NMC Campus Roundup

by Alan Levine

The schedule at NMC Campus is ramping up after a slight lull following the exhaustive schedule of our recent conference in Indianapolis (see below for presentation/audio links). Some things coming up in the next weeks at NMC include:

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June 25, 6:00 PM SLT/PDT ( http://timeanddate.com/s/epg): Take part on a literature class with Desideria Stockton.

Desi has invited the buzz to her class, where you can engage in the activities from a student perspective. Join her at the Women of Brewster Place classroom Quiricosta (219,41,502) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Quiricosta/219/41/502

More details: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/22/buzz-literature/

We are looking for your ideas for future meetings of the NMC Campus Teachers Buzz:

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

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Next Week: Call for Proposals: Building and Creating in Virtual Worlds

NMC is planning an in-world conference August 14-17 that is designed to provide hands on workshops in skills of building, scripting, avatar design, creating media in Second Life-- no lectures/presentations, but more like a studio class. Details are still being planned, but look for next week a call for proposals for sessions.

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July 13-20 2007 NMC Summer Conference Poster Sessions Reprise

Like we did successfully last year, we will bring into Second Life the poster presentations from the recent summer conference, and schedule times when the presenters will be present to talk about their projects.

From last year:

http://sl.nmc.org/2006/06/29/posters/

http://sl.nmc.org/2006/07/13/poster-bash/

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Presentations, Audio, Photos from the 2007 NMC Summer Conference

Well over 25% of the attendees of the 2007 NMC Summer Conference wore their Second Life avatar names on their badges, and many of us met up in RL for the first time. We apologize for some of the challenges in trying to stream the live audio (a future blog post!), but all of the ones we planned to stream were recorded and are available as well as the presentation files.

Hit the Ground Running: Making the Most of Your Second Life preconference workshop by Nick Noakes / Corwin Carillon and Heidi Trotta / Heidi Teecee

wiki resources: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMC2007_Hit_The_Ground_Running

presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/trottahe/hit-the-ground-running-in-second-life/

Leveraging the Affordances, Minimizing the Barriers of Virtual Worlds (panel discussion)

Slides and audio: http://www.nmc.org/podcast/leveraging-affordances

View From Second Life Trenches: Are You a Pioneer or a Settler? (Cynthia Calongne / Lyr Lobo)

Slides and audio: http://www.nmc.org/podcast/view-from-sl-trenches

Pleasure, Play, Participation and Promise: Socio-emotional Dimensions of Digital Culture Which are Transforming the Shape of New Media Literacies (Angela Thomas / Anya Ixchel)

Slides and audio: http://www.nmc.org/podcast/pleasure-play-participation-and-promise

Building OneCleveland in Second Life presentation by Case Western Reserve University

http://www.slideshare.net/shick06/building-onecleveland-in-second-life

Second Life at MIT presentation by Phil Long/Radar Radio

http://www.slideshare.net/nmc/second-life-at-mit/

Recap From Second Life: 2007 NMC Summer Conference (late night discussion):

Audio: http://www.nmc.org/podcast/sl-chat

Fantasy Regnant Opening Keynote by Edward Castronova

Audio: http://www.nmc.org/podcast/fantasy-regnant

All Conference Photos

http://flickr.com/photos/tags/nmc2007

theKONSTRUKT#11 special education

by Alexander Kanaev

A summer present or something we have really wanted to do for a long time... a special issue of theKONSTRUKT devoted to education. Why? Because we are all involved in it, in a way or another. Experiences from successful experiments, thoughts and opinions... download it and see for yourself!

Big thanks to everyone who has contributed to it. I know there are way more experiments going on, and you are always welcome to contact either me or Anna Grant (to send in your thoughts/ideas/announcements.

Table of Contents
From the Editors - By Anna Grant & Chaos Venera
Can vocational education learning outcomes be achieved in SL? - Glenda
McPherson & Malcolm Jolly
SL Best Practices in Education - by Fleep Tuque
Monthly centerfold –Show and Tell - By Maddox Dupont
Establishing a Professional Presence - by Beth Ritter-Guth
Moving Beyond the Prim: Literature Alive! & Second Life - by Beth
Ritter-Guth
SL and education... What education? - by Chaos Venera

www.thekonstrukt.com

W3C TAG considering identification in Virtual Worlds

fwd by Art Fossett

from Pete Johnston @ eFoundations...

http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2007/06/w3c-tag-conside.html

efsym2007 revisited

by Art Fossett

For those that are interested, Pete Johnston has now written a longer blog entry on the eFoundations blog summarising the discussion at the Virtual worlds, real learning, revisited in-world discussion event on Tuesday

http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2007/06/efsym2007_revis.html

BBC Book of the Week : Second Lives

by Graham Stanley

BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week' this week is 'Second Lives' by Tim Guest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/book_week.shtml

Second Lives

By Tim Guest, abridged by Jane Marshall, read by Paul Panting

A revelatory journey through the electronic looking glass of alternative life online, where 35 million people around the globe abandon reality for a virtual life.

In these computer-generated worlds, players can create a new self: with the click of a mouse they select eye colour, face shape, height, even wings.

They can buy virtual land and build houses on it, go shopping in virtual malls and buy virtual haute couture, make and sell works of art, earn virtual money and take part in a virtual marriages.

Design education by RMIT in SL - Short on-line article

by Bruce Sommerville

There is a short and quite positive article on education in Second Life in the Higher Education supplement of "The Australian" newspaper. It focuses mostly on the use of SL in Design courses at RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). Here's the link:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21934319-12332,00.html

Multimedia Class in Second Life - Video Conference Request

by Stan Trevena

I have a request that I would like to put out there to other teachers using Second Life with students (college or high school). I would like to set up some video conferences between our students and others using Second Life. Read on for details if interested.

I have a teacher in my district that is teaching a summer school class in multimedia over the next five weeks. These students are the first formal class to use the Second Life platform in our district (up until now the students have all been hand selected by teachers to participate, and most activities have taken place at night). These students will be working on completing the aquarium project on our Pacific Rim Exchange Island. The class meets from 3:00pm – 6:00pm PDT every day

Links to blog articles on the aquarium project:

http://tinyurl.com/25qmrx

http://tinyurl.com/yw9gj5

http://tinyurl.com/25ub5t

Next Friday they will be travelling to the real Monterey Bay Aquarium and taking pictures and video for their displays on the island. The class is scheduled late in the day so we have some overlap with Kyoto for video conferences and joint projects. Tomorrow the students from Kyoto and Modesto will be interviewing each other via video conference. It should be interesting, as the Kyoto students they will be talking to have limited English language skills.

I have loaned a Polycom video conferencing unit to this class for the duration of the summer. They are very interested in reaching out to others who are exploring Second Life for education, specifically students if possible. But they would also like to talk to anyone with experience about how Second Life is used for education. Their minds are open at this point, and they know that their experiences this summer are going to help determine how many others might get to participate in the future outside of the exchange program.

