Digital Learning Environments:Context Sensitive and Imaginative Classes in Second Life

TCC Worldwide Online Conference 2009

April 14, 2009

Licensed under aCreative Commons Share Alike

with Attribution License

Cynthia CalongneInstitute for Advanced StudiesColorado Technical University

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How would you describe your Second Life (SL) experience?

A. Using SL in your classes - educator

B. Instructional designer in SL - creating content

C. SL user, not building content - expert shopper

D. New to Second Life

E. Not using Second Life (yet)

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Getting Started

• Create a class environment– Meeting spaces

– Second Life skills

• Educational content– Class discussions

• Public and student spaces– Class activity spaces

– Student designs

– Sandbox activities - contests, speed builds, game designs

• Go to the library– Educator tools

– Social networks

• Go shopping– Pick up tools and freebies

• Field trips– Visit the SciLands

– Visit the tutorials

– Use the tour HUD or a notecard with landmarks

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Virtual world classrooms - open spaces and imaginative

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First day in Second Life

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Teen gridclasses

Ramaporeflectionquestions

Part of anidentityexercise

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Second Life skills

In your Inventory,the Library

& Clothing foldershold new outfits

Highlight, copyand paste the items

into a new folderin the

My Inventoryfolder

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Class meetings in a gazebo - great for meetings

Easy to use for classes

- not ideal for content creation- the invisible walls block access to objects via the build menu

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Free floating seating arrangements make iteasy to build content

Students create spheres, elevate them, and discuss

their projects and concepts

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Field trips

Take a trip to the library

Visit Info island,HealthInfo island

and other library sites

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Create your own or visit Second Life libraries

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Visit the NMC, tour Second Life and share your ideas with others

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Shopping for free itemsat the

NMC Educator Freebie Center

Use these itemsfor class activities

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Field Trips

Visit the SciLands

Science sites include theInternational Space Museum,

NOAA, Science Fridays,Genome island and more!

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Simulation of the Space Shuttle by Jimbo Perhaps

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Nanotechnology lab -studying polymers

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Activities

• Collaboration - 1st day– Pass a ball - rez a sphere,

enlarge it, set it to physical & so anyone can move it

– Form a circle & pass the ball

• Human barometer activity – Design .jpgs (i.e., True/False)– Upload the textures, rez a box,

flatten, enlarge, texture, angle– Students take a stand on it

• Roleplay– Select a case study or story,

assign roles, & identify the learning objectives

– Costumes and props

• Project creation– Students create a design

– Students use SL objects to integrate into a project

– Illustrate a concept

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First MBA class at Wright State University

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Human barometer activity

students take a stand

FromGlobalKids

Students take a stand and discuss their opinions.

As they change their minds, they move to another sign.

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Middle school students roleplay the Steinbeck book Of Mice and Men

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Creativity and exercisesin learning to build custom content for

class projects

Relaxed meeting spaces

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Creativitysession

Students learnto build, name and link these

primitive shapesas they

create their draft projects

23Two projects: Autism and a military training interface

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Newspapers for myopic users, voting machine, fridge for wheelchair users

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Students create andtest their user interface

design projects.

Identifying how tosupport users

and their behavior.

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CTU student projects on display for Wright State University

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Lumiere Noir’s Ivory Tower of Primitives at Ramapo

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Texture tutorial in Second Life

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Class discussions in Second Life

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Creativity and Group Work

• Hold a conference– Student demonstrations, papers,

activities

– Invite educator groups

– Run interactive sessions

• Student-driven design– Plan an event - a play, a faire

– Create content - setting

– Schedule event, invite guests

– Run the event - roleplay

– Lessons learned

• Economy– Assign parcels to students

– Students create businesses and sell products

– Analyze profit/loss

• Group work – Plan & design (a game)

– Reuse or create content

– Student mentors

– Integrate and use

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Class meetings and

seasonal fun

Want a copy ofthis table and chairs

for your classes?

