NJ SLEDucator's Unconference at MSU

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.

Feedback is always good!

Laura Nicosia and I presented a 3-hour pre-conference session on Wednesday. Neither of us could stay for the rest of the conference, but one of our colleagues was there on Thursday. This is the note he sent us.

Hi,

I was at NJEdge today and people were talking about your
presentation. You did a great job and so many people were
impressed. Even ********** was singing your praises!!!! She said that
you are on the cutting edge.

I cannot tell you how that made me smile and feel a great sense of
pride and happiness. Thanks for your great efforts and for leading
MSU in this work. The path has been blazed!

Here is our slide presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/sorry.afk/071031-njedge

An intersting exchange

I was glancing though a couple of the gazillion Google Alerts I get for my "second life" alert when I found this blog posting:

http://crunchgear.com/2007/10/02/shock-second-life-is-all-hype-says-study/

I decided I wanted to explain that I can see why a gamer could get bored with SL but still make the point that SL is an exception tool, when used properly and in the proper context. So I responded:

http://crunchgear.com/2007/10/02/shock-second-life-is-all-hype-says-study/#comment-462670

There are some additional responses after mine that were positive also.

Google's move

I posted a wiki about an apparent move by Google to get into the virtual worlds market. If you find any articles, feel free to pass them along to me for possible posting here.

http://chssslpilot.wikispaces.com/googlesmove

Physics has changed

Just when you thought it was safe to trust physics, you realize that in the virtual world, anything can change.

Linden Lab has, just the other day, announced the arrival of Havoc4! I know, an astounding moment in history, you must be saying to yourself. For those of us sitting outside the center of technology regarding virtual environments, this updated version may not seem like much. But a few people (you know who you are), are pretty happy about this. Apparently, it has been some time since the physics engine has been updated. What is the physics engine you ask? The simple answer is, its how things that move interact with each other.

Since seeing is believing, here is a short video someone has already made (in the last 48 hours or so) about the improvements.
http://www.shiny-life.com/2007/09/29/fun-with-physics/

Thanks to Gavin Dudeney for posting this to the SLED list. Are you interested in what is going on in Second Life regarding education? If so, you need to join the SLED list - http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/education

Virtual Worlds Hot Topics Discussion at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Seattle

I am thrilled to announce that EDUCAUSE has scheduled a Virtual Worlds Hot Topics Discussion for this year's Annual Conference in Seattle. The conference will take place from October 23rd to the 26th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

Details on the full convention can be found here - http://www.educause.edu/e07

The Virtual Worlds Hot Topic Discussion will be held on Thursday, October 25th from 12:45pm to 2:15pm (PDT) in Room 211. The description of this event is:

Will teaching in a virtual environment really be the next big thing? A number of institutions and faculty think so, and that number is growing. This session brings together those who want to discuss how virtual learning environments impact all facets of the institution. Given the position of Second Life in this arena, it will probably dominate most discussions.

http://www.educause.edu/E07/Program/11073?PRODUCT_CODE=E07/CI17

I've made arrangements for there to be a laptop, project, and a static IP address which will enable us to stream SL into the conference location. Streaming the conference into SL is going to be up to us. More on that in a second.

If you are planning on attending EDUCAUSE, please make sure to include this event on your schedule. A good show this year could very well lead to a great commitment from EDUCAUSE ( i.e., I'm working to try and establish a Constituent Group, etc...)

If you have not decided if you will be attending, I hope this will push you off the fence. :-) Its usually a good conference, plus...I'll be there! :-)

If you cannot attend, I'm hoping you'll attend the in-world session.

I am looking for volunteers on two fronts:
1) people who can help work on the technology aspect of this with me
2) people who are willing to work as in-world organizers.

Please respond to me directly (sorry.afk@gmail.com).

More on this as it comes together.