Second Life ™

Wednesday marked a banner day for the DEN in SL with the Wednesday Workshop topic: A Blended Virtual Ecosystem: North Carolina Virtual Public School’s Great Discovery in Second Life. The presentation was fantastic, with Dr. Brian Setser (Innovator Quan - SL), of the North Carolina Virtual Public School guiding the audience through the journey the school has made through Second Life, lessons learned, and best practices. Co-presenter, Jennifer Nobles (JIll Kips - SL) led a breakout session to illustrate the power of multiple experiences and discussion in Second Life.

Opening with the motto of “I eat barriers for breakfast”, Dr. Setser discussed the questions of innovation versus security and the importance of partnering in Second Life to enhance opportunities and experiences. 

The NCVPS team, including Adam Renfro (iAdam Zapatero - SL), shared multiple websites that an educator may find useful. They are included at the bottom of this post. Some of the sites include other virtual worlds which may be more appropriate for younger students, such as Enterzon and ActiveWorlds.

By the end of the workshop, participants had a feel for some of the innovative and engaging ways that Second Life can be used in education. To paraphrase Dr. Setser, we shouldn’t bring people to a treehouse, we should bring them into the ecosystem by utilizing the power of the virtual world.

For more information, NCVPS has posted video from the workshop and links on their blog. Twitter users are encouraged to follow NCVPS and Dr. Setser.

Links shared:

Literacy2Learn

Virtual Learning Consultant

NCVPS Blog

Glogster

Western Region Education Service Alliance
Enterzon - Virtual World

ActiveWorlds - 3D Chat/Virtual World

QWAQ - Virtual Spaces for Real Work

PowerU - 3D Immersive (3DI) Virtual Environments

iPod Touch at Culbreth MS

Wimba

Video from the workshop

Coming up on Wednesday, July 29, the DEN in SL will have special guest speakers, Dr. Bryan Setser, Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Virtual Public School, and Jennifer Nobles, who is the Modular Learning Specialist and Virtual Worlds Coordinator for the school. They will be presenting a workshop entitled: A Blended Virtual Ecosytem: North Carolina Virtual Public School’s Great Discovery in Second Life.

Setser and Nobles will discuss how they discovered a blended virtual ecosystem in Second Life this past year. Their session will focus on sandbox approaches, lessons learned, and new clients that resemble Second Life for the purpose of advancing virtual learning among all p-20 stakeholders in education. Moreover, this session will include interactive participation and an integrated piece on discoveryeducation.com to showcase the power of blended virtual ecosystems with other web 2.0 platforms.

The session will be an interactive one, with breakouts and discussion, so come prepared to participate and learn about the exciting discoveries they’ve made in Second Life!

Image by krossbow via Flickr

Last night we gave an introduction to hunts in Second Life. These hunts are great for several reasons:

• Gives you a reason to explore more of the creative sims and builds in Second Life.
• You get free things from different designers. These can include clothing, hair, shapes, skin, furniture and more.
• Meet new people and help each other.
• Learn new skills and problem solve. The hunts can be difficult and using the hints to find things can take some thought. Also different designers use different ways to package some of their wares so you learn more about what is possible in Second Life as you find more objects.

Hunts usually work this way. You are given a starting point or slurl. There you find an information or notecard giver to get more info on the hunt. There may also be a group to join. This is where updates, changes and errors are posted so join it if you can. The group sometimes has a lot of chatter. This can either be helpful or annoying.

You will usually be looking for a particular shaped object. You will need to hunt and look around for that particular object till you find it. This can take a long time by yourself if the store or place is large. Best to team up and divide and conquer.

When you find the object click it or right click and buy it. They should be FREE. If it wants to charge you money then you have the wrong object. In the object will be the freebie(s) and a landmark to the next stop on the hunt. Some hunts are small with 5 or 6 freebies and others go well into the hundreds of freebies.

We looked primarily at the Just For The Guys Hunt that is going on right now across the grid from July 1 – July 31. We started with this page on the SLHunts blog http://slhunts.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/just-for-the-guys-hunt/ This tells us basic information about the hunt. What dates is it running. Where do we start. How many items are we looking for. What are you looking for.

We headed off to the KMadd Sim http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kmadd%20Enterprise/190/88/26 where the hunt is to start. We joined the group. Then started looking for the first fedora. The store was huge and we were running out of time. I searched for Just For The Guys Hunt hints and found this blog and found this http://huntlocations.blogspot.com/2009/06/just-for-men-hunt.html

Be sure not give away locations of the objects. You can give hints and if you are working with someone or a team use personal IM to tell but don’t use open chat as it ruins the fun for others.

A couple of other hunts we mentioned going on right now is the Cinderella’s Lost Slipper Hunt http://cinderellalostslipper.blogspot.com/

And the Slice Of Summer Hunt http://crystal.chiisana.net/SoS/index.php?instructions

You can keep track of all the hunts going on or upcoming on the SL Hunts blog.

