Exhibiting

Exhibits catalogued: over 40 (good); Calendars created: 1 (good);Times crashed: 2 (good, considering)
A quick post after extraordinarily long day in SL. Am at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference (http://www.vwbpe.org/), where am one of the people looking after poster area. Spent most of day creating catalogue of exhibits, taking landmarks and putting them into a notecard. Followed up this activity by taking some pics and creating a calendar using the IntelliCalendar, for promotional purposes.

Intend to distribute these 2 items in almost-spamlike way (but not quite spamlike, obviously) tomorrow, to try and boost visitors. These are the February and (I think) March pics from the calendar. As can see, February is actually my build, but, hey, I paid the 100 Linden for the IntelliCalendar blank and spent an hour making it.

Building

Flamingos bought: 2 (good); Exhibits mounted: 1 (in progress)

Am working on exhibit Inquiry based learning (IBL) in Second Life for the Virtual Worlds best Practice in Education conference. As usual this is taking aeons longer than anticipated, but is interesting exercise.
Am trying to make 3D visualisation of conceptual fromework for IBL developed by colleague Phil Levy (RL name) from research study done at Sheffield.

Attraction to Animoto ap has lasted more than usual 24 hours, so provide below a glimpse of some of the stages it has gone through so far.
Realise that in haste to throw Animoto vid together have got 2 of the pics out of order [added later: no I haven't, I got confused by perspective change], but the last one is in the right place. This last one was taken after had decided that whole thing needed to be turned 90 degrees, as most people likely to be approaching it from that direction.

First pic, above, shows back of exhibit, where have positioned a slideshow and (installed after this was taken) a screen streaming a youtube vid about IBL. Second picture shows Educational Informatics village, and more specifically pair of pink flamingos that have put there. Have included this since when I looked at this picture, reminded me that I had bought them, and so have positioned one of the flamingos (with shadow removed to bring it down to 3 prims) on my exhibit ("If you want a laugh, bring on a flamingo") If you concentrate really hard you can see it (a flash of flamingoid pink) in bottom right hand corner of last Animoto slide. Whole exhibit has to come in at 100 prims max, which is challenge. Have 35 left at the moment.

You too can can create your own cheap and hasty video slideshow at animoto.com.

Meeting, meeting, winter warmer

No of meetings attended: 2 (good); No. of trees felled: 8 (good); No of trees planted: 7 (good); No. of times have tagged a blog entry with the word "chocolate": 0 until today (surprising: in RL would probably have to tag every day "chocolate")
Invigorated by RL train journey through Peak District (from Manchester to Sheffield; trees and snow look amazing) attended UK SL educators "Second Tuesday" meeting. There were what might be called Usual Suspects in attendance and chat was pleasing mix of banter (new year resolutions; cats; feather costumes; that kind of thing) and useful convo re education. UK educator meetings seems to have higher banter-to-Serious-Stuff ratio which is OK by me. Had not visited Bangor sim (the venue) before so that also interesting.

Couple of hours later was the SL educators roundtable, now renamed in 21st century fashion "Virtual Worlds Educators Roundtable", since meetings also take place in other virtual worlds. Was load of people there and lots of discussion (loosely) around points that one of the Linden's had made in a sort of "state of the grid" blog post. Did not make much contribution and at one point inadvertantly turned Voice Chat on (when checking to see whether someone else had an open microphone, ironic really) and AJ IMed me about it, which is shaming. However, did not have any microphone device plugged in so do not think will have been making much noise, unless laptop was providing own conversational contributions without my knowledge.

Following this checked up on some of my homes; renewing rent on Babylon 5 room, returning a suspicious looking item to its owner from my main home, and also having a look at the African sim where Graham is renting some land. All the African heat reminded me that was intending to make Infolit even more wintery, so tp-ed back, adjusted the ground textures a bit to get full snow in NE corner of Infolit iSchool, and changed trees around greenhouse to wintery ones. Also added an extra winter deer and suddenly remembered had Hot Chocolate Hut in inventory, and put that in too. If you click the cups or dispensor you get mug of warming chocolate with usual drinking animation that throws beverage in rough direction of face. Can then go and bother the deer. No dogs though, please.

Educators, change

Educators inducted into SL: many (good); Buildings deleted: 2 (sad, but good); Buildings erected: 2 (good)

Have omitted to blog about induction session for people in School of Education at my RL university. Was heartening to see new people on the island and more tangibly Education will be funding half of next year's rent on the island, should LL see fit to bill us for it.

Gave tour of island including dropping people off at mountaintop hot tub. Scarcely anyone has used this so was nice to see it occupied. Down side was that realised had become too emotionally attached to various bits and pieces on island, since am used to treating it like my own land. Am also used to the "wow, awesome" reaction that have mocked in past but now realise have become accustomed to. Realised also that this was FIRST event on island where had not actually been lead person.

Thus was in need of short meditation break with Mitsy in my office after induction, but ended up feeling better. Old CILASS building is now Education's, but stripped down to wooden ground floor. Have created new tiki-type space for CILASS (see pic) which hope they like (as yet is worrying lack of feedback).

