Transcript of the visit to Third Rock Grid by the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable, May 2010

Thanks to Hobbs & Olivia for the photos. Join our VWER group at Flickr and add your own pictures!

Margaret Dashwood: Hi everyone, and welcome to our monthly Other Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting.


Profdan Holt: Hi, Hobbs.


Birdie Notion: green speakeasy text


Margaret Dashwood: This meeting is made possible by our special hosts: The 3rd Rock Grid Community and the 3rg Education Group.


Margaret Dashwood: Please remember that OpenSim is "alpha" and that technical difficulties can occur. Our technical team has been working hard to make the grid more stable.


Margaret Dashwood: This meeting will be in TEXT CHAT only.


Margaret Dashwood: Since it is a public meeting we do keep a transcript of what is said in local chat.


Margaret Dashwood: For a copy of transcripts, please visit http//www.vwer.org


Margaret Dashwood: Finally, if you have AO's on, or other similar tool, please put it to sleep or detach it for now. It tends to lag things.


Margaret Dashwood: Why don't we get started they way we usually do, by introducing ourselves. No need to wait, go ahead and type who you are, where you are, and your ties to education (including education supporters) into local chat.


Margaret Dashwood: I am Margaret (Marg), Research Information Specialist, University of Illinois at Chicago. Owner of the Stowa Way sim here on the 3rd Rock Grid and the 3rg Educators Group.


Dusty Artaud: I keep timing out, going in afk mode grr


Birdie Notion: Birdie Newborn, college publisher


Iggy Strangeland is Joe Essid, University of Richmond Dept. of Rhetoric & Communication Studies


Hobbs Constantine: Heather Dodds, Natural Science Course Mentor, Western Governors University, "Science Rules"


Olivia Hotshot: Ann Steckel - Cal State Chico - educator, techie, bald chick


Unable to search at this time.


Iggy Strangeland: woot Olivia


Profdan Holt: Dan Holt, Lansing Community College, Lansing, MI--I teach writing, first year comp and creative.


Dusty Artaud: Randi Kopp, Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum at the College of New Jersey


Dartagnan Nakajima: Hi Xann


Oronoque Westland: Roberta Kilkenny, Hunter College, City University of New York, economic historian and ed tech lover


Sit ball- regular sit: Right click me and choose 'Sit Here' to sit down


Margaret Dashwood: going one


Ken Woodget: I'm Ken Weaver, School of Computing, Clemson University - owner of the 3rd Rock Yacht Club


Margaret Dashwood: once


Scrud Werke: ScrudWeke- I used to Kill, only wear an ASAA


Margaret Dashwood: twice


Dusty Artaud is Online


Xann Kanto: Hi, I'm Xann Kanto (Ann Randall), Boise State University, Distance Education


Dolfke Barbosa: Dolfke Barbosa, 3rg greeter and mac help center


Unable to search at this time.


Margaret Dashwood: sold to the Blues man


Margaret Dashwood: Today I will introduce: 1) the 3rd Rock Grid, 2) a few education projects currently here at 3rd Rock and 3) discuss what we have learned about OpenSim .


Iggy Strangeland: yay! Mac help!


Margaret Dashwood: After the meeting you are free to tour. Notecards with locations is available on the table. Please take a copy .


Margaret Dashwood: Community members will be available to assist you at each location.


Margaret Dashwood: Now, the 3rd Rock Grid is a community based grid founded in 2007. We are a close group of friends that help each other out in more ways than one. We learn from each other and support each other through those rough times.


Margaret Dashwood: A few of our newest members are the Imprudence Viewer Development Team and a Starfleet group.


Margaret Dashwood: As in other OpenSim grids there is no currency here. However, we do have "Funny Money" (no values) which is used to upload textures.


Margaret Dashwood: It was created for future prospects of currency and managing the grid easier.


