Shamblesguru on the "Tonight Show"

http://bit.ly/1K1Aod

Last few weeks have been fun and informative

The last few weeks have been real fun and informative learning experiences ... I reckon this 'lifelong learning' theory might just catch on .... more photographs can be seen in one of my Flickr sets ..

College Fair in Second Life .. Open

The College Fair started (on Int.Schs.Islands) this weekend with two days of presentations ... and they were 'brilliant'.
It was opened by Claudia Linden who was followed by 8 other presentations.
At one point the SIM was full to capacity, avatars just could just not get in (unfortunately a frustrating experience).
There are 37 Colleges and Universities with stands (including UK Open Univ) ... these stand will now stay up until 13th Nov. Well worth a visit even if just to collect all the in-world freebies that they have put out.


For me it has been an extremely rewarding professional development learning experience, working with the other organisers plus ... presenters, visitors and builders  ... and I am really grateful to all for sharing their skills, time, experiences and views.
There is really no doubt in my mind that Virtual Worlds are a very valuable platform to add to the other blended mix of teaching and learning tools/opportunities available.
I took a pile of photographs all at Flickr http://bit.ly/3NUgQL or search for the tag #SLCF09

College Fair in Second Life SLCF09

Later this month (Oct 2009) there will be a College Fair in Second Life and I'm pleased to say that Int. Schs. Island is able to support this by providing the venue.

Presentations: 24th and 25th October 2009

Exhibits displayed: 24th Oct to 13 Nov. 2009

Venue; International Schools Island

Full details at ... http://bit.ly/SLCF09

Tag: #SLCF09

If you would like to be kept up-to-date with developments then please join the Google group.

Subscribe to Second Life College Fair

Email:

Visit this group

Avatars in Second Life

Avatar design is such a rich topic to discuss with students ... this avatar was spotted at a meeting on International Schools Island early in September 2009 ... for some reason the design had an impact that many others have not. Needless to say I shall not reveal the real identity ... just to say he is Hong Kong based and may be in the ESF .... brilliant design ... and even wearing a 'Shambles' free t-shirt.

Flat Classroom Presentation

A really enjoyable and informative session on the mountain top yesterday, I had the pleasure of being about to talk with the key players of the Flat Classroom Project.
Full details at http://bit.ly/flat classroom .... and full set of images at Flickr

Screencast: VWs area on Shambles.net

A screencast of a mini tour around the Virtual Worlds area on the shambles.net website.

SL Presentation from Shamblesguru 30June09 London

For full details visit http://tr.im/miHZ

Second Life Presentation from Shamblesguru Voom from Chris Smith on Vimeo.

Web 2.0 Workshop in SL

I co-ordinated another of the ISTE Thursday workshops today (21 or 22 May09 depending on timezone) ... in Second Life with a theme of Web 2.0.

The session was a blend of whole-group presentation and small-group work ... and also a blend of communicating by voice and chat.

Also experimented with using Google Docs as an organisational, communication and archiving tool during the session, see http://tr.im/lv5L.

The public session was preceeded with a session just for the small group facilitators ... who I am really grateful to, it would not have worked so well without these volunteers.

Death by PowerPoint was minimal and individual sharing was high ! ... thank goodness.

Picture can be seen at http://tr.im/m43P
-

Shamblesguru in OpenLifeGrid (OpenSIM)

Registered Shamblesguru Voom in the OpenLife Virtual World (OpenSIM) today ... downloaded the "OpenLife R16_3" viewer which is very similar to the SL viewer ... and logged in.

Unfortunately I must have missed a step somewhere ... as I (Shamblesguru) seems to have had a sex operation on the way .. and is now female.

More details about the OpenLifeGrid at http://www.openlifegrid.com

Now need to research sex changes .... and investigate the possibility of an International Schools Island in this Virtual World.

"Team Building" Workshop 16April09

Just finished a workshop today with the focus on team building and collaboration; the task of each group was to build an avatar out of a given set of  individual prims.
It was really 2 professional development events ... yesterday I met with six volunteers to be the individual team facilitators and one volunteer who was to be the judge for the best build (there were definite criteria)
Our meeting yesterday ended up being over two hours of sharing of suggestions, skills, strategies and tools to consider when running today's public session.
We had around 40 avatars attend the 90 min session, after a brief intro with the whole group we then split into the six teams with it's facilitator for 45 mins and the collaboration and building began.

For the last 20 mins we all reconvened and each of the facilitators reported back on their sessions and finally Judge Louise nominated teams 1 and 4 as the joint winners.
There was so much learning that happened in these two session for me that there is just not room to list specifics here .... suffice to say that we all survived better equipped to support future teaching and learning in a virtual world environment.
I'm most grateful to all who contributed.

ISTE events are listed at: http://secondlife.iste.wikispaces.net/events

Photographs can be seen at my Flickr account

isi Group .. easier subscription

In an earlier post I described how to subscribe to an Int.Schs.Island group using the official SL application.  The problem with this is that you are only allowed to join a maximum of 25 groups.

I'm now using a third party application to create and manage groups that you can subscribe to that does not take from your maximum of 25.

This group is designed to mainly send out notices of new developments, objects and tools on isi.

So to join just find one of the subscription boards as in this picture and click on "Subscribe"

There is one at

http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/69/83/24

VW Best Practices in Education Conf. 2009

The Virtual World Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference
27th to 29th March 2009 wiki.vwbpe.org
International Schools Island had a display in the 'Poster" area

Shambles ISI MashUp (3 min video)

The Naace Tour that Should have Been

Click on the COMMENTS at the bottom of this post for details.

The NAACE Tour That Should Have Been from Leon Tubrok on Vimeo.

Video of Presentation mentioned below

There are other videos for this presentation

Preamble/setting up: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsgIldsu4rw
Q&A session: www.youtube.com/watch?v=420o74vSfC8

Transforming School Libraries Conference

The Transforming School Libraries online conference at www.yourschoollibrary.org 20 Feb to 1st March 2009

The conference was hosted mainly online at sosius.com

This session, on the last day, took place in Second Life with Dianne McKenzie (Dimac Dastardly in SL), Hong Kong teacher-librarian, presenting and leading a discussion on "Second Life - A game or an exceptional opportunity for professional growth and development?"

Moderated by yours truely Shamblesguru Voom.
We had a turn out of twenty avatars which I thought was very encouraging especially as it was held at a time when the USA was asleep.

Venue was the meeting area top of mountain top 2 on International Schools Island

Other pictures can be seen on Flickr

AASL-ISTE SIGMS Presentation

This morning I had the pleasure of being invited to the monthly AASL-ISTE SIGMS group meeting in S.L. ... (American Association of School Librarians).
A very pleasant group who made me feel very comfortable at the meeting ... the theme being : “Keeping Current in a Global Environment”.
One of several thrills for me was with Dana Dukic, librarian, contributing from her desk at West Island School in Hong Kong with the sound of students in the background ... brilliant.
I think I may have talked a little too much though .... it was good to see contributions using public chat while I used mainly voice.

S.L. and my connectivity (Thailand) coped very well again technically .... and it's nice to be able to focus on the content rather than the process, although we did go off on a couple of technical aspects, all very positive learning experiences.
Many thanks to Lisa Perez in Chicago (Elaine Tulip in SL) for a very pleasant start to the day (my time).

Wow ... this is the 100th post on the Int.Schs.Island Blog ... 

The 2nd QuestioN !

