Real-Life Grad Classes in Second Life

This came across the radar in SL. This would be of great interest if you are interested in using SL for teaching or learning purposes.

The Dept. of Educational Technology at BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY will offer a 15 week, 3 credit, graduate course on "Social Network Learning in Virtual Worlds " starting August 25, 2008.

Syllabus: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dfzrcdcd_18238v9rhfw&hl=en_GB

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COURSE INFORMATION

EDTECH 597: Social Network Learning in Virtual Worlds

3 credits

Course fees: $1,044 regardless of location
Instructor: Ann Jeffery (MissAnnie Ducatillon) & Salli DiBartolo (Sunshine Sparrow)
Internet course, requires weekly attendance at live synchronous session on PDT 1-3

Register at http://edtech.boisestate.edu or contact Jerry Foster at jfoster@boisestate.edu, 208-426-1966 to assist you with registration.

Description: Social Networking is a growing field of expertise, and has much to offer virtual world teachers wishing to explore new ways of communicating and collaborating both in-world and out-of-world. This graduate level course will explore collaborative and emergent pedagogies related to the use of social networks in virtual world teaching. Participants will gain hands-on experience with a variety social networking tools, create a community-based resource, and have an opportunity to become part of the emerging network of virtual world educators.

System requirements: http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php

It is recommended that participants have at least 10-20 hours of prior participation in Second Life before the course begins.

Prerequisite skills include:
* Use of camera controls
* Ability to fly, walk, and teleport
* Knowledge of communication tools (IM and chat)
* Basic building skills (create prims, add textures and content)
* Basic inventory management (can find items, wear clothing, make a notecard)

For more information, contact Ann Jeffery at annjeffery@u.boisestate.edu

Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

http://mashable.com/2008/06/18/meez-virtal-worl/

I'm not surprised. Second Life couldn't have the market share all of the time ... and it's nice to know that it's going to be more than hands typing on an invisible keyboard ...

"Meez users have been requesting a virtual world in which their custom avatars can roam around and become more social with each other for some time, and now they finally have what they’ve always wanted. Meez Nation is the brand new virtual world made just for Meez avatars. [...] Unlike most other virtual worlds that have grown out of an avatar-creation and sharing site, Meez has layered in a good deal of functionality, activity and interaction for the avatars. For instance, there’s chat capabilities in every virtual room, and similar to an IM chat client that converts the characters “;” and “)” into Meez avatars will act out certain commands that you type into the chat window. Type in “rofl” and your Meez avatar will roll on the floor laughing."

Second Life Blogs & News

Here are a few Second Life Blogs and News sites:

• New Media Campus Observer
• New World Notes
• NMC Virtual Worlds
• Official Linden Blog
• Rez Nation
• Second Life Insider
• Second Life Library 2.0
• Second Opinion Newsletter

When and If Virtual Worlds Collide

http://www.massively.com/2008/06/14/the-daily-grind-should-mmogs-and-virtual-worlds-be-separate/

The Daily Grind: Should MMOGs and virtual worlds be separate?
Friday held the Social Gaming Summit, a meeting of the luminaries of the various virtual worlds -- Gaia Online, Neopets, and IMVU to name a very few -- in San Francisco. This blogger was on hand for several of the panels, and came away with a deeper understanding of where the demarcation between massively multiplayer online game and virtual world was drawn. On the virtual world side, developers are beginning to incorporate more and more elements of what would normally be considered MMO-only features, like quests and leveling up ...

Immersive Worlds & Learning - A place to start with the research.

Below are a few resources you may find useful to introduce you to the area of research & development of immersive worlds and learning. Keep in mind that these folks are very much
in the socio-cultural/critical theory realm ...

1. Constance Steinkuehler, U of Wisconsin:
http://website.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/

2. Jay Lemke, U of Mich: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jaylemke/

3. I3W: Investigating Interactive Immersive Worlds:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jaylemke/projects/i3w-home.htm

Second Life Technologist Moves to Academe - Chronicle.com

Second Life Technologist Moves to Academe - Chronicle.com

This may or may not be indicative of some real changes for academia and Second Life. I suspect that SL will keep moving increasingly towards commercialism ... but does that actually affect SL Educators in any way?

Sony Buys Into Virtual Movie Theaters; Invests in Gaia

Sony Buys Into Virtual Movie Theaters; Invests in Gaia

Interesting, but not too surprising to hear about this. Gaia is a bit like Second Life, but for those who are more into the anime genre. In any case, the idea of virtual world movie theatres is a different and more social approach to the solidatary iPod world we live in today. I'm curious to see how it comes along.

