Google earth now in stereo

In a similar way to how we got Second Life working in stereoscopic 3D, Google earth is now working on the system and looking amazing. So imagine the scene, a group of pupils controlling a flight simulator from the Grand Canyon to the Lake district, comparing rock formations or creating models in sketch-up to visualise how their new school might look. There is so much that can be done with Google earth and now the 3D system gives even more clarity of understanding of the 3D nature of the globe, mountains, valleys, and other geographical features along with all the available models present in the world.

SL in glorious stereoscopic 3D

We have put SL through our 3D stereoscopic system using a cloning software and the environment works beautifully. The world appears rich with loads of depth and gives you a whole new viewing experience of SL. I imagine this will be a great addition to a class using SL so that when the facilitator wants to emphasize a point they can bring the pupils together to view SL in stereo with the glasses on and create a memory hook with that exaggerated experience for the students to hang the information on.

SLCC

Well what can I say about SLCC? I think 'organic' would be my main description. An emerging world using emerging technologies run by an emerging company and loads of academics and entrepreneurs tending the growth of the whole thing. And that was how it felt at SLCC, networks growing, ideas growing, things fitting together but all in a fairly seemingly random way. The first day was a bit like the first day at college when you know no one and a beer is required to pluck up courage to dive into the groups that obviously already know each other.
I was encouraged by the direction most of the educational speakers were going in and on the last day i got an invite to look around the Chicago VRLab to see what 3D stereoscopic technology they are working on. The trip was very worthwhile and very tiring - glad to be back...

First day of the conference

It took to the first session for me to realise I need to be here. The MacArthur institute talk was a - 'yes this is what I've been saying' moment. We are in a time that requires us to work towards new paradigm shifts. From - education to learning - consumption to participation - individual to social - direct transfer to imagination. Take a look at the mindmap for more notes.

First day in the city

Having a look around the city B4 the conference starts.

SLCC WELCOME!!

Well I am here in Chicago and after about 20 mins found myself in the middle of a storm. Come from the worst summer weather since records began and I get this!! Still I am not here to lay in the sun :)
Met up with some of the SL top dogs tonight - the guys from rivers run red, the maker of the famous bubblegum machine and ice skates, the owner of the Azure islands and more...

Evening educators gathering

For the evening after the teachers course I organised a gathering of educators to network, discuss issues and party. We had about 25 at the discussion eventually, including Claudia Linden, who as ever had some heavy questioning but took it all in her stride and seemed encouraged by the activities going on in the UK in particular. So thanks to her for coming and others who are blazing a trail into the unknown with a chink of light spurring us on.

Our first teacher course in second life

The teachers course was a definite success. We had 8 teachers on the course from Acklam Grange School and all of them finished the day with enthusiasm for Second Life. This picture shows some of the teachers busily building and some adding scripts to their objects.
During the day it was noticeable that the time went as fast as a sunny interval in a British summer, but the amount achieved in one day was considerable. We hope to continue with courses in September both in the centre and with interested folks in-world.

Battle scene

Here is the background to the battle scene at night

****World First****

First school production to be completely staged in front of Second Life animated scenes.
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I saw the first night last night and it was amazing.
I created the scenes and borrowed a few (thanks to Gjo and Elvin valley) in world filmed them with a screen capture software on the mac and put the avi files through a media software on the PC called media shout which lined them all up in order and changed them at the click of a button. Worked seamlessly

Lion the witch and the wardrobe

I am using second life to film the back drops for a play of 'The lion the witch an the wardrobe'. Around 20 scenes so far and it has been both an education and an adventure. Finding venues and meeting the people passionate about them. This clip is from the section when Aslan carries the girls on his back.

The Island is taking shape

http://slurl.com/secondlife/MCLC2/130/167/28
It may be blocked if courses are going on :)

Philip Linden

Happened to arrive at a meeting hosted by Philip Linden today. We were mainly talking about the new project to farm out the orientation process and voice while I was there :)
It was great to see efforts to keep interface going with the residents of Second Life and to see humanity behind the machine.

Latest - the bug

The bug seems to have cleared up. \o/
We are preparing for our first teacher session next week looking at learning environments/spaces of the future.
We will be asking the teachers to investigate various virtual learning environments in SL and to start building there own VLEs on platforms (as in picture). It will be interesting to see how outside the box the ideas are.