Send an instant message to

Lyr Loboin Second Life

Ask for theHoliday gifts 2008

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Work on Second Life skills

CulturalDecisions

Right click anavatar to

Add a Friend

or

Use the Give aCard feature

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To set up a custom voice or text conference

Give aCalling Card

Control click namesin your Calling Cards

folder

Right click these namesto start your

custom conference

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Be flexible and evaluate after trying a new activity

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SL Research Links 1• Second Life

– http://secondlife.com/ and http://secondlifegrid.net/

• Virtual Worlds Comparison Chart– http://www.virtualenvironments.info/virtual-worlds-comparison-chart

• Second Life Education Support Faire 2009 statistics– http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire#Second_Life_Education_Support_Faire_2009_-_Statistics

– http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire

• Cynthia Calongne’s Classes in Second Life– http://ctusoftware.blogspot.com

• Research in Second Life presentation– http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/research-in-second-life

• Artificial Intelligence in SL– http://web.bvu.edu/faculty/schweller/

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SL Research Links 2• National Public Radio’s Science Friday in SL

– http://www.sciencefriday.com/

• Virtual Worlds Management– http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2009/youth-01-26-2009.html

• NOAA’s Traffic Analysis– http://mayarealities.com/

• Best Practices in SL– http://www.slcn.tv/bpe-lyr-lobo

• Annotated Bibliograophy of SL Educational Resources – http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib

• Edumuve– http://edumuve.com/tour/ and http://edumuve.com/blended/

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SL Research Links 3• Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment

– http://www.dokimos.org/secondlife/education/index.html

• An Educational Tour of Second Life– http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/an-educational-tour-of-second-life

• A View from Second Life’s Trenches: Are you a Pioneer or a Settler?

– http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/pioneer-or-settler/

• Leveraging the Affordances, Minimizing the Barriers of Virtual Worlds

– http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/edu-panel/

• LearnScope in Second Life– http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/learnscope-in-second-life

• NMC Campus Observer– http://sl.nmc.org/

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SL Research Links 4• Using Second Life

– www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07025A.pps

• Beyond Course Management Tools: Second Life – www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07014.pps

• Virtual worlds in Online Education: Are You Ready to Teach in Second Life?– http://www.telecoop.org/conference/materials/CalogneTeachinginSecondLife.ppt

• What Can We Learn from World of Warcraft & Second Life?– http://archive.nmc.org/events/2006fallregional/materials/calongne.ppt

• SL Podcast by Bayne, Walker and Calongne– http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastusingsecondli/44967?time=1188754831

• TCC Preconference Wiki -- SL from a Flash drive tips– http://tccpre-conference.pbwiki.com/

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SL Research Links 5• Who’s on Second? Educational Podcasts

– http://www.rabble.ca/rpn/podcast.php?id=wos

• Second Life Development -- VITAL Lab– http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/vitalwiki/index.php/Second_Life_Development

• Suffern Middle School in Second Life– http://rampoislands.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

• Second Life Library 2.0– http://www.infoisland.org/drupal/ and http://www.myspace.com/73899784

• Second Life Education Wiki– http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

• LSL Wiki -- programming tools– http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage

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SL Research Links 6• Secondary Worlds

– http://secondaryworlds.com/

• Reuters -- Doors to open on Google Virtual world(s)?– http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2007/10/24/doors-to-open-on-google-virtual-

worlds/

• SL and Google Earth are Transforming the Idea of Architectural Collaboration– http://archrecord.construction.com/features/digital/archives/0701dignews-2.asp

• Timeline - History of Second Life Wiki – http://secondlife.wikia.com/index.php/Second_Life_Through_The_Ages

• UberNoggin: Big Brains - Big Ideas– http://www.ubernoggin.com/

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SL Research Links 7 - News• Reuters in Second life

– http://secondlife.reuters.com/

• The SL Newspaper– http://www.sl-newspaper.com/

• Second Life Herald– http://www.secondlifeherald.com/

• Metaverse Messenger– http://metaversemessenger.com/index.html

• SLNN– http://www.slnn.com/index.php

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SL Research Links 8• New Worlds Notes

– http://nwn.blogs.com/

• SL A Virtual Universe for Real Engineering– http://www.designnews.com/index.asp?

layout=article&articleid=CA6490691

• Just Virtual– http://www.justvirtual.com/index.php/category/second-life/

• Seifert Surface - Math in Second Life– http://www.segerman.org/2ndlife.html

• Eric McLuhan in Second Life - Playing Media Ecology– http://slcn.tv/media-ecology-eric-mcluhan

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Digital Learning Environments:Context Sensitive and Imaginative Classes in Second Life

Cynthia CalongneLyr Lobo in SL

calongne@pcisys.net

http://edumuve.com http://ctusoftware.blogspot.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo