Literacies

The chatlog for the discussion on Second Life ... revisiting media literacy, held on 14 May 2009, is at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=404
The next events are on 21 May (Dr Diane Nahl talks about affect in information behaviour) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/132/246/21/ and 5 June (contribute to the 3D build of the SCONUL 7 Pillars with examples relating to questions on swine flu)

Collaboration

Another serious sort of posting. "This was presented at the European Business School Librarians Group conference, Ashridge Management College, May 2009 by Sheila Webber (my RL alt), Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK, s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk In the presentation she illustrates ways in which Second Life is being used for collaboration and networking, particularly by librarians and by business schools."

Collaborating in Second Life

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Second Life ... revisiting media literacy

Second Life ... revisiting media literacy is a discussion led by Marty Snowpaw & chaired by Sheila Yoshikawa (me) on Thurs 14 May 2009, 12noon - 1pm SL Time on Infolit iSchool http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/132/246/21/
Marty introduces the topic "At a recent New Media Literacy (NML) conference, Henry Jenkins said that we are '...not teaching code but teaching culture.'" A key element is "taking the media that children loved and were already learning from and bringing it into the classroom."

What does this mean for teaching in SL? Bring your views!

Pic shows me and Marty discussing the session, a couple of weeks ago.

Teachable Moments

Wheels turned: several (good); Towels worn: 2 (good, but not sufficient)
Had mentioned in yesterdy's post that had bought a Tibetan prayer wheel (from Belle Belle) and a towel rack (from A Man's Treasures). Well, here they are on Infolit iSchool.
The prayer wheel (shown in the first picture) appears to turn in the breeze and you can contemplate it whilst meditating on the meditation pad and going Om. You can also click on the individual wheels to get them to turn. I was going to say "cute!" but I suppose that is an inappropriate word to use for a prayer wheel. As you see, you get a rather good view of Sakura House and the beach area (with its rippling waves) from the mountain top and it is but a pace to the hot tub.
Unless you feel that SL prayer wheels are intrinsically ethically dubious (on grounds of trivialisation or because you object to prayer wheels), this could be counted a successful installation.

Towels are mixed blessing. What happens is that you click the rail and then get asked whether are male or female and if female get top and bottom towel (shirt and skirt layer) and if male just bottom towel. Then wear them, take off other clothes and jump into pool. Here is Zoe floating - she kept on her wings.
Main problem is that esp. when floating like this skirt reveals ... whatever is underneath, which could be embarrassing if wearing anatomically correct skin. Did not humiliate Zoe by moving camera round and illustrating this point. Think will need to make some underpants and have them available on click as well. Or perhaps could do a poster "Worried you'll show your naughty bits? Learn How To Make Your Own Underpants!" instead. I think this is called a Teachable Moment.

Buying

Suits bought: 0 (good); Ties bought: 0 (good); Shirts bought: 0 (good) HOWEVER Towel rails with wearable towels bought: 1 (good); Tibetan prayer wheels bought: 1 (good) (and so forth)
Helped Friend choose interview suit. Friend is male avatar, so decided to go in as Haruki (nb NOT to be confused with Harumi who has RL person behind him) so could be 2 Chaps going out shopping, which is perhaps not what proper Chaps do, but it seemed fun.
Was interesting insight into other people's SL since Friend evidently spends so few Linden that had forgotten where you click on browser to get more, whereas clicking on little Linden icon and hearing the Linden go tinkle tinkle out of my credit card and into Linden Lab's coffers is an everday event for me.
Plus side was that as Haruki has no gainful employment he is subject to whim of Sheila Yoshikawa (me) for Linden supply. As clothing one avatar in luxurious style is quite enough, Haruki is kept on short commons and thus is clothed in freebie shirt and pants. Anyway had fun trying on demo suit in Blaze and hope that interview suit will do trick for Friend at interview.

