Second Life and Lunch : Last Session of the Year

Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually
Meet us in the sandbox on the Kirkwood island.
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kirkwood%20College/156/77/26

Open Lab
At the request of those attending Second Life and Lunch this semster, the last session of the year will be a Lab. This will give members a chance to work on their cards for the Dewey Decimal Signs Group Project or to work on a project of their own.

Get an Avatar
This is also a good time to have your questions answered or drop by and sign up for Second Life to get your own avatar. The group is here to help you.

Spring "Second Life and Lunch" sessions are on Thursdays
Based on feedback from our fall survey, we will be meeting on select Thursdays during the Spring semester, 1-1:50 p.m. Check the home page of our group blog or the calendar on our group wiki for a listing of all Spring "Second Life and Lunch" sessions. We are scheduling a tour of an educational in Second Life once a month and as soon as those dates are nailed down a schedule will be shared with the group.

Connect With Other Members
Don't forget, you can also join our Facebook Group and contribute to the group wiki to share your knowledge of Second Life and educational content with other members. You can find all the ways to connect with group members including a link to our group blog, Facebook Group, YouTube page and Wiki here.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you join us virtually, we will be using voice, but you can communicate with the group through text. Don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here (just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester).

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch : Two Lab Sessions Remaining

Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually

At the request of those attending Second Life and Lunch this semster, the remaining two sessions for this year will be Labs. This will give members a chance to work on their cards for the Dewey Decimal Signs Group Project or to work on a project of their own. This is also a good time to have your questions answered or drop by and sign up for Second Life to get your own avatar. The group is here to help you.

Meet us in the sandbox on the Kirkwood island. If you have an avatar, feel free to join us virtually.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you join us virtually, we will be using voice, but you can communicate with the group through text. Don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here (just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester).

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 11-11-2009

It's almost 11:00 p.m. on Friday night - my apologies for not sending this wrapup out last night so you could have seen it before the weekend.

This week we visited a Thanksgiving-themed build created by doctoral Communications Media and Instructional Technology Students and their professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Our group was able to complete about half of the sim during the session. They rated the build pretty high overall, but not without criticisms of things they thought might have been done better. The group mentioned things such as creating a clearer path of what to do next, making it easier for a large group to go through the sim at once by adding multiple quiz boards so you don't have to wait and making the time to go through the sim an hour or less so it can be done in one classtime. These all sounded like pretty good suggestions for anyone that might want to try creating a similar sim.

By the way, the coolest thing about this build is that the professor and students that created it are offering a game-creation kit to the residents of Second Life for FREE. This kit allows you to focus on the content of your sim and not worry about needing a programmer to make your ideas come to life. If you want to get a game kit of your own to try out it's available on the same island.

You can explore the thanksgiving-themed build for yourself here:
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Comm%20Media/230/223/21

You can get a copy of the game kit on the same island here:
SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Comm%20Media/25/30/22

We don't have any other "Second Life and Lunch" sessions this month. Our next session will be Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 1-1:50pm Central Time (11-11:50 Second Life Time). I hope to see you in December and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch : Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Comm%20Media/230/223/21/?title=IUP%20-%20Interactive%20Simulation%20System%20for%20Second%20Life

You'll be happy to hear that we think that the problems we were having with Second Life are over. We will reschedule the demo of Green Phosphor with Bob Wise from West Liberty University hopefully for one of our sessions in December.

Since this week is our last "Second Life and Lunch" session before the Thanksgiving holiday, we are going to visit a Thanksgiving-themed build created by doctoral Communications Media and Instructional Technology Students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. By creating this build, they also created a free product called the Preso-Matic Game Kit for the educational community of Second Life to quickly develop immersive simulation games in Second Life like this (a product which just might help with the development of the Plague Sim under construction on the Kirkwood island).

Here's a promotional video of this build:


We will be starting this session with a group voice chat (text chat works in the same chat box for those without microphones). A teleport to the start of this simulation will be sent as a notice before the meeting.

If you're not able to make it this week, I hope you are able to visit this build on your own. It is a good example of how to bring educational content into Second Life.

If you don't have an avatar:
You're always welcome at our Second Life and Lunch sessions. Feel free to stop by and check out what we're doing. It's a perfect time to see what Second Life is all about. Bring your lunch and bring a friend.

If you join us virtually:
We will be using voice. If you don't have a microphone, you can still communicate with the group through text.

Note to all members:
If you're a Kirkwood faculty member don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here. Just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester. (Members from other colleges do not need to sign up to attend.)

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 11-4-2009

We continue to have multiple problems with the new Second Life client software. Still unable to call the group chat I relied on the fact that I have added members of the group as friends and was able to IM members who joined us virtually today. I hope that things will be back to normal soon. One good thing I'm able to get out of this is a laundry list of "what to do when things go wrong" that will be used for a Second Life and Lunch session in the Spring. At least there are workarounds.

This Thursday: Tell the President Your Thoughts
I want to remind you of the educational event happening this week if you are able to log into Second Life from home. An 18-person team from the federal government have taken the time to create avatars so they can log in and participate in a live event Thursday night to take place on ISTE Island in Second Life. The team is looking for input from educators to update and revise the National Educational Technology Plan (NETP). They pose the question: "If you had five minutes to tell President Obama what is most important about edtech and why, what would you say?" For more information about the event and it's location, see the earlier post on our group blog here.

Still Time to See the College Fair
There's still time to check out the booths from this year's Second Life College Fair. Find out how other colleges are using Second Life as a platform for teaching their students.  SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%203/173/218/21 - this link will open a map page with a teleport button. Click the button and your avatar will be given a landmark so you can teleport to the location. The booths will be up until Friday, November 13th.

More Changes on the Kirkwood Island
The building next to the sandbox with a collection of educational locations in Second Life has been expanded to 11 floors! With this additional room added there are more locations soon to be added to the collection.

Building Contest
There's still time to enter our Build a Snowman contest and you might win 500 Lindens! Create anything you like as long as your build is a snowman. Go to the Kirkwood island and touch the sign next to the Sandbox to pick up your entry form. Turn in your completed entry form by Wednesday, December 2nd. Judging will begin on December 3rd with the prize awarded at our final Second Life and Lunch of the Fall Semester on Wednesday, December 9th.

Next Week
Next week at Second Life and Lunch we will be touring a "pilgrims coming to America" educational game created by a professor at Indiana University. Details to come.

That's it for this week's Second Life and Lunch.
I hope to see you at next week.

Second Life and Lunch : Green Phosphor Demo Postponed - Group Lab on Wednesday

Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kirkwood%20College/184/51/25

We're still experiencing problems in Second Life since the last upgrade. There's a debate as to whether this is due to what Linden Labs has added to it's software, a problem with bandwidth or maybe a little of both. Either way, with the problems we're experiencing I am unable to call the group chat or even to hear voice chat in-world and we cannot teleport, so we are postponing our demo of the "Green Phosphor" software with Bob Wise from West Liberty University until these problems are resolved.

Instead, this week we will have a lab for working on note cards for the group project. You can also use this time for a building project you're working on. If you're working on a note card, you might need to log in to the location you're reviewing to avoid crashing when you try to teleport there.