If you might be interested in a video conference between 3:00pm and 6:00pm PDT with a group of students using Second Life, please email me at trevena.s -at - monet k12 ca us and we can discuss the details.

Virtual worlds, real learning, revisited

by Art Fossett

A very quick note to say that a transcript of the event is available. See the brief blog entry at

http://artfossett.blogspot.com/2007/06/turning-near-disaster-into-learning.html

and the transcript at

http://artfossett.net/meetings/2007/06/19/efsym-followup/transcript.txt

We'll probably do a longer blog entry, trying to summarise the discussion, in a day or so on the eFoundations blog.

SLanguages 2007 Update

by Gavin Dudeney

The First Annual Second Life Languages Symposium (SLanguages 2007) is now full and ready to go this Saturday, June 23^rd from 10:45 CET.

For more information on the symposium, please see:

http://edunation.theconsultants-e.com

If you're coming along, we look forward to seeing you on the day.

And if you're not able to come, or registered too late to get into the group, please note that all the presentations will be archived on EduNation for a month after the event. If you go to the island archive area you'll be able to watch the presentations and listen to the original audio. The island archive area is at: EduNation 178, 40, 22.

Gaming and Learning in SL

by Evonne Heyning

We are creating a cross-language gamespace that includes spaces that explore biomimicry, piezoelectricity, alternative energy sources, propulsion systems and self-generating batteries. There's also a dance floor for generating avatar power! We build these systems RL and will be featuring some of our latest art installations inworld before they are available for public viewing. We've got another month of development ahead before we start inviting the masses but you're welcome to come visit us at AMO Island anytime. There are a handful of skysphere labs and offices available for researchers who want to do experimental work in life sciences, physics or energy systems and we are accepting proposals for space use up to 500 prims.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/AMO/187/95/29/

*in kenzo*

Is the web a good place to learn?

by Gary Hayes

An example - an interview with Stephen Fry on the internet - VideoJug (Life Explained on Film)

http://tinyurl.com/yth4cb

Education UK Island in Second Life announces successful educational land grant scheme awards

by Chris Eggplant

We are delighted to announce the results of the Education UK island 2007/08 educational land grant project scheme.

Overall we were delighted by the number of applications and working through them was a tough process. We also decided that after reading through some of the applications, that not all of them were reliant on having an actual large land grant to achieve their objectives. Therefore, for those projects which met our criteria, we decided to extend the initative and offer awards of a free three story office space for an academic year.

The successful projects are:

FREE Office Space:

• University of Hull: Analysis of Virtual Transdisciplinary Spaces
• Association of Physical Educators: CPD Centre for Practitioner
• Staffordshire University: Involving learners in pedagogic research with Second Life

Land Grants:

• University of the West of England: The Research Observatory at Second Life
• University of Derby: Blended learning revisited
• Mid Cheshire College: National Teaching and Learning Change Programme Project [NTLCP] [QIA Pilot Project]
• King George V College: Virtual tools for real learning
• Literature Alive: The British literature classroom

We have setup a programme office on Education UK Island, which will continue to develop. In this office we have outlined in more detail what each of the above projects is setting out to do, what they hope to achieve and other relevant information.

Each project has also been offered a free website, with a variety of tools/software to enable them to keep a record of their journey which can be viewed via the programme office.

Over the next week, we will be transfering land and grant monies to the projects to enable them to initiate their projects.

Background to the land grants projects can be found at:

http://www.sleducationuk.net/?q=node/5

Colleagues are reminded that applications for our free UK community development land grants programme closes on Monday 2^nd July 2007.

www.sleducationuk.net

Recent articles about SL education in the Media

by Ross Perkins

Film students to get chance to shoot virtualreality [LJWorld.com]
http://tinyurl.com/2m7kuy

Second Earth
http://tinyurl.com/27dbbu [MIT Review]
The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an immersive, 3-D visual environment that combines elements of social virtual worlds such as Second Life and mapping applications such as Google Earth. What happens when the virtual and real worlds collide?

Real teaching in virtual world [Financial Times]
http://tinyurl.com/24oqnr

NASA launching to outer space via cyberspace [FCW.com]
http://tinyurl.com/ywpmh9

Educational Uses of Second Life

by various contributors

Educational Uses of Second Life
http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses

It's a wiki ... so be a good community member and update it if/when you get a chance!

Video - The Next 50 Years

by Stan Trevena

This should start some discussion:

http://needforfeed.tumblr.com/post/3548077

SL Article from Japan Times

by Stan Trevena

The article in the Japan Times is now out. Similar to Japan Journal, a little longer and a few extra things.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070619zg.html

This is all still pretty new in Japan, so these are a few of the first articles there on Second Life, especially in reference to education in SL.

Second Worlds Article

by Chris Collins

it's one of the best articles I've read in a while.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18911/

Gaming and Learning in SL (Italian)

by Franco L. Fabbri

We intend to create in SL an education space related to physics and other sciences in Italian-language . It is a project of INFN ( Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare ) and ENEA ( Ente Nazionale per l¹ Energie Alternative) - two of the most important Italian scientific institutes (one dedicated to basic research in particle, astro-particles and nuclear physics, the other dedicated to applied science and search for new energy sources)-.

The project, called ³La Fisica entra in Second Life² ( Physic goes to Second Life) will be based on the contents of Italian successful educational sites
www.scienzapertutti.it
www.giocaconalbert.it
www.scienzapertutti.net and others.

An inside island will be dedicated to a scientific role game. Enrolled resident will re-discovery and re-built the history of modern physics, Space-time-controllers will guide the community to reproduce the correct historical events. Role-players will get/pay credits as they built right-wrong situations.

Credits will be changeable in Linden$-The project is in evaluation by founding agency (Italian Minister of University and Research).

Showcasing Australasian Educational Projects in Second Life event

by Sean FitzGerald

You are all warmly invited to attend an event Jo Kay (aka jokay Wollongong) and myself (aka Sean McDunnough) are running as part of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework's E-learning Networks June 19-20 Online Conference - http://networksevents.flexiblelearning.net.au/

The event is titled 'In-World Presentation: Showcasing Australasian Educational Projects in Second Life'.

Time: 6.00pm - 7.30pm, Wednesday June 20th, AEST/Sydney time (1.00AM PDT/SLT). (see your time - http://timeanddate.com/s/dsz ).

