On this page you can find information about our weekly inworld meetings, list of participants (add yourself!) and a summary of the meetings — if someone volunteers to provide it :-)
Important: The entries on this page are in reverse order (latest on top) to avoid scrolling. This is not the case for the comments, however, as this is programmed by Pbwiki and we cannot change this (unfortunately). Check former meetings on the following page: Weekly Meetings
Wednesday 16th November 2011 7pm GMT, 8pm CET
The play's the thing - A discussion on the ups and downs of presenting a play in Second Life
Attendees:
Karelia Kondor (Helen Myers)
Cyber PlaceboElinor Minotaur
Apr
Cat Causten
Yakuzza Lethecus
Evelyn Solo
Xirana Oximoxi
Annette Lionheart
DevLink Garside
Lynne Hand - YT.Upsilon
Lynne's Notes - The Play's the Thing - (On Google Docs)
Friday 4th March 2011 7pm GMT, 8pm CET
Agenda:
Nergiz's suggestions:
- Inform participants about the new discussion group set up for the SLExperiments group on the AVALON Ning.
- Find volunteers who would like to help restructure the wiki. We could start with rewriting the Front Page text so that the wiki's purpose becomes clear. (Note that we will not discuss the text during the meeting. This can be done later by those who will write the text.)
- Cybère's suggestion: I have also prepared a visit to a mystery island for the group -it should take half an hour to go through the place. Shall we do the visit before or after the discussion? (Let's consider that the discussion might get lengthy in duration --> Nergiz: This tour has been announced for this meeting, so we should do it first. The discussion can take place or continue offline.
- If time allows: Discuss the topic of discrimination against non-native speaker teachers in job ads in virtual worlds. Read the blog post here on this topic first.
Anna's Summary
There was a last minute change in the agenda. On Edunation I, Anna Lazzari
[Annette Lionheart], had set up a temporary exhibition about "Carnival and
Masks" in Italy, which would last only a couple of weeks, so the group
decided to have a guided tour of this event and postpone the visit to
mystery island to a later date.
Using Edith/Cybère's terminology, the theme of the meeting changed thus from
EXPLORATION into EVENTS.
The tour started with a short introduction to the meaning of the word
"carnevale" in Italian. This refers specifically to the 16-day period
leading to Lent, but its origins are pre-Christian (probably dating back to
the ancient Roman festivals of Saturnalia or Bacchanalia). The term
"carnevale" itself probably derives from the late Latin ìcarne valeî (bye
bye meat!), or from the early Italian ìcarne levareî (to remove meat), both
reminding the fact that during Lent meat was prohibited. In other words,
ìcarnevaleî means: ìhave fun today because tomorrow you will have to
repentî.
In Italy, Carnevale is celebrated everywhere and in many different fashions.
Anthropologists distinguish three main types of "carnevale":
1. History re-enactments (e.g. Venice, Ivrea);
2. Apotropaic rituals (e.g. Sardiniaís Mamuthones, the ìdevilsî of Tufara in
Molise);
3. Float parades (e.g. Viareggio, Acireale).
Examples of each type were illustrated with pictures and videos and
discussed.
The end-of-meeting discussion briefly covered the following points:
- Different meanings of the term "carnival" in different countries/cultures;
- Presence of similar festivities in different countries/cultures;
- Features recurring in such festivities: people wearing masks (temporary
anonymity, temporary levelling of social differences, inversion of roles),
elements reminding to end-of-winter apotropaic ceremonies.
Participants also agreed on the fact that similar exhibitions could be
arranged as the final output of a class research project.
Wednesday 16th February 2011 SL 11:00, 8pm GMT/9pm CET
Is there a meeting this week? I missed the last one because I got the times muddled up :-( Pete
Hi Pete, yes, the 16th is the third Wednesday of the month so there is a meeting.
I don't always find the time to update the wiki with every meeting. But the joint SLExperiments/AVALON meetings normally take place regularly every first Friday at 7pm GMT and every thrid Wednesday at 8pm GMT. (Nergiz)
I have added the meeting announcement to the AVALON Ning. (Gary)
Apologies for missing the meeting. I had to take care of my nephew because my sister is ill and completely forgot about the meeting.
I've just seen that Gary has set up a group on the AVALON Ning for the SLExperiments and AVALON joint meetings/members. I think that's a good place for "out-of-world" discussions.