SNOWMAN BUILDING CONTEST
Don't forget we have a Snowman Building Contest in progress. Pick up your entry form next to the sandbox on the Kirkwood island. Entries are due Wednesday, December 2nd with the award for best build given on Wednesday, December 9th. The winner will receive 500 Lindens. That's enough to load 50 textures for a Powerpoint slide show!

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you're a Kirkwood faculty member don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here. Just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester. (Members from other colleges do not need to sign up to attend.) Since I will probably be unable to start a group chat, please IM me if you join us virtually so I will be able to count you as "present" on the attendance sheet. If you're planning to build in a sandbox other than on the Kirkwood island please IM me also for the same reason.

I hope to see you there.  : )

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life College Fair and Wrap Up of Second Life and Lunch This Week

Last weekend I planned to pop into Second Life to attend one of the presentations at the 2009 Second Life College Fair on Saturday. The plan was to look around at the various booths, catch the "Using Second Life For Agriculture, Animal and Poultry Science Instruction" presentation from the folks at Auburn University, then pop back out again. Instead, I logged in a little earlier for the "Teaching International Courses in Second Life" presentation and just couldn't leave my seat. In fact, I came back the next day and didn't miss any of them except Claudia Linden who started things out. Needless to say I thought all of the presentations were fantastic. It was exciting to see how other colleges are using Second Life in the classroom.


I had to pick just one presentation to tell you about, I have to say that John Fillwalk's presentation about "Bridging Realities - Approaches to Hybrid World Education" (Ball State University) blew me away. One of the things he talked about was Flickr Gettr, which can search Flickr for images from a text search from within Second Life and make the images appear in-world on a series of prims. I'm not doing this justice by trying to describe it to you. It's uber-cool and should be experienced to be appreciated. You can find a public access Flickr Getter fountain on NMC island here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Campus%20West/132/92/21   It's art...it's tech...what's not to like?

The display booths for this year's fair will remain up until November 13, so you still have time to look around.

Here are some helpful links to help you find your way around:
Fair map http://bit.ly/SLCF09map
Welcome Area http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%202/89/15/21
Kirkwood Community College booth http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%203/175/221/21


This week's Second Life and Lunch featured a real world event, the NISOD Webinar, "Enhancing Instruction and Engagement with Second Life." The presentation seemed to be geared more towards those who are not in Second Life yet to encourage them to sign up. It was a "preaching to the choir" moment for our group. With a speaker from Texas State Technical College in the lineup, I had hoped to hear more about how they have recently graduated a student from their Digital Media Certificate Program through classes offered completely from within the virtual world of Second Life. They mentioned it, but didn't go into it with much detail. You can find out more about it on their Web site at http://v.tstc.edu/ and even find links to a news story about the graduation ceremony held within Second Life.

That's it for this week. I hope to see you at next week's Second Life and Lunch.

Tell President Obama About EdTech

If you had 5 minutes to tell President Obama
what is most important about edtech and why,
what would you say?

On Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 6:00 pm Second Life Time (that’s 8:00pm Central Time) the University of Michigan, Metanomics and ISTE are supporting an event to take place on ISTE Island in Second Life. Here are the details from the organizers of the event:

Community Meeting in Second Life: NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLAN (NETP)
The federal government of the United States of America has assembled an 18 person team to update and revise the National Education Technology Plan. Their report deadline is November 11, 2009. There will be a community meeting in Second Life for educational technology stakeholders to provide input into the planning process. Currently, we expect that a representative of the national team will be present as an observer at the SL event.

The key topic discussion points are:
* Learning: Providing unprecedented access to high-quality learning experiences.
 * Assessment: Measuring what really matters and providing the information that enables continuous improvement at all levels of the education system.
 * Teaching: New ways to support those who support learning.
 * Productivity: Redesigning systems and processes to free up education system resources to support learning.

Four Sims allocated for this meeting, all at the ISTE site:

1.       http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/92/83/30

2.       http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island%202/128/128/2

3.       http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island%203/2/190/30

4.       http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island%204/208/215/25

This Public Forum on the US National Educational Technology Plan is open to all stakeholders and interested parties. We are not requiring registration, but it would be helpful to us if people would list themselves as attending on the Facebook Event page. This would help us get a sense of what crowd to expect and what arrangements are needed to make it possible to include ALL interested voices. We don't want to exclude anyone if at all possible.

Updated information about the event will be available at the Facebook event page and the Simulation & Learning @ University of Michigan wiki.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163866392474&ref=nf
http://slum.wetpaint.com/

The focus of the event is on educational technologies throughout all of education for a diversity of needs, purposes, and audiences (not just how wonderful SL is, but we know that and I am sure SL will shine). I don't know yet if it will be possible to stream the event to the web, to include people who can't get into SL, but if we can figure out how to work it out, we will.

The basic idea the elevator-pitch idea. ***If you had 5 minutes to tell Obama what is most important about edtech and why, what would you say?*** We will have notecard collectors at the event, so folks who want to prepare their thoughts in advance, please feel free to do so, but please remember that all content submitted will become part of a public archive. The chatlog will also be saved and posted online. Remember, you are also strongly encouraged to join the online community at the main website and share your ideas there as well. I am hoping that some of the SL specific outcomes can be preserved at SIMTeach or a similar home.

We are lucky that one of the members of Obama's team is able and willing to come into SL and observe this conversation. I am really excited about this and believe it is a really wonderful opportunity for all the amazing educators and edtech visionaries who I know are in SL to help shape future educational and edtech policies in the USA, as well as to really show what a wonderful place Second Life is for the educational community.

We hope that this event may attract some new educators to SL, so will be providing a packet of information and freebies that we hope will be helpful to them, as well as a notecard with a few examples of exceptional Second Life educational builds to help them get started. Feel free to post your suggestions at the Facebook Event page for us to include (location, topic, what makes it wonderful).

The event coordinator is Perplexity Peccable (RL: Patricia F. Anderson, patriciafanderson@gmail.com. Perplexity is the University of Michigan Emerging Technologies Librarian for the Health Sciences, and the community manager for Wolverine Island in SL. Contact Perplexity for more information or to volunteer support or services for this event.

Information on prior versions of the plan is available here.
National Educational Technology Plan: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/index.html

Information on the current planning process is available here,
National Educational Technology Plan: https://edtechfuture.org/

The team is seeking input from the public. You can join the conversation on their website here.
Opportunities for Input:  https://edtechfuture.org/?page_id=888

Whether or not you are able to attend, it is important for your voice to be heard. Spread the word - invite your colleagues, let them know they can also contribute.

Please share your thoughts at:
https://edtechfuture.org/

Second Life and Lunch : NISOD Webinar

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Webinar: 1-1:50pm Central
Discussion: 2-2:50pm Central
KCELT 2097

Tomorrow's session is only for Kirkwood Community College staff and faculty. We will resume with our regular open sessions next week.

This "Second Life and Lunch" session is a Webinar and does NOT take place in Second Life, but you will need to be faculty or staff of Kirkwood to attend this session. 