I started today with a fun experience ... I was invited to be a panel member on the 41st episode of The 2nd Question .... publicised as "a fast paced science themed show with the best & the brightest of experience in SL & beyond .... a one hour whirl of madness and merrymaking"
It really was fun ... but also very informative, the show is broadcast live across Second Life by SLCN (S.L.Cable Network) and recorded for archiving on the web ... see the next Blog post for the video.
SLCN staff spent considerable time before the show doing sound checks and coaching us through some SL tech tips to help make the programme run smoothly ..... and, to their credit, it all went well ... I'm not sure how much was due to the whip that was carried by Yxes.
It is on every Tuesday 7:00pm SL time with hosts Pooky Amsterdam and  Hydra Shaftoe and located at the futuristic SciLands http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spindrift/66/217/701

The only bad part about the whole experience ..... I LOST :-(

Workshop : Free Edu Tools on isi

I ran another workshop today for ISTE in S.L. showcasing more of the free resources hosted on International Schools Island.
This time I choose the "Library on a Stick" .. object and concept by JJ Drinkwater.
The session reconfirmed that the facilitators are often the 'Master Learners'  .. again I learnt so much myself about running workshops in virtual worlds.
The turnout was brilliant with 40 avatars from locations including Japan, Australia, Europe, USA, Hong Kong with me in Thailand.
S.L. behaved brilliantly (technically) as I expected so many avatars to cause 'lag' ... very encouraging. My preferred medium for communication was (is) voice but many avatars did not have microphones or could not use them because of their local R.L. environment ... most seemed to have loudspeakers or headsets.
I still feel uncomfortable not having real life eye contact with participants and uneasy with silences ... but am coming to accept that audio silence does not mean participants are not being active .. reading notecards, building, communicating with IM ....
This learning journey continues and I'm grateful again for the constructive feedback from participants ...and the privilege to be able to work with such a professional group of educators.

Bloom's Taxonomy Model in the Holodeck

I was kindly given a 3D interactive model of Bloom's Taxonomy by the creator Thursday Xu ... I've now put this in the International Schools Island Holodeck ... in fact when you rez it up you get three copies so a large group of avatars can split up.

Data Visualisation Workshop

Every Thursday evening (SL time) ISTE have a social event or show & tell session ... usually by the beach campfires.
This week I was fortunate enough to be able to share some of my data visualisation tools ... and more importantly .. to listen to feedback and suggestions about how they might be useful in teaching and learning.

Enjoyable and productive session ....

SL Education Support Faire Jan 25th-30th 2009

Education Support Faire January 25th-30th 2009

Details at

http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=301727&page=1&pp=15

International Schools Island is one of the exhibitors

... hope you can visit

... even if just for some freebies ;-)

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faire/92/140/35

New SIM (Open Space) 12 Dec 08

New SIM delivered to the International Schools Estate on 12 Dec 2008
In fact it's not a full SIM but called an OpenSpace ... same physical size but with less prims to build and some other restrictions ... but the monthly rental is cheaper than a full SIM.

From 5th January 2009 OpenSpaces will be changed to what is being called "Homestead" Islands ... see details at http://tinyurl.com/5fwaqb

So what will I be using 'International Schools 3' for? .... watch this space. 

(Star Trek fans have higher odds of guessing)

Merry Christmas.

Data Visualisation part 2 (more 3D graphing boards)

As a result of some feedback and requests I've built some additional 3D graphing boards ... one even 40m x 40m x 40m so you need a lot of air space for it to float in.

 

Data Visualisation & free 3D Graphing Tool

I've been to several talks over the past few months about Data Visualisation (DV) in SL ... so decided to build a DV display/exhibition in Int.Schs.Island.

This project went a little further than I anticipated ... I've also built a 3D graphing tool ... which I suspect may also have other teaching/learning uses rather than just DV ... it is free for you to take.
All in the lobby of the Technology Tower...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/26/84/25

Feedback always welcome.

3rd Speakers Series : Size isn't everything

Tonight we had the final of our mini Int.Schs.Island (Pilot) Speaker Series ... with the topic "k-12 Recruitment".
The turnout was not large but the quality of the discussion reminded me that size isn't everything ... 
Thanks Jeff and Jon for sharing and others from Bangkok, Laos and Australia .. I personally learnt a lot.

The technology did kick me out once and also made it difficult for Jon from China but that was  a reminder that we really are pioneers at the cutting edge ... and it's OK to bleed a little.

P.S. health warning ... never accept a drink from Utes Torok in world .. I crashed immediately after accepting one ... I suspect it was spiked ;-) ... have fun.

Speakers Series : 19 Nov ... (part 2)

Many thanks to Dianne and Doug ... larger audience this week ... and lots of participation and sharing ... the only problem for me was that Dianne stayed as 'Casper the Ghost" for the whole hour for me ;-)

Next session ... Wed. 26th Nov. same time ... topic is "Recruitment" .. see the Google doc for full details.

International Schools Island (Animoto)

Speaker Series .... 19 Nov08 Libraries and Info Literacy (k-12)

The second in the International Schools "Live in Second Life" (Speaker Series) is happening on Wednesday 19th November 
4:00a.m. S.L. time ... 12:00 lunchtime (London) ... 7:00pm (Thailand) ... 8:00pm (Hong Kong) ... 9:00pm (Tokyo) ... 11:00pm (Sydney)

Venue: International Schools Island Mountain Top 2

SLURL : http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/96/158/54

The session this week has a 'Libraries' and 'Information Literacy' (k-12) theme

... and on the sofa will be 

• Dianne McKenzie (Dimac Dastardly) Teacher Librarian, Discovery College, Hong Kong
  
• Doug Johnson (BlueSkunk Johnson) Director of Media and Technology, Mankato Area Public Schools Blue Skunk Blog: http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com  

The session will also continue with the focus on teaching in an international community.

I hope you can attend as I continue with the "Larry King Live" format.

Full details at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddf7p68s_414hnb749cm

Speaker Series .... 12 Nov08 Fire Centaur

International Schools "Live in Second Life" (Speaker Series) .. the first of a 3 part 'pilot' series.Fire Centaur (Paul Preibisch) owner of the  English Village SIM and teacher in South Korea was the very first to be welcomed to the sofa by myself pretending I could do a "Larry King Live".
Fire did a brilliant job sharing his experiences working in South Korea and offering advice to those considering working there ... then giving the fully Monty about the establishment and development of his SIM.Finally he demostrated a game he has built  which used Zombies to motivate English Language learning, and finally he introduced his "bot" .. a dinosaur he had built and programmed which kept muttering "I smell avatars" as he moved around.Fire is an educator that also has design and programming skills, a sense of humour and a strong interest in Virtual Worlds ..... many thanks.

Presentation Video : SL & VWs

When I do real life presentations at conference/workshops about SL / VWs I often show a 17 min video that I talk to (stops me rambling) then we get into discussions.
I've just put the video inworld on Int.Schs.Island at http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/70/180/57

This is version 1 ... I plan to modify. (aren't we always)

No soundtrack as I usually talk to it live ... but may be of interest.
It is streaming into this location from www.blip.tv 

Universal (Language) Translator

There are several language translators available in Second Life ... my preferred one is the "Universal Translator" from Hank Ramos.

It translates 35 languages ... including some Asian, the translations are done in the text chat window.

You just choose your own language from the drop down blue menu that you get when you click on the box ... it will then translate the text chat from others who have also clicked on the box ... from their language to yours ... amazing.

What is even more amazing is that it is free.
There are several scattered around Int.Schs.Island, including in the Mod.Foreign Languages area on the 5th Floor in the Curriculum Tower.
You can pick up your own translator at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Grignano/100/97/28

Dance with an Alien : The Movie

Thank you Erudit Drut (Susan)

More Presenting in S.L.

ISTE Presentation to Director (EdTech,US Dept.of Edu)

One of the sessions I try and attend each week is the ISTE Speakers Series on a Tuesday evening (SL time) .. Wed morning Thai time.
Recently I was asked to be one of several to present to Tim Mangner, Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Dept.of Education.

We were asked to talk for 10 mins  about our experiences in SL, how we use VWs and how we thought VWs can change education.

It was a real pleasure to be given this opportunity ... and encouraging to see the USA DoE taking such an interest in Virtual Worlds.

Learn 2.008 : Shanghai Pre-Conference Meetings

A (education/technology/k-12) conference is about to happen in Shanghai, visit Ning at Learning 2.008 for specifics.

The three Sundays before the real life meeting sees three pre-conference sessions being hosted on International Schools Island. Two of those sessions have been completed, for images search Fickr for the TAG learn2cn.  

Specifics of these sessions can be seen on Google docs.

