Mitsy and I discuss information literacy

No. of discussions scheduled on information literacy: 1 (good); No. of people arriving for discussion: 0 (bad); No. of objects bought in aftermath of non-discussion to cheer self up: 17 (bad)

Today was scheduled to be discussion of information literacy in different disciplines. Made usual preparations:

- Created informative noteboard;

- Created large poster which invited people to click to get noteboard;

- Arranged October meetings for future IL discussions and created noteboard;

- Updated "Forthcoming meetings" notices with noteboard;

- Created large poster reminding people that meeting started 30 mins later than originally scheduled;

- Rearranged chairs;

- Removed antelope to make more room;

- Bought festive pumpkins and arranged decoratively.

Also bought new black forest gateau from Divivity but decided that cinnamon buns would still do as not many people saw them at last meeting.

Was in bit of rush immediately before meeting. Had come from committee of which am new member. This is university-level body which has uber-role for approving documentation for new programmes and is called the Programmes Sub-Committee. As can be imagined is v. exciting and requires ability to comment on whether e.g. information supplied section 21 on Form R is compliant with requirements, and congruent with statements in section 18 on the Programme Specification. Was recommended for this committee, so don't know what says about self. Still, shows that do not spend entire time choosing necklaces and hot tubs in SL.

Anyway, rushed back, went inworld and was relieved to see no-one had arrived yet. Did final adjustments to chairs, recentred Mitsy (Set Cat Range Very Small). And waited.

At start time (08.30 SL time) became rather anxious. All that could be heard was Mitsy's yowling, the rattle of the wind chime and the seagull's mournful cry. Ate cinnamon bun to calm self.

By 08.50 had decided that no-one was coming except me and Mitsy the cat. Was in some ways a relief after long day (also deputised for Head of Dept in welcoming postgrads to Dept and chatted to people at Welcome Lunch). Have consoled self that is v.v.v. bad time of year for UK librarians, namely intro (freshers') week, or, in some unis, week 1.

One of discussion questions was " As you can see this issue is interesting to me! Do you think it is worth having a conference in SL about this topic? It could have posters and notecards about IL classes/initiatives in particular disciplines, perhaps some breakout/feedback sessions to discuss issues to do with specific disciplines. It might also be possible to attract people who are interested in researching information behaviour (information seeking etc.) in particular disciplines, and faculty in different disciplines who are in SL. I was thinking about something in 2008."

On face of it, plain answer to this is "no" since people could not even be bothered to turn up to short discussion. However am reluctant to believe this so will still float idea.

After tidying office, decide to console self with spending spree. Found nice shop where photographed self with book-reading pillow & bought that plus other items which will describe in next post, and also decided to buy stuff to put on ocean floor. Found v. cheap rocks, free weed and also 10 goldfish for 50 Linden.

Have done sensible post with list of some resouces on information literacy & disciplines here.

Discussion on search and shopping

Meetings in CILR office = 1 (good)

Realise with embarrassment that after Centre for Information Literacy Research discussion in SL on Tuesday, about Useful information sources and strategies for learning about how & where to shop:
1) Uploaded chat transcript to dinky Leeds met application
2) Updated notecards in office
3) Changed hover script of next meeting to 25 September
4) IMed the IL Group and Academic Avatars group with info on location of transcript
5) Tidied up pics of session
but failed to blog it. Oops. V. bad.

Anyway, after anxious start when thought no-one but me and Ishbel would be there (see 2nd pic) some more people turned up including repeat visitors. Had given "everyday information seeking" spin to talk, so feared that had put of fashionistas whilst serious folks would think shopping beneath them.

Anyhow, interesting talk ensued, exploring inadequacies of SL search once more. Talked about some "work round" strategies, and also how people used blogs and other web sources - on the whole more than asking advice of other people. Ended with sharing thoughts on challenges of shopping esp. for slightly scarey things like skins.

