Teaching in SL - We have come a long way baby!

SchoolTube

Another new place like Teacher Tube that just popped up in 2007 that will allow us to post educationally related SL and virtual World materials. :-)

http://schooltube.com/

Check it out - it is pretty cool.

Regards,
Dembe :-)

Second Life Library 2.0 Project Report

A Report on the First Year of Operation of the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 Project
also known as the Alliance Information Archipelago

http://alliancelibraries.info/secondlife.htm

You may obtain the pdf report from my Delicious about under the SL tag.

Regards,
Dembe
Prounounced (Dem -bay)

3D world Chart

http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/casual_immersive_worlds.htm

The above is part of a fantastic article from TechCrunch, http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/05/virtual-world-hangouts-so-many-to-choose-from/ posted on August 5, 2007.

The chart looks at a variety of virtual words and identifies the 3D worlds use. Is it a role play 3d world or a hang out 3d world. Great article and wonderful reference chart.

Regards till my next post,
Dembe ;-)

Machinima: A Published History Using the ThinC Book Press

Second Life Video Tutorials from Buffalo State University

http://facstaff.buffalostate.edu/polvinem/SL/vid_tut.htm

This site offers video tutorials for SL in MP4 and FLV formats.

Tutorials include:

The Basics

How to Organize Your Inventory

How to Change Your Appearance

The site also recommends the following:

One of the best places to go to learn how to Do It Yourself is Natalia Zelmanov's Second Life Diary for: shoes, Flexi Skirts, Flexi Hair, Fur, Satin, Shirts, Ties, etc

This is the tutorial link page

An excellent primary resource...

Second Life Clothing Tutorials

It looks like Suny Buffalo is giving its professors suits to wear and the option to make their own professional SL clothing. :-)

Regards,
Dembe

VastPark Beta

VastPark is a virtual content platform featuring free tools, revolutionary distributed content syndication and enables you to deploy your own virtual world or online game within seconds royalty free.

http://www.vastpark.com/index.php

This is a Beta version and they are currently taking emails to send out invites for when the new platform is released.

Regards,
Dembe ;-)

Let's Welcome Second Life Brazil

http://www.secondlifebrasil.com.br/

SecondLife Russia and Brazil - Humm - :-) must be a languages teachers dream. :-) Are you getting the ideas for education that I am regarding language immersion and gaming. Too cool.

Dembe

SaLamander: Another great SL wiki

This is another great SL wiki great for educators to explore. SaLamander's goal is to develop "a Collaborative Taxonomy of and Rating Useful Sites for Teaching and Learning in Second Life."

http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

They have done a great job so far. No doubt - it has the EduIsland name attached to it :-) This site offers great ideas for teachng in SL. The site is not flashy (which is great to see for a change), and has great content for educators.

Dembe :-)

Virtually Blind

http://virtuallyblind.com/

A site that deals with legal issues in the virtual world.

Good site, but takes a while to load.

Regards,
Dembe

Maps of SL

http://www.mappanovus.com/

This site it just too cool. A must see for both the novice and experienced avatar in SL.

"mappa novus provides powerful and free tools for searching the second life metaverse and viewing it in context, a collection of printed and downloadable maps, and indispensable inworld shopping tools . when you are ready to kick it to the next level, our primo search and mapping services give you the most comprehensive view of second life available anywhwere."

Regards,
Dembe ;-)

New !!! SecondRussia

Looks like there may be competition! They even have an exchange similar to the Linden Exchange. :-)

Wow, first China has an imitation DisneyWorld and now, Russia has an imitation SL. :-)

http://secondrussia.com/

Regards,
Dembe

Second Life: Reaching into the Virtual World for Real-World Learning

Educause Connect Article:

http://connect.educause.edu/library/abstract/SecondLifeReachingin/44919?time=1187197007

Interesting paper written by AJ Kelton (Montclair State University).

However, you need access to view the article.

Regards,
Dembe

Greenbush Island Video and Classroom 2.0 Website

http://classroom20.ning.com/video/video/show?id=649749%3AVideo%3A39298


Excellent Resource to check out for educators teaching or planning on teaching in SL.

Regards,
Dembe

Virtual World Librarianship

http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/Second_Life.html

This is a course that is offered by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

The cost is $200.00 USD, not Lindens! :-) For Introduction Course and $250.00 for the Intermediate class. Not bad at all!


Looks like a great opportunity! More info from the site is listed below:


Virtual World Librarianship in Second Life

Continuing education courses (non-credit) presented by the Illinois Alliance Library System and GSLIS

UPDATE 7/17: Three NEW sections of Introduction to Virtual World Librarianship and a new Intermediate Virtual World Librarianship course.