Lauri Hughes gave me a heads up for a Webinar this month held through NISOD (National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development) of interest to those who wonder how the Second Life platform can be used in the classroom. Here's an overview:

NISOD WEBINAR: ENHANCING INSTRUCTION AND ENGAGEMENT WITH SECOND LIFE
Would you like to increase student engagement in the learning process? Join us for this high tech webinar and discover how Texas State Technical College (TSTC) instructors incorporate features from Second Life to: take students on virtual museum tours; involve them in virtual medical procedures; participate in a virtual class etiquette dinner; explore the inner workings of a camera; attend virtual meetings, and much more. From our experienced panel, you will learn how instructors first ventured into utilizing Second Life to enhance classroom instruction, overcame their fears, and quickly realized the benefits of engaging students in the virtual world!

PRESENTERS:
Kevin Brown, Project Manager, Educational Technology
Patty Odom, Faculty
Dub Wellborn, Faculty, Texas State Technical College West Texas
Coral Noonan-Terry, Associate Director, NISOD (Moderator)

This Webinar is FREE as Kirkwood is a member of NISOD, and best of all you can attend this Webinar from the comfort of your own office computer or join us in KCELT to watch it on the big screen with other Second Life Group members. 

SIGN UP FOR THE WEBINAR HERE:
http://www.nisod.org/webinars/index.html 


SIGN UP FOR THE SECOND LIFE KCELT SESSION TOO:
http://www.kirkwood.edu/pdf/uploaded/132/how_to_register_for_a_kcelt_course.pdf (search for "second life")

Want to find out more about how Texas State Technical College is involved in Second Life before the Webinar? Check out these links:

Overview: http://www.examiner.com/x-4734-Second-Life-Examiner~y2009m8d24-Going-to-college-in-Second-Life

...or maybe you’d like to read about their first graduate of a certificate program taken entirely in a virtual environment (Certificate in Digital Media): http://remember.your-first-time.com/college-life/texas-state-technical-college-graduates-the-first-student-from-second-life

I hope to see you there.

Second Life College Fair 2009 This Weekend

The 2009 Second Life College Fair is this weekend, sponsored by Alliance Virtual Library ( http://www.infoisland.org ) and International Schools Island ( http://www.shambles.net/secondlife ).

All times listed for Fair events are in Second Life Time (SLT), which is what I like to call "California time (just add two hours to the time listed to get the Central Time equivalent that the event will take place).

Oct 24 (Saturday) 5pm to 9pm SLT
(7am to to 11pm Central)

Oct 25 (Sunday) 5am to 10am SLT
(7am to 12pm Central)

PRESENTATIONS
Here is the current presentation schedule for the fair, which is subject to change. All times are Second Life Time (SLT):

Saturday, October 24
5:00 PM - TBA, Claudia Linden, Linden Lab
5:45 PM - Teaching International Courses in Second Life, Phil Youngblood / Vic Michalak / University of the Incarnate Word (San Antonio, Texas)
6:30 PM - WHY SECOND LIFE???, P CHARLES LIVERMORE -  HOPALONG OH  - ST JOHN'S UNIVERSITY NY
7:15 PM - Using Second Life For Agriculture, Animal and Poultry Science Instruction, Marcia Kjeller/ Marcia Kloepper, Sloane Mexicola/Jessica Butler  and Patti Tigerpaw/Pat Curtis.  We are all from Auburn University, Alabama, Department of Poultry Science
8:00 PM - Using Video in Teaching and Learning - A Molenet project, Julia Dando (aka Julala Demina) from Cornwall College, UK.

Sunday, October 25
6:15 AM - Designing Games and Learning Activities in Second Life, Lyr Lobo, Colorado Technical University
7:00 AM - Educational Uses of SL, Dr. Anthony Curtis, Professor, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
7:45 AM - Convergent Media Literacy for Students, Stacey Fox, Game Art and New Media, Department of Visual Art - University of Kansas
8:30 AM - Bridging Realities - Approaches to Hybrid World Education, John Fillwalk, Director, Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts Ball State University, http://idialab.org/
9:15 AM - College Fair Wrap Up,  Organizing committee and participants!

Helpful Links:
Fair map
Welcome Area
Presentations area
Kirkwood Community College booth

Stop by the Kirkwood booth and talk to visitors about the great things happening at Kirkwood Community College.

I hope to see you there!
Kit Umscheid (KitUmsched Writer in Second Life)

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 10-21-2009

I tried to keep this week's wrapup short, but there's a lot going on in Second Life right now to tell you about.

Always Have a Plan B
First of all, I need to apologize to anyone who tried to join us virtually this week for Second Life and Lunch. Second Life was having a few problems. One of the things that wasn't working was that I was unable to see any of my groups and I couldn't see my friends list. Both lists came up blank, so I was unable to call the group chat. I could easily launch into a rant here about the multiple things that were NOT working and the multiple things I was NOT able to show the group, but luckily those problems were all resolved by Linden Labs that evening...so I won't. However, it does make me want to mention why it's always a good idea to have a Plan B.

On a normal day, sometimes there is lag in Second Life (sort of like a Web page that...takes...too...long...to...load) or an island has too many people on it already and you are unable to teleport there (a common problem with popular events). So, if you're planning to show a group of people something in Second Life you have to have a backup plan in case things don't go as expected. An example of a problem we had and it's solution was that after this recent upgrade I was unable to teleport anywhere without crashing the software. This became frustraing rather quickly - it's no fun to be stuck in one location when you want to showcase a few things to a group. A solution that worked was to log out and type the location I wanted to go to when I logged back in. It was a hassle, but it worked. Always have a Plan B...this might be a good topic for a future Second Life and Lunch session. Things that can go wrong and what you can do.

Virtual College Fair in Second Life This Weekend
Second Life College Fair 2009 kicks off this weekend with educational speakers both days. This year the fair is located on the International Schools islands. Kirkwood has a booth (on International Schools 3 island) that showcases Distance Learning and the Kirkwood island. This event is great for networking with people from other colleges who are using Second Life as a tool for learning. If you want to drop by the Kirkwood booth, you'll need to have an avatar. Log into Second Life and then click this SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/International%20Schools%203/173/218/21 - this link will open a map page with a teleport button. Click the button and your avatar will be given a landmark so you can teleport to the location. If you have any problems, feel free to IM me in Second Life, KitUmscheid Writer.

Changes on the Kirkwood Island
There's a new look to the platform at the center of the Kirkwood island, more walkways have been added, a new teleport system is in place to help you get around easier and there's some new construction in the Plague Sim build. If you haven't been to the island lately, drop by and check things out.

Building Contest
Calling all builders! Build a Snowman and you might win 500 Lindens! Create anything you like as long as your build is a snowman. Go to the Kirkwood island and touch the sign next to the Sandbox to pick up your entry form. Turn in your completed entry form by Wednesday, December 2nd. Judging will begin on December 3rd with the prize awarded at our final Second Life and Lunch of the Fall Semester on Wednesday, December 9th.

NISOD Webinar Next Week, October 28
I hope you're able to come to KCELT next week or log in from your desk for the NISOD Webinar during next week's Second Life and Lunch Session: Enhancing Instruction and Engagement with Second Life. Discover how Texas State Technical College (TSTC) instructors incorporate features from Second Life to: take students on virtual museum tours; involve them in virtual medical procedures; participate in a virtual class etiquette dinner; explore the inner workings of a camera; attend virtual meetings, and much more. You will learn how instructors first ventured into utilizing Second Life to enhance classroom instruction, overcame their fears, and quickly realized the benefits of engaging students in the virtual world. Sign up for Second Life and Lunch as usual, and you'll also need to sign up on the NISOD Web site here.