An Interesting NMC Teacher's Buzz

Avatars, Appearance, and Identity
http://sl.nmc.org/2007/07/24/avatars-appearance-and-identity-all-a-buzz/

What’s your dress code?

Mon 23 Jul saw a vibrant and open discussion with people sharing views on avatars, appearance and identity for teachers in Second Life.

Am I a Twit for joining Twitter?

UPDATE: It works! I got TwitterBox in SL to work and I now sing my Tweets out loud! Hooray!

- - - - - - -
"Join Twitter! Everyone else is doing it. It's the cool thing to do."

Between the "peer" pressure and my own sense of growing old in an increasing technological divide of me, the young, and the even younger, I'm guilty. But, hey, I'm still cool! (Or is it "tight"? "Phat"? Whatever.) "Sure, I'll try it. Why not?"

I pause before asking, "So, um, what was it called again?" Famous last words.

Twitter is interesting. When you first try to figure out what it is, there isn't a clear definition of it. It's a site that simply contacts you (via IM, cell phone, email, web, etc.) to ask you, "What are you doing?" You reply in 140 characters (that's CHARACTERS, not words), it is then posted and distributed amongst your friends, family, or the world to read.

Why would anyone want to do this? More so, who gives a damn?

I asked that very same question. It's a bit like micro-managing or babysitting a 5-year-old. Constantly Twitter may ask, "What are you doing?" What seems like five minutes pass, and I'm asked again, "What are you doing?" Again, "What are you doing?" "What are you doing?" "What are you doing?" And, "Now?"

"I'm thinking about killing you Twitter." (Hey, that's less than 140 characters!)

I was about to uninstall it when I stumbled across Clive Thompson's article in Wired.com. In "Clive Thompson on How Twiter Creates a Social Sixth Sense," I came to understand how Twitter works and why people would want it. If you haven't a clue about why you'd tell the world (and send a bazillion text messages to your friends) about your every little passing thought, action, or whim, Thompson is able to give some perspective.

FYI: Twitter exists as a HUD on channel /282 in Second Life, too. There's a great blog post about Twitter in SL by Ryan Bretag. If you're interested in using Twitter in SL, grab TwitterBox from http://ordinalmalaprop.com/twitter/.

AmsDiane Gustafson tweets away at http://twitter.com/amsdiane/

Voice Comes to Campus!

As sent in a Group Notice for the NMC Members group, Larry Pixel informed us of the fact that "As of today, all of the central sims on the NMC campus estate have been voice enabled, including NMC Campus, Learning, Research Park, and NMC Campus 1, 2, 3, and 4. Teaching and a number of our university neighbor simms are also voice-ready."

The rest of the grid will be ready to go with voice as of Saturday, from what I hear.

If you're an NMC Member and you want a First Look, download the FirstLook viewer and begin using the voice IM/Chat, go to http://secure-web3.secondlife.com/community/firstlook.php.

TLT Group: Education and Second Life (Day 1)

Invitation:

Steve Gilbert, Ilene Frank, Drew Smith, Joe Floyd
Date: July 5, 2007
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 Eastern Time
Place: Second Life
Location: Cybrary City open air auditorium. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/131/155/24

Commentary:

I think SteveGilbertSir Heron said it all:

Probably the hardest thing about taking advantage of a new medium is figuring out some new ways of doing our old taks [sic] - and then, going beyond to new tasks - that weren't possible without the new medium

What purpose does Second Life have in Education? In-world at the TLT Group meeting, there was a lot of talk about role-playing. Someone else mentioned something of true interest: the Star Wars guilds and Star Trek Academy in-world. I bet you that those are well done with highly defined objectives ... those fan groups tend to get those things pretty darn right. Now, if only the Education realm and us as Educators could find that kind of time and creativity to do the same for our very own classrooms ... although I don't really blame us for not doing it. There is a difference between work and play ... and the line between real and imaginary blurs in this type of setting.

For example, as Ilene Pratt wrote, "One educator remarked that she never thought she'd put "don't come to class naked" on a syllabus ;)" Indeed, that was something I'd never have thought of. I have heard of worse things ... like the time a SDSU professor was conducting class and someone crashed her course sporting a giant phallus for all to see. If you currently think disruptions outside your real-life classroom doors and windows are problematic, well, SL may be something you'll want to ease into. Although to be perfectly honest, I doubt that so many of your (18-to-2o-something) students would be quite so offended at such things ... they're pretty good at laughing or shrugging those things off. They did grow up with MTV, sex, and violence on TV and the Internet, after all ...

