sorry.afk

We've Moved

2009-04-09T09:09:00.002-04:00

If you are looking for me

HERE

I'm not here.

But you CAN find me

HERE

February CHSS Hybrid/Online SIG Meeting

2009-02-25T08:38:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the blog and live blog of the February CHSS Hybrid/Online SIG Meeting. Today's meeting will be taking place in Dickson Hall as well as using a pilot version of Wimba Classroom.

In addition to a presentation by Patricia Kahn, Director of the Technology Training and Integration division of the Office of Information Technology, I will also be demonstrating a product we have just started a pilot project for called CoveritLive, which is a live blogging tool. You have seen me use it here in the blog before and I will be using it for today's meeting as well.

Please feel free to join the conversation between 12pm and 2pm. You can join by simply entering your comments at the bottom of the CoveritLive insert below. Please know that comments, at least the first one, have to be moderated. So if there is a delay in your comment posting to the blog, give me a few moments to approve it.

February CHSS Hybrid/Online SIG

Considering Enterprise Version of CoveritLive

2009-02-19T11:26:00.003-05:00

Recently the folks at CoveritLive (CiL) have announced an enterprise version of their product. Those who follow my blog know that I have used CiL in the past to blog events, such as presentations, etc... The enterprise version of CiL is free for education and so the CHSS is considering what options might be available to us in this regard and if this is an opportunity we want to consider.

This afternoon at 2:30pm EST I will be doing a run through of both the back end and front end of CiL with our CHSS Director of Technology Services, Milos Topic.

So come back to this blog at 2:30pm and just type a comment in the appropriate field below. You won't see it now, but around 2:30pm when I "open" the event, then you will see a field for visitors to comment in.

Testing Enterprise CiL

Need help with video

2009-01-13T20:47:00.000-05:00

I have dipped my toe in the pool of video making. I have several faculty members who will be using Second Life this semester and a request was made to produce a few “how to” videos the instructors can assign their students the first week of school. This way, when we meet as a group the second week they will be well on their way.

The first video to make is obviously how to sign up for an account. I’ll follow that up with how to change your password, how to down load the application to a computer (or flash drive), and how to navigate the start of NMC’s Orientation Island.

I’ve never made a machinima or video like this before. I’ve toyed around with doing it, but never actually tried to make a real nice one. So today, I set down to make a video of how to sign up for your account.

Here is the result:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YwJDQwMauA

This is what I did to create this video.

First, I downloaded Snapz Pro, the 14 day free trial, and shot the sign up process. I then imported the resulting .mov file into iMovie. I created the introduction, added the titles, music, sound effects, and then saved it. Then I SHARED it as a QuickTime file and saved that to my desktop. That is what I uploaded to YouTube.

The first time I did it I used the WEB option, but that was SO small, and unreadable, so I then saved it as WEB STREAMING. You see the result. The only other option I saw was “ORIGINAL”, which would have made the file too big to upload to YouTube.

I don’t know why it is so fuzzy. Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. We really need it to not be fuzzy and I have more to do for classes to start next week.

It would be useful to the community to post your comments here; however, if you’d prefer, you are welcome to email them to me directly.

Social Constructivism - "you are here"

2009-01-12T18:24:00.001-05:00

Like on a map, I'm looking around academically for the big red spot that tells me
"you are here"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Frost, Robert. Mountain Interval. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/119/. 12 January 2009.

Recently I posted to my social networks a request for “who and what should I be reading about social constructivism”. I got the following responses:

* Dewey
* Gee
* Werstch
* Activity theory
* Vygotsky
* Jonassen
* An article by D. Robbie and L. Zeeng, published in the International Journal of Learning, called “Engaging Student Social Networks to Motivate Learning: Capturing, Analyzing, and Critiquing the Visual Image.”
* An article (or is it a series of articles, I can’t tell at first glance) I believe is titles “Philosophy of Technology Meets Social Constructivism” by Phillip Brey, from Twente University, in the Society for Philosophy and Technology. The link for that article is http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v2n3n4/brey.html

Dewey, I’m guessing is John Dewey.
Gee probably has to be James Paul Gee
Wertsch must be James Wertsch

I’m seeing a trend here – I’ll take People With the First Initial J, Alex.

Lev Vygotsky is of course a must for this. I should probably read JeanPiaget also, although clearly Piaget is less about social constructivism, but still.
David Jonassen I’ve already run into, so he is definitely on my list
The two specific articles provided are definitely going to be looked into.
I’d also found Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Frances K. Stage _ I’ll be looking into them a bit more.

This is clearly a great start – but there has to be more. Is there a specific work you like that deals with constructivism, specifically social constructivism?

If the theoretical hair on the back of your neck stands up when you think about social constructivism (a lot of hooey, you think), then what should I be reading that you believes supports that viewpoint. Academic need to be critical thinkers – we need to be able to take a 360 degree look at something. I might not end up agreeing but at the very least I’ll have a better idea why I’m focusing on this.

Post your thoughts here – or reach out to me by email, through Facebook, or through Twitter.

Langauge, Race, and Power

2009-01-12T08:43:00.002-05:00

Today I'll be covering the MSU Center of Pedagogy 2009 Advance. We're meeting in the 7th Floor Conference Center of University Hall on the campus of Montclair State University. See the LiveBlog below for details throughout the day AND you are invited to add your own comments, which will appear in the blog and, if you have questions, I'll be able to ask them on your behalf.

SLER makes the Highlights of 2008 list

2009-01-09T21:43:00.002-05:00

Each week, on Tuesday night, from 5:30pm to 6:30pm Eastern time, I host the Second Life Education Roundtable, or SLER for short.

The meetings started last spring. I was looking for a place to meet other education professionals to talk about issues that were important. Nothing met at a time that was convenient for me so I decided to start my own meeting.

I determined that I wanted it to be a place where everyone would feel welcome, and anyone could chime in when the wanted. The best way to do that would be for everyone to sit around a round table - no head of the table, everyone can see everyone else, etc...

The idea took off and at one point we were hitting from 40-50 people each week.

This last Tuesday we held our first meeting of the year and had a blow out. The meeting featured Chris Collins, Sarah Robbins, Jonathon Richter, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Fontana, and Daniel Livingston. It was our first "panel" discussion - where each of the panelist talked briefly about their view on the potential, possible, and probable future of higher education in virtual worlds.

We had 90 people at one point. I had to cap the sim at 90 (meaning I blocked any more than 90 from coming in). I wanted to make sure we did not crash out. Even then, close to a dozen people that I know of were IMing me and others to try and get in.

Certainly the response was mainly for the star power of the panel. If you don't know those people, Google them!

How nice to have as a follow up to our best and biggest meeting ever, to be featured in the Second Life Highlights in Education 2008 blog.
http://blog.secondlife.com/2009/01/09/education-in-second-life-highlights-from-2008/

Montclair State University has made an exceptional commitment to Second Life. They trusted me nearly 2 years ago when people were still really joking about virtual environments. They have committed resources, time, and great support, for all the work that is going on - not just the Roundtable.

A small but dedicated faculty is engaged in what is going on. Congrats to everyone from MSU - the nod to the SLER is only one indication of the great work that is going on.

SnapSession - DimDim

2009-01-07T14:31:00.001-05:00

For today’s SnapSession I’ve decided to look into DimDim. DimDim is a web based collaboration tool. According to their main splash page, you can – “Host web conferences for up to 20 people free.” and they claim its the “worlds easiest web conference – lets you deliver synchronized live presentations, whiteboards, and web pages while sharing voice and video over the Internet – with no download required.”

The sign up process, including glancing over the main web page, took me – literally, less than 3 minutes. They don’t ask for a ton of information up front, there is always an option to update SETTINGS and information later on. This is smart in that it gets people in fast. I suppose, they run the risk of NOT getting this information, but clearly this is a strategy of doing what is good for the user as opposed to the company.

The first time you sign in, after setting up the account, a pop up comes up that asks you if you want help setting up your preferences. One could opt out here and go right to the main page or fine-tune some of the settings. The options seemed fairly straight forward, although I did not take too much time trying to figure things out.

The main options presented (biggest buttons) are to join a meeting or host a meeting. Quite logical, since that is really what most people are coming in for. Since I didn’t have anyone to chat with at the moment, I decided to poke around a bit.

I wanted to see what would happen if I started a meeting, without someone to join me. When you start a meeting, it asks you what features you want to include – so you can say yes to voice, but no to video, or any combination of 6 or 7 things. I like the flexibility of this – options, but no bells/whistles that aren’t needed for each instance – and things can be changed for the next time. Then, before beginning, it asks you for permission to use the voice and camera – I like this a lot. This tells me they care about privacy, somewhat, but also that THEY want to make sure YOU know you are now “on.”

One thing I could not figure out, when I started the meeting it did not automatically find my built in web cam. It was picking up my voice from the mic, but not the video.

At first I thought the only way you can get people to your conference is to use the built in email invite tool. I did find that there is a way to get a URL and give it to people, but it was not intuitive as to where it was. Perhaps going through one of the tutorials would be beneficial, but the point of these SnapsSessions is to see how much can I figure out in 15 minutes without help or tutorials.

One other good note, people can dial in – they give you a phone number and pass code – so one does not even need Internet access.

Another plus, you can share your computer screen, but something needs to be installed in order to do that.

So I started the meeting and sent the URL out to my network. A few minutes later, someone signed in and joined my meeting. When she joined in I started recording the session. We were able to chat – ALMOST in real time. There was a delay of a second or two and if you don’t have a headset on, you get that “Yankee Stadium Announcer” feedback loop. So everyone needs headsets! I thought the video might work if someone joined me, but we still couldn’t figure out how it worked. If someone out there knows, please let me know.

When the preset time to end the meeting came up (that was one of the settings I played around with), it asked me if I wanted to extent the meeting – nice feature! I said yes and we continued for another few minutes.

When she signed off, I stopped the recording and a pop up let me know that each recording session is separate and that if I hit record again it would overwrite the first one. Then it asked me if I was sure I wanted to stop. When I said yes, it told me that once I ended the meeting (as opposed to the recording), it would put it together and eventually email it to me. That’s ANOTHER cool feature.

Here is what I got in the email:
You have a recorded DimDim Web Meeting session that can be viewed or downloaded.

*****

View

Click here to view Recording

Click here to view Chat Transcript

Download

Click here to download Recording

Click here to download Chat Transcript

*****

Clicking the “view recording” opened a web browser and gave me a black screen with the video only – but the audio was really pretty good.

I’d like to get a group together to test this out – a bigger group. If you’re up for it, leave a comment here or email me directly.

All in all, this product gets a thumbs up. Easy to use and fills a need. This could work for a classroom, although not as well as Wimba Classroom. But it is an alternative for small groups, impromptu groups, or meetings.

Undergraduate Students and Technology - Part 6

2009-01-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

Continuing commentary and opinions on content of The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008.

On page 14 of this report, after briefly discussing the Digital Divide, the authors launch into a discussion on Social Networking Sites, or SNSs. Based on the responses to their surveys “Overall, 85.2% of respondents are now using SNSs” (p14).

Although they had close to 100 institutions participating in the 2008 survey, there were only 44 institutions that had participated in the three years (p14). Of those, there was an increase in usage of 14% over 36 months (74.8% to 88.8%) and that daily usage is up 26%! (32.8% to 58.8%).

In the conclusion of the Executive Summary, the authors indicate that they “found a widespread attitude about IT resources – no matter how students thing about tem – are best situated in learning environments where technology is balanced with other learning activities, especially face-to-face interactions with faculty and students in the classroom.” (p16) This is not entirely surprising to me since I’d have to guess that the vast majority of the institutions surveyed were primarily traditional brick-and-mortar institutions. There is certainly a representation of students who have taken hybrid, blended, and even entirely online courses, but the statistics might be different if there were a few entirely online institutions represented.

If you are interested in having your institution participate in the 2009 survey, the URL for more information and the survey is http://www.educause.edu/ECAR/Reference/StudentStudy/5822.

The Introduction is titled “Reshaping Campus Communications and Community through Social Network Sites”, was written by Nicole B. Ellison from Michigan State University, and begins on page 19.

On page 21 Ellison refers to an article from the New York Time, written by Brian Stelter and published on January 21st, 2008, which indicates that MySpace is the “largest SNS in the United States”. I don’t have the reference handy but I do remember recently hearing that Facebook has since surpassed that. If anyone knows where that information is (or if I can find it again), please go ahead and post it into the comments.

That’s all for now, more on this next time.

Undergraduate Students and Technology - Part 5

2008-12-22T20:10:00.001-05:00

Continuing commentary and opinions on content of The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008.

I’ve decided to forgo the discussion about students and plagiarism; I’ll save that for another day, and go on with the discussion from the ECAR paper.

“The majority of comments, however, were negative. Four themes emerged – that the lack of face-to-face interaction detracts from learning, that online courses facilitate cheating, that technical problems still exist, and that online courses require students to “teach themselves”, making the course more demanding.

Ok – wow – where do I start with this.

1. Lack of face-to-face interaction detracts from learning
Ok, so I’m not sure I disagree with this, but probably NOT for the same reasons as the students. I do believe that it’s important to be face-to-face during a portion of the class. I hold with high regard whatever is happening, physically, when two or more people are in the same place at the same time. Call it vibes, call it aura, call it energy, call it whatever you want. However, this “thing” does not exist when people meet in cyberspace (or don’t meet at all, if the non-face-to-face portion is asynchronous.)
That’s my perspective, and I’d guess a small percentage of student think the same thing. But I’m willing to bet that there is more behind this for most students. We’ve seen that students are social and we’ve also seen that they don’t want their social networking tools to be taken over by the educational process. But it is that very social thing that students get from each other. They make friends, they develop relationships, they distract each other, they cover for each other, they do a lot of things that can’t be done when one is sitting on campus in his/her dorm and the other is at home in her/his bedroom, and one is at Starbucks.

2. That online courses facilitate cheating
Ok – so students are worried about cheating? LOL, no really? Students are worried about cheating? ROFLMAO!!!!! Oh, pull the other one! I’m not going to paint all students with the same brush, only MOST of them. I think the only reasons students are worried about cheating, most of them, is that they are afraid someone is going to get credit for cheating and a) they won’t be able to take advantage of it, b) they think it will make them look worse, of c) all of the above! There is this belief out there that classroom learning is a race, and that only so many people can get “good” grades, and if someone gets an A, and they cheated, then I might not get as good a grade because that other people took my A. I don’t buy the lion’s share of the bell curve of students care about cheating.

3. That technical problems still exist
This one still cracks me up, especially today. They have no problems teaching themselves how to use mobile devices, social networking spaces, and advanced video or computer games, but they think Blackboard is too hard to learn! I’ve actually had students tell me they couldn’t watch the YouTube video I assigned because it wouldn’t work on their computer

4. That online courses require students to “teach themselves” making the course more demanding.
To me, this translates to “Holy crap, look at all this work I have to do which I can’t fake now because I can’t sit in the back of the class an pretend that I read, answered, followed.” The use of technology actually makes the students do the amount of work they would have had to do had they participated in the class as it was designed. This is, of course, based on the idea that the course was designed properly. There is always the case that a technology is NOT being used properly and that, in fact, the class is harder then it would have been if it had been offered in person.
The other part of this is that students want us to give them the answers, because they believe learning is being able to tell us what we want them to tell us when we test them. We (and I mean society here) have these student so accustomed to the pitchers/vessels way of learning that if we are not giving them the answer, well, how are they going to know what to tell us back on the test. You want US to come up with the answer, they ask? Are you kidding, just tell me, so I can get a good grade on the test.

My goodness, there is so much more wrapped up in that. Perhaps I’ll come back and revisit that sometime, for now I’ll wrap up and move on in the next post.

Undergraduate Students and Technology - Part 4

2008-12-19T17:58:00.001-05:00

Continuing commentary and opinions on content of The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008.

Still in the Executive Summary section,
“A much never mode of communication, social networking, has become nearly ubiquitous as well: 85.2% of respondents use SNSs (Primarily Facebook), and most do so on a daily basis to keep in touch with others. Text messaging (used by 83.6%) and instant messaging (IM) (used by 73.8%) are immensely popular, especially among younger students. More than one-third of respondents are also interactive on the Internet by contributing content to blogs, wikis, and photo or video websites.” (11)

I don’t have much to say about this, but I thought it was interesting. From time to time I may just pop out there a quote I underlined, even though I have no real commentary to add to it.

A reminder that the n on this was 27,317 from ninety-eight institutions, consisting of only Freshman and Seniors, as identified by the institution.

Another note I found interesting in this section was that “the emerging online virtual worlds (such as Second Life) are already being used by about 1 in 11 respondents (8.8%).” (p11) Over 8%? Almost 9%? Nearly 1 in 10 students are already using Second Life? Really? That just seems like a huge number to me, especially given the conversations I’m used to seeing on the Second Life Educators (SLED) list. To find archives and sign up for the SLED list, go here:
https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

To find out more about SL’s commitment to Education, go here:
http://secondlifegrid.net/slfe/education-use-virtual-world

“Although respondents are generally enthusiastic about IT, most say they prefer only a “moderate” amount of IT in their courses (59.3%).” (p11). I do not find this surprising in some way and in other ways I do. I guess students don’t see computers or email or other standard technology as technology and what they DO consider technology, they use for fun (or social reasons) and they don’t want to do work with a social tool.

“Of special note is that although few respondents (4.2%) used podcasts this quarter/semester, student comments from focus groups and from the survey were extremely positive about podcasts as a supplemental tool for courses. This mimics last year’s finding. ECAR also asked students if they liked to learn using specific types of technologies. The most frequently cited item was running Internet searches (80.2%). More than one-third of respondents (44.3%) say they like to learn through text-based conversations over e-mail, IM , and text messaging or by contributing to websites, blogs, or wikis (35.5%). Interestingly, a solid half (50.8%) like to learn through programs they can control, such as video games or simulations. This is important in the context of discussion about digital game-based learning in higher education and whether the extent of learning justifies the resources required to implement a game.” (p12). From this they also have a footnote, referencing VanEck’s EDUCAUSE Review article “Digital Game-Based Learning: It’s Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless”, which can be found at http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/DigitalGameBasedLearningl/40614

The Internet searches answer doesn’t surprise me at all – this is how students find content for their papers. I often wonder how genuine they are when they say they didn’t realize they’d copied and pasted something from the Internet right into their paper.

Ok – that a subject all by itself, I’ll have to cover that next time.

Undergrad Students and Technology - Part 3

2008-12-18T22:23:00.001-05:00

Continuing commentary and opinions on content of The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008.

In the Executive Summery of this ECAR report, the authors note, “social networking sites (SNSs) [are} a technology that students are enthusiastically adopting and that is already changing the social fabric of universities.” (p9) Does this make the SNS the latest iPod?

Being a devote Mac person, I use iPod and not the more general MP3 player. iPod has, much to Apple’s delight, become the “Kleenex” or “Xerox” of music players. So many people still make Xerox copies, even if they are using a Canon, Kyocera, or other type of machine – it is still a Xerox machine. To that same end, most people say iPod when meaning an MP3 player.

Back to my point, are SNSs the next iPod. How many instructors out their use podcasts in their classes? Ok, keep your hands up. Now, how many would like to use podcasts in their teaching? Ok, probably a pretty good amount. Why? Did someone one day wake up and say “hey, podcasts might be a great way to get information to the students so they can listen to it any place or any time!” Or is it more that students were carrying around the iPods already and someone got smart and said “Hey, they already have the tool, lets figure out how to leverage that. Lets give them content the can keep on their iPods.”

Students already carry around mobile devices with them. We can’t say “cell phone” any more because voice services are only a fraction of what some of these devices do. More and more we are seeing faculty adopt the transmission of whatever content (or process) they want to utilize for their courses to easy access on these mobile devices.

Montclair State University is a leader in this, receiving national awards for their groundbreaking participation in the RAVE Wireless program. This not only makes use of the tool the students are all carrying around but it was designed to also provide added security, especially important in a day when crisis can strike without warning.

Now, we are all noticing that students are making exceptional use of SNSs. [Palm to forehead] Of course, lets figure out how to make use of this as an educational tool. Caution! Danger Will Robinson. Students can access the content on the phone or iPod when THEY want to, so its access and availability at their own schedule and place. This might explain why they don’t want us as their “friends” in Facebook – since that gives us unfettered, or even partially fettered access to them, it gives the control to us, and not them.

The moral of this, I believe, set up systems that students can be a part of, without getting in their face (or Facebook), and you’re likely to get better buy in.

Do you agree? Are you on Facebook? (I am, feel free to find me , I’m the AJ Kelton at Montclair) Can you think of ways to use Facebook in class – if so, how? What other SNSs do you belong to? Would you want them to use them in a class you were teaching? How about one you were taking? Feel free to leave comments and we’ll pick this up again next time.

Undergrad Students and Technology - Part 2

2008-12-17T08:01:00.001-05:00

Continuing commentary and opinions on content of The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008.

As I mentioned yesterday, in the Fall of 2007 I was teaching an introduction to college writing course, its MSU’s equivalent of first year English. The plan was to use several different social technologies in the class as part of the emphasis on the class theme, which was images of the self, perception, and identity. One of those social networking sites (SNSs) was Facebook (FB). The idea was to use FB groups to work and communicate some things but to also use it as a medium to investigate our selves (who we friend, what other groups we belong to, etc..).

The response was a pretty typical bell curve in that a few students were happy to see us using FB, the majority fell someplace between “ok, yeah, sure, whatever” and “I’m not so sure about this but you’re requiring it so I’ll do it”. A small, but very vocal, percentage, outright refused to open up their FB accounts to me as a “friend”. I told them they could do a limited view, still no deal. These few eventually obliged or opened an account under a different email and only use that account for this class. The last small, but again, very vocal percentage simply refused to use FB. They wanted no part of it, they didn’t use it, they didn’t like it, they didn’t approve of it, and they didn’t want to have any additional information about themselves out on the Web, especially on FB. All relented in the end, but it did take some coaxing.

This supports the point originally made in the last posting that students, most of them at least, will be happy to belong to a class group, or an university group, but they don’t want their teacher on their friends list. More and more, around our campus, I’ve seen student organizations saying “find us on Facebook” instead of listing a web site. FB IS their web site. No hosting cost, no HTML coding or uploading pages and links.

Educators ignore the power of social networks at their own peril. Saying that the anything “social” has no place in the educational process is doing two things that are, in my opinion, quite dangerous. First, it is ignoring the way students today communicate with each other and an essential way they process information. Second, it is suggesting that education, and learning, should NOT be a social activity and I believe there is great benefit to the social nature of learning.

I’m not suggesting we give up other avenues in favor of this, just that this gets added as an arrow in a quiver that can always use more arrows.

Perhaps, in the next entry, I’ll actually get back to the contents of the ECAR report. : -)

Undergrad Students and Technology - Part 1

2008-12-17T00:18:00.001-05:00

I wish I had a dollar for every time I said I needed to make blogging part of my regular routine. And I have tried, a number of times. So this time I’m not going to say that. What I am going to say is that I need to get a number of things in my life into a regular routine.

I recently attended a meeting and in preparation for that we were asked to read “The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008.” This is not something that I would have had access to if it weren’t provided to me for this meeting. MSU does not have a subscription to ECAR. When my own Research Bulletin appeared in ECAR in August of 2007 I suggested MSU might want to subscribe but I think there is just not funding for this, or nobody wants to pony up.

So, in reading this I found myself underlining a LOT of things. My plan is to take 15 minutes or so out of my day and read through the report, posting into the blog what I underlined and why. I hope this can be a conversation, so feel free to post your thoughts about my thoughts in the COMMENTS sections (below). At the very least, I hope this gives you something to think about.

The reason we were asked to review this had to do with an entire section on social networking sites, or SNSs. In the forward, on page 5, Ron Yanosky proclaims SNSs a “quintessential new [form] that define a generation.” I found this to be a bold statement right up front, but I don’t disagree. In fact, I hope to make this very issue part of my ongoing research.

The survey that this report is based on found that 85% of the respondents use SNSs and that number jumped to “95% of those 18-19 years old” (p5). The n on this is 27,317 students from a variety of different institutions, both in size and focus, and only those who the schools identified as freshman or seniors. The n is the response number and not those who received the email invite.

Another surprise is that their findings indicate that “students are neither obsessed with [SNSs} nor careless in the way they share information about themselves.” (p5) I found this most interesting given the number of young people who foolishly post pictures of themselves on sites like Facebook that they will certainly later come to regret anyone else having seen, like a potential employer. Forget that some are posting pictures of themselves doing things that are illegal.

In written comments that were provided, “some students vociferously objects in their written comments to any institutional intrusion into SNSs.” (p6) To that same extent, I’ve found many students like to see groups and organizations from the school in Facebook. So they want us in their they just don’t want us to “friend” them.

Last year I required Facebook for the class that I was teaching and I got a very interesting response from the students. More on this next blog.

Snap Session - Word Clouds

2008-12-03T13:09:00.002-05:00

Tsk tsk – shame on me, I know. I haven’t posted one of my 15-minute Snap Sessions in a while. Things have been hectic, with a lot of travel and many presentations.

Want to know what I’ve been up to since the last snap session posted here? Check here
http://www.sorry-afk.com/Publications/Publications.html
and here
http://www.sorry-afk.com/Presentations/Presentations.html
and here
http://www.sorry-afk.com/Committees/Committees.html

I poke into my bag of “apps to try” and decided instead of focusing on one, I would mention a few that I like. There are little apps that dedicated 15 minutes to figure out and test would have been over kill. They have pretty dedicated purposes, as you will see.

The first one I really like is called Wordle. Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) creates a “word cloud”, which is a visual image of the words used in a document, with used the most often appearing larger than other words.

The sample above is a word cloud of this blog entry up to the point above the image.

You can also take a URL and create a word cloud from that. For example, here is a word cloud of my last blog.

An excellent example of the use of word clouds is the recent blog posted by the President-Elect Obama’s transition team on the subject of health care
http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/join_the_discussion_daschles_healthcare_response/

One of my plans is to go back into my web site and make word clouds for my publications. I might even do that for my blog entries here and at
http://ajblogsat.wordpress.com/

Well – it looks like I was actually able to spend a good deal of time talking about this one application. I can see some great uses of this, especially in writing class.

One idea, not just for a writing class, might be to have students do a word cloud for a paper they are working on in order to get a good visual idea of the words they are using.

How else could word clouds be used in education?

first stab

2008-11-26T21:43:00.003-05:00

The first suggestion is to work on your "about" page. I think this is a good idea since it, as the instruction says, is how readers get information about you in order to contextualize the content of the blog.

I don't have an about page in my blog but I do have an area in the top header. I decided to add some text there - which includes my name, my title, where I work, how to get me by email, and a link to my web site (which explains why I use "sorry.afk" - http://www.sorry-afk.com)

I'll come back to this first days entry as there was more to read and perhaps more to update. Until then....

30D2BBB

2008-11-26T21:31:00.000-05:00

href="http://www.teach42.com/2008/10/23/be-a-better-blogger-in-just-30-days/">
I'm going to give the 30 days to being a better blogger (30d2bbb) a stab.

#NC08MSU Portrait of a Micro-Blogger: Have You Twittered or Plurked Recently?

2008-11-14T16:12:00.000-05:00

Portrait of a Micro-Blogger: Have You Twittered or Plurked Recently? Presenter: Laura Nicosia

#NC08MSU Pageflakes vs. Blackboard: An Exploration of Content Delivery in Foreign Language Education

2008-11-14T10:46:00.000-05:00

Pageflakes vs. Blackboard: An Exploration of Content Delivery in Foreign Language Education
Presenter:Enza Conforti

Keynote Address: Curt Garbett, Spencer Johnson Partners

2008-11-14T08:54:00.000-05:00

Keynote for this year's Northeast Connect 08

Northeast Connect 08

2008-11-14T08:44:00.003-05:00

I'm attending (and presenting at) the Northeast Connect 08 conference here at MSU today. Here is my current schedule.

8:30 - 9:30am Breakfast and Registration

9:30-10:30am Keynote Address: Curt Garbett, Spencer Johnson Partners

10:45 - 11:30a Pageflakes vs. Blackboard: An Exploration of Content Delivery in Foreign Language Education. Presenter: Enza Conforti

11:40 - 12:25p OK, So I Have My Second Life Account. What Now? Presenter: AJ Kelton

12:30-2:00pm Lunch

2:00 - 2:45p Using Second Life to Teach Difficult Concepts Presenters: Edina Renfro-Michel & AJ Kelton

3:15 - 4:00p - Learning in a Virtual Environment: Managing Emergency Preparedness and Health Security Using Second Life as a Teaching Tool Presenters: Anne Hewitt, Susan Spencer, Riad Twal & Ramesh Ramloll

4:10 - 4:55p - Portrait of a Micro-Blogger: Have You Twittered or Plurked Recently? Presenter: Laura Nicosia

I have no power in the main conference room, so I"m not sure about liveblogging and I don't know about Internet access in breakout rooms - but I'll post to my updates if/when a liveblog will start.

Opps - wrong blog

2008-11-10T17:55:00.001-05:00

I would like to apologize to those who follow this blog for the overly political posting about the election. I have several blogs and meant to post this into my personal blog, and not my educational-technology related blog.

2008 U.S. Presidential Election Live Blog

2008-11-04T17:46:00.001-05:00

Blow is the CoveritLive blog of my experience of Election Night, November 4th, 2008.

EDUCAUSE 2008 - Sarah Robbins' Featured Talk

2008-10-30T08:08:00.003-04:00

EDUCAUSE 2008
Social Media and Education: The Conflict Between Technology and Institutional Education and the Future
Sarah Robbins

EDUCAUSE Vitual Worlds Constituent Group

2008-10-29T16:44:00.001-04:00

ELIFALL08 - Learning Architectures That Help Biology Students Reach the Pinnacle of Bloom's Taxonomy

2008-09-18T14:17:00.001-04:00

Learning Architectures That Help Biology Students Reach the Pinnacle of Bloom's Taxonomy
Robin Wright, Associate Dean, University of Minnesota

This session will present the academic architecture of a new course for entering biology majors and explore how the physical architecture of the Active Learning Classroom at the University of Minnesota supports sophisticated learning goals, including the ability to synthesize and evaluate ideas.

ELIFALL08 - Building Community with Virtual Spaces

2008-09-18T14:17:00.000-04:00

Building Community with Virtual Spaces
Shannon Ritter, Social Networks Adviser, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University

Building a community of learners can be especially challenging when working with online and distance education students. By using social networking tools like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Second Life, we can begin to construct a community of sharing and participation that leads to enhanced satisfaction and a true sense of belonging.

ELIFALL08 - The Research Library as a Center of Learning

2008-09-18T09:20:00.003-04:00

The Research Library as a Center of Learning: Noteworthy Trends and Complementary Assessment Efforts
Crit Stuart

For a decade, research libraries have increasingly turned their attention to the learning needs of undergraduates, best depicted in the emergence and evolution of collaborative spaces referred to as learning commons. These successful spaces and the programs they support are inspiring libraries to take a fresh look at the needs of graduate students and faculty. The most innovative expressions of support for students and faculty spring from insight provided by user studies, deep engagement with constituents, and helpful collaborations. In this session we will review emerging library trends in support of learning and research, and their impact on learning space design. Some of the more promising assessment techniques that are helping to inform this work will be reviewed.

ELIFALL08 - Learning Space 3.0: When Real and Virtual Spaces Collide

2008-09-18T09:20:00.002-04:00

Learning Space 3.0: When Real and Virtual Spaces Collide
Mark S. Valenti, President, The Sextant Group, Inc.

Demands for flexibility, collaborative learning opportunities, and access to digital information are resulting in a new design paradigm for learning space that transcends academic disciplines. Concurrently, technology enables the development of highly specific and realistic simulation environments for education, business, the health sciences, and other disciplines. Maturing technologies such as wired and wireless networks, low-cost projectors, flat-panel displays, and productivity software are integral components of a traditional modern-day educational facility. New and emerging technologies such as collaboration software, personal broadband networks, virtual environments, and 3D displays are creating opportunities to rethink the learning space-what and where it is-and what happens inside it. This session will explore developments in technology, classroom design, and concepts for future facilities and their transformative impact on the teaching and learning process.

ELIFALL08 - Designing Learning into Learning Spaces

2008-09-17T14:27:00.005-04:00

Educause Learning Initiative
Designing Learning into Learning Spaces
Malcolm B. Brown, Director of Academic Computing, Dartmouth College
An important goal of all learning space design is to make students and faculty successful in the practice of learning. The shift in focus from just classrooms to the more inclusive concept of learning spaces is at least five years old. Much has changed in our thinking about how to design spaces for learning, and today we face a new set of design challenges (for example, furniture selection and whether to use mature or emerging technology). Amid such considerations, it's important not to lose sight of two core issues: how people learn, and the practices we employ to foster learning. In this session we will review constructivist learning theory and its impact on learning space design. We will also look at how learning space design must be informed by learning practices, and how these practices need to both shape and evolve with all our design efforts.

Our hosts - University of Minnesota

2008-09-17T08:54:00.003-04:00

Special thanks to Ann Hill Duin, Associate Vice President and Associate CIO, and the University of Minnesota, for hosting this conference. At check-in I received a nice packet of information including a one-page "Did you know?" that included the following:

* The first pacemaker was invented at the University of Minnesota

* Scientists at the U of M isolated Uranium 235

* The heart-lung machines was invented and used in first successful open-heart surgery

* The U of M was involved in the development of the "black box" flight recorded

* A U of M engineer created the first retractable, locking automobile seat belt

* Doctors at the U of M performed the first bone marrow transplant

* The father of the supercomputer graduated from the U of M

* The Internet's first search and retrieval system called Gopher was invented at the U of M and paved the way for the World Wide Web.

Machinima for my presentation.

2008-09-15T22:40:00.006-04:00

The following are machinima clips I'll be using in my upcoming presentation for ELI on Learning Spaces.

Rezzing a Clever Zebra Build (using the building assistant), rezzing something from inventory, and using a sky platform.

A clip from a YouTube Video from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel and Tourism Management, demonstrating how quickly and easily a ballroom can be set up/changed.

Biome, an underwater learning area

The Tsunami exhibit on Meteroa, NOAA's first sim

Virtual Hallucination (warning, some foul language is used in this exhibit - not work or child safe)

Letter to the Lindens

2008-09-07T15:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the disconnect on that last session. There were network problems that the technical folks at the hotel denied were happening [sigh]. I hoped to have the "letter" posted into the CoveritLive session, but that did not happen.

HUGE thanks to Daniel Livingston for the idea of the letter, for helping facilitate the session, and for passing along the "letter" to me so I can post it here.

*****

Dear Lindens,

Hi, how are you? We’re doing great, the kids are well. Having a blast with Second Life.

We’ve really enjoyed the better support over the past few months. Second Life is really the great for debating with small groups of students in depth – the Socratic model lives and is embodied in Second Life. The cost is fantastic! Open source too. J

We love telling all our friends about how great Second Life is, telling them about the wonders of exploration and experience that go on there.

However…

We are struggling to get large number of our friends registered at a time.

Once we have our friends in Second Life, we have soooo many that it’s kind of hard to keep track of our contacts and organise them. If we could somehow tag our friends, that would be neat.

