Second Life Grad Student Colony
From SimTeach
Group Resources
Aside from this wiki, the group also has a Forum. A HUGE thank you to Jeremy for making both available to us!
We're also in the progress of getting a group calendar together so we can see our events at a glance. This is proving to be a bit 'challenging.' For example, we are trying google calendar, but you have to create an account to see it. So if anyone knows of a good (and FREE) online calendaring tool, please let us (Danielle, Intellagirl, Jeremy, or Naiad) know.
A Little History
On April 27, 2006, Pathfinder Linden hosted a RL Education in SL event. There were many people in attendance and a great time was had by all. After the event, Snowbell Tiger, Danielle Damone, and Naiad Remblai discussed the possibility of forming a group for grad students. We felt that some support for our research and dissertation writing would be helpful and that perhaps others might like to participate.
A few chats and emails later... the RL EdD/PhD Students in SL group was formed.
Fortunately, since many of us spend way too much time in SL and not nearly enough time actually studying, we run into each other quite a bit.
So, on May 17, 2006, we found ourselves chillin' in Matisse at Anya's place next door to Danielle's getaway! Next thing we know, our chance encounter has become an impromptu planning meeting with Danielle, Naiad, Jeremy Kabumpo, Intellagirl Tully, Anya Ixchel, and Typewriter Tackleberry all offering suggestions and ideas for group activities, goals, and the like.
Anyway, Jeremy suggested we try out an Event Timer (I highly recommend these for meetings where you'd like to keep on topic and get something done!) while we discussed meeting date, time, and location for our first official group meeting and plotted how to take over SL (jk).
Side note - Anya was quite gracious considering we were pretty much trespassing on her property! Otherwise, this story might not go anywhere. LOL.
A few chats and emails later... (see any pattern here?) we came up with an informal agenda:
- Purposes of the group??
- Student support for research, dissertation writing
- Promoting collaboration among researchers/student researchers
- Speaker events (ie: Bransford, and other known researchers as well as some of the teachers/researchers currently in SL)
- Volunteer support to SL Educators group to strengthen ties
- Share resources such as article/book discussions
- Share SL resources - scripts, objects etc
- Visit different learning spaces in SL (perhaps we can rotate our meetings to be in different spaces so we can get different perspectives)
- Group organization??
- General stuff like how democratic/participatory,
- Members
- who’s responsible for what (we need to figure this out)
- Operations
- Meeting times
- Meeting procedures
- freeform or agenda?
- meeting topics/speaker intros, etc.
- posting of discussions, work, etc. to wiki (who posts, what gets posted, etc.)
Meetings
First Meeting: May 24, 2006, Group Purpose
Location. Campus Sandbox (but moved quite unceremoniously because of a grid shutdown!)
In Attendance
- Typewriter Tackleberry (Ball State, Digital Storytelling, grad student)
- Sorcs Nolan (Southwest Baptist U, Instructional Tech Leadership, just grad with MA)
- Oleandros Suavage (Georgetown U, Communications, Culture, and Tech, grad student)
- Drue Aridian (U of Washington, Cognitive Studies in Ed., grad student)
- Mari Asturias
- Wendy Widget (Pepperdine, Ed. Tech, PhD student)
- Twan Schuman (Central Missouri State U, TESOL, grad student)
- Intellagirl Tully (Ball State, Rhetoric and Composition, PhD student)
- Danielle Damone (Columbia, Instructional Tech, EdD student)
- Kofi Unknown (Northwestern, Learning Sciences, PhD student)
- Henry Vavoom (Penn State, Instructional Systems, grad student)
- Leif Cordeaux (U of Washington, Human Development & Cognition, MA to PhD student)
- Naiad Remblai (Capella U, Instructional Design for Online Learning, PhD student)
- perhaps others who remained silent...
Summary of Discussion of Group Purpose. Support for educational research and thesis/dissertation writing
Proposed Activities. Finding guest speakers, hosting social events, sharing of bibliographies, maintaining this wiki, collaborating on research, discussing methodologies, discussing/sharing teaching in SL ideas, getting feedback on writing, visiting SL classes, reminding each other to occasionally get out of SL and actually do some reading/studying/writing!
Other discussion. There was some concern about how we 'mesh' with the Research group and the SL Educators group, but especially with the Research group. Several of us belong to all three so... How can we work with instead of against the purposes of the others? We decided that one way would be to add to the bibliography that the Research group had already started.