Introduction to Virtual World Librarianship

Section One: September 4, 11, 18, 25, October 2 and 9 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm SL (8:00 - 10:00 pm central)
Section Two: September 14, 21, 28, October 19, 26, and November 9 from 7:30 - 9:30 a.m. SL (9:30 - 11:30 am central)
Section Three: September 14, 21, 28, October 19, 26, and November 9 from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm SL (1:30 - 3:30 pm central)

Location: Info Island, Second Life
Cost: $200
Audience: Open to anyone interested in learning more about virtual worlds, particularly libraries and other information resources in Second Life.
Week One: Introduction to Libraries in Virtual Worlds
Week Two: Second Life 101
Week Three: Collections, Resources, and Exhibits in Virtual Environment
Week Four: Reference and Information Services in Virtual Worlds
Week Five: Managing and Working in a Virtual Library or Department
Week Six: Skills Needed by 21st Century Librarians in Virtual Worlds
TO REGISTER FOR INTRODUCTION COURSE


Intermediate Virtual World Librarianship

Section One: September 17, 24, October 1, 8, 15, and 22 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm SL (8:00 - 10:00 pm central)
Section Two: November 6, 13, 20, 27, December 4 and 11 from 7:30 - 9:30 a.m. SL (9:30 - 11:30 am central)
Section Three: November 6, 13, 20, 27, December 4 and 11 from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm SL (1:30 - 3:30 pm central)

Location: Info Island, Second Life
Cost: $250
Audience: Open to those who have completed the Introduction course or who have library experience in Second Life

Week One: Overview of Virtual Worlds Including Second Life & Others-What Libraries are Doing in Them
Week Two: Library Programs and Events in Second Life
Week Three: Introduction to Building and Scripting Items in Second Life
Week Four: Virtual World Library Services for Teens and Young Adults
Week Five: Introduction to Machinima - Creating Films in Second Life
Week Six: Immersive Learning Environments and Libraries
TO REGISTER FOR INTERMEDIATE COURSE

Course Technology
The two-hour synchronous sessions will meet online in Second Life. Asynchronous discussions will be posted to Forums on Moodle, the course management system used by GSLIS.

Participants will need a reliable Internet connection via DSL or cable in addition to the following hardware and software SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. Please ensure you can meet these requirements before registering for a course.


If you have questions, contact Marianne Steadley, 217.244.2751 or steadley@uiuc.edu.

Using Power Point in SL to Present

http://www.oreilly.com/pub/h/5239

"PowerPoint(R) allows you to export presentation slides as GIF, JPEG, or PNG files. To give your presentation in Second Life, you need to export all the frames as JPEG files. Next, upload the frames to your inventory -- this will cost you L$10 per image, so make sure you have enough for the whole presentation."

Great article on presenting in SL.

Regards,
Dembe

Introduction to SL Document

Introduction to SL by Lighthouse Learning.

A good brief overview for educators interested in SL or thinking about entering SL.

http://nausetschools.org/lighthouselearning/2007/08/introduction-to-sl-handout.html

Regards,
Dembe

Great New SL Wiki

http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/

This wiki documents the educational adventures of "Jo Kay (aka jokay Wollongong) and Sean FitzGerald (aka Sean McDunnough) document a detailed list of Educational Uses of Second Life, provide a range of useful resources for educators, and link to a range of handy Second Life online resources."

Some great resources are listed here. These educators may be reached at for their independent Blogs:

Profiles and Contact Information

---

JO KAY

Second Life Name: jokay Wollongong
Blog: http://jokay.com.au
Edu Blog: http://jstuffed.blogspot.com
Wiki: http://jokay.wikispaces.com
Email: joannamkay@gmail.com

SEAN FITZGERALD

Second Life Name: Sean McDunnough
Blog: http://seanfitzgerald.wordpress.com/
Wiki: http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com
Email: seanf@tig.com.au




Regards till my next post,
Dembe :-)

Get A First Life

http://www.getafirstlife.com/

This is a website that is a satire of SL. It is humorous and provides some good hearted poking fun at the quirks of SL.

Regards,
Dembe

Check out the Harvard of Game Schools

http://fullsail.com/

Full Sail - Real world Education

This is a must check for anyone teaching Gaming and Learning or looking to go to school in this field.

They have 24 hour scheduling and an online Master's Degree. Humm, does Dembe need her 5th masters degree?

Regards,

Dembe;-)

New Simulation World for Kids

Honoloko - http://www.honoloko.com/Honoloko.html

Interesting interactive simulation game. Your actions affect the island and the future of the people that live on Honoloko.

