Why I Still Second Life

crossposted from scottmerrickdotnet

Lately I have been becoming interested in reviving my membership in learning communities there. I know, people think I'm nuts, and there are 10 (binary) kinds of people when it comes to understanding the value of 3D virtual "sense of place at a distance," those who are inworld(s) and those who aren't. I logged into SL this early Sunday morning to visit my new little shoppe (you have to pronounce the final "e") at Guthries Folk Club, which I blogged about recently here.

I was greeted by an instant message from one of my literally hundreds of "friends" in Second Life. Although many of those friends ("friends" in the social media sense) have become real-life actual friends over the years I've spent as an educator in SL, this one is really just a virtual acquaintance--think Facebook "friends." She dropped me a notecard in her instant message, and it is this that prompted this blog post. Perhaps it will help some of the 0 people (binary again) "get it."

Note that when Nymf says she read my "profile," that is simply one way to learn more about the people you meet in a virtual world. All it takes is a properly located right-click. Sometimes I wish real-life were so simple...

A picture of the Science Circle HQ (click to enlarge):

Here's Nymf's notecard, repurposed here with her permission:

Good day Scottmerrick,

Couldn't help reading your profile :)

I would like to inform you about “Nymf’s Science Circle”.

The Circle is an alliance of RL Scientists from various fields who gather twice a month. At each meeting a member of the science circle, will give a presentation on a subject of the presenter's choice. We normally seek offers from members of the circle some weeks in advance.  Each presentation is followed by a Q&A and discussion session.  The discussions are  lively and informative, as our different perspectives inform the discussion. They are, however, also conducted with mutual respect and courtesy. 

It is our aim to connect different disciplines, tickle creativity & inventiveness. Share knowledge globally and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas from our different disciplines. This is why we encourage members from all scientific disciplines to join us.

 We aim to create the atmosphere of those fun,  free-wheeling seminars of our early careers.

Until now we have had a wide variety of topics and participation;
1. “The Anthropocene Epoch” by Vic Machalak

2. “The Chinese Room and Strong AI” by Boythorn Ironclad

3. “Religions and Rome” by Perfututor Janus 

4. “Technology and Evolution” by Darkeagle Darkstone

5. “Stem cells” by Alfa Roux

6. "Perception and limits of reality" by Deepthinker Oh

7. "Genome Expression and Internet Communications: An Interdisciplinary Comparison" by Vic Machalak

8. "Search Engines" (about the new Wolfram Alfa conceptual knowledge engine) by Vic Machalak

9. "Extending the human life span" by Deepthinker Oh

10. "Particle Physics" by Vic Machalak

11."Virtual World using OpenSim" by Darkeagle Darkstone

12."Aspergers, Autism & the Rainman" by Deepthinker Oh and Arisia Vita

13."The Monty Hall problem" by Deepthinker Oh

14. "Interdisciplinary Science in Second Life" by Vic Michalak

15. "Computer and Network Security" by Darkeagle Darkstone 

We run a website as well, for uploading the seminars in PDF, interviews with our  members, events, documentaries, weblinks, the Magazine "Gray Matters" and much more, have a look at    http://nymfs.mine.nu/

 If you are a RL Scientist… consider joining the Circle!

We are hosted at Nature Publishing Group 

 If you aren't a scientist but would like to be kept informed about Circle-meetings... join Nymfs Forum. Go to Search, button Groups, Type; Nymfs Forum and join.

For information and memberships IM Nymf Hathaway or email chantal@xylan.nl

P.S. Whilst crafting this post, my avatar Scottmerrick Oh received yet another announcement from yet another group of science educators, announcing a community gathering happening in 15 minutes (from this writing). It's rich inworld, ya'll...

As summer drifts into autumn in the northern hemisphere, temperatures drop, and our thoughts turn to cryogenics.  Join us today at 10AM SLT to listen with us to the live BBC radio show, The Naked Scientists.  Bring your mittens and earmuffs.  SciLands (104,136,28)

New Shoppe at Guthries Folk Club

In my ongoing program to revive my Second Life, I logged in yesterday and browsed the "What's Hot Now" thumbnails on the login page. It's a cool feature, obviously programmed to update as regions populate past a threshold, which on that morning looked to be about 17 avatars. On the 2nd screen (of 8) I saw Guthries Folk Club, at that time hosting 25 avatars. That looked good to me, so I popped into the location and ended up spending an hour and a half listening to three acoustic guitar player-singers entertaining a full house. It was fun, and sure enough it did remind me how Second Life can be entertaining and an opportunity to socialize with new acquaintances. The three entertainers were Brendan Shoreland, Dusty Smythe, and Twostep Spiritweaver. All three were wonderful, though

New World Notes offers a heavily commented post seeking people's favorite folk, country, and bluegrass performers in Second Life. I pulled some names from that list for future music field trips inworld. You can too.

Guthries has a richly populated online calendar, at http://tinyurl.com/guthriessl, and I encourage everyone to drop by and linger. You can dance, sit, stand, or wander around the shops outside while listening to the stream, which, when live music is not available, serves up Folk Alley (I'm listening to fellow Nashvillian Matraca Berg on that stream as I type this. It's my kind of music, and Guthries Folk Club hosts it for all of us.

Oh, I almost forgot. I was so impressed with the venue that, in keeping with my SL revival theme, I leased a little storefront, which I gussied up with links to my blog, my music, and a few little for-sale furniture pieces and objets d'art that I have created over the years. Here's a SLurl, and here's a pic:

and another, of the exterior. I'm the top floor shoppe (be sure and pronounce the "e" :-) ) nearest the venue.

Dean Groom Live all Month at the Bloggers Hut!

Hey, all,

Hello.

Dean Groom. September 2011 Blog-o'-the-Month!

'nuff said.

Well, maybe I should say that you should visit, enjoy, and comment on Dean Groom's "Design for Learning: Taking Down Web 2.0 One Pixel at a Time" this month, and easily done by clicking here or clicking on the RSS feed at the Bloggers Hut on ISTE Island in Second Life.

And VOTE! There's a great selection in the pollster this month for October. Make your voice heard!

Cheerio,
Scottmerrick Oh

The contendahs (sic) for Octobah (sic) are:

Walter's Blog--Looking Ahead, at http://surfaquarium.com/blog.htm

Stump the Teacher at http://stumpteacher.blogspot.com/

Will Richardson at http://willrichardson.com/

Edutopia Education Reform blogs at http://www.edutopia.org/blogs

Deanboy, pick up this for your bloggie:

And you contenders, try this on for size:

Previously Featured:

Esme Qunhua's "Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds"
"Blogging ISTE" webpage featuring scores of blogs for ISTE11 in Philadelphia PA AND IN THE METAVERSE!
Rawlslyn Francis's "Adventures of an Academic Avatar"
Kimberly Hendrick's "Computer Teacher"
Rurik Nakerud's "Ed Thought"
Gourmet Gadget Gal
"Abby's" "Jazzing Up Eighth Grade"
Education World's "Teacher Bea"t
KZero, Inc., "We Are Worldswide"
Engage Digital--(formerly Virtual Worlds News)
Virtual School Meanderings--Michael Barbour
Blogging ISTE (special compendium page at iste.org)
The Dariing Librarian--Gwenyth A. Jones
Why Technology in Education Rocks in Virginia--various VSTE writers
Free Tech for Teachers--Richard Byrne
Suffern Middle School in Second Life--Peggy Sheehy
OpenSimulator--assorted authors
Dusan Writer's Metaverse--Doug Thompson
CoolCatTeacher--Vicki Davis
EdTechJen--Jennifer Roland
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 Colling
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 :