Taken from posting to the SLED Listserv on 09-MAY-07 by John Jamison
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
SL for Educators Course (June 2007; $350 US)
A colleague and I from Pepperdine University are offering an 8 week online course for educators who wish to learn more and explore the use of Second Life within a framework of educational theory. This will be a pilot offering of the course, and is not (yet) sponsored by or officially associated with Pepperdine University, but will be the same material and activities that would be included in the course should it be picked up for continuing education credit later on. As such, we are able to offer the course at a relatively low cost.The course will run from June 4 - July 27.
For more information, please see the web site www.bmoseley.com/projects06/ for more information.
Posted to SLED Listserv 09-MAY-07 by Bill Moseley
Semano: Festival of European Song in Moyeno Valo, Rosario
Rosario is a nine sim island being created by Arcada, a university of applied science in Helsinki, Finalnd, La Kolegio Ilana, a institute of philosophical enquiry in Marinetta, Rosario, and other partners. The project has been working away quietly since October 2005. Some of the background details are available at www.marinetta.org and more will be added before mid-summer, when the next version of the site will be launched.
The purposes of the project are educational and the development of the island has been utilised in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate media programs.The methodology is a wholehearted experiment in learning by discovery.
This weekend Helsinki is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. The video students at Arcada are working with a number of other institutes to broadcast live coverage all week over cable, online and using mobile television. The digital media students are working with the Institute for Technology Tallaight, Dublin to create the annual Semano Semano festival in La Mentala Rosario in Second Life.
This will take place over ten consecutive nights in Second Life (a night being the hour of darkness in each of the six daily cycles).
There will be live streaming from the streets of Helsinki. There will be a regularly updated photo exhibition with photographs from around Europe: an exhibition as live group blog. There will be sky-diving contests. There will be nightly treasure hunts. There will be mass demonstrations of the Rosarian national dance - done in full Rosarian National Costume.
There will be nightly discos featuring a test transmission from LaVoco - the 24 hour radio station launching in Rosario in August 2007, and transmitting throughout Second Life.
There will be guided tours of Rosario, and the usual assortment of freebies. There will be prizes including 3 free apartments for life!
The slurl for Moyeno Valo, the party site, is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rosario%20B2/159/233/41/
More tomorrow - and please try to drop in at some point. We are running on ten consecutive "nights" so that everyone in every time zone gets a chance to experience the pleasures of the grizondi teleporting network, and other delights.
Posted to SLED listserv on 09-MAY-07 by Owen Kelly
The purposes of the project are educational and the development of the island has been utilised in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate media programs.The methodology is a wholehearted experiment in learning by discovery.
This weekend Helsinki is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. The video students at Arcada are working with a number of other institutes to broadcast live coverage all week over cable, online and using mobile television. The digital media students are working with the Institute for Technology Tallaight, Dublin to create the annual Semano Semano festival in La Mentala Rosario in Second Life.
This will take place over ten consecutive nights in Second Life (a night being the hour of darkness in each of the six daily cycles).
There will be live streaming from the streets of Helsinki. There will be a regularly updated photo exhibition with photographs from around Europe: an exhibition as live group blog. There will be sky-diving contests. There will be nightly treasure hunts. There will be mass demonstrations of the Rosarian national dance - done in full Rosarian National Costume.
There will be nightly discos featuring a test transmission from LaVoco - the 24 hour radio station launching in Rosario in August 2007, and transmitting throughout Second Life.
There will be guided tours of Rosario, and the usual assortment of freebies. There will be prizes including 3 free apartments for life!
The slurl for Moyeno Valo, the party site, is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rosario%20B2/159/233/41/
More tomorrow - and please try to drop in at some point. We are running on ten consecutive "nights" so that everyone in every time zone gets a chance to experience the pleasures of the grizondi teleporting network, and other delights.
Posted to SLED listserv on 09-MAY-07 by Owen Kelly
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
Posted to SLED Listserv on 09-MAY-07 by Alan Levine.
Best Practices Conference Update
Can you believe that in just a few short weeks, the VERY FIRST inworld conference of educators will take place??
- Are you planning to attend?
- Do you want to present?
- Does your college/school/program want a stand?
- Do you play a game that you want to share?
It is OK if you are new to SL or if you can't be there all day. It is ok if you don't yet have students inworld. And it is OK if you just want to drop in for one or two sessions. Among the long list of talented keynotes and speakers, we have the awesome and lovely Intellagirl Tully and IBM's Chuck Hamilton.