Iggy Strangeland: wow--working LMs and notecards. This is a good grid already


Margaret Dashwood: In regards to education, we currently have 34 educators and education supporters. Currently, the main education center of 3rg is found on Stowa Way.


Birdie Notion: Wehre's the Funny Money?


Margaret Dashwood: This sim is dedicated to both general and health education in virtual worlds.


Olivia Hotshot: in California Birdie


Olivia Hotshot: =)


Birdie Notion: lol


Scrud Werke: use Buy, and pick any "Value"


Margaret Dashwood: The health portion of the sim includes a role play clinic for a patient-physician communication training on healthy behaviors. Whereas the general education portion (upper village) as a build dedicated to various areas of education.


Unable to search at this time.


Iggy Strangeland: everywhere IRL these days, Birdie


Margaret Dashwood: When you visit the sim you will notice that some builds are better than others. The reason for that is to show how someone can gain knowledge and improve skills through active learning.


Hobbs Constantine: @Iggy lol


Margaret Dashwood: A few other educational locations include our very own SL: Xanno Kanto (3rg: Avianna Pacem), SL: Oronoque Westland (3rg: Oronoque Westland) .


Birdie Notion: Stowa Way, I just got it.


Margaret Dashwood: Xanno (Avianna) uses her sim as the headquarters of the ARVEL group in SL.


Margaret Dashwood: Oronoque Westland like a few other educators will be teaching a courses in the fall semester.


Margaret Dashwood: Now, that you have been given a background of 3rg and education the 3rd Rock Grid Community would like to know what are educators looking for in 3rd Rock or any other OpenSim grid not found in SL?


Margaret Dashwood: go ahead folks


Dusty Artaud: safe place for K-12 activities


Margaret Dashwood: here is your chance to say what you want


Iggy Strangeland: being able to back up my data w/o feeling like a TOS violator


Birdie Notion: space to call home


Hobbs Constantine: "smallness"


Iggy Strangeland: megaprims!


Hobbs Constantine: aka "neighborhood"


Ken Woodget: safe place for students


Dartagnan Nakajima: we definitely have that here Hobbs


Birdie Notion: intelligent conversation


Margaret Dashwood: lol Birdie


Scrud Werke: Locked Facility Trusties, too


Birdie Notion: Is that hard to find too?


Margaret Dashwood: any thing else


Birdie Notion: collaboration


Dartagnan Nakajima: megaprims are not a problem here


Scrud Werke: Creative Conspiracy


Dusty Artaud: cross-sim collaboration and programs


Margaret Dashwood: collaboration is not a problem either . I talk too much here


Iggy Strangeland: Dartagnan--that is perfect for the build I would do here, given the lower prices compared to SL


Margaret Dashwood: much


Dartagnan Nakajima: sounds good Iggy


Margaret Dashwood: anything else in particular


Olivia Hotshot: Margaret, do you have some sort of cost analysis?


Oronoque Westland: Marg, perhaps we could respond to the "wants" one at a time


Iggy Strangeland: Naming is good too--we could actually have Roderick and Madeline Usher as names


Margaret Dashwood: well, webpage does have prices


Margaret Dashwood: BUT


Margaret Dashwood: educators as special as we are


Margaret Dashwood: have a separate deal


Birdie Notion: (shivers)


Margaret Dashwood: individual project basis


Hobbs Constantine: hobbs blushes -- we are special!


Scrud Werke: Deals abound, ask, and you may grin


Xann Kanto: 3rg owner is very keen on education projects


Margaret Dashwood: we try to give that what best meets your needs


Margaret Dashwood: we also have the speakeasy


Margaret Dashwood: if you did not notice


Margaret Dashwood: lol


Margaret Dashwood: and a tinC book


Margaret Dashwood: if that is right


Xann Kanto: wtg, Marg, i *did* notice!


Olivia Hotshot: Margaret, who is we?


Birdie Notion: will other edtech tools from SL work here?