Future Plans
- Meet on May 31, 2006 at Campus Sandbox. Our featured guest speaker will be Pathfinder.
- Seek out other guest speakers
- Contribute info to this wiki
Second Meeting: May 31, 2006, Research Ethics
Location. Campus Sandbox
In Attendance
- Pathfinder Linder - Illustrious Guest Speaker
- Danielle Damone, Intellagirl Tully, Jeremy Kabumpo, Naiad Remblai
- Typewriter Tackleberry
- Heidi TeeCee
- AngryBeth Shortbread
- Cheryl Wiggins
- Nordehacedod Dot
- Francis Chung
- Drue Aridian
A special thanks to Intellagirl who readied our group meeting space. She arrived early, set up chairs and a recorder for the session. Great example of how to get ready for a meeting!
A special thanks to Jeremy, too. He provided a fabulous example of using surveys in SL. Please forgive all the survey email spam, Pathfinder! LOL.
Summary of Guest Speaker's Remarks. Our guest speaker was Pathfinder Linden and his primary role at Linden Labs is working in the academic and education space. We asked Pathfinder to come and speak to us about research and research ethics in Second Life because, as student researchers, we have lots to learn about those topics.
Pathfinder shared with us that research ethics has become quite an important topic of late because early researchers had been treating SL as a petri dish - something that wasn't quite welcome by many SL citizens! :)
So, LL implemented a policy which basically states - if you're going to do research in SL, you must submit a project plan to LL. They will then look over your plan and, if it's needed, ask you to get signed informed consent agreements. See Research Ethics in SL for specifics. Additionally, check out Association of Internet Researchers for applicable guidelines.
Of course, as with any chat, Pathfinder had his hands full trying to get out his information and field all of our interesting and sometimes off-beat comments! <grin> For example, the conversation took an interesting turn as the issue of privacy was being discussed and the following questions were raised:
- What constitutes privacy in SL?
- Does it violate privacy of SL citizen if their SL name is not linked to their RL name in our research?
- How do SL residents feel about their identity as it relates to their avatars?
Not easy questions, as our group soon found out. Even among the individuals at our small gathering, there were many ideas about avatar identity: Some felt they and their avatars were completely separate, while others felt very strong connections to their avatars. Some spoke of a change of personality while in world; others, not so much. A few even experimented with varying avatar identities, although retaining their same avatar name. This brought up even more interesting questions:
- Would we need signed consent forms for each avatar version of same avatar name?
- Would we / should we get signed consent forms for the RL person and the SL resident?
- How would our individual institutional IRB make sense of that?
- What would / should our consent forms look like?
We don't have all the answers. However, since each person in SL may have different feelings about their avatar and their identity, we believe that it would be better to err on the side of caution: Let people know what you're researching, get signed consent forms, and treat each SL resident with the same dignity and respect that IRB calls for when dealing with RL persons.
Chaos Reigns. As with our first meeting, chaos reigned toward the end. An hour is a long time to discuss such deep topics and some need a bit more...er...uhm...excitement...than can be had by sitting down (thanks for the chairs, Intellagirl!) for long periods of time. And, of ocurse, each group has its own brand of 'entertainment.' LOL Rollerskating (rollerblading?) and quick changes of identity seem to be the rule with ours.
Future Plans
- Group will take over coordination of Teachers' Lounge events
- Intellagirl will share her IRB info
- Aimee Weber will be asked to speak at next meeting
- A paper for group discussion will be selected and sent to group
Third Meeting: June 7, 2006, Machinima
Location. Midnight City
In Attendance
- Aimee Weber - Guest Speaker Extraordinaire
- Pathfinder Linden - Fabulous SL Ed. Leader!
- Danielle Damone, Intellagirl Tully, Jeremy Kabumpo, Naiad Remblai - group founders
- Typewriter Tackleberry, Heidi TeeCee, AngryBeth Shortbread, Cheryl Wiggins, Nordehacedod Dot, Sorcs Nolan, Leif Cordeaux - frequent attendees
- Catherine Omega, Defne Demar, Rosa Bentham, Kiari LeFay, Julia Wiggins, Dan Magpie - new attendees
A special thanks to Danielle for setting this up, ensuring that everyone arrived easily, and always making sure that everyone gets included in the group!