Transcript is at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=129

I realise I am a metaverse evangalist

Meetings on SL attended in RL: 1 (good); Healthy food consumed = 1 apple and 1 handful of undidentified green matter decorating sandwiches (good); Unhealthy food consumed = sandwiches, biscuits, cake, coffee (bad); Handbags not bought = 1 (good, I suppose).

Yesterday attended meeting in London organised by landlords (i.e. Eduserv ;-) and the CETIS project at Strathclyde Uni. Once had hauled RL self out of bed and onto early train, traced venue at end of lane off Theobalds Road, and picked up biscuits (type = ordinary) to sustain self through rest of morning, was hey ho for sitting listening to people.

The RL version of Art Fossett gave totally awesome short roundup of what SL is about. His ppt slides each had pic of Art, in a different t-shirt in each pic to illustrate points. He said he had thought of doing this by showing Art changing t-shirt each time in SL. V. nice idea but pondered that might be dodgier for self as is something intrinsically tacky about watching female avatar changing into a series of t-shirts, even if had demour cami on in vest layer.

Presentations will be loaded by CETIS shortly, in meantime there are posters at http://www.slideshare.net/eduservfoundation/eduserv-foundation-sl-projects and also displayed on Eduserv Island inworld. Two which appealed most immediately were Theatron 3 and a project at the Institute for Education which is looking more at the social side of SL through qualitative research. Theatron 3 is crafting detailed (and prim heavy) recreations of theatres in SL (after a successful 3-D web project). Is interesting for numerous groups - historians, theatre studies etc etc plus tourism-type appeal plus use as performance space (and would imagine for, as in RL, corporate entertaining in RL, can imagine Bill Gates' avatar swanning in for product launch). Also raises information management issues.

At lunchtime (sandwiches = reasonable; fruit = good) was able to pop into SL to show someone my office. Had already got v. excited at glimpse of it in background as Art was showing people round Eduserv Island.

After the 2 afternoon presentations had coffee (= standard institutional) and cake (= good) and then a one hour discussion. Was debate about whether what SL offered to educators was new or not. Some felt was not much advance over chat, but most (I think) disagreed and felt it gave more. General feeling that do need to identify what is uniquely effective/ useful about educating in SL. At moment little research on impact of SL: hope this strand of things doesn't get lured down a meaningless quantitative quest.

Was also disagreement about whether should ever REQUIRE students to go into SL. Personally feel that if it is educationally meaningful, aligned with LT&A etc. etc. then is much like any other activity (seminar, lecture, lab, whatever) - everyone should have to do it. Art quoted someone's opinion that 1 in 10 people "get" SL. However, I pointed out that often students don't "get" lectures either, and that doesn't stop us forcing them to do them (or at least timetabling them, which is by no means the same thing as getting students to attend...)

Anyway was at this point that realised that in 3 short months have moved from academic who curled lip in sneering fashion when speaker (at May Eduserv symposium) said he was a metaverse evangalist, to being a metaverse evangelist myself. Unfortunately job title is still Senior Lecturer, so fear will either have to curb metaverse tendencies before take over whole life, or change jobs.

One speaker said how a fave thing was dressing up in SL and taking posters of self (ie avatar) which was reassuring. On way back to St Pancras was also reminded of shopping in that passed shop selling exquisite leather handbags with tasteful flower appliques. However, cost £350 rather than 350 Linden, so sighed and walked by.

Did not take any pics of RL event, therefore have included photos of 1st home, i.e. Japanese tea garden. NB last pic is me splashing water dreamily (i.e. with pose ball DAYDREAMING placed artfully on stone), and in entirely innocent fashion. 2nd last was taken (intentionally) at night, so is meant to be dim. As usual, click on thumbnails to see full size.

Presentation, pirates

Hours SL down today: 4 (bad); Presentations attended: 1 (good)

SL down for maintenance today so had to content self with browsing SL fashion sites on the web and bookmarking for future use. Actually not v. much in future as when it came back online headed straight for shops and snapped up a coat, a jacket, a freebie necklace and 2 outfits in black and white which go with my new house.

