Second Life ™

Over the past week we’ve held several informal discussions to share ideas for those attending NECC for the first time. JessieMarie Flanagan held one last Sunday at 2 DP, and last night we held a joint discussion on Capitol Hill with NECC Program Chair, Anita McAnear ( RL), Ilse Markova ( SL). There is one more NECC Prep planned for Monday, June 22nd, but even the NECC veterans will want to attend this one because we can ask questions about Washington DC to people who live in the area.

If you are attending NECC, the first place to look is the online program and start using the conference planner.  Anita explained that there are many choices starting with featured keynote and spotlight speakers, lectures, poster sessions, student showcases, research papers, birds of a feather, various lounges and of course the exhibit hall.  Some events required pre - registraion like the workshops and BYOL. Of course don’t forget there will be lots of DEN Stars presenting as well.

If you aren’t able to make it to Washington DC, then check out all the ways to join virtually.  There will be an SL Playground, and a 21st Century Media Center Virtual Playground  and docents  will be at ISTE HQ. There will also be backchannels, Ning,  tweets and NECC unplugged.

Some of the veteran NECC attendees suggested to pack for all kinds of temperatures and possible rain, wear layers as it could hot and muggy outside, but cold in the Washington DC Convention Center. Also comfy shoes are a must. Bring your laptop and even a power strip. This are just a few of the suggestions from last night.

Join Riptide Furse and others on Monday, June 22nd, who are from the Washington DC area and can help with your questions, concerns and general tidbits about how to make the most of your visit to the Nation’s Capital. We’ll go over last minute things to pack. A few hidden secrets of what to see, how to get around, and how to have the best time ever at NECC.

We will meet at the 2 DP roof pool June 22 at 5 PM SLT ( 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/80/77/55

The DEN in SL hosted a party Wednesday, June 17, to reveal who the culprit was in the missing motorcycle engine mystery. Several people gathered in the DEN lobby near the scene of the crime as we listened to police radio communications which indicated the cuprit was being followed to 2DP. Everyone excitedly awaited the arrival of the perpetrator. Whodunit? Unklar Klaar rode in on his new, shiny motorcycle and revealed that he had not “stolen” the engine, but that Demb Oh had given him permission to use it in his new bike. Crime solved!

Unklar also made a great point “how can something be stolen in a virtual world?” Nothing exists! Winners include: Telos String, grand-prize winner of 2500L$. Telos was the only participant who had deciphered all the clues and determined that Unklar was the culprit. Two runners-up were drawn from all the names of the people who had been participating and sending emails to Celestia. The two who won 750L$ were Emilia Cornwall and Moriarty Finesmith.

Since there wasn’t an evil villain in our midst, we all adjourned to the roof, where music, dancing, and swimming in the pool commenced. It was a great way of relaxing after several weeks of solving the mystery.

Stay tuned: there is great interest in another IDiscover Sleuthing game, so watch for details soon! If you participated in the game and wasn’t able to be at the reveal party, you can still get your t-shirt by visiting the scene of the crime one more time.

That’s right - there are only two days left before the big reveal party at the DEN in SL headquarters (2DP), where we find out “whodunit” in the IDiscover Sleuthing game! A source close to the investigation has revealed that one SLeuth has already guessed the correct culprit! Could it be you? Have you not even started playing the game? There is still time! Read on for some helpful information that can assist you in either solving the mystery you’ve already been participating in or get started on catching up!

First of all, there is a suspect dossier that narrows down the list of suspects to twelve. Bookmark the site, then consider all the clues that have been given. All clues are listed here, in case you missed one in-world or one of the extra Twitter clues.

Clue #1: The evil villain who committed the crime is someone that has been thought to be a true friend of the DEN in SL.

Clue #2: A crumpled note was also found by the blood spatter. It said “Your absence has been noticed.”

Clue #3: You find a star talisman. It may have fallen out of the suspect’s pocket. You turn it over and find something engraved on the back. It says “Friendly”.

Clue #4: A mobile phone was found by the fountain. The screen had the following numbers on it: 8 6 5 5 2 7

Clue #5: Receipt for 1 pr Laredo  4242 Boots - Purple     200L$

Twitter Clue #1: A friendly state may guide you.

Twitter Clue #2: it seems there is an increase in injuries around the DEN in SL.

Now you have all the clues. You have all the suspects. Do you have the answer? Find out Wednesday, June 17, at 5:00 p.m. SLT. It’ll be fun, there will be prizes for SLeuths and everyone will get a t-shirt for participating!

When you are at 2DP tonight for the workshop, be sure to check out the last clue, found amongst the papers we started with, and look at the suspect dossier. We have narrowed the search down to twelve individuals who are the most suspicious.