Educators from several continents attended including some of those invited to present at the real life conference, David Warlick, Alan Levine and Ewan McIntosh. 

These have been brilliant events ... Second Life has performed technically well and allowed discussions using voice and text chat (phew)  ... many of these discussions focussed on questions being raised at the main conference and I certainly found them interesting,relevant and stimulating ... especially when being shared across the world in real time.

One of the principal learning experiences for me was that for the second meeting we were joined by two anonymous "griefers" ... griefers are avatars who wonder virtual worlds determined to be disruptive ... and this was the first time I'd been involved in an event that had become their focus ... possibly attracted by our large attendance.

I should have guessed an attack was underway when someone kept changing the slide presentations or when the Daleks  appeared.  Only after weird materials started to rain down from the sky did I realise this was for real (or should that be "for virtual'?) ... switching off the ability to run scripts stopped most of the distractions .. and then I ejected the griefers from the venue ... which land owners have the ability to do.
I also accidently ejected a USA teacher ... but a polite request in the text chat from their colleague let me know and I opened their permissions to come back in (I'm still slightly embarrassed about this) ... classroom management has taken on a whole new perspective for me even after all these years of experience ... with new tools and strategies to be learnt or invented.

If you are attending in Shanghai and meet Ewan McIntosh ... then please do not mention the naked female streaker that broke his concentration ... I do suspect he's still recovering.

Virtual Worlds in Education ... the future is going to be fun ;-)

Venue International Schools Island

http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/96/158/54

Media Players in S.L.

Media Players in S.L. seem to be evolving almost daily ... I just purchased the NHC Media Center - Q308 for L$500 (US$2.50) to experiment with ... attracted by the boast of being able to play YouTube videos directly from YouTube.
... and it works brilliantly although I did need a little help from creator Sylvio Runo
It plays | Movies in Sequence | Direct YouTube Search & Play | Slide Show with Your Photos and Textures | Audio Music Parcel Manager | Radio Stations | plus ....
Support to lots of media types with auto adjust of the correct mime-type: php, asp, htm, html, mov, sdp, mp4, mv4, mpg, mpe, mpa, jpg, gif, txt, tiff, mpeg, 3gpp, and pict.
If you want to play with this one then just tp to isi at http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/121/94/26
More details of this particular player can be seen at SLEX http://tinyurl.com/6babwo
Of course ... playing media in S.L. works best on a high spec computer with a good connection.

Organised Sport in SL

I've been giving a lot of attention to the Physical Education and Sports display on the 7th Floor of the Curriculum Tower.
In particular ... organised Sports ... there is now quite a large display of information and links to places in S.L.
After research ... my favourite sport seems to be leaning towards "Giant Snail Racing" ... but I've yet to get my giant snail avatar ;-).
You can watch some of these sports archived at http://slcn.tv
Display SLURL http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/71/18/83

Today was "Lip Sync" Day (for me at least)

Today I downloaded the latest S.L. viewer 1-20-15 and by clicking just one button the lips of all the avatars I view (including me) are now moving when they talk with voice.
This is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT and is going to completely change the social interactions in S.L. ... gone are the days of clay/wooden faces.
I'm over the moon about this ... in fact if you click on this photo to get a larger image ... look closely at my lips ... you can see them moving with a slight smile.
BTW the button to click is "Advanced" = > "Character" => "Lip Syn (beta)"

Another isi mini outpost ... OSU

Int.Schs.Island has another mini outpost, this time on OSU Medicine Island ...and what is special about OSU? ... 100+ metres up in the air is the 'giant testis' model that I wrote about in an earlier Blog posting.
I'll resist the temptation to say that this island has the ----s to model simulations in Virtual Worlds.
(UUMMmmmm...)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/OSU%20Medicine/116/60/27

Auto Tours

I recently set up some automatic tours around isi ... there is a Pedal Balloon ride right around the Estate that takes 7 minutes. Others include riding on a broom stick (Harry Potter style) and some automatic walking tours around the Towers. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to set these up using the resources available at The Guided Tour Company. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mocha/236/71/33 When you take any of these tours make sure your public chat window is open for a description of the tour as it takes place.
It took a lot of self control not to have the tour ride on a dinosaur ;-)

Holodeck

Star Trek fans will be familiar with the concept of holodecks ... press a button on the wall and your classroom changes into a new environment ... a farm yard, hotel lobby, meeting room, tropical island ... these exist in S.L. and there are several available on the market, to buy.
After some research I decided to buy the model available from HORIZONS ... they have been around for a while, seem stable and also have a professional version that allows you to build you own scenes.
vendor and details at ...
http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/40/87/73
You can also buy scenes that other users have made.
The isi holodeck is floating about 100m up in the air above mountain top 2.
Ironically .... immediately after buying this version I found a cheaper one that plugs into the Mysti HUD ... so now have two ... this second one is carried about by my avatar who can throw up a scene at the press of a button ... providing he has building privaleges on the land.

Griefers Attack

I was at the Fermi University Sandbox today and experienced a 'Griefers' attack .... dozens (hundreds) of rotating cubes rained down over the island.
Griefers are simply S.L. residents that like to cause trouble ... at least these were not flying body parts ... or worse.
BTW this particular Sandbox is to be recommended .. they also run some excellent free classes ... and they have a very friendly community.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fermi/152/128/23

Spreading the Word about isi (on Temasek)

This is a doubly satisfying post for me ... firstly ... it's my first opportunity to build on another SIM that helps spread the word about the International Schools Island. secondly ... it gives me the opportunity to mention a new island with an Asia theme .. Temasek ... a SIM designed to introduce residents to the culture, history and ecology of Singapore. Veritas Raymaker (Ken Lim in the real world) http://voyager.blogs.com/voyeurism/temasek SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Temasek/18/79/28

If anyone out there can loan plot(s) of land anywhere (hopefully education themed area) to put up a link display to International Schools Island then PLEASE contact me csmith@csmith.info ... it would really be appreciated.

click on the image for a larger version.

Clothing (inc. isi t-shirts) ... all free

Free Clothing ... an area on "Mountain Top 2" has lot of free clothes .. the difference from the norm here is that we have put them in topic boxes to make it easier to find items... i.e. there is a box of 'gloves', another of skirts, another of formal tuxes etc.
There is also one large collection box for you to donate free clothing which we will then put in the relevant topic box.
I've also set up a vendor which gives out free t-shirts made on isi ... I needed to spend time evaluating at a number of different vendors (free and for sale) ... I ended up going with "Cool Vendor v1.5" buying it online at SLXchange for L$600 (a little over US$2) ... recommended and excellent value.
The package contains several different vendor models, including one which materialises 3D images of objects for sale .... instructions for using the vendors was straight forward.
Of course all the t-shirts in this vendor can be purchased for zero Linden Dollars ... a gifts from Int.Schs.Island.

While setting up the vendor I was joined by a visitor, Milinneta Babii, to the Island who was casually exploring ... it really warms my heart to see the facilities, and especially the growing S.L. index in the towers, being used and making the lives of other educators in S.L. a little easier.
The specific location of these freebies is
http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/129/148/47

I love my "Scrubber"

Putting a script into objects in S.L. can result in all sorts of actions happening ... giving stuff away, changing colours, shapes, locations, gathering data ... too many to mention here.
You can write your own scripts but builders in S.L. are more likely to use scripts that others have already written ... there are thousands available for free.
On International Schools Island we are collating free scripts into topic boxes ... which any avatar can come and take for free.
Also there is a 'drop box' should others have scripts they are willing to give and share.
Building this collection was initially very frustrating because when scripts were put into the boxes they would often try and do something to the box ... that's what scripts do ... you cannot blame them (unless they are told not to run .. but too late if they are already in the box).
But then I was introduced to "The Scrubber"... which basically neutralises the box .... I love the Scrubber ... it has made this project do-able.
We will be working on these boxes for some time to come, you can find them on the 1st floor of the Info.Tower.
Click on the image for a larger version.

Who's a dummy?

