MUVEForward
Levels of Classroom Use of Second Life
Jan 26th
Speaking with a faculty member who recently (past 6 months) entered Second Life and has been exploring potential uses within his Chemistry classroom, I described four levels of classroom use of Second Life to help organize an approach to incrementally implementing the technology in the classroom: presentation tool, guided experience, self-directed experience, and student generated content. I’m relatively certain others have previously described and likely posted something similar; if you’re aware of those, I’d be interested in your thoughts and other similar posts. More >
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VWER: Future of Education in Virtual Worlds?
Jan 8th
(cross posted from http://blogs.sanjac.edu/virtualworlds)
I attended the Virtual Worlds in Education Roundtable (VWER) Annual “First Meeting of the Year” for 2011 this past Thursday. I believe this is the third year the VWER’s new year has begun with a panel discussion. The stated focus of the discussion was on the Probable, Possible and Preferable Futures of education in virtual worlds. Of course, the majority of the discussion focused on the first two. The discussion was moderated by (using Second Life monikers) AJ Brooks and included Buddy Sprocket, Fleep Tuque, Anthony Fontana, Wainbrave Bernal, and Kenny Hubble. So what’d the panel have to say? (with my thoughts mixed in throughout.) More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Search the SLED Archives
Dec 21st
Many educators working with virtual environments and Second Life in particular likely are already familiar with the Second Life Education listserv from Linden Lab. With thousands of educators participating, the listserv is very active on a daily basis, and constantly provides new information, ideas, and resources related to real life education in Second Life.
In the previous incarnation of my MUVE Forward blog, I had the search widget below in the sidebar which allows for quick, Google-enabled searching of the listserv archives. I use it quite frequently; honestly, it’s the first place I look when searching for an answer to a question regarding education in Second life. I wanted to post/include it in this space, so as to not lose track of the resource.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Metanomics: 2010 & Next – Second Life, Virtual Worlds & the State of the Union
Dec 15th
I attended the Metanomics series on virtual environments Tuesday afternoon; this epsiode was 2010 & Next – Second Life, Virtual Worlds and the State of the Union. I observed the virtual broadcast via NMC Teaching island (http://bit.ly/dYFJzi) though the chat, audio and video were all available via the Metanomics website.
One of the panel members was Larry Pixel (RL: Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium); my primary interest in the event was to listen to commentary regarding the future of virtual worlds (and perhaps Second Life in particular) within the education sector. A few notes, comments and thoughts follow.
A quick summary? I believe Second Life does and will continue to offer unique benefits that other platforms and technologies do not; I believe the capabilities provide value-added benefit to education beyond what other platforms may currently offer. If at all possible, I believe educational institutions should maintain their presence in Second Life while exploring other platforms in parallel; I understand that an institution’s presence may need to be reduced to meet budgetary limitations, but I do not believe using the elimination of the educational discount as a reason to leave Second Life is a good or rational decision. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Where have I been? When will I be back?
Nov 26th
My blog looks quite pathetic for 2010; a whopping grand total of 7 posts… okay, now 8… for the entire year. There’s a reason for that; I realized in hindsight that the blogging I did in 2007-2008 traded off with time spent on my dissertation, to a certain extent at least. A number of things were going on that “got in the way” of the dissertation or were distractions, but the blogging was definitely part of that. So, this year, I’ve purposely avoided spending too much time attending to this blog space; any desire to write in this space was re-channeled into writing on my dissertation. I’ve had some measure of success. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Do we learn better in immersive environments?
Nov 19th
(Cross-posted from http://blogs.sanjac.edu/virtualworlds)
The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable (VWER) is a weekly, global meeting of professionals interested in the use of Virutal Worlds in educational environments. Currently, the VWER meets every Thursday in Second Life at 4:30pm San Jac time.
The meeting this week was an open discussion by all attendees of the question, “Do we learn better in immersive environments? – including virtual worlds, games, etc.” Participants were invited to “bring any links to articles that support or refute this idea.” A full transcript of the meeting will be available online at the VWER website via the Transcripts link on the main menu. More >
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Institutional IPR, Purchasing Issues & Custom Last Name in SL
May 5th
As the institution begins to move tangibly forward with our Second Life implementation, I find myself revisiting a few issues related to purchasing guidelines and intellectual property rights. I’ve discussed these issues previously, one and two years ago, in some respect. I have a solution in mind for two potential issues.
First Issue. How does a college employee get the funds they need to make in world purchases? How are those purchases tracked and documented? More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Types of Island Planning Decisions
May 2nd
A few posts back, I suggested Determining a Build Philosophy as the first step in planning an institutional presence in Second Life. To continue that thought process, we’ve identified a number of other issues and decisions we’re beginning to address. Most of them seem to fall into four interdependent areas which are listed below along with thoughts or considerations our planning & development group have already discussed or at least listed.
An Architectural Plan for common/institutional areas (as opposed to parcels allocated for individual faculty use). More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...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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