These events just keep getting better and better! It's always great to get together with great people from all over the world and talk about things we are all interested in - and when it has to do with technology and education - well, it don't get much better than that. I have calling cards in my inventory now from educators and techies from Scotland, Great Britan, Portugal, Australia, the USA and, of course, Canada, too. All that without showing my passport or going through airport security.
If you haven't been to a conference in Second Life (SL), it's not like being there (nothing is like real life, don't get me wrong here), but the immersiveness of SL makes it a superior meeting place to any other free technology I've seen or used. There were theatres with over 100 avatars (some had over 150) present watching slideshows, videos, demonstrations - all with voice and text capabilities - there were even translator boxes all over the place to translate the text chat in any one of a multitude languages. Pretty cool! If you take into account the overflow areas where video and chat were piped in, I'm sure some presentations had over 300 attendees.
I didn't take in all the presentations (I'm not suicidal!), but a colleague (Marnie McMillan) and myself split up and cut a wide enough swath of topics that applied to RPS' SL objectives. We'll be spending time over the next week, I'm sure, comparing notes and preparing some sort of treatise most worthy of deep contemplation.
The main thing I got from this conference was that we (RPS SL Enthusiasts) are on the right track. The projects that we have done in TSL, for the most part, have followed the methods and processes that others around the world have done and are currently doing. It's always comforting to know that we're on the right track. We still have a fair bit of work to do, but at least we don't have to change our base concepts of what we want to do with virtual world technology. On a personal note, I was also surprised at how many of the 'bleeding edge' schools and universities are using Google Apps for their students for course work. They use GApps to feed into SL work, but also into their LMS systems. (Note to self: further investigation on this front is definitely required.)
Right out of the box, what I first got out the first presentation I went to (given by Marlene Brooks, Memorial University) was that administration is usually a hard-sell on what SL/TSL can bring to the education toolbox. This was not news, but kowing that others have this same issue at this level was. Her talk was primarily about planning your SL presence in a methodical and collaborative way (creating an indepth concept plan and translating that to storyboards). Should one replicate reality inworld or create spaces in the new ways SL allows? For me, though, my primary interest was the ten minutes on getting administration to buy-in:
- Dispell the myth that SL is just a game. As we have said before to anyone who will listen, SL is not a game. It has no predefined quest, no initial challenges for points - nothing like that. It is an empty space where everyone is free to create and program their space of the world.
- Dispell yet another myth that SL is a risque and seedy adult virtual world. Yes, there are regions of such ilk, but there are in every city in the real world, too. As for TSL, the content restrictions in the TOS make this a non-issue. Memorial has SL students sign a modified travel liability waiver as if students were going on an out-of-country trip before letting them take part in an SL class. Same rules apply in SL as they do when a class tours real life Greece or New York -> yes, there are risks, but act responsibly.
- Get your decision makers in administration involved at the design stage and get them to explore some of the educational sites on SL. You can either ask the more adventurous ones to create an avatar and explore on their own, but I prefer the strategy of getting them together in a dark, secluded room, lock the door and show them the potential (over and over again) on a big screen.
Another interesting session was by Catherine Dutton (formerly of Texas Woman's University, now with the Institute of Co-operative Learning). She developed a Creative Commons inworld course for prospective SL teachers and instructors. They have to take this course before they can lead a course in SL. Some of the key things they learn about are:- What resources are available for educators in SL and encourage them to make use of what they can that is already out there - no need to reinvent the wheel.
- Some of SL's mechanics to upload, simple object sizing and placement, what visual aids work best in what kinds of spaces.
- How and when to use voice, text, or both.
- They get into some rudimentary trouble shooting and fallback plans.
- And, for me, most importantly, intellectual property rights, copyrights, and creative commons content. Answering questions and having discussions about what can be taken off the internet, when to credit the creator/publisher, and the principles of creative commons.