This morning (4:00a.m. UK time) Takeme gave me a dummy ... think she might have been hinting at something actually ;-)
This is very simple and made of about 14 plain prims (objects) but the original creator had obviously taken care in getting the ratios close to reality. (not sure whose reality though).
But these could make brilliant teaching aids, if running a course in S.L. on textures or building then this could be used as a starting point to modify rather that start with nothing.
Takeme immediately left me behind in the gate and dropped some map textures on her dummy ... took her a matter of seconds and VERY effective ... geographers could have some fun with this approach.
My dummy just looked on in amazement ... but will now go in my inventory and be used at some future teaching and learning event.
Click on the image to see a larger version

Sandbox or Bowling Green

Our Sandbox has evolved over the last week with part of it having a lawn laid which has been carefully mowed to help builders measure out their objects.
In fact I wonder if it should now be called a 'grass box'?
Sandboxes are places in S.L. where people have automatic permissions to build ... any objects left in the isi sandbox are returned to their owners automatically after 24 hours.
One VERY nice new tool we have in this area is a 'Prim Finder' which automatically makes different shapes for you ... saving time.

But what I really want to do on here is to play lawn bowls or golf ... I wonder if these sports can be played in S.L.?
The sandbox is at http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/173/104/24

Train for Success

Last night it was planned that I'd give a brief intro to isi at the regular Thursday 'Train for Success' meeting http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wolpertinger/145/74/50
and then we would all wizz off to International Schools Island (isi) for a tour.

Second Life had second thoughts about allowing this ... by being very 'laggy' (have a cup-a-tea while waiting for a ppt slide to rez) and it also shut down teleporting (tp) completely so we were prisoners and could not get to isi for the tour.
Which reminded me of when I'd sometimes lock my classroom door, although I cannot remember if it was to keep students in or out ... the Fire Safety officer will probably remind me later.

My own learning outcomes from this session ...
(a) stop using Victorian didactic PowerPoint look-a-like tools/styles ... from now on I'll be displaying LARGE images on prims all set out, poster-style, at the start so participants have them all displaying (rezzed) before the session begins.
(b) Look for alternative strategies rather than the "Sage on the Stage", a style I'm not comfortable with anyway ... I'm really a teacher and not a lecturer and felt that last night ... some participants helped by turning the session into more Q&A (many thanks) ... so maybe I'd work better if being interviewed in a VW?.
But isn't this brilliant that VWs are forcing us to re-evaluate teaching and learning styles ... whether we want to or not .... "Spring Cleaning for the Brain" .... providing we are willing to take the risks and make the mistakes .... BUT - hang on a second! .... isn't that what we ask our students to do everyday? .... empathy revisited.

Many thanks to Ninoramai Hax for taking the pictures.

Help for newbies to S.L.

Without any shadow of doubt ... the best way for a new person to come into Second Life is with a mentor who already knows the basics.
This first intro may only be an hour or so but will save the newbie a lot of time and pain ... and frustration!
After that first hour there are lots of places in SL designed to walk (or fly) newcomers through many of the basic survival skills.
Many think there are only two Orientation areas ... 'Help Island' and 'Orientation' island but in fact there are several which allow the learning of basics at a pace suitable to individual learners.
A list of these locations (with links to them) is on the 1st Floor of the Information Tower on International Schools Island.
The location (SLURL) is
http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/110/56/25

Religious Education

http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/67/19/74
A few months ago I started searching for places in SL that would be of interest to Religious Education teachers ... the Sistine Chapel is the one that seems to be quoted the most ... but I've since found that there are many more which I'm displaying on the 6th Floor of the Curriculum Tower.
My latest link is to a treadmill powered reenactment of Mahatma Gandhi’s “Salt March to Dandi” but with the walk being across Second Life.
Buddhism is one religion that I cannot find represented in S.L. - maybe because of the reluctance to display Buddhist images, in fact I initially planned to have a Buddhist statue up on the mountain on International Schools Island but decided against it in respect to that sensitivity.
But PLEASE let me know of any R.E. .. S.L. .. locations that are not listed here.

Real World Places in Second Life

I think that we have one of the best collections of links to Real World places that have been built in Second Life.
On the 6th Floor of the Curriculum Tower.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/53/21/73
So what use is this for educators .... I guess the Geography and Social Studies aspects are the most obvious ... but this is an opportunity that Language Teachers could find most exciting.
Opportunities to practice languages with native speakers ... for free.
If you know of any places in S.L. that I have missed in this display (and it is guaranteed that there are some and that new ones will appear in the future) then please let me know and I will add them ... IM 'Shamblesguru Voom' or better still email me at csmith@csmith.info

Naace Tour ... the video (Gareth Davies)

Click to play

Naace Tour around International Schools Island ... the video ... produced and posted by Gareth Davies
http://blip.tv/file/745006/

Naace (UK) Tour : 1 March 08

My first tour of the Island to a group from the UK ... and what better than members of Naace the premier professional organisation in the UK with a technology and (k-12) education mission.
A small select group ... going for quality rather than quantity as they say in the time-share business. (it was also 9:00am on a Saturday)
I'm certainly feeling much more comfortable working in S.L. and, just like in the real world, small groups allow for more 1:1 interaction.
As my own confidence in the environment grows then so does my resolve that this is going to be an invaluable tool not only for teacher cpd but also supporting student (lifelong) learning.
In the presentations I do in the real world about virtual worlds (Second Life in particular) there is one PowerPoint slide in my 'show' that sums up the reasons for persevering ...
- Massive Constructivism
- Participatory Culture
- User Created Content
- Not a Game (but games can be played in S.L.)
For those who attended ... it would be brilliant if you could add your feedback and views in the 'comments' below .... I am enjoying these more and more ... and the 'following chairs' are still a novelty .. I feel like one of Santas (talking) raindeer ;-)

Getting to i.s.i. ..... for COMPLETE beginners

It's been suggested that I post guidance here on how to get to the International Schools Island .... (a highly sensible suggestion) ... a guide for complete beginners who have ZERO experience of Second Life ... so here goes.
If you've never used Second Life before then you will need to ...
a) fasten your seatbelt
b) visit www.secondlife.com where you should
i) register yourself (all free ... no need to upgrade to premium)
ii) choose a name for your Avatar, you have a choice of a surname from a set list
... but you can choose anything for a first name (cannot change this later .. so be creative)
iii) choose an initial look for your Avatar from the standard ones offered
(can be completely changed later)
iii) download the S.L. viewer (PC or Mac)
c) Fire up the viewer (see comment below about graphic cards)
i) sign in with your Avatar name and password
ii) go through the orientation that has been designed for 'newbies'
d) play / explore

... remember that you are in the S.L. Main Grid for all of this .. which is for 18 years and above

To get to Int.Schs.Island there are several options including
i) put this address in the chat window (bottom left corner in S.L.viewer) http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/64/90/24 (press 'say')
ii) it then comes up in chat history as a live hyperlink ... click on this ... then you should get a button to teleport to the island ... click
OR
i) Open up the S.L. viewer and log on (in?)
ii) put the above URL (actually called an SLURL) into your web browser (computer may start moaning at this point if old) ... a blue box should come up over a map of the island ... click 'teleport' ....
iii) a blue (teleport) button should then come up in your S.L. viewer .. click that and you should be teleported direct to the area next to the Towers on International Schools Island
-------------------
Some points to note ...
a) initially 'nubies' in Second Life usually communicate only with Chat and Instant Messaging ...the menu for this is bottom left of S.L. viewer
b) if you want to use voice (which I'd encourage) .. plug in headsets .... and enable chat .. top left of viewer Edit=>Preferences=>Voice Chat .. tick the box 'enable voice chat'
c) techni note ... some graphics cards are just not up to the job of displaying S.L. ... if you have an old machine or Intel graphics card then this might be a problem. (sorry)

.. and that's it. ... only 1.023 more skills to learn before you get a certificate

Have fun !

The Borg have arrived ...

The Borg have arrived ... you'll probably not understand this reference if you are not a Star Trek fan ... but the Borg travelled the Universe in GIANT Cubes.
A giant cube is now hovering several hundred meters over the International Schools Island ... and is, thankfully, not the Borg but a Virtual Reality Room.
The cube, though, is very large (e.g. 20-50 m across) ... once inside you stand on a platform in the middle surrounded by 3D scenes (photographic) that can be changed.

