IMP Saturday Workshop

Interesting session today - I have come away with some good ideas to use in my own practice.

Something that will hone ILT skills AND (importantly in FE) give students an opportunity to examine and practice their speaking and listening skills is the activity that we did at the start of the day. In pairs, with one person in one room and one in another and using Skype via webcam and microphone, each pair tried to build the same shape using Lego in 10 minutes. This was a fully audio-visual exercise - and tested participants' use of language in order to see whether the shapes made by each member of each pairing was exactly the same (or, in my case, reasonably similar.) I think my plan to make a TARDIS was a little ambitious: other pairs went on to make simple animals shapes and were far more successful in cooperating to build the same result.

ICE House Project and General IMP Stuff

As an update on the last post - I've just been given a new 0.5 role as part of University of Plymouth / Peninsula Centre of Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT) and Cornwall College's ICE House Project (as web / VLE Developer). Click here for a link to the website that I will be working on and to find out more about the project. When I've made a start and know a little more about the project I'll add a bit more to this blog.

AND...WooT WooT!!!! The 2 Masters modules I did last year with the University of Exeter have been APLd across to the IMP, so I now have 60 credits towards my Masters (was concerned that the 2 modules I did with Exeter last year may not be valid in some way, and that I had possibly wasted a year. But no!!! Woohooooo!!!)

So...now to start thinking about what I am going to do with this module...

...I really want to see whether the Second Life / web 2.0 PTLLS I've just started teaching is going to successfully deliver real world teaching skills that can be transferred successfully into a real life classroom. As part of this pilot I have already arranged interviews (to be carried out at the start, midway point and end of the course) with a few group members to talk about their experiences on the course (be they good or bad). However, though I know that this is something I want to investigate, I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing this. I guess it's going to involve questionnaires and a mix of discourse and data analysis and I also think that I am going to need to deliver the course a second time to a different group - but this is something that can be firmed up in a tutorial - so for now I'll carry on delivering it, making notes along the way.

IMP Blog Post: How I use ILT in my Practice

I'm going to continue my blog with posts relating to the University of Plymouth IMP module I am enrolled on ("iLearn"), so this is a continuation of my experiences as a student, this time on a second ILT-based course. This also gives me a chance to kick-start this blog again, as it's been dormant for about 9 months! (I finished the MUVEnation course, so stopped using the blog and moved to "Posterous". BAD Bex!!!)

I'm still a Lead Teacher / Learning Technologist at Cornwall College's School of Education and Training and still teaching PTLLS, DTLLS and the Level 5 Diploma in Teaching English. Rather than write a lengthy (and possibly dull) narrative examining all the stuff I do that involves ICT and ILT, I'll do some bullet points:

• Project Manager of Cornwall College Island in Second Life
• About to deliver the first (ever I think) Initial Teacher Training course that uses web 2.0 applications like Flickr and Skype, cloud computing, moodle and Second Life and has no face-to-face content at all. This I think, will form the basis of my research paper: can teaching skills be taught in Second Life then transferred into as real life classroom by trainee teachers who have never met their tutor? We start in two weeks, so this blog should be a useful place to record what is happening!
• Administrator for Cornwall College's moodle site, setting up courses for staff and delivering training (again to staff) at beginner and intermediate levels both face-to-face and using GotoMeeting
• Run a PTLLS and the Level 5 Diploma in Teaching English as blended learning courses, with one third of the content delivered in the classroom and the remaining 2 thirds on moodle / Twitter
• Deliver ICT / ILT training to staff to improve their personal ICT skills and think about how to use ILT effectively and imaginatively with their own students.
• Also collaborating with the University of Glamorgan to develop electronic graphic novels as learning resources for HE students who find academic writing, referencing, research and study skills hard to get to grips with. I am hoping to develop an iPod Touch/ iPhone app. that will display these graphic novels aspart of this project...but need to learn Objective C and Cocoa programming in order to do this...(gulp)

I'll add to this post if anything else crops up or springs to mind, but for now I think that's it...

Terrified of Terraforming

Cornwall College Island is starting to shape up. Julala Demina (a colleague of mine from Cornwall college - the corporation's e-learning manager - Julia in RL) and Bex Mavendorf have spent a lot of hours after work and at weekends building, playing, demolishing and re-building and things are starting to take shape.

Click here to see slideshow of progress so far

We are nowhere near finished - and what we've done is only a representation - a draft copy - made from things we've begged, borrowed, stolen and rezzed ourselves with no money.
However, now that my boss had had a look around and agreed with our plans we have been promised some funding to replace our representations with better versions of what we have there already. So it's goodbye freebie Pirate ship...and hello Onedin Line!!!

One should never rest on one's laurels though. Yesterday, it went horribly wrong. I was tinkering around on the island - re-arranging bits and pieces, moving objects, just sort of pottering...when I noticed that a huge bit of the island (one of the corners) was underwater (which is how the island had been baked in the first place - but I was in one of those curious moods fuelled by a Bank Holiday "free" day off and too much chocolate). I thought it would be a good idea to do some terraforming, and raise the area so that I had a smaller island next to the main island...I had lofty ideas of making a small version of Brunel's Tamar Bridge to join the two, so adding to the Cornish theme of the island.

I selected the area I wanted to terraform, set my "move land" slider to the halfway point, clicked on "raise land", pressed "apply to slected area"....and the land rose a little bit, but not enough as it was still submergedunder water. So I clicked again. Twice, randomly, whilst watching an episode of Ashes to Ashes that's I'd recored the week before and not paying the sort of attention that terraforming warrants.

Suddenly I started geting an avalanche of messages telling me my objects were being returned to my inventory after going offworld. The avalanche was so big, the system had to disable itself for 10 seconds while more messages came in and objectsd flew back into my inventory. For a second or two I wasn't sure what was going on, and couldn't see what had happened, so I decided to fly upwards to see what was happening. That's when I saw the the whole island had turned into one ENORMOUS mountain. Everything was buried under hundreds of feet of virtual granite.

I felt physically sick. All the hard work Julala and I had done (a good 80-100 hours) had gone in two stupid, thoughtless clicks. I clearly hadn't checked to see how much of the island I had highlighted to terraform (assuming arrogantly that I had only highlighted the tiny corner I wanted to raise) and had clicked twice in quick succession without checking how much the land was moving by. Worst of all...there didn't seem to be a simple"edit-undo" facility that undid something as severe as this.

I IMd Julala immediately to tell her what I had done, and she was amazing - she flew into SL within minutes landed on the island and started telling me that it wasn't a problem, not to worry about it and that, as we were going to effectively rebuild everything soon anyway, it didn't really matter. We had agreed last week that we needed to do some major re-terraforming to make, for example, sweeping cliffs as opposed to the odd "Sugar Loaf Mountain" cliff face we had made, and there was even talk of buying another island or homestead to join on to the island to make some seriously dramatic (and massive) landscapes (soemthing Cornwall is famous for). She said that the hours we'd put in hadn't gone to waste becauuse we had both learnt a lot about building, landscaping and managing land and to log out and try not to think about it.

