Two students delivered their PowerPoint presentations in Second Life last week using one of our many presentation areas on our island. Students stood behind the podium during the presentation. Then during the question and answer session at the end of the presentations, students stepped off the podium and walked toward the audience. This created a more engaging environment. They were very effective using voice and gestures.
Those students who didn't present in SL did participate, and their avatars teleported to the presentation area on the Owens island. As audience participants, they used text chat to ask questions at the end of the presentations. The student presenters created a more personal environment by using the other avatars' names when they were asked questions at the end.
There are some PowerPoint limitations such as animations and hyperlinks not working. However, the slide viewer is very easy to use, and it has arrows to advance the slides.
For the team project, three students plan to present in SL. My goal is to have them create a notecard for the partipants to pick up at the beginning of the presentation.
Also, I plan to invite others to listen to the presentations. We are going to try and record them using Camtasia.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Reflections from First Week of Class
I've returned to the classroom after my one-semester sabbatical. Now the challenge is using what I learned.
I introduced Second Life in my Presentation Management class. Unfortunately, we couldn't create accounts the first day. I recall this discussion in the SLED listserve, but I didn't have the foresight to take care of the problem in advance. Most of my students were successful in creating their accounts at home and downloading the Second Life client without a problem. Our problem is now resolved, and we can create accounts from our labs.
Thankfully, this is a small class--started with ten and now have nine students. One student dropped because she doesn't have Internet connectivity at home and said that the Camtasia videos I created gave her a migraine. Also since giving a presentation in Second Life is an extra credit opportunity, I explained that I would give her an alternate extra credit activity which I did. I never thought of the movement causing migraines especially since I don't suffer from migraines. Something to think about.
My other students are enjoying Second Life. I spent time in class showing some basics. They realize it's a challenge,but they appear to enjoy the challenge--especially the traditional students. They viewed the videos and now know "Torley Linden." He creates all the Second Life videos that are at YouTube.
Last evening I created a Group, OCCOAD270, so I can easily share information with my students, and I sent them invitations to join (for free). Four students have already joined the group. I sent them notices with some freebies. Of course, they all want to look "good" and the first area is HAIR. The freebies included hair.
My students will be working on an assignment requiring them to complete ten activities in Second Life. Additionally, they are required to attend presentations in Second Life and evaluate the experience. I posted some YouTube video links in the Blackboard website under the Lectures button. These videos address some of the skills they will need to complete the assignment. For example, they have to take a snapshot so I made sure to post a video link for that skill.
I think some students will want to use Second Life for one of their presentations. They realize that this will require additional time with me outside of class. Since our lab is free for an hour after class, we can continue to work.
Fortunately with my Perkins grant, I can give my students Linden dollars so they can upload snapshots, their PowerPoint presentation, and/or buy some items.
So--I'm glad to be back in the classroom and pleased with my students' reactions to Second Life thusfar.
I introduced Second Life in my Presentation Management class. Unfortunately, we couldn't create accounts the first day. I recall this discussion in the SLED listserve, but I didn't have the foresight to take care of the problem in advance. Most of my students were successful in creating their accounts at home and downloading the Second Life client without a problem. Our problem is now resolved, and we can create accounts from our labs.
Thankfully, this is a small class--started with ten and now have nine students. One student dropped because she doesn't have Internet connectivity at home and said that the Camtasia videos I created gave her a migraine. Also since giving a presentation in Second Life is an extra credit opportunity, I explained that I would give her an alternate extra credit activity which I did. I never thought of the movement causing migraines especially since I don't suffer from migraines. Something to think about.
My other students are enjoying Second Life. I spent time in class showing some basics. They realize it's a challenge,but they appear to enjoy the challenge--especially the traditional students. They viewed the videos and now know "Torley Linden." He creates all the Second Life videos that are at YouTube.
Last evening I created a Group, OCCOAD270, so I can easily share information with my students, and I sent them invitations to join (for free). Four students have already joined the group. I sent them notices with some freebies. Of course, they all want to look "good" and the first area is HAIR. The freebies included hair.