The room comes with a set of scenes ... just click the control panel to change them .... but, more importantly, you can add your own scenes providing you have the photographs and learn the skills to customise them for this tool.
I have a gut feeling that this could be a very useful teaching and learning tool ... on the other hand I cannot think of specific uses .... the devil on my shoulder is asking if this is another ICT solution looking for a problem.
I'm leaning towards the optimistic angels viewpoint on the other shoulder.
To visit the VRR hovering over the international schools island ... once in Second Life then go to
http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/100/189/252

All aboard the bus ... for the tour

If you listen carefully then you can possibly still hear me laughing ... what fun.
On Sun 17 Feb08 I was asked if I would give a group of about 15 a tour of isi ... so I thought I'd try something new ... the 'following chairs' from the Mysti HUD.
So I rezzed up the chairs behind me, invited everyone to have a seat (actually did lose a few) and then I set off on the tour ... the chairs and occupants following behind me seemingly attached by some sort of invisible elastic force.
It was brilliant, even when I flew then the chairs took off behind me and obediently followed ...
I still need to work on the multitasking skills as I found it a challenge to talk(voice), chat(text),walk/ fly and laugh at the same time ...
I shall be using these chairs again ... ;-)

Travelling through a giant model of ...

This is nothing to do with International Schools Island ... but I did just put a link to it in the isi Medical Centre.
I had a tour today through a VERY large build in Second Life ... a VERY large model of ????? .. ummm ... not telling, what do you think!
Answers in 'comments' please ;-)

A Presentation for the ELVEN Institute

More images CLICK HERE
This morning (11Feb08) ... I gave a presentation in Second Life to some of the guys/gals at the ELVEN Institute ... the topic focussed on the collection of links and info about virtual worlds that is in the Technology Tower on the International Schools Island .. this was part of a regular Sunday evening (USA time) programme (program) The ELVEN Institute is devoted to helping preK-12 educators and librarians to integrate new technologies into teaching and learning. The Institute specializes in professional development activities offered through multi-user virtual environments (such as Second Life) and helps preK-12 school personnel to envision and to build virtual learning environments for their students. http://elveninstitute.org After a brief upfront session giving general information about myself and the VW display we moved outside the Elven Institute to see the model of isi and more info, focussing on the towers. Then all teleported (at least one with a jet pack .. which caused a smile) to the Technology Tower to continue Q&A and have a look at the VW display.
This was probably the biggest group we've had land on the island simultaneously to date .. and I was pleased that the technology was up to the task ... especially as I was using voice for the whole session.
Thanks Elven for the invitation ....

More on ISTE Presentation

After the ISTE presentation a few of us hung around to chat and play on the isi model that was made and used when we were formulating the initial design ... even before the island itself was delivered from Linden Labs.
If you are working with students (big or small) and talking about the process of designing/setting up a SIM and you'd like a copy of this model for discussion then just IM me and we will drop one on you ... but be warned .. it's 190 prims.
Am smiling ... because just remembering Kevin asking if anyone had a Godzilla avi.

First Presentation in S.L. (Super Tuesday)

My first 'proper' presentation in S.L. ... venue ISTE Island ... 6:00pm S.L. time = 9:00am Thai time ... and the topic was about ... i.s.i. of course.
I gave the presentation using voice and not written chat.
I'm usually very comfortable standing up in front of other educators ... but this was the first time I could not make eye contact, and that is not an easy transition to make ... the audience were very supportive with chat comments which was, for me, essential. (thanks guys)
I did end up enjoying it and it was a very positive learning experience for me on technical issues, presentation style and management in a virtual world ... hopefully it was also informative for those who attended.
.... and don't laugh, but I actually physically stood up for the talk and moved around rather than sit at the desk ... isn't that strange?
More pics at http://flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/sets/72157603860728917 ... thanks to KJ Hax for taking these.

5th Feb. 2008 ... isi Officially Open

Well ... today was the official 'Open to the Public' day ... and in some way the excitement was a bit of an anticlimax ... because all that happened was that I ticked a couple of boxes ... maybe I'm not that much of a party animal ... just another reserved British guy?.
What has become clearer to me is that that this is just another stage in the evolution of isi ... and confirmed that it really will always be "work in progress" ... as mentioned earlier ... paralleling teaching and learning in the real world ... and I know a cliche ... but it really is the journey that's important, not the final destination ... lifelong learning for real, folks.
But in case you think I'm slipping into almost being serious, I need to caution you about some underwater creatures that are roaming the seas around the island ... there is some really creepy stuff ... but you will need to go exploring to confront them.
"The Watchers" are actually brilliant examples of interactive artwork in S.L.

The Importance of "Groups" in Second Life

I've been resident and working in Second Life now for over six months and it has only been in the last week that the clouds have moved away from my eyes and I now see the importance, functionality and power of "Groups" ... especially for land (island) owners.
My mistake was, I think, that I thought of groups as being purely a communication tool in the same way as a traditional web-based listserv (mailing list) .... well I could not have been more wrong .... and this week I woke up to the fact that the jobs I was doing with the five groups I'd formed could have all been done with one group (OK.. maybe two) providing it was correctly configured.
In fact when you set up a group in Second Life you are actually setting up a group of groups .... and each of those groups in the group (uummm ... I'm thinking of John Cleese now) can have completely different names and each of the subgroups can have completely different properties ... which in S.L. are called "Abilities".
I'm not going into all the pros, cons, whys, examples here .. but just want to make new land owners aware that they need to consider this more carefully than I did at the beginning as it not only can affect communication but also ownership of land and of objects built on that land ... also affect what different people can do on the land ... i.e. build, fly, teleport, stream in media, modify objects etc.
.... and if anyone does know of any guidance about Groups for new land owners then please leave a message in 'comments' below.

click on the images for larger versions of the menus that are readable

Pre Opening Open weekend 26/27 Jan 08

We just had a temp open weekend and allowed people in to give us some initial feedback about the island, content, functionality and navigation.
Many thanks for the comments received ... one very apt one was why have escalators, stairs etc when you can fly in S.L. ... our initial concept was to design the island to have an element of familiarity for new S.L. residents to help them feel more comfortable. Yes ... it can be seen as R.L baggage but there's lots of time and capability to evolve into something more adventurous that uses S.L. opportunities to the full.
Interestingly we don't think any visitors found our underground environment.
Also some visitors will be please to know that the elephants no longer seem to be moving around on pogo sticks ..... we've change their diet.
Official opening 5th Feb.08

Particles .. out of hand

As well as building in S.L. using prims (usually small cubes) it is also possible to build objects and have effects using 'particles' which I know absolutely nothing about .... except they can be very colourful and can also be designed to look like, e.g., a plant or a cloud.
Takeme was designing a particle cloud to work as an indicator on the island teleport boards (poles) and it seems to have got out of hand ... or she was just winding me up .... it seems to have gotten out of hand.

Medical Centre

We have a medical centre on the International schools island ... and you'll find links to quite a few medical islands and resources in S.L.
In fact just added a link to ... 'Sexual Health' Public Education and Outreach SIM in Second Life ... built by Plymouth University which contains some really good material for teaching and learning.
Coincidentally.. earlier this week I read about someone who is building GIANT versions of male and female reproduction organs in S.L. that you can walk through ... I'm not quite sure how I feel about that ... one things for sure ... I'll be keeping my sun glasses on.

Oppps! We're sinking...

A funny thing happened to isi2 the other day...

I received a message from Shambles asking me to raise the land that had dropped around the entrance to the rain forest. I hadn't touched that land in over a week and I know when I left it, it looked perfectly fine. I set about redoing it, sighing and putting it down to one the vagaries of Second Life.

A little while later, another message comes through from him. The whole island had dropped 2m. No! Surely not! I flew around the island and gasped in despair at all the objects floating in the air, held up in space by some magic force. I wasn't at all keen to start raising the land again knowing full well that it might all rise up of its own accord, when it felt like it.

