Anshe wins!

To those of you not in (or into) Second Life, this is not going to mean a thing. To those of you just getting in, give it 6 months and re-read this. To those who have been in for a while and/or know something about SL - enjoy a good belly laugh.

There is a Twitter account called SecondLie - they post false, and often very very funny fake updates. Here is the most recent

secondlie: Still think it's a game? Fine. Anshe Chung is the winner! Congrats to Anshe, and we'll be zeroing all accounts on Monday for Round 2.

OK - I have to go back to laughing now.

Students don't think

It is so important that we teach our students to be critical thinkers. I'm not sure why, but so many of them come to us and are either apathetic, lazy, or something else I'm not sure what.

I have plenty of examples from over the years, from my classes alone - but here is just a recent one. Our college has an email address that is not really publicized anyplace. One would have to stumble across it in order to find it. It is used mostly for things like warranties, etc...

I monitor that email address and just now we got an email from a student

I need a permit for the following course:

Fall 2008
GNED-199-##
NEW STUDENT SEMINAR #####

XXXXX XXXXXXXXX

CWID: ########


So - this student writes to an email address that has nothing to do with the course, or registration, or the department - and, in fact, I have no idea how s/he even found the address. The student even goes so far as to include his/her CWID, which is MSU's replacement for the SS#, meaning, it is not something s/he should be dropping into an email that s/he has no idea where it is going.

The New Student Seminar has an office, a phone, counselors and staff here all the time to help students, they do a stellar job and have a very high profile on our campus.

I just don't understand. I'm sure the student had a reason, I'm just left to shake my head.

Today's Presenation

Today I did a presentation titled "Second Life: Blending the real and virtual worlds for a hybrid learning experience".

The slide show can be found here
http://www.slideshare.net/sorry.afk/080414-chss/

Part one is a basic overview, part two talks about my specific class, and part three is a mini-tour in pictures. I also went in-world for a real-time demonstration. There were faculty members there from Anthropology, English, ESL, History, Linguistics, Sociology, as well as a few visitors from around campus.

There are some ideas rolling around my head about what makes the "recipe" for a good hybrid model. When I do post it will be based, in part, on some of what is in the slide show.

Fell free to post any comments or questions you might have about the slide show or hybrid learning models.