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Slides e-learning 2007

Barbara Dieu — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 00:35:59 +0000

For those who did not manage to see in SL the slides sent to the Sydney e-learning 2007 organizers. Answers to the questions asked as appetizers can be found on the wiki.
Updated: The recording here.

Cooking up a Storm in Education

Barbara Dieu — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:19:14 +0000

Robyn Jay (a.k.a. Bubbling Brooks) and Alexander Hayes (a.k.a Limitless Infinity) invited me to deliver the closing keynote for the Sydney E-learning event organized by Learnscope NSW on November 2nd (check your time). Here is a more complete program of the workshops offered and a link to the NSW Learnscope Blog

I will be interacting from my desk here in Sao Paulo both with the live audience in Sydney and in-world through Second Life and Adobe Connect, which will be hosting a session for those who cannot make it in-world.

This has been an interesting process. Alex and I have been Skyping regularly and he suggested I invite some guests so I kept chewing over how to make the whole thing more interactive using the tools shown during the various workshops. After a very fruitful brainstorming session with Robyn, Alex, Donna Hensley and JoKay, we came up with the title and the idea of mirroring the meal at the live event in Second Life. What could be more convivial than receiving people for lunch/diner around a table?

I invited some guests so that I would not be the only voice dominating the space. Alan Levine (a.k.a. CD Barkley), who will be home after almost two weeks touring AU with his kit of 50 tools , will have more than 50 stories to tell about what he has seen happening there and how social tools help connect . Josie Fraser (a.k.a. Josie Oh) has been doing incredible work on digizen cyberbullying and recently made an interesting post on the limits of homophily. Dave Pollard might want to share how Second Life has stirred up his imagination, creativity and sense of connection and Nancy Whitewill link the threads and bring the event full circle – prepare yourself for a generous serving of virtual and real chocolate

JoKay has used her talent, a load of prims and some of my Flickr photos to build the reception area for people to mingle and talk in-world. It is set in a tropical environment with an incredible view of the sea. Congrats Jo!

For the keynote to be less formal and more interactive, I suggested a back channel through Twitter, with a panel projector on the virtual terrace so that the live audience can have the possibility to send their messages through their mobiles to the guests and people in-world.

We will also be posting some questions on to the various channels (Twitter, blogs, social networking sites and lists) throughout the week so all can throw in their two cents. It will be fun to bring together all the contributions – a collection of artifacts representing our emerging open educational partnership and collaboration culture.

Bon appetit!

Virtual worlds, real learning?

Barbara Dieu — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:20:42 +0000

Originally uploaded by beewebhead.

Stumbled across the Eduserv symposium when Alan Levine posted a reminder on Twitter.

My first time video/sound combination of real and virtual in SL. Very exciting to think of the possibilities it offers, but the connection was slow so I had trouble in following it and got disconnected.

As Stephen Downes pointed out, SL is not an “open environment ” and as such does not cater for those who need it most. Very true, but then this should not stop us from experimenting with it and trying to find ways to make it more available to all.

Virtual worlds imitate but also extend the real world – by learning how to interact within them may provide better insights on how we understand and react to certain issues and behaviours. Using this knowledge to advance a better real world is what makes these virtual worlds so inspiring.

Webhead, Corwin and Bee at Boracay

Barbara Dieu — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:11:59 +0000

Webhead, Corwin and Bee at Boracay
Originally uploaded by beewebhead.

Corwin Skyped me this morning while I was having breakfast and asked me whether I was free to join him at Boracay. I quickly logged in, recovered my body in the Darkwoods, which is the last place I had been last night before the screen froze, and Corwin teleported me to his place.

He then called Webhead Link and we all teleported to a kiosk some place I do not remember to get hold of the Second Talk headset, which allows you to talk in SL. We touched a pole, took the headset to our inventory and had to throw it on the floor, click on edit /more and insert our Skype ID. The trouble was that it was a little brilliant thingie, which I could not see even with my glasses on.

As more people started to arrive and walk all over, this became even more difficult. We kept the headset in the inventory and flew back to Boracay, where I threw mine on the white puff in the terrace. I finally saw it scintillating so I picked it up, configured it and wore it as an earring on my right ear. I wonder whether it will still be on when I log back again tonight.

Corwin explained how to use it. You should type (/1 scan)(no brackets) in the chat area and a little blue window pops at the top showing you who you can talk to. You select the person (or several people) and call them. He called us and then we tried to do the same thing on our own. I managed to do it but Webhead was having pbs with his connection or firewall so the call was not completed.