Location: The amphitheatre at Jo and Sean's Virtual Meeting Space - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wasp/74/31/86/

Program

• 6.00pm - 6.05pm: Sean FitzGerald (Sean McDunnough) - Introduction & Overview
• 6.05pm - 6.15pm: Jo Kay (jokay Wollongong) - Sean & Jo's Projects
• 6.15pm - 6.25pm: Glenda McPherson (GippsTAFE Gonzales) & Malcolm Jolly (Glenda Arrow) - The GippsTAFE Project
• 6.25pm - 6.35pm: Kathryn Greenhill (Emerald Dumont) - Australian Libraries in Second Life (video)
• 6.35pm - 6.45pm: Aaron Griffiths (Isa Goodman) - SL Educational Projects in NZ
• 6.45pm - 6.55pm: Gary Hayes (Gary Hazlitt) - AFTRS & LAMP (video)
• 6.55pm - 7.05pm: Lindy McKeown (Decka Mah) - Action Learning on Terra Incognita
• 7.05pm - 7.15pm: Greg More (Dynamo Zanetti) - RMIT's Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (video)
• 7.15pm - 7.25pm: Alan Levine (CDB Barkley) - New Medium Consortium and Aussie Trip
• 7.25pm - 7.30pm: Jo Kay (jokay Wollongong) - Wrap-up

More info: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/enetworksjune07

It's our first in-world event, so it should be interesting!

We hope to see you there! :-)

Sim in-a Box

by Sean FitzGerald

You think holodecks are cool? How about Sim in-a Box?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcrgOj43wQI

National experts to keynote SLCC Education Track

by Jeremy Kemp

Two of the nation's leading experts on technology for teaching and learning have generously agreed to keynote this year's SLCC Education Workshop, August 24-26 in Chicago, IL.

Dr. Connie M. Yowell is Director of Education in the MacArthur Foundation's Program on Human and Community Development, focusing on grants relating to public education, and on the implications for education of young people's use of digital media. "The MacArthur Foundation launched its five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize,
and participate in civic life." See: http://tinyurl.com/ytlupx

Dr. Larry Johnson serves as Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium, an international consortium of more than 200 universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies. NMC Virtual Worlds helps learning-focused organizations with leased virtual space, community support and design services. Larry is both known to the Second Life education community and an avid evangelist for the educational use of SL. See: http://www.nmc.org
.
The education team is reviewing 36 submissions and hopes to find a presentation opportunity for each one. We are working on logistics for the RL venue, the in-world venue and also possible lead-in events the week before Chicago, designed specifically for educators.
.
Additional slots for SLCC Education Track sponsors are still available. Contact Dr. Daniel Livingstone (Buddy Sprocket) or Jeremy Kemp (Jeremy Kabumpo) for more information.
.
Blog Entry:
http://slcc2007.wordpress.com/2007/06/16/national-experts-to-keynote-education-track
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Register:
http://www.slconvention.org/register
.
Hotel:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/chichhh_slc

Mitch Kapor: 3D Internet is on the brink of mainstream

by Sean FitzGerald

From the article, "The industry around virtual worlds, also referred to as the 3-D Internet, is chaotic and messy but on the brink of mainstream adoption, said Mitch Kapor, chairman of the Linden Labs and PC industry pioneer." Follow link to read more.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9730261-7.html?tag=tb

On Celestial Mechanics, World Clocks, and Event Planning

by Bruce Sommerville
.

An effective world time system, useful for planning events on a global scale (as we SLEDers must), should have at least the three following functions: a world timezone map, a forward planning capability, and the capacity to show the time in different parts of the world simultaneously. However I have yet to find one that does all three satisfactorily. What follows is a brief review of four available on the Web (for PC/Windows operating system):

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1) EarthWatch (ElanWare Inc.): This downloadable freeware shows the time zones, the paths of the sun and moon, and the night shadow, over a map of the world, in real time. An almanac panel is displayed below the map. EarthWatch can be downloaded for free, although a payment of $25 is canvassed.

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Strengths: It is intuitively easy to view and understand, since the earth is shown moving imperceptibly slowly from west to east, while the sun remains stationary in the centre of the screen. Areas of daylight and dark are very clearly delineated. The location of several hundred cities can be shown at once. A configuration menu accommodates forward planning, as it can be set at any future date, time, or location. Moreover, a 'fast forward' option enables the motion to be accelerated, in small increments, so the changes in the time and shadow over various parts of the earth can viewed quickly for a given period of time, past or future. The date in different east-west hemispheres is also shown by two bars across the top of the map. This is excellent for forward planning of events.

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Weaknesses: While the program shows the local time quite accurately, the exact time at other parts of the earth is not shown simultaeously. The time, approximate to the nearest hour, in other time zones can only be obtained by referring to a time scale of 00-23 running accross the bottom of the screen. However, since the minutes of the hour is generally the same world-wide, the minutes can be read off one's own local time, and added on to the hour read off the scale, thus giving the exact time in another time zone. Although one's local clock can be adjusted very easily for daylight saving time, a mental recalculation must still be made when reading off the time in other parts of the planet not on daylight saving time (that is, one may have to add or subtract an hour to estimate their time). No calendar is available.

http://www.elanware.com/

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2) Tech-Pro World Clock: This can be downloaded for a free trial period, or the basic model purchased for $19.99. This is another world time zone map, showing a night shadow moving in real time across the face of the earth, also showing the local time and date in large lettering at the top. A year calendar can be viewed.

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Strengths: Selected cities can be shown on the map, along with their concurrent times and dates. Thus the time and date in various parts of the world can be seen simultaneously. Daylight saving time adjustments are handled automatically. The map is visually attractive, and shows nightime cities 'lit up', based on NASA photos.

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Weaknesses: Only one local time, as read from your own system clock, is available; that is, the time cannot be altered to switch the local time to another city. Furthermore, the time and date cannot be moved backward or forward, so the program has no real forward planning capability. Time zones are not shown. This program is excellent for seeing your own time, and the time in other parts of the world, 'now', and where it is daylight or dark, but is not very useful as a forward time planning tool, unless 'now' is the same time of day as when you plan to hold your event. http://www.tech-pro.net/

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3) Kybtec World Clock: This program can be downloaded for free, but registering the clock for future updates will attract a once only payment of $24.95. This is a world clock, in contrast to a time zone map or sun clock map. One can set up as many clocks, set to different time zones, as one wishes. The clocks are shown as part of the desktop. Monthly and yearly calendars can be viewed.

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Strengths: A wide variety of colours, sizes, and clock faces, digital and analogue, can be selected. The time settings for each clock you wish to set up are chosen from a very comprehensive menu. The clocks can be given the name of a city, or any preferred name ( e.g. 'Second Life', set to Pacific Daylight Time). A list of clocks can be created, and any or all shown on screen by selecting from a menu. Thus the clocks you wish to view on your desktop can be easily changed. A time conversion tool is also available, which enables the user to set a different date and time for any location, whereupon the corresponding time in other locations is shown immediately (this does not affect the time shown on the desktop clocks). This is a highly accurate and simple time conversion facility, excellent for forward planning.