Demos and Tours this Fall
Bob Wise from West Liberty University will be giving us a demonstration of some software used to bring Excel data into Second Life on November 4th and we will be touring a "pilgrims coming to America" educational game created by a professor at Indiana University on November 11th.

That's it for this week's Second Life and Lunch. I hope to see you at next week's Second Life and Lunch for the NISOD Webinar.

Second Life and Lunch : Group Project Lab

Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kirkwood%20College/133/176/29

This week at Second Life and Lunch we will continue work on our group project to categorize the educational places into an easy to find collection organized using the Dewey Decimal System.

Tips for creating notecards:
- Keep new residents in mind and give clear directions for finding content at the location.
- Keep your colleagues in mind and use technical terms for your field of study when talking about content.
- You don't have to use the landmark given to you at the location. Create a landmark where you want the tour to start.
- Create a landmark for all main points of interest at the location.
- If you use multiple landmarks for a location, rename the landmarks to match the specific area on the tour.
- Drag and drop landmarks into the notecard. This makes them a clickable link to easily teleport to the location.
- Sign your REAL name and your position at the end of the note card. This gives credibility to your review of the location.

If you don't have an avatar:
You're always welcome at our Second Life and Lunch sessions. Feel free to stop by and check out what we're doing. It's a perfect time to see what Second Life is all about. Bring your lunch and bring a friend. ...and remember that you can sign up for Second Life during any of our sessions that are not tours.

If you join us virtually:
We will be using voice. If you don't have a microphone, you can still communicate with the group through text.

Note to all members:
If you're a Kirkwood faculty member don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here. Just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester. (Members from other colleges do not need to sign up to attend.)

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 10-14-2009

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Where are the Pumpkins?
No entries for the Pumpkin Building Contest were turned in on time...actually, no entries for the Pumpkin Building Contest were turned in at all. So what are we going to do with the 500 Lindens in prize money? We're going to have another building contest, of course. Details at next week's session.

New Display Coming Soon to Kirkwood Island
Jim Trepka, Electronics Engineering Technology Instructor, is working on a wind turbine build he hopes to place on the Kirkwood island soon. From what I've seen of his build so far, it will give his students a sense of just how large a wind turbine is. 

Book for Builders Available in KCELT
A reminder to builders that KCELT has an excellent book available titled "Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life." This book has everything you need to know about creating in Second Life. I gave an overview of the book back on October 9, 2008 that you can take a look at here.

That's it for this week's Second Life and Lunch. I hope to see you next week.

Second Life and Lunch : Pumpkin Building

Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kirkwood%20College/184/51/25

The pumpkin procrastinators in our group will be happy to hear that this Wednesday's "Second Life and Lunch" session is a Building Lab so you will have time at the 11th hour to finish your entry in the Pumpkin Building Contest. You just might win the top prize of 500 Lindens!

Why pumpkins? Why not. It's fall after all, so what better shape to challenge our builders with than the pumpkin. Are you still searching for inspiration? Here's a real life pumpkin carving site that might get your creative juices flowing: http://www.extremepumpkins.com/

So grab your prims and start building! ...or something like that.

If you join us virtually, we will be using voice. If you don't have a microphone, you can still communicate with the group through text.

If you don't have an avatar:
You're always welcome at our Second Life and Lunch sessions. Feel free to stop by and check out what we're doing. It's a perfect time to see what Second Life is all about. Bring your lunch and bring a friend. ...and remember that you can sign up for Second Life during any of our sessions that are not tours.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you're a Kirkwood faculty member don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here. Just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester. (Members from other colleges do not need to sign up to attend.)

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 10-07-2009

Dewey Decimal Signs Group Project
This week at Second Life and Lunch members worked on the Dewey Decimal Signs Project and are beginning to turn in note cards for their chosen locations. New educational locations are added to our list every week. You can find a complete list to choose from here. With multiple authors, it's important to have a few guidelines so our note cards have some consistency in their usability and naming conventions. We have a short list of guidelines on the group wiki here.

Building "Cheatsheeet"
As promised I brought along a "cheatsheet" for the keystrokes used while building. This sheet was created by Second Life resident, Kippie Friedkin and the page is available on we Web as a PDF for you to print out yourself here. This sheet covers the common keystrokes used in the Second Life interface. It's helpful for remembering the keyboard shortcuts used for building, but it also covers all of the other keystrokes you'll need, including the Advanced menu.

Second Life Building Limitations
Second Life maintains a Wiki with a wealth of information including the limitations of the software. If you've ever tried to build a large structure you'll realize there are limits to how large you can make a prim and how far apart your prims can be if you want to link them. For example, the Kirkwood island sandbox is made up of separate prims that are too far apart to be linked as one object. If you want to know what the building limits are, you can find that information and a whole lot more here on the Second Life Wiki.

Demo of Second Life Database Tool Coming Soon
I made an announcement that Bob Wise from West Liberty University has offered to give us a live demo of new database software written for Second Life called Glasshouse by Green Phosphor. You may remember Bob was the first to give us a tour of an educational place in Second Life. He showed us around his college island as he was building it. Bob gave me a quick look at how he is using this software with information from his college. He created a Second Life graph from a Microsoft Excel document. We will be scheduling a demonstration of his use of this software at an upcoming "Second Life and Lunch" session this Fall.

Pumpkin Building Contest Entries Due Next Week!
Don't forget that the deadline for submissions to our Pumpkin Building Contest is next Wednesday, October 14. 500 Lindens are up for grabs to the best build. All you have to do is build a pumpkin or something with a pumpkin in it and submit it (and your entry form) by the deadline.

That's it for this week. Keep sending in your tour cards and I hope to see you at next week's Second Life and Lunch.

Second Life and Lunch : Dewey Signs Lab

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually

If you have an avatar:
This week at Second Life and Lunch we are having another Lab to work on the Dewey Decimal Signs Group Project on the Kirkwood island. You can join this project at any time and new educational locations have been added to our list for you to choose from. You can find the current list here.

If you don't have an avatar:
If you're just curious about our project, feel free to stop by and talk to members about it during this session.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you join us virtually, we will be using voice, but you can communicate with the group through text. Don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here (just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester).

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 09-30-2009

This week at Second Life and Lunch our Group Project Lab shifted to a building session. Jim Trepka constructed a 100 meter tall tower in the sandbox and discovered some of the building limitations when creating large structures. While building, he mentioned that it would be easier for new builders if they had some sort of written reference to remember the keystrokes for resizing, rotating, and linking. I really like that idea. I'll put something together for members to print out for next week.

That's the wrapup for this week's session.
I hope to see you next week at Second Life and Lunch.

Second Life and Lunch : Group Project Lab

Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually

If you have an avatar:
This week at Second Life and Lunch we're having a Lab to work on the Dewey Decimal Signs Group Project on the Kirkwood island. You can join this project at any time and new educational locations have been added to our list for you to choose from. You can find the current list here.

If you don't have an avatar:
If you're just curious about our project, feel free to stop by and talk to members about it during this session.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you join us virtually, we will be using voice, but you can communicate with the group through text. Don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here (just search for "second life" to find our sessions for this semester).

