Whilst I don’t plan to spend this entire post talking about all the great support, resources, hosted events and the dynamic community of educators and artists that jokay supports on her island of  jokaydia (SLurl – click this link to teleport to jokaydia), the island that JoKay has been building is seriously worth exploring.

The island of jokaydia is designed to support new residents as they gain competency and confidence with Second Life.  Visit jokaydia for free monthly tours for Newbies, or go on one of the free monthly road trips to discover new and exciting educational and arts related projects and spaces in Second Life.

Virtual Classroom Project

I recently came across this  wonderful post by Jo Kay (aka JoKay Wollongong) about the Second Life Virtual Classroom Project that began last year. It’s about the plans of an Australian educator, Annabel Astbury (a history teacher), who is planning the creation and development of a virtual learning space where visitors can learn about “settlement / colonisation in the south east of Australia.” by interacting with the space. What is so unique about her project is that students visiting this space can truly explore and experience “the impact that colonisation had upon indigenous communities in Australia.”

Summary of Annabel’s plans for the new virtual learning environment

Focusing on Frontier Life, visitors to the virtual space will land in an Australian bush simulation with features of the natural Landscape  as it appeared pre settlement. Uncleared, with evidence of Indigenous inhabitants. Mixing new teaching methods with traditional, visitors will have read some material on frontier life prior to their visit, they would then be invited to clear the land themselves taking into account the elements of the landscape and armed with  necessary resources (in a virtual box), build their own hut, or settlement. The clever part of this is, is that some of the objects provided in the virtual box are not historically accurate, so they must discern which objects to use.

More Info

You can find out more about this concept by visiting this blog post of Annabel Astbury (SL: Annabel Recreant). Also take a sneak peak at the plans for the new space. Or subscribe to this RSS feed to keep up to date with developments to the space. (RSS Posts)

jokaydia

If you’re not familiar with the Virtual World, Second Life, or the work of JoKay (aka JoKay Wollongong), then check it out her blog.

Virtual Classroom Project Video

Watch this brilliant movie to see the Virtual Classroom being built in Second Life, see images from virtual meetings and have a look at how ecological sustainability has been integrated into the virtual space with the addition of solar panels, a water tank and the use of wind energy. The video will amaze you, it’s about  6 – 7 minutes long and the music is fantastic.

Other Links

• Science for Second Life Project

This blog post was inspired by an article I read in the September 2007 edition of Vogue.

I was sitting at the hairdresser last week, having my foils done, and I came across the following excerpt, taken from the interview with Capricia Penavic Marshall, the social secretary to President and Mrs Clinton from 1997 until 2001;

“Nothing is more elegant than beautiful manners. People who can handle any situation with grace, humour and aplomb will be welcome guests ans treasured friends.”

Miriam-Webster – definition of Gracious;

1 a obsolete : GODLY b archaic : PLEASING, ACCEPTABLE
2 a : marked by kindness and courtesy <a gracious host> b : GRACEFUL c : marked by tact and delicacy : URBANE d : characterized by charm, good taste, generosity of spirit, and the tasteful leisure of wealth and good breeding <gracious living>
3 : MERCIFUL, COMPASSIONATE — used conventionally of royalty and high nobility

As I read through the some of the tips in this article, I thought to myself, this applies to our online life as much as it does off-line…

I thought instantly, about all the times someone had been gracious to me online and the people that had not. Those that have been rude are not highly thought of or called upon to ‘join in’. Those that have been polite and gracious are in my close networks, circle of friends and I sincerely love communicating with them online.

So here are a few of my tips

The basics;

• Send a proper invitation to your event. In the age of email, faxes, voice mail, SMS, IM, there’s nothing like receiving a personalised, or formal invitation. These days I’m happy with a postcard received by ‘snail mail’ or a flyer sent to me online with a personal note attached. I am particularly responsive to personal invitations as opposed to group invites and a quick response to the event ‘host’ is a must.
• Introduce yourself online as well as off! If you want to see how this is done, watch some old 50′s movies. Introduce yourself to your host first, then to others at the event. Give people a little background on who you are and where you come from. Give people a break if they forget your name or who you are. Avoid creating embarrassing pauses.
• Introduce others. A good host makes as many introductions as possible. Connect people with similar interests and goals., allow your guests the opportunity to network and take something away with them.
• Follow Up immediately after an event. A gracious guest should always follow an event up with a ‘thank you’ note. Make sure to include an example of something you got out of the event that shows how much you valued or enjoyed it.
• Accept a Compliment. Try not to deflect compliments, just say ‘thank you’. If you think about this, deflecting a compliment is telling someone they are wrong and could actually insult the person complimenting you!

