Nominated in the Edublog Awards

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We had some great news today - both the Island of jokaydia AND our Second Life in Education Wiki (Yay, Sean!!) have been nominated in the Edublog Awards 2007 - in the Best educational use of a virtual world 2007 category.

Visit the Edublog Awards 2007 site and get voting!!

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The Island of jokaydia

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Second Life in Education Wiki

Congratulations to all of the nominees in each and every category - but a special hoooooray to….

More info coming soon about the gala SL Edublog Awards Ceremony! Start planning your virtual outfit! ;)

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.

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!)

Learning about Genetics in Second Life

I’ve been working on our Educational Uses of Second Life wiki resource this evening - a huge task that’s only getting bigger as the fabulous examples of education in Second Life keep on coming!

Anyway, I visited a bunch of places, but tonight’s stand-out was definitely Genome Island (SLurl) .

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Developed by Professor Mary Anne Clark aka Max Chatnoir, a Professor at Texas Wesleyan University, the Island is focussed on using Second Life to teach genetics. Using the building and scripting tools in Second Life, Max has created laboratories where her students can take part in virtual experiments that produce analyzable data.

Here I am checking out the results of a experiment that was first done by Thomas Hunt Morgan in 1910 on the genetics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

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The Island is also designed as a place where students and other residents can meet and talk with professional geneticists. It includes a range of interesting areas, including:

Here I am inside the Eukaryatoic Cell, trying desperately to click on the Excytotic Versicle so I can escape! ;)

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Here I am hanging out with the mixollamas - a crazy bunch of virtual creatures that are very handy for learning about genomes and how the recombination of genetic traits determined by different pairs of alleles is a powerful mechanism for generating diversity in a population.

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One more interesting discovery - Dr. Clark also produces music based on protein sequences, which she has presented in Second Life.

If Science had been this cool when I was at school I would have paid way more attention! ;)

Busy in Real Life & Second Life!

It’s been a busy month, both in Second Life and in the real world… but I haven’t forgotten this blog! ;) Time to catch up on a few things - including some stuff that I really should have linked to weeks ago!

eNetworks and the Australasian Second Life Showcase

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We delivered 2 presentations presentations for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s E-Learning Network’s e-Trends Online Conference. Check out the proceedings and recordings on the conference website - including Sean’s fantastic presentation on Virtual Worlds which you can listen to here (recorded Elluminate session).

We also presented an In-world Event: Showcasing Australasian Educational Projects in Second Life - which was a hoot. Representatives from a range of educational projects came and shared their ideas and expertise and we have a great crowd of educators with us at the event. Sean’s written a great blog post about the event here, and also done a great job of putting together the event documentation. View the slides from the event below:

The slides can also be viewed in-world at Jo and Sean’s Virtual Meeting Space: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wasp/74/31/86/

The generosity of our presenters was amazing and I think the crowd enjoyed hearing about the projects they are working on. It was certainly a thrill to ‘max out our sim’ with 40 participants at our space in Wasp for much of the event. A great learning curve for us too - which has given me lots of ideas about how we can explore running mixed-reality events and conferences in Second Life.

Relaxing at the Learnscope Lounge

Yesterday we held the first of two workshops for NSW LearnScope - focussed on helping people find their feet and get started in Second Life.

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The sessions went well I think, and we managed to move a group of 15 newbies around to a few spaces in Second Life including our space in Second Life - Jo and Sean’s Virtual Meeting Space, Terra Incognita (SLurl) - Decka Mah’s fantastic action learning Island, the Heart Murmur Sim (SLurl) - where we saw a great example fo training in Second Life and Prim Hearts Amusement Park (SLurl) - which has some fantastic rides.

As part of supporting these events, I’ve established the LearnScope Lounge in-world.

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It provides a base for the participants from our workshops to use during their explorations. The Lounge is an example of how easy it is to setup a simple space the group to use as a meeting point, and includes a bunch of tools and resources including notecards for newbies, our slides and resources and some examples of cool tools including Angrybeth’s Whiteboards, a Podcaster and free virtual Learnscope t-shirts (Virtual Schwag!)

All NSW LearnScope particpants are welcome to visit and use the resources. I’ll be maintaining the space until the end of August. Visit @ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wasp/10/90/89.

An Island?…..

In the last month or so we’ve been busily working on some new plans in-world…. including exploring options for purchasing and establishing our very own virtual Island. I can’t decide what to call it though….. Suggestions in the comments greatly appreciated! ;)

I’ll reveal more in the very near future, and am excited by the prospect of a new challenge in Second Life - planning and implementing my very own Island is an exciting prospect! I’m especially interested in developing some more extensive orientation resources for our participants in-world, as well as spaces for arts, community and educational projects.

Coming Up…

The next few weeks are likely to be busy too - with Session 2 of our Getting Started in Second Life workshops for NSW Learnscope Team Members, a session for the NMC TeacherBuzz group, an eNetworks 2007 Tour, a Knowledge Tree podcast and the kick-off of the Sydney Institute’s Second Life project…… so I better get back to work! ;)

Second Life DigiStory 2

Yet another Digital Story/Slideshow on Second Life.

I’ll be using this one as part of a CD-rom I’ve put together for the TAFE NSW Helping Young People at Risk (HYPAR) program.

Yet again, I’ve used the assets to create multiple versions. See a Slideshare version and a Flickr version too! ;)

Digital Story: Second Life Newbie Tips

Sean and I have been working on a collection of Newbie Tips for users who are new to Second Life. This is an important resource for many of our participants at workshops and presentations in-world, as it takes some users a bit of time and effort to make sense of the Second Life User Interface.