Margaret Dashwood: the community


Scrud Werke: Alien criminal conspiracies


Xann Kanto: lol


Margaret Dashwood: here it is no me


Margaret Dashwood: it is we


Margaret Dashwood: as in we help each other


Iggy Strangeland: good--that' was SL's promise back when


Margaret Dashwood: educator or not


Olivia Hotshot: oooh the community does.


Dolfke Barbosa: "we" have Starfleet here to protect us


Olivia Hotshot: gotcha.


Margaret Dashwood: we share almost anything


Scrud Werke: if it's unique- it's legal, here :)


Hobbs Constantine: @Birdie: do you mean like sloodle?


Xann Kanto: :D


Oronoque Westland: I have been using Sloodle here


Birdie Notion: sloodle, handraising chair, mystitool


Xann Kanto: interesting, Oronoque


Iggy Strangeland: @Oronoque--that's very good news.


Margaret Dashwood: We are working on other tools


Margaret Dashwood: such as surveys


Margaret Dashwood: etc


Olivia Hotshot: Oronoque, how is the integration into Moodle going and what version of Moodle are you using?


Dartagnan Nakajima: Hi Marie


Oronoque Westland: Sloodle is still going through testing in Open Sim...


Margaret Dashwood: Hi Marie


Oronoque Westland: version 1. somebody


Marie Lawson: Greetings, sorry if I step on anyone


Dartagnan Nakajima: everyone this is Marie Lawson our very newest region holder along with the Star Trek RP


Oronoque Westland: not all features are ironed out yet, but the major ones work


Dartagnan Nakajima: Trek


Olivia Hotshot: What i mean is it Joule or the reg version or some home brew?


Ken Woodget: LL&P


Dolfke Barbosa: her ships will protect us


Ken Woodget: waves


Oronoque Westland: a version for OS


Margaret Dashwood: yes, Whitestar our OpenSim techie


Oronoque Westland: I am not a techie so I cannot be too specific


Xann Kanto: One very interesting piece of "avi"thropology here is the culture of community. 3rg has a community council that meets weekly.


Margaret Dashwood: who works with Strawberry


Hobbs Constantine: Hi Marie!


Olivia Hotshot: no worries Oronoque


Margaret Dashwood: his close friend


Marie Lawson: I want a fliptitle, mines just a box with a hovertext lol


Margaret Dashwood: gave it to us


Margaret Dashwood: sloodle


Margaret Dashwood: an OpenSim compatible


Marie Lawson: SLoodle is such a noodle :D


Dartagnan Nakajima: /tab Hello, and Welcome to 3rg


Iggy Strangeland: @Xann--that is very cool. SL misses that culture of inclusiveness


Margaret Dashwood: Dart fell number of times through my builds when i first started


Margaret Dashwood: lol


Dartagnan Nakajima: :)


Margaret Dashwood: always a whole someplace


Xann Kanto: yes, and as you will see here, the entire community is interested in communicating with the education sector


Margaret Dashwood: lol


Oronoque Westland: there is a strong sense of community here...since I joined I have had the help of many friends with building, scripting, etc


Oronoque Westland: I have not even had to ask


Xann Kanto: helps prevent the educator ghetto effect


Scrud Werke: knowing who, How, or Why... helps a bit


Iggy Strangeland: it's welcoming to newcomers. I pretty much customized the avi in about 10 minutes. Free uploads help XD


Margaret Dashwood: Scrud was always watching me from a distance


Margaret Dashwood: and said "wait stop"


Margaret Dashwood: lol


Olivia Hotshot: Scrud are you an educator?


Oronoque Westland: plus there are weekly meetings (not required) where we can all voice our ideas, views, wish list, etc


Margaret Dashwood: my personal advisor on builds


Margaret Dashwood: lol


Olivia Hotshot: ahhh


Margaret Dashwood: Dart too


Scrud Werke: old as I am, I must teach or put up with stupidity


Birdie Notion: a mystic, I think


Hobbs Constantine: I've been to those meetings, they are very open and welcoming


Margaret Dashwood: lol Scrud


Margaret Dashwood: we help each other with scripts


Margaret Dashwood: etc


Margaret Dashwood: just to make it work


Iggy Strangeland: LOL Scrud. I have no excuse...