The hour passed quickly. Chatting is slow and causes the discussion to appear to be all over the place, but I'm good at fast-switching my attention and following separate conversations. Of course, any good instruction is followed with some homework to keep us focused.

Homework:

Virtual Web Quest about Learning Spaces
2007-07-05 10:36:44 Virtual Web Quest

Objective: Develop some ideas about constitutes an excellent virtual learning space in 3D immersive environments

What should virtual learning spaces look like? Will they be just be a replica of what exists in 2007 in real life, or will they be much more creative and informal?

Work as a team to identify what makes a good virtual world learning space and why. Be prepared with some remarks for the next workshop session.

Set up a team meeting to visit learning spaces on Second Life.
Make sure you identify a ‘meeting chairperson’ and a scribe to take notes so that you can refer to them later. To save the chat history, click Edit --> Preferences --> Communication --> click Log Chat and choose a location on your computer for the text file.

Visit a number of learning spaces in Second Life using the Resources section below as a starting point, and look at how they have been set up. What are the key features of each learning space you visited? – and how will you know if they are successful learning spaces that help learners to learn?

(To search for these locations, use Search --> Places tab --> include mature content )
• SL Ecosystem [SL Location: Terminus 147, 106, 27] – Search term: SL Ecosystem.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terminus/147/106/27/
• Academy of Second Learning: ASL [SL Location: Eson 32, 162, 351] – Search term: Academy of Second Learning.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eson/32/162/351/
• SL Computer History Museum [SL Location: Info Island II 241, 54, 23] – Search Term: SL Computer History Museum.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island%20II/241/54/23/
• EduNation [SL Location: EduNation 70, 49, 23] – Search term: EduNation. Free seminar facilities for educators.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation/70/49/23/
• Reef Ball Coral Reef Library [SL Location: Changmi 167, 81, 110] - Search term: Reef Ball.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Changmi/167/81/110/
• English Village [SL Location: English Village 131, 156, 126] – Search term: English Village
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/English%20Village/131/156/126/
• Literature Alive [SL Location: Eduisland II 186, 241, 22] Search term: literature alive.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/186/241/22
. Terra Incognita [SL Location: Terra incognita 156 99 33] Search term: Terra Incognita
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20incognita/128/128/0


This learning activity has been adapted from http://www.sleducationuk.net/ for a more detailed version of this virtual quest that includes ideas about evaluating the activity and suggests some additional outcomes. Visit Education UK island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/248/39/22

Links of Interest:

1. TLT Group Adobe Connect Webcast Room: http://connectpro86502729.acrobat.com/secondlife/
   
2. TLT Group: Education and Second Life Meeting Place (Cybrary City): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/131/155/24
   
3. TLT Group Second Life Workshops Blog: http://tltgslworkshop.blogspot.com/

"Give Education a Second Life"

"Give Education a Second Life" is the title that heads Pepperdine University's Online Masters of Educational Technology graduate students' site at http://secondlife4education.org/.

A good synopsis of what it's about can be found at the NMC Campus Observer, and by showing up in-world at NMC Campus on Teaching 2 (135,124,22) at either July 8 at 5pm SLT/PDT or July 9 at 8pm SLT/PDT, you could also be eligible to win an iPod! That's not too bad for showing up, communicating your thoughts and perspectives, and sharing a little bit about what you learn and know about learning and knowing things.

I'll be there as myself, AmsDiane Gustafson, just to check it out and to bring back a full report on how things went down.

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)

6:00 PM SLT / 9:00 PM EST
Wainbrave Bernal (SL)/ Jonathan Richter (RL)
Moderator: Aidenn Brooks (SL)
Creating a community of practice and searchable database of learning objects in Second Life: The SaLamander Project

Abstract:
A recently funded grant by The NorthWest Computing Council has added to the capacity being built by CATE at the University of Oregon's effort to enhance higher education faculty to learn and teach in Multi-User Virtual Environments, such as Second Life. The SaLamander Project will enlist educators from all stripes in Second Life to nominate the many tools, builds, and locales in SL that are useful for teaching and learning to be described by content experts and placed in a searchable format both on the web and within Second Life.
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/123/127/23/

Review:
No conference is complete without technical failure. The SaLamander Project began with a well-spoken, although odd-looking, SL "Wainbrave Bernal" and a missing Powerpoint presentation. It really didn't matter whether or not he had slides, though.

He began by correlating the relationship between the existing MERLOT.org community and how the SaLamander Project will follow along the same process and adaptation for gathering the necessary SL objects. The goal was also discussed, to create a Community of Practice (COP) centered around the creation, sharing, and reuse of these objects.