Modern times;

• Virtual apologies are also very important. If you are in a virtual world and bump into someone, just as you would in real life, excuse yourself! If you offend someone online, apologise. You are still communicating with real people and good manners are still very important.
• Email Etiquette – “oh to see yourself as others see you”. So many people use email and so many people misuse it. How you represent yourself in an email is crucial to who you are and who you represent. How much do you know about email etiquette at work? It’s important to understand that you need to be professional and efficient if you are communicating on behalf of you company. Their liability is at stake. Employee awareness of email risks will protect your company from costly law suits. More… > AFTRS email etiquette guidelines
• Blog Etiquette – Advise authors of broken links. Thank readers for their comments, feedback and suggestions, and not always on the blog, sometimes personally, via email (this also increases your readership – trust me!). Thanks other bloggers for linking to your blog, it increases traffic and your search engine rankings, so is very valuable to you. Recommendations speak loudly!

Please feel free to add your own tips by posting a comment.

Images borrowed from RetroLife

Attended e-Learning Networks web conference about Virtual Classrooms, let me clarify; the virtual classroom is an online classroom using web software such as Adobe Connect or Elluminate. Sessions run in these applications have a URL (web address) and offer interactive tools such as polls, share document spaces, whiteboards, chat and much more. You can facilitate quite an interactive session using the software, which often includes the use of a web camera and headset for audio and vision.

I run frequent online sessions in Adobe Connect and have attended quite a few in Elluminate. I found this session very helpful, it was highly interactive and closely examined how much interaction to include on both your online sessions and your e-Learning material.

The session looked closely at the following points;

• Is learning better in a face-to-face or virtual classroom? What the evidence says.
• What are the important instructional elements of any learning event?
• How to engage learners productively in virtual classroom events with visuals and interactions.

Guest speaker Ruth Clark led discussion on the above points, which she expands upon in her recently published book;

The New Virtual Classroom: Evidence-based Guidelines for Synchronous e-Learning,
by Ruth Clark and Ann Kwinn.

This session was recorded, so stay tuned for the link, it’s worth having a look at.

Ruth focused on how to harness the power of a virtual classroom by looking at the techniques required (such as interactivity, instructional design, multimedia, use of graphics, etc), rather than the technologies (although there was a slight focus on Elluminate).

Link to view recorded Elluminate Session: (link coming soon)

Link to Ruth’s slides: (link coming soon)

Website: http://www.clarktraining.com (download book intro here)

Last night I attended the Second Life In-World Presentation: Showcasing Australasian Educational Projects in Second Life

This is event was brilliantly hosted, within the 3D online virtual world of Second Life , by Jo Kay (aka jokay Wollongong) and Sean FitzGerald (aka Sean McDunnough). They handled the technical aspects of this event seamlessly, while the presenter avatars showcased some of the Australasian educational projects currently being undertaken using the Second Life platform.

The presenters comprised of a number of educators from Australia and New Zealand, who gave brief overviews of their educational activities using both the chat functionality and the media rich capabilities of Second life. the presentations came in the form of slide shows and short films.

Spinner Mills at the In-World Presentation

Please have a look at more screen-shots of the “in-world” conference here. (These are better than mine, I have yet to learn how to operate the “in-world” camera as effectively as Jo kay and Sean Fitzgerald!)

Please see: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/enetworksjune07 for further information about this event

Note: The above event was a follow-on from the Elluminate session the day before, which looked at;

• how these environments can be used in education and how they can help explore new learning models.
• why it’s important for educators to pay attention to online 3D virtual worlds and become involved in their development.

These guys are so clever! Have a look at some of the work they are doing in Second Life with Illawara Institute on joanna kay’s flickr site.

See you “In-World”.