Transcript of Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable: March 30, 2010
Topic: Lightning Round--Our Favorite SL Places
Special thanks to Olivia Hotshot for organizing the presenters' photos at Flickr. That's her as the gray 'bot at the Robot Museum. Join our VWER group at Flickr and add your own pictures!
Iggy's note: except for Olivia's snap, I'll embed others with their presenters' chat. I found another cool shot of a robot at her photo-stream. Be sure to visit these sites and send your feedback my way. I'll add any remarks to the end of the transcript.
AJ Brooks: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting.
AJ Brooks: Our meetings are made possible by the Office of Information Technology at Montclair State University. We meet here each week at 2:30pm SLT for an hour.
AJ Brooks: The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable is a forum to educate and inform the community about issues that are important and relevant to education.
Lolly Dovgal: OK
Olivia Hotshot: AJ, rezzing here - is the red frame the texture object we add our images to?
AJ Brooks: The views and opinions of any of our special guests or visitors do not necessarily represent those who volunteer or organize these meetings,
Mimi Muircastle: yes Olivia :)
AJ Brooks: or of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Office of Information Technology , or Montclair State University.
AJ Brooks: This is a public meeting, so we do keep a transcript of what is said in local chat. For a copy of transcripts, please visit http://www.vwer.org
Olivia Hotshot: TY
AJ Brooks: If you've not seen the transcripts, you should check them out - they are a great information asset.
Mimi Muircastle: np
AJ Brooks: For those sitting up in the amphitheater seating, please come down and join us around the roundtable. There is always an empty seat on the side closest to the ramp.
AJ Brooks: Our theme today is Second Life Favorite Places: Lightning Round.
AJ Brooks: The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting happens each week and we continue to develop a community of educators from around the world with a variety of thoughts, needs, and ideas.
AJ Brooks: Please join the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable group here in SL. You can also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Flicker, and KoinUp, as well as on Twitter as VWER.
AJ Brooks: The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable (VWER) has decided to make use of Google Moderator (the tool we use at our voice meetings for questions)
AJ Brooks: to help us find out what you'd like and what some of your ideas area.
AJ Brooks: We've created three (3) different Google Moderator Suggestion topics. You are invited to visit each one, make suggestions and/or vote on the suggestions that are already there.
AJ Brooks: The first is for articles for our VWER Reading Meetings. The second is for general meeting ideas or themes and the final one is for those special guests you'd like to see featured or interviewed.
AJ Brooks: For the VWER Reading Meetings, visit http://bit.ly/a1IRau
AJ Brooks: Have an idea for a meeting topic or theme? Visit http://bit.ly/dkDynw and add yours, or vote for the 27 that are currently there (at last count).
AJ Brooks: Know someone who you think would make an excellent special guest to be interviewed at a Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting? Click here: http://bit.ly/bHVzZk
AJ Brooks: Full details can be found in this notecard giver here in the middle of the table.
AJ Brooks: Finally, if you have Mystitool on, or other similar tool, please put it to sleep or detach it for now. :-) It tends to lag things.
AJ Brooks: As a hint, it is better to have "local chat" open for these meetings, it will help you follow along better.
AJ Brooks: You can find local chat by clicking COMMUNICATE in the bottom navigation bar and you'll find LOCAL CHAT as one of the tabs at the bottom of the window.
AJ Brooks: Just one more reminder, we ask that everyone sitting in the theater seating join us around the roundtable. There is always an empty seat on side closest to the ramp.
AJ Brooks: Today's meeting is a format we have never tried before.
AJ Brooks: A number of folks have brought a snapshot of a favorite educational place in Second Life - and we intentionally loosely defined "educational"
AJ Brooks: and if/when their photo comes up on the frame (which is cycling right now but it will not during the meeting) they will have about 2 minutes to share why they selected that location
AJ Brooks: to interact with the group, and provide us the SLURL.
AJ Brooks: If you have not already done so, please drop your photo into the frame - the instruction are here on the side (don't forget to hold the CTRL key when dragging/dropping).
AJ Brooks: Once we are done with introductions and start the meeting I will shut down the ability to add more snapshots.
AJ Brooks: That said, Why don't we start off the way we always do, by introducing ourselves. No need to wait, go ahead and type into local chat now
AJ Brooks: who you are, what you do, and your educational affiliation.
AJ Brooks: My name is AJ Kelton and I am the Director, Emerging Instructional Technology for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University in New Jersey
Margaret Michalski: Margaret Czart, Research Information Specialist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Trudy Takacs: Trudy Takacs, freelance educator consulting a workforce development training program
MLani Montgomery: Rinda Montgomery Conwell, Assistant Superintendent for an education service agency in Oregon with a distance learning program, teaching on both the adult and teen grids.
Claudia13 Rossini: Claudia (builder for univ of penn and special project builds for AJ to Montclair)
Magdalena Colclough: I'm Mary Fairbairn - I'm a librarian at Furman University and I'm teaching a course called Virtual Identities set in SL this May
Maximum Goldshark: from Chico State, student.
LoCE99Ch8 Morpork: Rosanna Brown, Lassen Community College Library, Susanville (northeastern), California, rbrown@lassencollege.edu, @RbrownLassen. In world, call me Lo.
Geoff Lumley is Geoff Barker-Read from the University of Leeds, UK. I'm Head of the Academic Quality and Standards Team
hobbs Constantine: is Heather Dodds, Western Governors University, transferring to Liberal Arts Natural Sciences instructor- Yay!
