Educators Group in Second Life: Session 4

SL Educators Workshop: Build a Bowl

Session 4.  Our group was a little smaller today, since a few people had conflicts.  From the beginning of this workshop series, we told everyone to come as they could, no pressure. We also hit our first technical snaffu.  A few members of our group encountered a virus on our wetpaint wiki – and one got snagged by it.  Ugh.

Many hours of frustration later, she’s survived, but it was a difficult lesson learned.  Nothing like a nasty encounter with a virus to put you right off your new media adventure.  I’ve now pulled all of our workshop content off that wiki site and will use another way to get the materails to the teachers.  A bit of research with Wetpaint revealed that they indeed do have a trojan virus problem that was coming in through one of their ads.  So, beware.  And if you are an educator and you use a wikifarm to create a class wiki, request an add-free site — some of them do award these for educators.

We teleported up to our comfy skybox and started with a warm-up activity where the avatars buddied up with someone they didn’t know, and took photos of each other.  This gave them practice with the snapshot feature as well as camera controls. Then we had them upload their snapshots to koinup, where we’ve created a special SL Educator group. It seems that learning an SL skill, in the context of a task to complete, works well (besides it’s more fun that way).

Then we moved outside, to the grid-deck, for our building lesson. Chimera Cosmos (Liz Dorland) led us through a bowl-making exercise.   We decided on the bowl as it’s a good base-line shape for other items that the teachers might want to make for their own projects.

Chimera made an impressive set of hand outs (pictured here) to lead our group through the details.  She created these using Comic Life (a Mac application), by taking photos of herself in-world while she was building a bowl, and then cleverly arranging the photos in panels with call-outs.  These handouts really make things easier.  I particularly like the way you can see the building object, right along with the editing panel, and the avatar (providing context).  So much more effective then reading text directions.

The participants all did very well.  In no time at all they’d carved out a bowl, resized it, moved it, and named it. Then we moved onto textures.  As they arrived, Chimera dropped a folder on each of them full of interesting African textures from avatar, Szavanna Anatra (SLurl to her location).  As you can see in the photos, everyone made some stunningly colorful bowls by using these.  Then they learned to “select texture” and color the inside of their bowl differently to the outside.  Last, they learned how to make copies of their bowls and take them back into their inventories.

Kloza Xootfly and her bowl

As a final activity, we worked on our profiles.  Now that their camera skills are honed, we had everyone add a photo of their avatar to their profile and then flesh out the content on the other tabs.  In order to import a photo into your inventory, you must have a few lindens, and since many of our group are so new (with $0 balance), we needed to fix that.  Chimera to the rescue!  A quickly improvised quiz, where the first person to type the correct answer into local chat got 20 lindens.  Once the profiles were complete, we checked each other’s and made notes about their real life names and affiliations in the “My Notes” tab.

A very productive session – impressive to see how quickly everyone is learning and growing more comfortable.  I continue to feel odd when teaching a “class” without responses.  Not being able to see their faces and know what they are thinking or how it’s going over, is tough for me.  Chimera and I decided we’d come up with more ways to get them to type responses in local chat, which will help.  I know that one of the reasons they don’t do this, is because they’re learning, and that’s just one more thing to keep track of.  But, since the backchat is such an important part of SL culture, it’s probably a good idea to get everyone used to doing that.

Educators Group in Second Life: Session 3

Parcadia Violet on her mount, in the Cathedral at Chichen-Itza

We had a great session today in Second Life – the third in our series of eight workshops for educators.  In keeping with our plan, this was a “tour” day (Thursday are “building” days), and so we set off to visit three places of interest in SL.

The College of New Jersey virtual classroom

Our first stop was to Yifeng Hu’s virtual classroom at The College of New Jersey’s SL island.  Dr. Hu (SL name: Yolanda Zimmer) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications Studies at the College of New Jersey (TCNJ).  Shewelcomed us to her classroom space and led us through a PowerPoint presentation of her experience taking communication students into SL.  You can read about the way Dr. Hu’s students use the virtual world to test the communication theories they’re learning about in class in this recent article, from TCNJ magazine. We wish we’d had more time with Dr Hu – I know that everyone had questions for her – but her time was limited.  I’m also beginning to realize that three “tour sites” in one hour is just too rushed. We may need to limit it to just two in order to give everyone adequate time to explore and ask questions.

