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Woohoo! I’m on a roll this weekend, and am very excited to be finalising Koala Island’s spaces one by one. Today I managed to get both the Croydon Lecture Hall and the Sarawak Skybox complete, including the gardening and various bits and pieces of artwork.

Croydon Lecture Hall and Exhibition Centre

The Croydon Lecture Hall and Exhibition Centre is the most traditional ‘lecture-style’ build on Koala Island. It is named after Swinburne University’s Croydon Campus in Victoria, Australia, and has been designed to be used for large meetings of avatars.

Although I’m not a huge fan of lecture theatres in SL, there are times, when it is an efficient way to present information and bring large groups of avatars together. The Croydon Lecture Hall provides seating for 70 avatars and is also equipped with chat logger and slide/video screens. It also incorporates indoor and outdoor spaces to ensure that it is multi-purpose and can be used for a variety of different events and interactions.

The entrance way to the Croydon Lecture Hall includes a large open space with tools which ‘rez’ three different scene selections:

• Lounge Areas – Couches and comfy spaces for informal events.
• Poster Display Boards – Frames designed to support student exhibitions and displays and ensure the space is easy to setup for poster sessions and to display student’s work. Includes a slide/video viewer which can be accessed by members of the ‘Swinburne @ Koala Island’ group.
• Discussion Circle – Seats up to 15 avatars and provides a simple setup for large group discussions. Includes a slide/video viewer which can be accessed by members of the ‘Swinburne @ Koala Island’ group.

You can find out more about the Croydon Lecture Hall and Exhibition Centre on the Koala Island Wiki, or view the complete Flickr set with annotations here.

The Sarawak Skybox

The Sarawak Skybox is designed to host private classes, meetings and discussions and is situated in the sky above Koala Island at approximately 300m. The space is positioned to ensure privacy and is equipped with holodeck tools which ‘rez’ five different scene selections:

• Boardroom Style – Formal boardroom style, including slide/video screens. (Seats 9 avatars)
• Discussion Circle – Formal group discussion style, including slide/video screens and a chatlog-to-email tool. (Seats 16 avatars)
• Large Discussion Circle – Large group discussion style, including slide/video screens. (Seats 40 avatars)
• Garden Style – a magical garden space which can be used for discussion groups or small parties. (Seats 10 avatars)

Facilitators from the Faculty of Education at Swinburne University will be encouraged to add new scenes to the skybox as their Second Life projects progress, so this space will eventually house a large collection of ’setups’ for groups from the Koala Island community to use.

You can find out more about the Sarawak Skybox on the Koala Island Wiki, or view the complete Flickr set with annotations here.

It’s 1:30am and I’m finally done! The Lilydale Atrium on Koala Island is finished!

The Atrium is the largest building on Koala Island is a ‘replica-build’ based on the real-life Atrium at Swinburne’s Lilydale Campus in Victoria, Australia. It is designed to be a multi-purpose hub for Koala Island and includes a range of discreet spaces to meet, display student work and provide information about Swinburne University of Technology. It houses a number of spaces and resources including:

• Atrium Entry Hall – A large open space, equipped with holodeck tools which ‘rez’ three different scene selections:
  • Circle of Chairs – Seats up to 12 avatars and provides a simple setup for large group discussions.
  • Discussion Sofas – Seats up to 25 avatars on comfy sofas. Includes a slide/video viewer which can be accessed by members of the ‘Swinburne @ Koala Island’ group.
  • Stage, Seating and Presentation Tools – Seats up to 50 avatars, and includes a slide/video viewer which can be accessed by members of the ‘Swinburne @ Koala Island’ group.
  • Tables and Chairs – Seats up to 24 avatars around small tables, and includes a slide/video viewer which can be accessed by members of the ‘Swinburne @ Koala Island’ group.
• Swinburne University of Technology Information Centre – which includes useful links and information about the Unversity and courses offered, our real-life campuses and student services.
• The Atrium Coffee Shop – an informal space for visitors to meet, chat and grab a virtual coffee
• The Koala Island Project Office – this space is current vacant, but will be used by students involved in projects on the Island
• Atrium Screening Room – Currently showing images from the University’s Spaceworks Program
• Atrium Gallery – Designed as a space to show and share student’s work. Currently showing images from the Swinburne University Image Bank
• Faculty of Higher Education Offices – the upstairs area of the atrium is dedicated to Faculty of Higher Education projects and includes a boardroom style meeting area.

Click here to view a collection of snapshots of the Lilydale Atrium in Second Life on Flickr.

Its been a busy couple of weeks, with all sorts of new developments that I should be blogging about!

