Second Life ™

I am thrilled to announce a new Book Talk series.  During the month of October we will be discussing John Medina’s ‘Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School’.  I’m giving you the ‘heads up’ now so you will have plenty of time to order the book and read it.  We will be doing the series on the following MONDAYS (Note: this is not part of our regular Wednesday Workshop series, hence the change in day of the week): October 6, 13, 20, and 27.  Each session will be devoted to specific chapters in the book.   Please plan on  joining us for some engaging conversations, and perhaps a surprise or two!

And for our auditory learners out there, you can purchase the book as an audio CD.

Stay tuned to the blog for more details…

There is somethings SERIOUSLY wrong with the title of this post!  Can anyone guess what that might be?  Huh?  Huh?  It’s ‘THAT’ word — ‘September’….ugh.  I remember VERY clearly sitting down at my computer writing a post entitled, ‘Mark Your Calendar - June Events’!  Where did the time fly?  For those of you already back in school the DEN in LC hopes you had a great start to the school year, and for those of you (like myself) who will be getting back on Tuesday, the DEN in LC wishes you all the best.  And to start off your school year, why not mark your calendar for the following Wednesdays (and some other days) for some fabulous workshops:

DATE:  September 3, 2008

WORKSHOP: New Discoveries for a New School Year

PRESENTER:   Augustine Writer (Lance Rougeux - RL)

DESCRIPTION:
Come learn about all the new ways Discovery Education is connecting you and your students to a world of learning.  We’ll start by highlighting the new features and content available in Discovery Education streaming and then showcase some major programs Discovery and its partners are working on for educators and students across the country.  We’ll wrap up with a sneek peek inside the DEN for 2008-2009 including website upgrades and other free opportunities for educators to connect with each other.   
SLT TIME: 5:00 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

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DATE:  September 10, 2008

WORKSHOP:  STARS Shine Bright - Ideas for Tech Integration

PRESENTER: All STARS are invited to come share!

DESCRIPTION: STARS come share how the beginning of your school years has started. Share ideas for tech integration you will be implementing now that school has started.

SLT TIME: 5 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

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DATE: Sept 16, 2008 (NOTE:  This is a  TUESDAY)

EVENT: Project Aware

Description and time to follow

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DATE:  September 17, 2008

WORKSHOP: Making Your Second Life ™ Easier

PRESENTER: Celestia Cazalet

DESCRIPTION: This is the third in a series of workshops in which Celestia will introduce you to free programs and websites that can enhance your Second Life(tm) experience.  This week’s topic: Scripting tools.  Learn the basics of the Linden Scripting Language.  Come prepared to share your own discoveries, as well.  We’ll meet in the sandbox.

SLT TIME: 5:00 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

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DATE:  September 24, 2008

WORKSHOP: How to Present in SL

PRESENTER: Beth Kohnke and JuliaAnn Mills

DESCRIPTION:  We are members of a global network of educators and it is time we begin to share our expertise and experiences with others.  In this learning experience we will look at the basics of how to present in SL and some of the options and tools to aid in presenting.  We will also discuss how to find a venue to host a presentation and ways to advertise.  This workshop was a success when it was offered at the beginning of the year.  Even if you attended back in January, you DEFINITELY want to join Beth and JuliaAnn again as they bring us up to speed with all the tools now available to presenters in SL.

SLT TIME: 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

Join us this Wednesday for ‘New Discoveries for a New School Year’ presented by Augustine Writer (Lance Rougeux - RL).  You don’t want to miss this workshop! Get first hand information and sneak peeks!

Come learn about all the new ways Discovery Education is connecting you and your students to a world of learning.  We’ll start by highlighting the new features and content available in Discovery Education streaming and then showcase some major programs Discovery and its partners are working on for educators and students across the country.  We’ll wrap up with a sneek peek inside the DEN for 2008-2009 including website upgrades and other free opportunities for educators
to connect with each other.

Time:  5:00 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

It was a small, but enthusiastic crowd that met beside the sandbox for this week’s Wednesday Workshop. Second in a series of workshops conducted by myself (Celestia Cazalet) to introduce SL residents to RL tools that make building easier.

This workshop covered the remarkable 3D program, Sculptypaint, which was created by SL resident, Cel Edman. This program allows you to build a 3D object in RL, then bring it into real life in the form of a sculpted prim.

What is a sculpted prim? Regular “prim” objects can sometimes actually be many prims linked together to create the desired shape for furniture, flowers, sculptures, stairs, you name it. With sculpted prims, the prim takes the shape of a map of sorts that has been created in an outside program and brought in world.

In this workshop, we started off by learning how to make a flower. You can see Knowclue Kidd’s beautiful creation here. Then we experimented with dropping random textures into sculpted prims and finding out what we got

Petlove had this dramatically beautiful prim lurking in a texture file in her inventory.

As always, you can download the powerpoint presentation I used below. It doesn’t tell you everything I said, but you may be able to work your way through the program with it. My goal for these workshops is to encourage everyone to run with it! Try making your own wonderful creations. Experiment with dropping files you already have in your inventory and see what comes of it. The picture below is the result of me dropping the file from one of my slides into a sculpted prim. Have fun with this awesome venue of creativity!

Download the powerpoint here: Sculptypaint Powerpoint.

Join us this Wednesday for the second in a series of workshops on ’Making Your Second Life ™ Easier’ presented by Celestia Cazalet.    In this second workshop, Celestia will introduce you to free programs and websites that can
enhance your Second Life(tm) experience.  This week’s topic:  Sculptypaint. Learn how to build those cool sculpted prims. Come prepared to share your own discoveries, as well.