Rattling around

Talks given: 3 (good); Of those, no. given about SL: 2 (good); Number of unexpected duckings in SL sea: 1 (bad)
Have spent last few days rattling round country giving talks, hey ho such is life of busy academic, high tailing it on trains whilst students beat vainly on RL door, ahem. On Wednesday gave talk about future of library profession in meeting needs of millennials (and so forth), so although not actually ABOUT SL feel was some excuse for showing couple of SL pictures. Actually zippy title of talk was Cutting through the hype to make a confident future library and information profession so can see that am able to Talk the Talk if not always Walk it.
Presentation on Thursday was Collaborating in SL given to European Business School Librarians Group (when I put this online I will link to it). Used my FUMSI “10 techniques for business in SL” article as framework and also asked Ishbel to talk in SL about what St Andrews Uni Management School is doing. Had originally been due to start at 11.30 but management guru who was due to talk at 9 couldn’t make it in time, so ended up doing the early morning slot instead.

Fortunately Ishbel was able to be in SL at 9.30 too so went famously except for when found myself unexpectedly falling through floor in Management School (in SL, that is). Turns out that management lecturer has multiple choice quizzes which dump students in SL sea when they answer wrongly. V. droll except if this happens when one is demonstrating SL in front of 40 eminent librarians from length and breadth of Europe in RL palatial surroundings of Ashridge Management School.
Ashridge is v. v. impressive being ex-Stately Home with amazing gardens and woods. In fact whole thing is a real SL fantasy of gracious living and landscaping, especially at springtime with bluebells in beech woods, wisteria climbing over ancient stone walls, hydrangeas, tulips and other props of SL landscapers, not to mention RL deer and assorted birds with associated birdsong. Recorded some Woodland Sounds with new MP3 player and will see whether can turn these into a sound effect for the woods in Infolit.

3rd talk was actually given nearly 2 weeks ago, but have failed to blog it, indeed could not remember exact title (it was about inquiry based learning in the first year), but all ppts from the event have now gone online here .

Did not take any pics at these events, so here are some I prepared earlier... the first one shows me flying past Hobbiton on the witch broom tour of the island. I finished by setting myself off on the tour whilst I answered questions in RL and one delegate said she liked the witch broom best. The second picture is one I used in the presentation - of a recruitment exhibition at Clemson University Graduate School.
The last pic is one of those SL moments - I tp-ed into my personal plot of land to find the sky filled with a giant prim. Where did it come from? Where did it go? Who knows. Anyway, it has gone now, as have (incidently) a couple of my neighbours. Fortunately no new night clubs, when I last looked, though.

A Day at the Races

Kentucky Derby's seen in RL (on TV - does that count as RL?: 1 (entertaining); Kentucky racecourses visited in SL: 1 (disappointing)
In RL it was one of most exciting horseracing days of year, since featured 2000 guineas, first of the English classics, and Kentucky Derby in USA which is first of US classic races. Didn't attend either event in person, but enjoyed extensive coverage on Racing UK. In terms of outcomes, both races turned up surprises, but consensus on Kentucky Derby was that jockey (Kelvin "painstripper" Borrel) deserved rather more credit than the horse.

LILAC time

Discussions held on Infolit iSchool: 1 (v. good)

Have finally resumed Infolit iSchool discussion series. Kicked off last Thursday with Pancha, Ishbel and I giving our picks from the LILAC (information literacy) conference. With due modesty none of us talked about our own session. Which - now I come to think of it - haven't actually blogged here, so will mention at the end.

Ishbel talked about Andrew Walsh's session on using mobiles (that is cell phones to American readers and Handys to German ones), Pancha talked about Peter Godwin's, which also focused on mobiles, and I talked about Sally Patalong's account of 2 modules (credit bearing) that she runs. Those are the speakers RL names, of course. Was mix of UK and North Americans at this discussion, and a couple of non-information/library people, and it was actually a good number for a good discussion. The chatlog is posted at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=397

After it was over, was taking down LILAC-y stuff (well, in fact was doing a little celebratory dance in front of poster - see right) when Togashi turned up, and we had a chat. Then I wondered off and bought hair, harpsichord, and tented platform, as discussed in last post.
So, in a previous post I talked about preparing for the session that Pancha, Ishbel, Maggie and Lulu and I did at LILAC. Things went roughly to plan, except that of course we had too much to talk about and so had to abbreviate things a little. The main technical glitch was on sound. Idea had been that Pancha, Ishbel and I (in RL) would use a microphone so that Lulu and Maggie (in SL) could tell what was going on. However we hadn't practiced this bit enough and it soon became obvious that what went in the microphone was feeding out into the speakers in the room, only a few seconds later. Was no way we could turn speakers off, so abandoned microphone.

