- Up early post-thanksgiving dinner, I am still stuffed like a turkey. #
23
Nov 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-11-23
21
Nov 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-11-21
- So I see not everyone has failed to get into SL this evening, tells me can’t connect to any sims. Phooey. #
- Whoah hey, maybe gonna let me in and get some work done? #
- @wainbrave DNS craziness on the LL blog it appears. #
- Half the grid is down, lag is bad, gonna have to call it a night and get up early to prep for the presentation tomorrow. Phooey. #
- @rynbretag Hi from Cincinnati, OH! #
- @ryanbretag and McKenzie – Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂 #
20
Nov 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-11-20
- Was looking for scripted object to use in our post office to show online status, drop notecards etc for our faculty #
- all I can find that sort of fits the bill are "Escort Boards" for all your slave needs. How depressing. #
- @Fumon Hey stranger, welcome back. Only just at midterms?! #
- And crud just when I thought I had avatars added to the spreadsheet, I see an additional 164 users in the estate menu. CRUD. #
- @RavenPhoenix Looked through both Onrez and slx, need pic + mailbox + online status + IM + TP #
- @RavenPhoenix Think I’ll just have to build it myself. #
- Thanks @roadup will check it out. 🙂 #
- Wishing I could program my way out of a paper bag. #
- @cc_chapman British(?) Canadian smarties are like M&Ms. 🙂 #
- @skydaddy Thanks for comment re: galloway, appreciate the info, still thought his testimony was powerful #
19
Nov 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-11-19
- Anyone have a webcast link to the castranova talk? Can’t seem to TP into any of the sims #
- Thanks @rubaiyat! That one worked. 🙂 #
- I think the concept of "migration" into the virtual world might be a very frightening concept to many people. #
- His remarks are so game focused, I have a very hard time mapping his observations into SL terms. #
- If I had to guess I’d say SL = life = game and we’re playing for real stakes, most exciting of all. 😉 #
- Comparison between game companies and governments is pretty spot on. #
- Damn jut lost sound on the sim #
19
Nov 07
PO Box Bad Scripter
The goal was to have a “Post Office” on campus with a directory of our faculty and staff, a mailbox for their students to drop notecards, online status indicator that could be clicked to send an IM, and a teleport to their office location. A programmer I’m not, and at 5 prims a pop, gets a little pricey with 30 members, but what can you do? Cobbled together a bunch of freebie scripts and hope this will work for now. Someone needs to make a pretty product that doesn’t have anything to do with slaves or escorts.
posted by Fleep Tuque on University of Cincinnati using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]
19
Nov 07
Crazy productive week
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!
18
Nov 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-11-18
- Watching VWs panel from MacAruther Foundation: http://takeonedigital.blip.tv/file/488039/ #
- @Intellagirl Hope you guys hve a great time! #
18
Nov 07
Legal Liability of SL for Institutions
I meant to properly blog this the other day, but hopefully some saw it through a brief tweet.
In this video, an Iowa State University panel of faculty, staff, and administrators consider the implications of using Second Life from an institutional perspective. Both the pros and cons are debated, and I would recommend it not just to educators, but those representing an institution of any sort. When discussing legal liability issues, the focus is necessarily on US law, but the.. ethical and philosophical questions inherent in the presentations really will apply globally.
I’ve been to many panels and presentations and conference sessions about Second Life, but this one gets to some questions that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere, and despite the fact that most of the participants seems to have done some homework on Second Life, with many having accounts and demonstrating competence in-world, many of the participants are what I’d consider laymen in SL terms. Not newbs, but not residents. And their concerns are ones that I imagine will be shared by many of our bosses and administrators and legal departments and HR departments.
Worth the time investment to watch the whole panel, the Q&A can be skipped.
View the Iowa State University Second Life Panel video here.
17
Nov 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-11-17
- Just saw a sim go down, wonder what is going on with the grid today. #
- @Ordinal Thanks! #
- @RavenPhoenix Got word of the griefer raid, @wporter blogged it: http://tinyurl.com/2fd5uo #
- Iowa State U panel discusses legal implications of SL in education – a must watch video: http://tinyurl.com/24fdl2 #
- @SinTrenton They do focus on some US specific laws re: student privacy, but really is broader than even edus. Worth a look. #
- @kjarrett Thought viewing adult content on Flickr was turned off by default? #
- @kjarrett I know other teachers use Photobucket, but I haven’t tried it. #
- @GardnerCampbell Just saw your tweets – thanks! 🙂 #
17
Nov 07
Political Apathy and Stumbling
After the last presidential election, I felt such a profound sense of despair that I don’t think I’ve recovered from it even still. It was such a disappointment, that I confess to being completely apathetic about American politics for the first time in my adult life. I managed to vote in every election since, but my heart wasn’t in it.
Today though I was finally looking at StumbleUpon(worst Web2.0 name evar) and checking out the video feeds in the Politics section and came across this clip. It’s framed without context in the StumbleUpon window and at first I wasn’t sure when it took place, because why hadn’t I seen something so powerfully stated in my various net wanderings? How did I miss it? Well, it was a year ago when I was still truly in the depths of despair about this war, my cousin was still in Iraq, and I rather avoided the news coverage about it because it was just too distressing. It reminds me that I do need to pay better attention _and_ be more active in spreading information that I think is important to making good political decisions.
As for StumbleUpon, I think I like the serendipity component of it, even if I hate the name. I see too that friends can recommend things to one another, so I’m fleep513 if you want to friend me. I’ll have to see if StumbleUpon becomes part of the routine or not, but in the meantime, I’m glad I found this video through it.