What a disappointment this was. I am not sure what went wrong but I had troubles in SL like never before. My computer crashed several times. At one point I was told I would not even be allowed in SL until about 10 minutes later. I could not hear voice. This was very odd. I have always had the chat box showing who was available to talk and who had the green light that they were talking. That was not showing anywhere. The only thing I could successfully do was IM with classmates. There were times I was prohibited from even moving. I could not fly. Nada! I will be curious to find out what happened to others. I went back in at 8:30 SLT and the meeting space was pretty empty and it appeared that the session had ended.

Oh well…

I have spent the better part of this week at the Weather Island. It is a great place to have fun. It features skiing, mountain biking, a plane ride into a hurricane and surfing.

My first take on the island was….a great place to have fun but was there any real educational value to it. I mean I can do all of these activities but what am I learning about the weather.

This island was created in 2003. That is five years ago. Pretty early adoption by the Weather Channel. I was a little surprised to find the the welcome to Weather Island was done by Stephanie Abrams. Stephanie Abrams is her name in RL. It was funny because I played the introduction last weekend and by brother-in-law calls from the other room, “Hey, that’s Stepanie Abrams.” I was surprised that she used her real name since everyone that I have encountered in SL has another name.

As I said earlier the island has places to ski, bike, surf and ride a plane into a hurricane. This was way fun, particularly the surfing. I was an avid surfer in high school and college and I might as well say thay it had a pretty realistic sensation to it. I even got Esme to join me to “hang ten” as we to say. When I was inside the wave in was a reminder of being in the “green room.” The green room is when you are inside of the wave and it is cresting over the top of you. As for the biking, it was fun, and skiing well I had a lot of trouble getting the boots and skis on. Not surprising because in RL I could never get a pair of ski boots to fit because I have a bad paw. During my skiing experience skiing experience I crashed and burned so much I could not even take pictures. I ended up flying ot of the ski area and landed in the desert! Flying the plane was a hoot. Seeing the eye of the hurricane was great.

As for the Weather Island, I realized after about my fifth visit that the best value the island had for me was learning how to attach articles to me and take them off. I tried some new poses. Learned to follow directions by reading notecards. My evaluation would be that this is a great island to use to learn how to survive in SL but not where to learn about the weather.

I have created a little movie to let other see what an avatar can do at the Weather Island. Enjoy, I did!

This class got up and running faster than our previous one. I think most of us are at least getting more comfortable in SL. Voice continues to be a problem for me. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. Actually, I always get the voice, just not through the headphones. I really want to nail that down. I feel this is a vital skill to have if I ever expect to provide professional development in SL.

This class featured a guest speaker Gus Plisskin/Fred Fuchs from FibreSabre Consulting. He informed us on how we could, as educators use the SL Teen Grid with students. SL has incredible security for keeping adults off of the Teen Grid. He emphasized that if an adult tried to get an account on SL, Linden Labs goes as far as contacting the FBI and report your attempt.

While I considered what of Gus had to say pretty much an infomercial I found it extremely informative. So much so, that when I encountered a Noobie at the ISTE Headquarters looking for Esme on Sunday morning, I was able to tell her things about the Teen Grid and its accessiblity by adults. We even became friends and I promised to email her how to contact Fred which I will do today once I have time.

In the meantime, I have contacted Fred and made inquiries about getting on the Teen Grid. I believe I will get another avatar as suggested and try to participate in an already up and running project in the Teen Grid before I ever consider the purchase of land, etc for my district. I think I can swallow a $2000.00 expense next year. But, before I make this expediture I need to know exactly what project it is and the logistics of completing it with a group of students. I also need to find a teacher willing to take this kind of leap. This possibly may be an after school activity that I organize and work with a teacher to provide.

After Fred left we took a break and then we went into hell mode. Esme had plans for us to break into groups, based on how comfortable we were in SL and the idea of building. We were sent off in different directions to view videos and try to build. Other already more accomplished builders and SLers went with Esme to do an activity around education in SL, I think.

Esme was not gone long! Several frustrated builders were freaking out, include me in the pack. The easy video, building a holiday box, was not showing on the correct screen. We were watching how to make a flag that waves. That is a joke. I couldn’t build the flag pole much less a flag that waves in the wind. We were then led to another video screen but that one showed the same video.

Oh thank you, thank you Eru for being a patient teacher. She helped me and I cannot remember who right now complete our boxes. I will have to go back through the notecard for the class to remember who my equally frustrated partner was. I am still having difficulty with our duel identities. What a lesson in perseverance that was! But we managed to complete our holiday boxes and make it back to the wrap up of class in time.

Esme, as usual, had more planned for us than we could complete. There is a SLOODLE box hanging our there that has me quite curious and a quiz in the forums I am reluctant to take.

Right now what I want to learn the most is how to run a video and ppt on a whiteboard. I feel that will be a very useful skill if I ever want to provide pd in SL for teachers. The verdict is out as to if I will EVER want to build anything in SL. But, I need to practice those skill to be able to make and informed rather than infirmed decision on that one.

PS Subsequent posts in the forums has given some tips on voice in SL. I plan to try them out shortly to try and nail that skill down. I have been a little lax in my work this fortnight as there was the last few days of school and a trip out of town to visit family for a long weekend.

A special note about Rachelville’s neighbors, on one of its boundaries is the ALA area in SL. My guess the reason for so many of the contributions by SL librarians. The other boundary I found was Mystic Island. I found also in the area some posters about Palestine, I am not too sure about that so if anyone reads this and has further information, I would appreciate it.