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Pumpkin Building Contest

You could win 500 Lindens for your pumpkin creation. You'll need to join the Kirkwood Second Life Group in-world to enter, but the rules are simple:

Your Pumpkin Creation
Use your building skills to create a pumpkin or a Halloween-themed creation with a pumpkin in it in Second Life. You can use textures you create or find, but your build must be your own. Make your build no larger than 10x10 meters. All builds (including textures) must be FULL PERMISSION.

Entry Form
Click on the easel sign on the Kirkwood Island located here: SLURL to receive an entry form. Fill out the form and give it and your pumpkin creation to Kale Somme or KitUmscheid Writer by Wednesday, October 14, 2009. Enter as many times as you like.

Prize?
500 Lindens!

Entries will be on display on the Kirkwood Second Life Island from October 15 to October 27 for voting, with the prize awarded to the lucky winner at our Halloween Party during our Second Life and Lunch session on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 11-11:50 SLT (1-1:50 Central Time). Entries will remain on display through Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

Enter as many times as you like, but each entry must have it's own entry form. Good luck!

Survey Says?

The results of the Second Life and Lunch Feedback for Fall survey are in. 12 people from the group responded. Percent and number of people who responded are shown for each answer. Here's a breakdown of the questions and responses by our members:

1. We voted in Spring to hold our Fall 2009 meetings on Wednesdays, 1-1:50pm. Does that time work for you? (please check all that apply)

66.7% (8) Yes. Perfect!
8.3% (1) I'm too busy this Fall and have no time to attend.
8.3% (1) Mondays, 11-11:50am works for me.
16.7% (2) Mondays, 12-12:50pm works for me.
16.7% (2) Mondays, 1-1:50pm works for me.
8.3% (1) Tuesdays, 11-11:50am works for me.
8.3% (1) Tuesdays, 12-12:50pm works for me.
8.3% (1) Tuesdays, 1-1:50pm works for me.
16.7% (2) Wednesdays, 11-11:50am works for me.
16.7% (2) Wednesdays, 12-12:50pm works for me.
16.7% (2) Thursdays, 11-11:50am works for me.
16.7% (2) Thursdays, 12-12:50pm works for me.
16.7% (2) Thursdays, 1-1:50pm works for me.
16.7% (2) Fridays, 11-11:50am works for me.
8.3% (1) Fridays, 12-12:50pm works for me.
16.7% (2) Fridays, 1-1:50pm works for me.
0.0% (0) Other


2. How do you feel about receiving a meeting notice for our Second Life and Lunch sessions in your email that automatically appears on your calendar if accepted?

50.0% (6) I like getting the meetings automatically on my calendar.
50.0% (6) Doesn't bother me. I ignore it if I can't attend.
000% (0) I don't like this at all.


3. What type of group member do you consider yourself?

8.3% (1) Complete Newbie: I need help getting an avatar so I can join in!
41.7% (5) In-world Beginner: I need help with the basics in Second Life.
50.0% (6) In-world Advanced: I feel comfortable getting around and doing things in Second Life. I'm ready to move on to other things.
00.0% (0) No Avatar: I'm not interested in getting an avatar and attending meetings. I just want to follow what the group is doing and join in discussions.


4. What are you interested in learning during Second Life and Lunch sessions this Fall? Below is a list of ideas. (please check all you are interested in)

36.4% (4) The Basics: Revisit an orientation area to go over the basics
27.3% (3) Getting around: Arrow keys / walking / running / flying
27.3% (3) Getting around: Teleporting
45.5% (5) Getting around: How to save landmarks of the places you visit
18.2% (2) Getting around: How to use camera controls
36.4% (4) Getting around: How to use vehicles
36.4% (4) Getting around: How to use an attachment
54.5% (6) Getting around: How to use a HUD (Heads Up Display)
18.2% (2) Making connections with others: How to IM a friend, How to IM a group
27.3% (3) Making connections with others: How to find a friend in SL / How to send a friend to your location in SL
45.5% (5) Second Life connects to Real Life: How to create a SLURL
27.3% (3) Second Life connects to Real Life: How to send a postcard to any email address from Second Life
54.5% (6) Second Life connects to Real Life: How to save a snapshot to use outside of Second Life
9.1% (1) Recording Second Life: How to save your text chat (useful for taking class notes)
36.4% (4) Recording Second Life: How to record video with Machinima
45.5% (5) Tools for Teachers: How to load images (textures)
63.6% (7) Tools for Teachers: How to create a Powerpoint presentation for Second Life
54.5% (6) Tools for Teachers: Watch a class take place in-world to see how it’s done
54.5% (6) Tools for Teachers: How to communicate with a group of avatars
27.3% (3) Learn the Lingo of Second Life: In-world, metaverse, Linden, HUD, rez, avatar, MMORPG, SLT, lag,…what does all this stuff mean?
45.5% (5) How to change your appearance: Business Attire
45.5% (5) How to change your appearance: Hair
18.2% (2) How to change your appearance: Glasses
9.1% (1) How to change your appearance: How to adjust clothing and attachments on your avatar
36.4% (4) How to manage your inventory
27.3% (3) How to deal with Lindens, the money of Second Life
36.4% (4) Tour a college campus: Revisit West Liberty State College to see how it has changed
54.5% (6) Tour a college campus: Visit other college campuses with a guide from the college
45.5% (5) Tour/Field Trip: Computer Science and Information location
27.3% (3) Tour/Field Trip: Philosophy and Psychology location
18.2% (2) Tour/Field Trip: Religion location
36.4% (4) Tour/Field Trip: Social Sciences location
36.4% (4) Tour/Field Trip: Languages location
27.3% (3) Tour/Field Trip: English Village (English Language Acquisition)
27.3% (3) Tour/Field Trip: Math/Science-related location
27.3% (3) Tour/Field Trip: Health-related location
36.4% (4) Tour/Field Trip: Technology/Applied Science location
54.5% (6) Tour/Field Trip: Art in Second Life
18.2% (2) Tour/Field Trip: Music in Second Life
18.2% (2) Tour/Field Trip: Literature location
45.5% (5) Tour/Field Trip: History/Geography/Biography-related location
9.1% (1) How to find and attend events in Second Life
36.4% (4) Visit some of the role-playing games in-world as a group to understand how they work and how they might be used a model to create your own learning environmen
18.2% (2) Visit a role-playing game: Numbakulla (similar to the game Myst)
27.3% (3) Learn How to Create Content: Textures
54.5% (6) Learn How to Create Content: Scripting
27.3% (3) Learn How to Create Content: Particles
36.4% (4) Learn How to Create Content: Gestures
18.2% (2) Have your questions answered: Meet as a group with no set agenda so we can ask questions and exchange ideas.
18.2% (2) What would you like to learn at a Second Life and Lunch session?
Comments:
- How to download, create and use sculpties
- Would like to construct some items with people readily available to help when I stumble.


5. When giving "how to" instructions, do you prefer to hear the instructions for Mac or PC?

66.7% (8) PC
00.0% (0) Mac
33.3% (4) Both


6. I would like to put together a Virtual Welcome Kit that new members receive when they join our group. This kit would be sent to new avatars and/or an email about resources online. (Current members would receive this packet right away.) What items would you like to see in this packet that would ensure the success of someone new to Second Life?