Margaret Dashwood: eventually we will have workshops on builds


Margaret Dashwood: scripting


Margaret Dashwood: etc


Margaret Dashwood: for anyone


Hobbs Constantine: @scrud lol


Margaret Dashwood: not just educators


Margaret Dashwood: we call it the 3rg University


Oronoque Westland: I might mention the reason why I have a private region, instead of being on the education core


Iggy Strangeland: tell us, O


Scrud Werke: Sharing in 3RG- is quite easy, Staining openness with bias, abominable


Oronoque Westland: as some of you know, I teach Caribbean history


Profdan Holt: And what is meant by the education core?


Oronoque Westland: that includes the history of slavery


Olivia Hotshot is Online


Oronoque Westland: which is not a pretty picture


Margaret Dashwood: the main regions along the welcome area


Oronoque Westland: I teach at a College


Scrud Werke: I hope it includes Pusser's :)


Oronoque Westland is Online


Margaret Dashwood: there is several some 25 or more at the moment Dan


Hobbs Constantine: hobbs hushes to listen closely


Oronoque Westland: so do not want to "pretty things up"


Margaret Dashwood: as I said


Oronoque Westland: I wanted to be able to have a mature rating for that reason


Margaret Dashwood: education is on individual basis


Iggy Strangeland: yes--we have some disturbing content at Usher, too


Hobbs Constantine: ah!


Margaret Dashwood: we put you what meets your needs


Xann Kanto: good point @Oronoque


Margaret Dashwood: that is why oro is on private sim


Margaret Dashwood: vs core


Birdie Notion: Speaking of disturbing, are there any age limits here?


Scrud Werke: Mankind has filthy habits- by knowing them, you can steer a morality cleaner


Margaret Dashwood: she needed certain things and 3rg gave it to her


Margaret Dashwood: the best we could under alpha


Profdan Holt: Why, Margaret--is the education core PG?


Margaret Dashwood: Dan, it really depends on the project


Xann Kanto: 18, Birdie, but you can talk to Lets Rock, the owner, about special events


Margaret Dashwood: technically yes


Iggy Strangeland: in theory, Usher is PG....says a lot about how tame Poe's work seems today.


Scrud Werke: due to certain litigational points, 3RG is an adults-only Grid


Marie Lawson thinks strip poker is a bad idea


Olivia Hotshot: so 3rd Rock is PG or is not?


Dartagnan Nakajima: lol


Olivia Hotshot: i am confused.


Margaret Dashwood: this is because


Margaret Dashwood: but the grid owner is considering individual project basis


Dusty Artaud: I want to know what the 3RG cross-grid philosophy is for instance if I had a school museum here but kept my office on SL at NPC - any issues with that?


Margaret Dashwood: those that teach the 16-18 year old s


Margaret Dashwood: can have what they need


Ken Woodget: That's one of the things we want to see about


Scrud Werke: cartoons aint sex, thank you, US government


Birdie Notion: My target audience (I think) is 16-25


Birdie Notion: Looking for the right grid


Margaret Dashwood: we do not want that SL problem of age barrier


Margaret Dashwood: teen vs adult


Ken Woodget: we have projects that will be middle school


Ken Woodget: but we would use private sims


Profdan Holt: I guess I just don't understand how Oro's project wouldn't fit in here?


Margaret Dashwood: Yes, ken is one of our new educators here


Profdan Holt: in the ed, core?

Scrud Werke: treat folk like grownups- and the degree of pornography drops like a Soviet planetcracker


Iggy Strangeland: that's what I'll be doing at Heritage Key for 2nd graders (!) next year


Ken Woodget: if we can make the arrangements with management


Margaret Dashwood: I am sure! I try to help all educators


Iggy Strangeland: we'll have a private grid--w/ exception for the school system's firewall


Olivia Hotshot: Anyone know how many avatars a sim can support here?