So, in the interest of creating better resources, I’ve finally finished a new collection of slides, which covers more of the important skills, and decided to make a little digital story out of it. Check it out below.

This is an example of one way that Second Life can be used to generate multimedia resources. It’s a little simpler that machinima, but still lots of fun.

The process for making these digi stories is pretty easy:

Step 1. Collect some snapshots in Second Life which illustrate the points you’d like to make in your digital story.

Step 2. Edit the images with your favourite image editing tool. In this case I used Photoshop, but you could also use The Gimp or Picasa.

Step 3. Put together your slide sequence. There are a range of tools you can use for that - I used Photoshop Elements 5 in this case…. But there’s a great list of software for digital story making on the Digitales Wiki which provides some good options. You could even do this with an online tool like Jumpcut! ;)

Step 4. Record your audio and choose some background music. I used the inbuilt tools in Photoshop Elements 5 to record my narration. It was simple and quick and allows me to add new slides later if I want to without too much trouble. However Audacity is a great for recording and mixing your audio too.

Step 5. Compress if you can - I use Sorenson Squeeze to optimize my videos for sharing online. Another great option for compressing videos and digital stories is Super. Compresing is especially important if you also want to use your video on a videoplayer in Second Life, where you will need it in .Mov format and uploaded to a server.

That’s it - digital story complete using Second Life as the platform to generate the raw artwork. ;)

And the great thing is, the assets I’ve created can be used in other ways as well. I’ve uploaded the images I created to Flickr to create a Photoset and Slideshow, and I’ve also dropped those images into a Powerpoint Presentation and uploaded it to Slideshare here. I’ve also uploaded the slides to Second Life, so users can view them at our Virtual Meeting Space. Teleport here to check it out.

Lots of different formats for all sorts of users to access….. Come to think of it, I could even use Super to create a version to send to someone’s mobile phone!

Learning at Virtual Roma

One of the things I love doing most in Second Life is exploring new places and spaces - especially those places that draw new communities together or allow for immersive experiences.

Today I finally found the time to explore a fabulous example of Second Life being used to make a historical re-creation…. Roma - an Ancient Roman themed sim owned and created by Second Life resident Torin Golding.

You can read a great interview with Torin by Sphere Gasser at Slatenite.com. You can also read an article and view a video tour of Roma by Rikomatic.

Here I am learning some basic Latin at Customs House - the arrival point which houses labeled barrels that contain notecards with all the information new visitors need to start exploring. This works quite well as an orientation, and provided me with a list of places and activities to check out during my visit. I also picked up a free toga here… because in Second Life it’s important to look the part! ;)

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The Roma Sim includes four quarters, each containing districts with various activities and areas to explore.

In the Arena District I found the Flavian Gladiator Arena, a place where residents can play at combat or hone their archery skills…. whilst learning a little about about ancient roman gladiatorial customs.

Via the notecards provided at the Arena, I found out that gladiatorial games had their origin in Etruscan funeral rites - the funerals of great people were celebrated with gladiatorial contests. Apparently, this custom found its way to Rome, but was a standard part of most holidays, rather than a funeral observance.

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I hope no one releases that lion, or I’m done for! ;)

Apparently a self-contained combat system is planned for this part of Roma, which would make much more sophisticated gameplay possible. I’m going to have to come back and watch the first Gladiatorial Contest complete with all the ceremony!

The Southwest quarter of Roma includes an Arena and Fort Legio VII Augusta, which you can see me visiting below.

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Based on the typical plan of a Roman fort, the Fort Legio VII Augusta is often used for role-playing and activities restricted to members of the ROMA Citizens (SPQR) group. Residents can join this group inworld to keep up to date with upcoming events and meetings, and take part in ancient roman role-plays and exhibitions.

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Shhh… don’t tell the Emperor I was sitting in his chair! ;)

The northest quarter contains Hippodrome Point, Caligula’s Pleasure Palace, the Gardens of Maecenas, and the Theater of Dionysus.

At the Theatre, I watched a SL version of The Bacchae by ancient Greek playwright Euripides.

Setup so that visitors can view the performance on demand by clicking on click on the stage, the play lasted about 20 mins and included scripted characters who appeared on the stage and delivered their lines in the text chat.

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This was a really interesting use of the building and scripting tools available in Second Life, and there were some sounds and slides used to enhance the ‘performance’.

Reading the story in the text chat was a little bit tiring, but this example of virtual theatre points to some exciting possibilities as voice tools become more integrated into the platform. It also has me thinking about how I might experiment with a combination of machinima and these scripted ‘characters’ in some of my own work.

The northwest quarter contains the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Hill and the Temple of Apollo.

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Here, I visited the Capitoline Museum, which houses a collection of ancient roman artefacts, and seasonal exhibitions; as well as the Library of Alexandria which includes a number of scrolls which can be unrolled and read in the library’s reading room.

I also learnt a little about the prehistoric people called the Sabines who, according to legend, originally inhabited the hill and were attacked by the Romans, who kidnapped the Sabine women to populate the Roman city.

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Here I am worshipping Jupiter at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, which was built during the battle between the Romans and the Sabines in 509 BC.

The detail, research and information included at Roma is pretty amazing, and could be used as a launching pad for students to engage in a deeper exploration of history via Wikipedia and various other web-based sources. And, I can imagine some pretty great activities with students utilising the role-playing aspects of the Roma sim and its community.

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Despite the limitations that notecards pose in terms of presenting information in-world (more on that later), and the fact that they have set it as a no-fly zone (which always annoys me!), I had a great time brushing up on my ancient roman history here. I’ll be keeping my toga for future visits! ;)

Check out Roma @ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Roma