CHATTANOOGA STATEment SL

Larry Miller Conducts SL Workshop at CIT

2009-10-08T23:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 11 the League for Innovations Annual Conference on Information Technology will host an all-day workshop on Second Life applications for teaching and learning.

This conference on average attracts 2,500 community, technical, and four-year college/university senior- and mid-level administrators, faculty, and professional staff, in addition to a significant number of corporate and other educational leaders. The session is titled "Why Do I Need a Second Life" and will feature a hands-on approach to exploring the potential of SL.

Second Life Tutorials - EDTECH Island

2009-10-08T23:21:00.001-07:00

Second Life Tutorials - EDTECH Island

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A Really Good Way to Keep Current - ALLTOP

2009-06-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

I am not very deep into this, but I am already very impressed with ALLTOP. It is billed as an "Online Magazine Rack," with hourly updates on subjects that you select. I knew this would be good because it was recommended via Twitter by the legendary digital digital evangelist, Guy Kawasaki (@Guy Kawasaki). A promotional VIDEO is available to demonstrate how to use ALLTOP.

I selected the subject "Virtual Worlds" and found a very comprehensive display of dozens of useful sources, all updated as RSS feeds automatically. (@http://virtual-worlds.alltop.com/)

Yes, There are Jobs for Virtual Worlds Professionals

2009-05-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

Virtual Worlds Management (VWM) is a virtual worlds media company that provides virtual worlds-focused trade events, media, research and online services. They operate a job site that is specific to jobs for those who are ready to work as designers, programmers, gaming designers, production specialist and more.

If nothing else, Virtual Worlds Jobs is interesting to view in terms of the growth of the VW industry.

Community Colleges in SL

2009-05-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Community Colleges in Second Life (a wiki powered by Wetpaint) has a great list of community colleges that are active in Second Life. There are 40 community colleges that have provided some details as to what they are doing with contact information.

The Association of Virtual Worlds Names Miller to Editorial Board

2009-05-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

The Association of Virtual Worlds believes that virtual worlds represent a major information and technological revolution in how we work, play and live. The Association mission is to serve those companies and individuals who are dedicated to the advancement of this multi-billion dollar global industry and reach out to those who have not yet found virtual worlds.

E. M. Kaye, the founder of the Association and Editor in Chief for the Virtual Worlds News & Entertainment Network , announced the formation of an editorial board for a new publication to support the activities of the AVW. Larry Miller, Blogmeister for Chattanooga Statements SL, will join the following individuals in shaping the direction of this effort.

A. Lin, (aka MooncatX), Virtual fashion designer
Alexander Kanaev, PhD, publisher TheKonstrukt Second Life Magazine (Sweden).
Andrew Hughes, President, Designing Digitally Inc., Franklin, OH
Catherine Wyman, Faculty, Scottsdale Community College, AZ
Darius Lahoutifard, Virtual World Designer, 3dxplorer.
Jeff Varkonyi, MainLinkFinancial, West Covina, CA.
Karen Lojeski, PhD: Department of Technology & Society, College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, SUNY Stony Brook,
Lisa Anderson, Ph.D. Graphic and digital media designer
Matthew D. Asbell, Esq., Intellectual Property & Entertainment Attorney, NY, NY
Molly Swoboda,: Writer. Diary of a Mad Cartoon Woman Blog & The Second Life Newspaper.
Nazz Lane, Writer/Blogger, Dancing Ink Productions
Peter Andrews, Faculty & Innovation Strategist, IBM Executive Business Institute
Robert Becker, Ph.D., CEO, Becker Multimedia.
Ronan Gruenbaum, Ashridge Business School, Breakfasted, UK
Suzie Medders, Teaching and Learning Services, Computing & Information Technology, Clemson University.

How Do I Do That in SL?

2009-05-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Kemp of the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Systems developed Global Kids, a wonderful online curriculum specifically for young people to be involved with Second Life. Those under 18 years of age engage in SL through the Teen Grid. However, the curriculum is also extremely useful for those interested in working in the adult side of SL. Kemp’s curriculum is available on SimTeach, a wiki for educators who use Second Life. Recently, Vibha Shah voluntarily added images and links to tutorial videos to support the wiki. If you want to find out how to do the basic things in Second Life, start here.

