Second Life Educators in Alaska
What Julie is doing in SL...
This summer PWSCC bought 2 islands. One is a homestead to be used for the natural history of PWS. I have put in a lot of work on it. There are no buildings only plants, animals & natural features. I didn't get it done 'enough' to have my natural history students (Biol v104) work on it this year but will next year. However, I will be using their natural history notes from the blog they did as notecards for specific species. I just had my Biol V105 (majors biology) students work through the steps of the scientific method while watching the wolf's behavior. It took about 2 hrs to get them functional-walking talking etc, just the basics. We've been in SL a total of 3 times now. We used an orientation site on Biome II. It was a bit chaotic at first but after FYFTE and seeing what happens when you try to orient 12 people I was intellectually prepared for something chaotic :) I had students at 3 different campuses, one site on satellite. I'm happy to report that we had no connection problems at all! I was a bit concerned about the satellite connection as I've had some problems with it for ITV connections. I have even shown SL over the ITV connection.
I have not done much with the main island beyond moving the log cabin to it as a base for students. We have just hired a SL developer who will be working with me to create the interactive labs. I'm really excited about this. I have a huge need for it. I have students at more places than I have supplies for and there is no one qualified to help them at those places. So it makes providing lab sciences to them extremely problematic. My goal is that everyone will participate in the same labs, at the same time together. SL will enable me to do this. For the labs this past week, they worked in groups with one person from each of 3 localities in a group together, rather than working with the person sitting next to them. We tried to use the wiki in BB for them to do their group writing but discovered only one person can edit it at a time, so we resorted to the BB forums. I'd like to try chat next time but couldn't get the BB chat to work. I may set up groups within SL where they can do the writing about the lab then copy & paste it into a document.
I haven't had much time at all to work on Virtual Alaska beyond the work I did right after we got it. I did peak at it a couple of weeks ago & was thrilled to see what had been done.
I have not done much with the main island beyond moving the log cabin to it as a base for students. We have just hired a SL developer who will be working with me to create the interactive labs. I'm really excited about this. I have a huge need for it. I have students at more places than I have supplies for and there is no one qualified to help them at those places. So it makes providing lab sciences to them extremely problematic. My goal is that everyone will participate in the same labs, at the same time together. SL will enable me to do this. For the labs this past week, they worked in groups with one person from each of 3 localities in a group together, rather than working with the person sitting next to them. We tried to use the wiki in BB for them to do their group writing but discovered only one person can edit it at a time, so we resorted to the BB forums. I'd like to try chat next time but couldn't get the BB chat to work. I may set up groups within SL where they can do the writing about the lab then copy & paste it into a document.
I haven't had much time at all to work on Virtual Alaska beyond the work I did right after we got it. I did peak at it a couple of weeks ago & was thrilled to see what had been done.
Comment
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Comment by Chip McMillan on October 13, 2009 at 2:01pm - Yea, great work, Julie. It is wonderful to see - or at least hear about - what you are doing. Like Wade said, can we come for a visit?
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Comment by Wade Roach on October 5, 2009 at 2:41pm - Wow, awesome progress...you might try having them use google docs to collaborate instead of a wiki. It allows multiuser editing. Can we visit your islands...?
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