Put together all the clues, including the ones from Twitter (one of them in particular will shed some light) and take a look at who we think may have committed the crime.

Last night at the 2DP auditorium DEN members were treated to a review and preview of changes to Discovery Education products by Smellslike Magic (Mike Bryant). Here is a brief list what all you missed.

• Siemens Agents of Change winners have been announced but this program is expanding and you can start right now getting ready for the next competition with great prizes. http://siemens.discoveryeducation.com/
• Discovery Student Adventures – Next year Discovery will begin offering student adventure trips to many cool places around the world. Right now or beginning soon you can follow along as the first 3 trips (Australia, South Africa, China) get underway. http://discoverystudentadventures.com/
• DE streaming is still constantly adding more great content. Partnerships with the BBC and Scholastic as well as many others keep great new resources coming.
• DE streaming Plus is adding more types of content including Skill Builders and games
• Flash videos have been added to streaming content in DE streaming. Although you can’t download the videos yet, downloading the flash content is something that is possible in the future.
• DE streaming will see some changes before school starts for most of us. Discovery Education was really looking at how to make teachers lives easier and the changes got a big thumbs up from those of us in the audience. For those of you that don’t like change remember – change is inevitable – growth is optional!

One of the most interesting revelations of the night was that Discovery Education is working on partnering with a couple of web sites that we were told we might already be using.

To keep up with everything that is happening keep an eye on the Discovery Education webinar schedule. although there is not much there they will be adding to the schedule so check back.

So what we want to know is what web 2.0 tool would get you excited if paired easily with DE streaming? Let us know by taking this poll

The search continues for the culprit at 2DP! Many people have submitted guesses, but are any of them right? We’ll find out on June 17 when the answer is revealed! In the meantime, Clue #3 is available and can be found in a room close to the stairs - I’m not going to tell you which floor!

Remember to follow SLDENLC on Twitter and attend Wednesday Workshops for additional hints. Keep up the good work, gumshoes!

For those of you who missed our tour of the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum, the pictures below hopefully will encourage you to go visit on your own.  Our tour guides passionately shared their vision with us.  If you are lucky when you go to visit, they will be on hand to guide you and answer your questions.  Thank you to Penelope Riggles  (Melissa Carrillo) the Director of the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum and her outstanding staff.

In the lobby there is a searchable kiosk database with access to various exhibits and collections.

 Another area to explore is the beautiful Placito.  Here there will be musicians and artisans. There is a “Day of the Dead” display and you can even get your own costume.

Join a virtual expedition and play in the sandbox to learn about Latino art and culture.  There are many more photos of our guided tour, which included dancing and listening to Latino music, as well as some teasers to solving our iDiscover  “Who Dunnit?” sleuthing game.

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 5 PM SLT ( 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST) as we are honored to have  Pennelope Riggles (Creative Director for the Smithsonian Latino
Virtual Museum in Second Life and DEN STAR educator Telos String give us a
guided tour of the new museum and discussion on the current
development of an interactive in-world game on excavation to
exhibition of Pre-Colombian artifacts from the Smithsonian Museum of
Natural History.
We will meet at  2 DP ( our DEN in SL HQ)  and then be given the
landmark to teleport to the museum.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/132/131/22

And of course don’t forget to look for more clues over the next weeks to help to discover “whodunit” and why? in our IDiscover Sleuthing Game.  You could be a winner!!

We will have a “Reveal Party” on June 17th. So save that date too!

Awhile back, we announced that the DEN in SL leadership council is now on Twitter. Well, if you didn’t decide to follow @SLDENLC then, you’ll want to now because during the IDiscover Sleuthing game, there will be additional clues given only to those people who follow us on Twitter.

So head on over to the SLDENLC Twitter site and click “Follow” if you have a Twitter account. If you don’t, why not?

The strangest things have been happening lately at the DEN. First, there was the theft that occurred last week. Now there is a glitch in our schedule!

We happen to have no Wednesday workshop scheduled this week, so the DEN LC will be taking a bit of a hiatus this week. You can still attend the great EdTechConnect webinar tonight with the DE folks, but there will not be a workshop at the DEN in SL afterword.

That said, the sleuthing game must go on! We have found another clue and we need you to help us solve this crime! Lor Freriksson was surveying the building to determine the best place to have a little get-together with friends when she was shocked to discover blood spatter in one of the meeting rooms! Find the room and you’ll find the blood which will lead you to your next clue. To solve the mystery behind the clue, you may have to enlist the aid of a science teacher or other scientifically-enabled person. Remember, at the DEN, it’s all about collaboration!