Introduction of Guest Speaker. Aimee Weber, famous for her Preen line of SL Clothing, is steadily becoming more involved with education and other projects in SL - most notably her Tour of the Solar System for which she is credited as being the first to use Machinima for educational purposes. Check out Aimee's SL History Wki for more on this talented, creative person.
Summary of Guest Speaker's Remarks. Aimee spoke with us about the creation of her Tour of the Solar System, an entertaining piece of education aimed at high school students. Our group was very interested in learning the basics steps to making this movie as well as specific considerations such as type of software used and price, size of file and download time, available creation spaces, and where to get help! Thankfully, Aimee was able to talk to us about all those things and more.
For example, she told us that her initial concern was to balance education, entertainment, and movie size. So, she decided that 3 facts per planet would be about right. She then wrote the script of what she would say and timed how long it would take in order to estimate the movie length. From there, she went on to storyboard the scenes for each planet. Filming for the project was done on Alt-Zoom grounds.
At this juncture, Aimee gave us a wonderful video tip: During her shots of large planets, she panned around the planet more slowly to increase the illusion of size while, for smaller planets, she panned more quickly to indicate smallness.
Aimee also told us that she's a big fan of Alt-Zoom's Machinima Kit and BuhBuhCuh Fairchild's alt-zoom cam. So, she built the set, used the alt-zoom cam to get her scenes shot and captured it all using a fairly inexpensive program called Fraps. See Alt-Zoom's Classroom and Aimee's article for more help on creating your own machinima.
Group Comments. Intellagirl thought it would be excellent to have students work in teams to plan, design, and produce machinima. Jeremy was interested in how educators should go about purchasing contract services. Aimee suggested that a first step would be to check out their portfolio. Cheryl Wiggins wanted to know what a good beginning project would be and Aimee suggested that anything focusing on explaining things that couldn't be explained well in 2D would be good. Many members of the group asked if Aimee would teach a class, to which she replied that she teaches for Alt-Zoom. Several also wondered what would be some good tips for teaching others to create machinima. Aimee favors hands on with lots of visuals for teaching this topic. Finally, there were many suggestions from the group about how to use machinima, including research, SL intros for faculty who might be considering using it for their classes, and capturing personal narratives. See EDUCast for more info on educational uses of video.
Future Plans
- Create group calendar to make scheduling meetings and guest speakers easier.
- Adding section to wiki for related blogs
- Reminding people to add their introductions and research interests to the wiki.
Fourth Meeting: June 14, 2006, NMC work
notes in progress as of June 14, 6:45PM... meeting to start soon
Location. NMC Campus
In Attendance
- Alan Levine (SL CDB Barkley)- Exciting Guest Speaker
- Larry Pixel - esteemed NMC Officer
- Danielle, Jeremy, Naiad - Grad Student Group hosts
- Heidi TeeCee, Cheryl Wiggins, Drue Aridian - Frequent attendees
- Francis Chung
- Henri Vavoom
- Snowbell Tigerlilly
- Carolyn Carillon
- Totally Vavoom
- Windy Gibb
- Seb Basiat
- Jokay Wollongong
- Eryk Genosse
Introduction of Guest Speaker. Our speaker tonight is Alan Levine (SL - CDB Barkley) and author of CogDogBlog. Alan is on the board of NMC (New Media Consortium). Read more about their SL project.
About NMC and the NMC Campus. NMC is a consortium of about 200 colleges, universities, and museums with a focus on teaching, creativity, and the arts. The interesting and beautiful NMC Campus was created by Electric Sheep and includes a museum, library, classrooms, ampitheater, and other buildings. The campus is intended "to provide a space for insightful interaction, collaboration, learning, and experimentations that encourages exploration of the potential of virtual environments." It can be reserved for classes or activities by emailing nmc-campus@nmc.org.
Event Summary. Until now, our events have been fairly stationary (minus the dreaded grid shutdowns of course) and focused on a particular subject. This event, however, was more of an interactive tour. NMC Campus has so many places to explore and so many interactive exhibits that we only got to see a few, including the museum, an underground reef, and the library. The museum has art on loan from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as well as pieces from local SL artists and is a must see! The reef was a not to be forgotten underwater experience and the library had several interactive books about NMC and new media research.
NMC has plans to hold classes on building and is looking for other ideas from the community. Additionally, an open campus version of the NMC Campus will be opening soon.