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Weaknesses: There is no time zone map or sun clock, so a graphical illustration of world time is not available. The Help menu requires some interpretation.

http://kybtec.de/wbx01/ssh01/Home/HomeX01.htm?adv=dlc01&advs=non&way=adv&diff=01a

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4) World Time Zone. This is a website, providing a variety of time and clock functions and services. The homepage consists of a world map, showing the different time zones, and the present time in all zones simultaneously. Links are provided to other pages containing a sun clock map, a world clock (in the form of a table) listing the concurrent times in many cities around the world, a call planner, and an interactive map for forward planning, which shows the time in various major cites on a map for any future date or time. A monthly calendar can be viewed with the call planner.

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Strengths: The tools offered are excellent for forward planning of events, and seeing the results on a world map. This one has everything, and it is free to view; downloadable versions are offered for a fee, but it is unclear which features are included.

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Weaknesses: Being a website, and offering a free service, it is peppered with advertisements, and thus is not very visually appealing.

http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.html

.

As for Second Life, many fine clocks and watches are available, but none seem to have effective world time planning capabilities. The 'Calendar Cog' recently mentioned on this list will poll a Google calendar periodically, and provide a reminder of upcoming events via the SL chat window, but does not show the calendar itself.

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In general, the choice of a good timepiece and calendar is difficult, and is a matter of individual needs and preferences. I use a combination of (1) EarthWatch, (3) Kybtec World Clock, and Google calendars for event reminders. If other SLEDers have found the perfect world clock, map, and calendar, then please let us (all) know. Those SLEDers with Apple Macs may be better served in this regard, and perhaps they can post their thoughts and findings on Celestial Mechanics, World Clocks, and Event Planning.

Live from SL to Geneva filmed from Sydney: and other Mixed Realities

by Gary Hayes

LIQUID LIVING

Something that may be of interest is this event captured as part of a BBC Radio 3 recording run by Paul Bennun (a LAMP mentor) who is spending a week locked in his flat capturing the views of Howard Rheingold, William Gibson (and many others - including me ;-) about life via IP....

As part of this I built him a nice lodge on the AFTRS island to spend a week in interviewing these folk and managed to actually film an event and YouTub'ise it here (check out the question at the start of Part 3!! ;-) A unedited film I did of Paul Bennun on the AFTRS Island presenting live via Second Life to a European Broadcasting Union Conference on Thurs...

Part 1 (walk-around intro) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rLoUkV7iBE

Part 2 (formal presentation about Radio/Social Net and Virtual worlds) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlT5vJQa9-c

Part 3 (a short q and a) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRTB9iS54wA

Didn't have time to edit 'best of' but they have authenticity this way and the 'shakey' camera work was deliberate by the way!!

LAMP MIXED REALITY

Also for those who are interested in other LAMP mixed reality projects you can find some here:

Emergence (live theatre and second life in parallel) - http://lamp.edu.au/2006/07/26/project-emergence/

Inworld (a live comedy magazine programme from SL) - pre-dating SLCN.tv and also featuring the same avatar Starr Sonic! - http://lamp.edu.au/2006/11/10/project-inworld/

City Games - (a parallel, collaborative live narrative quest in real tourist hubs in the world mapped to others playing in the same virtual spaces) - http://lamp.edu.au/2006/11/10/project-city-games/

Thursday's Fictions (based on the ABC show, this is a way to explore the TF world while the programme is on) - to be posted

Got a question about SLED? Search for the archives!

by Sean FitzGerald

the archives - http://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/

which can be searched using this - http://tinyurl.com/y234ht

Where can we practice voice?

by Eloise Pasteur

http://secondlife.com/voicemap/ shows a map of the currently voice-enabled sims (in response to a question about where residents could practice using the voice option).

New Land Owner Looking for a Good Guide

by various contributors

QUESTION: Now that [we have] some islands, I need to get up to speed on setting land use. The SL guide is sadlylacking on specifics. Can someone point me to some useful info?

CHRIS HAMBLY'S ADVICE

• I have all land on my island group owned.
• I then turn off everything for strangers, i.e no building, no scripts, no push, for everyone, nada.
• Then in my group settings I set up roles, and give the people in those roles varying levels of permission to script, build or push.
• This works very well, and stops random people coming along running intensive scripts and building giant elephants.
• Just one way of doing it, the group roles are excellent, very comprehensive,

AJ's ADVICE

What I did was to make the portal/telehub area a main area that is open to everyone. That parcel is rather small but its left open so anyone can attend an event or visit, like today's Academic CIO meeting, without having to become part of a group.

A portion of the island is dedicated to experimentation, etc.. So that part of the island, that parcel, albeit a rather big parcel, is restricted to a group that is open to join. The remainder of the island is parceled off for specific projects. Once a project is dedicated to a parcel the project leader is given control of the parcel and can set up access as s/he wishes. The remaining parcels that are currently not assigned have been access controlled to a different group that one can only be invited to and is reserved for those involved in the project.

The set up took some thought and planning, but it seems to be working out so far.

FROM ROSS PERKINS (Milosun Czervik)

Unless there is an instructional need to do it, I would say making it public right away is not in your best interest. Anyway, it's summer - and it's likely that faculty won't be needing it ASAP. It's more likely that your university's public relations engine is more active in mid-August than it is at this time of year.

I would make at least two groups for [your group] - one public (potentially set so anyone could join) and one private (not listed, and by invitation only). You do not need more than this as member roles can be sufficiently controled within each group. Some might argue for only one group, but to me this simplifies things a bit, and it allows the private members to interact on group chat channel without broadcasting to all others.

For the private group, I'd say that this would include all faculty and staff at your university actively involved in sim developement. WIthin this group, there may be just one or two who can invite others, some who can build, some who can edit land, etc. As Chris notes, the permission settings are comprehensive and quite useful.

The public group could be by invitation only (uni students only), or indeed L$0 for anyone to join. The folks there could be limited to ONLY getting group notices, etc.

The management rights at EduIsland were not set up well at the beginning, so we've learned a lot of lessons from this (though the griefing has been limited, fortunately).

Presentation on SL in SL

by Meredith Wesolowski

A 40 min. SL/RL simulcast (with audio) on SL's history and uses in education will be presented at the EduIsland auditorium, Friday 22, 9 am EST (6 am SLT) (SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/156/126/22/).

The presentation will be lead by Meredith Wesolowski (SL: Meredith Snookums) and will occur in-world for SL users & in-real-world for University of Delaware faculty. All are welcome to attend! Please note an RSVP is appreciated, but not at all necessary.

Article about learning possibilities in SL (Spanish)

by Ruth Martinez Lo

This is a first article about learning possibilities in SL, as administrator of a virtual community in Spanish about learning activities in SL (http://www.neurona.com/second-life-educativa_1.html)

I have received a lot of questions about the real possibilities of learning in 3-D virtual world, so I compiled those examples aren't like translating the RL to SL: a classroom with its blackboard where avatars just listening...