I logged out and went to Twitter, thinking that this was a great opportunity to "say what I was doing":

Just destroyed Cornwall College Island on SL by setting the area I wanted to terraform incorrectly. There goes 2 months hard work!

After a few minutes I got a couple of responses from fellow Twitterers (who were also Second Lifers) who suggested I contacted Linden Labs and ask for a rolback. I didn't know that this was even possible, so suddenly I had a gleam of hope! Logging into SL.com as my ALT (and island owner) Hebask Falconer I set up a ticket, explained what I had done and when I had done it and asked whether the island could be rolled back to a couple of hours before it had all gone pear shaped. (Or mountain shaped).

At 6.30 this morning, I got an email from Linden saying the following:

Hello Hebask,
Thank you for submitting your rollback request. Typically we would not be able to approve a request such as this. Rollbacks are a recovery method for catastrophic loss due to means outside of your control rather than an 'Undo' due to errors made in the region. However, I have decided to approve this request as a One Time Courtesy Rollback. Cornwall College has been rolled back to Mon May 4 05:24AM PST.
Have a terrific week :)
Izzy Linden

The island is back to how it looked before I started playing with underwater corners. Rarely have I felt such relief...however, this story has made me reflect about building in SL to an extent I hadn't before:

• Terraforming is NOT an easy thing to do - it is better to make tiny changes in small areas and build upon them slowly and carefully than to try to save time by thinking it best to highlight huge areas of land and terraform them in one fell swoop.
• If terraforming CONCENTRATE. Do not have the television on or partners, dogs, kids or anything else running around the room. Do not have the telephone switched on or the new Metallica album playing at 1,000 decibals.
• If you are lucky enough to own an island complete all terraforming first and do the building "stuff" ONLY when you are happy with what you have done to the island's geography. That way you lose none of your precious building if it all goes wrong, and can simply revert / take back to the baked state in which the island was presented.
• If you make a mistake it's not as easy to repair as simply clicking on "edit undo" (as you would in "Word"!)
• Make sure the positions of objects are locked: this will also stop random visitors to your land accidentally moving / deleting / stealing your objects
• Linden Labs were really kind to let me have this one-off rolback - but it IS a one off, so making stupid errors and asking to tavel back in time to before it all went wrong isn't something that can be requested - or done for you - at the drop of a hat.

The repercussions, even after a successful rollback, can be quite big too. I may have everything back to how it was now (I tentatively logged in after getting the email this morning, just before going to work, and was so pleased to see every picture back in its frame, every building back in it's position and every hillock exactly where it should be), but tonight I have a meeting at 8.00 GMT on the island with the the rest of the project development group (those who are watching development go on but not doing any of the building themselves) - and I actually feel a little embarrased at making such a stupid error and am terrified of terraforming. Not sure if I can look them in the virtual eye without cringing...but I hope this stupid phobia goes, or my life as an avatar will be severely stunted.

Mid Course Malaise?

There's a definite malaise. I just can't seem to find the motivation to crack on with muvenation stuff. Am starting to feel like I'm drifting off the radar.

It started last Sunday, when I tried to get my holodeck scene to work. Having followed Shirley's tutorial to the word, this happened:

The scene skewed 90 degrees to the left, so it sat half-in and half-out of the holodeck. Not only that, but when I packed it back up again and then re-rezzed it (by selecting the scene from the holodeck menu) it had been deleted from the holodeck's scene inventory completely. This was a bit of a pain as it had taken a while to arrange the scene, add scripts to objects so they became object-givers and tip-jars, add textures to the slideshow presenter...so I tried it again. The scene was skewed in exactly the same way. I thought that maybe by turning the holodeck around to fit the scene I could sort of fix what had happened (lateral thinking? Bodge up?!). This worked until I tried to re-rez the scene...and found it had deleted itself again. AAAAARRRGGHHH!!

So a week later I go to the sky platform to try again, realising that in the intervening week I just haven't been able to engage with Second Life at all. I've been inworld, but have been aimless. I haven't been able to face the holodeck in case it all goes wrong again. I then notice that my teleport taxi has vanished from my platform, so I can only get back to muvenation island by using a landmark (or re-rezzing the taxi from my inventory). I get back to the island...then notice that my door on the teleport wall has also gone missing.

I've left a message on the technical forum on moodle - have I been evicted? Expelled? Booted off the course?

Busy!

I haven't added anything to this blog for a few weeks. There have been quite a few developments, some good, some not so good, and time has run away with me. (I was at a conference a few days ago when I heard one of the speakers, when told that she only had 5 minutes left to wrap up, say "ah - time is hunting me" which has really stuck with me as a beautiful phrase).

Cornwall College Island has been taking up lots of time, to the detriment of the muvenation course. I've been keeping on top of the coursework and tasks, but extracurricula stuff such as weekly social meetings inworld, hanging out on muvenation island and working with fellow muvenationers at the VWBPE conference have had to go so that the college's island can start taking shape. I don't want to give up the course - I am finding it very useful and am still having a great time working through it- but at the moment at any rate, my Second Life priorities have changed.

Anyway...true to form, gotta go. Am trying to get to grips with holodeck scripts, so will add photos to this post when I've got my head around them...