Our group conversation ranged far and wide, from libraries and museums to teaching classes and introducing newbies to SL. In fact, it was such a wide-ranging conversation that I'm having a difficult time trying to summarize everything. :) If you'd like a copy of the chat history for this meeting, just email naiad.remblai@gmail.com for it.
Future Plans.
- GLS Conference Shout Out at next meeting - a discussion of what happened at conference
Fifth Meeting: June 21, 2006, GLS Conference Shout Out
notes in progress as of June 22...
Location. NMC Campus
In Attendance
- Intellagirl Tully, Jeremy Kabumpo, Typewriter Tackleberry, Naiad Remblai
- Drue Aridian, Leif Cordeaux, Francis Chung, Snowbell Tigerlilly
- Sorcs Nolan, Pathfinder Linden, Bryan Mnemonic
- Gun Mill
- Farley Scarborough
- Chaac Amarula
- mr'y Tully
- Cybernetica Cela
- Adam Linden
- CDB Barkley
- Naiad Remblai
- Chas Television
- Kairotic Serf
- a few other drop ins
Event Summary. Several members of the RL EdD/PhD Students in SL group were fortunate enough to go to the Games, Learning, and Society conference. This event was to give everyone a chance to speak to them and hear about their experiences, impressions, and observations of that conference.
We convened at the SL Campus Sandbox, at first sitting around on relaxing rugs. However, while comfortable, the seating arrangement did not seem conducive to our goals for the evening so a change to chairs was made. Fortunately, we're getting quite adept at setting out chairs in quick fashion and the disruption was minimal. :)
Intellagirl started off the show with her impressions of the conference. She was quite impressed with the collegiality and collaboration, as well as the interdisciplinary nature, of the conference group. Snowbell agreed with Intellagirl and for awhile the group made small talk about the different feel of some of the conferences various members had been to in the past.
Sixth Meeting: June 28, 2006, SLCC Planning and Discussion
Location. NMC Campus on a really fantastic floating, rotating circular seating area brought by Jeremy. I got a pic of it, but I have to find it.
In Attendance
- Intellagirl Tully, Jeremy Kabumpo, Typewriter Tackleberry, Naiad Remblai
- Drue Aridian, Leif Cordeaux, Francis Chung, Snowbell Tigerlilly
- Pathfinder Linden, Farley Scarborough, Chaac Amarula, Nordehacedod Dot
- Defne Demar, Kate Spatula, Amalthea Blanc, Cleon Goff, Omni Shatner, Rik Riel, Kairotic Serf
Event Summary. The SLCC is rapidly approaching and several members of the group are volunteering their time to help host sessions on Sunday especially for educators. So, this session was all about what we wanted to get out of Sunday's session as well as what we could do to provide a great experience for those that come to SLCC and for those who would be participating virtually from SL.
For the most part, we settled on a more informal sharing experience for the 5 hours we have on Sunday. Intellagirl suggested round table sessions and many agreed that this was a good suggestion. Additionally, we all brainstormed topics of interest for those round table discussions - ideas such as funding your SL teaching project, tips and techniques for teaching in SL, and SL tools (like whiteboards and other scripted items) available for teachers in SL. We also discussed ways of making it possible for people in SL to present virtually as well as to be able to participate more fully in the conference - things like streaming the conference to SL. Of course, we still trying to come to terms with what that might entail. :)
Planning continues via email. If you'd like to be a part of this group volunteer endeavor, visit our wiki workspace and contact one of the people listed in the committee section.
Hope to see you at SLCC!
Future Event / Meeting Suggestions
Add your suggestions for group activities and events.
Access to NMC Space Our student group now has access to the NMC (New Media Consortium) space. This is a restricted "campus" space that includes a museum, ampitheater, and sandbox. Check it out at [1]. Perhaps we could schedule a virtual field trip or host a couple of events here. In addition, Alan Levine has agreed to be a speaker for our group - date still to be decided. You can use the following SLurl to teleport to the campus [2]. If you have never visited the space before can you send Danielle Damone a note in world to let her know if it worked.
Group Events Calendar
We're experimenting with Google Calendar and have created an RL EdD/PhD Students group calendar. You will have to create a google account to access the calendar. :( If anyone has better ideas on how to create a group calendaring system, please post your ideas to the Discussion Tab (see top of page to access this tab).