I telephoned Concierge and asked them to come take a look. Maggie Linden arrived in-world straight away - excellent service, I thought. She too flew around the island and then remarked that she hadn't ever seen this before. She went off to speak with someone else. I noticed Guy (Big Important Guy) Linden appear; he kept very quiet.

Maggie suggested two things. 1) To manually raise the land to its original position or 2) Request a rollback. A rollback would have meant losing all the objects that had been place on the island since the last "image" of the island was taken. I wasn't prepared to risk losing the grotto I have been working on, so I opted for the manual option. Three hours later, all was restored and as it should be. Arhhhh, that's better.

Recordable Grand Piano

From the workshop of creator Darwin Recreant comes a newly released recordable piano.
This piano allows you to play individual notes, whole songs, and (first in SL) record your own songs. It supports 4 octaves of notes (48 notes in total) and 5 note types (Whole, Half, Quarter, Eighth, and Sixteenth). Various functions include: volume control, color changer, and usage restriction
I'll be interested to know from music teachers if this could in fact be an effective teaching and learning resource (feel free to comment below ... as always) ... with my untrained ears, the sound sounds very realistic ... more so than I would have expected.
You can find one of these pianos to play with on the top of the "Mountain Retreat" on the International Schools Island.

Digital Clocks ...

I'm sounding like an old cracked record .... BUT ... it still warms my heart with the level of help and shared expertise that is readily given in this S.L. collaborative environment.
Today was a typical example ... I wanted to put a digital clock on the top of the teleport totem poles mentioned in the last post.
A couple of months ago I purchased a very simple digital wall clock in S.L. in S.L.Exchange ... so, yesterday, I thought I'd contact the creator (Ad Vanmoer, in Canada) to see if is was possible for me to modify the clock to the 3D layout I wanted.
An affirmative response came very quickly with some suggestions about how this could be done.
Now I should say that although my building skills are improving daily ... I'm still a nervous nubie ... and said to Ad that I'd have a go at making the changes but might have to come back to him if I messed up .. and hoped he didn't mind.
WELL .... today he offered to come over to the island and work with me to modify the clock to suit my exact needs ..... and so he came over and we worked together for well over an hour .. maybe two ... OK ... so really he did the work and I just watched and learnt.
So Ab ... thank you very much for this .... and I can now highly recommend a visit to Ab's Emporium at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Monowai/237/111/68 or website http://www.absemporium.com if you are looking for clocks in S.L. ... but I suspect you may also be interested in some of the other gadgets he has.
If only after-sales service was this amazing in R.L.

Totem Pole : to teleport around the island

We need to design a teleport board so that visitors can just click on them and move around the Estate (island) .... we already have these in the three towers to enable visitors to move quickly between the floors.
But I'm (as always) looking to see if we can do something a little out of the ordinary ... thinking out of the box (unless you are a cat).
Well ... the idea of a Totem Pole that allows you to click on parts of it to teleport came to mind .... so I put my builders hat on and have started working on this.
This may not be our final solution but it is an interesting concept.
Each part of the pole rotates at different speeds to the others so that it can be viewed from any angle and help differentiate the sections .... and when you click on that section then you should be teleported there.
When considering Totem Poles I did initially think of the Native North Americans of course ... but in fact they are also used by several Indigenous cultures in Asia ... and now possibly in Second Life as well.
Next on the 'to do' list may well be to learn how to script a 'war dance' ...

UpsideDown World

Just discovered that if I invert one of my bean bag chairs that I can sit in it upsidedown.
What fun ... I cannot wait for my next S.L. meeting.
UMmmm ... I might even start an "Upsidedown Community"
.... of course .. you might just say "how silly" ;-)

Prim Shortage

Nearly everything in S.L. is made using a basic building block called a 'prim' ... often just a simple cube, sphere, cylinder, cone that can then be manipulated in all sorts of ways. In this picture you can see me at a building class learning how to twist and model simple prims into complicated objects.
When you get an island or rent/buy property in S.L. you usually get a fixed number of prims to use ... for a whole island it's about 15,000 .... which sounds like a lot .... but in fact with international schools island we have used up nearly all of our allowance and some things now have to be deleted in order to continue building .... a problem I never expected to happen.
If you want to see an example of how a simple prim is used to build an elaborate object then have a look at the video showing how a guitar was built ... on YouTube http://youtube.com/watch?v=bQL8_HB1HtQ

Rain for the Rainforest

So where do you get the rain for a Rainforest ... well in S.L. .. easy ... you just go to a shop and buy one (or two) clouds.
Then all you do is put it in place ... then when I (as the owner) click on the cloud I get a blue drop down menu appears in my S.L. viewer ... which gives me the options of what the cloud can do .... nothing, light rain, heavy rain .... or even snow ... UUMmmm .. don't think it snows much in Rain Forests .. right?

isi Rainforest

Despite the best made plans it's impossible to guarantee control over the future (a bit like ICT Dev.Plans) ... hopefully the plan has a flexibility to respond to the unexpected or embrace new opportunities that are created or present themselves.
This week a discussion about a path evolved into the building of a Rainforest that would serve as a connection between two regions in the Estate and also provide a venue to showcase T&L resources related to the environment, rainforests, global warming and conservation.
Finding vegetation for a Rainforest in S.L. is also becoming a bigger challenge than I expected ... S.L. is saturated with Palms but, of course, there are not many Palm trees in a Rain Forest. (despite some residents perceptions).
One location for finding (and buying) some wonderfully made vegetation is Botanical at Straylight http://slurl.com/secondlife/Straylight/194/12/40 ... it's very realistically done ... I'm highly jealous of the building skills of this particular creator.

OMG .. we've got rats

Well today I find that we have rats in the Information Tower ... now I had been told there were a few bugs in Second Life but no one mentioned rodents ....

Free Stuff in Second Life

I've been searching out some of the popular places in S.L. to find free stuff (or maybe only costs $L1) ... and there is loads and loads ... with both poor and excellent quality as expected.
The list I have so far is displayed on the first floor of the Information Tower ... see the pic ... when you click on any of these it will give you a Landmark (LM) to the location in S.L. so you can teleport (tp).
What I'm REALLY looking forward to .. is when the island is public ... and others have the opportunity to contribute to this collection.

My first SCREAMING rant ....

Today I went looking for a "Tibetan Consonants in a Cube" that I'd been told about .. I even had a landmark to Info Island International ... but when I teleported there I was redirected to a central arrival area ... a strategy that some islands use so that all visitors arrive at the same place ... usually next to information about the island.
It then took me a frustrating 30 mins (plus) to find what I needed ... a 30 mins that was just wasted searching .... my rant is "Island owners ... please allow visitors to be able to use landmarks where it's convenient to them not just convenient to the island" .... if you want visitors to see your main info area or meet guides then design the appropriate signs and navigation on the island .... I wonder how many hundred of thousand of hours have been wasted by avatars trying to find something specific because they cannot tp directly..
OK there is a time when one wants to just wonder about ... but this was not one of them.
On the plus side I also have a visit today to CALEDON ... an island (in fact a group of 33 islands) with a Victorian theme .... and I talked with the Director Librarian JJ Drinkwater ... so impressed with the libraries there and the events they are organising ... highly recommended.

Property Lines

View>Property Lines, will provide you with a gateway into the tools that you might need if you were to manage your own land with streaming audio/video as well as providing specific permission options to land parcels. You can see in the picture that I have divided the land into 2 parcels of 16 sq. m. (Right click the land>Edit Terrain>Left click land>Subdivide) These are known, in-world, as a 16th. Into each of these parcels, I can stream different audio/videos feeds. There are tools out there that allow you to stream in more than one video into one parcel but I won't go into that now. The important thing to remember here is that however you choose to divide and use land at ground level, the same rule applies to in any space above the ground within that parcel. If you consider a two storey building, for example. You choose to invite visitors to listen to a podcast on the ground floor, the same podcast will be available to them if they were stood directly above the parcel on the second floor. Careful land management is recommended when, as we are, dealing with towers 9 floors high!