Scottmerrick Oh: Scott Merrick, Poobah of the ISTE SIGVE and ISTE Island Bloggers Hut and Podcasters Place manager.
Viv Trafalgar: Viv Trafalgar, Immersive and Interactive Games Developer at Rezzable, Inc and recently Visiting Fellow in Virtual Worlds, University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
Logos Sohl: Niamh O Riordan, PhD studen investigating knowledge creation and innovation in VW educational projects
Firery Broome: University of Delaware
Jarrad Voom: Jarrad Voom Puget Sound Washington
CD Texan: Carolyn Thomas, University of Texas at Austin
Hattie Haystack: Gail Hanson Brenner, Clinical Nursing Instructor, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Lolly Dovgal: Laura Sederberg, Technology and Learning Program, CSU, Chico.
Zola Zsun: Zola Zsun UTSA IST grad student
Ignatius Onomatopoeia is Joe Essid, Dept. of Rhetoric and Communication Studies. I'm the University of Richmond's Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum Director. I've taught four courses with SL. I'm part of a design team building an immersive simulation of Poe's House of Usher, to launch in Spring 2010.
milo Oxygen: I'm Juan Camilo Perez, I work as a virtual teacher in Colombia
Olivia Hotshot: Ann Steckel California State University, Chico, techie, educator, and builder for 2 university sims.
JeanClaude Vollmar: I'm Jeff Le Blanc and I'm from the University of Northwestern Ohio. I'm their VP for IT and support the SL island we own.
Kathryn Pleides: Kathryn Frech, high school librarian, upstate NY
Zotarah Shepherd: I am a MA in Education (technology & psychology) student at Sonoma State University in northern California working on a curriculum project: Teaching and Learning Life Foundation Skills in Second Life. Visit my Immersive Interactive Educational builds on Ralanora. I also have a build for Multiple Intelligences on Koru.
Mimi Muircastle: Mimi Muircastle/Charlotte retired mid. school prin. and counselor in a charter high school
toBe Destiny: i am Professor Paul Prueitt, Norwich University and I am proposing a infrastructure development project to bridge high school and college
Zazu Booker: Cyd Skinner - Psychology faculty, Northampton Community College
Archivist Llewellyn: Archivist Llewellyn, Library and Archives Director/Volunteer for NASA CoLab in SL (NASA JPL/Caltech)
Shaw Checchinato: James from Iowa State University.
Kali Pizzaro: Evelyn McElhinney Glasgow Caledonian University Nurse Lecturere
Alan Sandalwood: Alan Haywood. IT in classroom and online for EFL
AJ Brooks: the "zoo" object is still no copy/no modify - - it won't show up in the rotation
ericcgcc Yootz: eric greene columbia gorge community college adjunct fac computer applications
AJ Brooks: anyone else?
MLani Montgomery waves at Eric up the road from her...in The Dalles.
Lou Tones: Lou Tones, Virtual University SL & IT development director
Silviana Jenvieve: Jenny Oliver, Research Fellow, University of Kent, UK
AJ Brooks: intros?
Skylar82 Shepherd: Lee Nelms, Tech Director, Pre-K-8th, Langley School, Northern VA
ericcgcc Yootz: eric waves back to MM
Luigi Miles: Mario Guerra, University of Texas at Austin
Graceful Aeon: Denise Beahm in rl, Future Rain consulting, higher ed IT
Jimmie Veeper: James Fullerton from Southern Lehigh School District
milo Oxygen: I'm a Chemical Engineer and currently studying Translation English Frenck Spanish
AJ Brooks: great crowd today
360 Placebo: alasdair douglas teacher in learning through games uk academy 360
AJ Brooks: anyone else to introduce themselves?
Oronoque Westland: Roberta Kilkenny, Hunter College, City University of New York
Oronoque Westland: sorry
Rebekah Cavan: Rebekah Cavan (Pat Rapp) - Center for Virtual Worlds Education and Research
Lolly Dovgal: OK, I tried Zoo again, if it doesn't work, skip it.
AJ Brooks: last call - intros
Rumi Saeed: Rumi Saeed, distance learning course designer and facilitator; Valencia CC
ValentineBouquet Garnet: Vincenne Revilla Professor of Education Point Park University
AJ Brooks: zoo is fine now
Mimi Muircastle: good zoo :)
AJ Brooks: ok - onward
AJ Brooks:
AJ Brooks: Thanks everyone. I just wanted to do one bit of housekeeping about today's meeting.
milo Oxygen: what do we have to do?
Kali Pizzaro: 50 on the sim for the transcript
Jarrad Voom: who is zoo?
AJ Brooks: First off, in a minute I'll be shutting down the frame from accepting snapshots, so if you want to add your snapshot and have not yet, please do so immediately.
Lolly Dovgal: Loll
AJ Brooks: Once we get started, and I see the picture rez properly I'll ask who provided the picture. When that person identifies him/herself, I will set a strict time limet of 2 minutes.
AJ Brooks: This includes whatever it is the person wants to say, plus audience interaction, questions, etc... If there is time at the end, we can always go back.
AJ Brooks: But I want to make sure as many people who want to can present. So I'll be pretty firm on the two minutes and will same TIME when that two minutes is up. Please don't think me rude. :-)
Rebekah Cavan: where do we put our snapshot?
