Collaboration Online

This morning I met Laurie in Illinois, a K8 four school integrator, on iChat and she shared her desktop with me. She showed me the moodle she uses at Global Classroom. We used voice and shared some ideas we had for our students and teachers working together collaboratively online. She has a first grade teacher with a lot of activities online for her students. She has a fourth grade group of teachers, one of which would likely be interested in sharing a state to state history comparitive experience with J. Nutt's fifth grade class. I suggested something similar to Henny's "Far and Away" project at http://teacherman79.wikispaces.com/. After Laurie showed me around Global Classroom I created an account and signed up for a class. I can't wait to see if it is open at school.

Live Streaming Audio

Matt Poole, AKA Cyrus Hush, is my hero! Mandie and I asked him to look into how to stream live music from real world to Second Life Sunday and today, two days later, he's figured it out! You can hear anything, but we are standing there, on Mandie's island, listening to Matt sing "Strangers in the Night." What a guy! Every little piece of our project could be the piece that stupefies us, but we keep finding resources that make it easier than we thought. This was one of those times. Whew! Thank you, Matt!

Ohio State University Medical Sim

I was home during the day today because of the Veterans day holiday. Naturally I spent as much time online as possible. Not all of it was in Second Life, but while I was on midday someone sent a message via the ISTE group looking for this particular simulation. I'd heard of it but never been there. Quite a few of us decided to go along on the tour when the landmark was shared. I am riding a sperm in a simulation at OSU's Medical build of the testes. It's very professionally done. As you ride through a male voice explains all the parts you are seeing at the cell level. I had no idea it was so complicated! They are working on the creation of an ovary next!

Virtual Pioneers - Ummah of Noor

Tonight Virtual Pioneers visited an Islamic build. We were greeted by a small group of members of the sim, some of whom had built parts of it. Here Maggie Marat is wearing traditional dress for Islamic women. She is on the right.

Pocahontus Whybrow

I have a new friend. She's Pocahontus. Isn't she great!? She hangs out at VSTE HQ in Second Life. Here she is in the executive lounge in front of an aerial view of her home, Jamestown.

ISTE Meeting Nov. 7, 2008

I love ISTE meetings. There are at least two a week that I regularly attend; KJ Hax's Speaker Series on Tuesday nights, and the ISTE Social on Thursday nights. Then there is the biweekly Sunday Tour which I sometimes attend. This week the "social" was more of a meeting, but as you can see, was well attended.

Corinne led us in a discussion of what should be included in freebie resource packages for new teachers coming in-world. It led to a discussion of what we more mature "avies" want as well.

Teachers have many different purposes for being in SL. Some are here to learn to teach students so they can make a move to the teen grid and have the skills necessary to engage and enrich their students' experiences. Others are here to network and find collaborators for real life school projects. Still more would like to learn how SL can be used for staff development. Then there are the professionals working on advanced degrees that are studying the use of SL by teachers and students. All of us, I think, appreciate the social aspects of SL, enjoying the discussion and times we find to play.

I'm not sure how ISTE can meet all of these needs but I know it will try. We need to start, I think, with some basic SL skills for newbies. That's my specialty. I love mentoring.

I find myself wondering how VSTE, the ISTE partner I'm associated with, can help. What can we offer that ISTE isn't already doing or planning to do? What skills do we have? What resources can we offer? What needs are there not already being served?

Open Space Sim Protests

I purchased my 1/2 sim in August, so happy to have found something pretty that I could afford. I had more prims allowed me than I would ever use. There was lots of open water for sailing. It cost me $135 US down and about $42 a month, which would continue unchanged indefinitely, or so I thought. Yesterday or the day before Jack Linden announced that Open Sims were being abused by overuse. They are going to raise the tier as of January 1 to some amount I can not afford. I am under the impression that my sim owner has many folks in my situation living on his open sims. I think this means that he will have to default and I will not even be able to sell my sim. I will lose my initial investment. It's only money, but it's sad and unfair just the same! Thank you, Anibal, for the photo. http://www.saveouropenspaces.org/forums/index.php