Meetings, guest speaker info, and other events will be posted, as will available dates for proposed guest speakers. :) Currently, Danielle, Jeremy, Intellagirl, and Naiad can post events (only until we work out the kinks). SO, continue to post your possible future speaker info below and post your confirmations below as well. Then, we'll be able to add them to calendar so you can see at a glance what is coming up!
Guest Speakers
Add your guest speaker proposals or guest speaker and date confirmations.
Confirmed Speakers
- Pathfinder Linden: Confirmed for May 31, 2006, 6-7PM SLT at Campus Sandbox.
- Aimee Weber: Confirmed for June 6, 2006, 6-7PM SLT at Midnight City Check out Aimee's work portfolio.
- Alan Levine (SL - CDB Barkley), Director NMC: Confirmed for June 14, 2006, 6-7PM SLT at http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Campus/139/225/42 See Alan's blog at http://cogdogblog.com/
- Chris Dede (Harvard GSE Learning Technologies Professor) Confirmed for July 10, 2006, 12-1PM SLT at Campus/150/100 (the Campus:Second Life sandbox)
- Lori Bell and Jami Schwarzwalder: Confirmed for July 26, 2006, 6-7PM SLT at Campus Sandbox.
Possible future speakers
NOTE: We'd like to only schedule 2 guest speakers each month - one of which would be appropriate for Teachers' Lounge event... (see Discussion page for more info/discussion on this!)
Angela Thomas, Faculty of Education, University of Sydney
Angela's SL Blog: [3](5/30/06 - Agreed to speak to us but would like to wait until she has begun teaching using her SL space - Danielle Damone)
John Bransford, College of Education, University of Washington (meeting with John on 6/2/06 to set up a date. He is interested in late June / early July - Drue Gawel) [4]
Chris Carella, Electric Sheep Company and Instructor, Teachers College, Columbia University [5]
Charles Kinzer, Faculty of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University [6]
Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium (NMC) (emailed Larry on 5/30/06 to be a speaker - Danielle Damone)
Edward Castronova, Associate Professor at Indiana University and Author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games http://mypage.iu.edu/~castro/
Paul Hemp (SL Hempman Richard) Author of Avatar Based Marketing http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0606/article/R0606B.jhtml?type=F
==Introductions and Research Interests== Add your research interests and propose collaborative research areas.
It would be great to know what kind of research everyone is working on so I will begin the introductions...
Danielle Damone: I am a Senior Instructional Designer and adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and a doctoral student in the Instructional Technology and Media program at Teachers College, Columbia University. I am interested in learning communitites, communities of practice, and computer supported collaborative learning. I hope to study how the social affordances of MUVEs support these areas :-)
Jeremy "Kabumpo" Kemp: I'm an Ed.D. candidate at Fielding Graduate University studying Education Leadership and Change and an occasional lecturer and faculty consultant at San Jose State University.
I'm interested in:
- developing tools for mixed-method research and assessment built right into the environments
- exploring rapid prototyping of experiential simulations (not role-play)
- facilitating peer review and formative evaluation of real-life learning spaces in development
Sarah "Intellagirl Tully" Robbins: I'm a PhD candidate at Ball State University in Muncie Indiana in Rhetoric and Composition. My areas of specialty are online course development through wikis and content management systems, digital rhetoric, ludology as it pertains to identity development in textual social epistemic environments, MUVEs for education, and the occasional tagging and social network research. My home page is here and you can find the blog I'm keeping for my SecondLife research here. I'll be teaching a second semester freshman composition class in SL in fall of 2006 with the help of the Center for Media Design.
Naiad Remblai: My work at New Mexico State University is varied (spice of life, eh?) - some days you'll find me working with faculty or K12 teachers to help them integrate technology into their teaching; other days, you will find me neck deep in grant projects related to...too many things to list! As a PhD candidate, you can often find me in SL attempting to discover factors influencing cognitive and social presence in MUVEs (specifically SL!!). Of course, I'm always game to research anything else in SL, too!
Jase "Snowbell Tiger" Teoh: I am an Ed.D candidate at Illinois State University in Normal Illinois in Curriculum & Instruction. My areas of interest are drama, social justice, multiculturalism, simulations, child development, counseling, and the creation of virtual versus physical space to see how we negotiate our identities when situated differently. As a full-time graduate teaching assistant, I am always finding innovative pedagogical tool to enhance instruction as it pertains to online teaching and learning with teachers.