AJ Brooks: If you get done with your schpiel before the 2 minutes is up, simply say "Are there any questions?", so we know you are done.
AJ Brooks: Finally, I'm going to ask that when someone is making their two-minute (+/-) schtick, please DO NOT add anything to local chat. In other words, please do not interrupt until the person is done.
AJ Brooks: This will help to make what they have to say clear to each of us and also for the transcript.
AJ Brooks: I've just shut the frame off from accepting any more entries, and to get us started, I figured I'd go first. So, here we go.
Graceful Aeon: we'd never think you rude, AJ :)
AJ Brooks:
AJ Brooks: As many of you have noted, there are so many wonderful educational builds in Second Life. I could think of 5 or 6 I would have liked to present. I love Svarga, and the VIrtual Hallucination,
AJ Brooks: Genome Island, the SL Louvre, the Ivory Tower of Prims, Info Island...I could go on, but the one I selected is one that is close to my own heart, I am very partial to it.
AJ Brooks: This is an overview of The Theorist Project, which can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CEHSADP/80/195/23
AJ Brooks: This is a cooperative project between myself and Edina Renfro-Michel (SL: Edina Gumbo) from our College of Education and Human Services.
AJ Brooks: Edina had this idea about recreating Sigmund Freud's Vienna office and also making kiosks for some other theorist she teaches about n her Counseling Theory class.
AJ Brooks: Over time, aside from Freud's office, this idea grew to include Freud's Iceberg, a must-experience visit into the realms of the consciousness (and still a work in progress)
AJ Brooks: Thanks to the amazing folks at Athabasca University, we also have Freudbot Voom, a script-driven bot you can interact with. A stint on Freudbot's couch is a must-see.
AJ Brooks: You'll also find several other buildings with representations of different theorist work. These buildings were designed and stocked by the graduate students in Edina's class.
AJ Brooks: The goals of this project were, and remain, three-fold: to be a working learning area for classes, to be a library of information on theorist (specifically learning and counseling) and
AJ Brooks: to be a must-see spot on any Second Life tour. :-)
AJ Brooks: As I said, I'm partial to this build, as I am the primary builder of most of the major structures.
AJ Brooks: Any questions?
Magdalena Colclough: last few times I tried to get to Svarga, I couldn't. Is it still there?
AJ Brooks: well get to that shortly - any questions on the theorist project?
AJ Brooks: no?
AJ Brooks: ok - onward
toBe Destiny: i would like to spend some time with you AJ there
AJ Brooks: Iggy?
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: okay
toBe Destiny: to discuss some issues
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: I discovered that Svarga, my favorite place in SL
hobbs Constantine: I'm not seeing anything on slide
Logos Sohl: (I can see the slide)
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: has been restored. The builder of this early SL sim sold it to Linden Lab as a type of heritage site
Mimi Muircastle: (fine on mine too)
Lolly Dovgal: No slide here.
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: the slide will rezz soon for y'all..it shows me at the new build, on one of the tours
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: you ride a giant wasp over the island
Rebekah Cavan: neat!
Trudy Takacs: no don't see it sorry
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: Svarga was designed as a virtual ecosystem
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: and it still functions that way--about 30% is working now
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: but more importantly
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: Svarga shows what a virtual world can do. And it was done
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: without sculpted prims
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: I think of it as a place to take students to be inspired
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: to dream
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: even to goof off a bit but diving from the platforms
AJ Brooks: TIME
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: or going swimming
AJ Brooks: 2 minutes goes pretty fast
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: questions?
AJ Brooks: :-)
Magdalena Colclough smiles
Logos Sohl: (Philip Rosedale said it was the closest he'd seen to his vision of a virtual world)
Magdalena Colclough: So glad it's back
Margaret Michalski: @ trudy don't see it either.
Graceful Aeon: Lauk's Nest is also a place to see her early work.. where she lived while she was creating Svarga
Maximum Goldshark: SLURL?
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Svarga/128/128/2
[Iggy's note: I didn't prepare remarks, or I'd have said more about Svarga's potential for pedagogically useful play. To read more about that, consult this blog entry I did, "Why Svarga Still Matters"]
milo Oxygen: I like it
Mimi Muircastle: awesome - ty Iggy
Lolly Dovgal: I never saw this one
Logos Sohl: Try zooming over the avs maybe
Logos Sohl: just zoom on the slides
Logos Sohl: (maybe?)
Rumi Saeed: (that wasp is awesome)
Geoff Lumley: If anyone's interested, I'm hosting one of the original builders of Svarga on the Education UK region. He's establishing a new artificial life ecosystem
AJ Brooks: ok - so - before we move on - a few notes
AJ Brooks: Rezzing is always a problem in SL
AJ Brooks: so - some graphics might not rez for you
AJ Brooks: I'm sorry if that happens - but rest assured that the images are there
Mimi Muircastle: can you post that info Geoff?
AJ Brooks: WE'll be posting them to Flickr and in the transcript
AJ Brooks: so if you miss them now you can see them later
Trudy Takacs: i find a problem with my mac with the sim is loaded - not everything rezzes
AJ Brooks: please remember to let the speaker talk through and not interrupt - it'll make it easier on all of us and the transcript
AJ Brooks: you can also reduce your graphics to minimal and it might work better
AJ Brooks: now - to go on
AJ Brooks: who's snapshot is this?