My Workshop - Reflections

PREPARATION

I really had no idea what to base my workshop around, but realised that I really enjoyed building stuff after attending a workshop based around building a valentine’s day bench, so decided to do something in a similar vein, using the way the bench workshop was delivered as a template for my workshop’s design.
I started playing in the MUVEnation sandbox and remembered the “ice house” I’d made a few weeks earlier, so thought that I’d use the same basic design to make a treasure chest. I wanted the lid to open and close, and I’d had some issues with the script that opened things (again, while trying to add a door to the Ice house – the whole building had rotated rather than just the door), so thought that by trying to get the script to work this time I’d not only solve my personal scripting issue, but end up with a workshop that hopefully honed a variety of useful SL skills such as:
· duplicating and linking prims
· typing in specific measurements to make shapes that fit together neatly and rotate to a very specific angle and for a specific purpose
· Had interactive elements , again referring to the lid properties
I made a treasure chest / trunk, jotted down the measurements, then went to the “script me” website to generate a script that would open and close the lid. Through trial and error I realised that I only needed to add the script to the specific part I wanted to move – the lid – and that I could do this to linked prims by ensuring the “edit linked parts” option was selected on the editing pane and that I highlighted the lid as being the area I wanted to add the script to. This answered my earlier “ice house” scripting problem, and was a proper “eureka” moment.
Now I had a workable trunk and my hastily scribbled notes, I typed out a set of more definitive instructions. I made a third trunk using these, and was able to fine tune the instructions as I worked.
Now I knew what I was doing and had instructions the workshop needed some structure. Thinking back to the Valentine’s Day bench building session I’d attended, I decided that it would be a good idea to give participants a folder containing a notecard with the same step-by-step instructions as I’d written, a treasure chest texture that I found in my inventory and a copy of the script that would make the trunk lid open and close. I dropped this in my ALT’s (Hebask Falconer) inventory but found that he couldn’t accept it – I hadn’t altered the items’ permissions so that anyone could accept copies and modify them, so worked out how to do this in each item’s “Properties” settings. When I offered Hebask the folder again, he was able to accept it – I then ran through the instructions I’d written once more using Hebask to make sure the texture and script still worked.
I wanted to add an element of differentiation to the workshop so decided that participants could either use the texture given to them at the start of the workshop or select a colour and level of shininess from the default colour palette. I then had a go at making treasure from a single prim made into a coin, given a golden sheen from the shininess and texture menus and copied and linked repeatedly until I’d made a pile of coins. I positioned this into the treasure chest, added a bottle and a goblet I already had in my inventory and linked the whole lot. Adding treasure meant that I now had an extension task at a higher level, so I wrote instructions for this, pasted these into a notecard and added this to the participants’ folders. I then rezzed a basic (and very small) dessert island and put the treasure chest containing treasure on it, along with a mail box I had used in my Travel Guide activity at the end of last year. Participants could leave comments via notecards in the mailbox after the workshop, so I emptied out the cards that had been put in at the end of the previous activity, made the mail box smaller, changed the textures, and then linked this to the island too.
I was really getting into the whole pirate thing, so I typed “free pirate costume” into the search engine and managed to locate some pirate shirts and pants, an eye patch, a rapier and even a cigar. As I was changing my appearance (again, in the MUVEnation sandbox) I ran into another MUVEnation member and jokingly remarked that I needed a parrot to complete my look. We checked my inventory, and found a parrot (though how or when I picked up a parrot in my travels Lord alone knows!). I managed to attach it to my shoulder and position it so it sat realistically, and a few days later my MUVEnation colleague sent me a script that made the parrot repeat things that I said randomly.
I advertised my workshop on the wiki, making sure the time I set was accessible in SLT, GMT and CET. I had my participants’ folders with notecards containing trunk and treasure-building instructions, a trunk texture, lid script and one gold coin. I had a Word document with instructions that could be copied and pasted to the local chat banner. I had a pirate costume, a miniature desert island and a selection of trunks of different colours and textures, one with treasure in. And I had Eric the parrot, complete with his repetition script. The final piece of the puzzle came when I read about someithng called a “Speakeasy HUD” in another course member’s blog. I had one of these in my inventory already (honestly – days of picking up freebies has obviously paid off), and read the instructions to check how to add my instructions. Now all I had to do was wear the HUD and click on it whenever I wanted a line from my instructions to be delivered via local chat.

THE WORKSHOP

I allocated 10 participant places for the workshop and I was really pleased that they filled quickly. The workshop was advertised on a separate discussion thread that formed part of the activity 2 forum, posted in the events calendar on moodle and advertised on the timetable for workshops page of the MUVEnation wiki. I was surprised at how many hours I had spent preparing and thinking about the workshop and how as it came closer I began to get more and more nervous. I dreamt about it at night, and spent the whole day of the workshop getting more and more nervous. It pre-occupied my thoughts and by early evening I have to admit that I was starting to think of ways to get out of doing it! I spent the day on SL, panicked when my avatar stated playing up (Sod’s Law), ran through everything about 6 times to make sure everything ran like clockwork, and at 6.00 GMT I logged into SL for the final time, put on my pirate costume, sat Eric the parrot on my shoulder, flew to the MUVEnation sandbox and began to set up my desert island and demonstration trunks.
Twenty minutes before the workshop was due to start 3 participants turned up – all were lovely, said the pirate costume looked cool and immediately made me feel at ease. (My fellow MUVEnationers are all so supportive – this needs to be metioned)
However, by 7.00 – kick off time- nobody else had arrived (even though 10 participants and one non-participating observer had booked places), and my five past I felt that I needed to start as I didn’t want people to be hanging around. I handed out participants’ folders (and was relieved when they were accepted without any permissions issues) and told the group via local chat the following (by copying and pasting each point into the chat banner):
· Today you will use building skills to make a treasure chest (trunk) with a lid that opens and closes when touched. You should all have a folder with a script, a texture, a coin and some instructions in it.
· The workshop should only take about half an hour to work through, and at the end if you are feeling confident there will be an extra activity at a slightly higher level you can choose to complete.
· It will be best if you all form a semi-circle around me so we can all see and hear each other.
· I will be using local chat to give you all instructions. Click on Communicate at the bottom of your screen then click on the local chat tab to read these. You can then scroll through instructions if you get lost.
· You can also IM me if you have any questions or need any extra assistance. I will try and answer your questions as quickly as I can.
· Would anyone like to work in a pair if they aren’t feeling very confident?
· Okay then shipmates...here we go...
At this point, as I attached the speakeasy HUD, I noticed that participants were already starting to make their treasure chests. I started to issue instructions, noticing that a couple of group members were further ahead than the instructions issued via the HUD...then realised that they were obviously using the instructions on the notecards they’d been given rather than the ones appearing command by command via the local chat. This, and the disappointment and odd sense of failure I was already feeling because only 3 participants (plus one latecomer) had shown up threw me, so I felt a bit cast adrift...especially when I noticed that the participants were all working at a completely different pace to one another; one was racing along, already linking prims and adding the treasure chest texture, one was not far behind, the late comer was catching up rapidly, but one was having trouble and needed some assistance. I went over to her and offered to help, and a fellow participant copied her basic trunk shape and gave to the troubled group member who had somehow managed to taper her prim so it had taken on a rhomboid appearance-something easily done, but that I hadn’t accounted for in my preparation . I returned to issuing instructions via the HUD, but had now fallen so far behind that whenever I issued a command I was concerned that participants would be confused by having too much information thrown at them out of sequence-they were all at different stages anyway, so this would no longer be a satisfactory way of running the session.
By now I felt that I was losing control and actually started to feel very hot and stressed in RL – I could actually feel sweat rolling down my back, though luckily, my discomfort couldn’t be seen in world!
I had to make a decision – and that was to detach the Speakeasy HUD and stop using it and to continue to allow participants to follow the notecard instructions at their own pace. As they did this, I walked around the group and offered praise, encouragement and assistance as an when required.
One very positive aspect was that participants were all really happy when their treasure chest lids opened. One had trouble getting the lid to rotate as opposed to the whole chest – my own experience with the “ice house” meant that I could give instruction via local chat, and her lid opened correctly afterwards. Two made treasure from the coins and extension task instructions and had already added the texture given to them at the start of the workshop to their completed treasure chests, so the differentiation / extension activity worked. However, one had trouble with adding her script – this was because she had been given a trunk base by another participant but the permissions hadn’t been altered so that she could modify it. I quickly dragged a completed trunk from my inventory, unlinked the prims, separated trunk base from lid and re-linked their constituent parts, changed the permissions and deleted the script and textures so that I had templates of both parts of the trunk that could be given to and modified by anyone, but the participant said that she had to leave because she needed to make dinner (it was now after 8.00 GMT) and that she would use the instructions she’d been given at the start of the session to try again in her own time. I am now quite concerned that her confidence gas been knocked because everyone else finished their trunk: non-verbal communication isn’t easy to read in world, so whether she was genuinely happy with the progress she’d made and really did need to head off to make dinner or not I do not know.

