Fleep's Deep Thoughts Explore the Metaverse

Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes regarding my grandpa’s health, we’re all holding up ok for the moment and I appreciate all of the kind words and support you’ve sent my way. For me, the best distraction when I can’t be there is to throw myself into work, and this week has been pretty busy.

Ohio Learning Network SL Monthly Event

On Tuesday, I held the second Newbie Q&A session for members of the Ohio Learning Network. We covered the communication window, inventory management, opening and unpacking boxes, and tested the voice client. If you work in a member institution of the Ohio Learning Network, please check out the OLN Second Life resources that we’re working hard to provide. I’ve been graced with the honorary title of Second Life Ambassador for the Ohio Learning Network, and I hope to do my best to facilitate exploration of the medium around the state. Let me know how I can help!

UCSLLC Meeting

For the first time, the UC Second Life Learning Community meeting was so large we didn’t have enough chairs, let alone computers. I’ll take that as a good problem to have! Meeting notes for those who missed it are here.

National Distance Learning Week Panel in SL

The “Distance Education on the ‘MUVE'” panel at ISTE on Wednesday was a terrific success. I was very excited to moderate the event, and was impressed yet again by Peggy Sheehy, Lindy McKeown, and Sarah Robbins as they discussed using SL for education. Also kind of cool to see it covered on CNN‘s news about SL site.

Philip Rosedale Speaks

Managed to catch Philip Rosedale’s presentation to the Managing Virtual Distance conference held by the Institute for International Research. Metaversed did a great job summarizing the presentation, and though nothing terribly earth shattering was discussed, I was really tickled to have Philip speaking right into my ear through the voice client.

“We are IT” Day

I was very pleased to participate again this year in the “We are IT” day campaign, a project of the State of Ohio aimed at recruiting more women and girls into Information Technology professions. I had lunch with a table of middle school girls at Cincinnati State and talked to them about my job and the importance of IT in their education. The hot topic: Their parents forbid them to have a MySpace page and they feel left out. Hmm.

Presentation to Construction Management freshman

On Friday, I gave a presentation to freshmen in the Construction Management program at the University of Cincinnati College of Applied Science about how Second Life might be used in their studies. We visited the UC Island of course, and also the Gallery of Reflexive Architecture in-world, created by Keystone Bouchard and my friend Fumon Kubo. The students had a lot of great questions and several of their faculty are now interested in exploring SL, too.

First Peer Reviewed Article

And finally, I got notice late Friday night that an article I wrote with colleague Nancy Jennings had been published in the International Journal of Social Science. It’s the first thing I’ve had published in a peer reviewed journal and I’m really excited to have reached this milestone!

Virtual or Virtually U: Educational Institutions in Second Life

Abstract: Educational institutions are increasingly exploring the affordances of 3D virtual worlds for instruction and research, but few studies have been done to document current practices and uses of this emerging technology. This observational survey examines the virtual presences of 170 accredited educational institutions found in one such 3D virtual world called Second Life, created by San Francisco based Linden Lab. The study focuses on what educational institutions look like in this virtual environment, the types of spaces educational institutions are creating or simulating, and what types of activities are being conducted.

Keywords: educational technology, emerging technology, metaverse, Second Life, virtual worlds

Jennings, Nancy, and Chris Collins. (2007) “Virtual or Virtually U:Educational Institutions in Second Life.” International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(3), 180-187. http://www.waset.org/ijss/v2/v2-3-28.pdf

Phew, what a week!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under Deep Thoughts, Education, Family, Media, Second Life. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.