Do you know it is only as I am typing this now that I realise that all could possibly have been saved by plugging the microphone into MY laptop (which was operating slowly but steadily with my 3G mobile stick), rather than into Pancha's laptop (which was the one plugged into the data projector). Oh well.

Main thing was that SL stuff projected fine to screen, Ishbel showed off the management school at St Andrews' island, I showed the 7 Pillars model, Pancha showed her intellectual property stuff and Maggie types in her contribution.

We didn't use a ppt as PowerPoint, but we did do a handout, which is linked below. We also created a delicious account, namely http://delicious.com/LILACSL

Aspects of information literacy in virtual worlds

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I am turning into me

Mashooka indian blouses bought (good): 2; Hair like RL hair bought: 1 (unsettling); Hot tub locations remodeled: 1 (good) ; Harpsichords bought: 1 (good)

Noticed some new hair from SLink and have been meaning to check them out, so tped over. Noticed fatal flaw immediately, i.e. however hard I looked none of the hair colours were blue so that should have been that.

However, still tried the demo, to see what I was missing, and struck me that ... it was somehow familiar and this was because it REMINDED ME OF MY OWN RL HAIR. So succumbed and bought hair in colour which is spookily like my own, or my own before it got streaks of grey in it anyway. Should mention that also possess some SL hair that is straight & roughly same length (though blue) as RL hair, but problem with long loose straight SL hair is that it inevitably disappears inside one's torso in a way that (thankfully) does not occur in RL, thus lessening the illusion.
Left hair on for a while and realised that not only was hair now rather like mine in RL, but my blouse was also very like raspberry pink indian silk blouse that I own in RL. Sat down for a while and took this pic from angle that is most like RL me ... and then removed hair and reverted to blueness.

Am pondering why felt rather shifty when wearing brown hair. Is it because once it looks like me, except thinner, taller, unlined, and with enormous eyes (and a few other minor imperfections ironed out, though my RL toes are a considerable improvement on SL ones), it seems like am living out a fantasy of being a younger self? Whereas once I add the blue hair it is a bit more whimsical and thus acceptable? Hmmmm.
Anyway upside is that SL hair has reminded me that used to wear RL hair a bit like this and ought to try it again as alternative to normal scraped back look that use when lecturing. Or is that an equally unsettling thought?

Well, forget all that, had a fun hour ripping out the old Hot Tub Platform on Infolit iSchool, which no-one seemed to visit much, and replacing it with a more atmospheric Hot Tub Glade (see above), which also opens up the fine views from this mountaintop location (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/64/83/54/ ). Incorporates a stone fountain and platform made by Grey Kurka and there was also a nice copiable tent which didn't use but it could come in handy for ... something or other.

Also bought harpsichord from same creator, which includes set of Bach's Goldberg Variations. You rez one of the music sheets and it plays a variation when clicked. Don't have to just use them with harpsichord, so may start planting Variations through the island as do have (from somewhere I can't remember where) a free copiable music stand. Installed harpsichord in hobbit house and took this pic which I think looks rather Vermeer-esque. Except with more bobbin chairs.

Encountering, linking, swirling

Participation in pretend audiences: 1 (ok); Educator Coop visits to view people doing stuff I can't do myself: 1 (good); Encounter with useful ppt in SL: 1 (v. good); time spent floating amongst verse: lots (good)

Am pondering how I feel that in one way have done lots in last 24 hours, and in other ways not. Interesting how feel am not really doing proper work in SL even when engaged in work-related activities, which results in gloom, guilt etc though also in lots of pretty pics of me flitting around in SL.

Yesterday got back from RL journey in time for regular Monday Educators Coop chat. North showed part of his Library Technology Report articles transferred to a thincbook. V. cool, should put more of my stuff in thincbooks. Will put North's in our SL library.

Then Rx arrived and tp-ed us over to where he is using Studio Builder to make sculpties (see first pic). He had made a large boat consisting of just 2 prims, and he also showed how a teapot he'd done could be made tiny tiny.