Even if you are only popping in to see one session, we would like to know to expect you (to make sure we have enough chairs and all). As of right this moment, we are expecting about 300 people. ISN'T THAT AWESOME??? But, we want to make sure we have enough room for YOU!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE register on the wiki at http://slbestpractices2007.wikispaces.com/
If you would like to showcase your work in some way, you can submit your awesome ideas via the wiki, as well.
We hope to see you there!
Posted to SLED Listserv on 09-MAY-07 by Beth Ritter-Guth
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Silent Auction for Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund
To benefit the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, there is a "silent auction" on EduIsland. It goes from today through Sunday, May 13.One does not need to be in SL to bid. The bid forms (which have links to pictures of items) are linked from: http://www.oero.soe.vt.edu/sl/index.html
More detailed instructions are found at the SL site and on the bid forms. Going to the SL allows bidders to learn more about the tools on which they might be bidding. The SLURL is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/121/127/23
The following items are available:
1) Many tools useful for educators, donated by Eloise Pasteur, Dagmar Kojishi, Dedric Mauriac, and Ann Enigma
2) A Retail Holodeck Room (with 40 scenes) donated by Bishop Carroll
3) Artwork by Alchimia Jewell and Professor Believeau
4) Misc. furniture
Guardian UK Article: "It's a world of possibilities"
An article from today's UK Education Guardian (May 8, 2007)
"Virtual campuses are springing up in Second Life, as universities discover the advantages of cyberspace."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2074240,00.html
Posted to SLED Listserv (08-MAY-07) by Andy Fossett
"Virtual campuses are springing up in Second Life, as universities discover the advantages of cyberspace."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2074240,00.html
Posted to SLED Listserv (08-MAY-07) by Andy Fossett
Live video presentation on Sloodle, May 16 (12 PM SLT)
Daniel Livingstone secured a largish grant (six figures in USD) from the Eduserv Foundation to support the Sloodle project. He will outline his work in our Spring Colloquia event with a live video feed to the "SJSU SLIS" sim.
Title: "Immersive and Web-Based Virtual Learning Environments: Bridging the Gap with Sloodle".
...and the formal announcement:
The School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University is pleased to invite you to attend our continuing Colloquium Series featuring SLIS faculty and invited guests, as they address the challenges and promises of our rapidly changing profession.
Our final Spring Colloquia 2007 speaker is:
Dr. Daniel Livingstone
University of Paisley, Scotland
School of Computing
Title: "Immersive and Web-Based Virtual Learning
Environments: Bridging the Gap with Sloodle"
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Noon to 1:00 pm (SL time)
304 Clark Hall
SJSU campus in San Jose
This will be our first live colloquium available on SecondLife. Please join us there at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/175/135
or
Prepare technically in advance to participate in this live venue by visiting http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl for set-up instructions, technical assistance, and orientation
and
To access the entire Spring program, visit SLIS's homepage at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/, where you will also find a complete webcast archive of previous Colloquia presentations.
Posted to SLED Listserv (07MAY07) by Jeremy Kemp
Title: "Immersive and Web-Based Virtual Learning Environments: Bridging the Gap with Sloodle".
...and the formal announcement:
The School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University is pleased to invite you to attend our continuing Colloquium Series featuring SLIS faculty and invited guests, as they address the challenges and promises of our rapidly changing profession.
Our final Spring Colloquia 2007 speaker is:
Dr. Daniel Livingstone
University of Paisley, Scotland
School of Computing
Title: "Immersive and Web-Based Virtual Learning
Environments: Bridging the Gap with Sloodle"
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Noon to 1:00 pm (SL time)
304 Clark Hall
SJSU campus in San Jose
This will be our first live colloquium available on SecondLife. Please join us there at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/175/135
or
Prepare technically in advance to participate in this live venue by visiting http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl for set-up instructions, technical assistance, and orientation
and
To access the entire Spring program, visit SLIS's homepage at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/, where you will also find a complete webcast archive of previous Colloquia presentations.
Posted to SLED Listserv (07MAY07) by Jeremy Kemp
Monday, May 7, 2007
Presentations Tonight and Tomorrow
To wrap up a semester of work in world we're putting on 3 research presentations this week.
