I can't think of a good title (suggestions encouraged)

I think everyone should read the following blog by my incredible colleague, Laura Nicosia.

http://nicosiapedagogy.blogspot.com/2007/10/small-group-epiphanies.html

Laura strikes the nail square on the head with this. I was present to watch her work with seemingly techno-handicapped students who begin to learn something new while learning something new.

I had a similar experience this last Thursday in my Introduction to College Writing class. I have been talking about SL since the beginning of class and encouraging students to sign up for SL on their own. About 10 days ago I had everyone sign-up, or sign-in, in class. Unlike Laura, I only have 19 students and we meet in the writing lab, so access to the computers during class time is easy and there are far fewer students in this class to work with.

Following Laura’s lead I set down blocks of 30 minutes and posted the times in our blog on Blackboard. Students were asked to go to the blog and sign up for a time. I locked out the blog thread when the group hit two. I preferred more groups of fewer students. Like Laura says, it required a lot of extra time, but I will do it this way from now on. Watching the genesis within the students, coming to see and understand what a metaverse is (and what it isn’t), is worth the time dedicated.

Last Thursday I devoted the first part of our class to our usually opening writing exercise followed by some discussion on images, especially those produced by the media, and how they intentionally (or unintentionally sometimes) impact our lives. In class we’re talking (writing) about the creation and perception of identity and self. This is where the SL fit comes in.

Anyway, back to last Thursday. After our writing and discussion I wanted to meet with each student briefly, individually, to go over what might be missing, how things are going, etc. I told the rest of the class to sign in to SL, help each other, hang out, do things.

Nearly the whole class ended up in the Residence Hall area of the CHSS Island. That is when near pandemonium broke loose. It only too a few minutes before students were shouting across the room to each other, interacting, hanging on the beach, riding the jet ski, trying the first pieces of exercise equipment I put in the Student Center (more to come and some games, like darts, air hockey, and pool – interactive, avatars can actually play them!), comparing notes on avatars, and helping each other learn things.

I had to tell them it was time to go. Not one student had packed up his/her stuff a few minutes before the end of class. I walked out of that room with such great happiness and pride.

I will be at EDUCAUSE in Seattle from the 22-26th of October. Instead of canceling class I will be holding them from Seattle, in Second Life. I have to get up at 5:45am to do this; I told them I expect them to make sure they do what it takes to get online. We’ve had plenty of time to work out the kinks. I haven’t had to push too hard on this, each of them seems to be into it. We’ve been figuring out the technical problems together. And unlike that mysterious printer break down or hard drive crash or sibling that deleted the file, they are coming to me BEFORE the fact to get help figuring out how to do it. They are, well almost all of them, are genuinely interested.

I’ll report back after the two classes.

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

A decent article

I've tried to keep up with the hits that come in my Google Alerts for Second Life, but it simply impossible - there are far too many. I said I was going to try, and I am, so here is a recent article I ran across.

http://www.chieftain.com/life/1191133250/2

I usually don't read all the way through these types of summary articles, but this one was pretty good. He does a good job of touching on the goods, the bads, and the uglys of SL without being partial. In other words, good reporting.

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

Why don't we post (thanks Chris)

Chris Hambly started quite the conversation over in his blog
http://www.chrishambly.com/content/what-stops-you-making-comment-blog
when he asks folks to talk about why they don't leave comments in blogs.

As you can imagine, there were a number of response (how could one not respond to this), and there were a number of answers that cut across many instances. There are actually a few "top 5" or so lists...this is worth the read.

I also decided to chime in (of course), and here is my response.
http://www.chrishambly.com/content/what-stops-you-making-comment-blog#comment-359

What do you think? Comment on his blog or back here on mine, but I place before you the same gauntlet Chris threw down in front of those who read his blog.

You have something to contribute, what forces hold you back from sharing it?

Great day!

Well, today was a pretty amazing day.

• The Chronicle article came out today
• taught and started to bring my class into SL
• finished the Faculty Resource Room to the point it needed to be for the GoPrint installation on Tuesday
• A student finally came in during the open lab hours and I was able to help her get her account (thanks NMC) and also get her started.

One thing I thought was pretty amazing was how both in my class and in the open lab, those signing in took to the command structure pretty quickly (fly, walk, directions, etc…)

• went to the gym
• build the CHSS Beach
• joined and placed the CHSS Dorms (thanx SR)
• parceled off the areas so the name would appear in the title.

Where’s that can of whoop ass?