Would anyone who participated in the meeting provide a short summary here? That would be much appreciated. (Nergiz)
Agenda:
There are several language teacher groups now in Second Life. Some also have a community platform on the Internet (Ning, Grouply). The question has come up whether all create their own wiki for resources or whether we use one wiki together so that we know all resources are in one place. I suggest we discuss this and then a group of volunteers could go about creating a wiki or restructuring an existing one. If SLExperiments was chosen, then we could delete the Weekly Meetings page and use the wiki only for permanent resources. Events and meetings could be posted somewhere else. (Nergiz)
Friday 4th February 2011 7pm GMT, 8pm CET
Any suggestions for the agenda? (Nergiz)
Wednesday 19th January 2011 8pm GMT, 9pm CET
Hi Pete, Hi Helen :))
I'd love to meet up with you on Wedneday the 19th! I just thought Wednesdays were at 8pm GMT and Fridays at 7pm.
Is it fixed for 7pm this Wednesday? I can make it only a bit late - say 7.15.
Alexandra
I'm just wondering what is happening with SLExperiments - are we continuing to meet. I was around on the first Friday (7/1) but no one else seemed to be. Will we be meeting on 19/1? Pete
Dear Pete - I'd like to meet up again - I'll be there Weds 19/1 7pm GMT to see if anyone else is there! Perhaps we coudl add suggested 'agenda items' below ..
1. Any new tools found for helping teaching? (Kareilia can show a really good display screen which caches images so you don't have to wait for them to rezz
2. Any landmarks of places or dates of events where yo coudl practise language? (r.g. Mexico, PopArtDisplay, Art Maze)
Hi. I am going to be there, too. I have a meeting at my univ. but I hope I will manage back home. If not, I may be late a bit. Pawel / Pawlus
BTW, like Alexandra, I thought too that Wed. meetings are 8PM GMT (9PM CET), one our later than those on Fridays. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Me too and thank you, Pete for inviting/reminding us. Heike aka Gwen
Hi Pete and all! I was busy the past few weeks and away and offline on Wednesday. I hope to see you all again on Friday 4th February at 7pm GMT (an hour earlier than the Wednesday meetings).
Friday 3rd December 7pm GMT, 8pm CET
Can I suggest that we meet here on EduNation for our next meeting (Friday, 3rd December)?
I hope it's not private property :-)
OK. Do we have an agenda? (Gary's question)
I (Gary) will come if other peolpe are going to be there. Zeynep is still in Berlin at Online EDUCA, as maybe also will be Heike.
I (Helen / Karelia) can be there .. and Cyber has posted details of an event at the Moulin Rouge for 8pm GMT. Ideas:
(1) We could perhaps take a look around the Edunation Islands,
(2) I could do with some advice about how to 'display' things on plots of land if anyone has time!
(3) I've had another successful 'mediated lesson' which lasted nearly an hour with my Year 10 I could share!
(4) 8pm GMT .. a show at the Moulin Rouge .. recommended by Cyber!
I'm more up for 2 and 3 than 1. I might pop along to the Moulin Rouge for a bit. (Gary -- I'm now using my real name in 2nd Life, BTW; I'm gald we can finally do this)
I'll be there (Nergiz/Daffodil) for max. an hour.
Friday 5th November 2010 Time: 12pm SLT (7pm GMT, 8pm CET)
--> Meeting time: We switched to winter time in Europe. That means the time difference to SL time is one hour less, which means we will meet at 12pm SLT (instead of 11am SLT).
Meeting notes can be downloaded as a word document here or see them pasted into this page.
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I plead everywhere I go that people should GIVE UP all these confusing labels, work (in private) from your local time and here ONLY give a link to dateandtime with a clickable Your local time. You do NOT have to worry your head about whether CET (Central European Time) is GMT or if UK BST (British Summer Time) is over. WHY add to your worries when it is not necessary?? Yes - and down with Latin, too, a.m and p.m. In terms of efficient, unambivalent communication there is nothing to beat the 24-hour-clock and good old dateandtime
BUT?
I must be out of practice. I cannot get the link to link.....