Application sharing would really just be the neatest – we’ve seen some other guys do thast, and wish you could too. Integrating them locally, where we live would be sooo useful.

We got that letter from your lawyer – is that really necessary? We have to be able to work together without worrying about this stuff.

And why do our friends have to pretend to be other people? Sometimes it would be easier if we were able to use our real names.

Some more tools to make things easier for educators.

Our friends kids can’t come and visit. If there was a way we could get passes for the kids to come visit us where we live – even for a limited time, or limited locations. Being able to communicate effectively with the teens across the grid we also need.

And getting content to the teen grid! Man, that sucks. You really need to work on that, it is holding us back and causing us a world of pain.

I’m not sure how you can help here, but having my private space for the kids (which my supervisor demands) is restricting.

When we have a bunch of kids – even 40 or 50 – managing that is difficult. It needs to be easy for when we have a big event or want to invite the whole neighbourhood over.

And when the kids have their 18th! Oy, this transition is awkward. Sometimes it happens in the middle of a class even – really awkward.

Remember that cool thing I scripted? Dude, you updated the server and it broke. At least give us tools to manage unit testing or something.

Is someone keeping track of the successful grants that people have got? That would be handy.

Can we have invoices when we need them? Sometimes we have deadline to spend money or it just goes – if we can’t get an invoice, we lose the money then we can’t pay you and we lose our house here.

On the other hand, easily booked short term sim rentals would help us put big events on. We don’t need ten sims for the year, but for cousin Ted’s wedding we want lots of guests over.

You know us. We are your best advocates. But there are other people out there making overtures, looking for our business. There are some things in our relationship that we/you need to work on. We need to be able to talk more friendly like, and lose the attitude.

Our kids are our most important focus. It’s why we are here – to help our kids. Whether it’s practical issues or legal hiccups, we need support not barriers.

But you know, thanks for listening to our gripes. Thanks for coming over, we really do appreciate it. To hear you say that meeting us is the highpoint of your year despite all the kvetching is super.

September 7, 2008
Yours sincerely,
The Educators
Tampa

SLEDcc Working Groups: Feedback to Linden Lab

2008-09-07T11:31:00.001-04:00

What would Educators Like to See in the next 1-3 Year Time Frame?

SLEDcc Afternoon Keynote: Barry Jacobs / Global Kids

2008-09-06T14:50:00.002-04:00

Welcome to this afternoon keynote session. The amazing Barry Jacobs, from Global Kids, will be speaking. The title of his presentation is "Why Second life Can't Tip: The Power and Perils of Living La Vida Ludic"

SLEDcc - Saturday Opening Keynote

2008-09-06T08:16:00.001-04:00

The first full day of SLCC (SLEDcc is a track of SLCC) and our opening keynote, over breakfast, are Chairman of the Board of Linden Lab, Phillip Linden and new CEO, M Linden.

SLEDcc: Sarah Robbins-Bell Keynote - Take II

2008-09-05T14:17:00.000-04:00

SLEDcc: Sarah Robbins-Bell Keynote

2008-09-05T13:30:00.002-04:00

Sarah Robbins-Bell is giving the first keynote called "Explicit Bargains: Setting Realistic (Yet Powerful) Expectations for Teaching in Virtual Worlds"

SLEDcc Opening Session

2008-09-05T09:50:00.002-04:00

I'm finally here at SLEDcc and it's really great to see so many people I work with regularly and meet so many new people. There is definitely an excitement in the air and we are all waiting for Claudia and Pathfinder Linden to kick us off. Feel free to join the CoverItLive below during the session and share your thoughts. Once the session is over this will be part of the permanent blog posting.

SNAP SESSION - The Brain (mind-mapping tool)

2008-08-28T12:14:00.001-04:00

As promised previously, I tested a product called The Brain. It is a mind-mapping tool and, to be honest, it blows away all of the others I looked it. They have a 30-day free trial of the PRO version and once that expires, you get the basic functions unless you pony up.

I remembered seeing this a few years ago and thinking it was pretty cool but, at the time, had no application for it. I’d forgotten all about it until the need for a mind-mapping tool came up.

It took me about 5 minutes (of my 15 minute allotment) to set up my account and get the product downloaded – which was actually quite simple on my Mac. I have no idea how easy or hard it is for Windows, and they also have a Linux version.

I decided to recreate what I had done in VUE – so I could show you the differences. Not only was I able to recreate what I had done, but I was able to add to it! One of the things I like most about The Brain is that the nodes move around to show relative relationships to the whole. In order to show you this properly I needed to use a product called Jing in order to record the action. Jing is usable for PC and Mac and I have it on my list of things to write about.

Here is the short video demonstration

I think you can see the difference between the static mind-maps and this. There is SO much you can also do with this, I was barely able to scratch the surface in the short time I had.

So, again, I put out the offer – instead of using VUE to chart my work in Web 2.0 apps, I’m going to use The Brain. I’m happy to revise and add by suggestion as appropriate, so please feel free to make suggestions. When I get a decent working model, I’ll post it here again.

Until then, see you next time!

SNAP SESSION – VUE Mind Mapping tool

2008-08-21T13:09:00.003-04:00

Well – the last two days got away from me – as should be expected as we approach the start of the semester. But today I was finally able to get back to my 15 MINUTE SNAP SESSION testing and I poked around a little in VUE.

VUE stands for Visual Understanding Environment and is brought to us by the good folks at Tufts. It is a free mind-mapping tool and I decided to try and map my mind a bit. I decided to try and organize my work bringing together Web 2.0 technologies. I see a few major classifications that these technologies falls into and I wanted to try and categorize them (visually) and then list samples within each category.

I first spent some time looking at the PDF manual they provide and also the Quicktime videos they have to show off the features. This tool has some pretty cool features that make it a very robust tool, and could easy be used in place of a slide show for a presentation or lecture. It is not as intuitive to put together a map, as most of us know how to do slide presentations already, but it is much more visually appealing to show relationships between things. I suggest, if you’re interested, you visit the VUE site and check out the capabilities.

I didn’t have enough time to do something dramatic and in-depth, but here is a jpg of what I was able to do. It is VERY easy to export the work into a variety of formats, I choose JPF since I knew I’d be uploading that into this blog.

As you can see I created major categories, started putting items (actual applications) under each category and then started to show the relationships between the applications and the categories.

I was not able to move a “node” once I placed it someplace. I know there must be a way to do that, but when I click “the hand” it moved the whole map. So I was forced to leave things where I placed them.

One thing I would have liked is if you could click on an item and it moves to the center, showing the relationships in contrast to the otheres. I know another application did this, or at least I think it did. I saw it a number of years ago and it is called The Brain. I just remembered the name and found the site again, so I will probably review this next.

I like the visual nature of this – its great to show relationships between things. It’s almost like a flow chart on steroids.

Oh – the VUE map I started, I plan to complete. So if you have any ideas for major nodes, sub nodes, applications to be added, please let me know. I plan to use this in some of my presentation and also to post it someplace (not sure where yet) for others to be able to use.

Mind mapping, part I

2008-08-18T12:21:00.002-04:00

I’m back. After two weeks away, I’m finally back in the swing of things. Ok, well, not really. Today is my first day back in the office, but hardly my first day back at work. A new blog post soon on all the exciting things that happened in Brasil.

I decided to start looking at mind mapping. One of our faculty members here in the CHSS has seen a mind map that was dedicated to a specific topic and asked if something like that could be created with his own content. I told him sure, and let him know I’d look into it.

I almost hate to admit it, but when I want good, general (and sometimes quite specific) information, I’ve been finding myself looking to Wikipedia more and more. When it comes to academic use and research, not so much, but for good basic information – it’s a great resource. So I found this page that talks about mind mapping:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mind_mapping_software

I found this during my Google search on the topic. The thing I like about this is that it gave a few examples of free mind-mapping tools, saved me a ton of legwork.

I’d already downloaded the Freemind tool. It seemed interesting, but had a ton of buttons all along the borders. It was very confusing and I couldn’t easily figure out how to do what I wanted to do. If I’d already known something about mind mapping it might have been more intuitive.

Through the Wikipedia page I noticed VUE, which is something I remember seeing before. I know I had an account so I re-requested my password and signed in. After downloading the application I got started right away. The interface was clean and simple – and it was quite obvious how to do what I wanted to do. I also like VUE because it is education-oriented, whereas Freemind is supposed to be more for business.

I created a simple mind map of my efforts in checking out web 2.0 applications but quickly ran out of time. As you know, I only spend 15 minutes doing the research. My thought behind that is, if it takes longer than that, the average person will probably give up on it unless there is a strong drive to learn about it.

Now that I have the tool, perhaps tomorrow I’ll spend my 15 minutes learning how to use it. I’ll even try to generate an example.

What do you use, how and why do you use it?

2008-07-31T13:51:00.003-04:00

This popped up in the CoveritLive "Hanging at my desk" a few blogs below. But the more I've thought about it, the more I believe it deserves its own blog.

Twitter, WordPress, Flickr, GoogleDocs, Jott, and Diigo.

Are these any good for us in education? If so, how and why?

What makes them special, or even unique, compared to other products like them.

What is it about these that has caused them to rise to the top?

How might you use one or more of them in a classroom?

One might even question how you´d define each of them.

If you were trying to tell me why I should take the time to look into these, what might you say?

Meu amigo do Brasil

2008-07-31T12:11:00.003-04:00

For those of you who follow me, I humbly suggest you also keep an eye on Joao Mattar. Joao teaches at Anhembi-Morumbi University in Sao Paulo. He and I met through Second Life, a portion of which he documents in this very kind blog he posted about my upcoming trip there.

http://blog.joaomattar.com/2008/07/30/a-j-kelton-em-sao-paulo/

We've worked together again since then and I hope to forge new ties with him, and others, during my visit.

I'm not saying all these nice things about Joao because he says nice things about me. Dig a bit deeper into his blogs, this guy is spot on! Oh, and he even has a translator on his site, so you don't need to read Portuguese to enjoy his work.

Hanging at my desk

2008-07-30T13:27:00.003-04:00

My travel plans have changed, I'm still in New Jersey, but that should change again tomorrow. In the meantime, I've been coming into work but still taking a break from blogging, etc...

Since I'm at my desk, I thought I might kick open a CoveritLive session - come by and say hello!

Downtime

2008-07-25T11:47:00.003-04:00

Greetings, all.

I'll be taking a short break from this blog while I do some traveling. But once I return I'll be back to testing out applications and writing about all the things that will be going on starting in August.

CoveritLive - Take 2

2008-07-24T22:38:00.002-04:00

Ok, so a few people (some publically, some privately) mentioned that they'd have helped but I was only online with CoveritLive for about 20 minutes.

Well, now I'm sitting at home working on other things so I thought I would give it another shot, and this time stay on a bit longer.

So, here it is:

CoveritLive

2008-07-24T15:54:00.001-04:00

Today’s tested application is CoveritLive, thanks to Chris, who left a comment in my blog from yesterday.

At a recent conference (NMC in Princeton, I think it was), Chris was using CoveritLive to post notes about what was going on. I liked it and asked him about it later on but never got a chance to try it out.

Now that I’ve tried UStream, and Chris suggested that UStream and CoveritLive might go together, I decided to check it out.

Again, the initial read seems a bit complicated; I wasn’t exactly sure what I might use it for. The introduction talks about reporting election results, game scores, etc.. I’m not interested in using it for any of those reasons, but I forged on and set up my account.

My account is SORRYAFK, of course. For those of you who might be wondering what sorryafk means (or sorry_afk, sorry-afk, or sorry.afk), here is a link to my web site that explains it.

Back to CoveritLive. My idea of why I want to use this is so that instead of taking notes at meeting (like SLCC or EDUCAUSE), I can use CoveritLive and the good thing about that is that others can join me, comment, we can post images. So it seems as if it does in a text version what UStream does in a video version. Once a video from UStream is recorded, it can be added into the CoveritLive, although I’m not sure if they can both be used at the same time.

I’m not sure why one might use both at the same time, since they seem to do similar things. UStream has a chat log for those watching the stream, which is the same as what CoveritLive does. Both allow for polls. Both can be posted into a blog or website. Although similar in some way, I think both are valuable and I’ll look to use each in some fun and creative ways.

One way I can see faculty using CoveritLive might be to chat with students during an off-campus synchronous meeting, such as part of a hybrid class. In fact, I hope to be able to test this out in the fall and have a few faculty members in mind to give it a go.

Here is the CoveritLive I started to test the service.

I’m going to post this blog and then link it to a few of my social sites. I’ll leave it up there for a little bit and see if anyone checks it out. If not, I’ll try it again another time. The good thing is that the CoveritLive will stay here for folks to see it again later.

UStream.tv

2008-07-23T11:40:00.002-04:00

Today I decided to test USTREAM.tv. I’ve seen any number of people recently streaming from their various locations, such as conferences. It was a way to either bring those remotely to the presentation or to share a presentation (such as a keynote) with others.

In October we will be holding the first meeting of the EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Constituent Group. Last year it was a “hot topic discussion” and due to the success of that, and the forward motion of virtual worlds, EDUCAUSE granted my request to form a CG.

During last years meeting we showed the in-world location through a data projector but it was too complicated to have the on-site location streamed back in world. It is time to start our discussions with EDUCAUSE’s fantastic tech people and the question came up again about the ability to stream back in world.

I wondered in Ustream might be a solution and so decided to test it out today.
As you know by know, I allocate 15 minutes with these new applications in order to see how far one could get in a short time frame. Anyone has 15 minutes to check something out. More tech savvy folks that I will do things faster, less tech savvy folks might take longer – so I selected 15 minutes as a good jumping off point.

In that time frame I was able to get my account set up, figure out how to get the video to show through my built-in camera (in my MacBook Pro) and how to start a broadcast. Of course, the problem was, in that short time, and now in the times it’s taking me to write this, I had nobody come and watch my test. Poor me. :-)

It was not intuitive at first and I would recommend that the folks at Ustream take some time to improve the first minutes experience for new users. I was a bit confused, having never tried anything like this before. It didn’t take me all that long to get going, but I was resolute because I have a need. Others, less comfortable with technology, might have given up.

There is a LOT to this service and I’m very surprised it is free. Looking for now at the main page during a broadcast you can show just the video, just the audio, or both. There is a place to determine which video or audio source to use, so a web came and portable or wireless microphone are almost certainly an option (I am going to test that). You can slider up and down the audio and video quality, if you want or need to compensate for conditions at/in whatever you are streaming. And you can record as well as just broadcast.

In a bottom window you can have chat, which is great for those who are viewing. There is also a place for advanced settings, which tells you all about adjusting frame rates, mixing sound, and so on. Next to that you can create a poll, have co-hosts, send the broadcast to Twitter, and something called Overlays, which I didn’t have time to figure out.

All-in-all these seems like a great tool. While I was writing this someone popped into my broadcast. I waved, said hello, and asked him/her to chat, so I knew who was out there. This person decided not to engage me, or to take my poll (asking if s/he could see the poll LOL). The first person popped out as quietly as s/he popped in and a few minutes later, another person (or the same one, perhaps) came in but did not engage. It’s certainly possible that there were technical problems, that the person was not familiar enough with the program to use it, or someone was just lurking. In either event, I learned how to use this and now my mind is spinning with all the different ways this could be used in teaching.

Ping, at last!

2008-07-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

Ping is clearly one of the coolest apps I’ve stumbled across in a long time!

As I’ve gotten deeper into my exploration of Web 2.0 apps, each one seems to have a place for you to update your status. I was only using one of those places since who has the time to go to six or seven different sites just to say “I’m heading home”, or “I’m at work”

Ping lets you enter an update in one place and then it pushes it down to any of the sites you choose. They have one or two sites you can send to. If you missed the sarcasm in that last sentence, here is the list: Bebo, Blogger, Brightkite, Custom URL, Facebook, FriendFeed, hi5, Identi.ca, Jaiku, Kwippy, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mashable, MySpace, Plaxo, Pulse. Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress.com, Xanga. So, as you can see, its more than just microblogging sites or status updates.

And one could completely configure this to do any number of things – you should really do to the site and check it out.

I decided, for right now, to just use it for updates. So I set it up to tell my Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook accounts whatever it is I was updating from the Ping web site. I tested it and sure enough, my Facebook status was updated and the entry was posted in both my Twitter and Plurk. I was a happy man! I need to try and figure out if I can have it update my GTalk status too, but I didn’t see that option at quick blush.

What’s that you say? Why have to go to another web site to update all these other web sites. Well, no need – you can enter you update from: AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk (GTalk), Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, iGoogle Gadget, Facebook Application, iPhone Web App, Mobile App (WAP)

So I set Ping up as a friend in GTalk and then “chatted” a message to Ping and it posted it to all my sites.

All of this took me just under 15 minutes from sign up to set up to posting. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is to set up the iPhone Web App. I wanted to see how much I could do in 15 minutes so you can see, with all of these apps I keep writing about, how much can happen in that short amount of time.

Ping and Plurk - sounds like a cartoon.

2008-07-21T13:56:00.001-04:00

Back from a week off I was ready to sink my teeth into some great new Web 2.0 stuff. Not entirely meant to be, I guess.

The first thing I wanted to try was Ping.fm. I am not able to keep up with updating ALL of the sites I’m now trying to test out and follow. Apparently, Ping.fm will do that for me. It’s a great idea – enter your update in one place and it updates many, most, or even all of your social networks.

One problem. Its in beta, and I don’t have a code. Ok, so I dropped a Twitter and asked if someone has a spare code. Then I went to their web page where they basically said one could grovel for a code. No such luck there, either – they’ve taken that down while they play catch-up a bit.

[sigh]

Ok – so what else is on my list?

