Second Life – so much is happening!

Posted on November 5, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

I get the chance to do many exciting things within my work – and each year brings exciting new challenges. Last year it was Web 2.0. This year it is virtual learning!

Some of our teachers have been involved in the NSW Learnscope project. This has been a great inspiration, and exciting because it has opened new doors and new opportunities. Melinda and Dean regularly write about the project. The Learnscope eLearning2007 conference was held 1/2 November in Sydney, and some 35 teams have taken a journey into using Web2.0 and Virtual Learning – each with it’s own focus. The details of the teams and their projects are available on the Wiki.

Dean wrote some great comments about this event and what he’s learned this year. He seriously challenges our ideas about Web 2.0, because he has challenged his own.

Has it worked – hell yeah. The students achieve more in less time and the quality of the work is excellent – they love a challenge and rise to it again and again. Will I go back? No.

Dean and I have taken up a small residence each in Jokaydia (an Australian education island managed by Jo Kay), so as to fast-track our knowledge of learning possibilities in SecondLife. This is hard going right now, as we are working late at night meeting with educators from Australia and around the world – all committed to moving learning into the 21st century – as the kids understand it!

If you’d like to explore Jokaydia with its the education facilities, then drop in via my place at Heyjude Hall. Thanks to Dean for the design of the sign!

I haven’t got anything ‘happening’ yet, but membership of Jokaydia means I can learn, share, and use the facilities on the island, as well as provide information at my own residence. Dean will also be putting up a great showcase of teaching ideas from his classroom at his residence.

Most importantly, Dean will be linking from those ideas directly into Skoolaborate and the superb initiatives underway there. Skoolaborate is a serious education initiative taking place in the Teen Grid, and which will (I believe) show us the real 21st century learning futures of our kids! All thanks to our own Sydney master of innovation, Westley Field. Good one!

I’ve added a few videos about Second Life. The last one, Seriously Engaging from New Media Consortium, was first seen by me ‘in world’ during the eLearning07 conference, after being taken on a tour of the fantastic virtual NMC facilities by that famous dog CDB Barkely, whom I wrote about recently.

Introduction to Second Life

Educational Uses of Second Life

History of Global Kids in Teen Second Life

National Media Consortia Campus: Seriously Engaging

E-Learning07 – Connected Keynote panel ‘in-world’ today!

Posted on November 1, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Come join some of the worlds best for “Cooking up a Storm in Education” the e-Learning07 Connected Keynote Panel – ‘in world’. Barbara Dieu will be leading the panel discussion at this Sydney conference, Friday November 2.

The menu?

Appetizers – Food for Thought: Challenges and opportunities social tools bring to learners and educators, our cultural and social heritage, exposure and access, local and international communities of practice, formal and informal learning, knowledge building and transmission.

Main dish – Meat and a Hot Potato: Traditional classroom delivery and e-learning/institutional barriers and educators’ resistance.

Dessert – To Make Your Mouth Water: Creativity, openness, interaction and sustainable partnerships.

Come along, join in some fascinating discussions with the cream of the crop guests :
Josie Fraser, Alan Levine, Nancy White, Dave Pollard.

To join us, simply Teleport to the Island of jokaydia.

The Connected Keynote Session will be held from 12:00pm – 2:30pm AEST Time. Click here to check your local time.

Dispatches from Downunder – catching up with Alan

Posted on October 27, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Saturday has an exciting edge to it for me. Alan Levine has finally made it back to Sydney on his travelling tour Australia, which he has been documenting in his flipped version of his blog at CogDogRoo!

Alan is an inspiration to many of us, so if you haven’t added his blog to your RSS feeds, then you’d better catch up now! CogDogBlog is Alan’s place to bark about cool technology, web X.0 hype, weird web sites, photography, and other targets big and small.

This is my chance to say thanks Alan! Thanks mate!

Alan is a pretty important guy really 🙂 as Director, Technology Resources and Member Services of the New Media Consortium (NMC) as well as the Vice President Community and CTO with an international group of colleagues. In Second Life everyone knows he’s a dog (CDB Barkley)!

I met Alan recently ‘in world’ during a NSW Learnscope seminar being hosted on Jokaydia Island (where I have the good fortune to regularly meet educators from Australia to talk the good talk). In fact we had a good gathering at HeyJude Hall last night (that’s my place in Jokaydia and I’m Heyjude Jenns ‘in world’). Thanks to Sue Waters (Ruby Imako) for managing all the introductions! Phew!).

I was so excited by the whole ‘in world’ seminar that I didn’t stop to talk or ask questions. Today its different. A bunch of us are meeting up with Alan for shopping, movie and dinner – somehow I think we’ll all be barking furiously for a piece of the action.