Got a tip for hunting or have you found something good on a hunt? Share a picture on Flickr and then include a link in the comments.

Image via Wikipedia

You become the predator, the hunter/huntress. You’re goal is to stalk your prey by using your eyes and your wits. You follow your prey clue after clue with each one comes a little reward but you want more. Team up to make it easier and more fun or go the hunt alone and rely on your own skills.

Join us on Wed., July 22 at 5 PM SLT (8PM Eastern) for the Predator/Prey workshop where you will learn about 3 hunts that are happening right now in Second Life. One hunt is just for the guys. Another hunt is for the ladies that fancy themselves a princess. The third hunt is for that perfect slice of summer.

Unfortunately this workshop will need to be rescheduled. Please watch for it being offered at a date coming up soon. Please join us for Predator/Prey The Hunt for Freebies at the same time.
Join us as we ‘Get Our Ogs On!’ as Clio Jacobus (Jennifer Dorman - RL) shares about blogs, glogs and vlogs.  And don’t worry if you don’t know what these are.  Stop on by to find out more and get your own ‘og on!  At the end of this session you’ll learn how you can plant a little widget code and have it grow into a global collaboration.
SLT TIME:  5 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

Hi, I’m Telos String in SL and Mary Del Bianco in RL.  For what seems like forever, I have been an artist and an art teacher. This year I have given up my art teacher job to devote my time to technology. I will work with 6 - 8th graders twice a week in our computer lab and I will help other teachers integrate tech tools into their classrooms.  I am also working with a few after school programs because learning is definitely 24/7 and not all kids have the same chance to get connected. I am working to help improve that situation.  I am thrilled and anxious.  With my art background I am confident in my project-based learning strategy skills but with technology I always feel a little behind the curve. Kids always know more than me!  With Second Life DEN support though, I know I can keep up.  The best PD on the planet is happening in SL.  So I have offered my time and energy to keep the SL DEN active and at the head of the class.  I am willing to help newbies even tho I still consider myself one. I am willing to learn, to build, and to create.  I am a dedicated learner who believes that if we work together, we are better than any of us can be alone.  See you in-world at 2DP!

Join us as we ‘Get Our Ogs On!’ as Clio Jacobus (Jennifer Dorman - RL) shares about blogs, glogs and vlogs.  And don’t worry if you don’t know what these are.  Stop on by to find out more and get your own ‘og on!  At the end of this session you’ll learn how you can plant a little widget code and have it grow into a global collaboration.
SLT TIME:  5 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

The photos were amazing, and the stories were told with passion. Last night Augustus Godenot ( Ken Shelton RL) with the help of ROW Drumbeat ( Carol Anne Mcguire RL ) shared their adventure made possible by Discovery Student Adventure. Check out the student blogs about Australia to learn more about the hands on learning their students received about kangaroos, crocodiles, the Great Barrier Reef and more.  Join us at a later date to learn about the South Africa and China Discovery Student Adventures too.

Hello from another new member of the DEN LC in Second Life.  My SL name is Valaina Shepherd.  I became a member of SL at NECC 2007 in Atlanta, GA.  I did not do much with it though until the following February when I met Riptide Furse (Fred D.) at the DE Virtual Conference in Silver Spring, MD.  He shared about the DEN in SL and his excitement was contagious.  Upon returning home, I tried SL again and understood what a fantastic Professional Development and networking tool it can be.  I attended as many newbie sessions as I could at the DEN in SL.  I found people who would help me when my hair went wacko, share places to find freebies, and answer my myriad of questions.  The Wed. night workshops filled a void for this lifetime learner and ignited a desire to share with other educators.  I became a guide for the DEN in SL where I met educators from all over the world.  In a way, being a guide was more of a learning experience for me than the people I helped.  I am looking forward to this next step in my learning journey.

In RL, my name is Valaina Maher and I am an ITRT (Instructional Technology Resource Teacher) at a K-5 public school in Manassas, VA.  After over 25 yrs of teaching in parochial schools with a Masters in Early Childhood, I decided to make a change.  I went back to school to get another Masters in Educational Technology Specialist.  Though it took me 4 years to get it, I graduated in 2006 and accepted the job in Virginia.  I am a perfect example of learning technology late in life, which comes in handy when working with the other teachers at my school.  No one can use the “I’m too old to learn new things” excuse.

I look forward to seeing you in Second Life.

Don’t forget to join us as Demb Oh (Steve Dembo - RL) and other ‘pioneers’ regale us with their experiences on Discovery Student Adventures.  Three trips, nine teachers, 36 students, and the adventure of a lifetime!  Two of the three pilot trips for Discovery Student Adventures have now concluded, and have we got some stories to tell!  And then learn how you can begin your own Discovery Student Adventure!

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

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/132/131/22