True Colors in the Teen Grid

My friend Marianne's students are making machinima and they're making it well. This derivative work demonstrates a middle schooler working out filmmaking skills in Second Life Teen Grid under the guiding eye of a master teacher. Enjoy!

Playing with SL Viewer 2 Beta--Video!

So this morning I saw that my friend Knowclue (the inimitable Marianne Malmstrom) was inworld and I invited her to the Bloggers Hut on ISTE Island to see some experimentation I was doing with streaming ustream.tv video onto a prim using the new Second Life Viewer 2 Beta's incredibly easy prim editing procedures. Had I watched a video tutorial about Viewer 2? Just the one I posted yesterday or the day before, which is a great general intro to the revolutionary interface, but which does not really do more than hint at its enhanced Media Sharing capabilities. No, I just figured it out, just the way we want our students to be able to figure things out.

I was sitting on the loveseat in my Nashville, Tennessee family room with Know snowed in at her house in New Jersey, and we were both hooked up to SL in less than optimal conditions--she on an old laptop while her main PC is being fixed after dying last week ("Have you ever seen a GREEN screen of death?") and me on a good laptop, my trusty Dell XPSM1530, but connecting over wireless, and we managed to do a few things. We shared this ustream and video'd it, Skype voiced in the background (my SL voice just plain had disappeared--I'm guessing it has something to do with the media player or ustream.tv hijacking my audio codec), and Knowclue rezzed a new prim and slapped a YouTube video stream on it. We had all that going at once when I finally crashed my laptop. FUN! I just rebooted, said my goodbyes, and went off into the kitchen to bake some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. A day in the life!

Here's her video of the little verse from a favorite song (kudos to David Gristman and the late Jerry Garcia's for their version of "Jenny Jenkins" that I used to learn this great traditional song) I shared with her:

Find more videos like this on knowclue

While we're at it, let's share the other one she sent me, a nice snapshot of how we noodled around on a fine Saturday morning and how my son got to meet my dear friend thanks to SL Viewer 2 Beta:

Find more videos like this on knowclue

Viewer 2 release

Hey all. If you don't already have it, you'll be convinced to get it. Viewer 2 Beta for Second Life has a bunch of new features, and though the video here doesn't contain the coolest I've found so far (completely surfable web pages on a prim, YEAH! Including Flash content!), I still recommend you watch---

Philip Rosedale at Singularity University

I'm still watching it, but I can't believe it. This was published less than an hour ago and it is aMAZing. Lots of conceptual disclosure by the creator of Second Life. You have to see it. It's an hour or so long, and that's all I can say: You have to watch it.

"There's a tremendous desire that people have to be in each other's presence." Virtual worlds will bring us together. "There's a tremendous appeal to be with other people when you're doing work."

Other gems (paraphrased): "People are enormously more creative and interested in being creative for fun than we've traditionally thought. The way the technology has previously been has mandated that there has to be one star with thousands watching or listening. That is changing."

"Microtransactions can only be carried out on the Web in iTunes or iPhone because that's the only way they can do that." You can give a person 25 cents from across the room (for example a tip to a musician) in Second Life. "People tend to buy a lot of little things when it's easy for them do buy them."

SLoodle Moot Call for Presentations!

Hey, ya'll. Do you use SLoodle? I can't honestly say that I do, but I do value the good friendship of the original "SLoodleTart," Giannina Rossini. Gia and I met years ago while I was docenting at ISTE ISland Headquarters. I was appearning that night as a cool horse, more like a mule, and I rezzed a cart behind me to take her around the Island on an ad hoc tour. We've been friends ever since, Gia in London and me in little old Tennessee.

Two years ago, Gia held a remarkable inworld version of a Moodle Moot, aptly termed a "SLoodle Moot," to introduce educators to that wonderful mashup of Moodle and Second Life, and she's gearing up for an updated moot this year on April 10. If you are using SLoodle, quick like a bunny think up a way you'd like to share in a presentation and use this link to visit and submit a proposal to present (deadline March 20 but there's no time like the present).

If you don't use it but would like to learn more, be sure to add the SLoodle Moot 2010 to your calendar. It'll be fun, informative, and, um, FUN.

