VECoP

Edublogs are running awards for the best educational use of virtual worlds. You can vote at http://edublogawards.com/2007/best-educational-use-of-a-virtual-world-2007/.

The shortlisted entries are:

Edtech Island
Jokadia Island
Schome Park
Second Life in Education
Suffern middle school in Second Life

The links give the SLURLs or blogs so you can see what is going on.

They are also running other awards for details see my post over at RedGloo.

Labels: Edublogs, MuveNation, secondlife, SL, vecop

Several of us went to the launch of the Coventry University Island.
It was great fun - they have a nice island, lots of potential.
I've blogged in more detail over at http://redgloo.sse.reading.ac.uk/ssswills/weblog/, there are also some photos on flickr (either by the above blog or http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=coventry&w=56786265%40N00 may work :))

Labels: 43Things, 50SL, Coventry, secondlife

I have added a new goal to my 43 Things: Visit Places in Second Life.
My motivation for this is: I have got a small amount of money to set up Community of Practice at my university to investigate educational possibilities of virtual worlds.
I thought an interesting goal related to this would be to set myself the goal of visiting 50 different places or events in Second Life. A visit should last at least 30 minutes, preferably longer. Having visited I will write a blog entry for the visit or event. I'm going to use the tag 50SL for these entries for pictures in Flickr and on my blog.
If you think it might be fun add it as your own goal, and use the tag 50SL, and we should be able to RSS them together.

Labels: 43Things, 50SL, Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

I had another visit the Microsoft Imagine Cup site in Second Life. Caroline Phillips and Miel Van Opstal have set up a nice location and a good event. Miel has blogged about the island over at http://micromiel.com/2007/06/25/sneak-preview

The theme for this year's Imagine Cup is education (“Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all” - http://imaginecup.com), Reading had teams in various challenges, our Web Development team: Rediverse did ever so well, especially considering they were first years. The SL Island is dedicated to the Software Development challenge entries from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Caroline (Imagine Nishi) invited me to go along today as some of the teams were attending to show off their videos of their products and meet each other.

I got there to find quite a few people wandering a round. I had a chat with a guy from Portugal who told me about there entry which was to educate about cookery, I love that idea, and I wondered if the team knew about my object oriented cake examples.

I then met a guy who had an avatar called: "Creative Janus", he was from UAE, and their team had a very cool video that showed off their software that was going to save me time by allowing mobile learning. He (well I assume he was a "he") and some very snazzy shorts on, most of the avatars were new to SL and were wearing fairly standard newbie clothes, this outfit certainly stood out.

I went round and watched a few more videos and powerpoints. The ones I liked the best were those that told me about the products and a little about the team.

Imagine Nishi then introduced me to the Italian team, their mentor was part of the winning team last year. I had a long chat with them and watched their video, we also met a woman from Germany, who was part of the team that set up the blog site (I can't post there because I'm not a competitor L).

I then had a quick visit to the dance floor and then it was time to go.

I'll put my pics up on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssswills/) with the tags:
imaginecup secondlife vecop

Labels: Imagine Cup, Microsoft, Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

I met up with Sus in SL and she has bought a holodeck. There are apparently 25 locations to visit. We had a go on the space shuttle, including the experience of weightlessness; then some where more picturesque.

Sus and I had a bit of a gossip. Someone remarked when we are in RL we talk about SL and when we are in SL we talk about RL.

Labels: holodeck, Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

I now have visited the Microsoft Island in Second Life three times and thought I should reflect a bit more about the experience.

On the launch night I had difficulty getting to the island. Second Life kept saying it couldn't get me to the island and that it had teleported me nearby. Nearby was in fact miles away. I managed to hop to a nearer location and then teleport in. The lag was very bad, I chatted to a bloke from Norway who said he couldn't move for 5 minutes. I managed to pick up a free Imagine Cup T shirt (I was the only person I saw wearing one).

I had a bit of a mooch around and then headed over to the stage for the Natalie Moody concert. I was very impressed by that, I liked the music and there was a good atmosphere in the arena. The concert was followed by dancing. Dancing was easy; all I needed to do was click the floor and accept the dance steps. I do wonder how many people at the event were there because it was the Imagine Cup event and how many because it was a free concert.