Afterwards sent out some notices to the Educational Informatics students and was still inworld when call came to become a pretend audience for a machinima on a Babel Project event. Hung round in audience feeling like a prop and doing other stuff offline. Actual event at which machinima will be shown is happening in Lisbon and RL at 11 next Monday; unfortunately will be teaching then.

Today was supposed to be a presentation from some of Jackie's students, on Infolit, about their virtual ethnography, but alas SL had a power outtage and Infolit iSchool was one of the 4000 regions offline for an hour or so. Bother.

Anyway, hung round and finally visited the 15 second Poetry game and the poetry skybox recommended by Jackie. Was great fun and took some nice pics in the swirly peacock dress that happened to have on.

Finally, followed a call for people to see student presentations at a research exhibition at Texas Womens University. First exhibit turned out to be about librarians collaborating in SL which is v. useful since

a) am giving talk on this very issue in about 2 weeks time at a RL conference and

b) Pancha is holding a focus group on this next week!

So dropped a notecard to Valibrarian (the author) hopefully to get full slides, and dropped a word to Pancha as well. Is useful since is not only material for talk, but is also example of using SL to make professional connections, cool or what.

Pic shows me bumping into Oronoque at TWU (she is the one with more feathers)

Conference cavortings

Conferences attended in RL: 1 (good); Conferences attended in SL: 1 (good); No. of feet aching after 90 mins dancing in RL: 2 (bad); No. of feet aching in SL despite dancing in 6 inch heels: none (good)

Hmm. Yet more "doing so much have no time to blog". Spent last weekend doing moderating and other stuff at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, which appears to have been success - must have been 200 avatars in one or other of the conference tracks at many points - in fact probably most of the time. Took zillions of photos (well, possible exaggeration, actually about 100) and so will do some sort of blog entry if mostly consists of pictures.

Am currently at RL conference (LILAC, on information literacy) and tomorrow will be presenting session on SL and information literacy with Ishbel and Pancha in RL and Maggie and Lulu in SL. Well, that's the idea. The pics show us planning for this session.

.

Spent good deal of today preparing for tomorrow and a) failing to get pc in conference room to work b) trying to get t-mobile stick to work with my laptop; c) trying to get local wifi to work with SL with anyone's laptop; e) getting Edinburgh Uni VPN to work (hurrah, it did).

In fact in end the situation will be that Pancha will be logging in to SL via Edinburgh (we are in Cardiff) and projecting to the screen, meanwhile we will also log in on the lecture room pc (which turns out to work with passwords other than the ones we've got, but is somewhat sluggish to say the least) and I can login with my 3G stick which is slowish but if I don't move around too much the graphics are OK.

Our hope is that at least one of these 3 will remain operational long enough for virtual Maggie and Lulu to wave, smile and type in their deep thoughts about information literacy and SL.

You can tell Ishbel, Pancha and I are into this type of thing since we look like a laptop convention, Ishbel's is the coolest, i.e. a mac, which is automatically cooler than anything else in the room.

Media watching

Mentions of serious applications of SL in UK: several (good)
Noticed a couple of news items about SL in the UK, namely:
** Sussex University has its own campus: in RL I was library assistant there for a year, and the SL version is SPOOKILY like the real thing (pictured here). In fact the Sussex architecture is rather suited to SL since it is angular but distinctive: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
england/sussex/7290762.stm
** Liverpool Hope University evidently thinks that having an open day in SL is worth a press release: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
england/merseyside/7303279.stm
** Eloise Pasteur noticed that the UK Government is defending its use of SL: http://eloisepasteur.net/blog/
index.php?/archives/278-Second-Life-in-the-news.html
** and finally .. the head of computing services at my uni blogged about SL ... http://cicsdir.blogspot.com/2009/03/ic-in-sl.html

I am a media object

Videos released: 1 (good); Podcasts cast: 1 (um, good)
Dousa IMed me to say that the film of the panel on Linden Lab's proposal to separate off adult content had been released. Here is me on TV, yay, with the lovely Dousa and her friends:
http://blip.tv/file/1884608/

Click To Play

Interesting how, in this sort of thing, always seems at the time that you are saying quite a lot, and seems afterwards like you aren't saying much at all. I'm speaking quantitatively there, though of course it could go for quality too.