Trudy Takacs: me
Logos Sohl: Tudy
Olivia Hotshot: open Advanced Menu - and try to clear group cache to help the rezzing
Logos Sohl: *Trudy
Trudy Takacs: ok going to copy and paste with a lot of lag
Trudy Takacs: Costa Rica Sims is my favorite place to show you today.
AJ Brooks: Ok - Trudy, you're on
Trudy Takacs: This photo was taken during a scripted bird watching, boat tour of the Palo Verde National Park, a simulation of the dry tropical rainforest in the RL country.
Trudy Takacs: While this is not necessarily the most spectacular place one can experience within the estate,
Trudy Takacs: it is a nice example of creating an immersive, educative experience without excessive use of text, signage, web links, huds or other scaffolds.
Trudy Takacs: (There are the RL sounds of the CR rainforests, however.)
This tour mostly leaves the experience open; perhaps to intrigue the visitor to learn more about ways to save the planet,
Trudy Takacs: to visit the RL country,
Trudy Takacs: or simply to enjoy a quiet boat ride with a friend.
Trudy Takacs: It's a large estate with several spots designed to promoting ecology and conservation:
Trudy Takacs: you can walk through (or hang glide over) the rainforest,
Trudy Takacs: get up close or scuba dive with sea turtles and
Trudy Takacs: gekos Memorial site has just been created for the contemplative joy of walking through several levels of a rainforest
Trudy Takacs: Both the wet Rainforest at Volcan Tenorio sim and this tour spot have info centers with RL photos and maps of the country. You can even buy some SL animals or donate to several RL wildlife funds here.
Trudy Takacs: Btw, you'll always find picnic spots, couple's dancing pose balls or benches scattered around the tourist areas.)
Trudy Takacs: The estate's design exemplifies the reason I was drawn to using SL as a distance education platform.
Trudy Takacs: I've established myself here and am eager to help bring it to the attention of more SL educators.
Trudy Takacs: Do let me know if I can help show you around or offer my space for talks or special events.
Trudy Takacs: :)
AJ Brooks: excellent!
Mimi Muircastle: nice :)
AJ Brooks: very nice
AJ Brooks: questions?
AJ Brooks: thoughts
Jarrad Voom: ver nice
AJ Brooks: oh - do you have the SLURL
Olivia Hotshot: just agree it is imply wonderful. a great choice.
Marc Rexen: Social places are very important...lots of teachable moments.
Trudy Takacs: yes I made a notecard with lm and contact info
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: yes...SLURL is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Volcan%20Tenorio/128/128/2
Kali Pizzaro: nice
Trudy Takacs: but here is a slurl
AJ Brooks: great - thanks
AJ Brooks: oh - here is another suggestion about the pictures -
AJ Brooks: if they cam only to the screen with the pics they should be able to see them rez....one texture on your screen to rez that way
AJ Brooks: any other thoughts about Trudy's place?
Jarrad Voom: what?
AJ Brooks: basically - cam over to the picture, it should show up
AJ Brooks: going on - next picture
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: I find the sim really inspiring, Trudy
AJ Brooks: who's picture is this?
hobbs Constantine: Oh this is me
AJ Brooks: hobbs - you're on
hobbs Constantine: This is SciLands
Perplexity Peccable: w00t!
hobbs Constantine: I picked this spot because it one stop shopping for science and technology.
hobbs Constantine: Lots of good places to visit from this one place (NOAA, etc.)
Kali Pizzaro: now there is a surprise haha
hobbs Constantine: It is also a nice "Safe" place to bring new folks, they can try out things with their avatar, learn how to move
hobbs Constantine: It was HARD to pick only one spot, I have so many photos of NOAA but if you go to SciLands you can explore MANY science and technology worlds
hobbs Constantine: http://slurl.com/secondlife/SciLands/196/17/23
hobbs Constantine: Questions?
ericcgcc Yootz: is this where science Friday meets?
[Mimi adds this SLURL later for Sci. Friday: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Science%20Friday/213/230/23]
AJ Brooks: thoughts
AJ Brooks: questions?
hobbs Constantine: No, Science Friday spreads over 2 sims
Scottmerrick Oh: They also have a feed from NASA tv there, ya'll, fun place to watch it
Rebekah Cavan: Just a statement: scilands is full of great information
Lolly Dovgal: Love science field trips.
hobbs Constantine: I can get you that slurl if you want Eric
Firery Broome: yes @ eruccgcc
AJ Brooks: can you get us all the slurl so we can add it to the transcript
Archivist Llewellyn: Linden Lab Editors' Pick this week - NASA CoLab Library - Send Your Avatar Name to Mars
hobbs Constantine: So far the science in SL is very content heavy, not quite as interactive as I'd hope...but we are getting there
AJ Brooks: get it to Joe once you have it
hobbs Constantine: yupper AJ
AJ Brooks: ok - we have to move on
Kathryn Pleides: that's a great place
Logos Sohl: This is me
AJ Brooks: who's is this?
AJ Brooks: logos - you're on
Logos Sohl: The Future of Being Human is an interdisciplinary science course offered at New York Empire State College and is located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Empire%20State%20College/20/199/703
Logos Sohl: You can view a slideshow about the project at http://bit.ly/N1Ygv and can also read about it at http://bit.ly/9sh8jY. I've pulled a brief summary of it from those two resources for today.
