Archive for April, 2009
Who’s Involved in the SL Island Planning Process?
Apr 29th
Given my role at my institution, any advocacy for and planning of a Second Life presence has occurred at an institutional level. While it’s taken us a little longer to engage Second Life, we’re doing so with a full, funded commitment by the institution; we have institutional buy-in, and we’re involving a wide range of stakeholders. Currently for our instructional project, we have two groups involved in the process: an advisory group and a planning and development committee.
I’ve read as much as I could find regarding the planning of an institutional Second Life presence, but I haven’t seen much about how *institutions* are approaching – internally – the planning and development process. More >
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Loading ...Adult Content Discussion @ SLER
Apr 28th
I attended AJ Brooks’ Second Life Education Roundtable (SLER) regular Tuesday afternoon meeting held at Montclair State CHSSSouth. Not all of the SLER’s have topics; this one, however, had a designated topic for three special guests to address. Claudia Linden, George Linden, and Pathfinder Linden joined the SLER to discuss “Changes to Adult Content – An EDU Perspective.” The meeting reached a peak of 80 avatars in attendance; the table in the image to the left was actually full; I just snapped it before all avs at fully rezzed.
The transcript will have all of the conversation in text form, and I’ll post the link to it once it’s available. (Update: this is the link). I’ll summarize a few thoughts I find of particular importance but focus my comments here on a few specific thoughts I had as I listened to and participated in the meeting. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Determining a "Build Philosophy"
Apr 27th
In regards to our institutional Second Life instructional project, the first step in the planning process I’m suggesting for the group is to determine what our approach to the build will be. Going into the project, our institution doesn’t have any stated assumptions regarding the layout, design or appearance of the Second Life presence. Without those assumptions or guiding influence, the first step will be to define a particular approach which will guide all aspects of the build. At the moment, I have in mind five general approaches our planning group may consider.
I’m assuming some sort of taxonomy of thought around these approaches has emerged and exists somewhere; if you’re familiar with that work or have specific thoughts on the ideas I’m suggesting, I’d appreciate hearing your comments. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Going Live Soon!
Apr 26th
It’s been a very sparse nine months at MUVE Forward; other things have been keeping me busy as my institution crept slowly toward entering Second Life with a formal presence. With that presence approaching in the next couple of weeks, I hope to return to regular posts in this space.
We have two significant Second Life projects that are in the early planning and development stages; both will use an island which are due to arrive within the next week or so. Yes, two islands.
The first project has been dubbed the “Instructional Project” and More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...What’s Missing in Online Course Quality?
Apr 14th
Attending ITC eLearning 2009 Conference earlier this week, I attended multiple sessions on course quality; the sessions were offered by a diverse group using different strategies and evaluation tools: a Quality Matters lead pre-conference workshop; Lake Superior Community College’s QM-based in house rubric; Yavapia College’s experience with online standards, and Burlington Community College’s use of course development, grade distribution and student course evaluations. One thing was missing through all of the presentations, but I think that may be due to a gap in the literature or education sector rather than it being a failing of any one institution.
There are many variations of course development evaluation: an evaluation template that assesses the quality of the development of online courses. These evaluations address the question, “What features exist in the course content at the outset of the course?” More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Twitter Acquisition Matters to Education
Apr 10th
A possible acquisition of Twitter by one of the larger competitors for the online search and social markets has been bandied about since last November when talks between Twitter and Facebook broke down. More recently, Microsoft and Google have been rumored to be discussing a possible acquisition with Twitter’s owners. While most analysts are interested in the acquisition of Twitter given the impact it would have on the technology landscape – social platforms and search revenues – I believe educators should also have interest in the acquisition as well. In my opinion, it’s in the best interest of educators already using Twitter and the education community at large if Google successfully acquires Twitter rather than Microsoft or Facebook.
First, Twitter may likely remain more open and usable if acquired by Google. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Twitter for Learning & Professional Development
Apr 8th
By week’s end, I will have presented and facilitated four hours worth of sessions focused on learning – in classrooms or as personal professional development – with social networking tools and, specifically, Twitter. Both sessions are at the Texas Distance Learning Association 2009 Annual Conference in Corpus Christi. I’ll be posting more thoughts and resources here, but I also have session content available at a sister Edtechatouille Google Sites page.
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