First Teaching Session in Second Life

Last night was, for me, a very exciting event. It was the very first session that I have done in Second life. It was a demonstration of some new language teaching tools at the request of Anna Begonia. I imagined it was going to be a very small event but actually quite a lot of people turned up, that was more to do with Anna’s persuasiveness than anything that was on offer. J

Having not been even remotely excited about it before the event, training is very “normal life” for me and the preparation for this was no different to anything else I do, but, after the event, which finished at midnight, I was so exhilarated that I could not sleep.

I am not going to beat myself up over a first training event, and on the whole, it was not bad. People enjoyed it and went off with two new items to use in their teaching, but, it could have been better!

I was demonstrating and talking in English, but most people there were Italian and did not speak English. Anna was translating everything I said. I am used to cutting instruction to bare bones, simple steps etc., so we worked well as a pair, however someone’s sound failed. At this point Daffodil stepped in and typed what I was saying in English. So we had a three man presentation. Many, many thanks to both Anna and Daffodil without whose help it would have been disastrous. Of course I should have had everything that I was going to say already prepared as a text, and the text available in a note card – why didn’t I? This I knew but somehow had not associated it with what I was doing, very strange! Anyway I am doing a repeat event soon and that will be greatly improved.

The biggest problem that I found was that people present had rezzed their own prims, not just used mine and when I came to clean up I selected everything, hit the delete key and only about two thirds of the stuff disappeared. I could not clean up what others had made, neither could I return it. So I had to write grovelling apologies to the landowner, put it all in a neat little heap and ask him to get rid of it.

So not an SL virgin teacher any longer, I am delighted at having done it and with lessons that I have learned! It is a pity the audience did not get the best performance possible but we all have to start somewhere.

I have just seen Anna's video clip of the event http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abFYoBJBqVA  :-)

Second Visit to Twinity

In the frequently asked questions section of the Twinity website it says that

"You can explore different locations, meet new people, pimp your avatar and apartment, and generally have fun!"

It seems that you cannot build or script.  I can buy stuff and set up an apartment if I want to but I don't so apart from wandering around there does not seem to be a lot for me to do. That maybe because I don't know anyone here, though I seem to have one friend and that is clever, I had no idea...

It would seem that there is a plan for people to be able to upload artefacts that they have made into Twinity, "we are working on that" but I guess scale etc. could be an issue here and it does not look as if they are working to enable building and scripting.

I walked around virtual Berlin - the advert says to "take a walking tour and see the sights," yes they are pretty and I guess I could learn my way around if I wanted to. I started to investigate several buildings that seemed to have doors, but really they don't. They are external images only, unlike SL, where someone would design and build the whole building down to the tiniest details, all that is missing from the buildings in Twinity - mostly because avatars cannot build I guess!

So doors are not for walking though, bicycles are not for riding, daytime (CET) is daylight and night-time is dark. Avatars are, or can be, fairly realistic.

It is easy to chat to people and listen to the background music that is already set up.

I guess all that is left for me to do is make my apartment :-(

In Twinity at the moment there is not much to capture my attention. In Second Life - where I am happy to spend hours, I have a group of friends, places that I like to spend time and places to investigate. I am delighted to meet up with friends and chat, about life, the world, education etc., but if I am alone, as I frequently am, I can build and pretend to script and still really enjoy myself. I am not too bothered by being there alone as I am occupied. Sometimes, between projects I am looking for inspiration, the next project, then I may get fed up, but as soon as I am hooked on a project idea I enjoy it again. The big difference between the two is the ability to create.

I can't go back in and make an apartment or house or flat, I have a real life one to look after and clean etc., that project just holds no fascination at all, I would put my avatar in it and she would probably never come out. I can't cope with that :-) I will leave her outside and free, then if I visit again I will join her in looking around any new builds.

First visit to Twinity

I have downloaded and joined Twinity and am trying to visit Berlin. The first thing I can say is that it is incredibly slow! I thought Second Life was slow at times but not nearly as slow as where I am now.  I guess virtual Berlin is made up of very high quality pictures that have to be downloaded. It is taking forever on a very high spec machine. We are talking minutes here to get into the city centre!

Not being able to fly is a bit of a surprise, I am used to it :-) only running, walking and teleporting seems a little strange after all this time.

I have created my avatar and bought a top, that seems to have disappeared with the first teleport and I am back in the standard blue Twinity t shirt again.  Maybe it will turn up in some sort of inventory when I can find it.  I am  still trying to load Berlin at the moment so I can't do anything else. 

After a quick look at the museum, which did not seem to have much in the way of artefacts in it, I visited the 80s club in Almeria, Spain and enjoyed the pop-art Marilyn Monroe images, there was English music playing  - but I guess that is fine :-) 

I can't open the door to get out though - stuck here forever - Help!!

Ah - I have been here about 30 minutes and crashed out twice - well that is familiar at least!