PS And please, dear friends,, why is this wiki out on a limb, lost in the past without a built-in reminder system so that we all receive email reminders of meetings. This first Friday, 3rd Wednesday (or whatever) in the month is so - crazy - like the rhyme for remembering when you should not eat oysters. Or are you all oyster eaters used to these quaint mnemonics? Osna
// This page is entitled... Weekly meetings 11 September 2009... Are we in a time warp, or what? // Still Osna
This would seem a much better page to be using:
DATES and TIMES of meetings 2010
From Graham Davies (3 November 2010)
I agree with Osna (Dennis). The title is confusing, but I know what it means and I pick up notifications via Google Reader. Not that it makes much difference to me anyway. Friday evening is the worst possible time for me to attend any kind of meeting. I am nearly always out of the house on Friday and Saturday evenings. I am a weekend party animal - even at the age of 68. And this coming weekend is one long party in the area where I live. I am going to a private bonfire party on 5 November and on 6 November I am going to a public fireworks display with our grandchildren at our local cricket ground, where a funfair consisting of traditional steam-driven rides has been set up - wonderful old machines! Think about me while I am enjoying a couple of pints of real ale, hot dogs, baked potatoes and beefburgers. You can get a flavour of the steam fair here:
http://www.carterssteamfair.co.uk/
Would it not be easier to set up SLExperiments in Grouply? It's easier to advertise events in Grouply. I find wikis very messy.
Regards
Graham
Hi Dennis, Graham and all
I am sorry if feel confused about the times. Dennis, maybe it makes you feel better to know that even people who are experienced in working online get the times confused occasionally, especially around the times when some countries switch to winter or summer time and others don't. I have seen confusion even when the times were indicated very clearly with a link to timeanddate. If you only provide SL time some complain; if you use GMT, some say it's the British who decided on it. You provide a variety of times and still people complain :-)
This question why we use a wiki has come up several times before and I tried to explain it (somewhere further down this page). When the SLExperiments group started we weren't that many people and we had fixed meeting times (just like now actually). So, there was no need to announce them. We used this page (which was simply called "weekly meetings" back) to write summaries of meetings. The purpose of the wiki was to collect resources about virtual worlds and language teaching (collection of landmarks, published papers, lesson plans, etc). I don't know about Grouply, but Ning didn't have a real wiki feature so we never moved.
Having said that, like other groups, the SLExperiments group has changed over time and it has grown. So, if the members think creating a group on Grouply would benefit the group, I am all for. One reason why I thought it might not be necessary is that there are usually very few people in a group who want to take charge of something and help keep the community platform up-to-date. I am also wondering how many of the members would like to join yet another online community when there are already so many. Many of our members are also a member of AVALON, Niflar, SLEnglish, and EUROCALL & CALICO. How active are members there and how many of them???
If Grouply has a built-in wiki, I would say it could make sense to move otherwise I am a bit skeptical but I will go along with the idea if it helps he community. I'd love to hear what others have to say.
Thanks for your suggestions Dennis and Graham! (Nergiz)
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I'll be a bit late - I'm finishing my last class at 7pm GMT. I hope that's OK :)) (Alexandra)
It will be the 1st time that I attend this meeting, impatient to see you all there :) (Jasmine)
Meeting point: AVALON teacher meeting area
Agenda:
Gary suggested we should talk about how me might run a lesson on 5th November (Guy Fawkes Day in the UK) in SL.
Those of you who like practical sessions, this is for you! :-)
I don't have any strong ideas about this, I just wanted to talk through what we could do and come up with a possible lesson plan, or series of lessons, possibly -- Gary
What about people reporting on what they have learned about other grids?
Who can attend:
1. Karelia Kondor (Helen Myers)
2. Cyber Placebo (90% probable)
3. Daffodil Fargis (Nergiz Kern)
4. Betz Darwinian (Betsy Price)
5. Jasmine Quercus (WJ Tang)
6. Pete McConachie (Pete MacKichan)
7. Annette Lionheart (Anna Lazzari)
8. Osnacantab (Dennis Newson)
9. Gwared Morgwain (Gary Motteram)
Friday 1st October 2010 Time: 11am SLT (6pm GMT, 8pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON teacher meeting area
Agenda:
My suggestion (Heike aka Gwen): SLanguages 2010
Mercedes Luminos (SL name), a Spanish teacher @ London School of Economics is available and has agreed to talk about her experience using SL with her students. Her experience can be valuable to us all. Heike, she would need to use a powerpoint, could she rezz one viewer at the teacher's meeting area or could we use the sandbox with a couple of comfy chairs? (Cyber)
How long will this presentation last? It would be great to have it, but also we need to see if we can rope people in for the Conference :-)
(cyber) Probably an hour but Mercedes is also happy to postpone her presentation to a later date as Slanguages is pressing. She is also currently very busy with students starting term. Rectification, Mercedes has agreed to do her presentation at a later date, she might even propose her presentation @ SLanguages. She will join us later in the meeting to introduce herself.
After last night I'm loath to postpone what sounds like an intersting talk :-). If she could do this at Slanguages, then this would also be great.