SL Research

by Aleks Krotoski

A few colleagues and I are holding a discussion about SL/virtual world research ethics at the Social Simulation Research Lab in conjunction with the London Games Research group
(http://playhouse.wordpress.com/london-game-research-group/).

Kick-off is 12:30pm GMT (4:30am SLT).

All are welcome! Please RSVP Mynci Gorky in-world so I know how many chairs to rez. Thanks!

Details here:

Ethics and Internet Research
Time and place: 12.30 pm UK time, Monday June 18th in
Second Life

For our June meeting, Aleks Krotoski (http://socialsim.wordpress.com) will lead a discussion on the theme of 'Ethics in Online/Social World research'. We are meeting at Aleks' place in Second Life (social simulation research lab - there are chairs!). Please dust off your SL avatar, and put that date in your diary. You can get there directly (if you've got an SL account) here:
http://tinyurl.com/y3wlat

We thought that this paper might be a good place to begin the discussion: http://aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf (Ethical decision-making and Internet research: Recommendations from the AoIR ethics working committee) Copyright (c) 2002 by Charles Ess and the Association of Internet Researchers

PhreakEDU information (16 JUNE; 10am - 11 pm SLT)

by Beth Ritter-Guth (from Vengence Opus)

Educators and Researchers:We wanted to let you know about a new radio stream concept that Phreak Radio has initiated, and one that we feel will benefit the non-profit and education crowd. Our goal is to build a radio station wholly devoted to education and research centered around Second Life.

By scheduling free access to a stream for educational institutions and playing pre-recorded content at designated times during the week, we think that this could open up a lot of doors for researchers and institutions. We want to build this stream up until one could tune in at any time and get either a live broadcast of something being held in SL or a pre-recorded session that would provide instruction and also clue that person in on what institutions are providing teaching.

Also, because this stream would have only educational content, it's a concept that we're interested in introducing on the Teen Grid at some point. Giving teens the ability and training to provide and direct content is the next phase of development that we'd like to see in this stream, and we've talked to a few people about the possibilities. Finally, we're also interested in short, 15 second ads for upcoming specific events.

We think that this could assist institutions in raising awareness about the research and training being conducted in SL, and it could provide a method for those new residents interested in these topics with a user-friendly way to tune in and get that information. Eventually, with the Registration API, Phreak Radio hopes to drive traffic from this station outside SL and into directed areas that educators assist us in defining ( i.e. your island).Expand your classroom to the real potential of virtual worlds.If you or anyone you know is interested in using the stream for any educational events, please contact me via one of the methods listed below.

Informational Meeting - There will be an informational meeting held at Phreak Isle on the 16th of June, 2007, between the hours of 11am to 10 pm SLT. This will be a time during which any educators, students or researchers are welcome to drop by with questions about PhreakEdu, Phreak Radio's new endeavor into free educational programming. Myself and Nethermind Bliss will be available throughout the day to address your issues, or, if you'd just like to stop by and check out our facilities on Phreak Isle, feel free! We will be tying this into the AIDS Memorial Quilt Kick-Off Bonfire.

"Light Up The Dark" is an event that is being hosted by Phreak Isle, kicking off a week's worth of events, the culmination of which will be the official ceremony and unveiling of an in-world AIDS Memorial Quilt, spanning many different sims. We will have three hours of live music, four DJs, a bonfire, and a quilting tutorial "bee" hosted in the Warehouse. During this time, we'll have some spoken word presentations and other things that raise awareness about the AIDS Memorial Quilt build going on that next week. Feel free to stop by and join us!

Article about SL & Education in THES (UK Higher Ed Newspaper)

by Emma Duke-Williams / Art Fossett

Black sun rising

Stephen Phillips
Published: 15 June 2007

http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2037150

NY virtual: A virtual music world

by Chris Hambly

http://www.vles.com/

First Spanish University in Second Life

by Giulio Prisco

Opening of the Universidad Publica de Navarra in SL on Mon 18 12.00 (= 6am EST, 3am PST) with a mixed reality conference on education in SL. I will give the introductory talk on education in the Metaverse, covering SL but also other metaverses such as Open Croquet. They have a quite ambitious program and will open the SL space to other Spanish universities.

http://metafuturing.com/

http://tinyurl.com/3dqp69

http://tinyurl.com/3bch8v

UniversidadSL
El próximo lunes, 18 de junio, a las 12 del mediodía, tendrá lugar el acto de inauguración de la UniversidadSL La Universidad SL será la primera universidad de Hispanoamérica que impartirá clases en el mundo virtual Second Life. Patrocinada por la Universidad Pública de Navarra en colaboración con la empresa Metafuturing.com, la Universidad SL es el proyecto fin de carrera de la estudiante de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación Elisa García Anzano, que ha sido dirigido por David Benito, director del Centro Superior de Innovación Educativa de la UPNA. Los principales objetivos de la Universidad SL son fomentar la utilización de mundos virtuales en la comunidad universitaria española y explorar las múltiples posibilidades que ofrecen.

El Pais: La Upna, primera universidad virtual hispanoamericana: "Giulio Prisco, director de Metafuturing, empresa que trabaja en proyectos de mundos virtuales, impartirá una conferencia sobre realidad virtual en la inauguración de la Upna".

Professors add life to courses through Second Life

by Milosun Czervik

Article from the DesMoines Register. Quote from the article,

"William Callahan, dean of the University of Northern Iowa College of Education, said Second Life is like a "quantum leap" from what professors in Iowa were starting to do a year and a half ago, uploading lectures online for students to download and listen to on their iPods."

http://tinyurl.com/2qcxjn

2007 OLN Teaching and Learning Expo in Second Life

by Chang Liu (posted to list on 6/14)

Friday 10:30 - 3:00pm Eastern Time

The 2007 Ohio Learning Network Teaching and Learning Expo ( http://www.oln.org/LCI/lci_expo2007.php ) (6/15/2007) will have a presence in Second Life.

If you can't visit the real-world OLN Expo in Newark, Ohio, please feel free to stop by the virtual OLN Expo on the Ohio University Second Life Campus. For more information, visit http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/index.php/2007_OLN_Expo .

More Handy tutorials for newbies

by Stan Trevena

http://pacificrimx.wordpress.com/learning

There are lots of links and resources on this page. I try to keep it up to date with new stuff. Just added a bunch about a month ago. Just another resource for SL'ers.

Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings in SL on Kula

by Jeremy Hunsinger

as seen on dan winkler's blog
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WritingMyNameInWater/~3/124843017/

Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings is a generative visual artwork, composed of many overlaid images forming a "slow-changing light painting." You can see a lesser demo version on the official site. On June 29th, 77 Mil will open in Second Life and real life simultaneously, to be seen via streaming video and in-world through a recreated version of the work by Angrybeth Shortbread.

Eno was moved by a desire to get his visual installation work out of the gallery, where few can see it, to a larger audience. (As someone who's studied his work, I would suspect that his thought process went something like: Hmm…people have great big gorgeous HD monitors and TVs now…maybe I should dust off the old screensaver idea…) Head to blueair.tv and longnow.org for SL coordinates and more info. Here's the press release:

The Long Now Foundation, a San Francisco non profit dedicated to fostering long-term responsibility, is pleased to announce the Second Life premiere of Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings, in partnership with metaverse services company blueair.tv.

The work will be both streamed via video at select locations inside Second Life, while a rendition of 77 Million Paintings has been created by blueair.tv creative partner Annabeth Robinson, known virtually as AngryBeth Shortbread.

Two evenings, June 29th and 30th, are open to the general public at multiple venues across Second Life, with the largest public area provided by Joi Ito (Kula Sims). The final night, July 1st, is a private event that will be held in appreciation for Long Now members worldwide (members.longnow.org) and hosted on the Leeds College of Art and Design's Digital Media Sim. Members of The Long Now Foundation staff and board will also be visiting the Second Life sims
throughout the weekend and during the member event on Sunday evening.

The North American premiere will be hosted by The Long Now Foundation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Mr. Eno hopes to be in San Francisco for the event.

Questions regarding the Second Life opening, sponsorship of the event, Second Life-based artwork and blueair.tv itself should be directed to Bryan Campen at 312.799.1329 or via email at blueair.tvATgmail.com. Any questions or requests for interviews regarding the artist, installation and membership to The Long Now Foundation should be directed to Danielle Engelman at 415.561.6582 or via email at danielle -AT- longnow -DOT- org.

TeamWork Tester Tests

by Alex Heiphetz

I need your help, and in the process you can get something you need for SL classes.

To make long things short:

We just completed major modifications to the Teamwork Tester ( http://www.ahg.com/Second_Life/training_simulations/teamwork_tester_1.htm)
This is a tool that allows you to assess performance of a team and individual members, train members of the team to work together, find the optimal composition of the team, assess individual characteristics of the team members, such as: speed, effectiveness, participation in the task, ability to finish assigned part of the work, helping others if needed, etc.

The only problem now is extensive testing to clean out every single quirck both in functionality and usability.

Now, I can't pay you for the effort, however, I can share our movie/slideshow screens or furniture we (let me say successfully) sell for L$300-500. So, any team of three people that complets Teamwork Tester puzzle will get a choice of medium-size screen or classroom furrniture set, or three chairs. Any team of four will get a choice of Large screen or note-taker/note-distributor set, team of five will get their choice of two items in the store (Do I sound like a fast-talking salesman yet? :-)

Oh, and btw you will get a pretty good assesment on your team and your personal leadership and teamwork qualities.

Location of the test: Education Island
( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20Island )
- just about 30 meters from the teleport hub.

Journal of Electronic Commerce Research: Special Issue on Virtual Worlds

by Marc Fetscherin

JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE RESEARCH:
SPECIAL ISSUE ON VIRTUAL WORLDS

CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue on Virtual Worlds
Submissions due: November 1, 2007
Scheduled Publication date: August 2008

Overview:
The emergence of virtual worlds and Web 3.D change the way of
doing business. Web 3.D is the synonym for Internet-based virtual
worlds, where people can create own 3-D *virtual*
personalities. Virtual Worlds such as Second Life and others are
undergoing an evolution similar to that of the Internet in the
mid nineties and might impact profoundly the way people
cooperate, communicate, collaborate, and conduct business. The
recent entering of companies such as Toyota, American Apparel,
Nissan, or Adidas indicate the upcoming role of this platform for
the next generation of conducting electronic business. This call
for papers is intended to cover a wide range of business and
research topics that fall within the broad description of
activities, challenges, opportunities, applications, innovations
and implications associated with Virtual Worlds as the emerging
new online business landscape.

Purpose of the Special Issue:
The purpose of this special issue is to encourage discussion and
communication of important research issues that underpin Virtual
Worlds as an important aspect of e-commerce and to showcase
interesting and significant research work in this critical area.
Specifically this issues is focusing on business and legal issues
of doing business in Virtual Worlds. Of particular relevance to
the described focus are papers about business models, marketing,
promotion, pricing, customer integration, consumer behavior,
legal, cultural and cross-cultural research. The issue, however,
will not be restricted to these topics; rather, it welcomes
reports of theoretical or empirical research that examines
pertinent business issues related to Virtual Worlds e-commerce.
This special issue will be of interest to researchers,
governments, small and large businesses, marketing and PR
companies among others.

List of possible topics are:
* Product Development and Testing in Virtual Worlds
* Image, Branding, Advertising in Virtual Worlds
* Marketing in Virtual World
* Avatar-based Marketing
* Promotion of Virtual Goods in Virtual Worlds
* Pricing of Virtual Goods in Virtual Worlds
* Selling, Cross-Selling Real and Virtual Worlds
* Business Planning for Non-profits in Virtual Worlds
* Fundraising and Virtual Worlds
* Convergence of Real and Virtual Worlds
* Customer Integration and Virtual Worlds
* Technology, Business, Strategy in Virtual Worlds
* Financial Systems, Investments, Currency Exchange Real
and Virtual Worlds
* Emerging Media Presence in Virtual Worlds
* Consumer Behavior, Consumer Acceptance and Virtual
Worlds
* Trust, Cross-Cultural Studies and Virtual Worlds
* Intellectual Property, Copyright, Trademarks and Virtual
Worlds

Submission of Manustcript:
JECR publishes original empirical research, theoretical and
methodological articles, evaluative and integrative reviews,
field research, business surveys, and application papers of
interest to a general readership. A submission based on a paper
appearing elsewhere (such as conference proceedings or
newsletters) must have major value-added extensions to the
earlier version. For conference papers, it should have at least
30% new material. The submitted manuscripts should follow the
format as suggested in the Submission Guideline found in the
journal website: http://www.csulb.edu/journals/jecr/s_guide.htm.
Of particular note is that the manuscript should be prepared in
Microsoft Word format. The names, affiliations, and contact
information (i.e., phone, fax, email addresses) of all authors
should be provided only on the cover page. The submitted paper
will undergo a double-blind review. Contributing authors may be
asked to serve as reviewers for the special issue. Authors may
submit completed manuscripts electronically at any time prior to
November 1st 2007 deadline.

Manuscripts and questions send to
mfetscherin - at - rollins -dot- edu

Handy tutorials for newbies

by Jenny Delasalle

If you're looking for information on how to get on in Second Life, do a search on YouTube as there are some quick and informative clips in there that can help you to get started in Second Life:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=second+life+learning&search=Search

Invitation to Virtual World Event on Philanthropy

by Barry Joseph

Invitation to Virtual World Event on Philanthropy

Save the date (22 June, 9am PST) for an historic conversation on the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds featuring MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton and Second Life CEO Philip Rosedale.