Ishbel had told me there was a presentation at 10 pm UK time on information literacy, so headed over to Cybrary City, wearing yesterday's new purchase, a poncho with flowers, together with trousers from the Cossack suit and one of the tops from todays outfits. I say this as there were rather a lot of slides which took a while to come into focus.

Therefore I spent some time looking at other people's clothes and shoes, pondering on my new purchases, and trying on different glasses. There is a more sensible post about this talk on my information literacy blog at http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
2007/09/presentation-on-californian-il.html Everything was recorded etc. so can peruse at my leisure.

Ishbel was in pirate outfit (see first picture): it appears to be international pirate day.

After chatting to her, buttonholed Abby Zenith and gave her notecard about next CILR discussion. She offered Friendship and I accepted. After that, home, and a quick trip in the swan boat which ended unfortunately with boat disappearing into thin air once it hit someone else's water. This was just after had been greeted by new neighbour who also offered Friendship. Am I getting too many Friends?? I had just told her how restful swanboating was. Oh well.

Gardens, Castles, Roses

No. of castles built by neighbours whilst away: 2 (bad and good); Rose pathways installed: 1 (good); Enquiries from neighbours: 1 (bad)

When returned was amazed to find immense castle on plot that would have completed last square of Japanese garden. Someone else's castle, obviously. V. bad, however at least castle is not as offensive to eye as some of the concrete barns around. Lot of neighbouring land also bought up by another group who have put in castle (in background of first pic), formal garden and large tree so actually OK. Only blight is that one of these neighbours sent IM in which asked why my houses are up in the air and why I had the red (no entry) lines up.

Answer to "why are houses up in air" question is of course "why not?" Also red lines bit seems pretty self evident however do not wish to feud with neighbours so attempted to give pleasant reply.

Have been fine adding a few embellishments to garden so prim count creeps up again. However has not yet got to antelope removal stage (have 4 antelopes positioned in park-like effect but removing them restores 60 prims at a stroke).

In particular created pathway out of rambling roses from Tori gate to airbourne house. Originally roses (from the Heart garden centre) were had the Phantom box ticked so that you cou walk through them. Unticked this so it makes a solid path which is quite cute IMHO. I am standing on it in 2nd photo.

Cats again

No. of days with no SL access: 8 (bad); No. of PAGES of emails received from SL Educators list whilst away with sick relative: 15 (v. bad); Fragments of virtual cat discovered underwater: many (v.v.bad)

Have been away suffering SL deprivation. Realise that am addicted, but have decided to embrace SL addiction in positive and welcoming spirit so celebrated by buying land, houses etc. of which more in future posts.

However will start this post with next episode in Odd Creatures saga. Overshot CILR office and plunged into neighbouring sea on return, and whilst admiring Art's underwater gardening (plants and I think fish) noticed strange small round object that when clicked had Sheila Yoshikawa as owner.

As got closer realised round object had catty eyes and nose and indeed was possibly emitted mewing sound. Yes, it was a fragment of Mitsy and when walked further from land saw that were numerous dismembered Mitsys floating about in manner than can only be described as Spooky.

Evidently when she escapes from the office she falls to her doom in the sea.

Deleted some of them but not all as decided that Harumi and Ishbel might find sight curious and interesting. Not in ghoulish way at all, naturally.

Errant animals

Rabbits escaping: 1 (bad); No. of rabbits found in pond: 1 (good, unexpectedly); No. of antelope in office: 1 (good)

Got new idea for water feature, namely underwater animals. Had left rabbit animating to itself on new house at top of hill. When returned next day, bunny no longer there. Expected that would find it in Lost and Found inventory (together with the 3 giant birds that had tried to rez in Abo Akademi without success. Evidently was same problem I had ie lack of prim space, so when freed up the birds presumably whooshed into life and then whooshed into Lost and Found. Must have been pretty startling for someone when the things actually appeared.)

Anyway, went down hill to admire pool and lo! the rabbit was hopping about at the bottom, quite content under water. As pool quite deep the rabbit couldn't get out and after teasing it for a bit decided that was where it could stay. Tried putting antelope in as well but that just lay on side looking reproachful so TOOK it (or more precisely tried to TAKE it and TOOK the water it was in instead and had to manoeuvre same back into position and then felt less compunction about putting it out of its misery i.e. DELETE).