REFLECTION

CURATE'S EGG - "Something which is part good, part bad; a mixed bag. (Phrase Finder, 2000)

Like the Curate’s egg, the workshop was good in parts but I felt that it unravelled in others
· It took about 20 hours to plan and fine tune and an hour to deliver. Not a good ratio. I’m guessing the balance will get better with practice
· That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the planning process and also enjoy a few eureka moments / improve my building and scripting skills at the same time
· I was really disappointed with the poor turn-out and still feel that this is, somehow, my fault.
· The Speakeasy HUD is a brilliant device – but I didn’t use it properly.
· It may have been that I tried to put too much in the workshop – building, linking and duplicating prims and adding scripting elements may have been just too much
· The extension activity was a good idea
· Giving participants all the stuff they need to complete the build in their own time is a good idea – after we’d finished and I was clearing up a few MUVEnation members arrived to practise their own workshops, and I was able to give them copies of the workshop folders too.
· Getting participants to work at their own pace via a notecard with instructions whilst facilitating rather than instructing works – but probably only because the group was so small. Larger groups would possibly need either two or more facilitators moving around the group or a more didactic approach
· It may be an idea to give notecards out at the end of the workshop so participants have no choice but to follow the teacher’s step by step instructions-if the group was bigger, this may work well
· It’s not nerve wracking once you start – participants are very supportive
· I really enjoyed it – now that I’ve had24 hours to reflect and the immediate feelings that it had been a complete disaster have gone, I can honestly say that I had a great time delivering the workshop – and that there were bits that did work well

I’ll add to this post when I’ve had some participant feedback...

UPDATE (01/03/09)

Feedback from participants was very positive: maybe I was being overly critical and hard on myself, possibly because this is how my role in RL has made me (which is no bad thing). The participants seemed to find the workshop useful and genuinely enjoyable, and lack of numbers was down to the session being run on a Sunday evening and because I didn't send group notices to remind people when it was.

Subsequently I ran the workshop a second time (without the Speakeasy HUD and as a completely self-paced session) on my skybox, and participation was much better (see image below). Participants were more critical too, and made some good points: namely that my notecard instructions were hard to follow layout-wise: each instruction was bullet pointed and should really have been numbered, and text was densely packed so it was hard for participants to re-visit specific instructions if they needed to back track. In the future I shall space each numbered instruction out, as this simple format change could make a big difference.

Hebask, Shebask, Youbask, Webask...

I have set up an "ALT": Hebask Falconer was born yesterday, and his job in SL is to be "financer" of the Cornwall College Island. He'll be a premium account avatar and all financial and land-buying stuff will go through him, meaning that he'll be little more than a cipher: an account and a ways to a means rather than a resident. I've taken him out for a spin and found some odd stuff happening:

• I mean, for a start, he's a he. Why I decided to go trans-gender I don't know. He's a 7 foot tall elven warrior too.
  As a result I am, as ever, concerned about my mental well-being
• I went to MUVEnation Island and felt like a trespasser, so got all worried that I'd be booted off.
• I "IMd" Bex Mavendorf to befriend her / me and thought I may be suffering from virtual schizophrenia. See second bullet point
• I'm connecting with him and am not sure whether I'm happy for him to just be a virtual standing order. He's started collecting outfits, I'm tweaking his appearance and he's made a few friends. I want to get a beard and some chest hair. May I refer you again to the second bullet point.

Happy Birthday Hebask!

Going to workshops...and doing some secret squirrel networking...in Second Life

"You can take the teacher trainer out of the classroom but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher trainer.", to paraphrase someone. Anyhow, just done the first of two workshops and am about to do the next one, but thought I'd do a write up while it was still fresh.

Interactive Role Play delivered by Shannon Yambushi at the Learning Experience Lodge was my first experience of being a SL student. I found that I didn't fill in the analysis grid issued on MUVEnation moodle until after the event, and to be honest, only paid lip service to it, preferring instead to write garbled notes as I went and concentrate on what was a really intersting workshop. As a big part of my job involves observing teachers, I went into default mode and found myself thinking things like: "Stop facing the chalkboard and turning your back on the group....and what are you using something as real life as a chalk board anyway? Can't you write on a giant fish with a sparkler instead of chalk or something? Mmmm....really welcoming, stimulating environment....well measured pace in the main-bit rushed in places...informal and formative assessment throughout....you could see that individuals learnt by asking them to try out the gestures you'd instructed them to make summatively...you didn't, however, mention any progression to further or higher-level sessions....grade 3 I think, but nearly a grade 2..."

So we looked at the concept of role playing (as opposed to RPGs) in SL and concepts such as OOC (Out Of Character), IC (In Character) and the 733t / SMS (Short Messaging System). I was surprised to find that in PG areas it is fine to maim, injur, kill, bleed / make bleed / rip limbs off and generally be as violent as you wish...as long as there is no nudity. Bit like RL then - we'll be happy to watch films like Hostel, SAW, Cannibal Clowns from Outer Space etc...but get your bits out and you face the wrath of Mary Whitehouse. Or the ghost of Mary Whitehouse. Or a legion of Daily Mail readers. Or something.

I learnt about "Godmodelling" (where you force your RP playmates to feel something that is,n't their choice: "Bob kisses Bill and Bill feels all tingly inside"), interpretive, narrative and expressive role play, the etiquette of RP ("uh - okay - I'm not enjoying this anymore, so I'll be off now) and, most usefully, how to create and use gestures ("Bex Mavendorf smiles whilst wondering when dinner will arrive"). I also learnt that by creating subfolders within the "Calling Cards" areas of my inventory, I can create specific groups and hold conference calls / chats. Very useful stuff.

