Sunday, November 8, 2009

Balance in Life and Pathways

Been 'splorin' Second Life this morning based on a "Real Life Education in Second Life" group query I picked up in group chat yesterday. Someone (sorry, I didn't note the avatar name) chatted a question to the effect of "Does anyone have a lm (landmark) to the store where I can purchase a Pathways Learning System?"

Well, I was as I am wont to be curious, so I tp'd to the replied landmark and found myself in a very interesting space. I looked around. My wife and son pulled into the garage downstairs in real life (IRL) and I knew I had to leave Second Life so I did. It's important to honor balance and time in the contexts of life and family, dontcha know.

This morning I awoke, ran through my morning espresso-making, pet-treating ritual, slipped into workout clothes and hauled my laptop down to my garage office/study. I set up the computer at my bookcase shelf where it resides on top of my ancient amplifier receiver, selected at more or less random the John Lennon vinyl recording "Rock 'n Roll," turned up the amp and climbed aboard my step machine. That's where I still am, exercising and typing to my 2nd listening of Side 1's "Be-bop-a-lula," I have a good sweat working, I've been exploring Second Life, and I've answered a couple emails. I just took my last sip of espresso, which is cold; but that's okay. Life(s) is good.

So back to the Pathways Learning System. It's pretty neat. I'm considering purchasing the starter kit, and at $L 9999, even with the educator discount, that's saying something.

To continue the narrative: This morning, I fired up my Emerald Green SL client and clicked to login at my "Last Location" and there I was, taking up my exploration again as if I hadn't had a wonderful dinner with my family, watched two Dexters on DVD with my lovely wife, collapsed into a sleep-coma and awakened to my elderly rescuee cat meowing on my chest for her morning treat.

After giving things time to rez in, I walked around. This looks like a godsend to educators and if the makers have set up a viable and profitable way to share it and support their development endeavors at the same time, more power to 'em, I say!


I certainly could have used this at my "slartclectic" art gallery build (see previous post and video) but alas, it's coming down today. You might be able to catch it, or me taking it down, if you pop in today, Sunday, November 8, 2009, otherwise content yourself with the video and plan to visit Nashville next year the third week in October for artlcectic, the "real" thing.

Monday, November 2, 2009

ISTE SL Tour Nov 1, 2009

Lasterday (sic) I popped inworld to greet participants in Esme Qunhua's wonderful bi-weekly educators' tour of Second Life sites at my temporary "slartclectic" build. I'm announcing here that the fabulousmarvelousgenerous Angrybeth Shortbread has granted us a one week extension on its lifespan so that it will be available to visit in SL until the end of the day Sunday, Nov. 8. Yay! Please visit and sign the "guest book," several copies of which are laying around at the bars and also right at the teleport location. Click on everything. Be kind and thoughtful when you give me feedback because I'm hoping to use it to pitch either a permanent build or at least an annual one so that this wonderful real life juried art show can extend its reach into the global community! Thanks! I'll add a few more pics here along with Esme's commentary and get out of the way. Come visit! (SLurl)

ISTE SL Tour Nov 1, 2009: Adventures, mazes, and a little art.

We visited 4 sims:

SLartclectic - The Port - Art and Creative Tech, The Port (138, 98, 501)

SLartclectic is an experimental art gallery created as a "proof of concept" for the annual University School of Nashville art show and gallery, "artclectic."

Here we were met and guided by

Scottmerrick Oh. The sim is a limited time exhibit of many, many pieces of art, sculpture and other designs.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Port/146/94/501

The Pencil Factory - Angrybeth Shortbread

Absolutely fabulous and huge interactive art sim.

Enscharys: Elven Castle and Game, Enscharys (121, 96, 153)

A game/maze that you must explore to find the keys to the castle. Beautiful architecture.

One Man's Garbage, Cookie (182, 85, 21) - We explored Tooters sentence maze and other booths.

Participants

1. Esme Qunhua, tour manager

2. Janita Collins, tour assistant

3. Scottmerrick Oh, guest tour guide

4. Oronoque Westland, ideas

5. Mandie Mimulus

6. Learner Magic

7. Jackie Rexen

8. Shailey Garfield

9. Louise Borgnine

10. DrDavis Idlemind

11. Carson Vespucciano

12. Elyen Zlatkes

13. Eruditus Drut

14. Josain Zsun

15. Alocin Tigerpaw

16. Kevin Hootfly

17. Haley Swansong

18. Aquiel Aero

19. Firery Broome

Friday, October 30, 2009

Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Second Life--Draxtor Despres

Draxtor Despres has put together another stunning little video, this one about how architects are beginning to use Virtual Environments to collaborate with real-world projects as the end in sight. A significant player in this new cross-cultural collaboration? How about the U.S. Department of State!

I'm embedding here just for fun and elucidation. Really worth a watch!!!

Monday, October 26, 2009

slartclectic--Please Visit!

Hey, all,

Been knee-deep, virtually and really, in rw living and learning this past week. My apologies!

Here's what I've been doing in SL:


Find more videos like this on Virtual Environment Education Videos!