Mind Mapping. One of my faculty members asked about mind mapping and I recently received a link to a student technology blog that gave a list of some. I went back to check that and there are 8 or 9 options there – too many for me to just arbitrarily start checking. So I dropped another Twitter asking if anyone could recommend one over another.

Last resort, I decided to check out Plurk. I really didn’t want to get into another microblogging site, but one of the faculty here started doing it a month or so ago and I’ve heard a few other folks talking about it. I like the time line idea, so I signed up. I had very little time left to play around with it, but I did post a first post – my user name is sorry-afk for those who want to look me up or friend me there.

I then posted to Twitter that I’d become a Plurker and instantly got the following from someone who follows me on Twitter.
@sorry_afk Nooooooooooooo! (enough said)
Um – ok, so I Twitter back, trying to find out more. We’ll have to see.

I did get an immediate response on Plurk from that faculty member I mentioned. I guess we’ll have to see how that one goes. It will be nice to have someplace to go when Twitter is offline or down, which seems to happen a lot lately. And if I ever got on Ping.fm, maybe I can update both Plurk and Twitter at the same time (as well as Facebook and a few others.)

Do you use Plurk? Or Twitter? Or Both? Any thoughts on either? How about on Microblogging in general?

Am I on time delay?

2008-07-20T12:42:00.002-04:00

In October of 2006 I’d read about this thing called Second Life. I went to the web site and determined that I did not have the time to invest in looking at this, it seemed far too complicated.

What it did remind me of, though, was a few years back how Dr. Jack Baldwin LeClair of the then Legal Studies Department (now Political Science and Law), had told me about these things called “avatars” and how he had created a whole world and his students were doing something with them. It seems really interesting to me, at the time, but I didn’t pursue it.

Fast forward to January 2007. Since school is out of session, I know have time to poke into this Second Life thing. Well, the rest is well-documented history. I now spend part of my full time job, and my entire part time job, working in Second Life.

Many years ago, in one of my many exceptional conversations with Jack, he mentioned a book called Snow Crash. He recommended I read it. I didn’t. I don’t make time to read, although I know I should.

Last summer he even loaned me his copy of the book, which sat on a shelf in my apartment, unopened, until I finally returned it to him in the Fall.

Being involved with Second Life, I’ve heard people talk about this book time and time again. I know it was something I should read, but like I said, I never make time to read.

A few weeks ago I decided that I MUST insert “down” time in my life – hobby time, some of which includes reading, exercise, writing, meditation, etc...

Last Monday I sat down with Dr. Laura Nicosia, of the English Department here at MSU, to talk about what her plans are for her Fall classes. She will be using the CHSS Island in Second Life for a few builds and one of the texts she is using (although not specifically on our island) is Snow Crash. I decide, given my new regime of down time, to get Snow Crash and finally read it.

Now, I realize how many forces have been pushing this book in my direction for such a long time, and I fought it. Maybe I need to stop delaying things that keep trying to happen in my life. If one likens life to novels, perhaps The Celestine Prophecy is a good one to think about now.

Nada

2008-07-10T13:33:00.000-04:00

Today was a blah day for me on the Web 2.0 front. I didn’t have anything I REALLY wanted to try out. If you have suggestions of apps you like, leave them in comments and I’ll give them a try.

My day started with a very interesting comment from someone in my recent blog entry. I thought for a long time about allowing the comment to post or not. I have my comments moderated, for a reason. As the day went on I started to feel more and more sorry for this person, it seems as if they can’t even feel a brief moment of joy from something as simple as the linked video. I then encouraged folks to leave comments. A couple did, and I encourage you to as well, but a few wrote to me directly saying they felt SO strongly that they didn’t want to put that kind of thing in print.

Then I poked around at Meezmo. Meh, didn’t really interest me. In fact, I really had to dig around the site to get a good idea what it was really all about. Perhaps I was just being think.

Then I spent some time trying to figure out how to get pictures from my phone to Flickr. I can’t send them by email because for some reason my email (google) gets stuck in the sent box and never sends. I tried some of the troubleshooting, but for some reason it will not work.. There are a couple of tools listed on the Flickr site, but two of them don’t support iPhone and the other wants me to download something from the iTunes store, but isn’t that just for the new iPhone? Perhaps I missed something, and am about to make a fool of myself, but I didn’t think I could download apps to my iPhone. I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

I posted to Twitter that I was looking for Web 2.0 apps to check out, so we’ll see if anyone posts back. In the meantime, I’ll be on vacation for the next week or so. That doesn’t mean I’ll be entirely off the grid, but I won’t be doing “work” work. So my next update of tested apps might not be until sometime the week of the 21st. In the meantime, hopefully a few of you, or others in my extended network, can recommend a few for me to kick off the second half of the summer checking out.

Diigo

2008-07-09T09:58:00.001-04:00

In my ongoing effort to learn more about cool and useful Web 2.0 apps, today I signed up for Diigo. Although I know Diigo is not brand spanking new (I usually don’t like to be the first person to kick tires), I’ve recently seen a few people in my network talk about this service. So I decided to try it out.

The sign up was easy. There is a very well constructed video on the main page (you can also find it HERE on YouTube) that did a good job of letting me know what to expect. It was less of a promotional piece and more of an informational one.

As I was going through the sign up process I decided to drop a note on Twitter to see what others thought and felt about Diigo. A colleague here at MSU, one I greatly respect, responded right away that she uses it and likes it. It was good, positive reinforcement while I was going through he short and relatively painless sign up process.

They do give you the option to search Gmail for anyone who might be on the service, but in light of the fiasco last year with a viral web 2.0 app nightmare (which I won’t name, but I’m sure some of you remember), I never send something to all my friends or to a list. I prefer to send to folks directly (and as side note, I prefer to get my invites that way also).

After signing up a searched for a few friends I figured would be on there and sent them a personal invite. I then dropped a note to Twitter and mentioned that I’d signed up and my username is SORRY_AFK, and invited anyone who had a Diigo account to friend me. Its kind of a test of social networking to see how many people I can get in my Diigo network in 24 hours. Be warned, Diigo puts a toolbar in your web browser – so there is a small bit of set up, but it was quite simple and looks really intuitive and easy to use.

To that end, if you are reading this, feel free to friend me. :-)

I have not tested Diigo yet – I figured I would do that when something came up naturally, instead of forcing it. I do use another social bookmarking service, but I use that more for ALL my bookmarks, not just my professional ones. Its not that I have anything up there that would really matter, but my goal is to use Diigo for career-type stuff and share that with everyone, the other will stay more for personal stuff.

Do you use Diigo? If so, what are your thoughts? If you checked it out and do not use it, why not? Are there other services that do the same thing that you prefer? What and why? Any great Diigo groups (communities?) you like and would recommend?

Where the Hell is Matt? He's EVERYWHERE, today!

2008-07-08T21:26:00.002-04:00

Today was a very good day. A lot of fun, cool, and wonderful things happened today. As it also so happens, I spent time at the start of my day the same way I just spend a few minutes now.

Early this AM a really good friend of mine sent me a link to a video called “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)” Now, I usually don’t follow any of these links but for some reason I did.

If you have not seen this video, watch it right now.

http://www.vimeo.com/1211060

No, seriously, if you didn’t watch it – do that right now. If you’ve seen it before, watch it again – I’m sure you won’t mind.

http://www.vimeo.com/1211060

This video dispels two really important myths that some people believe:
1. Social media has no value (yes, there are people who think this)
2. Nothing good ever happens in a big way, only bad.

This video has been around like mad. Everyone I know has linked to it today, or Twittered it, or Facebooked it, or FriendFeeded it, or....well....or [insert appropriate social media name here]. Who can keep up?

I think it’s ironic that I first got it by email – how so very 10 minutes ago. Ironic.

If you don’t’ get a smile out of this video, check your pulse. This is a wonderful celebration of life and the human spirit. How we are all so different but ultimately all very much the same. That the only thing that separates us are those who are trying to control us. Well, of course it’s not quite so simple in every spot on the Earth, but I do believe that the spirit of that does live within each of us.

Flickr - do you Ya-hooo-ooo?

2008-07-02T11:24:00.000-04:00

In my effort to learn about as many tools as I can, especially before school starts again in September, I’ve taken on trying out Web 2.0 apps I’ve never tried before. The second part of this experiment will be to write about the experience, here.

Today I decided to finally give in and set up my Flickr account. I was tempted to try Picasa, since I already have a Google account and wasn’t too keen on setting up yet ANOTHER account. I also wasn’t keen on giving in to Flickr’s right to use my pictures without my consent – and to even changing them.

Now, I suppose I should go and find that part of the ToS myself, since I only know that from what a couple of other people have said. But those folks are pretty in-the-know, so I have no reason to not believe them and not time to comb through the Toss.

But give in I did, and I’ll just be judicious at first about what I put up there. I won’t put up anything they might want to steal and hack up for their own evil purposes! LOL

Anyway, I did not find the sign up process as seamless as I have other products. I tried to use my usual brand name, sorry.afk. It told me the name was in use, so I figured that maybe I’d already set up an account. Well, when I went to try and get my password, it told me that the sorry.afk did not exist. So, which is it – does it or doesn’t it? Anyway, I had to give in and use sorryafk@yahoo.com.

Then, after getting that, I had to set up a DIFFERENT sign in for Flickr. Why can’t they be like Google and just give me one sign in for everything! [snort] It’s one of the things I like most about Google, single sign in. The good new on this is that I COULD use sorry.afk for this, so my Flickr account name is sorry.afk.

I spent the rest of the time trying to get my cell phone set up to send pictures to Flickr directly from there, without having to email them. There were a few choices listed, I started looking into ShoZu and also using M.Flickr.com. I’ll test both of those and see how it goes.

I am sure for many of you this is old hat – you’ve had your Flickr accounts for a long time and you’re probably wondering why on earth I’m so late to the game and even talking about this. For many others, they are so overwhelmed by these “web” things that they just never try them. Today’s exercise is for you, if you’re in that group.

Do you have any positive or negative experiences with Flickr? Any tips you think are important? Any apps you use from your phone or your computer to make uploading easier? Any tips for staying organized within Flickr and/or helping to make the Flickr experience better?

Animoto

2008-06-30T10:53:00.004-04:00

Yeah - I know - feast of famine. I don't post blogs for months and now I post two in one day. I hope to post more frequently - but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Anyway, although I'd seen and heard of Animoto before, a work colleague recently tried it out and I like the result so I thought I would try it myself.

It took me about 15 minutes from soup to nuts. I watched a 30 second intro, signed up, uploaded 12 pictures I'd take in Athens in March (which are now on display in an SL art gallery - contact Wealthy Mizser in SL for details.) I selected a favorite classical piece and hit enter - Animoto does the rest.

Here is the result.
http://animoto.com/play/2oddBM4iyUr0iCNU6CTnKA

Have you ever used Animoto before? If so, feel free to post the link here or talk about your reaction to this app.

Renaud leave Cisco

2008-06-30T08:04:00.002-04:00

I received an announcement in SL for a Metanomics event today (6/30) with Christian Renaud, who announced on Friday that he'll be leaving Cisco. Renaud has been a leader in the VE field for the work he's done at Cisco and, apparently, he's heading off to do his own thing.

The quote they used in the promo was a bit odd to me.
"From the heart of Cisco's incubator for emerging virtual technologies, we'll explore Renaud's experience, and you'll find out why he believes that "Second Life and its walled/closed ilk will fade into the sunset in the next 24-36 months.""

I'm not sure its a very bold thing to say that SL and other closed environments will fade in the next 2-3 years! 24-36 months doesn't sound so long, but it IS a long time. Think back 24-36 months - had most of you reading this even HEARD of Second Life? I know I hadn't. Now, say that SL will be on a serious downslide this time next year, that might be considered out there, but 2-3 years?

I argue, almost ANYTHING can happen in 2-3 years.

Unfortunate I have previous plans at the time this takes place. Hopefully some of my colleagues will be there (cough cough Fleep cough cough) and perhaps they will write about it.

Showing off for my workshop

2008-06-11T13:41:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, I am posting this blog to show the workshop I am leading how to enter a blog. Please just reply and say hello

EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Group

2008-05-23T08:26:00.002-04:00

After the wonderful response at last years EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Seattle, an EDUCAUSE Constituent Group was formed as was a group in Second Life.

Plans are in the works for a meeting in Second Life of both of these groups and a poll is currently being taken of what time would be best.

Please consider joining either or both the Constituent Group and/or Second Life Group.

PodCampNYC 2.0

2008-04-25T18:48:00.002-04:00

Today I had the pleasure to present with Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat), who works as a librarian/media specialist at the Suffern Middle School in Ramapo, NY. The Ramapo Islands (originally 3 sims but now up to 6) were the first school-owned sims on the Teen Grid.

I was fortunate enough to spend a day at the Suffern Middle School observing how the students were using Teen Second Life in their classes. I left there very impressed after watching four different classes. It was at that point Peggy and I decided we wanted to do something collaborative.

When the call for PodCampNYC 2.0 came out, Peggy asked if I wanted to do a joint presentation. The title developed was “Second Life: Shift Learning” and would focus on how learning was shifting for both grade school and at the college level.

So, bright and early this morning Peggy drove down to pick me up and we left for Brooklyn, to Polytechnic University, where the Unconference was being held. We got there plenty early, which was fine since we needed to put the finishing touches on our presentation slide show. Both of us are Mac users so it was great to use Keynote and make the presentation really sharp. It’s over 30mb, which is the max for Slideshare, but I’m going to try and cut it down so we can post it. I’ll probably reduce the size of some of the graphics.

The day started with a nice opening from the organizers. We then proceed to our first session but the presenter never showed up, so we picked up and joined “Teachers Teaching Teachers”. It was a great session and I’m glad I got to catch it. The next session we wanted to see was in the same location. It was a presentation by Tabitha from Global Kids on some of the machinima their students are doing. It was very interesting and great to see that someone is engaging young people to think and act on global social issues.

During this session we met some folks from Rutgers and we all hit the Cafeteria for lunch. I know, I know…but the food was surprising good and not stupidly expensive.

I was a bit concerned that our presentation followed lunch – that is a slot that many people miss, come in late, or sleep through due to a food coma. Although it is true that a number of people came late, we had a great group. Attendance was not our problem.

The presentation was being made in a classroom and it was clearly not set up for this type of activity normally. No big deal, ya work with what you get when you go to a conference. After hooking the computer to the projector, the projector promptly died. First the bulb went and then the thing would not turn on at all.

This was a huge challenge for us but it didn’t stop us. Peg passed around the presentation on a flash drive to folks with laptops. Those without we invited to move closer to my computer. Peg has a 12” screen but mine is 15”, so we used my computer. It worked, well, and everyone seemed really engaged.

My big gripe about this was that nobody came by at the beginning of the session to see if things we okay and when the tech guys came by at the end to get the projector from the room (we were still presenting, I’ll explain that in a second), I told them the projector wasn’t working and this tech started arguing with me. Forget the fact that I know how to use a projector, or that Peg is a media specialist, or that the room was full of tech types (this is a tech conference), clearly we were wrong and didn’t know what we were doing. This is an example of why some tech types get a reputation for being rude. Fortunately, this seems to be more the exception these days, and I’m sure this guy is highly qualified, but he lacks the skills to effectively interact with people.

Anyway, there was nothing scheduled in the room after our presentation so we just kept going. We told people they could leave if they needed, wanting to get to other presentations, but that we were just going to keep going. We stayed for more than an hour overtime and there were still people there. In fact, three people actually walked out of the room with us! Needless to say, the attendees were engaged and interested.

We attended one more session after that and then decided to brave the rush hour traffic to get home, which was really not that bad.

Overall it was a great experience. Peggy is a talented and gifted individual who has more energy than most people I know combined: I’ll present with her again anytime, anywhere. What they are doing up at Ramapo is nothing short of incredible.

Anshe wins!

2008-04-18T09:14:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-17T14:16:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-14T17:49:00.004-04:00

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.

Chat History Logs / Ideas for Discussion

2008-04-09T10:09:00.001-04:00

Each week we hold the SL Education Roundtable at 2:30pm SLT on the Montclair State CHSS Island. We've had some incredible conversations over the last few weeks and I look forward to what the future meetings might bring.

I'm working on getting the chat history logs posted in the Dickson Hall Information Center on the Montclair State CHSS Island - I'll let you know when they go up.

If you have any ideas for discussion at future meetings, please let me know - either here or privately by email.

UPDATE: Upcoming presentation "Using the 3D virtual world Second Life in the Higher Ed classroom"

2008-04-07T16:58:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, the President of MSU is addressing the campus at the same time as this session. The following Wednesday is our University Senate Meeting. Not wanting to compete with either of those, but needing to do this for faculty before the end of April, this session has been moved to Monday, April 14th from 3:00pm to 4:30pm, still in Dickson Hall 280. I have revised the text below

***

As part of my ongoing, and growing, focus on working with instructors to implement technology in their teaching, and a move to greater online and hybrid learning, I'll be offering a presentation titles "Using the 3D virtual world Second Life in the Higher Ed classroom" The event will take place on Monday, April 14th, from 3:00pm to 4:30pm in Dickson Hall 280

The description is
This presentation will be broken down into three parts. The first part will provide a short overview of the 3D virtual world Second Life. The second part will review the actual use of Second Life as a tool for hybrid teaching in my Spring 08 ENWR 105 course (Introduction to College Writing I). The work of other CHSS faculty members who are using, or have used, Second Life will also be discussed. The last part will consist of a tour of educational sites in Second Life, Q&A, as well as hands-on (time permitting).

If you are not a CHSS instructor, but would be interested in attending, please let me know. There are only about 25 seats in the room, and we need to give CHSS instructors priority, but we'll see what we can work out.