My students will be working on an assignment requiring them to complete ten activities in Second Life. Additionally, they are required to attend presentations in Second Life and evaluate the experience. I posted some YouTube video links in the Blackboard website under the Lectures button. These videos address some of the skills they will need to complete the assignment. For example, they have to take a snapshot so I made sure to post a video link for that skill.
I think some students will want to use Second Life for one of their presentations. They realize that this will require additional time with me outside of class. Since our lab is free for an hour after class, we can continue to work.
Fortunately with my Perkins grant, I can give my students Linden dollars so they can upload snapshots, their PowerPoint presentation, and/or buy some items.
So--I'm glad to be back in the classroom and pleased with my students' reactions to Second Life thusfar.
Monday, December 15, 2008
December 8 Week's Blog
This week I completed the following activities:
Viewed Camtasia Tutorial Videos.
Created three Camtasia SL videos on the following topics: camera and movement controls, inventory in SL, finding a presentation or workshop in SL.
Continued to read daily the Educator’s Digest (SLED) and Slrl Digest(Research).
Worked on my Evaluation of Success and will post this soon.
Reviewed the SL survey results.
Read SL articles and webpages.
Worked on SL handouts for OAD270 class.
Getting ready for the holidays now.
Viewed Camtasia Tutorial Videos.
Created three Camtasia SL videos on the following topics: camera and movement controls, inventory in SL, finding a presentation or workshop in SL.
Continued to read daily the Educator’s Digest (SLED) and Slrl Digest(Research).
Worked on my Evaluation of Success and will post this soon.
Reviewed the SL survey results.
Read SL articles and webpages.
Worked on SL handouts for OAD270 class.
Getting ready for the holidays now.
Friday, December 5, 2008
December 1 Week's Blog
This has been an interesting week with the opening of the Owens Island in Second Life. The island is really well-constructed, and I have a new office located on the island. Here are this week's activities:
Read and reviewed articles and my collected webpages on Second Life. As a result, I've been updating my pkwiki.
Participated in the Open House on Thursday (10-5) and Friday (noon-4:30). Friday was busier than Thursday. We had visitors from OSU, UC, Montana State, along with other Owens faculty and staff who have created avatars. A few of our ITS staff visited since they will be supporting SL. I now know of one important area that the Help Desk needs to assist students with: voice chat. That is if faculty choose to use voice chat instead of text chat. This is one feature that I believe students will have the most problems.
I have decided that SL will enhance my Presentation Management course so I've decided to incorporate Second Life in this course. In OAD270 students learn presentation delivery skills and PowerPoint. Students can evaluate the differences between presenting in Second Life and Real Life by participating in the many free educational presentations. Students will also have the option of using Second Life to deliver one of their presentations. As a result the students too will upgrade their technology skills by learning how PowerPoint works in Second Life.
Additionally, I still believe Second Life has value as a recruitment tool. I have been working with an Office Administration (OAD) graduate creating a podcast of the student experience in the OAD program and would like to have it posted on the Island. If my OAD260, Administrative Office Management course, runs (there are low numbers), I know I can use SL in this course also.
This week I plan to meet with the IR office to review my survey results and how best I can report the results.
Next week's blog will address the items under EVALUATION OF SUCCESS.
Read and reviewed articles and my collected webpages on Second Life. As a result, I've been updating my pkwiki.
Participated in the Open House on Thursday (10-5) and Friday (noon-4:30). Friday was busier than Thursday. We had visitors from OSU, UC, Montana State, along with other Owens faculty and staff who have created avatars. A few of our ITS staff visited since they will be supporting SL. I now know of one important area that the Help Desk needs to assist students with: voice chat. That is if faculty choose to use voice chat instead of text chat. This is one feature that I believe students will have the most problems.
I have decided that SL will enhance my Presentation Management course so I've decided to incorporate Second Life in this course. In OAD270 students learn presentation delivery skills and PowerPoint. Students can evaluate the differences between presenting in Second Life and Real Life by participating in the many free educational presentations. Students will also have the option of using Second Life to deliver one of their presentations. As a result the students too will upgrade their technology skills by learning how PowerPoint works in Second Life.