Archivist Llewellyn: Send Your Avatar's Name to Mars! Just click the sign at NASA CoLab Library to send your name to Mars on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Rover. Enter "Second Life" as the Zip Code. (You can also send your RL information). Get a certificate you can print out. This is a free, educational activity.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/NASA%20CoLab/219/193/32
Logos Sohl: "The Future of Being Human Second Life Simulation was inspired by the premise of the novel Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy. Written in the Victorian era, the novel's protagonist slept in a basement from 1887 to the year 2000, and wrote a comparison of his existing present to an imagined future".
Logos Sohl: The SL FOBH simulation draws "from studies in neuroscience and effective practices in immersive education... and provides students with the opportunity to explore emergent scientific ideas in futuristic settings that support the primary themes of the course". The SL activity is "an immersive, interactive discovery experiment, in which students enter the transformation station, transform shapes, and are both transported to different worlds and guided through a range of activities using a HUD (heads up display)".
Rebekah Cavan: cool!
Logos Sohl: Students visit SciLands, Genome Island, Nanotech Island or Cyber Bunker using the HUD and analyze them from the perspective of "being human (avatar), the world itself and emerging technologies". Activities "will help students examine these implications through discussions, a pro-con debate, field research, and an optional activity in Second Life" and the "goals of the course will be to read current scholarly viewpoints on the question of being human to discuss the implications for our future as humans in times of unprecedented scientific discovery, technological advancements and medical breakthroughs".
Logos Sohl: I'd also like to draw attention to Future Genesis, "the Second Life avatar name of the machine driven cyborg designed to serve as a station tour guide in a futuristic transformation station that provide students with a unique experience in changing avatar identity prior to sending them on a journey of scientific discovery through Second Life worlds".
Logos Sohl: I chose it today because I believe it is a project of high quality whose design truly illustrates an understanding of the affordances of virtual worlds for education and that it effectively leverages those affordances to deliver innovative and effective learning. It also leverages pre-existing content in vws which I personally think educators should do more of. Are there any questions?
Kathryn Pleides: Is the hud tour open to all or only assigned students?
Lolly Dovgal: Fascinating!
Logos Sohl: I'm not sure Kathryn
Logos Sohl: I was able to take it
Logos Sohl: But I had arranged that
Logos Sohl: The location is public
Logos Sohl: So imagine anyone can
AJ Brooks: any other questions?
AJ Brooks: thoughts on this one?
AJ Brooks: gret - thanks Logos
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: yes--about Bellamy's novel
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: how closely does the simulation follow it?
Mimi Muircastle: I was thinking the same thing Iggy:)
Logos Sohl: Can't answer that
Zazu Booker: Nice use of linking to other sims I think.
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: thanks--I'll go look soon!
Logos Sohl nods
AJ Brooks: ok - moving on
AJ Brooks: margaret
Olivia Hotshot: <recognizes this one>
Margaret Michalski: The House of Usher is role play activity at the University of Richmond which is based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe has been selected as my favorite place for educational activities.
Margaret Michalski: The slrul is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Richmond/128/128/25 .
Margaret Michalski: This particular location was selected because it is an activity that has shown me the proper way to design my own role play.
Viv Trafalgar: woohooo
Margaret Michalski: It has taught me:
Margaret Michalski: 1. The amount of time and preparation required to prepare the build the location where the scenario will take place.
Margaret Michalski: 2. The importance of the need for materials/orientation to the activity that should be given to participants prior to the activity.
Margaret Michalski: 3. The importance of being prepared to improv during the event.
Margaret Michalski: 4. The importance participating in the activity yourself as a test prior to the actual activity taking place.
Margaret Michalski: 5. The importance of feedback from the participants immediately after the activity.
AJ Brooks: slow down
Margaret Michalski: 6. To keep in mind that though all participants are presented with the same background information the interpretation may be very different.
Margaret Michalski: Some may take their role in the activity very seriously and others may just look at the general idea.
Margaret Michalski: As a final note, some people who have heard me talk about this activity have asked:
Margaret Michalski: "What do I see as the advantage of doing this in a virtual world vs. some general webpage chat session?".
Margaret Michalski: My answer was that for me using a virtual world environment allowed me to be more involved in the story than a standard webpage. Watching a live scenerio and seeing how every position, gesture and word could change the plot of the story.
Margaret Michalski: Thank you! If any has any specific questions feel free to send me and IM.
AJ Brooks: lets give folks a second to read back - there was a lot of text there going by pretty fast
Scottmerrick Oh: Fun!
hobbs Constantine: (clapping, I'm a fast reader)
Margaret Michalski: Sorry had lag
AJ Brooks: lol
AJ Brooks: lag - its going around :-)
AJ Brooks: questions
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: all the students thought Margaret, who was observing the Beta Test, was a villain in the simulation :)
AJ Brooks: thoughts
hobbs Constantine: Tours available?
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: will be soon, yes
Perplexity Peccable: good question
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: you can wander it now
hobbs Constantine: Assessment (rubrics?) available?
Ignatius Onomatopoeia hides from assessment
Viv Trafalgar: pffft Iggy
AJ Brooks: lol
Magdalena Colclough grins at Iggy
AJ Brooks: ok - we need to move on
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: Viv and I derived 10 lessons
Viv Trafalgar: that's just the midterms talking
AJ Brooks: things can come back up at the end if we have time
AJ Brooks: I also noticed that some of the snaps added late were no copy, so they won't show up - we'll try to go back to them if we have time
Rumi Saeed: will these slides be in the transcript?