For starters.. about a week or so ago, I had the absolute pleasure of appearing on Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe in Second Life. The show is produced by a very creative and international group of people in Second Life and broadcast live by SLCN.

You can watch the recording of the event here.

The process of appearing on the show was fun – the studio the team works from is well designed, and the crowd they attract is lively and just a bit cheeky! I am always a bit nervous when I do these types of interviews, but I think it went ok.

From behind the camera! Image by teachandlearn

Paisley and jokay on Saturday Night Live. Image by teachandlearn

The Saturday Night Live Crowd. Image by teachandlearn

Special thanks to Konrad who came along and documented the event for me – including the great images I’ve included here.

We’ve also been busy welcoming new residents on the Islands of jokaydia. It’s great to have Pandora Kurrajong, HeyJude Jenns and staff and students from St. Joseph’s College, Joie Despres, Daneel Ariantho, Rusty Kembla and staff and students from Hobart College, Niello Catteneo, and Leanteamer Zenovka and staff and students from Kangan Batman TAFE with us!!

Daneel receiving access to his new land on jokaydia!

For those still interested in renting land, there are still a number of plots left for rent:

• jokaydia Rental Property 1: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/170/91/25
• jokaydia Rental Property 2: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/203/92/24
• jokaydia Rental Property 8: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/137/68/25
• jokaydia Rental Property 9: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/137/109/27
• jokaydia Rental Property 10: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/93/66/26

If you’d like further info or a tour, please IM me inworld or drop me an email!

The other exciting thing I’ve been working on is an Island design and build for the University of Swinburne, Australia. We are establishing Koala Island with a campus feel. It is branded to match the University’s other online spaces, and will be used to host a range of projects inworld during the coming year.

I’ll post further about this project shortly but for now, here’s a few screenshots.

Koala Island by Moonlight!

Building the Resource Centre which will house a range of useful resources.

Study Writer standing outside his new office!

We selected ‘The Atrium’ at Lilydale campus as the key real-life structure we would replicate inworld.

The Atrium Under Construction!

Below is an image of the real-life building and the SL version for comparison.

The Virtual Atrium on Koala Island

The Real-Life Atrium at Lilydale Campus

I WILL post an update on all the things I’ve been up to lately – including eLearning07 and the Learning Technologies Conference 2007. In the meantime, check out the slides below!

| View | Upload your own

For those who are interested, there’s a recording on from my recent Elluminate Session for the Flexible Learning Framework’s eTools n Tips Event.

Access the recording here and the Slides here. I also provided a handout for participants which you and download here.

Also, for those who attended and wanted the links I referred to during the session:

• Second Life in Education Wiki: a range of resources for educators exploring Second Life for use in Education and includes a detailed overview of Educational Uses of Second Life
• Getting Started in Second Life: a useful resource for setting up and getting into Second Life for the first time
• Educational Uses of Second Life: a detailed overview of projects currently happening in Second Life
• Sean’s FitzGerald’s Virtual Worlds Presentation: Virtual Worlds – What are They and Why do Educators Need to Pay Attention to Them?
• Video: Introduction to Second Life
• Second Life Website – Education Section
• Second Life Website – System Requirements
• SimTeach Wiki – resources and information from the Educational community in Second Life
• International SpaceFlight Museum:
  - Spaceport Alpha in Second Life (SLurl)
  - International Spaceflight Museum Website
• Second Life Library
  - Second Life Library 2.0 – InfoIsle (SLurl)
  - Second Life Library Blog
  - YouTube: Tour of InfoIsland
  - Virtual librariesinteract.info: Blog central for Australian Libraries in Other Worlds
• GippsTAFE’s Paluma Resort in Second Life
  - Innovative Practices Project Report: Virtual Worlds – Real Learning
  - Article on the Project: Can Vocational Education Learning Outcomes be Achieved in SL? (pg 4)
• UC Davis Medical Center’s Emergency Workers Simulation-based Training
  - CNET video – Saving lives in the virtual world – CNET News.com
• Genome Island:
  - Genome Island (SLurl)
  - SLNN Article: Swimming in the Gene Pool
• Temple of Isis:
  - The Temple of Isis (SLurl)
  - Flickr photo set – Temple of Isis
• Teen Grid Info:
  - Teen Grid website
  - Teen Grid resources on SimTeach
  - Skoolaborate – Collaborative high Schools Project based in Australia
• Jo Kay’s Virtual Island – jokaydia (SLurl)
• Virtual Hairdressing Salon (SLurl)
• Sydney Institute LearnScope Project

Yet another Slideshare I put together. This time for a presentation to SA LearnScopers which I did a few weeks ago.

| View | Upload your own

Enjoy!

OMG – what have I gotten myself into.. hehehe!

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!

 

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!

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.