Snapshots from ISTE Island

Hey, all,

Looking forward to the upcoming ISTE VEN Reunion in Second Life, I dug into my bloated SL inventory and struck paydirt in the form of snapshots auto-named for the location and coordinates where they were taken. It was a quick search for "iste island" and it yielded enough snapshots for what you'll see here, if you have the patience to view a 5+ minute video comprised of them. The video and music is courtesy of my Screencast-o-matic Pro account, filmed from my desktop whilst standing in front of the images displaying in an image viewer object (Multi-photo Display, Sold by Iain Maltz Visit The Store) at the new Virtual Environments Network homeplace, now viewable there. Many of the pics were taken for my long-running blog, "Oh, Virtual Learning," which ended years ago but is still available at Blogspot.  I suggest you go all full screen with it! I hope you enjoy:

New monthly meetup for Writers Workshop!

Guest post by Barbara Seaton, aka Helena Kiama--Thanks, Barbara!

 Please join us for this maiden voyage of a new feature at ISTE Virtual Environments Network.

  Tuesday, April 5th, at 5:00 p.m. SLT:

Mementos Cathedral in Chouchou

from zikiquesti.blogspot.com

Have you ever been immersed in music or visited a place that transported you to another reality or evoked feelings that made you see things in another light? In those moments you transcend the day-to-day busy thoughts, focusing on some small aspect of life in which you gain new insight.
Join us in the new ISTE SL VEN Writer’s group as we find and experience thought-provoking regions in Second Life that use visual and audio components to take us into another reality in our thoughts. From there will we write about our experiences, whether it be a poem, short story, essay, a short video, or just thoughts, to share with the group the following month.
For our first meeting, we will travel together to such a region, and spend some time there, exploring, taking pics, listening to the music, and letting ourselves become immersed in the moment. Some may wish to free write (write whatever comes to mind) during this time.

We will initially meet at the VEN headquarters at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland%209/62/99/22 and travel together to our first region.

ABOUT THE LOCATION:
Mementos is a cathedral floating in the sky. It is a very old build in Second Life, but absolutely beautiful in detail.
HUD:
You can pick up their cinematic HUD at the entrance which moves your camera slowly. I highly recommend you walk into the cathedral and find a good spot for your avatar before putting it on. Otherwise, it can be a little difficult to walk. Once the HUD is on, use your arrow keys to set your camera “flying.” (What is happening is that your avatar is turning, but the camera is delayed, then floats smoothly to catch up and swings past you.) Combine this with scrolling in and out and just enjoy. Hitting ESC returns your camera to you.
BEFORE YOU GO:
Be sure to have your audio stream working to listen to the music. For photographers in the group, you may wish to set your graphics to advanced lighting.
BECOME IMMERSED:
Once we arrive and go in, we ask that you keep IMs and chat to a minimum to allow yourself and others to become immersed in the experience.

A Belated Thank You--Looking Back and Looking Forward

As I prepare a sort of "How I Spent My Professional Development Summer" 2 minute talk for a faculty meeting tomorrow, I notice that I posted this pic earlier, but I didn't post the little video with it. If you are interested in what I do, you need to see both of them together.



Pictured above are the folks in Washington, D.C. who attended a very lightly advertised event at NECC09, a reception for Second Life Volunteers. Every one of these people (and more) participated in some degree, scheduled or not, in making the Second Life Playground at NECC09 a robust and welcoming experience for anyone who happened by. Over the three days from Monday, June 31 through Wednesday, July 2, that place was hoppin', as the video below will demonstrates. There are people in that picture from Australia, New Zealand, and half the states in the Union. My co-facilitator, Lisa Linn, and I brought these folks together by means of social media including Twitter, Facebook, Wikispaces, Google Apps, Plurk, and Second Life. Yes, I'm proud. Folks in the shot and folks who didn't make the event so they could be in the shot: If I didn't thank each and every one of you in person, here's my thank you now. Thank you!


Find more videos like this on SLeducation Videos

ISTE Eduverse Talks Episode #8 Live at iste-eduverse.org!

Hey, all, our recent appearance as MUVErs on the celebrated ISTE Eduverse Talks live talk show series is now live an accessible at the ISTE Eduverse Talks website.

I hope you'll take an hour or so to give it a watch. It's also pretty nice as an audio file, so if you have a long commute that may be the way to do it. Host Kevin Jarrett did a fantastic job of delivering probing questions about MUVErs' development of intricate but finely tuned virtual simulations for teaching and learning, and partners Cathy Walker and John Miller were stellar in their own thoughtful responses. Watching the program has convinced me I didn't do a half-bad job of responding, though it's obvious I strayed from my script a bit :)

Go watch!

Why Jeff went to NECC09

An amazing animoto that will hopefully be shared far and wide, from my good friend Jeff Agamenoni, Great Falls, Montana teacher and family guy supreme. I'm proud to be a part of Jeff's extended family!

NOT a Second Life!

Cross-posted from Oh!VirtualLearning!:

Facebook post yesterday morning:

Scott Merrick Still reeling from the experience of being on a virtual talk show last night. It'll be up online in a week or so at the show's site. My family watched via the stream URL at the family computer while I stumbled through what I had to say, and the Q and A at the end was the best part, IMHO. Heavy sigh! Thx to everyone who made this happen!

Heavy sigh indeed! It was fun! Most of all, it was fun being up in front of a very nice-sized audience onstage with four other dedicated educators, three of whom I already count among my real-life friends and the forth of whom I'm sure will join those ranks in a couple of weeks, as technology educators and administrators gather in Washington, D.C. for intense networking based on a shared interest in technology for education. NECC, of course, is the National Educational Computing Conference.

You can read the pre-show details now at the ISTE Eduverse Talks site, and that's precisely where the spiffed up [nods to Andrew] show will be up for viewing in about a week. I highly recommend you view it when it's there: This was a great experience, and from the comments from the audience after the cameras were shut down, it was a jewel amongst the growing library of Eduverse Talks.

One comment I made toward the very end bears repeating in print, or at least I think it does.

To paraphrase (you'll have to view the show to hear the original): "If I hear a teacher say 'I don't have time for my first life--why should I go get a Second Life?' one more time I'm going to SCREAM! It's NOT a 'second life,' ya'll, its a rich, rewarding, entertaining, fun, and professionally valid extension of my life, the only life I have, into a creative, challenging, and all-those-other-adjectives new realm." Okay, I embellished a bit, but that's the beauty of afterthought.

Spiff/Andrew also said something that sticks with me. It may be that my reaction to his comment issues from a (unintentional, I am sure) hurtful comment a colleague made a couple weeks at the Vanderbilt School for Science and Math, when I was recording material for my CSO podcast, Snacks4theBrain!. He smiled, looked away from me, and said, "I hear you have three wives in Second Life."

Well, I don't (as I replied, stifling the urge to respond more assertively). And I won't, even though, as Andrew referenced the Bible near the end of our show, "Seek and ye shall find." If you go looking for bad stuff in Second Life, it's there, though as we speak Linden Lab is making serious and controversial efforts to isolate the so-called "bad stuff." But if you gear your time and efforts to seeking creative, innovative colleagues and fun, interesting educational content, it's there, too--and in spades, as I hope this blog has been reporting since May, 2007. Isn't it exactly the same "in real life?"

So the problem, it seems, is in Linden Lab's choice for a name for their metaverse. This is no new idea. I submit, though, that the scoffers and otheres who are letting this intense and important phenomenon pass them by while they choose to spend their media time watching CSI (who did a weird and possibly off-putting episode involving Second Life) should get off their "real" backsides, turn off their TVs [hears John Prine], should simply "Get a Second Life." Remember, it's NOT a second life!

There's a link in the sidebar. Go. Look me up when you've done your assignment. I'll give you a hug. If you're already in, and you're going to NECC09, come see me in the Second Life Playground. I'll give you a hug there. I'm a big fan of hugs.

Eduverse Talks Announcement!

ISTE Eduverse Talks has now posted a description of our little one hour session this coming Tuesday. I hope you can be there. LOL, I didn't know I was a "Case Study" but I guess it's about time. There's a link at the description page to bios of my co-panelists and I think it's worth a read.

If you do not have a Second Life account, by the way, you can catch the show live online at TreetTV! Here's the url for that webpage, the dedicated video stream feed for LIVE Eduverse Talks! Go there Tuesday, June 9, at 5 pm Pacific, 6 pm Mountain, 7 pm Central, 8 pm Eastern, or whatever pm or am it is in your own neck of the woods and the stream'll be streaming. Until then, you'll get a blank Quicktime frame.

Cheers, and enjoy your weekend. You deserve it!

ISTE Eduverse Talks Appearance!

I hope you can join us in Second Life this next Tuesday, June 9, as my avatar sits down at 5 pm SLT on stage with those of Peggy Sheehy, Marianne Malmstrom, Andy Wheelock and host Kevin Jarrett to talk about the impact of Second Life and ISTE on my "real life." In the live talk show, ISTE Eduverse Talks, you'll likely hear me say that Second Life, for me, isn't a "second life," but rather a fun and exciting extension of my only life into another realm. I've made dear friends, whom I see admittedly more often than I see my "real world" friends, and I've shuttled  some of those friendships over into "real life" to become colleagues and collaborators in ways that would never have thrived as they have, not even been possible, without Second Life.

A couple summers ago, David Warlick, kindly Skyping in for a talk with a group of teachers I was leading into Web 2.0, made the statement: "Scott and I aren't friends because of our geographical proximity, we're friends because of what we think." I'll always cherish that concept, and it goes a long way toward explaining the draw of Second Life, Twitter, and any other tool I can use to network with innovative and technology savvy educators. Life(s) is good.

Location: ISTE Broadcast Studio: 
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island%203/197/238/23

I hope you'll come to see and hear what I know will be a fascinating hour. Here's a pic from the most recent episode of the show (sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and ISTE and produced in collaboration with the Second Life Cable Network!):

Now I have to go shopping for professional virtual clothes. I don't think my medieval knight's cape or my MUVErs scrubs will do the trick!

Story Quest Next Friday!

Attention, writers who are in Second Life!

[5:59] IM: Jenaia Morane: (Saved Sun Mar 15 00:31:08 2009) My name is Jenaia Morane. I'm a writer and teacher in RL and the founder of The Virtual Worlds Story Project here in SL (www.tvwsp.com).
[5:59] IM: Jenaia Morane: (Saved Sun Mar 15 00:33:40 2009) Next week on March 20 I will be celebrating World Storytelling Day with a Story Quest. Writers will choose from one of five genres and travel all over SL to get clues to write their stories. The day will conclude with storytelling, prizes, music, and dance. I'm hoping you might help me spread the word. I'll drop info about the event in your inventory, but please feel free to contact me if you have questions. And of course I'd love to see you at the Quest ;-)

Here's the notecard Jenaia dropped me, "heatened up" a bit with working links:

The Virtual Worlds Story Project Presents: The Second Life Story Quest

The Virtual World Story Project is pleased to announce its first annual Story Quest, to be held on World Storytelling Day, March 20, 2009.

With a goal of helping writers and storytellers imagine, craft, and share Second Life stories, the Quest will lead participants along one of five Story Trails. Along each trail will be a series of Enchanted Books. Touching the books will not only provide information to include in the story, but clues that lead to other points on the trail as well.

The Quest will allow participants to choose from one of four genres, and be held across multiple sims in Second Life. The Quest's final stop will be Karuna (the new HIV/AIDS sim) where participants can sit in scenic surroundings to write, submit their stories, and/or get help from writing coaches.

The day will conclude with story readings, the awarding of prizes, live music, and dancing.

This event is ideal for educators wishing to help students learn to write well and experience the immersive and creative possibilities inherent in virtual environments.

DETAILS

Date: Friday, March 20th

LOCATION: Starts on Storybook Island OR Karuna (use either of the two LMs to pick up your Quest instructions)

STORYBOOK LM: Storybook Island, Storybook Island (66, 187, 21)
STORYBOOK SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Storybook%20Island/129/70/25

KARUNA LM: Karuna, Karuna (202, 73, 22)


Start Time: Story Sleuths can pick up their first clues on Storybook Island at Midnight.

End Time: The Quest ends at 5:00 pm SLT. That is the time that stories must be submitted. The rest of the festivities, which include story reading, live music, and dancing commence immediately after. The awards ceremony will be held at 7:00 pm.

Questions: Please IM Jenaia Morane or drop her an email at: jenaia@tvwsp.com