Last Class

VSTE Island hosted a graduate class for teacher recertification this fall. Here are some photos from the last online class meeting. Before the class Cyrus read a story about, and then took us on a tour of, The Golden Gate Bridge. It was a quick tour of a beautiful realistic reproduction of the physical world.

Following that we returned to VSTE Island and had a little ceremony for our three graduate students. Mandie created the venue and certificates. Hey and Bee spoke.

 

This is the classroom meeting space at about 500 meters.

 

Cyrus always does a nice job of preparing for our meetings with nice slides previewing what we are about to see. He often has some historical or scientific information for us.

 

As avatars gathered, Leko put out cushions for them.

 

Cyrus read to us from  a short story from an old travel book by 1920s adventurer Richard Halliburton called Book of Marvels.

Here is a video of the sim http://youtu.be/pgPYmcW_wYs

... and our class celebration...

 

Flying Machine Races

What a good time! The pictures tell the story. A newcomer won the prize, stealing it away from Cyrus at the last minute!

TechieTeach and Izzy Dance

Cyrus' Rez Day

Sunday, November 13th, Cyrus Hush turned 5 in SL years. Although he is a good friend I have never remembered to acknowledge his rez day before so sometime several months ago I put it in my calendar with a reminder a month or so earlier to start planning it.

We sometimes attend live music events together and at some point we heard a DJ that he really liked because they had similar tastes in music, 80s rock and some other stuff. I noted his name and hired him to do the party.

I got Serena Offcourse to figure out a way to make sure Cyrus was online at the correct time. Cyndyl Enyo offered to help pass out invitations. I created a notecard and between us we dropped in on everyone in VSTE, ISTE Management, and Expedition Central who had logged into SL in the past couple of months.

I wrote a poem for Cyrus and read it to the group. The only thing I overlooked was decent dances. I didn't have anything for couples and my chimera wasn't working for anyone. No one could find the dance tower, and even if they had the dances loaded there are awful!

 

We had a lot of fun. The DJ was supposed to stream from 8:45 to 9:45 but when I left at 10:10 he was still there and so were about 15 avatars, even without decent dances. Mandie and others helped with nice tips and I have a feeling he was still doing well in the tip department when I left.

This reminded me of the early days in SL when we had a lot of fun socializing. 

Sojourner's Dreams

This week VSTE will once again visit Dreams, a sim dedicated to the memory of Sojourner, Karen Derk Gans in real life, who used Second Life to rehabilitate herself and help others with brain injury.

From what I can gather The Sojourner, known as "Soj" by her close SL friends was a PhD in education when she suffered a series of strokes. If you google her name you can find books she wrote before her strokes. She worked with sufferers from brain truama before she had her own. She then found groups online with interests in rehabilitation from brain injury which led her to Second Life, where she became an official mentor.

It seems that back in her day there were few private islands but she convinced Linden Labs that she needed a safe place for people recovering from or living with brain trauma to be without griefers or other surprises. The Sojourner taught monthly lessons and helped people become comfortable in Second Life.

It was reported that she may have been the first to create an exhibition for non-profits in Second Life, the Dreams Fair, hosted on her own sim. The physical person behind The Sojourner, Karen Derk Gans, died of cardiac arrest in May 2008, months before I came to SL for the first time.

So how do I know about her? A friend invited me to a building contest he participated in on a sim called Dreams. He told me the story of "Soj" and shared his creation with me. Every month it seems there is a new building contest on this sim to support it's continued existence. The sim is home to building classes and support groups.

References:
http://gwynethllewelyn.net/2008/05/26/the-sojourners-last-voyage/
http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/06/a-sojourner-pas.html
http://otsecondlife.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/to-soj-goodbye-and-thank-you/
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/05/sojourners-end.html#more
http://www.thesojournersdream.com/
https://carmenwiki.osu.edu/display/libraries/Physical+Diversity+and+Innovation

Last Meeting on Austen's Book

We had our last book talk meeting this week. It was a small but devoted crowd. I was happy to see Spiff and Scott there. I don't think they attended any of the other meetings. The discussion was full, with most present participating. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this series. It wasn't entirely as I envisioned it and Austen had to do an awful lot of sharing, but maybe she didn't mind.

 

Austen's book is full of technology and best practices for teaching. I believe this is how I most like to spend my time in Second Life, taking with other educators about things that can make me a better teacher in "real life." I'll have to find another project like this in the winter.

Riding a Stallion