Selecting plants for genetic crosses on Genome Island

Next on our list was Genome Island.  Our group studied the map and then split off in different directions to explore what interested them (our plan was to regroup at the landing point after 10 minutes).  Some went to try the test crosses in the Abbey garden, some tried doing genetic crosses in the cattery or the bunny hatch, some entered and floated within a model of an animal cell, while still other climbed the tower of molecular biology, taking the various tutorials along the way. There is much to see and explore on Genome Island, and I’m sure the SL Educators will come back. One thing that I like about this build is the amount of interactivity built into the exhibits.  There are hundreds of interactive objects on Genome Island. This is not a “click and watch” kind of place, there are intriguing things to do and discover in every corner.

Riding horses on Chichenitza

Our final stop was a return to the island of Chiapas (part of the Visit Mexico Island) where Chimera knew there were some horses available to ride.  She led the way and everyone learned how to take a horse into their inventory and then “wear it”, in order to ride.  Off we galloped – onto the beach, up a hill, over to Campeche, and right into the cathedral in the town square (modeled after the real life, Cathedral of Campeche, which dates to 1540). Chimera hoped that the horses didn’t include animations that might, ahem, leave deposits inside the lovely cathedral building.

There were plenty of opportunties along the way to hone our skills on camera controls, taking snapshots, navigating, teleporting, and managing our inventories.  You can see a larger collection of photos from our adventures in the Koin-up group SL Educators. Our group is getting quite proficient and much more relaxed about trying things.  It’s great to see everyone having fun.

Do it Like a Nabati Poem

There’s a new craze about an old tradition in the United Arab Emirates – Nabati poetry.  This is a very old Arabic form of poetry with roots in ancient Bedouin culture.  A form of oral history, Nabati poems recount battles, rehearse humiliations, pass along advice, describe nature, and recount the details of daily life.  It’s apparently meant to be quite loose, sing-songy, simple, direct and spontaneous.  It’s the poetry of the people, expressing common concerns, and every-man themes.  In order to write a Nabati poem properly, you have to have experienced your subject.  Lived it, breathed it, been stepped on by it.  It’s the very gritty realism of the art form that is its whole point.

Apparently, Sheikh Mohammed, the Vice President of the UAE, is a prolific Nabati poet himself.  He even has a website where he posts his poems (and their English translations).

There’s a television show in Abu Dahbi called Million’s Poet, now in its fourth sesaon, which sounds like the UAE-equivalent of American Idol.  On the show, people recite their own Nabati verse, and the winners (voted on by millions via cell phones) earn big cash prizes.  It’s created quite a buzz. People are talking about it, internet chat rooms are loaded with debates about the poems, and millions of people are participating.  Interestingly, for the first time the winner’s circle of Million’s Poet included a woman this year.  Ayda al Jahani, 39, a mother of six and history teacher from the Saudi city of Medina, came in fourth place.

In this interesting blend of east-meets-west, I am particularly intrigued by the spur behind these Nabati poems – the idea of beautiful and arresting poetry coming out of the details of everyday life.  The notion that you have to experience the subject of your poem in order to write it – that an earthy rendition of the lessons of the past can offer us a clearer understanding of the present.

Educators Group in Second Life: Session 2

SL Educators Workshop in the Skybox

Our little intrepid group of educators had their second workshop session today – and it was a douzy.  We started with a quick review from last week, checked to see if anyone had questions, and asked them what was their favorite new learned thing from the previous session….answers included:

how to “wear” something, how find things in inventory, how to focus in on something (camera controls)

Then we teleported up to our skybox classroom and had fun rezzing items from the standard-issue Library folder.  I was surrprised at what all was in there – a go-kart, a rocket launcher, a beach ball, chairs, plants….all sorts of goodies.  And, as is always the case when you teach, you learn things yourself.  Did you know that when you rez something from the Library folder, then take it back, it goes into your regular inventory?  News to me….