Marc Rexen: Mine, laggy.
AJ Brooks: wait
Kathryn Pleides: this is the land of grey?
Perplexity Peccable: yep
Lolly Dovgal: Grey for me.
AJ Brooks: i'm having TERRIBLE lag problems. Honestly thing in SL seems to be getting worse not better
Free Radar HUD v1.1 by Crystal Gadgets
AJ Brooks sighs
Marc Rexen: it's the next slide.
Scottmerrick Oh: Here it comes
Marc Rexen: It flashed for me.
Olivia Hotshot: \o/
AJ Brooks: one second everyone
Scottmerrick Oh: must be a big image?
Marc Rexen: Let me copy in the text for it AJ...that's all that matters.
Marc Rexen: First World War Poetry Digital Archive.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Frideswide/219/200/647
This is a large archive production by Oxford University. The effort was funded by the JISC Digitaisation programme.
Jarrad Voom: whoops
Marc Rexen: The motif is a recreation of what it was like in the trenches during WWI. Landing zone in this realistic build is in a "behind the front" training camp. You get the basics here which includes a proper uniform for the period.
AJ Brooks: is this the one, marc
Kathryn Pleides: I saw one, then it jumped to another, and now it's grey ... back on the second
Marc Rexen: The next step is a teleport to a sim-wide build of the trenches of WWI. It is an amazingly realistic build. Walking the trenches takes you through the living, dining, medical. and front-line areas of the trenches. Do watch out for the gas.
Olivia Hotshot: it is the WWI sim
Olivia Hotshot: showing now
Rebekah Cavan: ooh! That's the one I was going to do but I got here too late. Glad somebody else did it!
Marc Rexen: Stations and ghostly individuals are where you listen to audio and watch video. There are dozens of these in all areas with a mix between poetry and information. While billed as a poetry Archive, they have many audio interviews with WWI vets on what life was like in the trenches.
Marc Rexen: Everyone reacts to war differently, I get reflective, and it's clear from the poetry that others do to. The mix of poetry, the informative interviews, and the realistic build means you can easily lose 2 or 3 hours and not even realize it (as I did).
Marc Rexen: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/secondlife
Marc Rexen: ...and that's it...questions?
AJ Brooks: marc - do I have the right slide up?
Kathryn Pleides: I've been there; it was cool.
Marc Rexen: yes...the landing zone.
Marc Rexen: friend did the uniforms (why I chose this one).
Kali Pizzaro: interesting
Scottmerrick Oh: Love the mashup of the arts and history
Rebekah Cavan: Go through the battlefield at midnight.
Marc Rexen: The trenches are gray, raining, and deadly dreary.
Rebekah Cavan: It sets a very strong mood
Marc Rexen: It really works with this build.
360 Placebo: poetry and vid links are very good so too the rl stories
AJ Brooks: questions
Marc Rexen: You wouldn't think it would, then 3 hours later you realize it's bed time.
AJ Brooks: thoughts?
Kali Pizzaro: who built this Marc
Olivia Hotshot: Csteph Mariner
Viv Trafalgar: Csteph
Viv Trafalgar: Submariner
Marc Rexen: I don't recall the name...
Kali Pizzaro: got it
Olivia Hotshot: out of Oxford Univ
Olivia Hotshot: Yes thanks Viv
AJ Brooks: sorry - we have to move on :-( I hate being time keeper
AJ Brooks: who's snap is this?
AJ Brooks: Oronoque?
Oronoque Westland: no
AJ Brooks: oh - ok
AJ Brooks: who is claiming this snapshot
AJ Brooks: furry in front of a jazz singer
AJ Brooks: :)
Olivia Hotshot: chuckling
AJ Brooks: ok - moving on
Olivia Hotshot: Me!
Lolly Dovgal: Sorry folks, I give up, can't see any images, it's frustrating. I'll look on the transcript.
AJ Brooks: the no copy items are killing the board
AJ Brooks: robot museum
Olivia Hotshot: This is mine AJ
Magdalena Colclough: Marvin!
AJ Brooks: olivia - you're on
Olivia Hotshot: This is a photo of the Robot Museum.
Olivia Hotshot: The robot museum is an exceptional collection of both sci-fi robots and real robots.
According to the museum information, "The Museum of Robots is dedicated to the appreciation of robots. Its mission is to promote understanding of the place of robots in popular culture, art, and science. We realize this mission through permanent and special exhibits, entertainment, and events."
Scottmerrick Oh: Great place!
Viv Trafalgar: oh I need to go there
Olivia Hotshot: <i am the grey robot>
Olivia Hotshot: One of the best features of the museum is the robot maker. This tool encourages visitors to create their own robot avatar using parts found on traditional robots. It enables participants to actually become one with the environment and role play a robot. for many people this is the first time they will create an avatar (and not purchase one) and learn about folders and how to "dress" and undress.
Olivia Hotshot: Any time the virtual environment can be meaningfully extended- especially collaboratively, it rates higher with me. The slurl to get to the museum is here: ô€€€
Olivia Hotshot: Photos from my trip are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliviahotshot/sets/72157614712134215/
For additional information about the Museum of Robots, please contact Bibi Bayliss.
For a free t-shirt, IM me and i will shoot it to you. I happen to have it on at the moment.
Olivia Hotshot: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kubrick/98/161/27
Scottmerrick Oh: Olivia, that's the place with the great robot art display, yes?