Additionally, I still believe Second Life has value as a recruitment tool. I have been working with an Office Administration (OAD) graduate creating a podcast of the student experience in the OAD program and would like to have it posted on the Island. If my OAD260, Administrative Office Management course, runs (there are low numbers), I know I can use SL in this course also.
This week I plan to meet with the IR office to review my survey results and how best I can report the results.
Next week's blog will address the items under EVALUATION OF SUCCESS.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
November 24 Week's Blog
I took some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday, but I did accomplish the following in SL:
Attended class in SL: Groups and Group Management, held at Insight Virtual College. SL allows an avatar to be a member of up to 25 groups. You can tell a lot about someone by checking the types of groups they are involved in. I'll be creating a group for my classes then I can share slurls with them and communicate other information to them. In this class we learned to create a group, assign roles with the group, set permissions for group roles, and set parameters for roles that will enable you to manage your business and land.
Completed my OCC Office. I continued to work on my office such as creating prims and adding textures to complete my wall hangings and photo frame. It's now decorated for the holidays, and I'm ready for this week's Open House.
Created Notecards for OCC. I created the following notecards and dropped them in Zaia's inventory: Griefers and Your Profile. I also shared some other information with Zaia that she may use for the Open House.
Watched Videos: I watched several videos which helped me with building and working with textures.
Watched Zaia and Biker's podcast that they created for Drexel University. They did a great job sharing Second Life's capabilities for education.
Continued to read the Educator's Digest and the Slrl Digest. As a result of reading these, I often update my PBwiki with information that I've learned.
Camtasia Video Tutorials. I watched almost all of the Camtasia video tutorials so I plan to create a short presentation using Camtasia. I've used Camtasia in the past, but the new version has additional options.
Continued reading materials and reviewing the websites that I've tagged as Second life in Delicious.
My sabbatical is coming to an end. This is the official last week of classes for fall semester.
Attended class in SL: Groups and Group Management, held at Insight Virtual College. SL allows an avatar to be a member of up to 25 groups. You can tell a lot about someone by checking the types of groups they are involved in. I'll be creating a group for my classes then I can share slurls with them and communicate other information to them. In this class we learned to create a group, assign roles with the group, set permissions for group roles, and set parameters for roles that will enable you to manage your business and land.
Completed my OCC Office. I continued to work on my office such as creating prims and adding textures to complete my wall hangings and photo frame. It's now decorated for the holidays, and I'm ready for this week's Open House.
Created Notecards for OCC. I created the following notecards and dropped them in Zaia's inventory: Griefers and Your Profile. I also shared some other information with Zaia that she may use for the Open House.
Watched Videos: I watched several videos which helped me with building and working with textures.
Watched Zaia and Biker's podcast that they created for Drexel University. They did a great job sharing Second Life's capabilities for education.
Continued to read the Educator's Digest and the Slrl Digest. As a result of reading these, I often update my PBwiki with information that I've learned.
Camtasia Video Tutorials. I watched almost all of the Camtasia video tutorials so I plan to create a short presentation using Camtasia. I've used Camtasia in the past, but the new version has additional options.
Continued reading materials and reviewing the websites that I've tagged as Second life in Delicious.
My sabbatical is coming to an end. This is the official last week of classes for fall semester.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
November 17 Week's Blog
I didn’t accomplish as much this week in SL since I had the ACBSP Board of Commissioners meeting and a lot of reports to read and forms to complete. However, here are some of my accomplishments:
First, our Island is being redone so I had to select a new office and refurnish and redecorate my office. That took some time. I now have an office with quite a view--even better than my face-to-face office that overlooks a courtyard.