Session 2 - Building lesson

We had a little trouble getting everyone up there to the skybox – some late-comers, and some people having lag problems.  But Chimera played “sweeper” while I lead them through the rezzing exercise.  Once everyone was warmed up, we went out onto the skybox “deck” (large, roofless, open space with a grid pattern on the floor which we are using for building projects) for their first building lesson.  Chimera led the way, from her platform perch above the deck and it all worked out very well.  She walked them through rezzing a sphere, moving it, resizing it, naming it, and then coloring it.  Of course, each participant is at a different level – some are experienced SLers, some are brand new.  But we tag team – while Chimera is teaching, I stay close to answer the questions that people might have, trying to work them through their difficulties in private IMs, so as not to choke up the local chat. We’ve set it up so that Chimera and I are the only ones talking (we take turns), and that keeps the possibilities of active mics, the inevitable screeches or interruptions to a minimum.  I do notice though that the newer members have trouble simultaneously following the lesson and what’s going on in chat. Tricky for everyone, really.

After our building lesson, we moved on to a navigation item (each Thursday session will have the same three components – a fun game to start, a building lesson, and a navigational thing).  This time – filling out your profile. We had just gotten started when Chimera thought it would be fun to experience a tornado in Second Life.  She set it off and —whooosh!!  Before we knew it, we were all blown in the air and sucked down through a hole in the Skybox, falling and tumbling over 2000 meters through the sky, down to the ground.  It was quite an adventure.  No one was sure what was going on, but they were good humored about it.

And that was our session.  I have to say that one thing I find disconcerting about teaching in SL is that, as we’re going, I’m not sure how it’s going over with the “students”.  I can’t see their faces to know if they are with me.  Are they nodding off?  Are they confused?  Do they have questions?  We ask for feedback from them in the local chat, but that’s sporadic, and not everyone answers everytime (for some of them, it’s hard to find local chat,  monitor it, and type while they’re trying to concentrate – so I understand).  But that is one drawback of teaching virtually.

We tried recording this session using Garageband.  It worked great for the parts where I was speaking but it didn’t pick up Chimera’s part, becuase, of course, I needed to change the input from my microphone when it was her turn.  Rats.  Ah well, it’s all a grand experiment!

Educators Group in Second Life: Session 1

Chimera Cosmos and Spiral Theas

My colleague, Liz Dorland (SL= Chimera Cosmos) and I (Spiral Theas) decided to organize a Second Life Eduator’s group.  We kept meeting these fabulous teachers who wanted to learn  more about the application of the virtual world to education and so, we thought, what the heck – let’s set up a workshop series for these teachers. We’ll meet for just an hour – two times per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) for four weeks, as an experiment.  We can show them beginning navigational stuff, introduce them to basic building skills, and take them to other educational builds, favorites of ours, for inspiration.

Chimera's Comicbook How-To Handouts

What sounded like an easy and fun idea has turned out to be quite a bit of work – but it’s also even more fun that I would have imagined. First of all, it gives Liz and I an iron-clad excuse to investigate lots of interesting places and activities we’ve been wanting to learn about any way.  It’s also forced us to be more systematic about understanding the basics of getting around in Second Life (as always, you learn the most when you are going to teach). We’ve created handouts and step-by-step instructions for the participants. Then, of course, we needed an online place to store and display all of those, as well as a place to keep the schedule – so we built a wiki site for the group.  And then we wanted to document the sessions – so we started a Koin-Up group where everyone in the class can post photos.  Now, I’m experimenting with recording options so that we can archive the sessions.

Today was our first meeting.  13 teachers showed up (there will be 17 when everyone attends) and they’re from all over – Great Britain, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, and Boston.  Some teach college students, some are curriculum developers, some teach primary years, and some secondary grades.  Men and women – older and younger – some experienced in SL and some brand spankin’ new.  I love the diversity.

We started with some basic navigational stuff (creating landmarks, map reading, inventory) and then we teleported up to our skybox classroom.  Everyone learned how to “buy” a chair, find it in their inventory, and then rez it on their spot on the classroom floor.  Then we had a little lesson in camera controls, learning how to zoom in/out and focus.

