SL Continues

This past week I worked on the following:

• Created notecards on the following: Taking a Snapshot, Camera Control, Communicating with Chat, Chat History, and Instant Message. I dropped these into Zaia's eOwens' inventory. I used Rezed.org's curriculum guides, which I learned about at the SL Convention. I personalized them for our purposes. I also created one on Inviting Friends, but I haven't dropped this one yet.
• Talked with Mark about the YouTube videos for Owens' ads. He will work with AC on converting these files so we can work with them in SL.
• Purchased a YouTube video viewer, but I'm having difficulty with it. One problem is that I don't have rights (or permissions) on our Island, and that seems to be a problem with using this viewer.
• Continued to teleport to various islands to learn what is available.
• Continued to read daily the SLED Educators Digest and the Slrl Digest (research). Oftentimes, these have some valuable information and resources. Thanks to Delicious, I can tag any of these resources and access them from any computer. This is a great program.
• Ordered and received the following books, which I learned about from attending the SL Convention: The Wisdom of Crowds, Here Comes Everybody, and The Tipping Point.
• Attended the GTAC-ASTD monthly meeting on the "10 M's of Engagement." Interesting information was shared. Plus, I was interested in learning if any of the members have used Second Life and while I didn't talk with everyone, those I did seemed to know about SL but not using it. Since ASTD has an island, I thought some would know about it. Additionally, there were quite a few trainers at the SL Convention so I wondered if anything was being done with SL in our area.
• Continued to perfect my SL PowerPoint Presentation "A Second Life Primer."
  

This week I plan to attend some workshops in SL. Still looking for a good one on role playing. Plus, I have a lot of research to do.

Second Life (SL) Continues

This past week I sorted through my notes from the SL convention. Trying to organize so they will be useful later.

• In Second Life, I visited the Manpower Island and talked with a staff member and a coordinator. At this time, they don't have any opportunities for administrative assistants, but they believe this will change. They have a nice orientation overview--easy to read and navigate but little hands-on. I believe it would be effective for students to review. Plus, they have laptops with stools, and the avatar sits on a stool and learns about topics such as Positions in SL, Interviewing in SL, and I think this would be valuable for students to review in the OAD260 class.

• I teleported to Microsoft's Island, but it's not always available to outsiders. What I do like is the workshop/training sessions the Microsoft Users Group conducts in SL. For example, this past week it was on MailMerge in Word. Again, a good training session for students in OAD260.
  

• I teleported to Mill Pond and talked with a colleague from another two-year Ohio school. We've been friends for awhile. He plans to use SL for his economics class, but the only problem is his college doesn't have an island. SL is a great tool for economics with the LindeX and trading.

• I attended a Basic Scripting workshop this week at the Human Resource Island. While I am not a programmer, at least I understand some of what has to happen to make SL work.

• I met with Ruth, and she provided an overview of our College's Island and its future as far as she knows. The College is planning an SL Island Open House sometime in November, and she asked if I would participate. Of course, I will. I'm working on some content for orientation. This upcoming week I'll work on "taking a snapshot." I'll create a notecard and put it in her inventory. Will contribute another topic, but I'm not sure what topic yet.
  

• Flying. I perfected this skill this past week.
  

• I also contacted our Public Relations Dept. to acquire the fall advertisements. We thought these videos would be great to include in our Island. These ads will be updated this month, and then we'll use the udpated ones. In the meantime, Ruth can work with what she receives to see how they can best be incorporated on our Island.

• Finally, I started a PowerPoint presentation. I think I'll call it "A Second Life Primer." When I tell people I'm working in Second Life, they all ask the same questions? What is it? How long has it been around? Who owns it? So I'm including this information in my PPT.

As time progresses, I see more application in OAD260, Administrative Office Management, and OAD270, Presentation Management. Not so sure about internship opportunities especially since "internship" usually designates "no pay," and our students are paid in their cooperative experience course. I've contacted one individual who, I understand, has a successful internship program in SL. I haven't heard back from her yet.

Looking forward to the upcoming League's CIT conference as there are quite a few SL presentations. Also, I hope to connect with someone at OBTA who might want to collaborate in SL.

Another week forges ahead!

SL Convention in Tampa - Update

This past week my activities included attending the Second Life Convention in Tampa, FL, along with participating in a Sloan workshop entitled “Introduction to Second Life.” The best thing about the SL convention is I didn’t have to explain what “second life” is to anyone. It was difficult to get use to introducing myself by my avatar’s name, Susie, Felisimo, which was on my nametag. Some eye openers:

• A lot of corporate trainers attended who are involved in SL. IBM has 48 islands.
• I networked with one individual about internship opportunities. I have some work to do here.
• Some colleges and libraries are doing some awesome education in SL.
• It’s very profound and on the cutting edge.
• Not your typical business education type conference.
• I saw one walking around with a furry tail who was probably replicating his “furry” avatar.
• So many new businesses have begun as a result of SL such as Avatrian, a Second Life development shop and metaverse consulting firm.
• Saw some of my Ohio friends and attended some of their presentations.
• Attendees represented all generations. This surprised me as I didn’t think I would see many Baby Boomers, but there were a lot of us. Probably a fair split on gender.
• Enjoyed hearing Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden), the founder of Linden Labs. He gave a keynote presentation.
• Enjoyed Intellagirl’s keynote on The Promise based on Clay Shirkey’s Here Comes Everybody. Intellagirl presented at the Stark State workshop I attended this past January. I plan to read this book.
• Attended two presentations about two new virtual colleges offering training and education: Rockcliffe University and Insight Virtual College.
• I didn’t meet anyone in the field of office administration. I’m sure I was the “loner.” Many were in the arts and sciences area, health area, and some in computer science. I did connect with an individual from Florida teaching in the computer information area.
• An SL Certification program is in the development stages.
• At Teachers College of Columbia University, they provide cubical spaces for students on their island and use the following: in-world discussions, group and individual visits, guided tours, group work, and assigned individual and group work. They ask their students to take a snapshot of their Avatar and RL person, scale them, make a frame, apply to a texture, mount it on the wall—Class of 09! I like this idea.
• The importance of ethical digital citizenship was addressed in many sessions along with Terms of Service, and Code of Conduct. It was recommended that College’s should revise their Student Code of Conduct to include Second Life.
  

Then I spent time participating in the in Sloan Workshop. I completed a lot of the forums prior to leaving for the SL convention. I was able to attend the final in-world session on Thursday, but I really didn’t find it that valuable. I think it’s because I did this in the four-week class I took. This course really was for “noobs.” I’m a little beyond that. I do like the information the facilitators provided regarding scavenger hunts along with how they ran the course. We used Moodle, which I’d never used before. I don’t think it’s as user-friendly as Blackboard.

This week, I’m back to attending some workshops in SL and typing my convention notes along with researching websites and other information I received at the convention.

Intro to SL - Begins Today

I have a lot going on in the SL world. Today I started “Introduction to Second Life for Educators, a course conducted through The Sloan Consortium and offered to us "free" through OLN. It runs through September 12. The CMS is Moodle so that's a new tool for me to use. I've started responding to the forums and teleporting to some of the slurls and taking my photo at these places. It looks like there are some great resources available, and the facilitators have been involved in SL for a few years. Unfortunately, since I'm attending the SL Convention and staying in Florida a little longer, I won't be able to attend all the live sessions. Taking an online course is time consuming. I've spent about three hours today on this course so far. I'm also meeting some new AVs through this course.