Need folks for a group photo

2008-04-07T14:42:00.002-04:00

Recently the Montclair State CHSS Second Life effort added the Montclair State Library to our island. This followed a number of meetings between me and some of the folks at the Sprague Library. One of our librarians, Kathy Hughes, has taken this effort very seriously and worked hard to get the ball rolling on this project.

The building is up and "stuff" is being added over time. Aside from being a resource to all those who visit our island, the folks in our real life library have committed to putting content into the SL version of our library that will be of benefit to classes taking place in SL. An example of this exists right now, for my writing class (ENWR 105:18).

One of the Dean's in the library is doing a presentation and would like a photo. We could take a picture of the library as is, but we thought it might be better to have lots-o-folks enjoying the environment when the picture was taken. :-)

Earlier today I send an email to the SLED and EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds CG lists, as well as all of the groups I belong to that allow notices, and I even dropped a notecard to everyone I have a calling card (in SL) for (which numbered over 200!). I also plan to send IMs to my groups and those who are online a few minutes before the meeting. It will be interesting to see how many people we can get to show up. I currently have the max threshold on the region set to 40 – I may up that to 70, or maybe even 100! (Has anyone out there ever done that before, and if so, what was the result?) Thank goodness for the CEHS Island, I’m going to build a bridge way over the water so we can accommodate overflow if necessary.

Anyway, if you have 15-20 minutes to be in an in-world snapshot, please visit the CHSS Island tomorrow, Tuesday, April 8th, at 11:30am SLT (or 2:30pm EDT)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CHSS/199/242/21

or

SEARCH MAP for Montclair State CHSS

or

SEARCH PLACES for CHSS

Upcoming presentation "Using the 3D virtual world Second Life in the Higher Ed classroom"

2008-04-02T12:31:00.004-04:00

As part of my ongoing, and growing, focus on working with instructors to implement technology in their teaching, and a move to greater online and hybrid learning, I'll be offering a presentation titles "Using the 3D virtual world Second Life in the Higher Ed classroom" The event will take place on Wednesday, April 16th, from 3:00pm to 4:30pm in Dickson Hall 280

The description is
This presentation will be broken down into three parts. The first part will provide a short overview of the 3D virtual world Second Life. The second part will review the actual use of Second Life as a tool for hybrid teaching in my Spring 08 ENWR 105 course (Introduction to College Writing I). The work of other CHSS faculty members who are using, or have used, Second Life will also be discussed. The last part will consist of a tour of educational sites in Second Life, Q&A, as well as hands-on (time permitting).

If you are not a CHSS instructor, but would be interested in attending, please let me know. There are only about 25 seats in the room, and we need to give CHSS instructors priority, but we'll see what we can work out.

Web 2.0 App - Wetpaint

2008-03-31T11:52:00.001-04:00

Today I’m looking at an application called Wetpaint. It can be found at, you guessed it, http://www.wetpaint.com. The first thing I noticed is that the home page is clean, uncluttered, and airy looking – not all full of stuff – that usually bodes well for a product, but not always.

According to their “more info” link, “Wetpaint powers wikis, but unlike most wikis, Wetpaint wikis are as simple as 1-2-3 so anyone can start a free wiki that they can share with friends.” So Wetpaint is basically a wiki site, which they claim is “100% free, Simple to start, Easy to build, and Fun to share.” Lets find out.

As I scroll down, they have tabbed areas for different content – which is good. They have What’s Hot, Entertainment, Gaming, Education, and “more wikis”. Another good sign, they have education mentioned. Ok – lets give it a go.

There are, of course, many decisions to be made while setting up. I’ve chosen my usual name, Sorry AFK, listed it as an education site, and allowed it to be open to the public to see.

My big decision is – do I only allow people I invite to be able to edit, allow anyone who joins my wiki, or just allow anyone. There are certainly benefits to each, and the good thing is that someone setting it up can make that choice based on their own need (only want students/committee members, etc... to be able to edit). I’m choosing to leave it open to anyone (even anonymous). This concludes the first step.

The second step, which they call “the fun part”, is about choosing one's image/appearance. This is where you get to choose the template that you want to represent your desired look. Can this be changed later? Yes it can – and says so right at the top of the page. You can also, at this point (or some time later) change your display name. That completes the second step.

The third step is where they get all your information, where you actually set up your account with Wetpaint. After entering all the required info they give you the chance to “invite some friends”. I am going to skip this step for now. If you look to the bottom the BIG button says, “invite now” but next to that, in smaller letters, it says you can skip this step and move on. There are two reasons I’m skipping this for now. First, I don’t like spamming my friends and colleagues with emails and second I don’t have a designated group to invite. If I were teaching using this, this is where I’d invite the students.

And there we go – in less than 15 minutes, I have a wiki site. It would probably take much less than that since you won’t be writing notes for a blog at the same time. :- )

Please go to http://sorryafk.wetpaint.com/ and leave a message for me and we’ll all see how it goes with WetPaint. I can tell you that my initial, very brief, experience, is that WetPaint is clearer and seemingly easier to use then Wikispaces. In the next day or so I hope to spend a bit more time poking around.

Do you have any experience using WetPaint? If so, share those here in comments.

ammendments and updates - SLSC Project

2008-03-27T18:03:00.002-04:00

The Second Life Student Center project is off and running. Two operational notes. First, I accidentally listed three avatars twice, do I took them off and adjusted the number. I can't do that with the notecards that have already gone out but I will update the notecard giver.

Second, I dropped a copy of the notecard to everyone who was actually at the meeting. So, if you were at the meeting and did not get the notecard in world, please IM AJ Brooks in world and I'll drop you another one.

Must see video

2008-03-27T13:23:00.002-04:00

Many thanks for Dr. Jack Baldwin-LeClair for sending me the link to this video.

"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."

Worth every second of the 18+ minutes - an incredible journey through a horrific experience of an amazing woman.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

Second Life Student Center 3/25/08 Meeting Chat Transcript

2008-03-26T12:22:00.005-04:00

3/28/08 UPDATE: Here is a link to the wikipage I set up for this project:
http://slstudentcenter.wikispaces.com/

Warning - this posting is very long!

On March 25th there was an organizational meeting for the Second Life Student Center to be located on the NMC Orientation Island. This is the full chat transcript. The meeting was an hour long, with some exceptional input, so this posting is going to be very long (sorry about that in advance).

Please feel free to post here any comments you might have on anything that was discussed, or any other ideas.

Attendees (29 total)
AJ Brooks, KJ Hax, Laura Maitland, Donna Paike, Daughss Decosta, Jonathon Dunn, Susan Thibedeau, Emmadw Rickenbacker, Robin Mochi, Edyc Holgado, AllThat Iwish, Stargazer Blazer, Scarlett Sismondi, Alice Burgess, Corwin Carillon, JeanClaude Vollmar, Lima Habilis, Oggie Ballinger, CDB Barkley, Silver Tomorrow, Heidi TeeCee, Movies1963 Beck, Zana Kohime, TerriBerry Wrigglesworth, patrick23 Seomun, Sloan Skjellerup, Dayna Wycliffe, Kavon Zenovka, Latha Serevi