Coincidently, I am also available in audio form, and in my RL persona, since Silversprite does a weekly podcast interview with someone about their activity in SL, and this week it's me.
http://virtualworldwatch.net/2009/03/16/sheila-webber/
Yay again. Though "yay" tempered with "um" since "um" seems to be my most used word in this podcast, closely followed by "er". However, I wouldn't want to put you off listening to it, all good stuff.

Shopping

Shops visited with students: 2 (good)
On Monday had rare treat of combining shopping with genuine pedagogic experience, as had optional session showing Educational Informatics students delight of freebie hunting via shops and groups. Now must admit that is question whether should be blogging this as me, since in fact used alt, namely one Mikael Zanzibar. He is the only avatar in my possession who has current set of "entry level" avatars, as he was born last semester, so is more like what students have in inventory.
Had made notecard with landmarks and instructions and then we all tp-ed to Nicky Ree where sumptious gown awaited those able to successfully add selves to group by clicking poster. As you may guess, with 7 people clicking simultaneously, this was disaster and no-one managed to joing group. Luckily NR also has nice freebie wall including space suits so was not complete waste of time.
Then zipped over to Zero Style, a fave hair designer, which has 2 freebie hairs on offer. Pic shows Mikael demonstrating how to use the demos in the hair vendors, though don't think he's going to buy this one if he knows what's good for him. Two of my companions can only look on in disbelief.

Adult

TV panels participated in: 1 (cool); Red noses worn: 1 (good); No. of times crashed during panel: 0 (surprising, particularly since was using Voice AND Skype); Knickers worn in SL: None (more information than you probably wanted)



Was IMed by Dousa dragonash on Thursday to ask if willing to be interviewed on Metaverse TV about new proposal to segregate out Adult content in SL. Pretended to know what she was talking about and obviously by time IMed back DID know what she was talking about as had looked at SL blog and seen announcement.
Was feeling zomboid because of long day, and interview would have been at 11pm my time, so said no, but was invited onto panel to discuss issue yesterday night.
Spent bit of time looking at SL blog & discussion threads plus posts on SLED list, but possibly more deciding what to wear. Consulted Dousa who said would be perched on bar stools, therefore shed dress and opted for new slim trousers from Zaara with favourite Ginny jacket and the Swallowtail black branch necklace which is a perfect match.
Teleported in and found Dousa sporting red nose, so donned one she dropped me. An explanation of what red nose signified ensued, as was puzzlement to non-Brits present (note: it is part of Comic Relief, taking place yesterday and raising millions of real pounds). However Robustus, who was doing the filming, said red noses would make it more difficult to film lips moving so they had to be discarded.

Good audience assembled, lured by promise of racey discussion, however in end we mostly agreed with each other (i.e. in saying it was a dubious idea, given different countries/cultures in SL, the difficulty of policing, the value of having mix of life-experiences etc. etc.) Raciest part was actually after cameras stopped rolling, i.e. conversation about whether were wearing knickers or not - Dousa having indicated that these might be necessary for those sporting dresses, given the height of the bar stools.

Interestingly other panellists felt that adult/PG split was not actually preparation for merger with teen grid, but rather result of wish to get corporates using SL more happily without worrying that their employees were nipping off to sex clubs when they should have been doing customer-facing role play exercises.

In first pic you see us with red noses, and in second pic you see whole panel, plus impromtu extra member (far right) who joined us at the end and then danced on the table during the wrap up. Ah, Second Life.

Busy, bouncing

U. of Hawaii Students shown round island: 5 (good); Masters Students inducted to SL: 9 (good); Broom rides installed : 2 (good); Trampolines installed: 1 (v. good)
See from quick scan of favourite blogs that others have been blogging some video called World Builder, trying out new educational tools and other admirable activities. In contrast have installed trampoline, removed crunchy snow & holly, planted hyacinths and created a glass observation basket using a snowdrop texture (plus a first attempt at a particle lamp). Hey ho.
Basket/lamp is probably worth blogging separately since is scarcely mind blowing but quite cute
Main focus was on introducing new Educational Informatics students to delights of SL last Friday. Apart from adding last touches to their village, was updating various boxes of freebies and landmarks, creating a special t-shirt and making out instruction sheet..