Later: From left to right – Angela, Judy, Alan, Westley and Lynnette.

Masters of the metaverse!

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

For once I was pretty well stumped for words – that’s because I was able to spend a day seeing leading innovation in education – the future really! Myself and two CEO teachers (members of our Learnscope project), Martin and Dean, travelled to Wollongong to participate in a Second Life event. Dean’s IT trainee also attended online with his own avatar.

For me, this was a first, and a day I would not have wanted to miss.

Congratulations to NSW Learnscope for the fabulous regional event Go Virtual 07- Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds for VET.

This was a ‘mixed world’ event – participants in the room, mixing with participants from Australia and around the world – attending the conference in a meeting space prepared specially for the event in Jokaydia. You should teleport to Jo and Sean’s meeting and conference location in Jokaydia, and check out all the fabulous presentations available.

Of course, we met and heard from the masters of the metaverse Sean FitzGerald and Jo Kay. Their Second Life in Education Wiki is a fabulous resource. What can I say – Wow! 🙂

We also had a fantastic analysis of SL work from Angela Thomas (aka Anya Ixchel in Second Life) from University of Sydney. Angela teaches English Education at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include digital cultures, new media literacies, multimodal semiotics and digital narratives. Angela has reviewed the event at Go Virtual!

We heard from the Learnscope e-Learning team – what an awesome job they have been doing. I certainly felt like the poor cousin from the school sector 😦

Joining us for a panel discussion, we heard from Alan Levine (New Media Consortia). Damn it! I was so gobsmacked by this stage of the day, I didn’t even realise I was hearing from CogDog, fellow blogger, twitter and general blogosphere guru pal. We also heard from Nick Noakes, Centre for Enhanced Learning and Teaching in HongKong.

Well for once we can grumble. While my schools have no access problems for anything Web 2.0 – Second Life is another thing. We have a few keen teachers ready to begin the exploration of this future form of learning. Let’s face it – it is not that much in the future. A year, two maybe? When we have figures like 15 million, and 20 million in asian countries actively involved in virtual social networking – how can we not begin to research the educational frameworks of virtual worlds?

I’ve been asking for over 12 months now to have work access and get a project going. Now we have young teachers like Dean who are adept at embracing and making best use of these technolgies. I’m not sure why we aren’t including the metaverse in our conversations about innovation – particularly now that it has been ‘voice activated’.

Yesterday those ‘in world’ saw and heard exactly the same as those in the conference room in Rydges – that’s because we all engaged via SL – and talked, saw presentations displayed, watched movies that highlighted particular points – and then socialised in that environment. OK – that part is different. I got in trouble for setting off rockets! But Dean gave me a cocktail to calm down. Thanks Dean.

Dean has already provided us with an opportunity to listen to Sean’s keynote presentation. A bit sketchy, but ideal while we wait for more. Go and listen on TeacherTube – pure gold!

Dean, Judy and Martin ‘inworld’ are asking “So when do we start?”

Classroom 2.0 review and Second Life

Posted on September 18, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

How can I resist sharing Dean Groom’s reflection on his Classroom 2.0 experiences in his Term 3 Reflection Time. It’s a ripper read.

He talks about the changes his students have experienced, and changes in his own style of professional learning.

The way to look for these is from your peers outward. I kind of see each of the people I’ve connected with (or aligned myself with) as a a little whirlpool, each sucking in information and experience. I now look at the whirlpools first. Before I looked at Google.

I’m happy to be part of his whirlpool!

Dean is a member of the Parramatta Learnscope Team – who are engaged in a project with NSW Learnscope.

At a workshop today he shared his experiences with us – he’s ‘upgraded’ his classroom, developed a Web 2.0 toolkit, and learned to move more effectively into the student’s learning mindset.

Guest of the afternoon was Sean FitzGerald, who talked to the group about Second Life. Jo Kay and Sean do a lot of fabulous work with Second Life in Education.

Sean went so far as to mention machinima and it’s place in this brave new world.

Machinima is perhaps the extension of this newer wave in education. Digital movies made in online virtual worlds seem to be ‘the next big thing’ in youth created content these days.

For the uninitiated, machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.

Machinima extends far beyond media creatives and youth though…With ‘Machinima for Dummies’ hot off the press, the first European Machinima Festival kicking off in October, and YouTube screening of the Global Kids’ year-long machinima project A Child’s War.

The video is based on research done by the youth about the situation of child soldiers in Uganda and the upcoming trial at the International Criminal Court.

You can watch their earlier piece about digital media and youth here and read the youth leaders blogs here.

3-D platforms like Teen Second Life (13-17 year olds) open up new ways of learning, identity exploration, behavioral experimentation and self-expression without stumbling into dicey terrain ‘outside the grid’ in SL’s larger virtual world. This makes initiatives such as Skoolaborate possible.