Here's what Gia has to say in her call for presentations:

There are two distinctive themes we would like to cover this year:

1) Case studies and application of SLOODLE tools:
How do you teach with SLOODLE?
How are you embedding the SLOODLE toolset in your island?
How have you creatively fitted SLOODLE into your Moodle course?
How do you envisage using SLOODLE in the future?

2) Development of SLOODLE:
How does SLOODLE work?
How do you install and configure SLOODLE?
How can SLOODLE be adapted for use on Open Sim grids?
Limitations of SLOODLE (scripting, scalability, etc)

Other topics may well be covered, too, so please do not hold back: if you have a creative idea for a session beyond the two strands above, we would still like to hear from you. The more creative and hands on, the better.

Your session submission needs to include the following details:
SL name(s) and institution (if applicable)
Short session abstract (no more than 500 words please)
Presenter bio(s)
SLURL if you would like to run your session in a location other than SLOODLE Island
Whatever you submit, please think beyond 2D PowerPoint type presentations: this is an opportunity to show off your hard work in its full 3D glory.Talks and workshops that include tours of your own builds are encouraged, but please ensure that you submit a SLURL with your proposal so that we are able to direct attendees to your session.

All sessions should be 45-90mins in length.

Deadline for proposals: 20th March 2010

Art Opening in Reaction Grid!

This is an invitation for you to visit my newest little project in Reaction Grid, a virtual display of my Lower School (K-4) students' artwork created in Stephen Douglas's art class this year. Located near the center of my region at "Scottsperiment Island" the show is a more or less accurate representation of the actual one, which resides just adjacent to the Lower School office off the Kindergarten atrium at University School of Nashville. While you may not be able to drop by the "real world" school, (which you are invited to do, always), you certainly can easily sign up for a Reaction Grid account, create your avatar, click on the "Scottsperiment" sign at your initial landing zone on Core 1, and teleport to the virtual gallery. Or you can satisfy yourself with this picture (click to enlarge):

Trust me, it'd be a lot more fun to come on in. Plus, there's music! Here's what that floor welcome mat has to say:



While you're there, sign up for the ISTE SIGVE, a growing consortium of educators who are interested in pursuing the values of virtual environments for teaching and learning. See you inworld!

Video Interviews of Students in Second Life

This is really good work, and my deepest thanks to Joe Sanchez and Leslie Jarmon for investing the time I (all too well) know it takes to produce something this tidy. I'll be sharing out this work for years to come. I can't WAIT to see the next two videos.

See the video at Educators Coop blog.

SIGVE ISTE Speaker Sessions Begins 02-16-2010!

Please join us Tuesday night, February 16, at 5 pm Second Life Time (8 pm EDT, 7PM CDT) for ISTE Speaker Sessions, hosted the third Tuesday of every month by the ISTE Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments.

SIGVE volunteer Spiff Whitfield, aka Andrew Wheelock (himself founder of SL's "Virtual Pioneers"), will host the event, and this Session's guest is none other than Kyle Gomboy, creator and co-owner of ReactionGrid. We've been putting together some questions for Kyle utilizing Etherpad. If you would like to add any questions beforehand, please visit http://etherpad.com/fJw8mgF7jV to add them to the list. Spiff will do his best to get your question in, and of course we'll have ample opps for peeps to add ad hoc questions as well.

This should be wonderful!

"Digital Nation" on NPT TONIGHT!

From PBS email:

Last March, we launched a Web site to start a conversation about how
digital technology is changing almost every aspect of modern culture -
from how we think and learn to how we build relationships and even
conduct warfare. We asked for your feedback, and you shared your
stories that helped to shape our 90-minute documentary which airs
Tuesday, February 2, at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings).

This program is guaranteed to make you think, to question your understanding of and use of technology, and to cause a big stir in educational technology. Very well done, I initially report. Controversial? You bet.

I had seen some of it early on, and we hosted a presentation by the producers--thanks to ISTE member and colleague Malinda McCormick--at the Second Life Playground at NECC09 in Washington, DC last summer. But watching the show in its finished format is even more powerful, incredibly so. What is your response? What does this mean to our work? I'll ask you the same thing I would ask any of my students: What are the creators of this media intending to communicate? Weigh in with your comments here or on any of the sites I've been busy populating with discussion threads today!

crossposted from scottmerrick.net