The first is tonight at 4:30 SLT -
Religion in SecondLife, presented by me (Kim Chihuly) and Austra Soleil (RL: Austra Zubkovs, a senior in my department)
Park Communication (219, 51, 28)
Tuesday (tomorrow) at 10:00am SLT -
Intellectual Property and Virtual Worlds by Shmapple Patrono (RL: Mike Palumbo, a senior in my department off to law school in the fall)
Park Communication (92, 113, 29)
Tuesday (tomorrow) at 5pm SLT
a live video presentation by 2 more seniors from the Park School of Communication. This presentation is on facebook.
Park Communication (92, 113, 29)
Posted to SLED Listserv (07-MAY-07) by Kim Gregson
The first is tonight at 4:30 SLT -
Religion in SecondLife, presented by me (Kim Chihuly) and Austra Soleil (RL: Austra Zubkovs, a senior in my department)
Park Communication (219, 51, 28)
Tuesday (tomorrow) at 10:00am SLT -
Intellectual Property and Virtual Worlds by Shmapple Patrono (RL: Mike Palumbo, a senior in my department off to law school in the fall)
Park Communication (92, 113, 29)
Tuesday (tomorrow) at 5pm SLT
a live video presentation by 2 more seniors from the Park School of Communication. This presentation is on facebook.
Park Communication (92, 113, 29)
Posted to SLED Listserv (07-MAY-07) by Kim Gregson
Virtual Quests Competition
Some of you may have heard that the Education UK island has launched a Virtual Quests competition. There are three prizes to be won, each of 5000 Linden Dollars each, which whilst not huge, still has good buying power in-world.
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The final date for submissions is 18th May and Professor Bernie Dodge will be our judge. The three winners will be announced at the 'International Best Practice Practice in Education' conference on the 25th May.
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If you would like to find out more about Virtual Quests and the competition, you can visit our Virtual Quests competion page at: http://www.sleducationuk.net/?q=node/4.
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You can also view sample Virtual Quests and more detailed information in-world at Education UK island:
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For UK educators, we also have a free land grants programme, which is based on the Linden model, but plots will be available until 31st July 2008. More information and application forms at: http://www.sleducationuk.net/?q=node/5
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Posted to SLED Listserv on 07-MAY-07 by Chris Swaine.
Global Kids teen-made PSA machinimas release!
As part of an exciting new collaboration last year, Global Kids have been working with high school teens from all over New York City at the Museum of Moving Image in Astoria, Queens during the 2006-2007 school year, on a groundbreaking digital moviemaking project. Students are learning Second Life in-person in the after-school Virtual Video Project, and given the unique opportunity to learn a variety of skills that will empower them to become critical thinkers, media producers, and global citizens.
Just yesterday we released the official PSA machinimas produced, created and filmed by the teens in the program. We are thrilled to share their work with you all. These PSA machinimas will also soon be shown at local organizations, schools, and online in teen spaces such as MySpace and other blog sites.
and watch the newly released machinimas!
Taken from posted to SLED listserv on 04-MAY-07 by Tabitha Tsai
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.
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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
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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/
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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.
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Posted to by Alan Levine to SLED Listserv (07 MAY 07)
Posted to by Alan Levine to SLED Listserv (07 MAY 07)
Linden to outsource Second Life orientation
...this could provide some better starting points for students, and you may want to get your institution involved in this programme and create your own orientation experiences.
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/05/04/new-orientation-islands-take-off/
Taken from posting by Sean FitzGerald (04-MAY-07) to SLED Listserv.
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/05/04/new-orientation-islands-take-off/
Taken from posting by Sean FitzGerald (04-MAY-07) to SLED Listserv.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Voice in Second Life
Voice beta!Today, for the first time, I tested the Voice Beta client of Second Life. In the picture above, you can see a number of avatars with a white dot above their heads. The dot means that they have a microphone on. When someone speaks, such as the avatar in the center foreground, greenish waves eminate from the dot - this is so others know who is speaking. As the area filled up with avatars, this became useful... though if one has preferences set to show names, it is difficult to see. At work, I run SL on a very high end machine, and even when there were 21 avatars in the area, with music playing and with other avatars chatting with voice, there was no packet loss (though others reported it on their machine). What was neat, too, was to hear folks from Canada, UK, Uruguay, Germany, Holland, etc. who were participating in the conversation. The drawback for many of those who do not speak English as a first language is that some are embarrassed by their accents, and some even have trouble keeping up with fast-talking Anglophones. I heard many conversation groups where people where speaking their native tongue, but in large groups, I'm sure English will predominate. Another concern for some is the privacy that text provides. However, from the standpoint of an educator, the voice capability will help overcome some hurdles.