LEVEL 1

Avatar: Appearance

Getting Around: Taking A Closer Look | Getting Around: Walking & Flying

Communicating: Chat

LEVEL 2

Finding Stuff: Inventory Part 1

Communicating: Friends

An Introduction To Building

Avatar: Clothing

LEVEL 3

Building: Playing With Shapes

Communicating: Instant Messaging

Media: Snapshots

Textures: An Introduction To Textures

LEVEL 4

Building: Additional Features

Getting Around: Map And Mini-Map | Teleporting & Landmarks

Textures: Beyond The Basics

LEVEL 5

Avatar: Attachments

Building: Power Building

Communication: Joining A Group

Getting Around: Search

LEVEL 6

Avatar: Profile

Finding Stuff: Inventory Part 2

Media: Snapshots Part 2

LEVEL 7

Avatar: Gestures 2

Finding Stuff: Help and Other Resources | Money

LEVEL 8

Avatar: Animations

Communication: Creating A Group

Land: About Land

LEVEL 9

Communication: Voice

Land: Introduction To Estates | Beginning to Terraform

LISTSERV - An Old Technology Still Valid for SL Educators

2009-05-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

As Blogmeister for the CHATTANOOGA STATEment, I am not one who really enjoys the LISTSERV format of threaded discussion. Maybe it’s because it has been around since 1986 as the first electronic mailing list software application. The real problem I have is that each post is incorporated in its entirety into an often times huge text file. That being said, for Second Life users in education, there are a three LISTSERV mailings that have extremely useful information – stuff that one would have a hard to finding otherwise. To get any of the lists sent to you, you need to “subscribe.” This will yield a steady stream of information sent to your chosen E-mail address.

Second Life Educators (The SLED List)

Second Life Researcher's List (Slrl)

Healthcare -- Healthcare Support and Education in SL

Most of the LISTSERV groups allow you to received messages aggregated by daily or weekly postings. Otherwise, you will get an E-mail for each posting. This can be overwhelming if you are on these very active lists.

I have found the best way to get to the information you want is to look at the initial directory of posts and see what appeals to you. Note that the posts are numbered. You can scroll own the listing until you find the numbered posting you want. Another trick is to use the “Find” feature available in Microsoft Outlook or the “Find on this page” tool if you are looking at E-mail in a Web browser. This way you can quickly scan a lengthy digest looking specifically for a term, or a contributor for that matter. Finally, you can always “unsubscribe” to get out of the LISTSERV. The way you do that is always to be found at the bottom of any of the postings.

See What Educators in New Zealand Are Doing with SL

2009-05-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

The SLENZ Project (Second Life Education in New Zealand) has brought together numerous educators from New Zealand to explore Virtual World Education, including Second Life. They have an excellent Blog which is available on the SL Blog List on the left of this page. The SLENZ Blog is designed to provide an independent view of the development of the SLENZ Project as well as to monitor/report on progress and technological/social developments in virtual worlds around the world with an emphasis on education in Second Life. It is written primarily by John Waugh (SL: Johnnie Wendt) who describes his personal experiences in, and observations about, MUVEs (Multi-UserVirtual Environments) and MORPGs (Multi-user On-line Role Playing Games).

Be sure to view their videos.

Dental Training in Virtual Worlds Explored

2009-04-29T04:37:00.001-07:00

The University of Maryland and Case Western University have been investigating virtual worlds as part of their dental training programs. According to the University of Maryland's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Carroll-Ann Trotman, "What we are doing is developing a 3D virtual world that we can use to engage in global outreach, teaching, and perhaps collaboration.

More information can be found in a story in the Virtual World News.

SL Workshop with Community Thought Leaders

2009-04-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

Another in a series of workshops on educational applications of Second Life was held Friday, April 24 at Chattanooga State’s Library. I addition to providing an introduction to SL, this workshop was Chattanooga State's initial effort to bring community thought leaders together with Chattanooga State faculty and staff to explore potential adult education, training and development opportunities for collaborative work. It was a fruitful and very rich discussion. Thanks to all those who participated, and special thanks to CSTCC Dean of Library Services, Vicky Leather.

• Elijah Scott, Reference Librarian

• Andy Duncan, Technical Operations, Library & Marketing

• Bill Crum, Web solutions, Continuing Education

• Dr. Bill Teem, Assistant Professor of English

• Dr. David Hooton, Director at the Center for Sustainable Behavioral Change

• Elizabeth Appling, Diversity Specialist, Erlanger Health System

• Don Heath, Vice President, BlueFractal Media

• Dr. Larry Miller, Learning Strategist, Erlanger Health System

Educational Uses Of Second Life

2009-04-24T13:21:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Educational Uses Of Second Life

View more presentations from Alan Peterka.