- A basic lesson in building.
- An overview in how to purchase lindens.
- Professional clothes for males and females. Landmarks to educational sites. A membership list with contact information.
- Business clothes, Kirkwood shirt, Watermelon Launcher, Scripted laptop for jumping to URL, - - Presentation screen
- ?
- Kirkwood t-shirt and directions for saving the Kirkwood Island as their home location.
- Suggested groups to join
- Not sure. I learned best by you explaining and me trying vs. reading.


7. We would like to create a directory of Kirkwood Second Life Group Members to make it easy for members to collaborate with each other. How would you like to see this directory shared with the group?

45.5% (5) Email the list
9.1% (1) Post the list on the Group Wiki
9.1% (1) Post the list on the Group Facebook Page
9.1% (1) Post the list on the Group Blog
36.4% (4) Post the list on the Kirkwood SL Group Web page
9.1% (1) Post the list somehow on the Kirkwood SL Island
Additional Comments:
- Can we create this on the KIN so only Kirkwood people can access it? Make sure to add snapshots of our real life and Second Life personas.
- does it need to be members only? or avatar names only?


8. What is your preferred way to find out about upcoming Second Life events for the Kirkwood Second Life Group and other educational-related information shared by members of the group? (please check all that apply)

100% (12) Email the list
00.0% (0) Group Blog
00.0% (0) Facebook Group
00.0% (0) Facebook Page


9. Do you have any ideas to improve the group?

- Continue to do more field trips
- Island projects - instead of one time lessons, what if there were group or individual island projects that could be worked on over the course of the semester?
- ?
- Give me some more time in my FIRST Life to take part. Seriously, I will follow and take part when I can.
- Have some meetings where people just work/experiment and have others to bounce questions off of.


10. Have you visited a place in Second Life you would like to share with the group? Have you figured out how to do something in Second Life you think would be useful to your collegues? Please list what you would like to share and the best time for you to share it here:

- Not yet.
- No
- Not yet, but hope to this semester.

We'll use these results to plan our sessions for the Fall and Spring semesters. We appreciate your participation in the survey to help us make the Kirkwood Second Life Group the best it can be.

Second Life and Lunch : Group Project LAB, Building Contest, Questions, Get an Avatar

Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually

Group Project - LAB
This week we are continuing to work on the Dewey Decimal Signs group project on the Kirkwood island. You can join this project anytime. If you haven't chosen an educational location yet, you can find a complete list here. New locations will be added to this page as we identify them, so be sure to check back.

Building Contest
We are announcing a building contest at this session. : )
Stop by to hear all the details.

Have Your Questions Answered / Time to Get an Avatar
Stop by and have your questions answered about this project or anything else you may have about Second Life. If you've been thinking about getting an avatar, this would be a good session to attend. Feel free to bring your lunch and bring a friend. I hope to see you there.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
If you join us virtually, we will be using voice, but you can communicate with the group through text. Don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. KCELT needs sign up information in advance to know if we need a larger room. I need this information to notify you if we need to cancel the session. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for signing up here (just search for "second life" to find all our sessions for this semester).

For more information about the Kirkwood Second Life Group visit http://www.kirkwood.edu/secondlife

Second Life and Lunch Review for Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Kirkwood Island Group Project
This week at Second Life and Lunch we continued work on the Dewey Decimal Signs Group Project. Guidelines for creating a notecard have been added to the Group Wiki. We covered how to create a snapshot for the signs at this session. You can find instructions on our group wiki. Feel free to contribute your thoughts. You can join this group project at any time. A list of educational locations can be found here.

Heads Up: Building Contest!
We're planning to hold a building contest this semester for group members. We'll reveal the details at next week's Second Life and Lunch.

Survey Results
The results from our "Second Life and Lunch Feedback for Fall" survey are in. The results are now being compiled and will be posted on our group blog soon. (Sorry this has not been done yet, but should be complete before next week's session.)

Member Directory
The Kirkwood Second Life Group directory has been updated. You can find it here. Please check to see that your information is correct. If you do not have an avatar (or if I don't know the name of your avatar) I've put a "no" in that column. If you do not find your name on the list, please send me at your information at kit.umscheid@kirkwood.edu and I'll add you as soon as possible. If you're on the list and would rather not be, please contact me to have your information removed.

Connect With Other Group Members
If you're feeling a little disconnected because you haven't been able to make it to a Second Life and Lunch session, there are many ways you can connect with other members. Take a look at the Member Directory and contact another member directly. You can also connect with the group with Facebook Group, Facebook Page, YouTube, or the group Wiki. Post a question or a link to a Second Life location. Share a video. These tools have been added to help you connect.

That's the wrapup for this week's session. I hope to see you next week at Second Life and Lunch.

Second Life and Lunch : Group Project Continues and Learn How to Create a Snapshot In-World

Second Life and Lunch
Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually

This week we are continuing to work on the Dewey Decimal Signs group project on the Kirkwood island. If you haven't chosen an educational location yet, you can find a complete list here: http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=25559. New locations will be added to this page as we identify them, so be sure to check back.

We'll also cover How to Create a Snapshot. This is necessary for the visual component of our Dewey signs. Then we'll show you how to share the unique places you find in Second Life with colleagues and friends who do not have an avatar by sending a postcard to their email.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
Don't forget to sign up for this free KCELT session on the Kirkwood EagleNet whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. KCELT needs sign up information in advance to know if we need a larger room. I need this information to notify you if we need to cancel the session. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit. You can find instructions for how to find our Second Life sessions here.

Second Life and Lunch Wrapup for 09-09-2009

Kirkwood Island Group Project
Our group project to create a directory of educational locations is well under way on the Kirkwood island. If you have not chosen a location to create a notecard tour of for your colleagues, you can find a list of potential locations here. You can join this group project at any time.

We talked about best practices for creating our notecards for the directory signs and decided to add a list of guidelines on our group wiki. These tips will make the collection of notecards visitors receive from this project consistent in structure. Please refer to this list of guidelines when you create your card. If you need help creating your card, come to the next Second Life and Lunch session. We will also cover how to create a snapshot of educational locations to be added to the sign.

Member Directory
A directory of Kirkwood Second Life Group members is now being compiled on the Web. You can find it here. If you do NOT want to be added to this list, please contact Kit Umscheid.

Survey Results
The results from our "Second Life and Lunch Feedback for Fall" survey are in. The results are now being compiled and will be posted on our group blog soon.

That's the wrapup for this week's session. I hope to see you next week at Second Life and Lunch.

Second Life and Lunch : Dewey Signs and Survey Results

Second Life and Lunch
Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 1-1:50 p.m.
KCELT 2097 or Join Us Virtually

This week we are working on the Dewey Decimal Signs group project on the Kirkwood island. If you haven't chosen an educational location yet, you can find a complete list here: http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=25559. New locations will be added to this page as we identify them, so be sure to check back.

We will also take a look at the results of our "Second Life and Lunch Feedback for Fall" survey.

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:
Don't forget to sign up for this KCELT session whether you plan to join us in person or virtually. KCELT needs sign up information in advance to know if we need a larger room. I need this information to notify you if we need to cancel the session. Faculty members receive Professional Renewal Credit for all KCELT sessions, but you have to sign up to receive credit.