As I enter for the third time I seem to be in a mens'  shop in Berlin, they are talking in German on the radio but there are no people in sight, in fact the whole place seems very deserted!

If I click on the globe to choose somewhere to go it takes ages to load the page, in that time it is loading I can't talk to anyone. I can't talk to someone and say let's go to XXXX, it does not minimise and if you close it to talk it takes ages to load again - strange!

I can buy a flat, but do I need one in a virtual world? My answer is no thanks! I want to build and create. That is to be my next investigation.

The Twinity motto is "Be nice" but after about 12 minutes waiting for a destination to load I do not feel like being nice I feel quite frustrated and have cancelled the teleport deciding I am never going to get there. Well it seems to have slowed beyond being able to do anything at all so giving up for tonight!

A few general comments, I am there at night and it is dark - reasonable - but I can't find a way to make it light so I can't see much of the town, it is not all lit up as it may be in Second Life. I am used to visiting clubs and seeing a huge variety of artefacts,  furniture, club paraphernalia , lights, decks, drinks, bars and dancers, all of these are missing in Twinity. Musical backgrounds are there, and I think videoing scences is easy but I can't find a way of taking a snapshot. I think, at the moment, I have not found much of what Twinity has to offer, I will keep investigating.

More tomorrow :-)

A coffee with Kyle Mawer

On Sunday 3oth November on EduNation ll in Second Life Nik Peachey  interviewed Kyle Mawer from the British Council to find out about the work he has been doing in the Second Life Teen Grid. http://secondlife4teens.wikispaces.com/ 

Kyle talked about the about the new British Council island in the main grid and how it is replicating many of the quests from Teen Grid to give teachers and opportunity of visiting, seeing how it works and planning sessions without having to get into Teen Grid, which is almost impossible. The island should be open in February and may give an opportunity for more people to be involved in the creation of quests and resources without having to jump through the hoops needed to get access to the Teen Grid. I am looking forward to visiting that!

Kyle talked about the use of games to inspire the generation of young people who have grown up as gamers. Most of the work for the pupils is in the form of quests where young people have to listen to a story, follow clues and solve problems. Comic strip pages are used to give instructions, and pupils can often write the answers, thus giving opportunities to listen, write, read and speak in English. The main idea is to build an English speaking community to talk to and support each other whilst learning the language.  Apparently young people enjoy the quests so much one has done one of the quests twenty-five times.

Kyle was asked how long it takes to build a quest, the answer is it is never ending, There are always more levels that can be added, things that can be changed to add interest etc. Robin Hood started out as a simple quest but has built and built. Sections such as the "odd one out" and "What needs doing" cover different aspects of language development, quests are either past, present or future - so they are all dealing with something different languagewise. 

Kyle talked about how he uses games to inspire and gave us access to his wiki: http://kylemawer.wikispaces.com.

It was interesting that even though students want access to the main grid  http://arwynquandry.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/notes-for-a-new-grid-pt-2/ . Kyle did not like the idea and prefers it as it is. I would like to see the grids merged but can see all sort of problems that are likely to prevent it from happening any time soon.  The feeling from several in the room is that education not censorship is the way to go, that would be my view! Kyle talked about the challenges of keeping the Teen Grid safe with appropriate content, the teens do not help in that respect, having fun, as teens can do, creating and planting naughty bits around the island – they would not appear to need much help from adults at all :-) He still felt that they would encounter too many inappropriate places and content in the main grid.

This was a very interesting session, I have been to several now about Teen Grid and begin to build quite a reasonable picture of the place I am not allowed!

An unworthy adult :-)

Pictures from an Island

Anyone who knows me well will not have to ask which island – it is my Second Life favourite haunt, where I spend many hours creating bits and pieces, for fun, educational use or whatever. EduNation ll, in the hands of it's owner Dudeney Ge (Gavin Dudeney, Director of  The Consultants-E)  has undergone an update with new buildings, club, disco, seminar rooms and a video streaming system used to entertain everyone before and after this evening’s seminar A Coffee With... more on that one to come.

In the meantime enjoy the photos J

Creative Tinkering: Interfacing the Real and Virtual Worlds of Museums and Cultural Heritage

Museums and galleries are being developed in Second Life on quite a massive scale. Avatars are actively invited to engage with the artefacts or pictures; they cannot harm them the same way as in real life situations.  The question of how best to engage with them was the study of this exercise. This workshop was an attempt to get avatars to interact with a painting in a museum in Second Life. 

Las Meninas – engaging people in museum environments

"And even our dreams are dreams. Discuss the nature of reality while being placed inside the setting of this painting."