AJ Brooks: wow - hi everyone
Susan Thibedeau: hi
Jonathon Dunn: hello
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Yes, we all ended up near a dragon
Robin Mochi: hello
AJ Brooks: lol
KJ Hax: AJ are we meeting here?
AJ Brooks: yes - we're meeting right here
KJ Hax: otay
AJ Brooks: grab a seat if you wish, hopefully others will join us, although this looks like a great group so far. Wow - some nice familiar faces and some new ones as well. Excellent. Thanks, everyone, for coming, this is all very exciting. Not that long ago, in a general discussion, the talk turned to a centralized student center. I like the idea and ran with it. The others said - if you have the energy, go right ahead. :-) So here I am. lol My thinking is students need a reason to come here other than to do school work. If students see what we see they are more likely to come back and not think of SL in teh same terms they think of, say BlackBoard. Before we get into the meat of things, why don't each of us type out who we are and what we do. No need to wait, since we can all check history, everyone go ahead at once.
Oggie Ballinger: I'm in Student Affairs at the University of Louisville, os of course I love this concept.
Alice Burgess: I'm a university librarian, and also work with Eye4You on the teen grid (Libby Beam)
Robin Mochi: Reference & Distance Services Librarian at small private liberal arts university
AJ Brooks: I'm AJ Kelton, and I'm the Director of Technology Service for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University in New Jersey
Lima Habilis: I teach cultural anthropology and Spanish online and in hybrid form...I use SL for virtual fieldwork and communication tasks for my students. I have ahouse I build here in SL for a student lounge.
Laura Maitland: i work at the uni of brighton but am also an undergrad student
KJ Hax: K-4 Technology Facilitator & Part-Time Faculty at Walden University, Grad School of Ed (MSEdtech)
Jonathon Dunn: I'm a Technology Director at the University of Pennsylvania
Stargazer Blazer: I'm an instructional designer at Miami University in Ohio.
CDB Barkley: I'm with NMC, and have terrible lag, but am egaer to help set up this project
Daughss Decosta: Robert Walker- Music instructor in Kansas - I run our only second life classes. Labette Community College
Susan Thibedeau: Technology Consultant - East Carolina University
Lima Habilis: Central Texas College Professor...a worldwide community college
JeanClaude Vollmar: VP for IT at University of Northwestern Ohio - 4 year
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Emma Duke-Williams - lecturer in School of ComputUniversity of Portsmouth (UK) - lecturer in Computing & interested in how computers can be used to support learners - both formally & informally; not just SL - wed2.0 etc., etc., etc,
AllThat Iwish: I am Anu Ra and I'm an undergrad student at Empire State college. I'm studying immersive Education in Virtual Worlds
Scarlett Sismondi: i help faculty with technology at east carolina university
AJ Brooks: Ok - great -did we get everyone? Excellent. My plan is to post the meat of todays meeting into a new blog on this topic. We're all here because we have some interest in this project, but, at this point, nobody is really sure what this is going to look like. There were some WONDERFUL suggestions in the blog and hopefully those can be realized over time. Do we have any students here
AllThat Iwish: me
Laura Maitland: yup student
Silver Tomorrow: student
CDB Barkley: Yay
Emmadw Rickenbacker: That's good!
AJ Brooks: excellent!
Stargazer Blazer: We are all students :)
AJ Brooks: well - yes, that is true is a very large sense, but I'm talking more literal.
CDB Barkley: "enrolled" students?
AJ Brooks: :-)
CDB Barkley: paying?
AJ Brooks: so - what would it take to get students in SL to hang out someplace?
Silver Tomorrow: grad student
Stargazer Blazer: something to do,
Donna Paike: fun and social
AJ Brooks: ok, something to do
Daughss Decosta: Music and free stuff
Emmadw Rickenbacker: people to meet.
AJ Brooks: fun and social, good
Donna Paike: a place to hang
AJ Brooks: freebies :-)
Laura Maitland: place to hang out and more visual than msn
AJ Brooks: people to meet - thats a catch 22, huh?
Donna Paike: yes
Stargazer Blazer: A place to meet others, in a virtual space.
AJ Brooks: you need peopel to come her to attrackt more peopelto come here
AllThat Iwish: fun interactive projects
AJ Brooks: so - lets break some of these down: things to do, what kinds of things?
Robin Mochi: something unique
AllThat Iwish: tht encourage social interaction
Donna Paike: board games, mini-golf a place to create
AJ Brooks: encourage social interaction, ok - all good suggestions
Donna Paike: "coffe shop" atmosphere, live music
Laura Maitland: building and scripting bringing imagination to sl
AJ Brooks: Oh, before we go further, I'd like to thank CDB and Larry, they have been VERY gratious to offer this parcel for the project
CDB Barkley: You are most welcome
AJ Brooks: The original thought was that the orientation is right next door, just up that hill on both sides
CDB Barkley: We know its a small space, but its a starrt
AJ Brooks: and peopel are coming here anyway, yes - I was just going to get to that. CDB and I had a sidebar about this
CDB Barkley: Our builders can rehape this
AJ Brooks: and how it would be better to start this smaller and then work it up as folks took to it. It might look bad for all if we had a huge space and nobody doing anythign in it
AllThat Iwish: perhaps building instructions for a giant cjessboard that students can play
AJ Brooks: so - even if there are a few people
CDB Barkley: (I would start by shutting the volume on the waterfall)
AllThat Iwish: *chessboard
AJ Brooks: a lot of open space can look disappointing
AllThat Iwish: a movie theatre
AJ Brooks: so - CDB, would it be possible to define some kind of scope for us?
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Virtual Twister (do you ahve that game in the US?) might be more fun than Chess - really get people going!
AllThat Iwish: comedynight
CDB Barkley: Well, I would go about this a bit differently
AllThat Iwish: educational challenges
CDB Barkley: These are great ideas, and neat thing. But building a place does not make it vital
AllThat Iwish: such as a project in instructional design
CDB Barkley: You want to create a reason for people to come here
AJ Brooks nods
AllThat Iwish: a instructional design contest
Emmadw Rickenbacker: agree... reason.
Lima Habilis: I would suggest a teleport posterboard that would take students to places congruent to their course interests
AJ Brooks: although I think some of the suggestions are reasons; games\comedy nights, events
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I like the posterboard idea
Alice Burgess: AJ, you mentioned a blog, is that up already?
Donna Paike: to learn and as a jumping off point--to places of interest, free clothes
AJ Brooks: well - that was my blog
Alice Burgess: ah, OK
Emmadw Rickenbacker: I'd go for more of a social interaction - more like a Student Union (assuming they're the same in US as they are in UK)
Robin Mochi: Should the reason to come be social, academic or both?
Laura Maitland: up
AJ Brooks: yes - the thought i more of a student union
Donna Paike: I think they are pretty much the same
AJ Brooks: we call them student centers at some places, I'd say social
Corwin Carillon: you need to get students to decide this ... not us
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I think both social and academc
Lima Habilis: me too
Laura Maitland: id say both
Lima Habilis: most of sl is social
AJ Brooks: think like a student, would you want to do school work or learn in your free time
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: We lean as human through interaction with others - for the most part
Silver Tomorrow: i vote for both
AJ Brooks: if that goes on, great, if we can construct it to happen as an aside, better
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I am a student at a college
AJ Brooks: i think, ultimately, corwin is right
Lima Habilis: some students feel that they don't "have time" to hang out and would like to get through their work quickly
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: My professor sent me the link for this meeting
AJ Brooks: the student will dicatte what goes on here
Corwin Carillon: put a call out on SLED for people to see if they can get their students here for a meetup and get them to decide this
CDB Barkley: TerriBerry, do you spend extra time in SL?
AJ Brooks: I tried that, Corwin
Corwin Carillon: great Terri!
CDB Barkley: beyond school work?
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: Yes
AllThat Iwish: i tink some students will want learning activitie while others will want social
Corwin Carillon: tried it where AJ? on SLED?
Emmadw Rickenbacker: From talking to my students, they seem to have spent more time socialising than learnieing...
AJ Brooks: yes
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I spend quite a bit of time helping other sudents in my class with SL and with our learning Models
AJ Brooks: with my announcement, asked folks to send their students
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: True Emma
AllThat Iwish: I think the learning activities are an excellent oppurtunity to capture innovative collaborations
AJ Brooks: with so many disciplines in SL
Donna Paike: I think there should be a little of everything, live music, some kind of quest or games that go on, mini-tutorials
Emmadw Rickenbacker: AJ - not sure about you, but all of our students are on their easter holiday ... and we didn't get the time of the meeting until yesterday, which was a public holiday...
AJ Brooks: how would we have learning going on here - at least discipline specific
Lima Habilis: notecards with landmarks
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: My professor has two models on Teaching 4 that we use to practice accounting
AJ Brooks: Larry brought up one good idea
Emmadw Rickenbacker: SL Specific? Something that's not covered in the Orientation?
AJ Brooks: have a "mentor" board
Oggie Ballinger: May I suggest that those in academia speak to their local Student Affairs forlks about what a Student Union needs. They study that stuff. :-)
AJ Brooks: where someone could click on a mnentor who is online and it would "ring them up"
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: We also have a meeting area with a chalkboard for study groups
CDB Barkley: AJ: we are setting that up here in NMC Orientation for SL mentors
Stargazer Blazer: That would go for anyone, AJ, not just studetns, right?
CDB Barkley: so we could do that for the student center as well
AJ Brooks: no - not exactly, Larry mentioned that for the Orientation Aarea, but then he and I talked about doing somehting simliar for a more social aspect here
CDB Barkley: yes
Donna Paike: You could have the mentors also conduct virtual tours of sl like a "campus tour"
AJ Brooks: well - you don't want to put too much work load on the mentors
CDB Barkley: Student mentor other students
AJ Brooks: there are certainly many possiblities
Silver Tomorrow: LM box for self tours?
Donna Paike: they can be scheduled
AJ Brooks: yes, to both
CDB Barkley: music performances?
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: That wuld be a good dea.. students helping others
Laura Maitland: that and im not sure the students would go for that idea - i myself would rather explore as i learn more that way
AJ Brooks: these are GREAT ideas
Corwin Carillon: TerriBerry, what are your thoughts for a student area ?
AJ Brooks DJs
Donna Paike: I meant for touring to sl destinations
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: would
Stargazer Blazer: Are we trying to bring rl roles to sl? I mean, here we are all "residents", student and teacher are relative terms.
Emmadw Rickenbacker: I like the idea of a studygroup area ... also how about a collaborative notice board for discovering of new destinations - like the touring, but would enalbe anyone who found a few site to share.
Alice Burgess: Students like to take ownership of a place. If they could build, move stuff around, that would be good
Silver Tomorrow: could have different LM boxes for different interests; role playing, education, etc
Donna Paike: the biggest question I hear is, okay, I'm in now what do I do
Alice Burgess: esp if they are new, they may not have land
AJ Brooks: CDB, what about the prospect of studnets having some control over the area
Lima Habilis: I like the LM boxes
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I can say thin our class it is about 50 50 on wanting explore by oneself or have someone show yu around
Stargazer Blazer: Yes, finding new places, that's great!
CDB Barkley: Control in ternsm of being a manager?
AJ Brooks: not sure what I mean
Lima Habilis: my survey indicates that the students need 3 weeks about 4-5 real hours before feeling comfortable
CDB Barkley: as is people can rez here
Alice Burgess: or just group-owned objects
AJ Brooks: a few folks have said that students like to have control over their surroundsing
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I spend time showing people "free" places to get itemms, how to fly, etc.
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Alice: would that be space to build, or just to experiment in a sand box; I could see if everyone could build, it could be very difficult to get agreement on prim cnouts...
Corwin Carillon: you can set up any control you want through grouping
Silver Tomorrow: thinking aloud here - different parcels for different groups
patrick23 Seomun: students could explore after they learn the basics of SL
Donna Paike: that also allows grievers to place things here
Alice Burgess: yes, but if it is managed by group membership may be possible
Corwin Carillon: and roles in groups
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I would like to see a scirpting lesson or two and maybe a practice place
Donna Paike: true, good point
Alice Burgess: it is something students appreciate on Eye4You - being about to build
Heidi TeeCee: maybe we can find a couple of students from different universities that are interested in the project what might serve as an "advisory board"
Silver Tomorrow: i like that idea heidi
CDB Barkley: We have a wide open sandbox elsewhere
Laura Maitland: i dont mind volunteering for that
CDB Barkley: just a tp away (when it work)
Corwin Carillon: sounds like a good idea heidi
Stargazer Blazer: There are sandboxes all over sl.
Alice Burgess: yes, but things disappear in a sandbox
AJ Brooks: so - perhaps a tp to the other areas that have things
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Heidi - yes - I think that it's important to ensure that they have some from several countries - pref inc non Engliash speaksing ones.
AllThat Iwish: I'de be interested too
Heidi TeeCee: sure! We are just guessing here what students might want ...
CDB Barkley: Yes Heiidi
Lima Habilis: students want what will help them succeed in their classes
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I would be willing to volunteer
Silver Tomorrow: me too
AJ Brooks: here is my thought on Learning going on here - I thin learning happens in many way - BUT, and this is a big BUT - students don't want to come splace to learn for fun - most of them - they want to do social things, like those things mentioned. If they learn to script, its because they are intested in scripting
Corwin Carillon: great Terri!
Heidi TeeCee: I think I could find one student from our university also
Corwin Carillon: and Silver too! :)
AJ Brooks: so I think the learning on this area shoudl be social, even if that social is designed with learning on the side, just my two linden
Oggie Ballinger: Social does not preclude learning.
patrick23 Seomun: maybe we could administer a survey about SL in a few different universities
AJ Brooks: agreed
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: See now I am a student and I come to SL for music, learning, and socializin. A survey would begreat
Heidi TeeCee: I'm not sure students want to come to a student center for learning
AJ Brooks: i'm not saying learning should be precluded, what I'm saying is, if we think in tearms of rl
Heidi TeeCee: unless it is for learning to build or learning to do something fun
AJ Brooks: I don't think students go to the SC to learn, they go to socialize, eat, go to the bookstore, etc... sometimes to DO learn
Silver Tomorrow: tshirt building lesson or contest- activities that bring ppl here and get them to work together
AJ Brooks: and some learning oppoertunites can exist
Laura Maitland: i like that idea silver
AJ Brooks: yes, SIlve,r that kind of learning. learning because tehy WANT to and not for "school"
Corwin Carillon: agere Silver re activities that are fun ... you need events to bring people in
AJ Brooks: and fun things to do, like those drums
Emmadw Rickenbacker: As an undergrad, I never went to the Student Union to learn ... by the time I was a Masters student, though, I realised that it was possible to drink beer & discuss work!
Silver Tomorrow: dance parties
AJ Brooks: has anyone ver played those elven drums
Donna Paike: I think Crowin is right, you definetly need events yes
AJ Brooks: I didn on Svarga - great fun!
Stargazer Blazer: So, really we are talking about hosting Events, and creating opportunities for students to come together.
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I think weneed a balance of both. Maybe tutors - or is that what you meean by mentors
AJ Brooks: as long as it was with others
Daughss Decosta: Yes, I love them
Lima Habilis: I am at a community college....which in many ways is like distance education...and my adult learners don't hang out after hours unless required. There are many fun things in SL already...finding them might be hard for the students.
AJ Brooks: SL is event driven
CDB Barkley: What about some topical timely discussions? social issues?
AJ Brooks: I think we're probably not going to get too many of the non-traditional learner
Silver Tomorrow: using the group feature to help build the community
AJ Brooks: again, much like RL student Unions/Cetners
Donna Paike: that's why you need a guide or minimally links to fun areas
Heidi TeeCee: our Greek Life is interested in using Second Life for holding different events - or participating in different events like "Relay for Life"
Stargazer Blazer: Why do you think that, AJ?
AJ Brooks: our too, Heidi
Lima Habilis: I think of a student center as a "safe place" for students to meet and get resources for academics as well as for socialization
AJ Brooks: i think Non traditional learns have so much going on in their real lives that they don't have to omuch time to socialize in SL. again, much like the RL Student Unions/Centers
Corwin Carillon: you need students to drive and run this though ... their ownership not ours ... it may or may not be RL student union like
AJ Brooks: Yes, Lima - agreed
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Timely discussions - good idea, though picking something of interest to many with all the different nationalities could be challenging - definitely need to get a range of students to get the ideas together!
AJ Brooks: true, corwin
Silver Tomorrow: i'm a nontraditional student and i have made some great professional contact socializing in SL
AJ Brooks: we need students
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I am a non traditional student
Heidi TeeCee: I think grad students will have different needs than undergrads
Silver Tomorrow: i like the discussions too
Daughss Decosta: I agree with Lima, I want a place where my students can gather and learn about SL topics in a safe place
AJ Brooks: Certainly there are exceptions, Silver, and I don't mean to invalidate your experience in any way
Silver Tomorrow: i know:) just sayin
Stargazer Blazer: Our GLBT student group wants to have a kiosk to get the word out about their organization.
Donna Paike: I think you build it first and then adapt as you find students who are willing to take on the different aspects of the build to make it theirs
AllThat Iwish: I agree Heidi
AJ Brooks: But I do think you are one of those rare and valuabale exceptions
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: 40, married, 2 kids - but I try to find time to socialize with the traditional students and kind of help them with study groups, etc.
Lima Habilis: I suggest a general goal for the space
Stargazer Blazer: Traditional students have facebook.
AJ Brooks: ok
Lima Habilis: and details can be tried and tested and changed
AJ Brooks: comparing SL to facebook! They are very different. Facebhook and SL serve different needs
CDB Barkley pokes AJ
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I think adapting as you go is great
Heidi TeeCee: I think facebook and SL can have different purposes
Stargazer Blazer: Right, and different audiences.
Lima Habilis: ha SL is deeper and much more profound
AJ Brooks: lol
patrick23 Seomun: facebook is one way to get the word out about SL
Lima Habilis: yes
AJ Brooks: AJ pokes CDB back
Daughss Decosta: What we need is a group, to organize a few activities and events and them share that information and see what works.
Silver Tomorrow: true patrick, and SL Link in Facebook could be a tool
AJ Brooks: yes - that is true
patrick23 Seomun: each university can add a group to the network
AJ Brooks: ok
Laura Maitland: such as cityware
Stargazer Blazer: I'm not comparing SL to facebook, I'm saying that traditional students are on facebook, that is their sodical network.
AJ Brooks: if I can try and wrangle this meeting back in for a sceond, lets do this
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: But lets face it students are different- some socialize too much and some stdy alot... and then there are those in between
Lima Habilis: (I have a link in my facebook that pokes fun at UT Austin's SL place)
Daughss Decosta: Go AJ
AJ Brooks: Lima brings up a good point, a common idea or goal for this space. one sentence
Corwin Carillon: \me chuckles about Lima's point
AJ Brooks lets try to group write this - for a few mintues only, so we dont' get bogged down, The SL Student Center is......
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: A student Union that unites students around the world through socializing and learning.
Donna Paike: yeah, I was just writing about the same thing
Corwin Carillon: .. run by students for students
Stargazer Blazer: a place to meet other students in SL.
Laura Maitland: a place where students can learn and socialise in a safe environment run by students for students
Lima Habilis: provides students valuable resources for learning and exchanging ideas in fun ways
Jonathon Dunn: a place for students to experience a virtual world, to interact in both a social and academic setting without geographic boundaries.
Alice Burgess: (was this group going to look specificially at teens who have been on TSL? Or have we evolved past that?)
AJ Brooks: Ok - so far we have, the SLSC is a student organized place where students can socialize in a safe environment?
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I don't know if I would say run by students - makes me think Chaos
patrick23 Seomun: Is student union the right word? Is it going to be a inter-university group?
Donna Paike: me too
AJ Brooks: not run - organized
AllThat Iwish: The SL Student Center is a place where students can find resources, intellectual stimulation, and a great social activities
Lima Habilis: virtual student center
JeanClaude Vollmar: ...where noobies can be helped and made comfortable about their use of SL
Laura Maitland: well maybe not run by studetns ut students get to make choices
CDB Barkley: studentplex
Donna Paike: please add the comment about without georgraphical...
Corwin Carillon: if it becomes chaos either some people will step up or not Terri
AJ Brooks not just for noobs though, or teens just coming in
Donna Paike: without geographic boundaries.
AJ Brooks: this should be for ALL students
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I like virtual student center
Heidi TeeCee: Well, all student groups here on campus have an "advisor" ... maybe we can have the same thing here
Lima Habilis: We can have any notecards translated
patrick23 Seomun: Maybe just SL Student Center
Emmadw Rickenbacker: agree to the "organise" rather than run, also agree to the point that it should be for all students.
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: But once it becomes Chaos will you lose those students
AJ Brooks: ok - so - here is where I think we are
Heidi TeeCee: Students should run it however, I think an "advisor" is needed
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: like me who find it "useless" because of the chaos
Corwin Carillon: maybe terri but you need to give over that control
AJ Brooks: we are looking for a one sentence descriptoin of the goal for the parcel
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I think Oraganize it is a better word
Corwin Carillon: if it dies, it dies ..
AJ Brooks: and to make sure it is event driven with great resrouces for students
patrick23 Seomun: i think there should be some supervision for the beginning, until it is running smoothly
Lima Habilis: faculty, staff and student SL Union
Corwin Carillon: supervision! ack
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Terri, you have to make sure you're on the organising committee... so that you can control the "chaos"
AJ Brooks: the goal is to make it a place for students
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I am a student not an advisor so I don't have the control...lol
AJ Brooks: faculty and staff have their own places to go. :-)
Corwin Carillon: support on hand if needed maybe
Lima Habilis: ok
Laura Maitland: definately
CDB Barkley: we can peek over the hill
Corwin Carillon: lol
patrick23 Seomun: lol
Heidi TeeCee: an advisor doen't have "control" necessarily
AJ Brooks: i would LOVE to play an active role - with the students
Donna Paike: well, I think there should at least a code of conduct
AJ Brooks: I think the "student advisor" idea is perfect
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I think that faculty should come see what is going on.... that way you know what your students are lotting... I mean doing
Daughss Decosta: Code is a good idea
patrick23 Seomun: I would as well
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: lol
Silver Tomorrow: in my student organizations, it is run by students with one or two faculty advisors, yes? I like that approach myself.
Heidi TeeCee: I look at an advisor as a mentor and someone that can help
AJ Brooks: let the students drvie any codes
Heidi TeeCee: and advise
AJ Brooks: theyu'lll reject them if they seem decreed
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: plotting
Silver Tomorrow: my = most
AJ Brooks: agreed, Silver
CDB Barkley: It;s pretty easy to over-plan this from the start- again, lets start with a simple physical design, develop a few special and regular events, and give it some time
AJ Brooks: i was JUST going to say that
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: Ok so how will the student body be organized
Daughss Decosta: It is fine for the students to develop the cosde of conduct, but it should be one of thier first activities
AJ Brooks: thanks, I don't think we're going to have peopel rushing in here
Stargazer Blazer: code of conduct? Isn't that outlined in the ToS?
AJ Brooks: and then wanting to run the place
Donna Paike: good point, but who inforces it
Lima Habilis: have them join a group...and have their charter there and vote after it is established for semester terms?
Donna Paike: enforces
AJ Brooks: the advisors do
Corwin Carillon: CDB I think even that is too much ... right now I think it is about getting a core of students in who would like this and they decide what they want and people here could be called on for support / advice as needed
AJ Brooks: and the nmentors are there to help when asked, there needs to be some kind of steering committee
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Yep; to the staff visiAre your students all on leave at present? OUrs are; so if you're wnating an initial meeting, they won't be round for at least a week;
AJ Brooks I think there need to be events
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Lima ... you mentioned "semesters". Whose?
Stargazer Blazer: Estate managers can enforce the ToS.
Corwin Carillon: Terri and Silver have already offered .. need a few more
Heidi TeeCee: Well, one of the tasks of this group of students and advisors might be to hold one event
Laura Maitland: with studetns envolved in the steering group
Lima Habilis: terms will do
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I agree about the comittee idea
Heidi TeeCee: and see what happens
Stargazer Blazer: Dance party, 500L prize for best school spirit. hehe
AJ Brooks: after yyou are done typing - if everyone can hold off for one sec I'd appreacite it
Silver Tomorrow: so, a group, with the students who agree to be on the committee playing major roles in the group?
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Lima - I meant the dates ... different countries have differnt calendar pattens. For example, the Austrlaians are working all through August - when we brits are on leave.
AJ Brooks: ok, of the folks who are here right now who is volunteering to work on a set up committee
CDB Barkley: If it were me... I'd maybe take a route of creating some mystery and buzz, not just go out and say "Come to this Great Student Center", but drop some clues, make it more game-like,
Daughss Decosta: I would love to be a faculty member on the steering committee
AJ Brooks: I am volunteering as well
Lima Habilis: Emmadw - then just by months then.
Heidi TeeCee: CDB ,.... yes, something engaging and fun ... a mystery game would be great!!!
Silver Tomorrow: buzz buzz buzz me too
Laura Maitland: i will as an undergrad student
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I would love to help out... I think this is a good idea
patrick23 Seomun: I will volunteer
AJ Brooks: silver, was that ME TOO to my request or somethign else
Corwin Carillon: doa whodunnit night
Heidi TeeCee: I'll help if you need ... I know I can find a student though
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Yes, I'll volunteer - unless that makes too many staff on it...
Silver Tomorrow: your request to volunteer
AJ Brooks: Donna Paike: AJ, please take my school name out of the post. Thank you--Donna. The more the merrier right now. We'll get the staff and faculty who are volunteering to get students
Lima Habilis: I will send students your way...np
AJ Brooks: great
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I can talk withmy professor and I am sure he will let me do some type of informational presentation on our island
Emmadw Rickenbacker: I'll try - particularly with our online CHinese students.
AJ Brooks: we shoudl probably do that via a group, but I'll chat with Larry and CDB about that
Heidi TeeCee: I'll get the word out to all our students in Second Life also
Silver Tomorrow: I need to take off, I like the buzz Idea - maybe on the SLED list somehow. Let me know what you need :)
AJ Brooks: ok - so, as we start to wrap up todays meeting - let me start by thanking all of you
CDB Barkley: should have a blog/wiki or some web reference for project
AJ Brooks: this was perfect, just perfect
Heidi TeeCee: yes CDB .. we need to have some space for reference/working
AJ Brooks: I think the best way to proceed is this
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Wiki ... more updateably & easier to have multiple ownership I think.
AJ Brooks: I'll post it to my blog. I'll go through end make the text chat presentable and send notes out to all the lists and groups also to those who were here today additional comments can go there for now until we get some thign else set up we'll call a meeting of all those who volunteered and in between< i'll meet with CDB and maybe Larry and determine what to do next from the big picture end
Donna Paike: nods
patrick23 Seomun: how will you contact the volunteers?
Laura Maitland: yup
AJ Brooks: sound good so far?
Daughss Decosta: great
AllThat Iwish: sounds good to me
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: yes
AJ Brooks I'll contact those who said they will volunteer throgh SL
patrick23 Seomun: ok
Emmadw Rickenbacker: Yes, all sounds good.
AJ Brooks: since I'll have your names in the chat
CDB Barkley: Thanks to all
AJ Brooks: now
Laura Maitland: great
AJ Brooks: with our last few minutes
Heidi TeeCee: CBD ... can you also post meetings to the NMC Campus Observer like the Buzz meetings?
AJ Brooks: since NMC has generously offfered to make it look like anythign we want
CDB Barkley: I can give someoone authiring to publish to NMC
AJ Brooks: what do we think this area should look like? well - almost anything
CDB Barkley: I have way too miuch to write as is
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: Something more modern
Heidi TeeCee: CDB .... ok ... I will write something if you guys would like
AJ Brooks: I"m going to write this up for the SLED blog - CDB - you can steal it from me or there
Robin Mochi: maybe the place should be designed by the students
AJ Brooks: agreed - eventually, but to start off - we should have something here so when peopel come by, there is somethign to see
Daughss Decosta: I think a mix of realistic and surrealistic, lots of color
AJ Brooks: lots of color, yes
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I like that Daughss
Daughss Decosta: Some people like reality in the SL and others don't
Laura Maitland: definately color. have a mix of both then
AJ Brooks: ok
Heidi TeeCee: I would love to see the student design it ... or contribute to the discussion ... I have seen them come up with ideas I would never have thought of
AJ Brooks: other suggestions? Agreed, Heidi - it shoudl be a work in progress at first
patrick23 Seomun: we could have a contest for design. winner gets some lindens
Robin Mochi: A big empty room and a student contest or something to come up with the best design?
Heidi TeeCee: plus, it is a wonderful opportunity for them to establish a vested interest in the project
Daughss Decosta: I think it is a good idea to get the students involved, but it has to look good when they get here or they will not staty
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: Yes, but I think we have to have something to attract them
Emmadw Rickenbacker: (Mix of both reality & fantasty) You mean like the drgon a lot of us found on our way to the coffee shop?
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: lol a dragon
Daughss Decosta: Loved the dragon
Laura Maitland: well like buildings in the sky areas under the sea etc things that wouldnt be possible to do in rl
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: Maybe like a south beach kind of feel.
Daughss Decosta: AJ, exactly how much space are we talking about?
Sloan Skjellerup: interactive toys, learn by playing familiar games
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: colorful, yet warm and inviting
AJ Brooks: CDB?
AJ Brooks passes the buck to CDB
CDB Barkley: yes?
Emmadw Rickenbacker: agree with Laura about things that you can't do in RL.
AJ Brooks: someone asked how much space
Stargazer Blazer: The prims will be tied to the island space, it might be best to have a generic place to start and then have students make it their own,or design it.
AJ Brooks: can you define it - maybe put up some plywood to show the perimeter
CDB Barkley: Thanks Heidi- I think you have an account
Heidi TeeCee: Everyone ... I have to go to another meeting ... AJ, can you send me a copy of the final chat log and I will write up something for the NMC Campus Observer? yes, is that ok AJ?
AJ Brooks: will do
CDB Barkley: I'd really urge you to start small and work first on getting people involved; we can clear this area, make it simple....
Heidi TeeCee: ok ... as soon as you get it to me, I will post something ... I think I have some photos
Emmadw Rickenbacker: OK, useful meeting & see you again, Bye
AJ Brooks: I'll hang out for a few, if some want to stay
Heidi TeeCee: yes, I definitely agree with CDB ... let's start small
Lima Habilis: :)
AJ Brooks: but I like to keep meeting to the promise amount of time thanks all for coming
Latha Serevi: I missed the meeting; AJ, would you drop me a n otecard with the chat log?
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: I agree with starting small with a group of volunteers
AJ Brooks: will do
Daughss Decosta: I appreciate meeting coordinators who watch the clock
patrick23 Seomun: ya, if we start too fast then we are more likely to run into problems
AJ Brooks: :-)
AllThat Iwish: I gotta go too..thnx Aj..look fwd to hearing from u
Oggie Ballinger: Nice to meet you folks.
CDB Barkley: nice job
JeanClaude Vollmar: Ok then. bye everyone.
Laura Maitland: bye all
TerriBerry Wrigglesworth: Thank you AJ Brooks
patrick23 Seomun: thanks AJ Take care