Also seen here is a picture of me playing with animated creatures in office. Mitsy the cat was not impressed. Left antelope there with Mitsy but in end am having to tell it to stay immobile as when set antelope to WANDER it inevitably ends up scrabbling in a corner and then off the land altogether.

Have visions of wild rabbits, antelope and chocabos running free in the new island. Rabbits don't exactly run, in fact, more hobble in circles. Except Pool Rabbit must have run down that hill.

Had late night visit from Citril and Ishbel which was nice, though with all those seats we still ended up chatting standing outside the house, as you do.

Librarians in SL

Discussions held in Centre: 1 (good); Successful discussions held in Centre: 1 (v. good); People attending: 10 plus lurkers in RL (good)

On Tuesday 4th September Maggie Kohime (Lyn from Sheffield University Library in RL) led a discussion in the Centre for Information Literacy Research, Eduserv Island. The full title was How should Librarians present themselves in Second Life, or Facebook, My Space or other social networking tools, with a professional or a personal face?
The transcript is online split into two parts at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=124 and http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=125

10 people were there (including us) and the debate was lively (i.e. a good deal of parallel conversations going on). However they were interesting parallel conversations, and Maggie did a good job of leading and summarising. And certainly better than 10 avatars sitting in a ring with AWAY over their heads, as is nightmare of discussion organisers (well, actual nightmare is, say 3 people turning up and all 3 disappearing in puff of smoke after 5 minutes - or 50 avatars turning up and you can't get them all on the island. But silent fidgety avatars is pretty bad).

Anyway there was none of that at this session and a range of issues got discussed. In our group some had alternative avatars for different occasions though more did not. (Some) people were buying clothes, but not so much playing with appearance.

The discussion raised questions about the librarians' role - why they are there - and also the "conservative nature of some students and staff inc. expectations that you should look "normal". Towards the end there was mention of intellectual property, liability issues etc. and I have flagged that up as a future topic.

Is there an equivalent of the RL stereotype of bun and glasses, or of "smart casual". It seemed like there did seem to be norms emerging, though not exactly the same as in RL.

Maggie provided some questions for discussion:
1. How do you decide on how you want your avatar to appear?
2. How many of us recreate ourselves as closely as possible in Second Life, make ourselves look how we would wish to look in RL or even have a different looking avatar for different days of the week? (Amdahl, 2006)
3. Do we need to label who we are? (e.g. "Librarian" - opinion was divided - or, rather, it seemed to depend on the context)4. If our students become our ‘friends’ within the social networking environments how do we keep our professional and our social lives separate?
5. How do we ensure privacy and confidentiality as we start to develop an academic virtual world?

Things which seemed to work: 1) Having a notecard prepared for people (again); 2) Having 2 people involved, so one can concentrate on facilitating and the other on helping people; 3) Planning for what to do if too many people turn up (we were going to go to the Eduserv conference centre, had the teleport link all ready).
And after the meeting I tidied up and played with the rabbits.

New view

Pictures taken of new house and garden: many (bad)

Here is example looking down to teahouse. With all the activity in the area (prims, night clubs etc.) is getting a bit laggy and thus rather stripey nature of grass.
Also view of larger house from the Tori (red archway).

More land, neighbours, money

Land bought: 1024 sq (bad, in a good way); Night clubs erected by neighbours (v. bad); Tents erected by neighbours: 1 (good); Houses bought: 3 (but they are so cheap!)

Have been trying to ration SL which of course means that as soon as get in have mad splurge. Also have had legitimate reason for being in SL, namely that had discussion in office. However will keep this brief post to more weighty matters.

Giant plank in next door garden turned into tent wittily created from cardboard box plus neighbour planted extra trees so OK there. However neighbour towards sea has built night club, in enormous box with revolving neon sign. Dreadful!