Other deletion/creation was of the houses on my personal land. Felt was time for change and have replaced one of the classic Asian buildings with more contemporary Japanese home that mostly consists of a bathroom and a patio.
Here you see the patio and in particular rather lovely hanging basket which have just acquired at no little expense.

Discussion, hotness, changes

Educational meetings attended: 2 (good); Teleport signs reset: 3 (bad); Attempted pick-up lines: 1 (bad)

Attended 2 meetings tonight, namely regular Tuesday meeting at Montclair Uni and (for first time) Educator's Coop meeting. At Montclair, Fleep and Kitty were talking about SLCC conf in Tampa and SL in September. Have had paper accepted for inworld version of conf., obviously v. good, and one referee said was excellent proposal, so must remind self exactly what it was I proposed, ahem. During session had busy time IM-ing Robin and Zotorah about their contribution to Infolit discussion series.

Tomorrow is exciting event on island, since Jackie is Inducting colleagues from School of Education. Tp-ed back there after meeting to sort out a few teleporting boards, which had taken it into their heads to unset themselves and teleport people to apparently random locations on island.

Whilst loitering on Regent Plaza was accosted by strange avatar who started conversation with "UR hot" opening gambit, one to which was not able to respond immediately in desired brisk and chilling fashion since laginess meant that was in fact bumping into admirer in manner that could be misconstrued. However, eventually managed to get a few statements out in which stressed age and attempted to say things in proper sentences hoping thus to indicate dullness and general un-hot nature.

Was slightly disconcerted when, photoshopping pictures from Montclair meeting, noticed same avatar sitting round discussion table. Was he then another educator? Are these meeting secretly treated as pick-up events? Hmmm. Rather unwilling to change into trousers and high necked shirts just on off chance that fellow educator will mistake display of leg for virtual come-on.

No such probs at later meeting in Educators' Coop, which am very pleased to have been invited into. Interesting discussion about what other people plan (the others have land in the Coop itself) - lots of variety plus a couple of people specifically interested in information literacy which is v.v. exciting indeed. Ended session with North doing a chicken dance, but unfortunately missed the photo opportunity.

Colleague, disco, usual stuff

Graduation parties attended: 1 (good); Black library discussions: 1 (good); New SL colleague buying land: 1 (v. good); neighbours selling land: 1 (bad)

Briefly attended dance party for US library graduates at Rich Idiot. Took place in middle of night here and had actually aimed to go home before it started, but when inevitably was still faffing around in SL when witching hour approached, thought might as well drop in.

As usual was all grey and laggy for some time, but was able to make out name tag and distinctive form of North amongst the dancers. Had chat, and am now privileged to be included as an Educator's Coop hanger on, which means I can attend their meetings etc. (though again these happen at late hours, but there you go).

Have been talking recently to colleague Jackie in our RL Education Department, who was just entering SL. Was excited to find that not just brief, glancing interest as she has now invested in her own little parcel and already acquired clothes, hair etc bit like her RL self, or at least more like her RL self than me. She has installed tree and campfire and I think was searching for arabian tent. Wondered about dropping her landmarks for places with arabian tents, but do not wish to seem pushy.

Then was on to Black Library discussion, late, but did not prevent me from chuntering on. Fear that tend to return to same topics in conversation, but then am not only one.

Was sad to get email from neighbour to say that was selling up some of her land, to go down a tier. Said land was pleasant consisting mostly of grass and trees. She asked if I wanted any of it, but am currently at max for my tier so was able to resist. Hope that new buyers enter into current spirit of the sim i.e. Japanese/ elvish houses and plenty of green.

Missed and attended

No. of education events missed due to foolish mistake re time: 1 (bad); No of castle warming parties attended: 1 (good); No of 20s parties attended: 1 (good)

Yesterday was due to be busy day in SL since had planned to a) attend castle warming party at noon SL time and b) attend interesting education session on team working at 1.30 SL time. However, when entered SL around noon (ie 8pm in RL here) realised awful truth namely that was too late for education session by 12 hours as it started at 01.30 (9.30 am RL time). Oops. Should really have realised as person facilitating it lives in Hong Kong in RL. V. foolish and will have to apologise since was limited attendance event and might have been waiting list.

Somewhat chastened changed into party gear. Invitation was really to Ishbel as is her neighbour with castle, but she had been told could bring friends so she asked me and Pancha. In fact am almost neighbour as is just in nextdoor sim to my home. Dress code was "historical" so had rooted through huge inventory and found Barerose "First Princess" outfit with natty crown, and paired this with poofy skirt and boots. Not sure was strictly historical, but in fact when teleported in turned out that most women were wearing vaguely low cut gowns so fitted in. Hosts are writing historical novel set in French chateau on which castle is based. Ishbel kept crashing out so withdrew early.
When got home again took some pictures of self lounging around in princess outfit, then followed up general invite to 1920s party celebrating - something or other to do with the 1920s I presume. Found a 1920s dress in inventory too. Have decided that will view this as validation of shopping policy (i.e. ready for any situation) rather than signal to stop buying NOW.