More later, and lots of it!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Understanding Islam Through Virtual Worlds

Please visit Second Life TOMORROW evening (Sunday, unless you're in Australia :) for an important talk at Spiff Whitfield's Virtual Pioneer's meeting, tonight, at 5pm SL time (US Pacific). Here's the announcement from the Spiffman, followed by a quote from the website he's sending you for "pre-requisite" work:

We are honored to have Rita J. King (Eureka Dejavu) and Joshua Fouts (Schmilson Nilson), Senior Fellows at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, present their powerful work that involves using Second Life as a platform for educating people about the Islamic faith.

This will be a sit down presentation at our WNYRIC building on Lighthouse Learning Island.

As a pre-requisite Rita and Josh ask that attendees watch their documentary "Understanding Islam Through Virtual Worlds" that may be found here: http://dancinginkproductions.com/projects/understanding-islam-through-virtual-worlds/

Please join us for this presentation and come prepared to ask questions and express your thoughts for an active dialogue, with these influential educators.
To save you a couple clicks (though I do encourage you to visit the website and learn more, here's an embed of the wonderful video. Note the appearance of my MUVErs partner, padlurowncanoe Dibou, about mid-way through. What a great surprise that was to me! From the website:

On January 29, 2009, Dancing Ink Productions Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts released the findings from the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The project was funded by a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. The findings included a trilogy of actionable items available in digital format here. By releasing three types of reports — policy recommendations, documentary video and graphic book — we hope to make what is still a very new medium as accessible as possible.
Read more: http://dancinginkproductions.com/projects/understanding-islam-through-virtual-worlds/#ixzz0TYheTcFV

Monday, October 5, 2009

King Tut Virtual--Heritage Key Project is a Must See!

I recently took a little visit to a newly released OpenSim virtual world, Heritage-Key's "King Tut Virtual".

I was a little apprehensive at first, since I haven't really had much prior success with OpenSim offerings, but this exploration makes me want to break out the search tools and see what others are doing!

First, I downloaded the viewer, readily and freely available here. It's a quick download, and registration, here, is just as quick and easy.

Then I wound my way through the opening orientation, very extensive, and likely a case of TMI ("Too Much Information"), especially to any experienced Second Lifer. Still, it was interesting to me to see another group's approach to orientation. I've still not found a better, more concise, and yet more detailed one that our MUVErs Orientation in Second Life.

Then I made my way into the build. I'm not going to spoil it for you with too much detail, but I will urge you to persevere. There's a lot to see so take your time and enjoy. Here's a pic of the Coffins area:






I did a little Frapsing while I was there, just to demo a snippet of the build. You can see that at Virtual Environments Education Videos, my ning. You don't need to register to view, only to upload your own videos if that's your cup of tea.

Oh heck, let's just embed it here!
I'll definitely be back to King Tut Virtual! I have a classroom of 2nd graders who study ancient Egypt every year. This, without the adult content issues Second Life has (admittedly) recently addressed, will be a lasting resource for the future!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

October Blog-o'-the-Month!

Hey, ya'll!!!

Please take time to visit and congratulate October 's Blog-o'-the-Month, e-clippings (Learning as Art)



Voting for October went in favor this American edublogger's "Internal conversation" as described in this quote from his Typepad blog's "About" page:

About this blog... I want to say that while I love having readers, that is not the most important thing for me about blogging. This is almost an internal conversation I am having in a very public way. I welcome and appreciate your comments, ideas, criticisms, and readership.

This blog is primarily about how culture and technology come together over the space we call 'learning.' It covers a lot of ground but the overarching theme (at least in my mind if not always evident) is how these new technologies, methodologies and ideas can be used to create a richer world of learning.


The stellar blogs nominated for the month of November are:

Pooky Media
Pooky Amsterdam

edbuzz.org
Daryll Johnson and Shawn Roner

Edtech Jen
Jennifer Roland

Tim Holt's Intended Consequences
Tim Holt

In the event of a tie I'll find some groovy randomizing SL tool to choose the winner! Any suggestions? Leave 'em in the info dropbox!
Past Features (Blog Hall of Fame):

Clive on Learning--Clive Shepherd
Technology and Learning--Lee Kraus
PESD Island--Noreen Strehlow
In a Strange Land--Iggy O et al
Second Life in New Zealand--John Waugh, Terry Neal, et al
Hey Jude!--Judy O'Connell
Learning Games--Daniel Livingstone
Learning Visions--Cammy Bean
Dr. Z Reflects--Leigh Zeitz
Hendron's Digest--John Hendron
Phasing Grace--Grace McDunnough
From Mr. A to Mr. Z--Jeff Agamenoni
Around the Corner--McGuhlin.net
Fleep's Deep Thoughts--Fleep Tuque/Chris Collins
NMC Campus--New Media Consortium
PHSPrincipal Blog--Dave Meister
Teaching Math Technology Blog--Maria Anderson
2CentsWorth--David Warlick
The Story of My Second Life--Kevin Jarrett
Oh! Second Life (now Oh! Virtual Learning)--Scott Merrick :)