After the workshop had finished I asked Shannon what she considered to be the most important aspect of running workshops, (as per MUVENation instructions) and she was really happy to chat, answered in detail, and became a new SL friend:

[2009/01/24 8:55] Bex Mavendorf: I want to run some classes in sl, so could youm tell me what you think is the most important part of delivering a successful workshop - this one was really good, BTW![2009/01/24 8:55] Shannon Yamabushi (busy response): I am Teaching a clas right now I see your IM and will repond but takes a little effert to do a class on rolepalying. please help me and give me am oment to finish class then I can be there. [2009/01/24 9:00] Shannon Yamabushi: OH thank you![2009/01/24 9:01] Shannon Yamabushi: I can after class sure[2009/01/24 9:16] Shannon Yamabushi: one make a plan on the order you present it[2009/01/24 9:16] Shannon Yamabushi: two use props like black board or tools to show what your tlaking about[2009/01/24 9:16] Shannon Yamabushi: three set a time limit and ask questions after each part[2009/01/24 9:17] Shannon Yamabushi: as if there are any questions[2009/01/24 9:17] Shannon Yamabushi: then sumerise at end askign if there are questions again[2009/01/24 9:17] Shannon Yamabushi: endo f class for you revue and evaluate what you did and what you might havem issed to get your point out and what worked[2009/01/24 9:17] Shannon Yamabushi: reqrite and do it all over again next class[2009/01/24 9:17] Shannon Yamabushi: reqwrite[2009/01/24 9:18] Bex Mavendorf: very much like teaching in RL then![2009/01/24 9:18] Shannon Yamabushi: Yep[2009/01/24 9:18] Shannon Yamabushi: I had a actress in my class I Can't tel lyou who. promised but said this is exactly like perfomring but more live like on stage[2009/01/24 9:19] Bex Mavendorf: i can see thet - teaching and acting are similar...only teachers don't get paid as much!!![2009/01/24 9:19] Shannon Yamabushi: yeah -_- buttips are always nice ^_^[2009/01/24 9:20] Shannon Yamabushi is Online[2009/01/24 9:20] Bex Mavendorf: thanks shannon - i have no linden dollars but promise to get some and leave a tip - you have really earnt it!-- Instant message logging enabled --

The second workshop I attended was the very hands-on Valentine Garden Bench session at Rockliffe University. I really enjoyed this - all the group members got to make a bench following step-by-step instructions in a very well designed wprkshop / classroom area. Materials were given to all group members including textures, posing balls and a notecard at the end of the session re-iterating the instructions required to make the bench. I got chatting to the tutor who had delivered the session, again, as per course instructions...and am now going to see how Cornwall College and Rockliffe University can make links within the wolds of HE and Teacher Education in SL:

[11:43] Bex Mavendorf: do you have any tips foir a successful workshop? I'm about to buy an island for my college so any tips would be useful![11:43] Physicist Oh: oh thats quite a question[11:44] Physicist Oh: what do you plan to do withit at the college[11:44] Bex Mavendorf: its for our higher education and teacher training departments[11:45] Physicist Oh: Isee, Rockcliffe does some collaborative work with rl colleges[11:45] Physicist Oh: that is one area of interest to us[11:45] Bex Mavendorf: in the UK?[11:46] Physicist Oh: I'm not sure just what links we have, i'm more invlolved in diong the workshops like this one'[11:46] Bex Mavendorf: i want to trach teachers how to use SL to deliver their lessonsa[11:46] Bex Mavendorf: but rezzing is a part of what i want them to learn[11:47] Physicist Oh: you might want to contact the head of our school, Phelan Corrimal[11:47] Bex Mavendorf: cool![11:48] Bex Mavendorf: sorry to throw all these questions at you[11:48] Physicist Oh: We may be able to do some workshops for you, but i don't know for sure[11:48] Physicist Oh: no, thats perfectly ok[11:48] Physicist Oh: he might give you some tips on setting up your sim also[11:48] Bex Mavendorf: cool - we have an architect and money to buy a region[11:49] Physicist Oh: thats great, what school is it[11:49] Bex Mavendorf: i'm investigating in world workshops to see hoe they are run[11:49] Bex Mavendorf: yours was the best so far[11:49] Physicist Oh: thanks[11:49] Physicist Oh: i teach rl too, so i tend to be organized lol[11:49] Bex Mavendorf: it's Cornwall College - we are linked to University of Plymouth[11:50] Bex Mavendorf: i work in the teacher education department[11:50] Physicist Oh: brb, let me get notes out[11:50] Bex Mavendorf: you should get back to your group[11:50] Bex Mavendorf: sorry to take up so much of your time![11:51] Physicist Oh is Online[11:52] Physicist Oh: its ok, i think everyone is doing ok :)[11:53] Bex Mavendorf: everyone did as they were meant to - so your teaching methods are obviously successful[11:53] Physicist Oh: I think Phelan could be a big help to you, he is on quite often. And if its ok i'll drop him a copy of our chat[11:54] Physicist Oh: I try to be pretty detailed, and make sure everyone is at the same place[11:54] Bex Mavendorf: that'd be cool. my head of department is bascule twine - it'd be worth chatting to him too[11:54] Physicist Oh: ok, and he's free to im me also[11:54] Physicist Oh: what do you teach at the college?[11:54] Bex Mavendorf: ditto![11:55] Bex Mavendorf: teacher education - but I'm also the closest the department's got to a learning technologist[11:55] Physicist Oh: jack of all trades[11:55] Bex Mavendorf: hence me being the one who will look after an island here![11:55] Bex Mavendorf: yup - master of none!!![11:55] Physicist Oh: haha[11:56] Physicist Oh: well, if you mastered all this it would just be time to start on mastering something new[11:56] Bex Mavendorf: do you run any other rezzing sessions?[11:56] Bex Mavendorf: lol[11:56] Physicist Oh: i have quite a few, and my colleague is doing an intro series, she has a class here at noon, you might want to drop in on[11:57] Bex Mavendorf: noon SL time?[11:57] Physicist Oh: yes, just noticed, it starts in a few minute[11:57] Bex Mavendorf: better go leave her to it then![11:57] Physicist Oh: in a different classroom[11:57] Physicist Oh: i can go and tp you to it if you wish[11:57] Bex Mavendorf: that'd be good![11:58] Physicist Oh: ok, pick up your bench and i'll head there[11:58] Bex Mavendorf: cool[11:59] Physicist Oh is Offline[11:59] Physicist Oh is Online[12:01] Physicist Oh: bex, i crashed before i got a chance to copy our chat, can you make me a copy[12:02] Bex Mavendorf: no probs![12:07] Bex Mavendorf: this should copy the conversation to you...

So , I genuinely enjoyed both sessions, made more friends, learnt a bit about how to (and maybe how not to ) run workshops on SL...now just need to think of a subject to run my own workshop about, and hope it can be half as good as these were.

The Ice House

Here is Bex's Ice House, what I did make all by my own self. I'm pretty chuffed with it, but am having some issues. I've rezzed a door, added a script so that it opens when touched and added it to the house...but if I link the door prim to the rest of the house, when I open the door the whole house swings around and the door stays where it is - which gains me access, in an arse about face kind of way, but is a bit like the proverbial tail wagging the dog. It works if I don't link the door prim to the buliding, but that's just bloody useless! I can't keep dragging the door out of my inventory and re-positioning it every time I bring out the house! Grrrrrr. So how can prims do their own thing as separate entities and keep doing what they're scripted to do even when linked?