On joining a group in Second Life we were teleported to the stage set, then visted a website that showed us the picture. Delegates chose at this point whether to be either actors or viewers and they were given the role the avatar was to play and also given his bit of secret information to be shared surreptitiously with the rest of the party.   If people did not want to be actors they could be viewers and still interact with the characters. The actors took up their positions on pose balls to create the scene of the painting in a stage set in Second Life and the discussions began.

http://www.artchive.com/meninas.htm

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

I certainly picked up some strange “secrets” like when one player said the earth was flat, I thought that was his secret information but what he was trying to convey was that he was living in the 16 Century by demonstrating some beliefs at the time.  I thought the nanny knew something about the queen murdering someone, I thought the body guard was suspicious of the maid and the artist may be plotting to murder the princess while the nanny disliked the job but liked the rewards.  None of those were right! I am not sure what the secrets were but they seemed to revolve round 16 century life or politics in the Spanish Court.  There seemed to be a brief threat at one point of the heretic burning and Spanish Inquisition! Be very afraid!

After the acting session we entered a group discussion about the exercise.

A couple of points for moving this sort of exercise forward were gathered, amongst them were:

•  The actors should have costumes.  In our case male avatars were asked to play the parts of young ladies and a nanny. The male bodyguard was played by a female so it was very confusing to start with. What I found very confusing was the speech bubble form of chat. I normally use text chat that appears at the bottom of the screen against a name and it is easy to scroll through to see if you have missed anything like that, but as it was set up answers could appear and disappear and be, and were missed.
  
•  We thought far more information was needed, none of the actors could tell anyone about who they were or what they were doing there. We were referred to the Wikipedia website above, but to go and read that would have taken far too long out of a twenty minute exercise. On looking for information after the event I thought that the other link above gave a much clearer, quicker description of the painting and issues. If the actors were given a notecard they could have shared more information and we would have learned more about the picture.
  

In discussion it was felt essential that the learning objectives of the interaction were made clear. We did not know what we were trying to achieve, history, art technique analysis, a “secret” from each character or something different. We felt that we had failed in our task because we did not find out about the painting, the people, who they were, what they were doing etc.

It was felt very strongly that this sort of exercise could be brilliant and would be a useful exercise before actually visiting a gallery or museum because lots of preliminary work could be done before the visit.

One person said that after visiting a SL museum he knew his way around on his first RL visit to the same museum.

An off-shoot idea that people really liked was for museum artefacts or paintings to be chosen by avatar student who could then do tours, descriptions etc. and so give their reasons for why they had grouped  items as they had.  It is another, very different form of interaction but equally as engaging.

This was a very enjoyable session and I felt we all learned a lot about how one may work with students in Second Life from it. As I said at the time, even though we had not really had much luck in the exercise we all wanted to know. and go to find out about the painting so in that way it was still very successful. Probably one of the most useful things we learned was to keep any exercise that we want avatars in-world to do very simple and straightforward.

For more information watch the website http://questalicious.net/ or contact Lars Wienke  - Velox Voom in SL.

Sloodle at RELive 08 by Daniel Livingstone & Jeremy Kemp

University of West Scotland

SLOODLE (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a plug-in that allows integration between the web-based Moodle and Second Life.

The group attending this session used Sloodle to help access an In-world music teaching area involving quizzes, a searchable glossary of music terms, some instruments to take and play, a sandbox where avatars can make and submit a musical instrument and a range of other interactive activities.

What does Sloodle do?

The Sloodle tool itself
• enables users to see each other’s real names and avatar names, who is present on the course and nearby
• Provides appropriate teaching / learning gestures to be used in-world
• Enables a chat facility that saves back to Moodle, and far as I can understand this also accommodates chat with those Moodle users that are not in-world
• Enables the use of the Moodle quiz tool in Second Life
• Enables quiz or challenge results to be saved back to the Moodle mark book
• Enables the use of a drop box for students to submit work
• Enables a voting tools that can be seen both in and out of Second Life
• Enables the teacher to present presentations available in Moodle without having to upload the slides as textures

http://www.sloodle.org/moodle/ This is available for any SL resident to try, if you want more information or to see it IM me Carolrb Roux in-world and we will see how much I remember :-)

Actually you may be better off IMing Buddy Sprocket in-world, that is Daniel and he will show you what it has to offer!

There is also a case study available on the website https://www.sloodle.org/blog/?p=13

I enjoyed this session, as I don’t use Moodle I am not sure how useful I would find it but if I was teaching in-world I may be inclined towards purchasing a hosted Moodle site to see how much added functionality it really offers. I can create in-world quizzes and can use notecards for web addresses, task instructions or names. I have seen voting tools for sale in-world though have not tried them out. I have more gestures than I am ever likely to use. I can save chat. Students just have to drop whatever they would drop in a drop box into my profile and I would still get it, so I am not sure just how much extra functionality if offers, but, the site was interactive and enjoyable. It can be accessed without tutor available, instructions via the wiki, tasks etc. can all be accessed at any time. For running multiple courses with lots of students I imagine it would be an invaluable resource, if I was in a position to use it I would try!