Some more dull pictures of people sitting around

Discussions attended: 2 (thrilling); No of times "what are advantages of SL for education" gets raised as discussion topic per month: approx. 3 thousand (again, thrilling, ahem)

Attended usual educational discussion in Black Library on Monday and the Tuesday one at Montclair. Subject of latter was how would justify Second Life being greater priority than Blackboard. In both cases was good amount of discussion but have decided that should do more listening. Can remember making this resolution before. Oh well.
Will mention that for me SL is a learning space, so not really an alternative to a virtual learning environment like Blackboard, but each has its place e.g. SL pretty useless for storing textual material and lots of 2D pics at present. On other hand SL has possibilities of 3D work, greater sense of personality, and animated squirrels.

After Montclair discussion went back to Infolit iSchool with North Lamar for nice chat in Hobbiton house (as in 2nd pic). He was talking about improvements to latest run of his virtual worlds class, all good stuff e.g. more practice of building as a group before tackling real group project, more emphasis on getting together a project "pitch" for clients.

Each educational discussion results in yet more pics of people sitting in chairs (or bobbins, in case of Hobbiton House). For me each of course is fascinatingly different, not least for fact that am wearing different outfit every time, but may possibly be breaching boredom threshold of honoured readers.

Evaluating, education, SL

Chatlogs posted: 1 (good); Notecards published to web: 1 (good); Valentine's cake consumed in SL: 2 slices (good); Calories gained: 0 (v.v. good)
Have finally posted the chatlog of the meeting held on 14 Feb 2008, on Evaluating educational interventions in Second Life, particularly education for information literacy , at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=234. Also since had made rather lengthy notecard decided to post this as document to the web as well: at http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/evaluating-notecard.pdf
Notecard includes links to material from the Eduserv meeting that attended a while back (and never got round to blogging), since part of notecard summarises some of the points from that.


1st pic shows 14 Feb meeting - can see heart shaped Valentine cake in the middle although not everyone stayed to taste it. 2nd pic shows meeting at Eduserv, alluded to a while back, on Measuring impact of SL in education. Advantage of waiting a few weeks before blogging is that someone else will have already done it for you, in this case Art Fossett with v. coherent account at http://artfossett.blogspot.com/2008/01/
thinking-about-learning-impact-of.html. Also he uses same chatlog function as me and the chat from the Eduserv meeting is linked from his post.

Some serious stuff

Can feel dread tug of professionalism, as note that there are reports and articles on SL coming out and feel information pro's urge to blog same. Decide to get it over quickly by shoving them all in one posting.

1) First is report by Silversprite Helsinki aka John Kirriemuir, he who has sat in my roof garden and admired windchime. It was obviously worth the investment as I get mentioned in report. Ho ho only joking, Silversprite.

The report was commissioned by Eduserv and has attracted a good deal of attention:
Kirriemuir, J. (2007) A July 2007 "snapshot" of UK Higher and Further Education Developments in Second Life. Bath: Eduserv. Available as a pdf at http://www.eduserv.org.uk/
foundation/sl/uksnapshot072007

2) There was a discussion by UK educators (24th July) on problem-based learning. Wasn't able to attend, so thanks to Art Fossett who has put the transcript up online at http://artfossett.net/meetings/2007/07/24/uk-educators/transcript.txt

3) This and the remaining 2 items came out this last week.

Bainbridge, W.S. (2007) "The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds" Science, Vol. 317. no. 5837, pp. 472 - 476
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/
content/short/317/5837/472

Concluding paragraph "Many virtual worlds may foster scientific habits of mind better than traditional schools can, because they constantly require inhabitants to experiment with unfamiliar alternatives, rationally calculate probable outcomes, and develop complex theoretical structures to understand their environment (60–62). Probably for better, but conceivably for worse, virtual worlds are creating a very new context in which young people are socialized to group norms, learn intellectual skills, and express their individuality (63). The "graduates" of SL and WoW may include many future engineers, natural scientists, and social scientists ready to remake the real world in the image of the virtual worlds." No.s in brackets are reference numbers showing that this is pukka academic article and not idle talk ;-)

4) Kenney, B. (2007) "Second Life: What Is It? (And Why Should Manufacturers Care?)" Industry week, 27 July. http://www.industryweek.com/
ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14649 (answer given: yes they should).

5) Finally, posting on Information world review blog, since wanted to include something from information field:

Griffin, D. (2007) "Is Second Life the right tool for Further and Higher Education?" IWR blog, 24 July. http://blog.iwr.co.uk/2007/
07/is-second-life-.html

NB Normal service will resume in next posting where I will blog about hats.

1st photo is of me chilling in some pool in Cisco (I assume, as in "San Fran"), where I went by accident when I was actually looking for Cisco Systems. 2nd photo is of me scoffing Pringles in the Bloggers Cafe.