Chattanooga State's Virtual World Initiative presented at NISOD Conference

2009-04-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

The annual NISOD Conference on Teaching Excellence will have a pre-conference session on the Virtual World Initiative at Chattanooga State Technical Community College on May 24. The conference is in Austin, TX. This link should let you launch a brief podcast about the session.

Click HERE

The Future of Global Journalism?

2009-04-13T05:04:00.000-07:00

An avatar-to-avatar news conference was held recently by the American University in Cairo. The news conference in Second Life gave 8 Egyptian political bloggers a chance to directly question James K. Glassman, formerly a public-diplomacy czar in the Bush administration.

Quoted in a brief article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rita J. King, a former journalist and CEO Dancing Ink Productions which created the SL environment for the event, "Neurologically, people feel they are sharing an experience if the brain perceives that they are sharing space,” she said. “I have found that people are very likely to be candid in interviews that are conducted virtually, much more so than over the phone or even in person.… It is safe physically, first of all, but it also eliminates elements of discomfort that are part of the physical world, related to socioeconomic status, age, gender, race.… There are all sorts of limiting factors that prevent people from being candid with one another in person.”

A YouTube video describing the AUC program can be seen HERE.

Meacham Writers' Workshop in SL 03/19

2009-03-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

The opening reading from the Meacham Writers' Workshop, one of the South's premier literary events, will be streamed live into Second Life this evening starting shortly after 4:00 pm (16:00) Second Life time: This will take place on the Chattanooga State Technical Community College Island.

http://tinyurl.com/meachamSL

You may find the schedule for the readers tonight (and in fact the entire Meacham conference) at:

http://www.chattanoogastate.edu/Meacham/schedule.htm

Please pop in if you can. We have some good writers reading this evening.

Community Colleges in Second Life

2008-11-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

There is a great wiki for Community Colleges in SL operated by the College of DuPage. Among resources are links for included in this wiki:

Community College Locations in SL

Land, Getting Some

Speakers and Consultants

Teaching Tools

Groups and Lists

Showing Off Sites

Learning Resources Center

You can sign up to be a member of this community.

http://ccsl.wetpaint.com/

New class: Second Life - An Introduction to the Online, Immersive 3D World

2008-11-15T03:47:00.000-08:00

Chattanooga State Continuing Education will offer a new class as a comprehensive introduction to Second Life. This course gives six hours of hands-on instruction. While not a technical course, students will learn fundamentals of creating avatars, environments, and objects and be introduced to the power of scripting. Students will learn to take photographs and make SL movies, an art form known as machinima. The course will conclude with explorations into applications of SL in education, business, social networks and visual arts.

November 22, December 6 & 13

2:00-4:00 p.m.

CBIH room 230

$85 for this six hour class

To register, call 423-697-3100.

Instructors: Larry Miller, PhD, Learning Strategist, Erlanger Health System, and Andrew Duncan, Programmer Analyst, Chattanooga State Technical Community College Pay over the phone with a VISA, MasterCard, or Discover card. Or, you may mail check or bring payment to Chattanooga State Continuing Education Department, 4501 Amnicola Highway, Chattanooga, TN, 37406.

New SL Educators Pilot Program

2008-09-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

Second Life creator Linden Labs has re-tooled its basic educational approach. If you are an educator, you join Second Life for free, then meet other educators and learn something of how to use this virtual world to teach classes, network, and interact with students. To do this, click on the "Educator? Get Started" link below to initiate registration and begin your education journey in Second Life.

Educator? Get Started

Basically, this will take you to a SL environment created by The International Society for Technology in Education. They have live “docent” support for newbies, tours, speakers and tutorials. It’s a rich environment, well worth exploration If you already have an avatar, then you can get started through the ISTE Web site, click below.

ISTE

IBM Embraces Second Life

2008-09-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

How practical is it to use Second Life in the real world of business and industry? Starting a little over a year ago, more than 3,000 IBM employees have acquired their own avatars, with about 300 routinely conducting company business inside Second Life. In fact, the company has committed $10 million towards a project to help build out the "3-D Internet" exemplified by Second Life. IBM's VP of Technical Strategy stated, "Today virtual worlds are where video and VCRs were in the early 1980s, or where the web was in 1993." (Source: Fortune, February 23, 2007).