I write to invite you to join me in the virtual world of Second Life on Friday, June 22, 2007 at 9am PST (noon EST). With my avatar and a live audio feed, I will be joined by Second Life CEO Philip Rosedale and residents for a discussion on the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds.

The MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. We support organizations working on human rights and international justice, conservation and sustainable development, housing, juvenile justice, and independent media. Last year, we launched a $50 million initiative to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations.

Recently, we have been introduced to virtual worlds such as Second Life and There.com. I believe that the importance of virtual worlds may be less about their growth as economies, and more about their capacity for collaboration and human development. Activities in virtual worlds already are supported by MacArthur and other foundations, but we have much to discover about the right role for philanthropy itself in virtual worlds.

We are interested in learning about virtual worlds and how to operate within them. We look to the residents to help us determine how to be helpful and are eager to share our on-going work in such areas as affordable housing, urban renewal, and human rights and international justice.

Please join me on June 22nd, when, for the first time, my avatar will step into the virtual world to host a discussion with Philip Rosedale exploring the potential of these new platforms for philanthropic activity. It should be a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation, and I hope you can attend and participate.

As further details emerge they will be posted on the event information page:

http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/juneevent/

SL Article from Japan Journal

by Stan Trevena

An article was recently published in the Japan Journal on Second Life. It includes parts of an interview that we did on the Pacific Rim Exchange project (with my partner in Japan, Chris Flesuras). Here's the English version of the article:

http://tinyurl.com/32ke56

Another article from this interview is scheduled to be published next week in the Japan Times. I'll pass a link on when I get it.

Here's a blog entry about the interview back in March:

http://tinyurl.com/2xyjyr

And now for the cool part of this post, the Kyoto students finally have tweaked out the avatars enough to take a class picture on the island. Here's a full sized image of that screenshot.

http://tinyurl.com/39omcc

They are getting pretty creative in with their avatars, especially that short one up front with the force field around him. He must have some personal space issues.

A tool for organizing group conversations

by Barry Joseph

The GK lighbulb and server.

The GK Light Bulb System is a great tool for moderating discussion in Second Life, initially created for the Global Kids Camp 2006 project. You can easily see who's waiting for their turn to speak when the light bulb attachment above their head is turned on. The GK Light Bulb System Discussion Server (just one prim!) displays the chat queue, so everyone can see whose turn is next. With one click, it offers administrators a dialog box with buttons for removing specific names -- or all names -- from the speakers list. And it just takes a click for a wearer to turn off their own GK Light Bulb, if they change their mind and decide they don't want to speak. Adding administrators to the system is as simple as editing a notecard.

GK Light Bulbs are distributed with both copy and transfer permissions, so you'll never run short of them, and the Discussion Server is transferrable, so you can give it to someone else in your organization to use or lend it to a friend. But, at only L$ 1000, it's affordable enough to buy more than one. Brought to you by The Magicians and Global Kids, the GK Light Bulb System is a fun way to manage group discussions AND engage participants.

Be the first on your sim and get one today!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/207/147/22

Blackboard/Second Life Developers Meet-up in Boston

by Theodore Ubhaus

Boston Second Life Meetup Group will be hosting
Drinks and Chat with Blackboard/Second Life Developers at Vox!

Since the Blackboard Developers' Conference has day sessions on July 12th and July 13th, the Second Life meet-up is scheduled conveniently after the first day's sessions on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 6:00 PM at the Vox. The Vox is just a few minutes walk from the Sheraton Hotel in Boston.

Pathfinder Linden has said that he definitely plans to attend. He is likely also to speak at the Boston SL Meetup event.

Consquentially, for those who are attending the Blackboard Developers' Conference, Second Life will be discussed during one of the sessions on July 13th.

For those who develop using the Blackboard learning system, and many others, the Boston SL Meetup shall be quite an event indeed. E-learning has been expanding into and as a virtual learning environment.

You may find out more details and RSVP for the 7/12/07 Boston SL Meetup at http://secondlife.meetup.com/10/

Study: User Acceptance of Virtual Worlds: An Explorative Study about Second Life

by Marc Fetscherin

Study: User Acceptance of Virtual Worlds: An Explorative Study about Second Life

Our report assesses the user acceptance of Virtual Worlds, specifically Second Life. By means of a survey with almost 250 respondents this report provides first empirical results of the user acceptance of Second Life. The data has been gathered during spring 2007. Our results show that 90% of respondents have less than a year experience, 70% access Second Life from home and 54% with a desktop. There are 67% of respondents who are not afraid of giving personal information. Almost 60% are very likely to buy virtual goods from Second Life, and 42% are willing to use their credit card to purchase on Second Life. About 70% perceive Second Life improves collaboration and communication, and more than 60% perceive that it improves cooperation between people. 56% of respondents perceive Second life as easy to use. Finally, our results indicate that people are using Second Life not to change their identity, but rather to explore and visit new places and meet people.

If users accept Virtual Worlds as a new way and channel to communicate, collaborate, and cooperation and if institutions arrive to provide value to users, Virtual Worlds might become then next generation platform for Internet users. However, in order to become mainstream, Virtual Worlds like Second Life have many challenges to overcome and where user acceptance is probably the most important one.

Get the report on http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/2007/06/study-about-user-acceptance-of-virtual.html

236 Free Open Courseware Collections, Podcasts, and Videos

by Jimmy Atkinson

Just dropping a line to see if you and your readers at Drexel CoAS talks mp3 podcast might want to have a look at the newest article here at OEDb: "Take Any College Class for Free: 236 Open Courseware Collections, Podcasts, and Videos" -- http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections . Let me know what you think if you have a moment.

Action Learning

by Lindy McKeown

My entire island of Terra incognita is an online 3D environment based on Reg Revans style Action Learning. I also worked before Second Life with a colleague in a US university setting up Action Learning in his ActiveWorlds implementation.

.

Come visit my Action Learning island at SLURL

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20incognita/128/128

.

It is the basis for my PhD research into the social and technical affordances of 3D worlds for online Action Learning. This project is supported by a Queensland Government (Australian state) Smart State PhD research grant as at least 8 government departments here use Action Learning in a face-to-face mode.

.

Just starting this week a 12 week Action Learning program called "Teaching in Second Life" with a group of 32 new recruits.

.

Just finished a program that ran form February to the end of May with a celebration on the weekend of the projects of the 12 participants. This was a point-in-time snapshot of the exciting range of workplace or professional life projects developed (and continuing) by participants including:

.