Who can attend:
- Pawlus Twine (Pawel Topol)
- Alexandra Ergenthal (hopefully - terrible lag for 3 days now!!!)
- Pete MacKichan (Pete McConachie)
- Karelia Kondor (Helen Myers)
Friday 3rd September 2010 Time: 11am SLT (6pm GMT, 8pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON teacher meeting area
Agenda: Anna Begonia will lead a session on the freebie avalon spot.
Decision to be taken: where will it be (in the shops? in a skybox?)
how will it be (with boxes? with vendors?)
I (anna) was asked to explain a bit about builderbuddy (short workshop) no problem on my part. But I was thinking that may be it would be more interesting to explain a bit (and learn a bit) about vendors, so we can judge it better (easy? practical?) and also because to use holodecks (and to use them in a meaningful way) one has to know already quite a bit about building. I mean: simple builds do not need to be packed in holodecks. You need an holodeck only if the build is too big to be linked or if you have moving doors/windos, objects or if you have phantom/non phantom parts. But to be able to share what one makes, there is not need to be able to do complex things: it can be sound files, it can be textures, it can be small objects/builds (my first "production" were cushions and armchairs).
But if you want holodecks, holodecks will be :o).
Graham Davies, added this comment on 16 August:
Quite honestly, I cannot be bothered to build things in holodecks. I lack the patience required for building anything. I let my colleague Randall Sadler do this - he loves it! Anyway, the revamped EduNation group of islands will include lots of ready-made holodecks designed for teaching purposes. I have dabbled with Builder's Buddy, which is fairly easy to use, but some people find it cumbersome - as we have discovered running workshops on Builder's Buddy. Sharing what you have should, however, be within everyone's competence. I just create cubes with a screenshot on the outside (see the examples in the EUROCALL/CALICO Resources Centre) and fill them with goodies from my inventory - i.e. the ones that are copiable and transferable and not subject to copyright restrictions.:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/50/20/1001
You can then "buy" each cube for L$0 and open it to transfer the goodies to your inventory. I have acquired most of the items in my inventory in this way, i.e. buying boxes of goodies for L$0 or at a very low cost of, say, L$100. I think most people acquire items in this way, don't they? I have acquired some excellent items free of charge from International Schools Island at
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/International%20Schools/26/91/73
A directory of landmarks of this sort would be useful and, of course, the directory can be packaged in a cube - rather like the "Some great landmarks" cube that you can find in the EUROCALL HQ lounge at
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/15/22/22
BTW, I cannot make it on 3 September. Friday and Saturday evenings are sacrosanct in our family. I usually go out to dinner with my wife Sally at our local pub on one of these evenings, and we have a candlelit dinner at home on the other evening. I'm just a romantic, am I not?
anna begonia, 16th August
Hi Graham, first of all, your wife is a luky girl: very few romantic men around :o) and she got one of the few!
About builderbuddy. to use it in a meaningful way one has to... need it! :o) I rememeber when the first time I was forced (yes forced :o) to used it in a course. My build was perfectly linked together, did not need it at all. But the teacher of the course wanted a builderbuddy. No way to convince her that, if it works this way, why to make it more complicate? So i put one single script on my linked build and put it inside a builderbuddy. And she was happy :o) (it's so easy to make people happy, sometimes :D). But I needed builderbuddy to link larger things. But as you say, not everybody is interested in building. And also those not interested in building can have things they would like to share (sound files, textures, a collection of useful scripts).
You say: everybody uses boxes, let's use boxes. Well, I think I've already 15 (without counting sound files, that i will classified (colour names, numbers, etc), and textures, that i will classify (objects, food, icons, general, sentences, etc), and put everything in it's nice box to be delivered. So, I guess that me alone will have let's say 20-.25 boxes or more. Now think about 25 boxes, each one taking is space, and each one with a texture on it (otherwise it would be difficult to understand what's inside and if i'm interested of it) that is loading onto your pc. Have you ever been in a freebie store? Is it easy to move around?
Ah, we have here in slexperiment two pages with freebies: Freebies and SL Free Educational Objects 2 SL Free Objects
Graham Davies, 16 August
I'm a lucky man too! Sally and I will celebrate 42 years of happy marriage on 24 August.
