Listening to Intellagirl @ Cybrary Island

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I managed to make it to the last 20mins of Intellagirl Tully’s aka Sarah Robbin’s presentation at UNC, which was also streamed into Second Life using Shoutcast.

Her talk was titled “Creating Authentic and Engaging Community-Oriented Learning Spaces: Using Second Life in Higher Education Classrooms.” She made some interesting points about how learning spaces influence identity and relationships.

posted by jokay Wollongong on Cybrary City using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Touring SL with Konrad and Sean

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It was great to catch up with our friend Konrad again, who is exploring SL with a focus on setting up a space for professional development of teachers. Here we are at Science School checking out the Weather Simulation

posted by jokay Wollongong on Science School using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

The Crowd at ABC Island

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Awaiting the end of the airing of the show in RL… discussion is about to begin.

I have to say I wasn’t that impressed by the tv program… too much focus on US comment, and not enough Australian connection. Everyone has already heard about Anshe Chung….. let’s move on to more interesting things!

No mention of educational projects - and there are several Australian examples to choose from! Nothing on arts projects and the amazing creativity that goes on in Second Life and very little focus on the array of different types of businesses inworld.

posted by jokay Wollongong on ABC Island using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Awaiting the ABC Island Launch

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I’ve staked out a good seat, and I’m awaiting the beginning of the ABC Island Launch which starts in an hour or two.

I am very intrigued about what they will present on the Four Corners TV show which is running to coincide. Let’s hope they do something interesting! More reports to come! ;)

posted by jokay Wollongong on ABC Island using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Moblogging for International Women’s Day!

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The women from the CEEW class and the Communication and Media Diploma students at Wollongong Campus came together today for a Moblogging event for International Women’s Day.

Using some PDAs and cameras, we took photos of each other and recorded some comments. The Diploma students even took video of the event and interviewed participants.

You can check out our Moblog Site here.

Simlish Singers

I discovered this via kottke.org and couldn’t resist recording it here, as I used to be a The Sims player prior to discovering Second Life.

Lily Allen (who is definitely growing on me - have you seen her videos!) has recently recorded a version of one of her songs in Simlish - the language spoken by Sims characters.

I can’t decide if this is weird or cool. Will we all be speaking Simlish or it’s equivalent in the 3D worlds of the future… and who long does it take to learn??…LOL!

Nevertheless, whoever did the machinima for Lily’s Sims2 video has done a great job! ;)

And who knew… after a little bit of research, I discovered that a whole bunch of artitsts have recorded in Simlish.

Sean and Jo at Boracay

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Sean (he’s the gorgeous looking cat in the pic) and I sitting by the campfire at Boracay… Corwin Carrillion’s island in Second Life.

We were supporting a little tour of TALOites for the TALO Swapmeet currently happening in Adelaide.

Corwin’s space gets more amazing everytime I visit! Well worth checking out! ;)

posted by jokay Wollongong on Boracay using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Three Cheers for FOSS and Wireless Blogging

Gnu Chris (aka Chris Harvey) was in town yesterday for a Learnscope supported discussion on Free and Open Source Software and the impact that it could have on the open web publishing that we do as part of Learnscope projects in NSW.

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Unfortunately I missed the first bit (slow train - we need real life teleporting now!)… but managed to hear Chris talk about the definition of Open Source licences, examples of FOSS (with a pic of my avatar! Too funny!), FOSS and the Web and Free Knowledge networks. Chris’s presentation notes are available here.

Anyway, it was great to meet Chris in the flesh and hear more about the work he’s doing. Also very important for those of us who work in educational institutions and have to deal with a ‘firewall of doom’. Well done Gnu Chris and well done NSW Learnscope, who have recently implemented Media Wiki on their server to ensure ongoing collaboration between teams can occur this year!

Makes me want to switch to Ubuntu on all my machines right now! ;)

On another geeky note, I’ve been testing a wireless modem and the Next G Network today… whilst travelling from Wollongong to Sydney and back on the train.

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I gotta say….. blogging and accessing Second Life from the train rocks! LOL!

Discussing Virtual Worlds with the Networks Community Forum

There’s an interesting discussion going on over at the AFLF 2007 Networks Community Forum focussed on virtual worlds, and after a nice plug from Anne Paterson, I had to jump in and add my two cents.

As the message I posted is pretty relevent to the discussions I’ve been having with others about Second Life and it’s educational uses, I’ve decided to post it here too. (After all - we all know how easily comments in forums can get lost, deleted or otherwise disappeared!)

Soo.. here goes. Originally posted here - and republished below….

Re: Second Life and other Virtual Worlds

by Joanna Kay - Friday, 2 March 2007, 05:00 PM

Thanks for the kind feedback Anne! Great to hear you enjoyed the tours we did last year for ENetworks! ;)

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Image: Second Life Tour - eNetworks Event, Sept 2006.

There are some additional resources, including presentation notes, comics and slides developed by Sean FitzGerald and myself on our Second Life in Education wiki.

I’d like to chime in with Aaron and agree that Second Life allows us all access to a thriving community of educators who are exploring the use of 3D virtual environments. For further information on the Second Life education community visit the SimTeach Second Life Education wiki.

Over the last 12mths I have made some fantastic contacts and explored a range of techniques for using the Second Life platform. I’ve also learnt to build and create 3D environments and objects for various purposes - including educational uses, from a fantastic bunch of Second Life ‘residents’ willing to share their skills with the community. It’s been an inspiring time for me, and I do believe that 3D virtual worlds will offer a wealth of opportunity for teaching and learning in the future.

Whether Second Life is the platform that we end up with years down the track is most definitely up for discussion. It cannot be denied that there are some limitations - including bandwidth requirements, firewall limitations, need for high spec hardware and the growing pains being experienced at the moment in terms of concurrent users.

Ultimately, I personally hope that open-source 3D environments continue to gain momentum. C’mon Open Croquet.. and peer-to-peer options like Outback will definitely have exciting applications!

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Image: Sean and Jo drumming in Second Life

However, at the moment the Second Life platform is the most advanced option we have access to, and I believe important to explore, experiment and trial for use in education. The virtual worlds pedagogies, standards for 3D environments, technical solutions and skills in 3D virtual worlds facilitation, which all being explored and developed now by the educational community in Second Life, will definitely inform how the future metaverse might look.

It’s exciting to be a part of that discussion/exploration, and important to note that any facilitation, building or technical skills developed in Second Life will definitely have application in the 3D virtual worlds of the future.

For Jen, and any others interested in exploring Second Life, I wanted to provide a few SLurls for you to consider exploring:

Sean and I also use BlogHUD (a tool for blogging from within SL) to keep track of our travels in-world. Visit here and here for more SLurls to explore.

You can also visit us at our Virtual Meeting Space in Second Life, which we have designed as a space for teachers and students to use to explore Second Life whilst having fun. Drop over and read the virtual books in our library, go for a balloon or boat ride, watch a piece of machinima, play some virtual games or join the virtual drumming circle. Visit: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wasp/42/78/82/

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Image: Jo and Sean’s Virtual Meeting Space in Second Life.

Looking forward to meeting some of you in Second Life soon,

Regards,

Jo Kay
Email: joannamkay@gmail.com
Second Life: jokay Wollongong
Blog: http://jokay.com.au

PS. For those after some basic instructions to get you started in Second Life, there’s a little guide here that you might find useful.

PPS. We are available to provide inworld tours and Second Life workshops for educators again this year. Drop us an email if you’d like more info.