NOTE:  Please download the program before Wednesday.
Here is the URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptpaint/

SLT TIME: 5:00 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

We’ll meet in the Sandbox.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/44/60/22

Hope to see you there!

The DEN’s motto is “We are our greatest resource!”  So here’s your chance to share your expertise. The DEN in SL Events
Committee is planning our Wednesday Workshop series for the Fall and we would like to offer you the opportunity to present.  If you have an idea and are willing to present please contact Lor Fredriksson in SL.

The DEN LC will support any new presenters.  We help and support you with presentation set up. Presentations can be in voice, can be a discussion, may include slideshows or media.  Presentations can be on RL educational resources, tools, applications or related to SL.

Events presented in SL can be submitted to the DEN as STAR events to keep your STAR status.

Phew, is all I can say!  Why, you ask?  Imagine hosting an Anniversay Gala, imagine redecorating your home, purchasing arcade games for your guests to play (yeah, Cel…I’m gonna beat your high score!), hiring a DJ, stationing a limo outside your home and 40 minutes before the start of your event, but after the paparazzi had arrived, your Department of Public Works decides to close all roads accessing your home.  Yup, that’s what the DEN in SL LC faced at 7:20 p.m. yesterday.  I decided to head in early and this is what I saw on my screen:

image from Flickr - KJarrett

Needless to say Skype was up and running within minutes.   Eventually Beth made it in-world, though was redirected to another island.  The rest of us continued to stare at our screens and the spinning circle indicating that something (though we weren’t sure what) was happening.  Poof!  I’m in….though I ended up in a Hobo railroad encampment — and not fully rezzed at that!

Riptide was able to get in-world shortly after, again landing on another island. And although we offered teleport, Riptide decided he needed to explore his current location a little further as he was surrounded by avatars all facing the same direction and something about ‘Night of the Living Dead’….???? Soon thereafter, it was ‘raining avatars and alts’!

By 8:15 the gala was well underway and by 8:30 most of us were on the top floor dancing to the tunes of Gregster Kidd.

The theme was ‘Dressed to the Nines’ and indeed our guests were. And with the pose balls on the dance floor loaded with ballroom dancing animations the evening was indeed a sight to behold. Skirts were swirling, gentlemen were dipping, and nary a toe was stepped on. Our DJ was absolutely amazing, flawlessly spinning tunes requested by our guests (I can ONLY imagine what his inventory must look like! LOL).
   
Images from Flickr - DiscoveryEducation and kkrossbow

Thanks to all who stopped by to help celebrate the DEN in SL’s 1st anniversary, and if you were unable to join us last night for a night of fun, dancing, and socializing, don’t worry….Halloween is JUST around the corner!  And we know what THAT means at the DEN in SL!!! P.A.R.T.Y.-time!!!

You are officially invited to attend the DEN in SL 1st Anniversary Gala - “Dressed to the Nines”!

This will be a formal affair so start looking for your gowns and tuxes. If you need help just contact one of the DEN LC or DEN guides.  There are many freebie places or splurge and go shopping for some SL couture!  Don’t forget to scroll down this page to the bottom right, Blogroll, click on the link to ‘Fabulously Free in SL’ for ideas to some free clothing & accessories.

There will be a DJ, dancing, games with prizes of course, places for informal quiet chats and of lots of surprises!!

DATE:  August 20, 2008

TIME: 5 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT 8 p.m. EST)

The last two Wednesday Workshops at the DEN in SL are what the DEN is all about, networking and sharing! We are our best resource!!

On August 6th about 20 avatars gathered in the DEN in SL garden and shared various technology resources, tools and best practices that were learned this summer at NECC, Discovery Institutes, state and school professional development workshops, reading blogs, twitter and plurk. There were lots of ideas shared for using DE streaming for collaboration and creativity using some of these Web 2.0 tools. Ideas on using wikis, nings and blogs, ustream and mogulus for collaboration were shared. Tools such as Animoto, Voicethread, Blabberize, Voki, Kerpoof, and Tux Paint for creativity were shared. Please add a comment to share something you learned this summer.

Tonight, up in the DEN Tower, Faythe Fouroux ( aka Melanie Ruiz), one of our DEN STARS and DEN in SL guides,  presented Newbie 102, Avatar Makeovers. She shared many suggestions for how to create a new look for your avatar, including lots of landmarks for free and inexpensive places to shop. At the end many teleported to go find their formal wear for next week’s Gala. Check out our google group for a notecard with landmarks and a copy of the Newbie 102 ppt, so you too can be “dressed to the nines” at the DEN in SL Anniversary Gala on August 20th.

OMG!  Halfway through August already!!!  WHERE has this summer gone?  And will I make it through the rest of my ‘SL Summer To Do’ list before I go back to school?  For some of you, this Wednesday’s workshop will enable you to check off another SL task.  For those of you who are somewhat familiar with SL, but wanted to take your avatar to the next level have we got a Wednesday Workshop for you!  Newbie 102 - Avatar Makeover with Faythe Fouroux (now here’s someone that I would LOVE to have as my personal shopper!).  Here’s a sampling of what Faythe will be covering: Mastered walking?  Doing alright with flying?  Know what TPs and LMs are?  Then you are ready for an Avatar Makeover!  Lose that newbie look and personalize your avatar to fit who you are.  Join Faythe as she explains how you can make over your avatar!  And just in time for our Gala next week!

SLT TIME: 5:00 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

NOTE:  We will meet in the Tower room up the elevator or use this landmark to take you directly to the workshop.