Second Life ™

Read about it?  Heard about it?  Ready to take the plunge?

Check out the following from Second Life Grid that I just read about this a.m.

Educators can now join Second Life and get transported directly to ISTE Island rather than one of the other (sometimes overwhelming) orientation islands! NOTE: Make sure you click on the link (’Educator? Get Started’) that is within the body of the message and NOT the one in the right menu (that one takes you through the normal channels and choice of various orientation islands). How COOL is that!

If you decide to join this way, please take a moment to share your experiences in the Comments section below.

That’s right….YOU!  Are YOU reading ‘Brain Rules’?  The DEN in SL Book Talk series will be held every Monday during the month of October on the book ‘Brain Rules’.

Three chapters each Monday.

And here’s what we would like you to bring to the table (so to speak! LOL):  As you read the book (or for some of you, re-read it) try to keep in mind some places in Second Life that might support the underlying topic of the chapter and come prepared to share those SLurls with the rest of the group (or if you’re shy — guess that WOULD NOT apply to any in the DEN in SL group! LOL — feel free to share the SLurl with either Beth or myself and we’ll be sure to share it with the rest of the group).

October 6th:  Chapter 1 - Exercise, Chapter 2 - Survival, Chapter 3 - Wiring

October 13th:  Chapter 4 - Attention, Chapter 5 - Short-Term Memory, Chapter 6 - Long-Term Memory

October 20th:  Chapter 7 - Sleep, Chapter 8 - Stress, Chapter 9 - Sensory Integration

October 27th: Chapter 10 - Vision, Chapter 11 - Gender, Chapter 12 - Exploration

One week left, so START READING!!!

October is just around the corner, so here’s the listing for all that’s happenin’ at the DEN in SL this upcoming month.  So go mark your paper calendar, enter it in your phone, add it to your Google calendar, just make sure you come on in to the DEN in SL!

NOTE:  All times are 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST) unless otherwise stated.

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October 1, 2008

WORKSHOP: Newbie 101

PRESENTER:  JessieMarie Flanagan

Do you have questions? Need help getting around in SL? Need some new hair or clothes?

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October 6, 2008 (THIS IS A MONDAY!!!)

WORKSHOP:  Book Talk: ‘Brain Rules’

PRESENTERS:  Beth Kohnke & Laelia Laval

This evening we will cover chapters 1 - 3.  Taken from the Brain Rules website (www.brainrules.net): “Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity to get your brain working its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge?”  Join us as we explore in depth the concepts in each chapter and how we can change what we do in our schools and in our classes to enable our students to learn better. 

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October 8, 2008

WORKSHOP: The Virtual Pioneers- Exploring History Through Virtual Worlds

PRESENTER: Spiff Whitfield

Spiff Whitfield will begin a discussion of how his group The Virtual Pioneers is using Second Life as a collaboration and learning tool for Social Studies educators around the United States and beyond.  A brief introduction to the group and then a tour of some of a few trend setting historical sites will follow.

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October 13, 2008 (THIS IS A MONDAY!!!)

WORKSHOP:  Book Talk: ‘Brain Rules’

PRESENTERS:  Beth Kohnke & Laelia Laval

This evening we will cover chapters 4 - 6.   Taken from the Brain Rules website (www.brainrules.net): “Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity to get your brain working its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge?”  Join us as we explore in depth the concepts in each chapter and how we can change what we do in our schools and in our classes to enable our students to learn better. 

*****

October 15, 2008

WORKSHOP:  OneNote for Teachers

PRESENTER:  Celestia Cazalet

OneNote has been around for awhile, but OneNote 2007 has lots of features that teachers can use. It’s a screen capture program, a research and organization tool, a drawing tool, a web-conferencing tool, and more. If you use Microsoft Office 2007, come see what this often neglected program can do for you.

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October 20, 2008 (THIS IS A MONDAY!!!)

WORKSHOP:  Book Talk: ‘Brain Rules’

PRESENTERS:  Beth Kohnke & Laelia Laval

This evening we will cover chapters 7 - 9.  Taken from the Brain Rules website (www.brainrules.net): “Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity to get your brain working its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge?”  Join us as we explore in depth the concepts in each chapter and how we can change what we do in our schools and in our classes to enable our students to learn better. 

*****

October 22, 2008

WORKSHOP: Trivia

PRESENTER: Riptide Furse

Come and test your knowledge about murder, mayhem, & mystery!  Riptide will once again MC our popular Trivia Evening.  Come win some Lindens and perhaps a costume or two!

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

EVENT:  Halloween Party

Does the DEN in SL Halloween Party REALLY need a description?  Of course not!  If you attended last year, then you KNOW you want to be in-world for this one.  Come join us for an afternoon of dancing, gaming, and fun, fun, fun!!!

SLT TIME: 12 p.m. SLT (2 p.m. CST, 3 p.m. EST)

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October 27, 2008 (THIS IS A MONDAY!!!)