• A series of workshops about Second Life leading to online events on topics of interest for a teacher professional association.
• The establishment of a state-wide consortium to purchase SL islands for schools to use.
• A series of SL tours as awareness raising for school district personnel that led to the use of SL as an online meeting space (amongst other things).
• The building of an interactive narrative from a book in SL, MUD and MOO to compare the environments as learning spaces.
• The establishment of national forums (in Australia) about the implementation of Second Life by the Education Network of Australia (EdNA)
• A comparative analysis of Virtual Worlds for K-12 education for a state education department.
• The mapping of the nOOb non-gamer experience in SL with a view to the developmnent of support resources.

Please make contact by IM in SL (Decka Mah) if you would like more information.

Moodle's glossary connects with SL

by Jeremy Kemp

I have a very simple Sloodle tool to sample for you. It listens for a request like "/def grid", queries a Moodle glossary and chats the definition. The cool thing is that you can edit terms on the web.

See two glossaries here:
http://www.sloodle.com/course/view.php?id=9

Second Life terms here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/sjsu%20slis/142/216
Examples: grid, griefer, dwell, afk (57 and counting)

Foreign Language terms here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/sjsu%20slis/107/213
Example: Ni Hao

I'm especially keen to see if anyone can use this glossary for use in S.T.E.M. or language learning. And will Japanese/Chinese/Arabic work?

You could conceivably build out a pathway like Orientation Island with the chatting glossary to interact with.

FYI: This is just proof of concept stuff and not released.

Information for Brand New SLEDders

by Ed Lamoreux

http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/slstuff.html

Archive of Educational Possibilities Webinar

by Pietro Maracas

We had a great turn-out for our webinar on Second Life: The Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World, about 150 people attended. Also, thanks to the people who helped answer questions in the chat.

You can view the archived webinar at
http://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/event/description?instance_id=7498.

Links to info on Second Life at Games For Change

by Barry Joseph

We're all tired. More later. But Second Life was all over two panels today, both main and teen grid.

Check it out:

http://www.holymeatballs.org/2007/06/sl_virtual_activism_panel_mixe.html

Thanks to Beth and Rik for their tireless blogging.

Accessibility Help

FWD by Ed Lamoureux

Libraries on the MUVE: HealthInfo Island to Provide Accessibility Resource Center in Second Life Alliance Library System(ALS) and iViNNiE.com are pleased to announce new services tobe offered on HealthInfo Island in the 3d virtual world of Second Life. Alliance received a grant from the National Library of Medicine Greater Midwest Region to build upon the consumer health outreach currentlydone on HealthInfo Island. HealthInfo Island is part of the Alliance Info Archipelago, a group of islands collaborating to provide library and educational services. Through this project, ALS will offer exhibits, programs, and awareness about accessibility and assistive technology and about virtual world ac

(from BlogHUD: http://bloghud.com/id/9444/)

Documentary about Activism in SL

by Joshua Levy

I just finished up a short documentary about activism in Second Life , called A Better World in Second Life. The film looks at the ways a handful of activists are using SL to promote awareness for Darfur, organize groups, protest the war in Iraq, and more. I learned a lot about the positives and negatives of using SL to promote social change. While I didn't directly address using SL for education, I think a lot of the lessons learned apply to it as well.

You can watch it here: www.levjoy.com/betterworld

I'm interested in showing it publicly and in SL, and welcome ideas and suggestions.

A new collaborative project

by Barry Spencer

I have decided to expand the scope of material at my place, which at the moment include presentations, personalised learning and social activites to include an opportunity for collaboration.

In keeping with the general computing theme, I have setup a museum of computing. The content takes the form of learning objects; and while on the subject of learning objects, thanks to all those who fed back to me on the Eniac resource, very much appreciated. In the museum, some of the objects are populated with content, though most are not, and that's where the opportunity for collaboration comes in.

The actual facility itself is in the form of a Skybox, 300m above Shimmer Island. There are two levels, on the lower you will find a collection of computers from the 70s, 80s and 90s and as you will see at the moment, the only one with content is the Sinclair ZX80, all others are waiting for contributions. The actual machines featured have either been constructed by myself or obtained from within SL. On the second level you will find some fully populated resources that include Eniac, the Altair and the TRS80.

The museum can be accessed from a teleport on the ground floor of the Beach house. If you would like to contribute to the existing resources or create some new ones just drop me an IM, otherwise you may just like to come for a browse and chat about computing things, while enjoying the uninterupted views of perfect sunsets and sunrises from almost a 1000ft above the virtual sea level of Second life.

IM Skipper Abel for more information.

NMC Sessions Posted

by Alan Levine

Hastily done as I am on my way to 9 days off the grids, we have posted audio from the recent sessions at the NMC summer conference where we captured audio and other content.

Late Night Chat form NMC

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/sl-chat/

Pleasure, Play, Participation, and Promise - Anya Ixchel At NMC

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/07/pleasure-play/

Leveraging the Affordances, Minimizing the Barriers of Virtual Worlds (panel discussion)

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/edu-panel/

A View from the Trenches: Are you a Pioneer or a Settler? (Cynthia Calongne)

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/pioneer-or-settler/

Accessibility in the 3-D Environment: Virtual Worlds and People with Disabilities

by Bruce Sommerville

The above event has been added to the "SLEDevents in SL" public Google calendar, which may be viewed in your web browser at:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=f3b7ubjteso0776u83v4i38qm8%40group.calendar.google.com

This site shows the event times in SL time.

Google subscribers who add the SLEDevents in SL calendar to their calendar list will see the event times converted automatically to their own local time zone.

Face book group created: Second Life for Educators

by Fire Centaur

I just created a second life for educators group on the Social networking site called Facebook.

IF you would like to join, upload sl pictures and network with other educators follow this link:

Second Life for Educators:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2370947641

Star News runs story about SL Ed

by Sarah Robbins

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070610/COLUMNISTS23/706100318

Invitation to U.S. Department of State and University of Southern California Second Life Event

The U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), in cooperation with the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication, cordially invite members of Second Life Educators (SLED) to the second IIP-USC Speaker Program: "Accessibility in the 3-D Environment: Virtual Worlds and People with Disabilities"

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
11:00 SLT (PDT)
USC Public Diplomacy Island
Teleport: 203, 64, 29

Our guest speakers for the event are
Judy Brewer
Bruce Bailey

IIP is exploring the possibilities present in 3-D virtual world platforms, such as Second Life, for showcasing and hosting Public Diplomacy events, products and services. This session will focus on potential accessibility issues for people with disabilities in virtual environments, and resources and approaches for ensuring a barrier-free virtual experience.

The State Department Bureau of International Information Programs engages international audiences on issues of foreign policy, society and values to create an environment that can be receptive to U.S. national interests. IIP communicates with foreign opinion makers and other publics through a wide range of print and electronic outreach materials published in seven world languages. IIP also provides information outreach support to U.S. embassies and consulates in more than 140 countries worldwide. For more information visit our websites www.usinfo.gov and www.state.gov.