On Esme’s Favs was a place called Rachelville. I decided to check it out. I teleported to Rachelville and was brought to the welcome center. At the welcome center I was given a notecard that was quite lengthy with directions about what was located on the island and where they were located. I felt the need to print the notecard so I had a tour guide if you will. The guide also suggested opening the mini-map to locate places on the island. This guide was extremely helpful. One of the best set of directions I have found do far in SL. I clicked something…I forget now, maybe the angel and was given a set of wings, which I donned. This was my first experience with wings. I took them on and off as I cruised Rachelville.My first stop was the ocean floor. After I left the ocean I traveled about the island looking for all of the places listed in the guide.

This is probably the time to mention that Rachelville is a very special place. A father, mother and family friend have created Rachelville as a tribute to their daughter who died of leukemia. The island is whimsical, provides places for meditation and reflection, has links to support groups for dealing with the loss of a loved one, links to children’s literature sites, and book reviews by SL librarians. You can read Rachel’s father’s blog. It has a secret garden, a castle with flying carpets, a pirate ship you can skipper, a glowing campfire and a wonderful carousel I wanted to take with me after I took a ride. I found it to be a beautiful and calming place. I thought of our classmate Emily who said she found refuge in SL after the recent loss of an aunt. I find it interesting that I chose to visit Rachelville this week not knowing what it was. This weekend is the anniversary weekend of my husband’s death and visiting Rachelville provided a certain solace to me at this most difficult time of the year. The end of the guide says…wander, touch, enjoy…smile. A trip to Rachelville is a must. Thank you, Cindy Elkhart, Rocky Vallejo and Briana Corleone for creating Rachelville for the rest of us SL residents and guests.

When I logged on to SL yesterday I got a message from Riptide Furse that he had created a photostage above the DEN Island for photo opps. I decided to try it out. You can change the background and texture of the stage. You can also pose for your photos. Here are some pictures that I took. Since I have just started to try a few poses it was helpful for me.

I went to ISTE on Tuesday when Esme was the docent. Lor Fredrickson from DEN was there for a few minutes. I had met her before at a DEN event. An avatar that had been there before who rides a horse and where gownd from the medieval times was there as well. This person either spends a lot of Lindens on her wardrobe or is one hell of a dressmaker. The gowns are incredible. Her horse does not rez well at ISTE for some reason.

Esme where as sign over her head that says ISTE Docent Ask ME. I asked for a tour of ISTE. I find I don’t get the most out of islands unless I spend a great deal of time wandering (flying) around. Well I got a whirlwind tour of ISTE on a chair created by Esme. Basically, I sat in the chair and somehow got attached to Esme and she flew me around the island. It was too cool for school!

We visited the NECC Pavilion.

We went to the treetops and saw the three treehouses.

The Emerging Technology Building is apparently a very busy place that folks share about new technologies.

The Affiliate Pavilion is for ISTE affiliates like NHSTE, MassCUE, and VITA-Learn

This is the Recognition Rotunda.

They also have Podcaster and Blogger Cafes

This stadium is built on the corner of 4 Sims so that 280 people can be in it at one time. I had not realized that there was quotas of numbers of people that could be in any given area.

We are now heading home to ISTE Headquarters. What a great tour!

Esme made the chair with a tool call The Mysti Tool.

I have started to visit some of the sites on Beth Konkhe’s list of recommended educational sites in SL. I went to Bowling Green State University Virtual Camput

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Right at the front gate it says it is a violence free zone. I roamed around for awhile. I discovered that as the description Beth had provided that this was a resource for the faculty and students of Bowling Green. Faculty can set up office hours, have private residences, hold classes but nothing I could particularly use other than the ideas for how to use SL for an academic organization office building.

Because of the heat I decided to take a dip in the water fountain out front to cool off.

I then went to EdTech Island sponsored by Boise State University. The welcome center was pretty unassuming, but what a find! There are plenty of resources here. What a place to learn about teaching in SL! I spent about 2 hours just exploring this Island. It is fantastic. I also managed to pick up a FREE teacher resource kit that I cannont wait to go to Lighthouse Learning Island and start to unpack it. Here are some pictures of EdTech Island.

Okay, so what is a MMOLE?

Some of the topics we have covered were also topics at EdTech.

Belonging.

Safety and security/Knowing if someone is truly a friend

The benefits of gaming in VWs

Do you think that Boise got the idea for the scavenger hunts from Esme to learn about how to get around in SL?

A podcast in SL….I need to learn how to do this.

Blogging in Education…Both Boise and Bowling Green had set up blogging for teachers and students

I highly recommend a visit to EdTech Island
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I have also signed up in Google Groups to be a SL DEN member. I will be receiving daily emails from then.

I went to Campus Second Life today. I had listened to the podcast so figured it was a good time to go. The podcast was a great overview of using SL in education and some of the resources available to educators in SL. I like listening to the podcast and while they were talking I could check things out like the Studio Wiki Texture site. I bookmarked that to check out later. I also signed up for Real Life Second Life Group. I also have the SLED Blog bookmarked for further esploration. I checked out the Second Life Convention in September as well.

My trip to Campus Second Life was a little disappointing. I found myself restricted to a lot of places on the campus. I wonder why. I never found the sandbox. Although I really don’t need it with the MCGC Sandbox. The only thing that would be nice is I might meet up with someone in the sandbox at Campus SL to learn from.

BTW there were two people on the campus that were talking. So I checked out their profiles (something I find myself doing more and more.) The male avatar had a police record for an assault with an invisible weapon. I assumed this was an abuse report. Do people get some kind of punishment like the inability to participate inworld?

The only totally cool thing I did in Campus SL is found a friendly campfire and posed for the first time. I relaxed by sitting leaning on a log with my hands behind my neck. My legs crossed and I rubbed my feet together. I also lay down reading a book on a blanket. I sat in another location as well.

I feel that Campus SL deserves another look but today, I did not find much.

Here is the link to the slides that Cal presented last Wed. night using Discovery Education with students.