Problem with deleting things

On the islands it has shown up a bug. Sometimes when objects have been deleted they leave an invisible barrier. Will update when solved. Am waiting for lindens to get back.

The new island

Standing on the edge of something big!

mmmmmmm

Getting to that flaky stage where the doubters weigh you down. I could do with some positive news like being able to access SL through the service providers the schools use! Like having the lindens get back to me! Like believing the teachers would be proactive in this when there has been a cloud of lethargy in previous outings. Cheer me up guys:)

Another conference pic

Conference pic

In-world conference on using SL in education

This is a conference being held part in a US university and part in world. The session was at the NMC campus and proved effective for communication, Q&A, and logistics. There was the time old problem of the RL part of the conference over running and so we in-worldies had to wait for the speakers to appear.

Contacts are growing

This week I have met a guy from Holland with similar areas of expertise and interest, a guy from US already in TSL who is keen to help, a girl researching for a US maths in TSL project and a guy from Spain who has set up a test classroom in SL and is planning a project. In this world it is sooo easy to network and find people in similar positions.

Creativity! can SL help stop the rot?

The decline in creative thinking during the education of a young person is of major concern in education circles. As a toddler creativity in solving problems is running at well over 95% this diminishes to well under 10% in adults and yet we live in an incredibly fast world where creative thinking is much sought after. In my work in education the results from the use of creative alternative learning styles like mind mapping has been marked and my initial response to the linear nature of the 'virtual learning environments' being rolled out into schools was one of despair as it seemed we were using the highly creative technology we have developed to do no more than store files and turn pages. Nothing new there then!
Then came some hope. My very first reaction when I logged on to SL was this is more like it.
A place where you can experiment, create, display, discuss, collaborate, sell, buy, simulate experiences, go where no man has gone before, visualize concepts, have reasons to work out stuff, feel and see the purpose in learning to program, the list goes on.
As web 3.0 emerges we need to make sure we in education position ourselves to make the most of this opportunity to re-imagine education.

Imagine

Imagine you are sitting in your examinations !arg and during your time learning the key elements of your course you built 3D installations in your 3D learning space that represented those elements and you stored or displayed information and projects you completed. Your regular visits to that environment will have etched it in your long term memory.
As you sit there, rather than panic, you make your way through your virtual space (In your mind) and all the information is there for you to uncover. Neural connections that have been made through the creative process are reignited and the information flows.

Sloodle

Went to a sloodle meeting in SL last night(infusion of 3D SL into the open source VLE Moodle) Seems that progress is being made with a number of tools being developed by some great guys to facilitate running courses within SL. I must admit at one point in this serious meeting at the tech speak was flowing I took a copy of the seating at which point all 17 avatars flew up into the air and left us all standing. Didn't have the guts to own up.
One of the tools allows members of a class to be registered as they enter the learning zone. I am sure with a tweek it could also register and make the facilitator aware of students going awol.

Teen Educators

I am organising events for Teen Educators in SL. So this blog will also become an info hub for these events. It will be great to develop an on going conversation about the use of SL in mainstream education so please make yourself known and ask any questions through the comments.

The Labyrinth

I am in the process of creating a Labyrinth on my Bagworm propery. The idea is to have a path to follow that has both interactivity and purveyors of fine arts and crafts, and that also doubles as an ancient labyrinth taking the traveler on a spiritual journey towards the light. I shall post pictures and SLURLs as the parts are finished. This project is to get me up to scratch with building and hopefully basic scripting. Here is the attached art gallery, my first building project.

Scalability

The main grid seems to be creaking under the weight of 30K users at one time and I guess this could prove an issue with establishing lessons in world - Having mom write a letter to explain Lauren couldn't make it due to lag. The issue of scalability will however obviously be a business concern for Linden Labs and require solutions so I a not too worried :)!!! Really

SL MINDMAP

This an early mindmap getting my thoughts together for a project within Second Life. It was immediately apparent to me that the SL environment had tremendous potential in the realms of brain friendly learning. After much research and development within SL it is time to put this theory into practice and make stuff happen. This blog will detail my journey through this experience and my guess is we are in for one mad ride!
I hope you will join me :)
If you are an educator and would like to be involved in the Second Life educational development look out for the Teen educators group and the UK educators group in world.