AJ Brooks: slurl again pls
AJ Brooks: great
Olivia Hotshot: Any Questions?
Olivia Hotshot: Yes Scott
Magdalena Colclough: Did Madcow Cosmos work with Bibi on this?
Rebekah Cavan: robot art in the basement
Zotarah Shepherd really likes Olivia's Flickrs. *smiles*
Firery Broome: yes the robots are Madcows
Magdalena Colclough smiles
AJ Brooks: anything else on this one?
Scottmerrick Oh: That was the first place I'd seen media portioned out on tiny parcels
Firery Broome: the robots you create
Scottmerrick Oh: not necessary anymore with the beta, eh?
AJ Brooks: ok - moving on
Kathryn Pleides: lots of us don't use the beta
Magdalena Colclough nods - I saw a prototype of his robot maker a couple of years ago at an NPIRL event - great stuff
AJ Brooks: shaw
AJ Brooks: who's is this?
AJ Brooks: ok - moving on
Shaw Checchinato: that was me embarrassingly looking at myself with my new skin in '07...sorry.
Olivia Hotshot: <Has to skip to a meeting - see you all soon!!!>
Shaw Checchinato: :p
Kathryn Pleides: bye
Zotarah Shepherd: Bye Olivias
hobbs Constantine: bye
AJ Brooks: Bagdad cafe on rt 66
Shaw Checchinato: where are you getting all of these?
Jarrad Voom: bye olivia
Shaw Checchinato: I am so embarrassed. LOL!
AJ Brooks: who's is this one?
Maximum Goldshark: Beuler, Beuler, anyone....?
AJ Brooks: ok - next
Perplexity Peccable: they are taking so long to rez, I wonder anyone can tell what's what
Scottmerrick Oh: That's moi
AJ Brooks: I"m saying the names of the shots
Shaw Checchinato: that was me playing the piano and someone had their AO on and they didn't believe they did.
AJ Brooks: ok - scott - you're on
Perplexity Peccable: aha - thanks, AJ
Scottmerrick Oh: Pasting in prepped text
Logos Sohl: This one now is ISTE island
Scottmerrick Oh: This is a snap of moi standing by the polling object at the Bloggers Hut on ISTE Island. There's a running poll always up and open for the "Blog-o'-the month" chosen from four nominees. Sometime the last day of the month, the object is reset, the new prevailing blog takes residence in the RSS feed displayer, and new nominees go up. It's been fun maintaining this for ISTE for a couple years now, and I hope that folks will visit and vote. Voting for this month ends tomorrow!
Also, if you're an educator interested in virtual worlds, I invite you to visit and use, and join if you'd like, http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net -- We'll be hosting the ISTE2010 Denver Virtual Environments Playground and could use your help and collaboration to make it the best casual event of the year for participants both in Denver and globally in a variety of platforms, not just SL.
We also host the 3rd Tuesday of each month the ISTE Speaker Session in SL. Join
There are also beaucoup resources there for learning about educational blogs and blogging and for discovering new favorites. And while you're there, keep an eye open to your minimap--the front porch of ISTE Island HQ is often the scene of some wonderful ad hoc chats about all sorts of best practices and good resources...
AJ Brooks: questions for scott - while he hunts down the slurl
Scottmerrick Oh: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ytr8rb
hobbs Constantine: hobbs unabashedly says that ISTE is her second favorite place in SL for collaboration, after VWER, of course
AJ Brooks: :)
Zotarah Shepherd: Yes
AJ Brooks: thoughts on this one - questions?
Kali Pizzaro: 46 on the sim for the transcript
hobbs Constantine: Good choice Scott!
AJ Brooks: ok - moving on
Rebekah Cavan: I have to leave. (Real life class in 8 minutes.) Thanks everyone - these are great! Thanks, AJ!
Scottmerrick Oh: We've featured some great blogs in the past, Peggy Sheehy's there now
Kali Pizzaro: ISte is one place that you can almost always find someone on
Zotarah Shepherd: Bye Rebekah
Rebekah Cavan: bye
Kathryn Pleides: steampunky
AJ Brooks: Verne
Kali Pizzaro: if you are form the UK
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: very nice
Lou Tones: Ciao Rebekah
AJ Brooks: Jules Verne
Jarrad Voom: bye rebekah
Trudy Takacs: can't wait to visit all these places
AJ Brooks: who dropped in Jules Vrrne
hobbs Constantine: me too Trudy
Scottmerrick Oh: Me too, Trudy!
Ignatius Onomatopoeia bets it was Viv
AJ Brooks: hmmm - ok
AJ Brooks: going on
AJ Brooks: Sojourner
Mimi Muircastle: mine:)
AJ Brooks: mimi
AJ Brooks: you're on
Mimi Muircastle: When I first visited SL, Sojourner was still alive
Mimi Muircastle: and she embodies for me what teaching is in SL
Zotarah Shepherd: That is a lovely, inspiring sim
Zotarah Shepherd: I remember her. Her Dream lives on there helping people.
Mimi Muircastle: so today if you have not heard of her I want you to visit her island of Dreams and the Brain immersive
Mimi Muircastle: build - I have a notecard of a few of her conversations in SL
Mimi Muircastle: if you are interested, IM me:)
Mimi Muircastle: but mostly I want you all to know from her story the power of teachers and their dreams
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: Mimi, does a foundation maintain the sim, now that she is not with us?