Attended SL Class: Groups and Group Management. Groups may be used to mange a business or land. Additionally, this is an important topic because an instructor may want to set up a class as a group so one can distribute materials, slurls, etc. However, Linden Lab does limit an avatar's group memberships to 25 groups. Assigning roles to the group is also important because the group officer may not want the group members to have the ability to redo a parcel. There is a lot of information about groups, and I need to read more about it in my reference books. Since I’m not an officer of our island, my knowledge of the advanced features of groups is not necessary. When you meet someone new in SL, right-click their avatar, select Profile, and read the profile to learn about the avatar. One can tell a lot about someone by looking at the Groups the avatar is a member. For example, if you check my Profile, you’ll know I’m involved in higher education. I enjoy beading so I might consider creating a group. This is somewhat similar to groups in Facebook.
Watched Videos. Torley Linden creates wonderful videos posted in YouTube and at the Second Life website. I watched one on textures and while I’m not using Photoshop, I wanted to take one of my vacation photos of Neuschwanstein Castle, a royal palace in the Bavarian Alps of Fussen, Germany, and make it a wall photo. Yeh! Success—I was able to complete this task by creating a PowerPoint slide, insert picture, save as PNG file, upload to SL for $10L. Then I created a prim and applied the texture. I also placed my Ph.D. diploma on the wall. So I was able to do this without using Photoshop, but Photoshop and Gimp are programs that many SL users use for creating objects.
Survey results. My survey results are coming in from the Owens faculty, librarians, and instructional designers. Last count I had about 175 responses. A reminder was sent on the 21st. These results will provide information on the use and interest of Second Life.
OAD recruitment podcast. I've been working with one of our OAD graduates creating a script about her experience with the program. She talks about some of the student learning objectives and what she did to accomplish them. We are meeting on Monday, the 24th, to finalize her podcast.
Continued to read daily the Educator’s Digest (SLED) and Slrl Digest (Research) but it was a challenge with my travels. As I peruse these digests, I normally take away something valuable whether it’s a contact, website, slrl, or just ideas. This week, I learned about the use of the “Activity Theory.” Everyone asks about “pedagogy in virtual environments.” Yet, pedagogy historically refers to teaching young people; andragogy refers to teaching adults. So which theory to use? The Digest discussed the “activity theory” along with the well-know Connectivity and Connective Knowledge theory as areas to research. Andrew Churches has done an interesting analysis of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy called Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy v. 2.12: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8000050/Blooms-Digital-Taxonomy-v212. This might assist anyone in the formulation of an approach to learning in SL.
The OSU Buckeye fans are happy today! I'm one of them!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
First, our Island is being redone so I had to select a new office and refurnish and redecorate my office. That took some time. I now have an office with quite a view--even better than my face-to-face office that overlooks a courtyard.
Attended SL Class: Groups and Group Management. Groups may be used to mange a business or land. Additionally, this is an important topic because an instructor may want to set up a class as a group so one can distribute materials, slurls, etc. However, Linden Lab does limit an avatar's group memberships to 25 groups. Assigning roles to the group is also important because the group officer may not want the group members to have the ability to redo a parcel. There is a lot of information about groups, and I need to read more about it in my reference books. Since I’m not an officer of our island, my knowledge of the advanced features of groups is not necessary. When you meet someone new in SL, right-click their avatar, select Profile, and read the profile to learn about the avatar. One can tell a lot about someone by looking at the Groups the avatar is a member. For example, if you check my Profile, you’ll know I’m involved in higher education. I enjoy beading so I might consider creating a group. This is somewhat similar to groups in Facebook.
Watched Videos. Torley Linden creates wonderful videos posted in YouTube and at the Second Life website. I watched one on textures and while I’m not using Photoshop, I wanted to take one of my vacation photos of Neuschwanstein Castle, a royal palace in the Bavarian Alps of Fussen, Germany, and make it a wall photo. Yeh! Success—I was able to complete this task by creating a PowerPoint slide, insert picture, save as PNG file, upload to SL for $10L. Then I created a prim and applied the texture. I also placed my Ph.D. diploma on the wall. So I was able to do this without using Photoshop, but Photoshop and Gimp are programs that many SL users use for creating objects.
Survey results. My survey results are coming in from the Owens faculty, librarians, and instructional designers. Last count I had about 175 responses. A reminder was sent on the 21st. These results will provide information on the use and interest of Second Life.