The voice performance, overall, is really impressive. I had to move my mic RIGHT on top of my mouth to be heard well, but even using a headset/mic that is a couple of years old (it has a 3.5ml jack, whereas LL recommends a USB-mic), I experienced no problems. Well, there is an issue with the microphone dB boost, but that's not an issue at the SL end. I am told LL will be rolling out voice to the main grid on May 15th - at least to some areas. The folks I chatted with seemed to be skeptical it would work, noting that it will probably take a few more iterations of the main client for it be fluid. The concern I have is how much of the voice cost will be passed onto the end-user. For instance, for an educational sim, institutions spend $150 per month for tier (1/2 of what others pay). But will adding voice cost much more? I suppose we'll see.
Another issue is how to capture voice conversations. Currently, one can get a transcript of a chat very easily - either by copying/pasting from the chat history window or using a tool like Eloise Pasteur's NoteTaker. It turns out that Audacity works great to record in-world convo. Simply select recording to "What U Hear," and it captures voice coming through SL just as it would coming through any other source. Here is a MP3 (2.5 mb) file that captures some of the conversation I had while in the Voice Beta today. I made sure to get permission from the speaker before putting this on the web!! http://www.oero.soe.vt.edu/podcasts/sl_voice.mp3
The conversation talks about how voice will be received in the SL community. Obviously, some will be very uncomfortable with it, as they do not want to give away gender identity. The speaker mentions software that will change a man's voice to a woman's & vice-versa. He noted that one could detect the difference, but only to a slight degree. The software (US $39.99) he mentions is MorphVOX Pro - Voice Changer 3.2.2 by Screaming Bee. I'm sure it's one of many possibilities. The URL is: http://www.screamingbee.com/ (there is an evaluation version available).
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Getting Started in SL for Educators
Created by the good folks at the University of Cincinnati... "This page is intended to tie together resources out on the web for educators, administrators, faculty, and staff who are looking to explore the Second Life medium for teaching and learning. The first plunge into Second Life can be a bit overwhelming, but there is a large and welcoming community of educators out there ready to help you get started."
http://homepages.uc.edu/secondlife/index.php/Site/ResourcesForEducators
And their SL Wiki: http://homepages.uc.edu/secondlife/
Here is another suggestion:
Search the SLED Listserv archives with Google (just type your question and find lots of answers!) http://tinyurl.com/y234ht
SL International Best Practices in Education Conference (May 25, 2007)
MAY 25, 2007
Planning is currently underway for the first Second Life International Best Practices in Education Conference!
The conference will be held on May 25, 2007 in venues all over the Second Life world, with exciting presentations, vendors and exhibitors, and everything an educator needs to know to get started exploring the possibilities for teaching, learning, and research in Second Life!
PLEASE NOTE: If you participate in Second Life, please be sure to consider joiningthe 'Best Practices in Education' Group. Use SEARCH --> GROUPS --> Best Practices(type this in the text box) - membership is FREE. You'll be able to access Group Notices,vote on proposals, network with interested parties, and stay abreast of Events.
Registration is free of charge and participants will receive in-world goody bags with donations from some of the best content creators in Second Life.
Volunteers, presenters, exhibitors, colleges, and sponsors are still needed! If you are interested in participating, please see the Call for Vendors and Exhibits page, the Volunteer page, or contact the appropriate member of the Conference Team to get started.
Adapted from the SLIC 2007 home page.
The Benjamin Center and Educator Training
The Benjamin Center offers workshops and private consultations to teach beginning, intermediate and advanced platform navigation in Second Life and training in basic educational tools, professional presentations and content creation. We also have several free classes in basic building, texturing and helpful SL tools (notecard vendors, hovertext and basic signs).
Every Thursday afternoon (4 PM SLT) there is an educator discussion around the Benjamin Center Lodge. This is unmoderated discussion and takes on a life of its own. Usually several different conversations at different areas around the lodge.
Everyone is welcome to visit us in-world or take a look at the website, both are still under developement. If you have questions you can't find at either place, please email me off list.
Posted to SLED listserv, 02 May 2007, by Carla R. Herrera
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
SLEDucting Podcast
The SLEDucating podcast now appears in iTunes. If you have iTunes on your sytem you can subscribe to the cast by using this URL:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=252991831
If you do not have iTunes, but some other aggregator, you can enter the direct feed which is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Sleducating
This podcast is a text to speech service which means each time a new blog post is up it will automatically appear in the feed, and thus be the next episode of the podcast. Already we have some great authors posting very interesting blogs, more of you are very welcome. Simply create a new account and inform me you wish to be an author.
