Second Life with Sydney Institute LearnScopers

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I had a great day yesterday - exploring Second Life with the team from the Sydney Insititute of TAFE LearnScope project. They are focusing on the possibilities for teaching and learning in Second Life, and today was our first opportunity to get together inworld and explore.

We had two sessions today. The first group experience a few technical difficulties, but using some alt avs I had prepared earlier and Steph’s 3G card we managed to get everyone inworld. We explored a number of spaces including Svarga, NOAA and the Second Life Library. We also enjoyed some freebie shopping… who knew you could pick up such cool stilettos for free! ;)

In the second session, we had a few less technical headaches, and a smaller group so things ran more smoothly. During this session we managed to get to Ars Virtua, Spaceport Alpha and our Virtual Hairdressing Salon which has recently moved to jokaydia.

A special thanks to the always super supportive Corwin Carillon aka Nick Noakes, who gave the second group an impromptu tour of his fabulous holodeck tools at Boracay. I always appreciate Corwin’s support, feedback and positive energy and he was wonderful with the group. They were really impresed! ;) A special thanks also to Steph and Paula who fab and supported the participants in figuring out their first steps in SL.

At any rate, I hope the sessions today provided the participants with lots of virtual food for thought, and I”m looking forward to hearing their ideas now that they’ve had a little taste of what Second Life is really like!

Now… for some real life sleep! ;)

Upcoming Events: Go Virtual 07!

OMG - what have I gotten myself into.. hehehe! ;)

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Upcoming Regional Event for LearnScope - which will be happening in both Wollongong and jokaydia on the 24th of September and is going be a very challenging - but I’m also expecting very exciting day for me!

Read more about it here and here.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there! ;)

NMC Symposium on Creativity Events

I’ve unfortunately been sidetracked by real life and unable to attend many of the NMC’s Symposium on Creativity sessions which have been held this week inworld. However, I finally made it to a few sessions today… thank goodness for weekends!

Anyway, first up - Corwin Carillon’s great session on his uses of holodecks and scripting to create great spaces for learning, which are learner centred rather than teacher centred.

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This presentation was described as follows:

Shifting the Power from Teachers to Learners
Nick Noakes (aka Corwin Carillon), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Both in K-12 and in higher education research literature, there have been repeated calls for shifting the power balance in the classroom from teachers to learners (Weimer, Baxter-Magolda, Mazirow). This session will highlight how the affordances of Second Life’s scripting language and the use of Second Life groups can be leveraged to create on-demand tools and environments that self-directed collaborative learning groups can control. The teacher can be there or absent, but the teacher’s role can shift substantially from one of intervention and control to one of resource expert and facilitator.

Corwin’s session was lots of fun and very hands on. To check out how he uses scripted tools visit his space at Boracay.

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Next up, I managed to make it to most of Anya Ixchel and Kim Pasternak’s session, which was focused on using drama and roleplaying strategies to create engaging learning activities in Second Life.

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Their presentation was described as:

Teaching On the Second Life Stage: Playful Educational Strategies for Serious Purposes
Angela Thomas (aka Anya Ixchel), University of Sydney and Kim Flintoff (aka Kim Pasternak), Edith Cowan University
Theatrical spaces have historically been places used to teach, purge and shape culture. For over a decade, virtual reality has offered a new kind of theatrical space; now, with the rise of social networking spaces, many more people are using the potential of the web to perform, critique and comment on cultural issues. Second Life provides a new and exciting space where students can explore issues that are both personal and global in significance. Teaching strategies which incorporate dramatic and theatrical components are perfectly suited in the Second Life environment for engaging students in playful but meaningful reflection on such issues. This session will involve participants in role-playing, reflection and discussion.
Participants will also be encouraged to brainstorm the possibilities of incorporating such strategies into their own educational programs.

This session was lots of fun - and included the crowd getting involved in a great role-play around the fate of Second Life and its governance.

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I’m definitely going to point a few LearnScopers in Anya and Kim’s direction for some ideas on how they could be using these strategies.

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Now…. back to building that island…… ;)

Geek for Hire!

Today was a big day!

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After a few months of lots of deliberation and just a little bit of freaking out, I submitted by resignation today.

I’ve finally quit my day job!

I’ll be leaving the safety of a full-time position at TAFE for the much riskier and also much more interesting world of freelancing starting mid-September. I am a currently full of excitement and anticipation at the prospect - but I’ll admit to being just a tinsy bit scared too! ;)

I’ve been working towards this decision for a few years now.. but after a few tough months I’ve finally decided it’s time to focus on being creative and being happy. Although there are parts of my job that I absolutely adore, I am struggling with some of the Institutional barriers I face and also just the workload of trying to juggle both a day job and the freelance projects I’ve been doing. It’s time to prioritize what’s important to me and give myself the time and freedom to accept some of the great opportunities on offer.