Bex's Rezidence

I rezzed my first serious bit of primmage! I made a tin shack! Look at its majesty! See how I scripted some hovering text over it! Delight in the posters I attached to the back! Nine prims, one object! It's a hobo palace I tell you!

Okay - it ain't much...but it's taught me a lot about positioning, stretching, rotating, linking, adding textures...and made me feel confident that I can now go on to bigger and better things.

Woohoo!

They're Going to Announce the New Doctor

They're going to announce the new Doctor in an hour. My SL IM window is pinging like a game of "pong" on amphetamines - Whovians in both RL and SL are in a state of near hysteria waiting for the news. Russell T Davies and Stephen Moffatt control us and they love it. Pah. Need to do something constructive or I'll get swept into the conspiracy theories.

I decide to look at someone else's travel guide and visit a few of their recommended sites. Samu Lorefield is one of my SL contacts, so I take his notecard from a nicely rezzed box on MUVEnation Island. I'm immediately impressed by the way he's actually managed to put clickable landmarks on his notecard rather than "longhand" SLURLS. Gold star to Samu! I click on the DELL Island link because my laptop's a DELL so I'm curious. After teleporting I am immediately struck by two questions: what's the point of the island and why does it feel like a generic small fishing village on the Amalfi coast? I really like the ambiance - and the way the island shape is based on the universal "power" icon. Indeed, aesthetcally there's a lot to like - but again, I need to ask what the point is? That's the thing with so many places in SL- and something I discussed with Uncle Writer before Christmas: people are obviously very skillful at rezzing so there's a ot of areas that bleed style over substance - but just don't really do anything. Just show the owner's rezzing prowess. Whoop de doo. I've already used, visited or recommended the other links on Samu's guide, so move to another.

The chestnut group's LifeArt Gallery link on Eduversa Island looks good and I spend some time looking at rez-based sculpture, and marvelling that there are some areas that really aren't designed for any purpose but DO work nonetheless. The island is German, so I don't fully understand all the texts available to me, though it seems to be a generic education area. Linked to the gallery is an area called "xyz" - an airborne sculpture garden enclosed in an "Eden Projectesqe" dome. Very zen - in an Escher / fractel / geometric way. I am immediately transfixed and sit for a while.

Back to MUVEnation - why are there loads of bizarre looking trees here? Which group is responsible for this and why? I take photos becasue they all look really cool - there seems to be some sort of purpose: to link to educational materials / areas / websites / web 2.0 tools that can be used in teaching in SL - each branch / twig forming a link. Can't fathom out the creepy tree with Feldmanesque eyes that follow me everywhere, but like it anyway! Must do more investigating...

Anyhow-Matt Smith is the new Doctor. Never heard of him. He's only 12. I think he could work though...

Can She Build it? Er....No.

Module 2 doesn't start until the 19th January, so I've got time to do a bit of self directed learning (or "FOFO Teaching" as an ex-colleague of mine used to call it). I bought "Creating your World-the Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life" by Aimee Weber, Kimberly Rufer-Bach and Richard Platel just before Christmas, so bouyed by my tiny scripting triumph of a few days ago, thought that I'd spend a bot of time on MUVEnation island doing a bit of rezzing and playing and primming and stuff.

First off, thought it may be time to sort the 4000+ items I've managed to acquire into some sort of order in my inventory. I set up subfolders and dragged and dropped everything into them (and deleted loads of crap I'd managed to pick up as well), so for now at least I have an ordered house. And three virtual houses, a gazebo, a log cabin and a hot tub

It's amazing how much free stuff you can pick up just by idly wandering. I am yet to buy any Linden Dollars - far too parsimonious for that - besides, I haven't found anything I actually want to buy that I can't get for free. I have a virtual wardrobe 6 times the size of my RL one, and with the sort of clothes I'd love to wear in RL but am too fat/ old / scared to go out in. Lord alone knows how many hairstyles I have, or why I need a Darth Vader avatar. Or an Eric Cartman.

Back to rezzing. I linked my first prims and made a pretty tatty and rubbish-looking poufee-seat thing. Look at the majesty of my first 3-prim object!

I looked through the book some more... and decided that I really wanted to have a mooch around SL. I think I know the basics of making things now. Next FOFO lesson: scripting.

Finished. Done. Sorted. Fini. Etc.

As much as I enjoyed the travel guide task, my ADHD kicked in after about 25 hours (this is not me being flippant - I have been diagnosed with mild Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - though when I was a kid it was called "showing off" and earnt me more clipped ears than the Newport Pagnell branch of "Claire's Accessories".) Anyway, as ever, I digress.

I have to say, and again I sound disparaging here, but I got a bit fed up with the orange group comprising of just the three of us - there were 6 (I think) to start with, but one didn't make it to the final selection process of the course, one never made it to the group's forum / wiki pages or inworld meetings, one posted sporadically but was swamped at work so couldn't really commit to the task...so that left three of us posting to our pages and meeting up inworld to get the travel guide written and our asynchronous treasure-hunt styled guide written collaboratively.

Guide written on wiki page, it was time to set the virtual tour process up. I looked through my inventory and found a sandwich board. I also found a mailbox. Lord alone knows where I've managed to pick this stuff up from, but magpie-like, I have acquired it. There's stuff in my inventory that would put Steptoe's Yard to shame. I smell a virtual scrap yard business in the offing.

I digress. Again. I decided that based on the "basic box design, notecard - authoring and scripting" tutorial I'd attended inworld I'd tinker with my mailbox and drop a notecard in it that gave the URL of our group's virtual travel guide. The sandwich board would announce the group's presence...et voila: one asynchronous-treasure-hunt-styled-travel-guide-tour-thingy!

Just before what ended up being the orange group's final meeting, I placed the mail box in a suitably ostentatious position on MUVEnation Island, dropped in a freshly written notecard, then waited for the 2 other group members who had been involved in the task to show. This they did, I invited them to try out the mailbox...and nothing happened. Years of Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Basic and, laterly, HTML coding headaches came flooding back. something was wrong. But what?

Remembering that I had the gift I made in the tutorial, we decided to use this as the mailbox instead. As it already had a notecard in, it would be easy to simply change the text to the travel guide's URL.

This didn't work either.

And so the three of us ended up with 2 boxes - one that had the correct notecard in (but, to my chagrin, with spelling errors), one that, when touched, whispered a jovial message. But not one that did both...

After much playimg about, scratching of virtual and real heads and even asking a passing MUVEnation mentor and her virtaul penguin (Pengi - gotta love him!) for assistance, my two other group members had to leave - time zones and impending Chrismasses being what they are. Being obssessive of nature, and the thought of the half-finished task hanging over me like a Christms hangover until the New Year, I decided to figure out what I had to do.

Half a bottle of RL wine later it dawned on me/ The virtual mail-cum-gift box I'd rezzed looked great. It whispered a suitably welcoming message when touched. The notecard I'd written contained clear instructions. But, in my best Eureka moment to date, I realised: I hadn't amended the box's scripting to enable it to give the "toucher" its notecard! This I quicly added and ta da - it worked!