This is cute and worth a look.

Dembe

TEDBlog reports Top Interactive Experience Creators

TOP INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE CREATORS
2advanced.com
akqa.com
almapbbdo.com.br
artless.gr.jp
bigspaceship.com
d-o-e-s.com
domanistudios.com
eurorscg4d.com
farfar.se
firstbornmultimedia.com
group94.com
heiwa-alpha.co.jp
hi-res.net
lowetesch.com
mecano.ca
northkingdom.com
rga.com
soleilnoir.com
wefail.com

The above where pics fom the TEDBlog. Lets see if you agree. :-)

Regards,
Dembe ;-)

"Virtual Goods: the next big business model"

This is a great article written by Susan Wu at TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/

Susan points out to her readers, "People spend over $1.5 billion on virtual items every year. Pets, coins, avatars, and bling: these virtual objects are nothing more than a series of digital 1s and 0s stored on a remote database somewhere in the ether."

This is fascinating to me that people would spend money on these items, but then again I am also in SL and this makes perfect sense.

Other things she points out in her article:

"that there are many businesses out there making meaningful amounts of money in virtual goods:

• Tencent is one of the largest Internet portals in China with over 250 million active user accounts. They generated $100 million+ in Q1 of 2007 and over 65% of their revenue comes from virtual goods.
• Habbo Hotel has over 75 million registered avatars in 29 countries and 90% of their $60 million+ yearly revenue comes from virtual goods.
• Gaia Online does over 50,000 person to person auctions and 1 million message board posts a day- making them the 3rd largest auction site and the 2nd largest message board on the Internet. Their average user consumes 1200 page views a month. They employ 3 people whose sole job it is to open snail mail envelopes full of cash that people send in for virtual goods.
• There’s a commonly held misperception that virtual goods are only for online gamers. Both Dogster and HotorNot are succeeding with a hybrid ad/virtual goods business model. Currently, over 40% of HotorNot’s revenue comes from virtual goods.
• Major mainstream brands are now buying advertising in the form of virtual goods in social networks. Gaians can now purchase and pimp their virtual Scion xBs. Coca Cola and Tencent partnered to allow Tencent’s users to trade codes taken from real Coke cans for virtual objects in the Tencent network. Wangyou, a Chinese based social network, has also been extremely aggressive in experimenting with branded virtual goods."

This is a great read and highly recommended.

Regards,
Dembe

Halo

http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/

This is a game worth checking out. The lastest version of the game, Halo 3 is due out September 23.

It has the allure to our kids of Harry Potter and Star Wars.

Regards,
Dembe

Watch "Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life"

Science Learning Opportunities in SL

Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life

3 min 24 sec - Aug 4, 2007
Description: A brief overview of science and research education in Second Life, highlighting Science School, Genome Island, Research Park, ISTE Island and more. Produced as a collaboration of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and the University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries.

ShortText Too Cool

http://www.shorttext.com/

What a great cool tool. So you wantt o share something about SL - a photo, a machninima video a SLurl, but do not want the hassel of a blog or a website, then use ShortText!

"shortText.com is a simple tool to post text online, with minimum fuss. No sign ups, no sign in, just instant web presence for your information. Don't have a website? Don't want a blog? Want to share a piece of code...perhaps a recipe? Just paste your text and click 'Create URL'! shortText.com now supports direct linking to your images and video."

The best part of all - It is FREE!!!

Regards till my next post,
Dembe ;-)

NEW Educational Video Site!!

We have Googe Video, YouTube.
Then came TeacherTube.com
Now we have YouTubeCollege!
Check it out at http://youtube.com/school_main

Regards till my next post,
Dembe ;-)

Thanks to Milamber

Yesterday, Milamber showed me how to embed Odeo on my blog. You can also embed a podcast or music to your blog through http://www.oedo.com.

Thanks again Milamber.

Regards,
Dembe

Educators - TNC is a Must visit in SL

The TNC has great instructional items, PPT's and tutirials on SL. When you stop by, do not forget to go upstairs and check out the computer table and other resources like the Survey HUD. The survey tool was my favorite item offered.


Great stuff here from Pia and Tek. Kudo's to these SL educator for the wonderful job they did on the TNC. The location is Eduisland II 39, 26, 21. http://slurl.com/secondlife/eduisland_II/39/26/21. The location is open 24/7 and is a must visit for new and seasoned educators in SL. Remember there are free educational tools on both the first and second floor, plus tutorials.

Today August 1, at 11AM SL time they had a social for American and European educators. This was a great event and I personally look forward to more of them.

Regards till my next post,
Dembe