Was ably assisted, on the day, by Pete and Maggie. However on whole new students seemed to grasp idea v. quickly with minimal box-on-head activity, and leaving scarcely any litter.
After initial induction in the Build area to practice moving about, communicating & buying boxes, used the Mysti chair to zoom round island and then up to their new home, the Educational Informatics village in the sky.

People were keen to claim their new homes, so they learnt how to create textures with name on and upload them - just one student left with no home as yet. Meant was not as much time as hoped for looking at sample of educational places, but a few students went with me to look at Metaphor's boardwalk (as described in previous blog). Fortunately computers behaving much better than last year - not so cludgey and do not crash as often.

The previous night, had given a tour to a group of Adra's students, from the University of Hawaii.
Started at CILR, looked at first year posters and then again whizzed round on Mysti chair and dropped then in Edu Informatics village. Had set up broom ride to 7 Pillars, and enjoyed watching people setting off on the brooms at regular intervals. From the 7 Pillars, tis but a drop down to the Opinionator. You can see us trying this out: I had made statement "I really like pizza" and people were choosing appropriate response (agree, disagree etc.) Final stop was nearby common room (with its new trampoline).

Apparently trampoline got the biggest laugh, so was worth the purchase. This is me, bouncing.

Visit, learning, conference, time passes

Visitors from GFU: 6 (good); Conferences volunteered for: 1 (good - I think); GIS objects created: 4 (v.good); Dawns watched over Educational Informatics Island: 1 (at least)

Gosh, see that is nearly 2 weeks since last blogged. My how time flies when one is dashing around trying to do RL learning, teaching and assessment whilst maintaining one's SL wardrobe at the cutting edge of fashion.

Have been putting almost-finishing touches to Educational Informatics island, and one evening had to collapse exhausted into a hammock to recover a little before rising refreshed to face a new day of shopping. Island (in sky over Infolit iSchool) is for the RL class Inf6011 Educational Informatics. Idea is that each member (there are only 11 of them) will claim a house. In each house is a poster board with a landmark and notecard giver in it. People have to find an educational place in SL, take a pic of it, and also put in a landmark and write a notecard with an educational critique. They will talk about this in a Show and Tell session after Easter.

A few more of them have already been into SL, and the thing kicks of properly next Friday. In the meantime I was able to show it off as the final destination on the tour of Infolit iSchool given to educators from George Fox University, led by Robin. Maggie joined us for this last bit, and people seemed to enjoy it (2 middle photos show visit).

There is a tutor's room, where North (who is doing a session for us) will probably put up a link. Also installed Graham's Story Machine which people liked. Am sort of hoping that one of students will want to get to grips with it and do something interesting, as is embarrassingly long time ago that was given a demo by Graham.

Have drifted into organising committee for Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference being held in March - turned up to one meeting and was struck by lack of Europeans so felt should get involved. Have volunteered to chair one session and also suggested a couple of keynotes, one of which (Jackie) was agreed on, so that introduces a European element at least.

Also have gone to some Educators Coop meetings. With RxTopGun's CSI Austin made mistake of going home and logging in from there. Meant that couldn't see starting video properly, got stuck etc etc so didn't have full experience. Is pity, since is v. cute activity: first you enter a film theatre & see a video showing someone going to a rooftop bar and keeling over dead. Then you go THROUGH the film screen and fall down to the entrance to the building where the crime took place. You tp up to the bar where the woman died and there she is in a dramatic spotlight. Clicking on a board takes you to a website where you get different bits of info and then to have to answer some questions about what happened to her. Should have said earlier that is pharmacy course, so you can see the CSI connection.

Last meeting was more successful as logged in from work. Gadget gave demonstration of kits used in SL labs for a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) course (see picture). Very cool, and Gadget said that some students had commented about SL enabling them understand more through touching the objects they created with the kits.

Triumph and embarrassment

SL demos given: 3 (v. good); Vice Chancellors kowtowed to: 1 (good); Tiki spa & pool combos bought: 1 (good, but bad); Strange pants glitches encountered 1 (v.v.bad)
Demo to VC seemed to go pretty well. Schedule was that colleagues started off with Wimba demo, then he was shepherded off to see student multimedia, during which time I swapped SL onto the big screen. Some mild panic since 1) he zipped through our exhibits faster than expected and 2) I spent some time fiddling with connection to data projector before it and my laptop would consent to collaborate.