The next afternoon I visited with a colleague (Futura) and we had a quick look at the facilities. There were a load of humming birds about, and they seem to be attracted to avatars, they were very annoying and so we decided to leave.

I returned in the evening for a bit of a longer look round. The island was much less busy but still suffering from lag. I was propositioned by a guy in an evening suit who thought I might like to visit another venue: "No thanks I've come to look at the IC stuff". The annoying humming birds were still around. I picked up details of a challenge (effectively an Easter Egg hunt), I was told the first egg was in area 10, which is the area which includes the UK. I didn't have much look in 10:

• I couldn't get the video for the UK team to stream;
• There was an invite to blog about my experience, but although I could read other people's blogs, there appeared to be no way to post;
• Nor could I see an egg anywhere, having organised a treasure hunt in Boracay a few months back I thought I knew about where to look for things but obviously I can't find eggs!

I'll probably go back and see if I can get some of the other videos to stream, I would like to see the UK team as I saw them at the UK finals in Reading and it would be good to know how they are progressing.

Labels: Imagine Cup, Microsoft, Natalie Moody, Second Life, secondlife, SL

Microsoft have opened an island in Second Life and have linked the launch to an Imagine cup event (see http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre/SecondLife/default.mspx) the island is open until early August and is worth a visit.

There was a concert by Natalie Moody.

Followed by dancing.

Labels: Microsoft, Natalie Moody, Second Life, secondlife, SL

In preparation for next week's event can you try to build a simple bridge. My directions below may help!
If you have problems call me.
--

Making a very simple bridge in Second Life

To do this you need to know how to rez and edit objects, if you don't there are lots of "Basic Building" classes in world.

1. Make a box that is 0.5x3.0x0.5, call it base1, note its position (for example mine was 46.267, 105.39, 299.5)
2. Make a second box the same size, call it base2, and position it 9 metres away on the x axis (mine ended up at 55.267)
3. Make a third box that is 10x3x0.1, called bridge.
4. Position it so that it rests between the two bases (I did it by positioning mine at 50.767, 105.39,299.75)
5. Link by selecting base1, base2 and then bridge and doing ctrl L

You now have a very simple bridge, to ensure others can change it etc, select allow any one can move, and copy.

You can save your bridge to your inventory, remember to delete any you have created.

Labels: bridge, Second Life, secondlife, SL

Sus Nyrop posted this over at CPSquare - I thought since she said "spread the word" I would copy it here:
"NMC online conference in SL, may 25
http://slbestpractices2007.wikispaces.com/
Second Life International Conference: Best Practices in Teaching, Learning and Research. A good friend of mine, professor Beth Ritter-Guth (alias Desideria Stockton), is preparing this all online, 24 hour conference on Friday, May 25 She kindly encouraged me to help with practicalities the European timezone. By then I'll be anderswo engagiert - in Porto, so I resisted this challenging temptation.
There are openings for keynote speakers and other presentations. Please spread the word! "

Maybe we should think about a VECoP presentation?

Labels: Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

Next Event

I was just talking with Nick/Corwin about organising another event (bridge building).

We suggest Thursday 3rd May 4pm British Summer Time (3.00 pm GMT), we could probably cope with a group at a different time.

Comment here if you can do that time or not.

Feel free to invite others.

Labels: Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

Another book review:

"the Complete Fool's Guide to Second Life" by Foolish Frost, I stumbled across this book, from a SL link, the book is at: http://www.sldrama.com/.

It is an amusing tale of a first visit into Second Life, supplemented by tips on how SL works and what can be done. As with other works on SL it is now out of date – it talks about First Land, which Linden has now deprecated, but other than that it appears to be current and I would recommend it as a style of writing that is readily accessible. It may be possible to use this style for other SL related training.