Margaret Dashwood: I know that educators like to know the exact cost


Margaret Dashwood: and the problem of gaining support from institutions in some cases


Olivia Hotshot: Having huge chat lag - sorry if i am asking things already answered.


Oronoque Westland: by having a private sim I can control access and also alert visitors that they may see mature content...I am not pushing the limits of mature, but PG would be too confining for teaching history to adults


Ken Woodget: For educators the age issue is important


Sunny Tomorrow: welcome to all.... *hope this makes it through*


Dusty Artaud: Maybe I missed this but who is the 3RG grid owner?


Dolfke Barbosa: 35 Olivia


Margaret Dashwood: His name is Lets Rock


Dolfke Barbosa: we did tests for that


Iggy Strangeland sits on his typing hands so all the earlier Qs can be answered


Dolfke Barbosa: Lets Rock, Dusty


Profdan Holt: Laggy here too, Olivia.


Xann Kanto: @Dusty the owner is Lets Rock


Margaret Dashwood: he is the current owner


Margaret Dashwood: this is alpha folks


Margaret Dashwood: Sl is laggy too


Birdie Notion: it sure is


Xann Kanto: Lets Rock aka Lazuli Pooraka


Margaret Dashwood: this is the best I have seen it


Dartagnan Nakajima: Hi ship


Scrud Werke: Targetting audiences by average glandular advancement does use calendars


Dartagnan Nakajima: Hi MrOH


Profdan Holt: So, Oro, does having a private sim mean you house it on your own server?


Margaret Dashwood: actually was able to use the speakeasy


Shipton Sands: Hi Dart


Margaret Dashwood: lol


Margaret Dashwood: Hi Ship


Oronoque Westland: no, I do not have a server


Margaret Dashwood: no dan


Dartagnan Nakajima: going afk.....for a bit


Oronoque Westland: I am hosted by # ROCK


Shipton Sands: Hi Margaret


Oronoque Westland: 3RD Rock*


Dolfke Barbosa: hi Ship


Margaret Dashwood: everything is on project =basis


Shipton Sands: Hi Dol


Scrud Werke: I'm stuck learning advanced Alzheimer's care- its no walk in any park


Oronoque Westland: that was one of the attractions for me


Sunny Tomorrow: hi all


Oronoque Westland: I have a very limited budget, both in terms of money and equipment


Oronoque Westland: limited*


Margaret Dashwood: everyone has an opportunity to see what 3rg gan give you for your specific project


Margaret Dashwood: not all education projects are equal


Oronoque Westland: I wanted someplace to host, yet be a private owner


Margaret Dashwood: we can't give one $ amount to all


Margaret Dashwood: that would not be fair


Profdan Holt: So what differentiates between a private sim and a public (ed. core)? Is it like an island vs. mainland for SL?


Margaret Dashwood: content


Dolfke Barbosa: "technical suggestion" : "for best performance here in 3rg, pls lower your viewers bandwith to 300" preferences / network


Margaret Dashwood: mainly


Margaret Dashwood: Oro has a project that may contain nudity so she is on private sim


Margaret Dashwood: However, that does not mean that management will not allow you to have it as well.


Dolfke Barbosa: yes Prof


Dolfke Barbosa: sort of


Birdie Notion: text lag again. Too many fingers, Mr. Mozart


Dusty Artaud: big lag in chat?


Ali Gator: sort of Prof


Margaret Dashwood: sorry for the lag


Iggy Strangeland: better now that I reset my bandwidth


Unable to search at this time.


Iggy Strangeland: 61 folks showing on the sim, according to my map!


Unable to search at this time.


Profdan Holt: What's yours set at, Iggy?