However, got it sorted out in time and plus side of him getting ahead was that I had nearly 15 mins in SL rather than expected 5. Maggie, Pancha, Graham and Lulu appeared to say Hi and prove that there is Life in SL. He asked some sensible questions and I managed to get in bit about students not having adequate access in the central labs, so hey ho will have to see whether anything comes of this in long run.

Other 2 SL demos were to new batch of Educational Informatics students on Friday, and as quick prelude to talk given this evening as part of CILASS programme. Was wittering on about Inquiry Based Learning in SL, trotting out rather too many research frameworks for learning & teaching and ruminating on how they applied to SL. However, am getting some thoughts together about disciplinarity and SL and if only could apply self to these thoughts with same enthusiasm as that which is employed in shopping, then sure that great educational leaps forward would be made.
On shopping front, decided to splurge on prefab poolside complex, which have arranged at one end of Educational Informatics village. First picture shows me on the Bubble Chair circle, which have installed in one of the pools. Second picture shows me encountering a student in the CILR at the weekend.

Also have (of course) bought more clothes, but most notable clothing incident was embarrassing one of realising that all textures had disappeared from lower half. This meant that underpants, pants, socks and skin on lower half were not showing, so was just white and featureless. This was actually less embarrassing than if skin had remained, since being totally white and featureless made it less Rude. Eventually discovered that this was happening because I was wearing a red Swallowtail cardigan - picture shows me WITH cardigan (and without lower textures) and WITHOUT cardigan (and thus WITH glitch pants and teal-coloured tights). I retained my skirt for modesty. Have since discovered that have same problem with red Korutsobaki cardigan which is one of my favourites and certainly this didn't used to cause problems. Odd.

Preparing for the VC

Posters uploaded: 5 (good); PPts uploaded: 4 (tedious); No. of hours spent deciding what to wear: 1 (v. bad)
Tomorrow is RL visit of Vice Chancellor to our Dept., so detailed plan drawn up of military precision. He will be shepherded through panoply of learning and research exellence. As Director of Learning and Teaching, ahem, I had v. important task of drawing up catalogue for teaching part of exhibition, ensuring poster boards put in correct position and last but not least will be demo-ing SL. For 5 minutes.
What can one do in 5 minutes in SL?

1) Wait for the room to rez OR
2) Attempt to move from one side of the room to the other and get stuck behind a sofa OR
3) Have a conversation with an academic on the other side of the planet consisting mostly of ";-))" and "lol" OR
4) Try on 16 pairs of shoes and buy one pair by mistake OR
5) Attempt to teleport , suffer aeons of blank screen + irritating line which may or may not be moving, and then hear fatal "ping" which means you are back where you started except now you are frozen & unable to move.

Of course none of this will happen tomorrow. Instead imagine self failing to get beyond "Initializing world" as Head of Dept taps foot and looks at watch.
Or alternatively will all go swimmingly.

Have uploaded some teaching and research stuff that in end was deselected from exhibition (on grounds that we shouldn't be setting VC speed reading test and therefore less was more).
One student kept sending new versions of poster, so seemed never ending task. Also (finally) uploaded remaining "Is SL dangerous" ppts produced by first years - now full set of 6 is in display in main building. Should really blog about these as others might find them interesting.
Contacted a few Friends to ask if they could come along and say "Hi Vice Chancellor I'm X from Y, and gosh it's Z am/pm here" though latter bit will not be v. impressive if they are all from UK. Also considered putting up "Welcome to the VC" banner, but island probably looks too much like a kiddies playground already.

Most importantly spent considerable time deciding what to wear. In end (you will be fascinated to know) opted for favourite skirt from Material Squirrel, with stripey top from SySy and new necklace from Earthstones, plus natty shoes from Maitreya. Hair is style called "Sheila" which is really a bit Big & Fluffy, but apart from having same name as me, looks v. good from back, which is part of me likely to be most on view. NB hair name is, I assume, marketing ploy, in that every hair with a woman's name must be guaranteed sales to people with same name. Wonder if they have done research on this?