It was a nice morning adventure, which ended later in Sobaeksan, with me and Webhead playing Elven drums. Fortunately I am on holidays or else this would not have been possible. Check Flickr for more pics.

Name decoders

Barbara Dieu — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:03:43 +0000

Through this link from Sean Mc Dunnough and JoKay , had some fun decoding my SL name. Choose the one that fits best, or make a mixed cocktail

Cyborg

Get Your Cyborg Name

Sexy

Get Your Sexy Name

Monster

Get Your Monster Name

BlogHud

Barbara Dieu — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:31:03 +0000

Sean McDunnoough must have noticed I was in SL earlier (or guessed I was there) as he skyped me immediately introducing me to BlogHud, a blogging system for residents in Second Life, or as they poetically put it, a live stream of consciousness and experience from another place.

It allows the owner to easily post a blog entry to bloghud.com, or as a PRO user you can post to your own external blog, if supported. Posts come with a map location of where you posted from in Second Life, along with RSS feeds to subscribe to for your favourite people or places.

A PRO account allows you to crosspost directly to Blogger, WordPress and Typepad. Looks interesting but I promise (until when?)I will not spend a penny on this lunacy.

SL first reactions

Barbara Dieu — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:23:19 +0000

Last weekend I was at my parents (85 and 79). I happened to read an article about SL in a local magazine and started commenting it with my mother who could not understand what I was talking about. As they now have a very impressive system at home (an uncluttered Pentium 4 and broadband connection), I decided to download Second Life and show them. Before going for a real stroll on the beach on Sunday morning, I managed to contact JoKay who teleported me to Wasp and gave me some notes where to get freebie clothes. After the walk, I connected again and this time landed in EduNation, where I took a tour of the island and managed to meet some webheads : Gavin, two Susans and Chris Eggplant. Later, I got in touch with Baldric, Fire Centaur from Korea, Wonderallica from Uruguay and Johan from the Netherlands, who took me for a stroll but whom I lost when my screen froze again. Fortunately we had exchanged our blog addresses on Elgg so I got to know a bit more about him. My mother just looked at me as if I were totally bats when I started choosing my wardrobe at Citizen’s Plaza and tried it on.

Yesterday I met some more webheads on Aqua but there was a lot of lag and I could not see them. Some great shopping around but way too expensive so I tried to go back to get the freebies but the computer screen froze and I was left hanging in there together with other half naked bodies.

This end of the afternoon, I tried to connect to Second Life after a tiring day at school , just to to recover my body but the whole system was under maintenance so could not do much.
I am amazed at my reactions in this environment and MUCH more self-conscious than in real life!

I got thoroughly embarassed when I found out (by looking atr myself from a different perspective) that my chosen skirt was way too short and that when I crossed my legs people would see my underpants.

I flew and bumped into many reserved and protected areas (got even a police warning) until I found an empty house (which is for rent) to change my appearance. Sus asked me if I was a squatter. Well…not exactly.As I told her, I felt the need for a space where I would not be interrupted in my experiments. Yet, I have not bookmarked it so I will have some trouble in finding it again. Nice view.
And the second bizarre reaction is that although I am on a free membership, which means I know I am homeless, I got worried about leaving my body unattended there and logged in to retrieve it. Go and figure.

Debut in Second Life

Barbara Dieu — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:03:54 +0000

Snapshot_029Originally uploaded by joannamkay.

My First Life is adventurous, busy and disorganized and as a result I am going quite insane with all the work stacked on the table, meetings and deadlines. Among my many good resolutions, I promised myself I would not get involved in anything new until the end of the year.

Throughout the FLNW tour, JoKay and Sean Fitz gave a number of presentations on Second Life, explained the potential for educational creative work and invited me to join. However, knowing myself and worried about the consequences this might represent, I managed to hold to my promise until the very last day on the road, when I finally downloaded the programme and gave myself the identity of a true nature’s child: Bee Kerouac.

I did not manage to do much on that day (walked around, soared near the sun, got my wings burnt, dived into a river and bumped my head on the bridge)and tried to forget about it while I plunged into my hectic daily routine back home.

Sean tried to lure me into it later on, by sending me inventory gifts (like this Cool Bee T-shirt) but I resisted temptation bravely….until last Friday evening, when I made my real debut in Second Life encouraged also by the increasing number of Webhead incursions and presentations led by Baldric Commons and Gavin on the Edunations island.

(it is after all, almost the end of the year…)
(to be continued)