IBM’s presence in SL is rich and available for exploration. Of course, it promotes their products and services, but you may want to check out the IBM Business Center. This environment was created to bring people together and to about complex processes in a visual way. You are invited to “Throw open the doors of a secure data center. Hold a meeting, share your opinion in a forum or attend a presentation. Visit the library stocked with IBM Redbooks^®. . . The IBM Business Center is a rich, vibrant world filled with a vast store of knowledge—and some really interesting people. Chat with a savvy concierge who knows precisely how to help you. Our Center is staffed 24 hours a day, five days a week.”

Why Should I Have a Second Life When My First Life is Too Busy?: The Challenges & Benefits of SL for Teaching

2008-09-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

You are invited to the first Teaching & Learning Academy meeting of the academic year. It will be a session entitled “Why Should I Have a Second Life When My First Life is Too Busy?: The Challenges & Benefits of SL for Teaching” held in the Library classroom on Wednesday, September 24 at 3:00 pm. You will have a chance to see the work our students have been doing in Second Life and get ideas about how (and why) the virtual world can be used in the classroom. If you cannot attend in person, you are welcome to join us in Second Life at this location. SL time 12:00 PM, Chattanooga time 3:00 PM. If you think you might be attending virtually let me know so I can be sure and acknowledge our task force members during the presentation. Thank you for your interest and I hope you can join us,

Bill Teem
Assistant Professor of English

Rock the Academy Virtual Conference

2008-09-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, will be held November 4 - 6 both online via the web and in Second Life. This will be the twelfth in the Series of Virtual Symposia hosted by NMC: the New Media Consortium. Rock the Academy explores ideas and activities that are changing the shape of education today. According to the NMC,

The symposium will examine themes such as open education resources and open content; social networking and global connections; guerilla learning, games, and activist learning; the next killer apps for education; alternatives to course management systems; real-time data, maps, and mobiles; backchannels and alternative communication tools; students who do research in their fields; and any technology or practice that shows promise for engaging students and supporting subversive teaching and learning. Proposals are encouraged under any of these or related themes.

Your Blogmeister has attended several of the NMC Virtual Symposia and they are definitely worthwhile.

Association of Virtual Worlds Open House

2008-09-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

The Association of Virtual Worlds will be holding an open house event at the AVW virtual headquarters on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 from 12:00 until 4:00 PM US Eastern time. The environment is linked to the AVW's main site www.associationofvirtualworlds.com and to the top of each page of the Business & Social Network (www.network.associationofvirtualworlds.com). They will be on-site offering tours and information at that time. Please stop by. The environment is always open to member's meetings, discussion, groups, etc.

SimTeach – A Place for Learning about SL Learning

2008-09-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

SimTeach is the official wiki for educators using the Second Life immersive environment. It was developed by Jeremy W. Kemp, an instructional designer at San José State University. SimTeach is a great source of information for teachers who want to explore Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs). Second Life is a big part of SimTeach, but other formats of the virtual online world are represented. SimTeach is a place for instructional designers, faculty and administrators to find information and to share their own experiences designing, teaching and administering classes in these environments.

Welcome

2008-08-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

Chattanooga State Technical Community College is rapidly advancing to become a leader in the use of Second Life, the online 3-D virtual reality world. Since opening to the public in 2003, Second Life (or SL) has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of avatar residents from around the globe.

Chattanooga State is creating a rich immersive environment that will let students and faculty interact in a variety of learning spaces through realistic simulations, scenario-based training situations, and group interactions. SL supports all of the rich-media tools that are used in Chattanooga State’s campus and distributed learning environments – for example, video, audio & Power Point presentations.

Second Life is also a social network. In SL, you can make friends, join groups, and you can create almost anything. That’s right; you can actually build things - although that is a skill that must be acquired. Quite honestly, Second Life is difficult to describe. You need to see it. Click on the links below to launch videos that can give you a taste of what SL looks like.

London Oncology Clinic

Princeton Groups 'Diversity' Princeton in Second Life

Mies on Architecture Island

NMC Campus: Seriously Engaging

Second Life - ZeroG SkyDancers - 2nd Generation 2007

Of course, watching YouTube videos is OK, but not at all the experience you get when you are in SL. Second Life does require a reasonably decent computer and a DSL, cable modem, or network connection to the Internet. You can find out more by clicking on the link to Second Life HERE.