Ali Gator: even more I think


Sunny Tomorrow: i show just 9


Birdie Notion: my map shows 5


Iggy Strangeland: bit of a difference, that :D


Iggy Strangeland: I noticed we had some folks vanish to my right--did we max the sim and they crashed?


Iggy Strangeland: what is the sim max here?


Ali Gator: we used to test 35 on one sim


Iggy Strangeland: that's a big number for OpenSim


Iggy Strangeland: I've found the grid (crosses fingers) stable


Hobbs Constantine: I think we did lose a few folks


Iggy Strangeland: Margaret included


Iggy Strangeland: have any of you explored much?


Hobbs Constantine: She said she was getting lag


Iggy Strangeland: the grid is big


Iggy Strangeland: now I'm showing 9 on the sim, btw.


Hobbs Constantine: I've notice Imprudence won't let you come back in for a few minutes


Ali Gator: 160 sims and growing


Iggy Strangeland: that's cool, Ali. What is your concurrency like?


Hobbs Constantine: @Iggy, I've looked around Margaret's areas but not Oro


Hobbs Constantine: Oro's


Ali Gator: when grid reaches critical values, logons are slower, yes


Birdie Notion: I scouted out, mostly by flying.


Ali Gator: to help the ppl online not crashing


Dusty Artaud: How is 3RG funded?


Birdie Notion: It was hard to log in and teleport


Ali Gator: 3rg has rented servers


Birdie Notion: I could see Areo's space, but it was all water.


Ali Gator: and they are payed by the ppl who are renting their sims


Iggy Strangeland: one issue about building in OS is editing linked prims


Ali Gator: we could use more paying ones ...


Iggy Strangeland: in your experiences, how does that work here? Should I unlink before tweaking a part?


Ali Gator: Birdie, that happens sometimes


Ali Gator: then walking instead of TP helps


Birdie Notion: Tried that.


Birdie Notion: But then it rezzed


Iggy Strangeland: btw, I found sim crossings here really elegant when flying. That has been a problem for me in Reaction Grid


Profdan Holt: Is there any collaboration between 3rd rock and other opensim grids?


Birdie Notion: Which is the one where one can add one's own sim?


Iggy Strangeland: @Dan--I was able to export a creation from RG and import it here..that was very cool indeed


Ali Gator: Lets Rock has good contact with other grid owners, yes


Profdan Holt: that's cool, Iggy.


Hobbs Constantine: @Iggy-- I do not understand "elegant" in your phrase


Iggy Strangeland: well, in SL the sim crossings work but are not elegant


Hobbs Constantine: like smooth?


Birdie Notion: bumpy


Iggy Strangeland: you "bounce" sometimes...esp. in a vehicle on my monthly road-trips


Hobbs Constantine: ah ha


Ali Gator: transfers can be done here using Meerkat, Imprudence, even Emerald


Iggy Strangeland: but here it's just like moving from one room to another


Hobbs Constantine: AH getting it


Ali Gator: and off course Second Inventory and Inventory backup


Dusty Artaud: sorry all must go, this has been interesting - thank you!


Ali Gator: but they need to be your own creations


Iggy Strangeland: need a Mac version of Second Inventory :)


Iggy Strangeland: good seeing you again, Dusty!


Dusty Artaud is Offline


Ali Gator: Iggy, you have an Intel Mac ?


Iggy Strangeland: I am, Ali


Profdan Holt: Olivia couldn't get back in (from Twitter), and is off to another appointment.


Birdie Notion: I do


Hobbs Constantine: Do you suppose we should visit some of these notecard locations?


Profdan Holt: I'm game.


Iggy Strangeland: Hobbs, you are *ever* the explorer

Iggy's note: We completed our stay in Third Rock Grid by touring Margaret's builds.

The entire 3RG community took an interest in her work and encouraged her during the process, a feature of the grid that appeals to me, even though I'm a loner as a builder. The warmth of the community reminds me of what I found appealing in Second Life in 2007.