Introduction

Introduction

by Deleted user -
Number of replies: 2

Thought it might be an idea to start a thread for general introductions of Interest Group members especailly in terms of their Second Life backgrounds so here goes mine.

I have been actively involved with Second Life for just on a year since stumbling upon it while investigating MUVEs. Not that I immediately saw it as a WOW (pun intended) place to be, in fact probably the opposite, as in my first wanderings around I didn't quite see the point of it all. What I did get eventually is that Second Life is wherever you are at any current point in time. A shopping mall, the deck of the star ship Enterprise, a Gorian torture chamber, a lap dancing club, they're all there. And you choose not only where to be but who to be within those environments. Ever wanted to be a Gorian torturer who lap dances for Klingon warloads - then go for it *smiles*.

My choice however was to search out and eventually find a thriving educational community actively exploring, discussing and teaching within this environment. I don't run any classes myself but I do do work with a number of educators in developing educational spaces (my past skills as a 3D modeller and scripter play a part here).

Below is a list of the "SL Groups" I'm currently active in:

Elven Institute - A Partnership of the National-Louis University and the Alliance Library Systems to support preK-12 teachers and librarians in using Second Life and other multiuser virtual environments. I'm on their advisory committee.

Consumer Health Library - The Second Life Consumer Health Library exists to explore the provision of health information to Second Life participants. I'm the primary scripter and landscape builder for this sim. Details of the work I have done there is available on my blog

NMC Teachers Buzz - A group for teachers discussing the practice, process, development, support of conducting courses or classes in Second Life. Focus is on pedagogy, practicalities, best practices, and assessment.

Sloodlers - ICT folks interested in using Moodle and Second Life in a mashup. To date this group has enabled sychronous chat between Moodle and SL and Moddle logins from within Second Life... interesting stuff.

Ephemeral Spaces - Designing learning spaces and tools for educators. A group run by my good friend in SL Lyr Lobo (in real life a Professor at the Computer Science Department at Colorado Technical University).

Librarians of Second Life - Second Life Librarians working on Info Island I and II. I'm not actually a librarian but have been a volunteer here for a while helping with building and scripting projects.

Real Life Education in Second Life - A group for real life educators either currently using SL for real life education or people interested in exploring the possibilities.

And just very recently: Kiwi Educators - A social networking group for NZ educators in SL.

For me education in SL is in the exploratory stage. I don't know if it's the next best thing or not and really that doesn't concern me. What I am about is immersing myself in that environment and seeing where it takes me. Observing what others are doing, helping out where I can with my skill set, discussing possibility and all the time thinking outside the box that says this is just a fad.

PS My EduForge site wiki has relevant links that may be of use.

Regards
Aaron

SL Name: Isa Goodman

In reply to Deleted user

Re: Introduction

by Clare Atkins -
Excellent idea Aaron - thanks for your comprehensive introduction! I should have thought of it myself but I guess most people here at the moment know me only too well!

Still I will post in the hope that we are soon welcoming more people from outside of NMIT!

I'm Clare Atkins, and I have a number of roles here at NMIT, including the responsiblity for the Second Life Interest Group. Mostly I teach on the Bachelor of Information Technology and act as Research Leader for the institute. My background is a combination of education (secondary in the UK and tertiary in NZ), together with 8 years commercial IT experience and a little bit of craft business owner thrown in for good measure! My secondary teaching was primarily in History and Geography, but after completely changing course I came to NZ to teach IS at Massey in 1992 and having got my PhD in Information Sciences while I was there, I came to NMIT in 2001.

My interest in Second Life began with a casual encounter with a media article on education in virtual environments. One wet Saturday morning in November 2006 I make the fatal click on a hyperlink and within 30 mins I was totally enthralled! I was lucky to encounter a number of educators quite early on in my explorations and very quickly began to see some of the educational possibilities offered by a Second Life type environment.

Since then I have spent many (very many!) hours learning to build and operate in the environment and in December 2006 was lucky enough to be able to rent some land on EduIsland to use for educational activities. This has now become the NMIT Garden of Learning in which I have now met with students on two occasions, with more planned! I also own my own personal land on the 'mainland' of Second Life and you are all welcome to visit Arwennas Secret Garden and have a look around.

Like Aaron, I am not completely clear as to how we will use virtual environments for teaching, although I believe its potential at present is as an extension rather than an alternative to current media. I believe that we are all at the exploratory stage of a very important technological development - virtual environments may seem unnecessary and little more than a game to some, but I have a strong feeling that the development of increasingly complex environments will prove to be as important as the development of the world wide web.

The use of Second Life as a teaching environment is still in its infancy in New Zealand (in fact it may not even have left the womb yet!) but I believe it is set to grow very rapidly - it offers exciting challenges, possiblitlies, and problems and it's fun! See you in world!!!

Clare aka Arwenna Stardust

In reply to Deleted user

John Green - Senior Lecturer - Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

by Deleted user -

RL name is John Green, SL name is Silel Volitant.

Silel was a space cat in a sci-fi series from my youth in case you were wondering - I thought it was a cool name! I first met Aaron on a course at MIT and met Clare as Arwenna in NMIT's garden. I was liked the direction she was taking in moving away from the ubiquitous palms towards New Zealand natives plus NZ bird song, something I've not seen elsewhere - unless everyone comes from Orlando that is!

Unlike Arwenna and Isa I've put my real picture on this site as although I have a much cooler looking avatar many years my junior I'd still like you to know me as John.

I'm hoping to discuss your ideas on ambiance (presence of place), and place structures in Second Life in terms of their appeal for discussion. Just how often should ducks go quack before they distract wink ?I've seen some terribly dull copies of RL dusty classrooms and conference centres in SL and also some exciting spaces full of imagination and sound like Arwenna's Secret Garden. I'm wondering what is best for what subjects and why and hoping to get some cool links to such sites to explore.