I figured out how to change the signboard - by adding a "2" texture I'd picked up in my travels. I made both signboard and gift/mail box bright orange (group 2: subgroup orange)...and the task was complete:

All I had to do now was tell the group that I'd finished the task - and apologise for taking a lead of sorts without any vote being taken. I announced that the virtual tour was open on moodle's events area:

And with a feeling of satisfaction (and closure) I turned off my laptop and had a bloody good Chrismas!

180 Degree Turn Around

Which is a skit on the title of my favourite A-Team episode "West Coast Turn Around". God I'm a sad sack.

There were only 2 of us at the orange group's meeting this evening - but it was a wholly successful meeting despite (or maybe because) of this. My fellow attendee was Uncle Writer, the only other member of the group to have posted regularly to the forum and wiki.

We took a look at a few of the places I've mentioned on the group's travel guide, with a view to looking at what worked and what didn't and as we flew and wandered around, came up with the following:

• there are too many virtual classrooms that look like RL classrooms that don't seem to belong to any specific subject area, so just seem a bit sameish and vague.
• there are areas that look like they belong to a child who overbuilt when on a Sunny Delight-induced sugar-high until the novelty /e-numbers wore off, leaving some areas that are really no more than cluttered, overly busy but functionless wastes of space
• there are some beautifully designed buildings with crappy furniture inside and vice versa
• there are too many empty spaces with nobody about and nothing going on (though this may be to do with time differences)
• some people seem to just own areas on SL because they can, and build for the sake of it - but seemingly without imagination or a definitive plan ("We're a college - let's have an island!"). This worries me as I fear that I could / am go / going down this route.
• Contrary to what I thought, it IS possible to teach asynchronously on SL
• Beautifully designed, minimalist and imaginative areas can be interpreted in any number of ways by practitioners - and that can only be a good thing.

After a couple of hours of exploring various areas that we both felt were worth mention we sat for a chat (again, outside and around an open fire - this seems to be the best place to come up with ideas. Maybe we should all teach around camp fires in RL?!) and came up with what I think is a brilliant idea:

Whilst exploring I showed Uncle a virtual web quest unit on Education UK Island. We agreed that the concept of a web quest was a good one in SL and made for an imaginative method of delivery, doing away with dry old virtual classrooms with virtual desks and virtual inflexibility and making use of the sort of imaginative methodology SL should be adhering to.

We went on to talk about how web quests could be set up...then between us managed to come up with the conceit of using a web quest to deliver our guided tour to other MUVEnation participants. This would immediately do away with the need to be online at a specific time to "physically" show groups of avatars around our recommended locations. We would simply write one treasure hunt question for each location, publish these questions to both our travel guide wiki page and on a note card, tell all participants where they could find the note card, then ask them to find the answers to all the location-based questions. These they could then write on their own note cards (which would give them a bit of rezzing / scripting practise), to be posted in a virtual mail box placed in an agreed and advertised location. Ta da! Asynchronous - and available for everyone to do at a time that suits, rather than a prescribed time and date (even better this time of year whe everyone in the world has holiday plans).

So - from coming very close to jumping ship and joining another group to coming up with something that's really fired me up - a bone fide 180 degree turn around!

Turncoat!

The collaborative Travel Guide activity has been a bit of a chore. The mashing side of it can get a bit time consuming - I've realy enjoyed exploring SL and finding some locations to put on my sub-group's travel guide - and as this is the heart of the activity, I can say it's been useful and despite taking up every evening for a week I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed taking snapshots and writing brief "rough guides" for each location, chatting to some of the people hanging out at each place - I've even teleported some newbies to some areas that they wanted to find but couldn't (starting to feel like a veteran already! How time flies inworld!) - but it's the repitition that is getting to me: the having to put the same information in so many different applications, be it this blog, the wiki, the group's moodle page or database, flickr, delicious...


I don't want to sound disparaging but I am aware that this repetition is starting to get to other course members too: it's not that we can't see the pont - it's all about using web 2.0 tools repeatedly in order to be familiar with them and see how they can be used to ediucational effect (I guess), but it has been detrimental to this particular activity, hence the title of this posting.




Here's where I get my virtual head kicked in, and I really don't want to sound like I'm bitching. Thing is, I have a problem...

My sub group - the orange group - seem to have lost interest. There are only two or three of us who are using the wiki and forum page to do anything, and one of these members has started sounding...well...frankly, a bit fed up with it all, and I can see his point. He's not the first course member to say that they are finding the whole "where to post" thing getting ever more confusing, and, to add to this, other members of the group -even the other half-hearted poster - seem to have now disappeared, though I did suggest a few meeting times to hurry things along and try to make some sort of progress and there is a meeting time set for 5.00 tomorrow.

I was invited by a member of the blue group to join them for a fire-side chat about their travel guide on MUVEnation Island. (Things are so much easier when you work with other course members in RL!) I've been reading their forum and they're really cracking on with this activity - we spent a good hour chatting about how to set out their group's travel guide, whether they should build an exhibition stand too, how to present their guided tour to other groups, who should do what and when to meet up again to bring everything together, as well as SL as an educational tool / resource in general terms. This was a really useful exercise, and fired me up to start the orange group's travel guide page on the wiki. I then went to moodle to check in, and noticed that other groups have gotten even further - some as far as having posted event notifications regarding their guided tours. My group seem to be so far behind everyone else I feel pretty deflated. The blue group have invited me to join them...yet I feel like a bit of a cow for considering it.


So. I'll see what happens on Sunday at 5.00 and whether we can start catching up with the other groups. If not I'll join the blue group at 10.30 on Monday for their next meeting and ask Shirley whether I can be moved.


On a brighter note, the chat yesterday did help shape some pedagogic stuff regarding SL:

• It's probably best to teach synchronously in SL
• Activities such as playing Frisbee help newbies to learn to control their avatars, break the ice and are quite a laugh!
• The element of anonymity that text chat as opposed to mic. based chat gives may be good for mentor / teacher support-based concepts? i tend to bshy away from invitations to talk "live" as it really does scare me!
• There's a real sense of there being a community of practice (and enquiry?) relating to education in SL

Anyhow - let's see how tomorrow's meeting goes...

Move Over Judith Chalmers...

I've been looking for some educational areas and doing my damndest NOT to get waylaid by shiney things, TARDISes, freebies (lied about that bit) playing frisbee, wearing my new Darth Vadar avatar (lied about that bit) or anything else. Here, as requested as part of my MUVEnation course, are some links to what I have found today...