Sensible activities

Educational meetings attended: 3 (mostly good); Problems with Voice: 1 (bad); Strange transporations and crashes: several (bad); No. of eminent researchers sitting on lap: 1 (amusing)
As well as seeking out virtual bonsai, bubble chairs and valentine freebies, have manged to fit in some work-related activities. First picture shows AJ's weekly educational discussion, where Pathfinder Linden held forth. This was a week ago, and must confess that remembrance of what he said seems to have leached away.

Passing swiftly to an event that is fresher in the memory, on Monday attended the SL Researchers meeting. Brainwave Bernal was talking about the CLIVE (Center for Learning in Virtual Environments) project, and Salamander, i.e. efforts to tag and record learning objects in SL. In UK most efforts to get academics to upload and share stuff have been pretty unsuccessful, since a) academics are not sharing creatures; b) universities aren't sharing organisations and c) who wants to use other people's stuff anyway? By the time you've hacked it around enough that your students recognise it as relevant to them, you might as well start from scratch.
However, having said that, certainly HAVE used other people's stuff in SL, rather more than in RL. Is this because it is more fun to hack around? Hmmm.

Was attending this and next meeting from home using mobile 3G stick. Stick appeared to be particularly challenged. To start with could scarecly move, then when attempted to sit down was apparently whisked to corner of sim (0,0,0) and Aussie researcher Seeker was sitting on my knee (see picture). Even wierder, SHE evidently saw herself back in the meeting place and was carrying out text chat with people there. Having struggled back, waited for Brainwave to start his presentation. By time he had worked through 3 slides in perfect silence had deduced that he was using Voice and I wasn't hearing it despite having Voice active. Fixed it by logging out and in, but really must stir self to get a proper broadband connection.

After this meeting, whizzed straight over to the Educator's Coop where Metaphor Voom talked about the v. interesting things he was doing. Students select RL adverts which show human bodies, put them on billboards in SL and embed notecards with critique about the ad. Metaphor had prepared a template board with notecard so they only had to master a few SLskills. He felt that they were interacting more with each other's work and we agreed that having them on large boards had an impact. The layout was also newbie-friendly.
At this meeting I spent whole time on a box, since (a tip) in my belagged situation it was easier to sit on a box and move that round by editing it, than to try and walk about. BTW you may have noticed wings, cute eh, but possibly also a bit twee, so will not be wearing them in front of students or indeed the Vice Chancellor.

Blowing bubbles & getting the bird

Demonstrations of SL given to VIPs: 1 (good); Sets of cute tweeting and twitching birds bought: 2 (good); No. of pillars in 7 pillars of information literacy: 7 (good)

Am slowly integrating back into first life at work, though remains bit of a struggle. Was particularly busy on Thursday as our Departmental Advisory Panel (or those of them that could get through the RL snow) were visiting us. I had organised the Teaching & Learning exhibition part of the day, which included some posters about Innovative Modules and student research, some demos of multimedia objects created by students and on the Big Screen, demos of Wimba & SL. Not simultaneously, I should add. Wimba sounds like a SL name, but is online learning package used in distance learning programme.

For SL I did a broom tour of island, then zoomed over to the 7 Pillars build, tp-ed over to Liverpool Uni to see Graham's molecules, then back to highlight some cute bits like Hobbiton. Was able to dispel idea that it's all about people doing fantasy stuff for recreational purposes (though suppose that showing people bees buzzing round flowers in Hobbit home may not give right message ....)
Will be doing abbreviated repeat this week as this Friday Dept. has visit from Vice Chancellor i.e. head honcho in the university. We will be giving tightly timetabled tour of learning stuff and research stuff, so am thinking of asking some Friends to come along to look impressive and interactive at key point. Can actually kill multiple birds by putting up research and teaching posters in SL.

Talking of birds, have bought some v. cute birds from HappyMood, also hung round for ages to get free Bubble Chairs (chairs in the form of giant soap bubbles) from the HappyMood lucky chair. Have formed 14 of these into a little Bubble Chair Circle on a transluscent platform, which looks particularly cute when partially submerged or up in air (see first pic). Inevitably, since was waiting round for lucky chair on a HappyMood rocking horse, also ended up buying one of those. It is Copy, so can make Rocking Chair circle too.