Group Project : Dewey Decimal Signs

By request of our members, we’ve made it easy to see what Second Life locations are available in our group project. Members are selecting their favorite locations now to create a tour for, so check it out at http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=25559

Second Life and Lunch Review for Wednesday, September 2, 2009

I thought it might be a good idea to post a review of our Second Life and Lunch sessions for those who were unable to attend and to help clarify when we cover a lot of things. Those who know me best tell me I'm good at "information overload" when I get excited about a topic, so hopefully this wrap-up will help clarify things.

Feedback Survey
First I would like to remind everyone if you haven't done so yet to please fill out the "Second Life and Lunch Feedback for Fall" online survey. If you're a group member without an avatar, this survey is for you too! Please try to complete the survey by 3:00 on Friday, September 4 as we would like to have the results of the survey by next week's Second Life and Lunch session.

Member Directory
Have you ever wondered who all the other people in the Kirkwood Second Life Group are? Well, you're about to find out. We're compiling a list of group members (with and without avatars) to share with everyone on our Web site. This list will include the real name, title and department (title and company name for non-educators) and avatar name of each member.

Group Project on the Kirkwood Island
You have the chance to participate in something unique and helpful for instructors on the Kirkwood island. We're putting together a directory of educational Second Life locations on the second floor of the new building by the sandbox. It's a collection of signs with teleports to educational places organized using the Dewey Decimal System. By using this familiar system, even instructors new to Second Life can find educational content for their field of study easily.

Right now if a visitor clicks on a sign they receive a teleport to the location. This is helpful, but we want to make it even better. That's where you come in. We are asking members to lend their expertise in their field of study by writing a short "tour guide" note card to be placed in each sign. Write directions that visitors can follow when they arrive at the new location. Where should they go? What are the "must see" areas of the location? How do you think it might be useful in the classroom?

To participate, identify an educational site you've visited or choose from the selections on the second floor of the building. Write a notecard and give it to Alan Peterka or myself to include in the collection. (If you identify your own location, please give us a teleport also.) We're asking members to try and review one educational location per week if you can.

Other Ways to Contribute
You can also add to the resources on the Kirkwood island by suggesting a useful book about Second Life, suggest a Web site that is useful, or stretch your creativity and build and script a pastry or drink for our group cafe next to our meeting area. This is a fun way to teach new members how to use attachments. Have some fun with it!

Sharing "Second Life in the News" in a New Way
From time to time Second Life pops up as a topic in newspapers and magazines. A couple of people in our group send these articles to me to share with the group. In the past I've brought them to our Second Life and Lunch sessions and set them on the back table by the sign-in sheet for all to see. This is great if you are able to make it to a meeting, but not so great if you can't. So, we're going to do things a little different.

Starting this semester, I'll be sending the newspaper and magazine articles I receive to group members in our campus mail. There will be a list of all the names for the article to circulate to on a sheet attached to the article. When you finish reading it, simple cross your name off the list and send it to the next person.

If you're on the group email list, you are now on the Snail Mail Publication Sharing List. If you do NOT want to be on this list, please contact me and you will not receive any of the publications. I plan to send the articles I've received from members over the past two years out to the group right away.


Fall Meeting Schedule
The schedule for the Fall sessions is available on our Web site.

Sorry this review is so long, but there was a lot to share. That's all for this week. I hope to see you at our next Second Life and Lunch session next Wednesday, September 9, 1-1:50 p.m. Central Time.

Second Life and Lunch : Fall Sessions Begin This Week

Our first Second Life and Lunch session is this week. If you haven't visited the Kirkwood island this summer, you'll notice some changes when you return this Fall. Join us this Wednesday and take a look at the new resources available to you and find out how you can contribute to a project on the island to showcase educational locations in Second Life.

AND...don't forget to share your thoughts in our online survey "Second Life and Lunch Feedback for Fall." Even if you're a group member without an avatar, please take the time to share your thoughts about the group with us. There's only 10 questions and most are simple multiple choice answers.

Here's the lineup of our Fall sessions:

1-1:50pm, Wednesday, September 2
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, September 9
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, September 16
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, September 23
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, September 30

1-1:50pm, Wednesday, October 7
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, October 14
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, October 21
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, October 28

1-1:50pm, Wednesday, November 4
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, November 11

1-1:50pm, Wednesday, December 2
1-1:50pm, Wednesday, December 9

A reminder to faculty that you receive professional renewal credit for all KCELT sessions. Bring a friend, bring your lunch and don't forget your password if you have an avatar.

I hope to see you this Wednesday!

Summer SLunch Meetings

Did you think we weren't going to meet this summer? Think again! We've had requests for casual Second Life and Lunch (SLunch) meetings in KCELT during the summer, so we scheduled a few. Stop by and meet other members, share what you're doing and have your questions answered.

Here's the schedule:
Wednesday, July 8, 1-1:50 p.m.
Wednesday, July 22, 1-1:50 p.m.
Wednesday, July 29, 1-1:50 p.m.

Wednesday, August 5, 1-1:50 p.m.
Wednesday, August 12, 1-1:50 p.m.
Wednesday, August 19, 1-1:50 p.m.

Note to faculty: there will no professional renewal credit offered for our summer meetings.

Our first casual meeting is this Wednesday. Bring your lunch, bring a friend and don't forget your login information. I hope to see you there!

Instructional Tools for Second Life

One of our Kirkwood Second Life Group members, Sara Scheib, discovered a series of 4-week classes coming up quick for instructors to learn about tools for teaching in Second Life.

Here's a quick description:
Virtual worlds are proving to be an excellent venue for classes at a distance. But like all forms of class presentation, an instructor needs to know what tools are available and how to make the best use of them. This four week class will introduce students to the educational tools available in the virtual world of Second Life.

Sara added information about the classes to our group Wiki here:
http://kirkwoodslgroup.wetpaint.com/page/Learning+Opportunities

Second Life and Lunch: Open Lab

Monday, May 18, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Join Us Virtually Only

This will be the last time we meet for Second Life and Lunch during the spring semester. Join us virtually to have your questions answered about building, scripting, or anything you might have on your mind about the virtual world of Second Life.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch: Tour of The Particle Laboratory

Monday, May 11, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT, Room 2097 in the new Academic Addition or join us virtually

If you've been to one of our meetings over the past month, you've learned a thing or two about how to make the things you build do things like open a Web page or give and item to an avatar by adding a script to an object. I like to describe scripts as "where the magic really happens" in Second Life.

At our next Second Life and Lunch we're going to kick things up a notch. We will be visiting a very cool place called The Particle Laboratory. Much like the Ivory Tower of Primitives, The Particle Laboratory is set up with self-paced tutorials where you can learn...in this case...all about particles! Particles are created by a script placed inside an object that can make fireworks or smoke or a pulsing glow around the object like a light or many other effects. We'll walk through the beginning of the tutorials, I'll show you the lay of the land (including the sandbox area where you can try creating some particle effects yourself) and then everyone can explore this build for themselves.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch : Scripting - Give a Folder of Items

Monday, May 4, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT, Room 2097 in the new Academic Addition or Join us Virtually

At our next Second Life and Lunch you'll learn how to Set Up an Item to Give a Folder of Items When Touched. This is a very useful and versatile script that can give out any combination of objects, landmarks and notecards.