Have responded by buying up surrounding land as if no tomorrow. Planted trees and purchased assorted tea houses which in due course will illustrate here in loving detail. With extra land (and land means prims) have been able to exercise antelopes and animated rabbits freely.

However had to put down herd of antelopes in order to use enormous flying creature that hatched from free egg found at same place where bought antelope (see 3rd photo). With both antelope and rabbits turns out can clone them infinitely so a few culled is neither here nor there.

All this means that am spending less on clothes, which suppose is good thing. Although picked up v. good cheap yukata (light summer kimono) whilst shopping for tatami mats (Harumi and I are wearing them in 2nd photo. The yukata that is. Whilst standing on tatami mats.).

Final pic shows Citril on my duck-ride (i.e. duck that you are supposed to put in water but oh-so-amusingly have placed it 23ft above ground so is like fairground ride as moves backwards and forwards.) Citril dropped in whilst was preparing office for discussion which Maggie Kohime was leading today. Citril is now journalist for new SL freezine, namely Freelife http://www.freelifemagazine.com/

I cultivate my garden, visitors, plank, block

Hours spent on new land: too many (bad); Visitors: 2 (good); Housewarming gifts: 2 (good); Free outfits shared: 15 (good); Neighbouring houses turning into giant planks: 1 (bad); Days blocked from buying Linden$: 1 (bad)

Have realised that am not SL explorer, but SL home body, since I seem just to create nests, buy clothes and have occasional forays to conference venues. Meanwhile others are exploring virtual Rome, Amsterdam etc.

Anyway, have now even larger Japanese tea garden with multiple water features, various viewing and meditation points and 12 named goldfish. Also bought animated antelope and picked up free Chokabo, but that's another story.

Have encouraged Sabine Littlething into SL, and here she is with me in the hot tub. Also showed her office and shared some of the freebie garments that I picked up at the NMC conference venue. They turn out to be good stuff, though too many wedding dresses. I also show myself and Miss Gibbs trying some of them on.

Citril gave me v. nice Japanese light and Ishbel a pretty musical windchime, and they are both incorporated into the garden ambience.

Only blight (apart from the fact that am behind with everything else in RL because of time spent in SL) is that attractive large Japanese house in neighbouring plot has suddenly turned into a giant square wooden plank. Presumably they are rebuilding. Hope they don't turn to brutalist architecture in reaction to my twee japonaisarie.

A blight with a silver lining (ie that havve less incentive to spend time in SL) is that credit card provider blocked payments last night because of some automatic trigger thing that detected all the micropayments as suspicious. (And I was just about to buy an animated rabbit!)

However still having problems - Citril mentioned trading limits although a cursory glance had indicated my limit was now 2, 500 US$ and certainly have not spent anywhere near that amount, even with current extravagence.

Plaque, strawberry plant

Strawberry plants removed (good): 1; Plaques mounted: 1 (good)

Dashed into SL to remove errant strawberry plant leaf from tea house seat, and found could kill 2 birds with one stone. Had assumed it was strawberry plant next to teahouse window. Moved this back and forth but to no effect.

By manipulating camera discovered was in fact rogue strawberry plant growing UNDER teahouse, left over from earlier planting before moved house into place.

So happily TOOK plant and thus freed up 2 prims which enabled positioning of plaque on side of house. Also when rotating plaque typed in degrees to be rotated (i.e. 90) rather than using free rotate thingie, which I can never turn accurately & most of my rotated things end up at slightly odd angles with a corner stuck inside the wall. Here is a pic of me in the house with the plaque outside, plus one of Citril on a visit earlier today.

You will see have returned to pink kimono mode in honour of teahouse.

Land, Japan, lost hours, tea garden

Sq metres of SL land bought: 1536 (good, bad, good, bad, can't decide); Hours spent landscaping same: lots (v. bad); Number of trees bought: 32 (good); Number of tea houses bought: 1 (v. good); Number of hot tubs bought: 1 (good); Number of carp bought: 1 (etc. etc. etc.); Number of RL pounds squandered on same: prefer not to count (v.v. bad)

Was inevitable that after upgrading to premium would fall down slippery slope in to ownership. Found that could not wait 5 weeks or so for island to arrive, and also deluded self with idea that having on land would be good practice. As noted before, all you do in SL is right click land, select buy and confirm and it's bye-bye Linden Dollars.