"What works? Who has it? What are other uses for it?" These were the key questions that SL Wainbrave Bernal approached. Getting involved with the SaLamander Project would make you privy to many new and emerging objects for (and uses of) SL in general. With the added features of being able to store and tag all of the peer-reviewed items, it would make SL suddenly a usable place without having to sludge through all the normal decisions that one faces now when building an online course.

Want to get involved?

1. MERLOT.org
   
2. SaLamander Project Wiki

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)

4:00 PM SLT / 7:00 PM EST
John Jamison (Virtual Bacon-SL)
Moderator: Rainbow Drake (SL)
Two Years of Introducing Educators to Second Life in 60 Minutes, or: Tips for Dinosaur Wrangling
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/imagiLEARNING/128/128/0

Abstract:
"How do explain Second Life to my boss?".."How do I explain Second Life to my budget officer?".."How do I get my faculty to use Second Life?".."How do I get my IT people to....(fill in the blank)...". These are some of the most common questions appearing in the SLED listserve, and the ones I hear most often from the educators visiting imagiLEARNING. Add those to the "Where can I find..." questions and you've got a pretty good picture of where many educators spend their time in SL. According to my friendly greeter bot, Alex, imagiLEARNING has hosted more than 7,000 educator visitors in the past few months, and this session will present the gleanings from interactions with most of those folks. Participants should come prepared to get involved and not just sit back and try to lurk their way through the presentation...WOOT. Sorry... This session will also feature VB's Seven Critical Issues for Educators...and you certainly don't want to miss those, now do you?

Review:
It was a packed room on a packed island like all the other presentations and posters I've attended today on Hyperstring (SLurl) and EduIsland (SLurl). As my avatar, AmsDiane Gustafson, I was able to snag the seat formerly belonging to someone who was "afk" (or "away from keyboard"). Once down and comfortable, I zoomed in on the presenter's screen, turned my music on, and listened as "Virtual Bacon - SL Presenter," otherwise known as John Jamison in "RL" ("real life"), spoke about what it is that SL offers in contrast to existing or "traditional" methods of interaction and learning.

He spent a long time discussing the differences in how digital immigrants and digital natives think about (re-)creation. This was an interesting component to the speech. Apparently, the immigrants to the SL world re-create a facsimile of their RL, and often ask, "What now or what next?" The natives immediate create whatever their imagination desires and then proceed to discover how to design, develop, create, use, and refine the items and objects around them.

Jamison followed it up with a stint about embracing and supporting SL in Education through a grassroots effort. Like Blackboard and it's history, use it and use it well in your classrooms. Continue to expand on it, contribute to EduIsland, the in-world libraries, and soon your students will begin to ask other professors, "Why don't you do what Professor X does in his class?"

Lastly, Jamison provided SLurl links to his land for imagiLEARNING (East | West), suggesting that any educator who is bona fide in developing something for their instruction may do so by contacting him.

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)

8:00 AM SLT / 11:00 AM EST
Suzi Mazzenga (Xirconnia Morphett-SL)
Moderator: Meriwether Voom (SL)
Drawing on Second Life Experiences to Enrich the First Life

Abstract:
Points for Discussion: 1. Virtual Self-Awareness vs. Self-Awareness in Real life 2. Using SL to Expand Imagination 3. Using SL to Enhance Group Dynamics 4. Gaining across-the-board Self-Awareness by Becoming Your Exact Opposite
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zabawa/54/167/25/

Review:
For the fact that this conference is a complete "in-world" experience, it felt amazingly like I was attending a lecture in a room. In the least, it was about as exciting as one.

I should be clear: she was not boring. It was just not the kind of thing that would get you revved up about SL. It really didn't showcase SL as being a good way to conduct interactions or to engage learners. For example, she spent the whole conference presenting via keyboard in the chat, and not through a voice broadcast in SL. It was a bit tedious and one-way in it's communication. She also came across as very young, idealistic, and obviously biased in favor of using SL.

Despite those niggling things, she spent a good amount of time discussing how creating and changing your avatar is a consuming and personally revealing experience. Then she continued on to discuss some pedagogical aspects or themes that could be addressed in SL: gender differences, perception, identity, and the process of self-definition. I personally found that this might be useful for helping first-year freshmen transition between a child's life and an adult's life ... maybe through helping them create both their SL and RL identities at the same time?

Overall, I wasn't particularly wowed with Suzi's presentation, but her enthusiasm was transparent. If nothing else, it helped to conjure up some ideas about using SL ... so it wasn't a bad way to start out the in-world day.