Chichenitza - view from the top (taken by Kirsten Loza)

After that. we teleported down to the ground and then bounced over to Chichenitza for a bit of fun.  Everyone picked up the free Mayan costume and then climbed the magnificent stairs to take in the view from the top.

I was very impressed with how well everyone did.  They seemed to follow along beautifully and were patient with the various technical hassles one inevitably has with a platform like this.  For Liz and me, it was great fun and a welcome challenge.  We work well together – trading off the various responsibilities, and supporting each other (I would never do this by myself!).  When one is leading the class, the other is adding helpful explanations to the backchat, taking snapshots, and giving extra support to those who need it.

I’ll try to record impressions and lessons learned here, on the blog.  That should help me extract my own learning from the experience – and help us remember what we did!

Learning Obliquely

Last week Kate Haney turned me onto a really interesting article on the web site for Intelligent Life (a quarterly journal published by the Economist) about professionalism that I’ve been pondering ever since (thanks, Kate!).  The article starts out talking about professionalism in sports (cricket, specifically) and the way that our understanding of the terms “amateur” and “professional” has shifted with time.  While “amateur” might have been used at one time to describe someone who embarks on something (a hobby, sport) for the love of it – not to be paid or to be perfect – but because they’re having fun with it.  But these days, when we use the term “amateur”, it is usually in a pejorative sense.  As in sloppy, slap-dash, and without care.  Professionalism, the author suggests, is in ascendancy.  We are all encouraged to be professional.  To have professional wins.  To take a professional attitude.  To rise above – and act professionally.  But what does that get us, really?

The author goes on to talk about professionalism in education and how it can have the unfortunate consequence of hemming teachers in, limiting spontaneity, and short-changing students… Teachers being asked to prepare detailed lesson plans for every minute of their day, curriculum guidelines, mission statements, covenants, and – of course, the hand maiden of professionalism — Assessment.

But it’s when he connects these thoughts to a forthcoming book by the economist John Kay, entitled Obliquity, that my mind really started to race.  In his book, apparently, Kay puts forth the notion that complex goals (like investment banking, and, say, teaching young minds) are best gone at obliquely. That is, as a by-product of something else, rather than an end in and of itself.  What an interesting notion to consider.

And consider it I did, at the grocery store, that same week. I was going about my business when I spotted a young woman with a toddler who was clearly putting his first language connections together.  The boy had a bag of M&M candies clutched in his hand.  As they approached the cashier, the boy stopped suddenly in his tracks, visibly gob-smacked. He stood there; staring at the cashier who, as it turned out, was wearing a smock decorated with the M&M cartoon characters.  The boy’s mother was oblivious to the amazing moment this boy was undergoing, since she was busy putting her groceries on the conveyer belt..  I watched carefully as he stepped a little closer to check his data. Nodding his head, he said in a clear, loud voice, “SAME!”

A little oblique learning going on there.

Now that’s taking extinction seriously!

Mole cricket tattoo

Most of us worry about the growing list of endangered species, many of us donate time or money to groups who work to protect them, but how many of us have taken steps to promote the cause by tattooing images of extinct organisms on our bodies?  I mean, really.  I ask you?

Well, 100 dedicated folks in Great Britain have.  That’s how seriously they’re taking it.  It started with a group called ExtInk and a November, 2009 exhibit of drawings, illustrating 100 of the most endangered species in the British Isles. Creatures like the water vole, the tundra swan, and narrow-leaved hellaborine.  It concluded with the live tattooing of the drawings on 100 willing volunteers. Apparently, you had to apply for the priveledge of having one of these tatoos (would love to read a few of those letters!).  Here’s the full list of all the participants, along with which tatoo they received.

I love the idea of these 100 people, walking around as bold biodiversity ambassadors.  Can’t you imagine the conversation?  ”What’s that on your arm?”  …”Oh, that?  Well, that’s a red-backed shrike.  Let me tell you about it…”

Visualizing a Tonne of Change

What Does a Ton of CO2 Look Like?

