Managing a Class in Second Life, 2nd Monday

This evening's class met at the Abyssinnian Church at Virtual Harlem-- a sim our instructor created as part of his dissertation. We also walked to the Library and viewed our presentation and looked at instructional orbs he created for his students. By touching the orbs, an assignment appears along with a notecard. I think I can adapt the Business Writing assignment and the Appearance, Acceptance, Identity assignment. For example, I could have students role play interviewing where they would have to dress appropriately, interview with individuals and make judgments on appearances. I may also be able to use the Cyberfeminism assignment.

We learned about how a gvurl (graphical url) is easy to find and allows the AV to teleport to the specific location. It's expected that we will see more gvurl instead of slurls.

Objective of Class: are they to build or construct objects to study or use the environment in which to study. I believe my objective is to "use the environment in which to study."

Some tips:

• So that we know who the AVs are is to add the AVs real name in their profile.


• In a F2F class to pass out a sheet for students to write their AV name and PC information. Then as an instructor you know what students are dealing with technically.


• Use a "cheat" sheet regarding how to prepare at the beginning of the class. It's important to acculturate the students to getting to class early to check their technical specs. Brian indicated he would provide us with his handout.


• It's important to make sure students are active and participate. During a presentation students may ask questions through the "chat" feature or by using the "voice" feature. Brian, our instructor, indicated he doesn't care how students communicate with him as long as they are communicating. He also indicated he uses "long pauses" so this gives students a chance to formulate, type, and or ask their questions.

• Design an environment that encourages students to spend time in SL.
  


• Have students create individual blogs and connect them to the course blog. As these grow, the individual blog could become an ePortfolio for the students. Never thought of using a blog as an ePortfolio. Along with the ePortfolio is linking a paper resume to the blog. Also, a second blog could be created as a virtual resume. Of course, students can just post their resume to their blog.
  

Something new I experienced in tonight's class were the pose balls for sitting.

One important point made was that students who are gamers will find that Second Life is a step down because of its graphical quality and interaction.

Taking a class in Second Life is a great experience for me. Mmm, I wonder if my students would want to sit for 2 hrs. participating like this. I'm thinking a blended approach is the best way to go in using Second Life.

I'm getting excited about attending the upcoming SL Convention.

I'm proud of myself because it appears I was able to upload a PowerPoint presentation to my viewer in my SL office. It costs me 140 Lindens (10 Linden per slide).