Labels: Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

Book review:

"second life – the official guide" by Michael Rymaszewski, Wagner James Au, Mark Wallace, Catherine Winters, Cory Ondrejka, Benjamin Batstone-Cunningham. I have had a Second Life (SL) account for about a year, I see a lot of potential in Second Life, but by Real Life doesn't give me much time for messing about and discovering SL. I bought this book because I thought it would help me, and indeed I found lots of things in it that were interesting, for instance I didn't know that I had a Library in my inventory and for a lot of those objects I can access the script, this allowed me to take a script from a chair and experiment with it (I now can make my avatar sit upside down). There is an Appendix by Pathfinder Linden (John Lester) on real Life Education in Second Life, I particularly like his section entitled "work at unlearning", educators too readily fall inti the trap of trying to re-create lecture theatres for learning events in MUVEs. In places the book's multiple authors show and things are repeated and/or contradicted, a little bit of proof reading probably would have spotted this and may well have avoided the curious repeats in the Glossary.

Labels: game-based learning, Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

Discovering Second Life with a Sheep
Rosie
This tale begins with Rosie Luna on a Friday night, she was wanting to organise an activity where people co-operate asynchronously in Second Life. She needs something that can be passed around and people can take to different places, write about what they learn, and take some pictures. Leafing through her landmarks she finds a landmark for Freebie Warehouse (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burns/95/148/79) and she decides to go and visit. The warehouse is full of people and crates; she checks out the contents of a lot of the crates and decides to take one labelled: 62 Decorations, she also picks up 69 Clothes.
She returns to Boracay and finds a quiet spot by the sea and starts to look through the boxes. One of the things she finds is a sheep; she names this.
The next day she returns to Boracay and decides that this sheep she will pass round, along with a notecard that people can extend the tale. So she takes a few pictures of herself and the sheep. Writes this notes and then passes it on to Futura Fortas.

Futura
So the story continues. I decided to take BaBa to the Holodeck @ the ICT Library (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/13/183/33) where I took her to a virtual church. After all being a lamb/sheep I found that it was appropriate. In the holodeck I discovered how to take snapshots. I'm the kind of person who hates taking pictures in First Life, so I've only owned one camera ever, which I had while on a trip to the States. I sold it of immediately when I returned home. Having said that, I quite enjoyed taking the pictures in SL! Especially because I could take pictures of myself, even from underneath myself.
I've now passed on BaBa in the hope that the new "owner" will take care of her. (Hmn is it a her....)

Corwin
Unfotunately BaBa had a rather traumatic first experience with Corwin! When BaBa was sent to Corwin he was in the Life Sciences Center at the NMC's Research Park.
Corwin stupidly showed her the lab he was in and Baba was immediately reminded of cousin Dolly. No way was that the route to be taken for Baba and she quickly made her feelings known in no uncertain terms. Corwin blushed in shock at the vocabulary under a young sheep's control! Corwin apologised profusely for frightening her like and quickly moved off to more pastural grounds. So they went to Tol Eressea where Baba met some friendly horses and ate some grass and drank some fresh water.
Finally calm she asked to meet her next new friend.

JoeC
BaBa now was visiting its (is it a she or a he) friends in the Hauwai Zoo. I couldn't put her on the ground (because she was afraid), so I carried her, and I had to rotate her a little so that she can see something.
She was also afraid after a while that I could keep her there locked in the Zoo, so I took her to a roman spa instead to relax.
Then she went to see Sus!

SusNY
Sus was visiting the office of the Danish newspaper 24timer where she is preparing a carnival fest on Sunday, (for Danes only). (We'll invite our international friends later on). BaBa had the opportunity to climb a small snow mountain, created at a photo exhibition from Swiss. Sus thought that BaBa needed a face lift, and tried tentatively to give her a pink rose fur dye, and a texture! She did look cute, until Sus discovered to her dismay that BaBa has lost her significant face!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Boracay/174/67/26
This discovery led to abig cloning experiment! Apparently each time Sus took up her BaBa, there was yet another little sheep! So this is how we make sheep in world , sus said to herself and started to create a flock.