Of course is just another deep black hole into which I pitch time and money.

On the other hand: this is my new home in SL - isn't it cute? Had started with minimalist ambitions - some homespun sheets of semi-translucent glass - a strategically placed tree - a modernist chair artfully arranged.

However, once I saw the tea house (really nice quality) it was hey ho for a Japanese tea garden with a hot tub, 2 linked ponds, a rather expensive carp, lots of trees, chinese lanterns, iris, bamboo and a tasteful japanese tea table set. Eventually had to stop when ran out of prims (for non landowners, only get small rations of prims allowed per sq metre). Get something like 15,000 with the island, but I can see will still run out v. quickly.

At moment fear will have to chop down one of the trees, since am having to go offsite to even open a bottle of sake because of having reached prim maximum.

Am calling site "Sakura", Japanese for cherry blossom. Top pic is house sign have made. Actually 3 problems with this. 1) In fact no cherry blossom in gardenment, just plum tree. However think that one of the tatami mat edgings in the tea house has got sakura on. 2) Plaque says "Welcome" but in fact am currently not welcoming at all since have set up land so only about 4 avatars are allowed on. 3) Because of aforementioned prim problem, cannot actually put up plaque until take down something else.

Birch trees are prime candidates, since the big ones have over 20 prims. However are really good quality (from the HEART garden centre) unlike the 4-prim plum tree which sways around disturbingly and turns odd colours. Am going to have to replace it with something better.

Also has been pointed out that a strawberry plant is poking up through the tea house (had though it was amusing "dropped leaf" detail) and the garden is somewhat pose ball city (these can be seen in 2nd pic, taken from hot tub), although I should stress these are DECENT poses, drooping hands idly in water, sunbathing on lawn etc.

The Nara Tea House is from Mezzanine BTW. And I haven't planted all the trees; the remaining ones will come in useful on the island.

SLCC conference (2)

Days of conference attended: 2 (good); Info science lecturers contacted: 1 (good); Freebie dresses picked up: about 50 (baffling); Freebie academic gowns picked up: several (v. good)

Started this post totally alone in Muriel Cooper Coliseum, on NMC (New Media Center) conference island, listening to first session in today's Second Life Community Convention conference. The slideshare tag is http://www.slideshare.net/tag/slccedu07 (though not everyone used it). Link to proceedings is http://www.simteach.com/slccedu07proceedings.pdf. There was audio-only broadcast in SL, and at least today you could hear it. Wondered if people in RL in conference centre could see me (turns out, not). ppt of 1st talk is here - experiential learning with different activities.

More people came along for 2nd session, about the Nutrition Game. People took a day's virtual meals in SL, and the food had nutritional info on it. At the end of the day the participants were told the implications of their diet and asked various questions e.g. whether they had learnt anything (answer: they thought they had). The paper is in the proceedings and there is a wiki which has info on this, and on the subject of the third session, the Appalation environmental game.

With third had curious experience of listening to a video being played to people in Chicago - some clear description but quite a few pauses while people in Chicago could watch things on screen. Quite soothing and we were given web address for the video, namely http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPcXOgANdyc. Sneblen Dagger and Desideria Stockton did a grand job of trying to find slides, web addresses etc.

"Gosh, this is cool" (I wrote at the time) "I'm listening to a transmission from Chicago sitting in my Cossack Jacket and First Blush dress with others from different parts of the world" Well, mostly different parts of the USA. An alternative view, of course, would be that I was one sad person sitting at my computer on a Bank Holiday Sunday afternoon.

The fourth speaker talked about Violence Prevention in Second Life: creating a simulation of a violent city area in the USA so that people training "violence interrupters" in RL can give these people opportunities to train without exposing themself on RL violent streets. Their SL island is CeaseFire Island. They use voice - that's probably quite important for this application. There is also a full paper from them in the proceedings.