Ya learn something new every day!

2008-03-25T11:55:00.002-04:00

For some time now I've been saying how I want to check out some of the really interesting applications that are out there. I see folks posting to listserves or blogging about things they are checking out and I never really found....er....made the time to begin digging into any of them.

Well, after some time to think over spring break, and to get a bit caught up, I decided to make it part of my mission at work to check out something new every day.

Today, I started in Ning. Ning claims that is is intended to "give everyone the opportunity to create your own social networks for anything" It took me less than 15 minutes and I'd signed up for an account, gotten through the set up, and now I have my own network.

I'm not entirely sure what to do with it yet :-) but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Do any of you already have an Ning network? If so, post the link here and we can link up? Interested in learning more about Ning - simple - go to http://www.ning.com

ShiftHappens

2008-03-21T08:02:00.002-04:00

A colleague recently blogged a link to a video about the massive shift that is going on, socially and technologically. At the end of the video is calls for the viewer to get involved by reading, and hopefully participating in, this wiki.

I encourage you to watch the video and take part, in your own way, in this important and global conversation.

What do I plan to do?

Well, to start I posted this into my blog - please track back to this if you feel so inclined. Post something into your blog, bring this to your own network.

I RSSed the blog and also requested permission to join it. You can do the same!

I plan to post a link to the video for my writing class. The theme for our section this semester is social issues, so this fits right in. We start each class off with a writing exercise. They get five minutes to write, and two or three minutes to edit, a piece on a topic I announce in class. They post their work into the discussion board of our course management system (we use BlackBoard). It will be interesting to see how the react.

Unsubscribe?

2008-03-17T13:48:00.000-04:00

I am on many listserve, a few of them are big, but none of them are as big as the Second Life Education (SLED) list. As of the last report, there are nearly 5000 individual email addresses on this list.

The list is unmoderated. Not only does this mean that messages go out as they come in, meaning nobody has to “approve” them, but it also means that, for the most part, no admin is “watching” the list. Are some of the folks from Linden Labs on the list? Sure, but they are not there, apparently, to administrate the list.

Every few weeks someone realizes that the list volume is gigantic and they don’t feel like they can handle the sheer number of emails generated daily. In an effort to get off the list they send an email to the list asking to be unsubscribed.

If handled properly, this is not such a bad thing - someone writing and saying “I’m not sure how to get off this list, can someone point me in the direction?” Normally, however, it is someone just writing “unsubscribe” or “unsubscribe me”, and that’s it.

I delete these but some other folks get very upset by them. This massive list is right now going through gyrations about how to handle this problem and how these people making these requests should be shot, stabbed, drawn, quartered, burned at the stake, and then made to sit in the corner.

Do I think these folks asking to be unsubscribed are lazy? Yes, some. I mean, there are clear instructions at the very bottom of each email from the listserve telling people how to unsubscribe. I’m on a number of listserves and most of them have unsubscribed instructions at the bottom.

Do I think some of these folks requesting an unsubscribe are inconsiderate? Yes, some. Instead of figuring it out on their own, they now have to generate 5000 emails in inboxes to solve a fairly simple problem. Lets keep one thing in mind here – this is a listserve for people who are interested in using what is still a leading edge, if not bleeding edge, technology. So, the question might be, should they be allowed to do that when they can’t even figure out how to unsubscribe themselves from a listserve?

I think most of these folks are just busy. They get inundated with 50-100 emails right after signing up – freak out – and just want to get off the list. So, we have the lazy, the inconsiderate, and the desperate. Not a particularly attractive group, huh?

The fury that has surrounded these requests on the list takes up so much more effort than just hitting delete. So, if you’re on the SLED list, and you read my blog – next time someone posts an unsubscribe, or you get an auto-away message, save yourselves the time and effort and just hit delete. And then you can vent about it in your blog. LOL

Seton Hall and Play2Train

2008-03-16T11:12:00.003-04:00

I had the fortune to meet Ramesh from Play2Train when I was writing the ECAR Research Bulletin. The stuff they've been doing over there has been groundbreaking for some time now. I met Heide and Riad late last year when they, and Laura Nicosia, and I all presented at NEConnect. Congrats to all, this looks like an amazing effort.

http://irhbt.typepad.com/play2train/2008/03/seton-hall-univ.html

If you knew Torley, like we now known Torley..."

2008-03-16T09:56:00.003-04:00

I've been reading Torley Linden's blog for a while now. His videos rock, the guy is totally brilliant. Every once in a while he comes out with something that make me wince, but normally we're spot on. Here is one of his on the fringe posts, but I have to share it. This guy cracks me up.

Guess what videoblogging on your toilet is called?

POTTYCASTING!

No kidding. I was in the shower, and when that happens, all sorts of ideas come to mind. When shower's done, I scramble to my computer to write them down. Sometimes I have a voice recorder on, but with the amount of water noise and reverberance, it isn't that clear.

http://torley.com/guess-what-videoblogging-on-your-toilet-is-called

According to expert Laura Nicosia...

2008-03-16T09:44:00.001-04:00

Congrats to Laura for showing by doing, using technology to break down the traditional barriers of education.

http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/new-literacies/

MSU's very own Howard Stern?

2008-03-16T09:39:00.003-04:00

I've heard absolutely nothing about this. I haven't read Thursday's Montclarion deeply yet, scanned it, know I didn't see anything like this.

Thanks to Google Alert, I found this in a Philly paper.
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20080315_ap_studentdjunderfireforracyvideospledgesnewshow.html

“At what point does practicality trump pedagogy?”

2008-03-12T16:22:00.001-04:00

“At what point does practicality trump pedagogy?”

That was a question I asked Tuesday at the SL Education Roundtable, which is held each week at 2:30pm PST (which is 5:30pm EST) on the Montclair State CHSS Island. Each week we start off with a subject and the conversation just goes from there. The session is only supposed to be an hour long but inevitably people stay longer.

The topic for our meeting on Tuesday the 11th was “Would your central IT shop say that your institution was ready for Second Life”. We had a number of instructors there and even a few IT people. Some of the instructors were complaining that the IT people didn’t even want to look at, or talk about, Second Life. Some of the IT people complained that all instructors do is demand, without caring what impact something might have on the organization as a whole. Both, of course, are right – for the most part. I sat and listened to the conversation with some interest because I’ve been part of this very conversation for so many years. As the founder and current co-leader of the EDUCAUSE Distributed Technology Support Constituent Group, we hear this all the time.

So, here is where my question came in. At what point does practicality trump pedagogy? At what point does an instructor’s request for the use of a tool in their teaching outweigh the technology shop’s ability to say, “no, you can’t.” At what point does something drain on the resources so much that an instructor simply can’t do what s/he wants? Of course, either answer is mangled up by an additional complication and that is the institution’s attitude toward this type of technology use.

I was astounded when one of the attendees told a story about the first night of class, a class in which this person was using Second Life. The class, although in SL, was taking place in a computer mediated teaching lab on campus. Someone from the central IT department came into the class and argued with the faculty member, in front of the class, that Second Life should not be used and that it was not appropriate.

I asked if the person who did this was just some rank-and-file employee or if it was, perhaps, the Director of IT. The answer – just some technician. I was flabbergasted. This shows a clear disregard for not only the educational process (certainly the conversation could have waited for some time when class was not in session or the tech could have pulled the instructor out of the class to talk) but it inverts the Pyramid of Educational Importance. Its not like this instructor has never used SL before or this was the first class at this institution to use SL.

So, the bottom line on this example is that it was an ill-prepared tech handling the situation poorly. But how much of it is that this is the somewhat hostile environment being created between techs and instructors at this institution. This just goes to show you, technical know-how is not the be-all-end-all.

MSU Professor in Article

2008-03-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

I have a Google Alert set up for Montclair State and from time-to-time something pops up about a faculty member I know.

This is Carla Petievich from our History Department.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C11%5Cstory_11-3-2008_pg7_38

Happy Rez Day

2008-02-21T11:24:00.002-05:00

I'd like to wish a Happy Rez Day to two of my most favorite people here at Montclair State.

Les Writer's 1st Rez Day was on the 16th - so this is belated - which is no reflection on the respect I have for Les. He teaches in our History Department and is, hands down, one of the most respected faculty members at MSU (just ask his students AND colleagues).

Garrett Congrejo's 1st Rez Day is today, the 21st. Thanks to his vision and leadership, the CHSS is no longer all alone out in the metaverse. We now have neighbors to our north and its very exciting watching that space grow and develop.

The Price We Pay

2008-02-15T13:33:00.002-05:00

Many of you don't believe me when I tell you about all the wacky things that go on where I work. I know, higher education is a strange, but glorious, profession. I don't disagree. I also know that it attracts some unusual folks - as faculty, I mean (well, staff too, I guess). Ok - we're almost all an odd lot, truth be told.

I'm not going to comment on the content or the faculty member - I'll let the article speak for itself.

http://media.www.themontclarion.org/media/storage/paper374/news/2008/02/14/Opinion/The-Price.Is.Right.With.Dr.Theodore.Price-3210744.shtml

I encourage comment.

Happy Rez Day

2008-02-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

A VERY VERY Happy Rez day to my dear friend Mystical Cookie. I would be nowhere close to where I am in SL without Mysti.

First, she create the greatest HUD every, the MystiTool. Second, about a year ago she bought her first sim, Nevi, and I was a major tenant there, owning, at one point, nearly 1/5 of the sim. I have since sold all of that but the original parcel. But Mysti didn't stop with Nevi, she added Adeo, Cila, Avendale, Avendale Ruins, and soon (we hope), Myla will be moved over to join us.

On a personal note, Mysti has been there every time I had a question or needed advice. Most of my building skills are thanks to her direction and anything I know about scripting (which is darn little) is only because she has been so patient.

Thanks for being a great liege, a leader, and a good friend.

ENWR class update

2008-02-05T20:03:00.000-05:00

Things have really started to come together for my Introduction to College Writing I class. At the start, we had some turnover. I believe this is in part because the pop up students get is rather generic. If that message could be customized, that would be wonderful. Even if it couldn’t be customize for each class, if we had more than one classification, that would even be better. Right now all is says is that many of the classes are going to take place online.

I reached out to those who were in BlackBoard prior to the end of last semester. I reached out again after the new year, also through BlackBoard. A few days before classes started I sent an email to each individual, not through BlackBoard, and used their MSU email address as well as the email address they have listed in WESS. I was fairly clear in all the emails that there was a strong technology component to this course and to contact me with questions.

Once the first day of class came and went a few students got it and decided it was not for them. The problem, of course, is that a student leaving at that point leaves an opening in the class, so other students can register – and some did. Some even registered right up to the registration deadline, which meant they missed two or three classes.

I don’t go over the syllabus on the first night and then let them go – we start class, so any student coming in after the second class is going to be at a disadvantage. Does this mean they can’t make up for it, no, of course not – a little hard work to catch up and they’ll have no problem. The key here is that the student should have contacted me as soon as they registered to find out what to make up. All but one did not do this. The students also get access to BlackBoard after midnight once the register. If it were me, I’d go through all the announcements and posting and see what I missed. Even when I was an undergraduate, I would have done that. Many of these students did not.

So, now the class is settled, we’re into Second Life, and almost every student is excited about it. We have had a problem using Google Docs to share papers and so tonight I’m going to have to can that and we’ll have to go back to paper. I was hoping to go paperless this time around, there are just so many advantages, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to work out. As the semester progresses, if it seems we might be able to go back to it, maybe we’ll try it again.

Tonight, Dr. Patty Kahn will be coming to our class to go over the RAVE/Campus Connect program. We’ll be using the phones for polling and also for the students to get announcement from BlackBoard and also get notification when they have a grade posted. Each student should have this phone already, its part of the fee structure. The only students who will not have it will be Junior who are not living on campus and Seniors. This group will be able to use their regular cell phone.

More as it comes up.

Montclarion flap gets even wider coverage

2008-02-03T07:48:00.001-05:00

Here are just a few of the Google Alert hits I got today. If I get more in the future I'll add them here under and UPDATE with the date.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/3840/student-newspaper-at-montclair-state-u-gets-funds-restored

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/nyregion/31montclair.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/diionno/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1202017024159761.xml&coll=1

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/montclair_state_sga_students_n.html

http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2008/02/the_exploits_of.html

UPDATE: Here's another one I found on the 5th
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/story/7533230p-7435703c.html

UPDATE - Two more on the 6th
http://media.www.signal-online.net/media/storage/paper771/news/2008/02/06/News/Montclarions.Budget.Partially.Unfrozen.By.Sga-3189381.shtml

http://datanews-gh.blogspot.com/2008/02/funds-freed-for-montclair-state-paper.html

And, of course, now my blog adds to the mix. :-)

Rez Day

2008-02-03T07:42:00.001-05:00

Happy Rez Day to my good friend, Gina Dawn! Gina is celebrating here 4th (thats right, I said FOURTH!) year in SL. Way to lead, Gina!

Happy Rez Day!

2008-02-01T17:39:00.000-05:00

My guess is that many of you out there are starring at the screen wondering what on earth a rez day is and why you should care about it.

Well, for most of you, the answer to that last question will probably be, you shouldn’t. For those of you in Second Life, your rez day is the day you signed up for your account. You can find your rez day (or birthday) by looking at the upper left hand side of the profile. You can see anyone’s rez day from his or her profile.

I just celebrated my 1-year Rez Day. I find it so hard to believe that so much has happened in only one year. I’ve presented countless times, built an island, taught classes, helped others teach classes, help another academic unit here come in-world, and most amazingly been highlighted in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education and been published on the subject. All this in less than a year. It’s been a wild ride.

Seeing the importance of marking important dates in SL as well as RL, I hope to note, from time to time, the Rez Dates of some of my friends. To start this off, I’m going to go through some I missed in January.

AnthonyFontana Chevalier (January 1st) – 1 year
Elmont Carver (January 7th) – signed up
Irwin Nitely (January 7th) – signed up
Hugo VanSant (January 16th) – 1 year - (Hugo is the first person I met on Orientation Island. It turns out that not only is he from Brasil, he lives in the next town over from the one I usually visit. Guess even the virtual world is a small world.
Rixhawz Milestone (January 16th) – 1 year
Me, AJ Brooks (January 16th) – 1 year
Bret Rydell (January 17th) – 1 year
Theresa Hawks (January 17th) – 1 year
EdTek Zeno (January 19th) – 1 year
LauraMaria Onomatopoeia (January 23rd) – 1 year
KenBain Brooks (January 25th) – 1 Year
Larry Pixel (January 26th) – 2 years

Oh, Mr. Grant!