WORKSHOP:  Book Talk: ‘Brain Rules’

PRESENTERS:  Beth Kohnke & Laelia Laval

This evening we will cover chapters 10 - 12.   Taken from the Brain Rules website (www.brainrules.net): “Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity to get your brain working its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge?”  Join us as we explore in depth the concepts in each chapter and how we can change what we do in our schools and in our classes to enable our students to learn better. 

*****

October 29, 2008

WORKSHOP: Newbie 102

So you feel comfortable communicating using chat and voice, you know how to teleport to various locations in-world, you’ve even learned how to open a box filled with your purchases, but now what?  Want to get to that next level of comfort?  Join us for an evening where you’ll learn how to ‘tweak’ your menus and master some of the tools to make your SL experience all that more enjoyable!

At 4:55 p.m. SLT there were two avatars waiting for the presentation to begin, and then WHOA!!!! as you can see from the image above it started raining cats and avatars! O.K., so not exactly raining, but rezzing definitely!

Beth once again did a stellar job of sharing resources on how to present in Second Life from the initial planning phase, through the set up, to the actual tools used to facilitate a presentation. All who attended received a folder full of presentation goodies and at the end a costume was raffled off to two lucky winners — Serena Offcourse and GentlemanKev Bookmite.

So if you were at the workshop tonight, or if you have an idea for a presentation, please contact Lor Fredriksson (Lori Abrahams - RL) who is our Events Coordinator to schedule your time in the limelight. And remember the DEN motto, ‘We are our own best resource’!

This post is dedicated to …. yup, you know who you are!

Just wanted to show that I DO apply what I learn at the DEN in SL workshops!  These are shots of my shoes at various settings that I learned about from Riptide Furse (applause, applause).

Come join us this Wednesday for ‘Tips for Presenting in Second Life’ hosted by Beth Kohnke and Julia Mills.  We know many of you would love to present at our SL workshops.

We know you have lots to share.  Remember our motto: ” We are our greatest resource!”  So join us, learn how to present in SL (including a demonstration of available *FREE* presentation tools) and then let us know what you will share and reserve a future Wednesday Workshop date!!

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

See you there!

How often do you get the opportunity to have a foot in both worlds?  On September 21st at the DEN MidWest Regional Conference, some of you got to do just that.  JessieMarie (Anne Truger) and Lor (Lori Abrahams) put a call out to head in to the DEN in SL on Sunday morning to help out with a presentation being done in real life on Second Life (are you still following? LOL).  So a bunch of us headed on in and were projected onto the large screen at the DEN MidWest.  What was great was having some in-world who were also at the DEN conference — thanks to them we were kept apprised of what was being shown and said.  For those of you sitting in the multimedia center we hope the ‘teaser’ will entice you to come and join us in-world.  Remember, just give a shout out (yes, even in the ‘Comments’ section below) and we’ll make sure to pair you up with someone to make your transition into Second Life a smooth one.

No, that’s not a tobacco product in Cel’s mouth…it’s a piece of straw! LOL

I’m fluent in three languages and can survive (read: eat & shop) in a fourth.  I won’t date myself by recalling the days in college when we ‘did’ computers by writing lines of code on individual cards which the professor took to some mysterious location downtown and the following week would return with a print out (if we were lucky…if not, we got our cards back – let’s just say I saved A LOT of trees back then! LOL).  When Celestia proposed this workshop I broke out in a sweat.  And then I thought of a zillion excuses not to be in-world.  BOY, am I glad I decided to take the plunge!

Cel has a great way of introducing new content and then gently easing you into it and tonight was no exception.  She told us about Linden Scripting Language, which is the script that allows objects to do what they do in Second Life.  She suggested visiting Bromley College where we could progress through some excellent tutorials.  She then shared an online tool, Autoscript, that writes scripts for one action at a time and you can choose to combine scripts you create to develop more complex actions.  What makes Autoscript valuable is that the creators have allowed you to copy and tweak the scripts without fear of copyright infringement.

and then she crashed…….

…yes, she did.  So if you can add to this post please do so in the ‘Comments’ section below.

Just a reminder about tomorrow’s workshop led by Celestia Cazalet, ’Making Your Second Life ™ Easier’.

This is the third in a series of workshops (and NO you didn’t have to attend the other two to attend this one) 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)

See you then!

That’s right…did you get your copy of Brain Rules (yup, it’s an amazon.com link) yet?  If not, what are you waiting for?  DEN in SL will be hosting a month-long Book Talk series every Monday night in October (that would be October 6, 13, 20, and 27….GO MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!!!).  We’ll be covering three chapters every session.  For those who need more specifics that would be:

October 6th - Chapters 1 - 3

October 13th - Chapters 4 - 6

October 20th - Chapters 7 - 9

October 27th - Chapters 10 - 12

You can find out more at the Brain Rules website where you can also find out where else you can purchase the book. 

So go out and purchase, borrow from a friend, or go to your library to get your copy of Brain Rules and join us at DEN in SL HQs on Mondays in October!