One of the issues that was touched on in questions and backchannel was when you needed to create something tailored and contained, and when use what was there in other parts of SL already.

Crashed out a few times, including annoying interlude during question session after these 1st set of talks, when decided to log back in using computer with superior graphics card in student lab, but had (v.stupid) forgotten they have no sound at all so experience became just a bit TOO soothing i.e. sitting in virtual conference centre where is no movement or chat. Even stupider, then tried to log back in on other computer and was ejected for trying to log on from 2 places simultaneously.

When finally got back in, was talk on Salamander project (see ppt here), aiming to index educational objects, builds etc etc in SL, with people joining in on this, indicating what the objects etc. a useful for and evaluating them. It builds on Merlot which has been a project to archive, index and evaluate educational resources in the real world. In fact think that I have something nominated in Merlot, but to be honest have not used it myself. Am always a bit sceptical about this "reuse of learning objects" business. Is interesting to look at what others do, but have not found much would want to reuse directly (mean more generally, not just Merlot). The actual wiki is at http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page I wondered whether library and information professionals were involved, and someone said they were.....

During questions from this session it emerged that North Lamar is also in an information Dept. He owns TWO islands and has a blog at http://educatorscoop.org/blog. I offered him Friendship and he accepted. In fact remember he presented at the conference the other day, plus I think I might have looked round one of his islands. Will make contact after conference as looks like could have common interests.

In the break I zoomed round the area near Ishbel's and Citril's looking at the possibilities and what sort of neighbours there were. Some looked promising, some ..... possibly didn't e.g. the owners who mostly seemed to belong to sex groups.

Anyway, back at the conf. it was the session on SL library and Info Island. Barbara Galik, Bradley University, US (RL name) talked about what they have done for students and staff at her university, where it was sounding like they have been pioneers in their institution & have got a Dean involved in SL. Dewey Jung (SL name) talked about his involvement including with school librarians. He mentioned the Elven Institute "The ELVEN Institute's mission is to assist preK-12 educators and librarians to envision, construct, and use engaging virtual learning environments in order to demonstrate and document their value in increasing student achievement and growth." (http://elveninstitute.org/ this didn't have anything except a home page & list of board members when I looked)

I crashed out in the final session and just came back for questions at the end. Some people in the RL conference said that the conference had seemed rather transmissive (though that not actual word used) and that interaction with SL would have been good. I said I thought that there could have been more in SL perhaps with participation from those who couldn't attend RL conf. Also thought afterwards that ideally would be reciprocal - some sessions in RL where they observe/hear SL sessions and engage us in discussion. Would have to be short "presentation" part, though. Would seem odd to be in SL conference session where can't immediately zoom off to web or indeed zoom off for coffee or a RL chat without anyone at the conf. noticing.

Apparently there was no coffee at the conference. Cannot conceive of conf. in UK being organised without tea/coffee breaks, riot would ensue. Not saying this is good thing, of course, but golden rule for organising events in UK is to make sure refreshments turn up on time and preferably exceed people's expectations.

After conf. was finished flew round NMC conference island. Interesting, lots of nice inlets and mountain paths, would like to have similar on my island. Means there is less usable land, but think make sit lot more exciting. Discovered there was the Darumi Picnic "A capella" artwork installed (see pic with coloured objects). This is the 3rd place I've seen it, it gets everywhere. Also v. good conference shop with immense no. of freebies making up for lack of SLCC conference bag. Took one item with innumerable dresses, and another which included female academic gown (see pic, think I would look cuter in academic gown if had blue hair like this). Think can only get on island if at conference, so took copies of male and female academic gowns for various Friends, can have fun parading round in them. Wonder if Ede and Ravenscroft exists yet in SL (this is UK firm with gown monopoly in RL).

Left this freebie-grabbing orgy to meet Harumi (in Luna - see 2nd-last pic- , then Bedfordia after we got trapped in the basement of a sinister looking factory) and then have chat at Ishbel's house. Ah, the social whirl.