2008-01-30T15:59:00.000-05:00

I’ve never written a grant before. I’ve never even worked on helping to write a grant. I’m not sure why, its just never happened. I’ve always said one of the things I wanted to do was write grants to bring in money so I can do the cool things I want to do – but the right grant has never jumped out at me. I’ve offered to help the faculty writing their grants, by working on the technology portion of it – but nobody has ever taken me up on it. Several people have asked questions, but nothing beyond that. One of the big problems we’ve seen is that people write grants and then forget to include the hardware and software requirements.

Grants have always seemed so complicated to me. I’m really good at putting budgets together. Putting words on paper is not a problem either.. But the structure and formality has always been a bit daunting. I’m told that one you write your first one, it gets easier, and once you write one and get it, it gets even easier.

Do those of you who have written grants think it’s hard? What is your success rate and what do you attribute to that success?

These folks will be running the show some day

2008-01-29T11:10:00.001-05:00

A huge thanx to Barbara Feldman for passing along this video
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3486473n

The segment of 60 Minutes talks about Millennials in the workplace, but I think it has real relevance to the academic environment. The attitude the segment is discussing regarding students performance and integration into the work environment is very much the same as what I believe we are seeing in the classroom.

So, do we adapt the way the segment suggests business do? Is the Ivory Tower crumbling at the base? Has the day of "You have to learn this way because I learned this way." gone the way of the 8-Track? Or is it our place to set the standard of learning style and let the students be the ones to adapt. I'm not talking about content here, since I think we've already seen that content can be delivered in many different ways. I'm referring specifically to deliver methodology.

What do you think? Feel free to comment whether you watch the video or not, but I'm very interested in hearing for anyone who does watch it.

SL Student Center

2008-01-28T16:31:00.000-05:00

A number of folks have attended the Lessons in Second Life meeting that Jeremy Hunsinger hosts on Mondays from 1-2:30pm at the _blacklibrary on hyperborea.

Last Monday a conversation started about the potential for a common "student center" and the benefit of that. One of the places that was discussed for this was the NMC Orientation Island, since many new students were coming in through there anyway.

Larry Pixel was contacted and was very receptive to the idea of adding a Student Center. He showed me an area where he thought it might work out well. I took some pictures and brought those back to the group today. I've posted those pictures below with some comments.

There was a great discussion at today's Lessons in Second Life meeting and I took it on myself to post this blog and to ask folks at the meeting to add comments, ideas, concerns, thoughts, etc... I felt that having a central repository would be good so that everyone can see what is being discussed and can chime in.

My plan is to direct the students in my Writing class to the blog and to ask them to comment on what would make a Student Center interesting and attractive to them.

What I am asking of you is to add your comments, and, if you are teaching in SL or have access to students (via a group or list), ask them to visit this blog and comment as well. The more student input we get the better this will turn out, should it move forward.

For full disclosure - I originally posted a very short entry here, just to get the blog up so people could start commenting. Once I got home and had the chance, I rewrote the entry. I've keep the original posting below, in italics.

A bunch of wonderful folks are talking about a main student center on the NMC Orientation Island. NMC is open to the idea, so, what is it we'd like to see, or to chat with NMC about

Please provide input in the COMMENTS area below

This is a look at the two telehub areas. Those who sign up for their account using the NMC web page, when they first log in they appear in the courtyard that is further off in the picture. When you return to the island, you are dropped off in the courtyard that is closest in the picture.

This is a picture of the same area but but from a different angle. The area to the left of the picture, which is currently a cafe, is where it was suggested this project might fit well if it were on the NMC Orientation island.

This is a picture of the existing cafe.

This is a view of the entire area

This is a second access way from the main "orientation" street.

Oh - btw - if you are a student reading this, PLEASE leave a comment. It is really important to hear from you. Also, don't be shy about commenting and letting us know in the comment that you are a student. Ultimately, if this comes together, its your space, so you should have a say in what goes there. Here's a chance to get your voice heard.

What are the benefits of social networking that have yet to be tapped?

2008-01-28T13:12:00.000-05:00

Late last semester I saw something on a technical team a college someplace that posted a flyer on FaceBook in order to recruit student for work. I asked our student technical staff here and they thought it was a great idea.

What about using social networking to reach alumnae? How many of MSU’s graduates are on LinkedIN, FaceBook, or MySpace – or how many of them have accounts on Second Life?

I was doing some Second Life work for the class I am teaching, and I was hanging out on the CHSS Island (sitting on top of what will become the Sprague Library overlooking our new neighbors, the CEHSADP island), when someone came flying over, plopped right down next to me, and started chatting. She is a graduate student in Education and she’s been on SL for quite some time. She had no idea any organization at MSU had a presence, we thrilled, complimented me on our island, and then we spent the next 30 minutes chatting away.

Imagine if we started advertising to people that we have a presence? What if we created a FaceBook community or group, started hunting people down on LinkedIn and tried to get folks together, or sent something out to our thousands of alumnae? Is this a way for us to keep in touch with them? Is this a way to tie them together and then also to the University? Many institutions think so and are making moves in that direction.

But just propping up sites on all these places is not enough – its as bad as putting up a web page, expecting people to visit it, but then never doing anything else with it? This would have to be an ongoing and sustainable effort – not just some one off or something dropped onto the plate of someone who is already far too busy to do the zillions of other things s/he has to do. Well, the above it true only if you expect the idea to work, in my opinion. If you don’t expect it to work, or don’t want to create an environment in which it CAN work, then disregard everything I said and do it some other way.

Speaking of keeping in touch, what about having the University put together a web page listing all the blogs of their faculty, staff, and/or administrators. This would be SO easy to do. When an employee signs in to their profile page (http://www.montclair.edu/~keltona for instance), they could have an option to enter a “blog” site (and only one), with a check box – and the check box would be to en/disable the link. When it is enabled, it automatically feeds the URL onto a web page with the blogs listed. The only human intervention would be the initial set up, and then requiring the blogger to go into their profile page and enable it.

Stay tuned, more to come.

And they're off...

2008-01-26T23:27:00.000-05:00

This semester’s ENWR class seems to have started well. As usual, there has been some dropping and adding – although a few things have surprised me. One is, the student who added the class on the Tuesday night AFTER the first meeting, but then never showed up for the Thursday class. Then there is the student who added the class AFTER the Thursday class – so this person will have missed the first two classes.

Now, I’m not saying this person can’t make up for lost time, but if it were me I’d have reached out to the instructor right away and said “what have I missed”, or something along those lines. I’m not sure I’d be waiting for the next class, which is the 3rd of only 26 classes, to get started.

Then there are the people who are not checking their email daily and also not signing into BlackBoard. This course is a hybrid class. I reached out to everyone twice before the course even started letting him or her know to check BlackBoard. There is a ton of stuff posted there and by not checking it students are creating an unnecessary hardship on themselves.

Things have not been all doom and gloom. During the second class we went over BlackBoard, and everyone seems to have down the basics –great. We went over Google, which we’ll be using a great deal, and everyone seemed to understand – good. Regarding Google, we’re using Mail as a back up email account, Calendar for the class schedule, Blogger (Blogspot) for class blogging, Documents, to be able to share documents not only with me but also with peer reviewers, and Groups. I went through them briefly, we’ll have to see if they get it.

I then devoted the last 30 minutes to Second Life. Nearly ½ the class set up the account as instructed prior to the class meeting. A few others did also, but hadn’t added the name to the Discussion Thread. So we got the few remaining folks up and running and then I let them loose on the NMC Orientation Island (which is MUCH better than the main Second Life Orientation Island). While they tooled around I collected a few things from each of them, including their RAVE Wireless phone numbers. Most of them had their phones already, a few are straggling.

While I left them on their own to explore, I heard chatting in the room, I heard people helping others, I heard lots of clicking, and what I didn’t hear were any complaints. That’s a great sign for this class, so I guess the hybrid designation and the first day of school chat I had with them has paid off.

All in all I think we’re off to a great start and I’m really looking forward to the semester.

second picture

2008-01-25T16:06:00.001-05:00

Just snagged this second picture, I think it gives the scope a bit better.

We are not alone

2008-01-25T15:32:00.000-05:00

No - I'm not talking about little green men or thin metal scraps. I'm talking about the lonely existence the CHSS Island has led for these last 9 months.

For 9 months we've been way out here all by ourselves - nothing but water as far as the eye can see. Don't get me wrong, we've been very happy to have the peace and quite compared to the mainland, but we've always looked forward to the day were we'd have neighbors to play with.

That day has come. Congratulations to Gregg and Joe over in the ADP Center, part of the College of Education and Human Services. Along with Suchita, from OIT, Gregg and Joe have given birth to a bouncing baby sim. With a little assistance from me, the island has been moved along the northern shoreline of the CHSS Island.

The CEHSADP Island is so brand new that land textures and building have not even begun, but it'll get there soon enough.

The Amphitheater will be pivoted clockwise 45 degrees and moved so it straddles both sims - this makes it a wonderful shared resource. Now, instead of being able to host 40-60 avatars, or whatever one sim can hold, because its on two sims, that number effectively doubles.

The CHSS Resource Center will come down and will be replaced with a shared Orientation Area, which will also cover both sims. The brick and wood two story building, which will soon become the home of the Sprague Library, will be moved over right along the sim line and then both entrances will be well used.

Ok - so, now its time to plan a Welcome Party!

Mac Problem with SL may have a long term solution soon

2008-01-23T22:07:00.001-05:00

For those of you using newer MacBook Pro's to access Second Life, you'd had to deal with freezing and then needed to hard reboot - never a good thing for a computer. There was a work around published not that long ago, but that is still only a work around and not a solution.

Well, it seems as if the Linden Gears are hard at work. This noted from todays Linden Official Blog

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/01/23/new-windlight-viewer-77495-mac-talk/#more-1574
You’ll notice the top bug on there is NVidia 8600 Mac Book Pros are dropping to software shaders. This had effectively made WindLight unusable for a vast number of MacBook Pro users. It was no small feat as it required an entire re-factoring of how we do our shader loading, to get around some known issues with how Apple links their shaders. We got some fringe benefits with this too- better framerates on some machines, possibly some improved stability, etc. Many kudos to BigPapi Linden for his tireless work in this field. So play and have fun!

BUT

This does not solve two major issues that are known with these machines:

* VWR-1979 - Memory leak with 8600m GT on MacBook Pro
* VWR-1749: Second Life viewer client freezes on MacBook Pro

These are major issues that can cause the viewer to crash and system resources to get taken up, to the point where a system reboot may be necessary. These are bad issues. But there’s good news. Apple knows of the cause and a fix is on its way- trust us. These issues shouldn’t remain in the wild for long. So, to all of those with 8600s, play for the first time, but it may be in short spurts for now!

Need help finding Second LIfe builds

2008-01-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

Below is a list of the social issues my students will be provided. They will have an option to choose several to write about throughout the course of the semester. I am looking for builds in Second Life that would be appropriate to send them to to "experience" some aspect of these issues.

If you can think of any builds, or have the SLURLs, or would like to add an issue, please do so in the comments.

Social Issues
Abortion, Adoption, Affirmative Action, Ageism, AIDS/HIV, Alcoholism, Alternative Energy, Animal Experimentation, Animal Rights, Assisted Suicide, Athletes, Biological Weapons, Birth Control, Censorship, Chemical Weapons, Child Abuse, Church and State, Civil Rights, Cloning, Creationism vs. Evolution, Crime, Criminal Justice, Death and Dying, Death Penalty, Discrimination, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Drinking, Drug Abuse, Drug Control, Drug Legalization, Drug Trafficking, Drugs and Athletes, Drunk Driving, Eating Disorders, Education and Education Systems, Endangered Species, Environmental Policy, Environmentalism, Ethnic Relations, Euthanasia, Evolution vs Creationism, Family Relations, Gambling, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Genetic Engineering, Genocide, Global Warming, Gun Control, Gun Rights, Hate Crimes, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Home Ownership, Homeland Security, Homelessness, Human Rights, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Internet, Islamic Fundamentalism, Juvenile Drug Abuse, Juvenile Offenders, Legalization of Marijuana, Mafia, Media Violence, Medical Ethics, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Middle East Conflict, Nuclear Weapons, Nutrition, Oceans, Organ Donation, Outsourcing, Pollution, Population Growth, Pornography, Poverty, Prisons, Public Assistance, Race Relations, Racism, Rape, Religion, Religious Fundamentalism, Right of Privacy, Same-Sex Marriage, School Violence, Sex Education, Sexism, Sexual Behavior, Smoking, Social Security, Stem Cell Research, Suicide, Teen Pregnancy, Terrorism, U.S. Foreign Relations, Underage Drinking, Video Game Violence, Violence, War, War Crimes, War in Iraq, Water Pollution, Weightism, Welfare Reform, White Fight, Women in the Military, Working Poor, Working Women, Youth Issues

NJ SLEDucator's Unconference at MSU

2008-01-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

Ok - three definitions first.

NJ SLEDucator - Formal: One who belongs to the Second Life in-world group New Jersey Second Life Educators. Informal: Anyone who has an interest in Second Life and Education (Higher Ed or K-12) in New Jersey

UnConference - "An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference

MSU - Montclair State University :-)

Now, an explanation. Last spring (07) Laura Nicosia and I talked about having a summer "thing" where we got some folks together, informally, to talk about this new "thing" we found called Second Life, which we both loved and saw the potential for.

Fast forward nearly a year. Montclair becomes the first University to have a publicly available island in Second Life. Princeton makes a huge splash by opening a number of joined sims and Seton Hall has also joined the party with a space of their own. And a little "virtual" birdie tells me that the CHSS Island may soon be joined by some MSU neighbors (but that still hush hush, keep it under your hat).

I mentioned the idea of an 2008 summer thing to Gregg Festa, who thought it was a great idea and signed up to work on it with me. It was Gregg who suggested the idea of an "unconference". I liked the idea immediately and we were off and running.

Details will start to come together shortly, and hopefully we'll have the wiki up soon so folks can start signing up and contributing content. Until then, we need to pick a date.

The Conference Center in University Hall, here at MSU, is a wonderful facility run expertly by Phil Cardillo. It affords amazing views of the surrounding area (for miles!), and an especially exceptional view of Manhattan. So, the first NJ SLEDucator's UnConference will be held there (at least thats the current working name).

The May dates I originally picked were booked. I was trying for a Friday (since there are no classes at MSU on Fridays, so the parking a getting around would be easier), or one of the days between Spring Finals and the first Pre-Session. No such luck. The only three days available to us are listed in the poll to the right (5/19, 5/20, and 5/21). If you are planning on attending, thinking about attending, or even remotely interested in attending, please select one of those date or choose "Pick Another Date" and we'll look later in the summer.

More to come.

Its been too long

2008-01-09T22:20:00.001-05:00

Its been a while since I posted here - usual culprits: holidays, end of school, etc...

I'm just beginning to get the Second Life midterm report put together, coordinating the staffed times for our SL Lab, planning my own syllabus (doing the ENWR 105 class hyrbid), and generally being involved in all sorts of things.

What's that you say? its much better if I post them as they come up. Agreed. I'll see what I can do about that.

Ask not what your community can do for you...

2007-11-17T16:02:00.000-05:00

Social networking is big. Duh, right? That is what you might have just said to yourself.

“Duh, AJ, what rock have you been hiding under? Everyone knows social networking is big!”

What I’m suggesting though is, perhaps, social networking is bigger than just “big”, that perhaps it is historical. Clearly history will write a place for what is going on right now in that people are communicating in ways that have never been possible before. I’m sure I’m not the first person to suggest this (and if you know an author I can read on this, leave info in the comments), but I’m saying that social networking is foundational; it is laying the groundwork for the next big social global historical shift.

Humans are using technology to make up for something that time had started to take away, social interaction. The role of community has not changed, where we are going for that community has. This is, of course, not to suggest that social interactions via technology are better or worse then those that take place face-to-face, it simply means that an easy and accessible tool for allowing interaction with a greater number of people, over a large stretch of space, has stepped in to fill a gap where local interaction seems to have started to fail.

When the world was tiny, all we had to worry about were those in our village, or maybe a select few from neighboring villages we visited from time to time. Our social network was small, but intense.

As modes of transportation and communication improved, we began to spread out our networks. At this point, we knew more people, but we didn’t know all of them as well as when the group was smaller.

Not that long ago, in a world that became bigger and yet smaller, with people we know spread out all over it, it became harder and harder to maintain the depth of intensity to most of our relationships with others. Add to this the increase in the use of technology, and our busy schedules, and people started to feel isolated and distant.

Recognizing that community is essential to nearly all facets of our lives, this new use of the very technology that was keeping us apart started to spring up. Now, we are talking about social technologies and many of the same people who were lamenting that technology is isolating and marginalizing the human race are now pooh-poohing the social networking technologies that are bringing us back together. One could argue that this revitalizing of community through technology is actually better than way back when we lived in small villages.

If we tried to look at depth of relationship (a staple of community) on a chart, over time, the depth would be higher when the number of people in our circle was smaller and they were in a closer proximity. That line on the graph would curve downward over time as our contacts increased and were located farther apart, geographically. Now, that line is curving back up again because, even though we have much larger circles of contacts than every in history before, and they are spread farther out than ever in history, our depth of relationship with these contacts is more intense because a) it is easier to stay in touch thanks to the Internet and, b) we are grouping off with more people who have similar interests to our own.

So, to me, it seems all about community. Certainly, as a community (in all the senses that can be defined), we can accomplish so much more than a single individual can. I propose a goal for each of us. Think of all the “communities” you are a part of: parent, child, spouse/partner, sibling, co-worker, worshipper, neighbor, fan, chief cook, bottle washer, whatever…. look at all these communities and know that we each have the power to make those communities better. Do just a little bit each day to make your communities better and the world could not help but be a better place. And THIS is why I’m dedicating myself to the issue of community. Its time to talk about this, to try and make sense of it, but its also time to act.