Jami "Eiseldora Reisman" Schwarzwalder: I'm a graduate student at Indiana University for Library Science. I am interested in what you are doing in Second Life. I am currently part of the Second Life Library Project on Info Island. I want to know more about the educational uses of online enviroments. I am teaching at TeaZers to better understand how instruction works in this enviroment. I hope you find the time to come by the library, or I find you.
Bill "Omni Shatner" Brantley: I am certified as a Project Management Professional and have an MBA with a concentration in Project Management. Currently, I am working on a PhD in Public Administration with an emphasis on organizational change and knowledge management. I teach web development and computer communication at the University of Louisville and project management for Jones International University. I also consult on educational technology implementation and management (specializing in the Moodle CMS) through my company, Knowledge Design and Engineering. My research interests include:
- knowledge management and epistomology
- change management
- project management
- mental models and cognitve science
- communication
- public administration and nonprofit management
- social networks
I have been wandering around SL for over a year now and have been greatly excited by the educational possibilities there. This is an amazing tool for education.
Drue "Aridian" Gawel: I'm an Ph.D. candidate at The University of Washington studying Cognitive Studies in Education. I am a graduate assistant at The LIFE Center - a NSF Science of Learning Center working with John Bransford and Baba Kofi Weusijana. I am interested in how interactions in Second Life can be used for formative assessment and the unique affordances that Second Life presents over non-virtual environments.
Sean "RottenICE Matador" Marriott: I am a post grad student currently studying at THe university of Chester Studying information systems. I have been in and out of second life since June 2005 and have done much of my undergraduate research on SL and Entropia Universe (well more virtual worlds then specific focus research papers) For my dissertaion this year I would really like to look at using SL to showcase student art work the original idea was to sell work through SL but I think first I need an understanding of user habits in SL and whether it can be used as a way to showcase and inform others of the talent that exists by students. Of course this is early work and needs modifying but I would love to be able to create this using students and only students to help so that I can monitor the progress and collaboration giving others a chance to not only showcase there work but for others to improve there collaboration skills in a virtual world. It would be great to hear any of your ideas you have on this so drop me an IM in game [RottenICE Matador] or email me at RottenICE@gmail.com
Joe "North Lamar" Sanchez - I'm an instructional designer at The University of Texas and a doctoral student in the School of Information. My research is focused on Social Informatics and Learning 2.0. I teach a class called Social Issues in a Networked Society and i used Second Life in the fall semester as a capstone experience for the students. I have a paper accepted at SITE about the Second Life user experience. I used a method called interactive qualitative analysis to capture the student user experience of Sl in an undergraduate world literature class. I'm interested in the deployment and support of SL in universites.
Amy "Yamis Jewell" Billig - I am a high school math and computer science teacher in New York and a doctoral student at Pace University. My dissertation focuses on the severe shortage of women in IT from the secondary education perspective of how girls and boys learn differently and how math, science and technology are taught. My hope is to develop a model for a secondary public school curriculum which will attract and retain young women in the field.
Michael "Montopolis Maxwell" Mayrath - I'm an educational psychology doctoral student at The University of Texas and an instructional design consultant for The Division of Instructional Innovation & Assessment (DIIA). I have two educational technology research interests. First, I am conducting research with Bonnie Meyer and Kay Wijekumar's Intelligent Tutoring of the Structure Strategy. This intelligent tutoring system has been shown to significantly increase reading comprehension scores in 5th & 7th graders as well as in adults. Second, I believe it is only a matter of time before intelligent tutoring systems in the form of avatars will be integrated into virtual worlds; thus, I am interested in how this emerging technology can most effectively be implemented in the college classroom. My work at DIIA involves designing SL instructional activities and evaluating how successful they were in terms of learning gains, motivational affect, and overall usability. We have a paper entitled "Using Second Life in an English Course: Designing Class Activities to Address Learning Objectives" which will be presented at the ED MEDIA conference in Vancouver this summer. Contact: mmayrath@mail.utexas.edu
Research Information
Research tips, strategies, ethics, and other info for your SL researching pleasure! Keep an eye out for example IRB explanations, consent form examples, etc.