OAD recruitment podcast. I've been working with one of our OAD graduates creating a script about her experience with the program. She talks about some of the student learning objectives and what she did to accomplish them. We are meeting on Monday, the 24th, to finalize her podcast.
Continued to read daily the Educator’s Digest (SLED) and Slrl Digest (Research) but it was a challenge with my travels. As I peruse these digests, I normally take away something valuable whether it’s a contact, website, slrl, or just ideas. This week, I learned about the use of the “Activity Theory.” Everyone asks about “pedagogy in virtual environments.” Yet, pedagogy historically refers to teaching young people; andragogy refers to teaching adults. So which theory to use? The Digest discussed the “activity theory” along with the well-know Connectivity and Connective Knowledge theory as areas to research. Andrew Churches has done an interesting analysis of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy called Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy v. 2.12: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8000050/Blooms-Digital-Taxonomy-v212. This might assist anyone in the formulation of an approach to learning in SL.
The OSU Buckeye fans are happy today! I'm one of them!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Friday, November 21, 2008
November 10 Week's Blog
Observed Brian’s African American Literature class in SL. Brian teaches at University of Central Missouri, and he was the instructor for the Continuing Ed. Class I took “Managing a Class in Second Life.” Today Brian was in Paris, France, while a conference he attended was ending so he conducted his class from Paris. Today’s topic was a discussion of Ann Petrey’s The Street.
At the beginning of the class we met in a room with circular seating (Abyssian Library) , looking at the backs of everyone, and while waiting for the class to begin, a PowerPoint on their Research Project was playing. Brian spends a lot of time building rapport at each class session. This does allow students to resolve computer and audio issues. Plus his class has an embedded librarian assigned to it to assist with the research component. He also asks students if they have any information on the status of other students in the class. After responding to students’ questions, the class moved downstairs in a more casual, circular environment. We sat around a piano. Then two students portrayed historic African American authors and gave a presentation. They were excellent. The presentations gave us valuable information in an entertaining and engaging way on the authors, their works, lives, etc. This is one benefit of Second Life—the ability to portray historic characters. They have some interesting assignments one of which requires them to post three voice threads on their readings. They can post these to the course blog and to their personal blogs. They use a lot of technological tools.
I was glad I teleported to the site early because my audio wasn’t working probably. My computer acquired a virus and my operating system was reinstalled and I had to reinstall all my programs. My settings weren’t right with the Hardware tab under Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices. I had voice chat enabled in SL so I knew my problem was with the hardware.
Continued to read daily the Educator’s Digest (SLED) and Slrl Digest (Research). As I peruse these digests, I normally take away something valuable whether it’s a contact, website, slrl, or just ideas.
Off to New York City so until next week!
At the beginning of the class we met in a room with circular seating (Abyssian Library) , looking at the backs of everyone, and while waiting for the class to begin, a PowerPoint on their Research Project was playing. Brian spends a lot of time building rapport at each class session. This does allow students to resolve computer and audio issues. Plus his class has an embedded librarian assigned to it to assist with the research component. He also asks students if they have any information on the status of other students in the class. After responding to students’ questions, the class moved downstairs in a more casual, circular environment. We sat around a piano. Then two students portrayed historic African American authors and gave a presentation. They were excellent. The presentations gave us valuable information in an entertaining and engaging way on the authors, their works, lives, etc. This is one benefit of Second Life—the ability to portray historic characters. They have some interesting assignments one of which requires them to post three voice threads on their readings. They can post these to the course blog and to their personal blogs. They use a lot of technological tools.
I was glad I teleported to the site early because my audio wasn’t working probably. My computer acquired a virus and my operating system was reinstalled and I had to reinstall all my programs. My settings weren’t right with the Hardware tab under Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices. I had voice chat enabled in SL so I knew my problem was with the hardware.
Continued to read daily the Educator’s Digest (SLED) and Slrl Digest (Research). As I peruse these digests, I normally take away something valuable whether it’s a contact, website, slrl, or just ideas.
Off to New York City so until next week!
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