1. Education UK Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/225/36/22
Web quests, RSC (Regional Support Centres), psychological research, education research, JISC, areas for a variety of UK-based colleges and universities, association for physical education, Teachers TV, massive sandbox for rezzing, good conference areas

2. EdTech Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EdTech/100/114/25
Runs a 15 week course in teaching and learning on SL, center for virtual educators, amphitheatre, scripting workshops

3. Virtual Education Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Education%20Is/131/123/43
A variety of classes from particle theory to scuba diving, sky diving to meditation. Also features live music, art gallery

4. Insight Virtual College
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Insight%20Virtual%20College/117/125/32
Lessons in starting a SL business, groups and group management, planning and managing a sim, features a large sandbox (cleared every 3 hours)

5. Eduisland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%203/85/153/36
Massive – has community colleges, areas for teacher support and networking, blogger’s cafe “literature alive!” wellness station, school of medicine, a university consortium, learning spaces, a library classroom and project theatre

6. The College of North West London
http://slurl.com/secondlife/CNWL/90/162/39
Sandbox, changing rooms, link to PDF copy of college’s RL prospectus, free gifts (I got 150 dresses in one box, two free businesses and 10,001 textures in another box!) quiz area, puzzles and games, information about vocational courses

7. Language Lab (ESOL, TFEL, TESSL, TOIEC)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Language%20Lab/130/170/29
Interactive quizzes, photo gallery, Tai Chi area, teleports to virtual English cities, lessons in English and Spanish

8. The Learning Experience
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Akamu%20Cove/123/137/22
Library, reading /literacy slant, also appears to be a love of drama as a subject (Presentation Stage, Sky Stage, Victorian Stage and StoryLand are testament to all of this). Writers’ symposium. Loads of freebies on offer.

9. ISTE Island (International Society for Technology in Education)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/106/69/30
Loads of useful freebies (objects, note cards etc) for anyone who wants to teach in SL, volunteer programme, users’ survey, podcasters’ palace, bloggers’ hut, virtual classroom (which is truly bizarre), rather nice outdoor coffee bar,

10. ICT Library on Info Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/52/201/34
Freebie galore again! Furniture, free gifts for teachers, scripts (flickr, how to give objects to anyone, link to “script me” website which looks useful but needs further exploration), “intute” resources, education tour guide kit, free polling / voting kits, link to Sim Teach website - Information and Community for Educators using M.U.V.E.'s, class ideas for a variety of subject areas, guides looking at best practices for organising RL/SL events and a shop!
(The island also has the Jazz Cat cafe at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infotainment%20Island/219/150/36 )

11. CQU Learning
http://slurl.com/secondlife/CQU%20Learning/196/50/46
Tiny (the photo shows pretty much the whole island!) and still under construction. Shaping up well – like the concept of simple, modern and separate offices housing different projects and, though it doesn’t look to be up and running yet, it has given me a few ideas as to how to set up something similar should I ever need to. Also proves that it doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking to manage a whole island.

12. Teaching
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/144/131/23
A large island dedicated to North American colleges and universities and containing (among other things) a virtual art studio, The Trotta Research Centre, a range of private study areas and lecture theatres, amphitheatres and sandboxes: all encompassing the generic theme of innovative learning and creativity.

Stuff and Stuff

I appear to have amassed more landmarks than the National Trust. This is obviously a good thing, as it proves that I have been exploring...but my landmarks folder is getting a little messy now.

I have been dragging bits and pieces into other folders that I've set up to keep my inventory in order - but I just keep getting more and more "stuff". A lot of it is given to me by other SLifers - in the past week I've been given a Doctor Who scarf, a set of Daleks, some TARDIS textures and - oddly - a sub-machine gun, some nuclear missiles and a tank by some avatar who thought I was a bloke (because I was rezzing a TARDIS and thought his battling Daleks were cool when we got talking).

So my subfolders have subfolders which, in turn, have subfolders and my stuff is now taking up space in what appears to be a virtual Russian Doll. Do I delete anything? No I do not - I may need it one day. And if another avatar is kind enough to offer me copies of their stuff, it's rude to refuse.

Anyhow, the fashion show on Sunday was odd - I felt as if I was really there - found myself opening a bottle of RL zinfandel to go with the vibe. Actually started feeling nervous when I was called for my turn on the catwalk - what if I did a Naomi Campbell and fell off the stage?

Now that's an odd thing isn't it. I felt as if I were really there. That's going to need some thinking about, and I don't knows if I can contextualise what that means in writing. But I underwent the same feelings and acted in the same way as I would were I attending a real fashion show with my peers. I attended the after show party and danced for a while with two people I actually know in RL. We then went on to the Globe Theatre to watch a live dance show whe the party started to wind down, and when I went to bed in RL I felt the same residue of happiness and tiredness as I would have done had I actually gone out in RL. Very strange.

This is all becoming oddly emersive. I really didn't think I'd become so sucked in. SL and RL are meshing into one...mmmm...bizarre...

Now we're cooking...

This was the week I felt that I'd cracked it: gone from clumsy know-nothing to someone who can hold their own in SL - and even tentatively start to help others find their SL legs. To quote The Fast Show, this week I have mostly been:

1. Learning to rez prims - and in doing so, have acquired some really odd practise objects!


2. Learing how to use my inworld profile and how to look at others' profiles too


3. Teleporting my new friends around


4. Picking up freebies - I now have everything from rugs, furniture and personal teleporters to feathers, wigs, my own TARDIS, a Dalek, two Cyberman skins / costumes* and a summer house.


5. Making friends. This has been incredible - and resulted in several late nights! I've shared my desktop with a fellow MUVEnationer from Mexico and looked at photos he's taken on a variety of RL travels around the world.


6. Driven a dune buggy, been a passenger in a mini-mote and whizzed around on a Harley Davison


7. Danced at an 80s alternative disco and drunk champagne at a Doctor Who bar


8. Hung out at Cardiff's Doctor Who exhibition


9. Flown the TARDIS and said hello to K9


10. Looked at a Spanish mathematician's moodle site


11. Been the 4th Doctor's companion - and got a souvenir of my travels by way of a scarf given to me by the Doctor himself (Disclaimer: I know it's not THE Doctor - but in SL we can be who we want, right?)

This is what it's all about - using the search facility to find something that tickles your fancy, teleporting there, chatting to whoever's about...then being taken on a journey that eats up the hours but widens your SL - and, importantly, RL horizons.

Woohoo!

*Yes, this is how I manged to get my photo on the "almost famous" thread without any cost or effort. It's not cheating - it's using the environment to my advantage.

Warm, glowy feeling

Just went to sign up to group 2 on MUVEnation Island and got talking to three other SLifers from groups 1,2 and 3 respectively. Two were from Spain, one was a learning technologist in compulsory education, one had experience in teacher education.

Cushions were made, a Turkish rug materialised, we joked and drank coffee by the billboards, then moved on to flaming tequilas as the sun went down. We talked about our jobs, teachers' perceptions of ILT, social networking and web 2.0. Photos were taken and we all became firm friends. My Eureka moment - my PROPER warm, glowy Eureka moment had arrived.