So what will I be doing besides sleeping in and enjoying myself you ask? Over the last few years I’ve been doing lots of bits and pieces of freelance work in a range of areas, and have decided that it’s time to consolidate that work and start focusing my energies in more interesting and creative directions. Over the next few months, I’ll be establishing my virtual worlds consultancy and my Island in Second Life, working on some web development projects, facilitating some Second Life and Web 2.0 training sessions and establishing a new work-style and lifestyle.

Cross your fingers for me… it’s gonna be a fun and challenging ride!

One thing I must do is thank the fabulous people in my life who have supported and encouraged me in coming to this decision… you know who you are! I would never have gotten the courage to follow my bliss without your encouragement, love and support!

Anyway, I’ll be posting more info about my services and availabilities on my personal wiki shortly… but if you’ve got a project happening and you need a geek, I’d love to hear from you! ;)

Conferencing at Decka’s Decks

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Right now, I’m sitting at Decka’s Decks on the Terra Incognita sim with a small bunch of avatars in Second Life. We are attending the SL version of the University of Southern Queensland’s Faculty of Education Symposium on Online learning using virtual worlds.

The conference is described as follows:

This symposium will bring together a group of international leaders, developers and practitioners in the use and development of 3D technology in university teaching and learning and academic libraries. They will showcase a continuum of 3D applications ranging from 3D learning objects within a web page, through small “rooms” with class avatars accessible from a web page to interfacing 3D worlds with the Learning Management System (using SLoodle – a mash up of Second Life and Moodle) and the use of fully immersive virtual worlds (including Second Life, ActiveWorlds and Croquet).

Check out the Symposium website for more info.

All is going impressively well at the moment… Decka and her team are managing a video stream into SL.. so participants can engage via the live event, via the web or via Second Life. Each and every time I attend an event like this it reminds me what a powerful tool Second Life is for communicating, sharing and networking.

Virtual Learning for the Knowledge Tree

A few weeks ago I was invited to join in on a discussion on virtual worlds and virtual learning for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s ‘The Knowledge Tree’ which is an e-journal focussed on learning innovation.

The session included Alan Levine from the NMC Consortium and Glenda MacPherson from the GippsTAFE Virtual Worlds Project.

The discussion covers a range of issues relating to virtual worlds including the projects that each of us have been working on in Second Life.

Check out the podcast here.

Working on jokaydia!

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More News Coming Soon! ;)

Hot Topic for SI on SL and ED

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Sean and I gave an hour long presentation for the Sydney Institute of TAFE as part of their Hot Topic program.

The Hot Topics session are designed provide staff from across all campuses of the Institute with regular online professional development session via Adobe Connect. A great idea for providing a flexible way for people to tap into PD easily and from their desks.

We had more than 40 participants in the session, and the level of questions from the audience was fantastic, even though we had a few problems with my sound.

Anyway, you can view the Adobe Connect recording here, and the MP3 here.

Thanks to Steph and Julie for inviting us to present… and to all the attendees - it’s great to see such interested in SL! ;)

NMC TeacherBuzz in Wasp!

Sean and I just had the pleasure of hosting a session for the NMC’s TeacherBuzz meetup this evening, and had the opportunity to share our work with a group of educators also working in and exploring Second Life.

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The NMC TeacherBuzz is a…“regularly scheduled, informal discussion session for practicing teachers using Second Life, or those just plain interested in the idea or process of using SL for a class. Not a series of lectures or presentations, we envision more of a relaxed coffee hour to share the “buzz”.”

For more info on their activities, check out the TeacherBuzz Category on the NMC Campus Observer.

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We took the participants on a tour of our Virtual Meeting Space in Wasp, showcasing our newbies’ resources, our Educational Uses of Second Life resource and the other support materials we have developed to assist teachers who are checking out Second Life for the first time. Of course - all the info is on our Second Life in Education Wiki.

We finished the tour with a visit to our virtual hairdressing salon - which is an example of how Second Life photostories and roleplays can be used in vocational training.

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Thanks to all who attended, and to CDB and Corwin for inviting us to host the event! ;)

Next TeacherBuzz Session: Aug 20 6pm SLT/PDT - “Student Built” Project: Timeline of the History of Earth and Life on Earth Walking Exhibit, created at University of Arizona.

Definitely well worth attending if you’re interested in meeting other educators in SL and learning more about the work the educational community is doing.

(Thanks to Sean FitzGerald for the images from the event!)

An Overview of Opportunities for Science Education in Second Life

Perplexity Peccable, a colleague of mine in Second Life sent me a great link to a machinima she’s put together showcasing opportunities for science education in Second Life. Check out Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life below:

Congrats and thanks Lexi! A fabulous first masterpiece and a great overview.

Perplexity and her colleague Vitesse Vella have also released some fantastic Slideshares well worth checking out. See: Why Work & Teach With Second Life? and Getting Started in Second Life.

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