Conferences: What We Learned
Many of us attend some conferences throughout the year and bemoan the fact that we didn't have the time or money to attend more! For example, several of our group, including Intellagirl and Snowbell, are going to the Games, Learning, and Society conference in Madison and a few others are going to the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Well, here's their chance to share what they learned at the conferences so that the rest of us can learn something, too!
Games for Change Conference
Several of our members have been attending the Games for Change conference. I hope they can be enticed to add some information or links to information here. :)
Games, Learning, and Society Conference
June 15-16, Intellagirl and Snowbell will be heading out to the GLS2006 in Madison, WI (hello, Madison!) where they'll be hobnobbing with the likes of Sasha Barab, Kurt Squire, and others. It should be a fascinating time. Tell us all about it, please!!
Intellagirl says: For Photos from GLS go to GLS Flickr list and here.
Many of the sessions will be available for webcast soon. As soon as I have a link I'll post it here.
Overall, what was most amazing about GLS was the sense of community and knowledge sharing. Unlike some academic conferences where there seems to be competition between academics interested in similar topics, GLS promotes sharing and collaboration. It was fantastic to see so many people interested in games and learning.
Panel:Media Literacy & Gaming Literacy Dr. Gee suggested that the definition of media literacy that we currently use (the abiliity to "not be duped" by media messages) is changing into one that provides room for production as well. Those who are truly media literate in today's society are actually producing as well as consuming. He also noted that media literacy should not be seperated from technical literacy, information literacy and science literacy. Kurt Squire: offered a definition for simulation literacy and stressed media production Steinkuhler: Discussed the American public's failing ability to perform simple scientic reasoning and explained how games can encourage this kind of critical hypothesis testing. Dr. Hayes: Added the importance of social-information literacy to the current technical literacy definition of ability to use applications, basic IT conceptys, and intellectual abilities to innovate and apply.
Panel: Understanding the Nature of Avatar-Mediated Interaction in MMOGs Robert Moore provided screen-captured video of social interaction in games as well as transcripts. We broke into groups to watch the videos and discuss body language, turn taking, and other conversational conventions in avatar communication.
SL Chat n Frag: About 50 people crowded in to see SL in action and try it out for themselves. Peter Boyd, Barry Joseph and Anthony Crider provided examples of their own use of SL in education and then audience members were invited to try out SL on laptops at each table. It went so well that the panel using the room in the next time slot had to run us out.
Snowbell's notes from the GLS conference:
Helpful links:
epistemic games [7], global warming [8], http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/ - Sasha Barab’s VR for K-12 teachers, Quick Muse [9]– learn to write poems and critic them online
Books recommended: The World Is Flat – Thomas Friedman, Rainbows End – Vernor Vinge
There were more to the GLS conference than just these helpful links. What I really loved about the conference was the opportunity to meet up with others who are doing great work in SL, the fantastic location, and the variety of sessions from epistemic games. games for global warming, Barry Joseph's presentation on Global Kids in SL to WWCII.
Eiseldora's notes from the GLS conference: One of the sessions I attened featured a wiki: http://opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
There is a great consensus that the educators in Second Life are doing great things. Many are interested in following in your footsteps
International Conference of the Learning Sciences
June 26 - July 1, Julia Wiggins and I (naiad) are going to the ICLS in Bloomington, Indiana (near Snowbell's hometown).
While there, I will be attending some very interesting pre-conference workshops on Interaction & Learning in Chat Environments, Studying Engaged Learning in Online Communities, and GLS. Both of us will be moblogging and movlogging from events so, check back at the end of June for lots of great info from this conference!
Kofi Unknown: Here are the notes from the GLS workshop at ICLS 2006.
other conferences?
Interesting Links
Every time we get together as a group, we learn more about one another. To help us out, we're even posting our research interests on this page. Anyway, as I browse the Internet, I often find tools or resources that make me think, "hmmm, so and so would probably find this interesting!" In keeping with that - and bowing to the fact that I (and many others, I'm sure) often don't remember to then send the link to the person - I thought we out to have a place on our little wiki for that type of information!
For those of you interested in online identity there is the Turing Game. It helps people understand about online identity and how it impacts our interactions. It's not a new game, as clearly indicated in this article from 1999. But, they've been updating the game and it appears to be quite popular.
Group Bibliography
Post our biblio and add to it as we go...
There is also a working bibliography at Citeulike [10]. Please feel free to join the group there an add sources. The site will accept articles, books, conference presentations, and web sites.