Content Content Content

We're really multitasking at full steam now ... while infrastructure construction continues we are also starting to work on the content and displays in the towers.
One of my own disappointments when entering S.L. is how hit and miss it is to find good teaching and learning resources ... my saviours have been other educators I've met in S.L. over the past 6 months ... who have shared their nuggets of knowledge so freely.
In the International Schools Island Towers we are building a 3D index that we hope will help residents find content a little more easily ... this is a slow process and we have even put back opening the island until Chinese New Year (early Feb 2008) to help us get further down this path ... but in my heart I know it's going to be very similar to theShambles website experience ... this particular job will never be finished ... and fits nicely in to the box called 'lifelong learning'.
It is also paralleling the Shambles experience in that I know the content will not really start growing substantially until others become involved ... sharing suggestions, observations and reviews about what should be here (or not here) .... YES ... and I do mean "you".
We look forward to your feedback ....

Hang-gliding ... a new teaching/learning aid

So here is my latest toy .... sorry ... I mean teaching aid ... as an old(ish) x-physics teacher I just wanted to check to see if Bernouilli's Principle still worked in Second Life.
Apparently it does but the island could become littered with old hang-gliders ... the creater promised they would clean themselves up which they don't always do ... hope the environment people don't find out about this.
When you visit the island then hang-gliding is available for you to play with ... drat ... I mean 'experiment' with ... it's all about enquiry-based learning.

Cable TV in Second Life

Well ... would you believe it ... cable TV in Second Life.
It was just luck that yesterday I found out about this ... so off I went to SLX on the web and purchased my viewer .. I chose a free one (search for SLCN) which was delivered immediately to me in S.L.
It took all of five minutes (really!) to install it and follow the brief notecard instructions .. and I was sitting back on the roof of the technology tower and watching the Sports Channel ... a sailing race in S.L.
The video/audio quality was not great ... I need to investigate more about optimising the feed for the best results.
I think to be able to do this you need to own the land you are on ... but, heck, it's what we got a loan from the bank manager for.
At this moment in time the available channels are :

• Lifestyle - all of our talk and entertainment shows
• Sports - featuring the ice hockey, slascar, snail races, sailing and more
• Community - panel discussions, presentations and interviews
• Guide - let's you know what is coming up on SLCN live
• Shopping - get to know the people behind your favorite Second Life shops and products on ShoppingSL
• Music - check out the live performances in Second Life
  
• Business - features presentations and discussions for the business and technical community
  
• Metaversed - A dedicated stream for metaversed.com content
  

For more information visit www.slcn.tv/get-slcn-tv
P.S. I'll be glad when the island is open to the public ... I won't have to watch alone ;-(

Showing PowerPoint (& Other) Presentations

It's been interesting researching some of the presentation tools available in Second Life ... especially those that can show the PowerPoint presentations I already have in real life.
A tool (Communal Whiteboard) I like is made by "Angrybeth Shortbread" (don't you just love the avatar names).
I just export my ppt slides as jpg images, upload them to S.L. and drop them in this display unit ... that simple ... all the controls are intuitive, see http://metalab.blogspot.com/2006/06/communal-whiteboard.html
We have put one on the roof of the curriculum tower but they may also be available elsewhere on isi ... you can also find links to a larger selection of display tools on the 6th Floor in the Technology Tower.

Shiny or not ...

I love the idea that 10 people could be in a virtual room and each person can have a different perpective on and experience with the same environment depending on their monitor, connection speed, settings etc. Here for example, we have the foyer to the Curriculum Tower where I have given the metal a shiny look. You can see the reflections of the water, sky and other surrounding objects. However to view this effect, you need to enable "shiny" in your preferences. Edit>Preferences>Graphic Detail>Enable Bump mapping and Shiny.

The Naked Truth of Avatars

Today was the first time I felt that taking photographs in S.L. could instill the creative excitement that happens in R.L. when you know that you pressed the camera button at exactly the right time ... I think I've just found a creative project for 2008.

My red red world

I have been working for weeks on these towers. This is the world I have to live in. For those of you who might not know, if you go to View > Highlight transparent and select it, you become immersed in a sea of redness. It allows you to see transparent objects in world which can be useful and funny to see what land owners are hiding but essential if you are working with glass, transparent objects and textures as I have been doing on these towers. They say that colour is important in your environment and how it can influence your state of mind....I wonder.....

international schools island 2

Friday 9th November 2007 saw the delivery of "international schools island 2" .. additional land to enable not only the expansion of services from isi1 if needed but, more importantly, to give others the opportunity to rent land and build or have building and prof. dev. facilities constructed on their behalf.

Calendar of k-12 Education Events in Second Life

I've been trying to build a calendar of k-12 events in S.L. by aggregating (sounds grand) other peoples Google Calendars of S.L. events.

I've had some success which can be seen embedded in the traditional webpage that lives at ...
www.shambles.net/secondlife/isi_calendar

My problem at the moment is getting the RSS feed to include all the calendars collated rather than just the i.s.i. events ... work still in progress ... and suggestions on doing this would be appreciated.
It would also be brilliant if all those who set up regular events in S.L. would list them on a free Google Calendar so that the missing events could be added here ... in which case please send me the calendar title ... also appreciated.

isi flyover 14 october 2007

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

isi signage and navigation

Just like in the real world and on the internet in general .... signage, design and navigation are essential elements that contribute to the visitors comfort and experience.
So the time has come where we start thinking about and building these elements.
For the designers reading this .. we have chosen a specific font to be used with most signage ... called "Addled" (the name seemed to, coincidentally, go with that of "Shambles")

International Schools (k-12) Group

If you listen very carefully ... you can hear the faint echos from bygone educators ... "A school is not a collection of buildings but a community of learners"
Advice that is relevant just as much in a virtual world as in the real world .... it is with this advice in mind that we have set up a group in Second Life called "International Schools (k-12) Group".
Learner teachers are without doubt the most important part of the equation when setting up the whole isi experience ... so to find out more about the group, it's relevance to you, how to join, it's purpose and what to expect then visit the groups webpage.
www.shambles.net/secondlife/isi_group/

Web 2.0 Tower aka Technology Tower

A first glimpse of the Web 2.0 tower. I came across a close up photo 0f the Siam Paragon, Bangkok Thailand, showing a few panes of glass at angles to each other. I had no idea at the time how big the building was or how "close up" a pic it turned out to be. It was fun to be given a glimpse and imagining what was happening "out of shot" I created this frontage and sides and then decided, at that point, to look at some photos of the whole building. How wrong was I??! Glass works very well in Second Life, this has to be very special.

A bustling market place...

...well almost. Ok, it's only few shacks at the moment but what I have planned here is to recreate a market place including all the sights and sounds piped into the land. If you have any aerial photographs of food (like the fish and squid) that would fit in here that you would like used then please let me know! I would love to use then.

What a difference a day makes

Have you ever had one of those days when you do something and everything else done previously suddenly slots into place? I have had one of those days.
I knew the walkway was going to have a tree (Tropical Mexican Palm to be precise - not sure how many of those you really get in Asia - never mind) next to each wall. On that tree was going to be stuck the poster associated with the wall's country, but I never, ever imaged it would be like this.
The trees have really bought the island to life with a greeness and energy I can almost feel.

Wharf - almost complete

You can see here how the wharf is getting on. I wouldn't say it's complete, but I think the main shape of it is now set out. Details such as ropes, posts and textures still need some careful attention to give that realistic feeling.

Sunset

Just thought I would share this sunset with you. I'm looking south on the eastern edge of the wharf. Posts (as in the posts holding the wharf decking up not as in blog posts) with algae on them might look good - will try some tomorrow.

Where does the water really come from ...

Takeme and I had an interesting discussion about the source of the waterfall .... I guess a sauce talk ;-)
Well I don't agree with all this techotalk (technobabble?) below ... we all know that water comes from rain falling and that high land collects water ... we all did the "Water Cycle" at school after all ... right?
So I was adamant that the water at the top could not be bubbling .... it should be a smooth surface and calm ... maybe with a few Koi swimming around.
So we were at one of those collaborative impasses .... which will it be .. bubbly or calm??.
WELL ... geologists have discovered that this mountain was once an active volcano and there is still some activity there resulting in the heating of the water (so Takeme says .. I haven't actually seen the original reports) .... and she said one word to me ... "SPA" ...
So looks like we will now be developing this area as a Spa (but am suspicious that I've been manipulated).
You will be pleased to note that no Koy fish were actually poached (cooked by the hot water) in this process and you will find them in a new (calmer) location on the Island) when open at the end of 2007.

Waterfall - Sculptured Prims

The water I am using is usual in so much that I am using Sculptured Prims (sculptie). Sculpties are very different to normal prims and cannot really be made in-world. You have to use a 3D modelling tool such as Blender which is free - http://www.blender.org/ and import the image as a texture into Second Life. I won't pretend to understand the maths behind it all but essentially colours (Red Green Blue) are used to represent X, Y and Z space. If you would like to read up on sculpties, look here... http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims:_FAQ#SculptTextures

What sculpties give you is a much more realistic feel about organic shapes. Objects with curves, in all the right places, (as Mika would sing - if you've got 3 mins spare - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcRiXOONqf0 ) are now embedded into this virtual world. So plants, animals and yes, water become realistic shapes rather than bits of shapes stuck together to give the impression of a whole. The difficulty now, is to use the sculpties in such a way to capture the realism offered. Lots of studying of real waterfalls to get this right, I think.

Where in the world are we?

The continent names labelled here are sketchy to say the least and they seem, in part, made up from urban myths and legends. Sansara was the original continent followed by a second continent called Heterocera. Korea, also known as "The Southern Continent" or very affectionately called "The third continent" was the errr...the third and most southerly continent :)

Following huge rises in land prices and the possibility of the Second Life economy going out of the window, Corsica and Nautilus were added in quick succession. These 5 continents are known as Mainland. The Lindens put this land up for sale and through auctions, the land descends into the economy and is made available to buy to any resident who has bought membership.

In addition to Mainland there are Private Islands. I don't have the stats on this but visually, it seems that private islands make up the vast majority of SL land. Those blue and yellow diamonds indicate the position of a private island. I have pointed out isi island with an arrow; the yellow and white circle is where we are - right on the edge of the universe. As more private islands are bought, they could go anywhere on the map, including to our right. I hope we get nice neighbours.

isi Bylaws .. you are invited to contribute

Every Island needs to have it's own Bylaws so that we all stay safe and sound ..... and the International Schools Island is no different.
So we invite you to submit your own suggestions to be considered by the Island Council.
Those accepted by the Council will be made into a notice and displayed on the Island .... with your name along the bottom.
Use the 'comments' below to submit suggestions ... don't forget to state your name (real or S.L.).
I've started the list with the first Bylaw shown here ..... this should let you know that we are very serious about this ;-)

Mountain walkway

First look at the mountain walkway - textures here seem to be posing a problem. The bend on the pass means I can't use VBS to create the walkway as VBS won't bend the textures around the corner. It was useful to use it, however, to plan the route of the path. I have use long boards with a plank texture on them and used wedges to create the bend. I may replace the boards this with individual planks yet....

The wharf taking shape

It's growing like some extra-terrestrial blob; organic like, sprawling and spreading across the southern end of the island. Single plank next to single plank. I really do feel like I'm building this just like the navvies used to. I'm thinking back to my days teaching Resistant Materials (Woodwork to a certain generation) and trying to get the joints accurate as they would be in real life. Fun! Brings back fond memories.

I've been relaxing...

Designing + Building = Creating. And creating is what I do to relax. I love doing this kind of stuff; no predetermined ideas or briefs. I've been playing with the feel of the wharf area. Textures, form, function (Morris and the Bauhaus school were great thinkers!) all put in the melting pot. A bit like tossing a salad really. Never know what you are going to get on your plate. I quite like what I have on the isi wharf plate - certainly beginning to set a theme here.

Our blog up in lights!

I bought this RSS reader for L$ 450 from QA Business park ( http://tinyurl.com/2trurb ) I have been researching readers for some time with the intention of buying one but I have always found them fuzzy and kept chickening out from parting with my money. In fact most make me feel nauseous after looking at them for any amount of time. This design, however seemed clear and the letters didn't jump about at all. I had some problems setting it up which is why I called for help from the seller - David Boelcke. He took me back to his place - hmmmm - and he put the isi blog up on one of his news walls. Can you see it? Right in the middle. Turns out I had a dodgy copy. He told me he could provide me with an even clearer version. I doubted this as I thought it was clear in the first place. However, he whipped out this other version, and wow - yes crystal clear. I found David to be extremely helpful; he explained things clearly and patiently. I would recommend him and his products, if you are on the look out for a very decent RSS reader with great support attached.

Hope they are not Triads 17 Sept 2007

Notice that the wharf area has started to evolve ..... and two junks seem to have arrived ... hope they are not Triad pirates demanding protection money.

The wall walk

I've started to work on the wall walk in earnest. Getting the right textures on the right country's wall is not much of a problem; I have a special folder that I created in my inventory to keep everything in tip top order :) I am quite sure the boards will be moved about to their final resting position but at least now they are a single package, a unit that I can move about easily.

Chris' photographs, that are on the back of each wall, represent the wall's country. They are just stunning. It will be a sad day for me to see them go when the boards get rented. I wonder if somehow they could be incorporated somewhere else on the island - maybe in office blocks.

SculptO'Matic Sim Mapper

I thought this would be a useful thing to have on the island as a point of reference - general orientation, teleport station or just as an object of interest. It is suppose to create a 3D Sculpted primitive of the sim. I have followed the instructions ever so carefully, but all I'm getting is this multi-coloured blob. I have IMed the seller (Anjin Meili) twice now. As yet, no luck. Hopefully he will get back to me soon. The ratings on this product on http://www.slexchange.com/ indicate that it's probably me doing something wrong...will update this post when I get it right!

Update! I knew that would happen. I've been trying to get this to work for days and as soon as I blog about it, this chappy returns my IM! He was a great help. Seems I was putting the texture on the object rather than in the object. Hmm a very subtle difference but obviously makes all the difference. Next I need to make texture to overlay onto the prim.

Last bit...

I've created a texture to overlay onto the prim by capturing screen shot on the map and importing that into Paint Shop Pro. In there, I edited the graphic to remove the yellow circle and view point that you get showing up on the map. Export that out as a jpeg and upload into Second life as a texture. Easy- 3D map created!

Thoughts about my water works

This water, that is gently flowing along the channel between the two paths, comes from where exactly? This when real life starts to encroach far too much into here. We all know water goes downhill from a source but does it have to on this island? The answer is undoubtedly, yes. I could make the water do pirouettes in the sky if I wanted it to. However, the degree of realism and authenticity wanted for this island become very clear at an early stage of the design process. So, I repeat, where does this water come from? Thoughts at the moment revolve around this steep mountain side. It is at this point too, that the gravel paths change into a single wooden path that snakes around the side of the mountain - this would be a good point to introduce the water into the man made channel, perhaps from a mountain stream or waterfall.

Build like an Egyptian

Funny thought came to me, as I'm building in a 3D virtual world, that the way I am building this is very much how the Egyptians, not to mention the local bricky, would have built their structures. They would recognise how I am using bits of wood a spacers to make sure that the paths are parallel and as a set unit size to make sure the paths are the same width along the length of the island. I could use numbers provided by the X,Y and Z coordinates, I suppose, but my method works for me.

Virtual Builder Studio (VBS)

The Virtual Builder Studio HUD (seen in pic) is meant to help me save time and effort but it seems so temperamental that I spend more time fixing the bugs and doing the same thing over again; I do wonder why I use it. Perhaps, it's because when it does work, it's just phenomenal. I've built 50 floor sky scrapers with it at the touch of a button. The down side is that it took me a week to learn how to use it properly. I am testing it out on the path to see if it is feasible to create it using this rather than slabs. The HUD won't build floors on a slant so it means I have introduced steps into the path - hmmmm verdict?