Don't worry if you didn't make it any of the building and scripting sessions yet. Each of these sessions stands on it's own and you can jump in at any time.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch: Scripting - Web Link

Monday, April 27, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT, Room 2097 in the new Academic Addition or Join us Virtually

Last week you saw how easy it is to create and change a simple script in an object. Next week we're going to Link an Object to a Web Page. Don't worry if you didn't make it to last week's meeting. Although the remaining sessions all have to do with scripting, each session stands on it's own and you can jump in at any time.

Remember to bring a screen shot of a Web Page to the meeting in PNG or JPG file.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch: Scripting Overview and Tour

Monday, April 20, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT, Room 2097 in the new Academic Addition or Join us Virtually

Monday is the beginning of a series of sessions that will focus on where the real magic happens in Second Life - scripting! We'll meet again in the new KCELT location for a Scripting Overview and Tour. I'll show you how scripts can be added to an object and then I'll show where you can learn to script in Second Life.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch: Texture Tutorial

Monday, April 13, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT, Room 2097 in the new Academic Addition or Join us Virtually

We'll meet again in the new KCELT location on Monday to talk about Textures. We'll go over the basics of finding textures in Second Life, uploading your own textures, and a few tips for working with textures on your prims. We'll have a lot of free textures for you to experiment with.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch: Build a Simple Bench

Monday, April 6, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT, Room 2097 in the new Academic Addition or Join us Virtually

Monday will be the first Second Life and Lunch session to be held in KCELT's new location, but you can also join us virtually. We'll continue our series for new builders with a session to Build a Simple Bench. Don't worry if you've never built anything in Second Life before. We'll cover the basics as we go. We'll start with a basic bench and then let you experiment by changing the shape and texture.

If you're Kirkwood faculty or staff, don't forget to sign up for this session. You can find the instructions here on our group wiki.

I hope to see you there!

Collaborative Build in the Sandbox

If you missed today, you missed a lot of dominoes! Each builder finished a creation of their own and then we linked them together to form a single chain of dominoes. Great work guys! We should created another collaborative build like this in the future.

The notes for today's meeting will be placed in a box on the wall of the sandbox. A copy of the elements used in today's build will be placed there too.

Second Life and Lunch: Collaborative Building

Monday, March 30, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
VIRTUAL ONLY this day

This week we're going to put the basic building techniques you learned in the last session to use with Collaborative Building. We're going to work together in the sandbox with the structures we created last week (and anything else you might want to bring out of your inventory) to create a long line of dominoes that interacts with everyone's structure.

If you missed last week, you'll find a copy of the ramp structure we created in a box on the wall as you walk into the sandbox. Just left-click the box and it will add a folder to your inventory with the ramp structure and a domino inside.

We still need to set up the Second Life program in the new KCELT location and test the voice chat, so this week will be VIRTUAL ONLY. Meet us in the sandbox on Kirkwood island.

I hope to see you there!

Second Life and Lunch: Simple Building Tips

Monday, March 23, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
VIRTUAL ONLY this day

If you missed last week's "Let's Start Building" session of Second Life and Lunch, don't worry about being left behind. This week we will review last week's session and continuing our series on building and scripting with Simple Building Tips. We're going to create some basic shapes, go over some things that will keep you from tearing your hair out when you're learning to build, and then we'll do some collaborative building with dominoes.

Meet us in the Kirkwood sandbox. I hope to see you there!

Meet Me in the Sandbox

In case you’re wondering, YES, there will be a Second Life and Lunch meeting today. We will NOT be meeting in KCELT though. We’ll gather virtually only in the Kirkwood sandbox. I’m going to give a few building tips and we’re going to do some simple collaborative building to get us started.

I hope to see you in the sandbox.

Kit

Where to Build Wrap-Up

If you missed today’s “Second Life and Lunch” session about Where to Build in Second Life, I wanted to send you a link to a YouTube video by Torley Linden. He gives a nice overview of The Ivory Tower of Primitives that you can view here:



To check it out in SL, here’s the SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/211/165/44

You can see an overview of the FREE instructor-led building classes at Rockcliffe University on their Web site here.

To check it out in SL, here’s the SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/99/99/24

If you have any questions, feel free to send them my way.

Next week is Spring Break and KCELT is in the process of moving.
We’ll have a virtual-only meeting in the Kirkwood sandbox to go over some basic building tips.

Kit

Second Life and Lunch: Where You Can Learn to Build

Monday, March 9, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT 153 Computer Classroom

Monday kicks off a series of building and scripting sessions starting with a virtual field trip to where you can learn to build in Second Life. Our first stop is Rockcliffe University. Rockcliffe offers 20 instructor-led classes free of charge. Each class in this series builds on what was learned in the previous one, so I would recommend starting with PRM101 - The Basics and taking them in order even if you've been building for some time. One benefit to the instructor-led classes is that you'll know if you're doing things right by comparing what you're building to what the instructor and everyone else is building. This format will also give you a chance to ask questions too. If you'd like to take a closer look at Rockcliffe, check out their Web site here.

The next stop on our tour will be to the Ivory Tower of Primitives. If you'd rather learn to build in Second Life on your own this is a great place to start. The Ivory Tower of Primitives has an extensive collection of self-guided and self-paced tutorials on building. We'll begin on the ground floor where the basics of the prim are presented and then teleport to the upper floors where more advanced building skills are taught. Exhibits at the Tower are presented much like visiting a museum, so just move from one to the other as your skills improve. The Ivory Tower also has a huge sandbox next to it so you can practice what you've learned close by.

I hope to see you Monday for this beginning of the "How to Build in Second Life" series.

Tour of NOAA in Second Life

Monday, March 2, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT 153 Computer Classroom

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has created one of the best builds I've seen in Second Life. They're using this virtual world to present earth science concepts in three-dimensional immersive experiences for the general public. Flying a plane into a hurricane, riding a weather balloon or watching the development of a tsunami are just a few of the exhibits that your avatar can interact with.

Brandon Lynge will be our guide and he will explain how NOAA uses the virtual world of Second Life to present scientific data in two and three dimensions.

We will be projecting this tour onto the big screen, so you don't need an avatar to attend. If you decide to navigate the tour in Second Life, just meet us in the courtyard on NOAA's Meteora island. Click here for the SLurl. This will open a Web page with the teleport.

I hope you can join us on Monday for the tour.

Link a Second Life Object to a Web Page

Second Life and Lunch Meeting
Monday, February 23, 2009, 1-1:50pm
KCELT 153 Computer Classroom or join us virtually

At Monday's Second Life and Lunch we're going to get into scripting! Don't worry, no experience with scripting is necessary. I'm going to show the group how to put a simple script into an object and modify it to open a Web page when the object is touched. This is an excellent tool for teachers.

Please remember to sign up on for this KCELT session on the Kirkwood Web site. KCELT needs this for scheduling purposes. If you're an instructor, you'll need to do this in order to get professional renewal credit. You can find instructions here.

I hope to see you on Monday. Bring your lunch, bring a friend and don't forget your password!

Kit Umscheid (KitUmscheid Writer in Second Life)