SLCC conference (1)

Conferences with "audio streaming" attended: 1 (good); Audio streamed; practically none (bad); Games of primtionary played: 4 (good, mostly because didn't win)

Before the social visit mentioned in last post attended first full say of SL conference - education track of big SL convention being held in RL. Conference in Chicago (USA) apparently in hotel which not really geared to the needs of hundreds of bandwidth-hungry delegates, and net result was that audio streaming to SL mostly did not work on Saturday.

In fact got muddled about time so missed first inworld session, but arrived for session on disability and SL which think was put together to compensate for lack of audio streaming. In fact this turned out to be best thing of 2 days I think, probably because all inworld. Had not thought much about problems of students with special needs, but certainly need to. Up til now SL has been good for those with hearing impairments, but as voice comes in gets more problematic again. In RL group work & discussion is more of problem that "lectures", would imagine is same in SL.

Not sure about dyslexia - can see arguments both ways - will perhaps consult student who has nearly finished PhD on dyslexia and acquiring information. Here we have notetakers (usually students) for people when is identified that they have special need and can't see why you couldn't have same in SL. Full transcript of this session is up at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=76

After this audio streaming resumed but only in strange muffled way, and could not understand what people saying, not even when was James Dearnley who is Brit (from Loughborough Uni) moderating session on Scilands.

Therefore was proposed that we avatars have game of primtionary. When first announced paniced, esp. as to begin with was talk of TEAMS and it brings back schooldays and no-one wanting self in their netball team, and rightly so as was rubbish at netball. And rounders. And hockey. Compounded this panic by, meaning to IM Ishbel saying something like "arghh now they are selecting teams", instead speaking out loud to conference room.

Turns out primtionary based on pictionary. Someone IMs a word to builder and then builder has to build something out of Prims to represent word, and first person guessing words is next builder. Catch was pretty easy to spot, and as am not v. good sport nor v. good builder knew better than to guess.

However not as daunting as thought, esp with easier words, one pictured is MOUTH. Last one was INTEGER though - well, I mean.

Parallel organising of RL/SL conferences seems horrendously complex and fraught. Think will continue with SL only events for now, gradually increasing their scope.

Social visit

Homes visited: 2 (v. good); Adventures in loft: 1 (bad); Baths: 1 (v.good)

Have backlog of entries, namely further adventures in clothesmaking and slightly strange session at Second Life conference (SLCC). However will now blog on pleasant social outing after exit from conference session which was meandering to close.
Was invited to visit Ishbel and Citril in their ajoining homes. At 3rd attempt managed to teleport across (one of those situations where say goodbye to everyone then it goes ping and you fail to transport and are hung there like a lemon still in the same place).
Ishbel has rebuilt in style and had fun going round remodelled house and esp. using bathroom. Enjoy baths in RL so no surprise that enjoy them in SL but interesting to be sharing bathroom with Citril using, as they say, the facilities.
After brief struggle with doors also visited Citril's house next door, and the 3 of us are shown outside it. Other 2 had moon in background, and at time was asking "where is this moon you see" but of course realised afterwards that had Forced Sun so no wonder moon not in evidence. Ability to make it time of day (light-wise) you want in SL is useful feature but means that have no idea what time it is for people you are with, v. confusing.

Citril is still adding furniture, but already has impressive 4-poster bed in bedroom with fine view through large picture window. Tried out bed. 1st time this was successful (see pic) but when tried 2nd time ended up on top of 4-poster and when stood up was in loft. Unfortunately turns out loft has no exit so batted round like baffled moth in lampshade until Ishbel took pity and offered to transport me back to room. V. hilarious. Well, it was at the time.

Finished by tour of neighbouring land of which much is for sale. Am contemplating buying hideaway to use to escape from students (nb if there are any students reading this of course I do not mean that) but must work out finances first. Turns out all you do in SL to buy land is right click and select BUY just like for frocks and boots etc. V. different from RL. Probably just as well NOT so simple in RL, to be honest.