“Unlearning” and the future of education

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

In my workplace we are undergoing a sort of major change as the leadership work to shape a new direction for the learning frameworks in our schools. I’m pretty keen on seeing these changes. Recently, at a two-day workshop, we heard some great stories from three schoosl – Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti, Summerland Primary School, and North Loburn School, all in New Zealand. Nice one Vince, Luke and Mike! Personally I would like to hear more from Australian schools, and Australian teachers. I know we have some fabulous innovation going on right here in Sydney……..but?

Never mind – the global collaborative to the rescue (no business flights required)

A post in the social networking site Classroom 2.0 lead me to the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and Institute for the Future 2006-2016. Check it out or grab the pdf, and then think about what you’ve seen on the map and discuss it with colleagues.

Will Richardson wrote recently about The Steep “Unlearning Curve”, and lists 10 things we need to unlearn to make ‘future’ schooling come to life. What Will talks about resonates with us all who are trying to create a shift in the way schooling happens. It IS about seeing the possibilities.

The “aha” moments in life delight us. We suddenly gain an insight, experience a profound joy, or realize something important for the first time. That’s learning! That’s why we have to push further into the future of learning than our NZ colleagues took us recently.

How far and fast we can go is picked up right here in Sydney by Westley and his MLC girls, busy building Skoolaborate in TeenSecondLife.

This for me is real innovation, and leaves our NZ colleagues for dead. Me? I wish!

Books to 3D search – good for your soul!

Posted on July 22, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

I can’t resist commenting on BOOKS as we continue to skip down the yellow brick road to Web 2.0, Web 3.0 or whatever!

Here is an excellent visual list of the Top 10 Banned Books of the 20th Century. Needless to say, each tells a ‘story’ – and the cultural shifts around some of them have been profound! Books still have a significant place in our world – and perhaps this is why they still figure in Web 2.0 developments that make books easily accessible to buy and read.

5 Alternative Ways to Browse Amazon provides an array of alternative visual search tools for….. well yes, for finding and buying good books. Very good read.

Developments in visual search tools seem to be gaining pace. You will be amazed at what is happening at Space Time, 3D web search, currently in Beta and only available on a PC. But what a WOW! way of searching “at the speed of thought”. “Watch as your information converges in one space at one time”.

But even more interesting for an information professional is the presentation about the Semantic MEDLINE Visualization Prototype which incorporates the semantic web and natural language processing – manipulating information as well as documents to respond to a searchers needs. It connects knowledge from various resources from PubMed and Medline – and natural language processing will summarize and produce a visual network or relationships between the material you are interested in.

Virtual worlds and the future of e-learning.

Posted on May 29, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

One of the newest online worlds is one specifically created for learning. These worlds have been called virtual learning worlds (VLWs) and multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs), but the term that best captures this environment is massively multilearner online learning environment (MMOLE).

It is enough to make a learning professional’s head spin. Every day there is a new story about online worlds providing new learning environments. Articles and books are describing how a generation raised on video games is invading the workplace and demanding new online learning environments. Unfortunately, for those not on the bleeding edge of game technologies, all this talk of virtual worlds, avatars, MMORPGs, metaverses, and microworlds seems right out of a science fiction novel and, in some cases, it is.

Learning professionals are left in the unenviable position of trying to sort it all out. What is the difference between a metaverse and a MMORPG? What is an avatar? Is Second Life a MMORPG? Is there an online world built specifically for learning?

Article from Learning Circuits: Defining and Understanding Virtual Worlds.

Attending a class in the metaverse Second Life.

Sometimes you have to read to talk!

Posted on May 2, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

One of the things that keeps being said is that social networking improves communication, and facilitates ‘being comfortable’ for the millenials. Kids use social networking to help them settle into their teen world. Because of Myspace or Beebo, teenagers can walk into a party, or walk around school and know people beyond their immediate ‘sphere of influence’. Better than vertical streaming of pastoral care groups in schools (used to help students associate with each other by putting kids of different ages together) online social networking can broaden and enable friends and conversation seamlessly and effectively. Those who are reluctant to talk, or who rarely contribute in a classroom setting, find themselves more able to communicate in a digital environment.

Isn’t it interesting that these same effects are observed when learning takes place within a virtual setting, such as Second Life. Students at Suffern Middle School in Second Life are learning how to manage their avatars and how to use this environment as their classroom.

You have to read the discussion to see just how to focus learning in Second Life, and how millenials can successfully communicate in Second Life.

This is an unedited, unabridged log of the discussion held today by the student group who are reading Snow Crash: (Please remember these are 8th grade students!) The remarkable thing is that in a typical classroom setting these kids would never be able to get to the level of thought and focus as they do in SL!