April Festival on the Islands of jokaydia!

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Visit the jokaydia Blog for more info. Hope to see you there!

Croydon Lecture Hall and Sarawak Skybox

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:

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:

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.

The Lilydale Atrium on Koala Island

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:

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

Koala Island - New Meeting Centre Complete

I’ve been very busy finishing off the Wantirna Meeting Centre on Koala Island - Swinburne University’s presence in SL.

I’ve put together a Flickr Set which includes images and some notes explaining how the space works and what it includes. Hopefully we’ll also hold a tour/beta testing session during the week with selected colleagues.

ISTE Speaker Series Session Coming Up!

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As promised, here’s the details of the event I’m doing for ISTE in Second Life next week. Hopefully lots of our jokaydia Community Members will be able to attend! Check your local time here.

Education on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life with jokay Wollongong

Tuesday, January 29, 6 PM SLT, ISTE Speaker Series Session

Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong will share information about the various projects she is involved with in Second Life, including the Islands of jokaydia, where she is supporting a growing community of educators and artists in Second Life who are exploring various strategies for the use of virtual worlds in their practice. She will also talk about the incredibly comprehensive SLeducation Wiki which documents educational uses of Second Life and is recognized as one of the most valuable resources available for educators exploring virtual worlds.

The event will commence at 6pm SLT on 1/29 at the ISTE Beach/Campfire Ring area where Jo Kay will facilitate a brief introduction and a question and answer session. This will be followed by a field trip to the Islands of jokaydia where participants will have the opportunity to explore the Islands and also meet some of the jokaydia Community members who are working there.

For more information about ISTE events in Second Life visit their wiki.

You’re Invited!

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Join us for some dancing and socialising on the Island of jokaydia as we celebrate the festive season AND delivery of our new sim!

Where: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/113/150/23

Time:

For more info IM jokay Wollongong in Second Life or email me!

One last day of Virtual Posters…

I’ve made this Animoto video to record an impression of the eLearning 07 event - which we held over a month ago now! It’s posted on the NSW LearnScope blog… but I thought I’d post it here too.

I couldn’t resist this cool tool, and hope it brings back some good memories for those who attended. For me the memories of techical dramas, stress and hard work are fading, and I’m focussing on the conversations, new learning, connections and innovations that came out of the event. Thanks to everyone how attended, contributed, commented, criticized, praised and recorded the event!

The posters will be displayed in Second Life until 5pm on the 6 December 2007, so drop inworld and check out yours and other team members posters. To teleport to jokaydia click here.

On Friday I will start pulling it all down… so we can prepare for our next adventure adventure…. hosting the International Edublog Awards 2007 in Second Life!

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! ;)

Learning Technologies 2007 Slides

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!

SlideShare | View | Upload your own

eLearning07 Conference @ jokaydia

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Over the last month or so, I’ve been working with the NSW LearnScope team to prepare for their end of year festivites. The major focus of my work has been getting ready for the virtual portion of eLearning07 - the NSW LearnScope end of year event. I’ve written a detailed post about what I’ve been up to on the NSW Learnscope Blog.

The process has been lots of fun, and I’m really looking forward to the event. If you’re interested, you are welcome to attend:

For more information visit the eLearning07 Protopage or the NSW LearnScope blog. Looking forward to seeing you at the event! ;)

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