Chris Hambly will be distributing a SLEDucating radio player in-world this week, which will be free and copy/trans, so you can spread the sleducating podcast around and easily listen. Also direct episode codes can be obtained so you could for example have a listening parcel of the content you choose from the blog posts.
Revised from message posted to SLED listserv 30 APR 2007 by Chris Hambly.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=252991831
If you do not have iTunes, but some other aggregator, you can enter the direct feed which is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Sleducating
This podcast is a text to speech service which means each time a new blog post is up it will automatically appear in the feed, and thus be the next episode of the podcast. Already we have some great authors posting very interesting blogs, more of you are very welcome. Simply create a new account and inform me you wish to be an author.
Chris Hambly will be distributing a SLEDucating radio player in-world this week, which will be free and copy/trans, so you can spread the sleducating podcast around and easily listen. Also direct episode codes can be obtained so you could for example have a listening parcel of the content you choose from the blog posts.
Revised from message posted to SLED listserv 30 APR 2007 by Chris Hambly.
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:
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.
( 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
SLCC 2007: Call for Proposals (SLED Track)
The educator track last year was one of the best attended of the convention. We had a standing room only crowd and over a dozen presentations, posters and panelists. Last year's presenters are involved in planning this year's events. And we are looking for volunteers!Join us for the 2nd Second Life Education Workshop at SLCC 07, August 24-26th in the Chicago Hilton.
If you are teaching in Second Life, or want to, then this event is for you. It's also for you if you are interested in researching the tremendous possibilities of Second Life. Please join us! This is intended to be an informal event to support all of us involved with education.
Proposals are due June 29, 2007
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=SLCC07cfp
Posted to SLED listerv, 20 APR 2007, by Jeremy Kemp
International Spaceflight Museum Spaceport Bravo Grand Opening Week
The International Spaceflight Museum (ISM) in Second Life is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of our second 16-acre sim, known as Spaceport Bravo. To celebrate the Grand Opening, the ISM will host a week long celebration beginning on May 5th 2007 starting with the official opening, and a celebration of the 46th anniversary of Alan Shepherd's historic flight into space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. This week-long celebration will include the unveiling of many new exhibits, lectures, demonstrations, rocket launches and dancing.Spaceport Bravo joins Spaceport Alpha as host to the premier space museum in Second Life and enhances the collection of exhibits pioneered on Spaceport Alpha. Included in the new sim are new highly detailed exhibits of the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), the Space Shuttle, new rockets and a full-size version of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) - the world's third largest building (by volume). The VAB, built by NASA to construct the Saturn V, stands 184 metres high and contains an interior volume of 3.66 million cubic metres, all of which have been duplicated in Second Life.
Lectures will include special lectures by Prospero Frobozz (Dr. Robert A. Knop Jr. in real life)entitled "The Power of the Dark Side : How we know that the Universe is filled with Dark Matter and Dark Energy", Troy McLuhan, ISM Director, who will tell the story of Alan Shepherd, Kat Lemieux, ISM President, who will speak on the History of the ISM, and Patio Plasma, Director of the Splo Museum in Second Life and Planetary Physicist in real life, who will give a presentation titled "Roving Mars: What is it like to be on the surface of the red planet?".
In addition to formal lectures, ISM builders will be on hand to unveil their new exhibits along with conducting information chats, tours and question and answer sessions. Throughout the week there will be an entertainment venue on Second Life's largest dance floor (the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building), Rocket Launches and Fireworks. In addition, visitors will receive a gift bag of special gifts including a commemorative model of the Freedom 7 Spacecraft, a T-shirt and other goodies.
Members of the press can receive a preview tour of Spaceport Bravo. Please contact Troy McLuhan, Lora Chadbourne or Emileigh Starbrook inworld to arrange a preview visit.
Links:
Schedule of Events:
http://slispaceflightmuseum.org/drupal/node/165
Spaceport Alpha SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/48/83/24
Spaceport Bravo SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/12/80/23
Members of the press can receive a preview tour of Spaceport Bravo. Please contact Troy McLuhan, Lora Chadbourne or Emileigh Starbrook inworld to arrange a preview visit.
Links:
Schedule of Events:
http://slispaceflightmuseum.org/drupal/node/165
Spaceport Alpha SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/48/83/24
Spaceport Bravo SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/12/80/23
Posted to SLED listserv, 27 APRIL 2007, by Troy McConaghy
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