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average person living in an industrialized country emits 12 metric-tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.  For Americans, it’s 23 tonnes.

Recognizing how abstract big numbers like that can be for most people, a group called Millennium ART (in conjunction with the United Nations Department of Public Information) created a clever art installation to demonstrate.  They’ve constructed a HUGE cube that sits on a barge on St. Jorgen’s Lake (just outside Copenhagen, Denmark – where the UN Climate Change Conference – COP15 – took place in December, 2009) that approximates the space occupied by one tonne of carbon dioxide gas.

But that’s not all.  The cube is constructed from shipping containers, with plasma media screens on all the faces.  Millennium ART rigged the cube so that media can be displayed on the visible faces via a live portal, making it a giant multimedia installation.  Over the course of a day, a series of images and statistics (all related to the topic of climate change) display on the faces of the cube.  Here is a short video showing the way the cube was constructed and here is a seven-minute video of the cube, displaying it’s content, as people walk by.

Measured at standard atmospheric pressure, one metric-tonne of carbon dioxide takes up a cube the size of a 3-story building (8.2 meters x 8.2 meters x 8.2 meters) – the size of this demonstration cube.

What a great idea, eh?  Not only is one metric tonne difficult to visualize, but since no one can actually see CO2, this is a double-bind visualization problem.  It’s also wonderful to think of a group of scientists, architects, designers, and media technologists working together to meaningfully interpret this environmental problem for people.  Powerful message.

One Thing You Are Not Doing Now?

What is the one thing you would like to do....?

When I work with teachers, I usually start my workshops with a question.  “What is the one new media thing (tool, idea, experiment, whatever) that you would like to try with your students that you are not doing now?” I typically ask them to write that one thing down on an index card.  And then, I ask them to flip it over and write on the back, “what’s standing in your way?”

I read some pretty helpful information on those index cards….creative ideas, interesting plans, and some pretty darned good insights into the roadblocks that teachers face.

Here’s a smattering of my index card collection.  These are all new things that high school teachers have said they would like to try:

- Using Moodle to teach part of my course.

- Learn how to use podcasting so my students can create podcasts.

- Using wikis and interactive forums.

- Need to be more aware of what all is out there.

- Blogging – would like my students to blog.

- Student projects – sharing information between my class and a class in Sweden.

- Video podcasts and teleconferencing with students in another location.

- Help students develop personal learning networks.

- Use Facebook for program updates and building a community.  Learn how to section off parts of Facebook.

- Teach students how to read, evaluate, and edit information online.

- More about online safety and etiquetter – also how to get hits and increase participation.

- How to use Google Docs effectively.

- Learn how to use tags effectively.

- Research.

- Help students to find and access other professionals.

- How to creatively create a tour of my classroom.

- How to use KMZ files with Google Earth.

- Post more of my resources on networks.

Pretty good list, eh?  I’m always impressed with the scale and the variation of the ideas I hear. Teachers are endlessly creative.  And what’s standing in their way?  What do they write on the flipside of the index card?  About 90% of the responses are “time”, or some variant of time….as in, not enough of it.  Some say “training” or “resources” or “buy in from my administration”….but mostly, it’s just time they need.  Time to learn about it themselves.  Time to think.  Time to plan.

Maybe one of the best professional development gifts we could give to teachers in the new year is time off!  Maybe a free period for  one semester, with the goal to figure out that participatory media tool they’ve been wanting to try?

What have you been wanting to try, and what obstacles do you face?  And, just as importantly, what ideas do you have to get you the time you need to clear those obstacles away?

Ten Words to Stop Mis-spelling

Just found this great poster (available for $13.95.) featuring ten words that are classically mis-spelled, along with strategies to help avoid the typical pitfalls.  On the poster are classic stumblers like “affect” vs. “effect”, “a lot”, “loose” vs. “lose”, and “weird” (not “wierd”).  Whew, did I ever recognize myself in that poster.  But what I really love about it is that the clever cartoons on the poster give you a handy (and memorable!) way to remember the rule.  What a great example of using visualizations to guide and reinforce the learning.