Day 2:cloning rainbow sheep
Baba now has a whole family of clones. For everytime I pick her up, I get one extra BaBa. I've had to find out how to differentiate one sheep from another,to make sure I can keep track on the OriginalMotherBaBa. I like pink sheep! And baby blue ones to. buty my absolute favorite invention is BaBaLeo! This is a crossover, a mule with leopard skin. In RL this would mean she would not be able to breed new ones. but in SL, cloning is as easy as copy & paste!
I've taken my BaBaLeo identical twins to a playground area called ImagiLEARNING 57, 188, 21 where they learn how to climb poles with monkey twins! The URL copymaker is out of order today ,just like the Teleport button. My interface is reduced and i feel very uncomfortable about this. It took me some days to figure out hwo to get access to my inventory and find BaBa again. And I apologize for not sharing too many landmarks as they're hard to track in the Inventory under the actual circumstances!

Morton Mains 181, 159, 107
At the old castle of Morton Mains, There is a ferris wheel! This is something Sus loves, so she tries to get poor baBa feel the spinning around. BaBa gets scared and jumps up in Sus' arms! And next time Sus and BaBa logs in, their friends get a good laugh because baBa is still in the arms of her care taker. However now is the time to move on Baba!
Rob will be next in line, and I'm so sorry for being late with this; we had major problems for a while! Bye bye BaBa ; I hope that I'm handing over one of the original , horizontal sheep and not a clone with a preference for vertical presence! Or you can have both BaBa and BaBa Leo which is an extra bonus sheep :-)

Rob
Being very new to Second Life, Rob doesn't really know where to go with BaBa so he asks the now well travelled sheep what she wants to do with her time. Not surprisingly BaBa is hungry after all her adventuring and decides that she wants nothing less than the finest grass.
After finding out from the internet that there was a golf course at Hollywood (191,15,175 ), I decided to take BaBa there for a bit of well deserved, well groomed grass.
It seems that this sheep has a disposition to cloning itself and I'm soon left with an entire herd of BaBa imposters feasting on the grass. I do my best to tidy up and decide that we'll go to find somewhere a bit more stimulating for the afternoon.
Success, I found Space Port Alpha (152,227,175). Not wanting to end up with more BaBa clones I decide not to let her go this time, and hold her in my arms while I sit on the tallest space rocket I can find for the view.
BaBa is tired after all this adventuring and now needs somebody to show her somewhere a bit more relaxing!

The end?
Well that is the end of the Baba game – it took some what longer than expected, and we are still hoping to see some more pictures.
However BaBa and her colourful clones are still out there, so watch out for BaBa the Sequel.

Labels: BaBa, Second Life, secondlife, SL, vecop

Just a quick introduction ... I am an e-Learning manager at King's College London and a Fellow of the Centre for Distance Education at the University of London where I chair the research strategy group. I am currently working on a number of projects that include: a study of social software in distance education settings; developing a virtual library space (bibliospace) using social referencing software; and as part of the EMERGE project team supporting a UK wide community of practice in user innovation and development in the area of Web 2.0 and emerging technologies. My research interests are focussed on questions of identity in online learning, the dimensions of space and time in multi-user virtual environments such as Second Life, social presence, social networking and the changing notion of community.

Steven
StevenW Bohm

Labels: introduction, secondlife, stevenw

Nick Noakes Corwin Carillon

I work as a faculty/educational developer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where I'm Director of the Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching or CELT for short!

I have been working with a couple of educational non-profits, Educause and the New Media Consortium, in my out-of-work time for the past 4 years. I played around with graphical virtual worlds, Active Worlds, in 1995/96 when it first came out but it was so laggy and resource intensive that my PC couldn't really cope with it. Last June I was brought into Second Life by NMC colleagues and am the co-founder/facilitator, with the NMC's Alan Levine, of an in-world group (emerging CoP) called Teachers Buzz that meets fortnightly. For more on this see the NMC Campus blog and the NMC Campus wiki.

My passion is transformational change with teachers, learners and organizations, which has taken me from online learning to online facilitation to communities of practice to appreciative inquiry and back again.

I've stayed in Second Life, despite it's myriad issues, because of these interests and because these environments/platforms seem to engage people and their identities in new learning trajectories (see Etienne Wenger's Learning for a small planet).

Labels: introduction, nmccampus, secondlife, vecop