Community College Librarian » Second Life

COD Island Progress

Denise — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:34:36 +0000

Here’s some pictures:

College of DuPage Island

Denise — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:50:55 +0000

After two long years, we finally have an island in Second Life to work on. We bought an existing island from the Alliance Library System. Those good librarians have been a wonderful support for us, and a lifeline for me personally. Since the Linden Labs people can’t easily grasp higher order thinking, they are having a hard time making me the named owner of the island since we paid Alliance for the coming year of maintenance and transfer fees, etc. I am keeping up my zen chant of “We’ve waited this long so a little longer isn’t going to hurt.” Visit the vast emptiness here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/College%20of%20DuPage/135/82/27

People have been asking what we’re going to do with the island. Well, first I need to be able to apply a raw file to change the terrain. I’m planning to do a prairie landscape with lots of pretty wild grasses, ponds and streams. Then, I’ll decide where to put the Fashion faculty and their runway and store front displays. They are going to use SL to teach merchandising which is going to be way fun and useful for them. I have a small student commons area all ready to plunk down where we’ll have information about the College and help for students new to SL. We’ll have Tintern Abbey there again though I’m not sure if it will be used in a COD class. Its a popular build and we’ve gotten a lot of attention for its usefulness in teaching. There will be a big area for our chemistry students since they are so keen and have lots of ideas. I’ve invited to Literature Alive some space for one of their smaller homeless builds. I’m also going to put up a new Community Colleges resource center for my group (500 members now! eee!) We’ll have the social networking display again and I’m toying with the idea of a storytelling and folklore center too. Its so great to have prims! (If we ever get them…grumble)

I admit to having much less energy for SL than I did two years ago or even one year ago…its interesting how apathy can sort of weigh a person down. I’m sure that I will get my energy back once I get started on the new sim and see our students using it.

Castronova Virtual Worlds Workshop at IU

Denise — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:20:40 +0000

From Press Release:
The Virtual Worlds Workshop at Indiana University – taking place August
3-7, 2009 – offers proven strategies for future virtual world developers
from business and academia. Whether you wish to create a profitable virtual
world game, an economical consumer engagement strategy, an immersive
learning and research environment, or a media rich tool for collaboration
and training, the Virtual Worlds Workshop will assist you in matching your
organization’s goals, desired audience, and technological scope to the
appropriate tools and a viable plan of action for construction and ongoing
operations. Virtual worlds have become a multi-billion dollar industry, yet
too many fail by recreating the mistakes of the past; the Virtual Worlds
Workshop gives you the tools to move into the future. Save 2 years and $2
million!”

More information can be found at vw2.indiana.edu.

Online University SL Commencement

Denise — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:14:30 +0000

With the President of Linden Labs giving the address. http://online.bryantstratton.edu/slgraduation/

Here’s the news story on Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525273,00.html

I’ve never visited the Fox News site before…”fair and balanced,” my Aunt Fanny. Though I appreciate their reporting on education in SL without making it about their Party. hee!

CC/SL Job Posted

Denise — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:52:48 +0000

From the SLED List:

I’m proud to announce that Prince William Sound Community College (in beautiful Valdez Alaska) has posted a 2 year IT position that will include technical coordination of our Second Life educational sites.

With campuses in Valdez and Cordova sitting on the beautiful Prince William Sound and in the Copper River Basin at the doorstep of the magnificent Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, PWSCC serves a large geographical land area that is only matched by the large diversity of its people.

The Information Technology department at PWSCC supports the technology needs of our students, faculty and staff at all of our campuses. We strive to provide friendly, prompt and exact service while delivering leading edge technology that enhances the educational opportunities our communities.

The IS Ops Technician 2 position, based out of the main Valdez Alaska, campus, assists the I.T. Manager to provide this service in a wide array of disciplines including workstation setup & maintenance, software support, networking, video conferencing, telephony, audio-visual support as well as being a team player with the other departments of the college. The work environment is fast paced and requires an individual possessing good people skills that is able to apply creative solutions in problem solving situations.

This position will also be the lead technical coordinator of our virtual world as designed in Second Life. They will act as our technical designer, admin and liaison as we venture into this new and exciting approach to education.

For more information click on: https://www.uakjobs.com , go to *Advanced search* and choose Valdez in *Location*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julie A. Fronzuto Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Prince William Sound Community College

303 Lowe St.

Valdez, AK 99686

907.834.1633

The Fed is in Second Life

Denise — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:06:47 +0000

Better hide those embezzled Linden dollars! I wonder if they will be in the “adults only” section? I’m kidding, of course. You all know I’m all about using virtual worlds in job training! I’m glad the government is setting some precedent for education here.

http://fcw.com/articles/2009/05/04/feature-virtual-learning.aspx

Congratulations, Damn it.

Denise — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:46:42 +0000

The winners of the Linden Prize were announced today. I’m very happy for the people at Studio Wikitecture and Virtual Ability. I know some of the hardworking and tremendously creative people in both of these groups–they richly deserve this award and need the cash infusion. In my heart was really hoping that the Alliance Library would get the award. They were the pioneers of education in Second Life and its quite the bummer that people aren’t just simply burying them in money.

The Linden Quickstart Guide

Denise — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:11:06 +0000

Yea, its pretty good: https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/tnt/blog/2009/04/19/quicktip-enjoy-our-second-life-quickstart-guide

I don’t know what Scribd is though and I’m pissed that I have to find out. There’s some new tool every day and I’m getting sick of feeling utterly incompetent for not knowing about and using all of them in order to amaze the room at a conference.

Nursing, Second Life and Educause

Denise — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:28:00 +0000

This new article in the Educause Quarterly http://tinyurl.com/c3ug6e,
Virtual World Learning Spaces: Developing a Second Life Operating Room Simulation by Stephanie Gerald and David Antonacci from the Univ. of Kansas illustrates how SL can be used in medical education. They’ve created some really fantastic simulations for students. My favorite part is that the students’ interactions with the simulator are emailed to the instructor. With these virtual world simulations, students can practice at home on their computers—simulations are no longer confined to the lab at school. They can also work together in teams in a virtual world and talk to one another while interacting with the simulation.

What I double love about this article is that its gives a detailed description of what SL is and how to use it and chronicles the entire journey of these educators getting up and running in SL. I wholeheartedly agree with the authors’ point about using SL for focused, identified instructional needs instead of trying to make the instruction fit into the medium. Not everything can be taught better in 3-D, though stuff like real-time data visualization is on its way to virtual worlds. That said, you cannot know what is possible until the medium is thoroughly explored. I really believe that faculty and instructional designers getting in a virtual world, playing around and experimenting, is totally necessary. It is exactly like learning a new software, except its a lot more fun.

I also LOVE how the article is written and designed–Text, video and audio. This is the new face of the academic paper, people! EQ v.32 2009

British med students get virtual

Denise — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:45:48 +0000

This is a great use of virtual worlds. Its experimental now but the work is fabulous. Here’s an SURL if you want to visit: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Imperial%20College%20London/150/86/27