Mimi Muircastle: she was a multiple stroke victim
Mimi Muircastle: and Sl for her was a place of freedom
Scottmerrick Oh: a very touching build
Trudy Takacs: :(
Mimi Muircastle: questions?
AJ Brooks: questions for Mimi
cyber Placebo: what is the name of the sim?
AJ Brooks: Sojourner was an amazing soul
AJ Brooks: can we get eh SLURL
Mimi Muircastle: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Sojourners%20Dream/82/36/26
AJ Brooks: excellent - thx
Mimi Muircastle: It is Dreams
AJ Brooks: throughts - questions?
cyber Placebo: thanks :-)
AJ Brooks: great - going on
Viv Trafalgar: ((I need to run - good to see everyone))
Viv Trafalgar: ((thanks AJ)
Kali Pizzaro: bye
Mimi Muircastle: she was one of the first to imagine immersive opps
AJ Brooks: western front
Geoff Lumley: This is mine - it's Frideswide again
AJ Brooks: geoff - you're on
Marc Rexen: opps, sorry.
Scottmerrick Oh: Okay, sold! I have to go see this place!
hobbs Constantine: bye viv
Geoff Lumley: This is a shot of part of the trench system. This region epitomises what SL is best for - creating a fully immersive experience
Zotarah Shepherd: Another of the WWI poetry project?
Geoff Lumley: Yes - there's so much to see and do here
Kathryn Pleides: same project, different area from last picture
Scottmerrick Oh: Ya'll if I don't walk my dog before the fam gets home I'm in deep trouble. This has been fab. Thanks all, and AJ!
Geoff Lumley: It's a must see for visitors
Perplexity Peccable: Thank you, Scott :)
Jarrad Voom: bye viv
Scottmerrick Oh: np Perp!
Geoff Lumley: Follow the instructions and adjust your sky for the best effect
AJ Brooks whipsers - please let the presenters finish
Geoff Lumley: Here's the SLUrl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Frideswide/58/135/21
Kali Pizzaro: Geoff is this your build
Geoff Lumley: Oh no - I wish it were. It belongs to Oxford University
Mimi Muircastle gave you Sojourner's Dream for VWER.
Geoff Lumley: Part of their First World war Poetry Digital Archive
Jarrad Voom: bye scott
Kali Pizzaro: excellent
AJ Brooks: nice snapshot
AJ Brooks: questions for Geoff
Geoff Lumley: Go see it
AJ Brooks: thoughts
Kali Pizzaro: will do
Perplexity Peccable: yes - nice snapshot
Zotarah Shepherd: So many great places to see. Maybe we could do this periodically AJ.
AJ Brooks: ok - moving on - we're almost done
AJ Brooks: and finally - zoo
AJ Brooks: :)
Trudy Takacs: @Zotarah, yes, SL changes and grows so fast
Zotarah Shepherd: Yes
AJ Brooks: who submitted the zoo pictures
Kathryn Pleides: this is the last?
AJ Brooks: yes
Zotarah Shepherd: Mine did not show up.
Kathryn Pleides: hmmm, my pic must not have uploaded. anyone else?
AJ Brooks: it must not have been full perms
Kathryn Pleides: it was a texture
Zotarah Shepherd: It was
AJ Brooks: i'll have to look why later
AJ Brooks: who has this ZXoo picture
AJ Brooks: ok {shrug]
Ignatius Onomatopoeia: tell us about it and I'll put it in the transcript
AJ Brooks: one note
AJ Brooks: Rebekah asked me to pass this long
Rumi Saeed: what a wonderful intro for me...thank you...must go
Logos Sohl: Maybe if ppl didn't get to talk they could put the names at least in the chat log?
AJ Brooks: Invitation to submit a "Sim Review" of an educational sim.
Do you have a favorite educational sim? A treasure that stands out as an excellent example of how to use a virtual environment as a learning and teaching tool? We are looking for your reviews!
The Journal of Virtual Worlds and Education, a peer reviewed journal, will publish its premier issue in Spring 2010. Along with the research articles we have already received, we will be featuring a less formal "Sim Review" section.
These articles are not subject to peer review, and will be available on our website and/or in print. Articles should explore the particular space (or build) in terms of educational value, benefit (or not) over traditional methods of presentation to students, or unique use of environment.
The review you submit may be about your own virtual space or another entity's space. If there is any sim you frequent and enjoy, we would like to know about it!
Guidelines:
Articles may be up to 1,000 words and should include photos and/or video to support the article. Site location (slurl) is required
AJ Brooks:
Papers are to be submitted by email as a Word (.doc) document or Rich Text Format (.rtf).
Photos may be submitted by email as .jpg or .png files.
Video may be posted to youtube, tagged jvwe, and a link provided.
Deadline: April 20, 2010
Submit to: jvwe@jvwe.org
Questions? IM Rebekah Cavan
Thank you!
AJ Brooks: i have ideas on how to make this better for next time
Scottmerrick Oh: Bye ya'll!!!! Thanks again!
AJ Brooks: and there WILL be a next time - I liked doing this
LoCE99Ch8 Morpork: Inspiring presentation today everyone!
AJ Brooks: maybe we'll do themed ones
Magdalena Colclough: this was great, AJ
Kali Pizzaro: Great idea
AJ Brooks: but I have ideas on how to make it work better
Jarrad Voom: AJ this was great