I use freebie stores a lot, and Sally (Flopsy Bookmite) uses them even more. She has hundreds of freebie boxes of clothing that she has picked up - mostly from Lemania at
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lemania/67/108/24
The freebie stores that I use mostly contain gadgets and scripts. I have bought gadgets from here
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Celaeno/36/75/29
and here
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sanggae/202/8/922
This is a great free script library:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nimnam/210/31/601
I find most freebie stores easy to move around in, but when you open the free boxes they often contain quite a lot of junk, and then you spend time deleting the junk and categorising the rest of the items that you can use. But I think we could be more selective when packaging educational freebies. Currently there are a lot of boxes in the EUROCALL/CALICO Resources Centre that need to be sorted out. Randall has plans to move the Resources Centre back to ground level on EduNation III, where it will be more noticeable. Currently, you have to teleport up to the sky platform. There are plans to make more freebies readily available on EduNation III, including a number of holodecks created by Randall. A 4th island will probably join the group of three, making more space available for educators.
Many stores don't use boxes. The freebies or goods that they sell are contained in a wall poster, which takes up very little room. I like boxes and I usually identify their contexts with a picture on the outside and a hovering text (using a free script).
Anna Begonia, 17th August
Well, Graham, we are having our private meeting here :D
Yes, the big big problem with freebies is to organise them (and delete duplicates.... lot's of time!). That's why bulk boxes are good when you are rather new but not so good when you are a bit older (and went through at least once the "organising your inventory" process). Older avatars are a bit more picky. So, if we want a space that feets both newbies and oldies we have to delivered small packets with very specific, organised material. And this means a lot of boxes. (we do not need to make a place for generic "everything goes" freebie point: there are already many around. No need to waste prims and space to make another one. We need a place where to share what we prepared/build, for our classes/activities. When Xstreetsl was "free" there was not this problem. Whoever wanted, opened a space there, put a link in educator pages (for instance in the avalong ning) and people interested could get the item. Now Xstreet is not free anymore, and many educational freebies have been retired. It's logical. A thing is to share for free the result of hours, days of work. Another thing is to pay 3 lindens every time someone buys any of it. I mean, we are good and generous, but not that good and generous :D.
So, if we want little boxes, with a picture of the content on it (or with a picture with the description of the content, in case of scripts and sounds) we will have many many boxes. But well, we will decide it democratively on friday (and we will take into account your vote: pro boxes against vendors). My position is clear: pro vendors against boxes and I will try to convince people that I'm right (I'm usually very convinced that I'm right untill I change opinion :D, then I'm convinced that I'm right again.. but with a completely different opinion, of course :p ) and we will see what the majority decides.
From Graham, 17 August
I am actually in favour of a mix of freebies and items for sale. I am always prepared to pass on items that I have acquired free of charge, but I would be inclined to make a small charge for something that has taken me hours to create. People are more likely to appreciate things that they pay for! This is my view anyway, which comes from 28 years of experience I have had running a small educational software partnership. I started writing computer programs in the 1970s. At first I gave them away free of charge, but then I discovered that people would be prepared to pay a modest charge, especially if this entitled them to after-sales service and free or discounted updates. Bear in mind that in Second Life you can pick up a box of items for free or you can pay for it. Most vendors sell things in boxes that you have to unpack.
Summary
We saw the two different options for the Avalon freebies point: boxes and vendor and we saw that : boxes are less tidy and occupy more space than vendors. We decided then how to see how to set up a vendor. Went to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Graybar/153/240/851 to buy a free copy of a 3 prim vendor that works quite well and is easy to set up. Went back to Avalon sandbox and set up our vendor (for those who could not attend, inside the vendor there is a notecard with instructions). We saw that it's quite easy and that you do not need to be a SL-genius to do it. We then saw (but did not set up) two other type of vendors: sound vendors and a vendor with a rezzer (it rezz the object that you want to sell, so your "custom" can see it before buying). We also saw that these tools are called "vendors" but it does not mean that you have to sell your object for money. If you set the price 0 lindens you give your object for free.
Anna also pointed out the importance of never giving out anything full perm, unless you are giving it to a single person (who contacts you and asks for it) you know and trust. Infact, a) the freebie point we are planning will be open to anyone, not only to educators (Avalon is not a closed Sim). If you are giving out things full perms people can resell you objects for money/give them out as "theirs". b) Projects that can start as a group effort to share knowledge and tools can be used by the owner of the island in an unethical way (Anna told us of a freebie project in an Italian Sim, the result of the effort of many educators, that after a couple of months became the Mr X Freebie Point. Mr X did not even bother to inform the participants of the project of the change. Only those who did not grant full perms had the coiches to decide wheter they like it or not and wanted to continue in it or not (only because the owner could not take the object and distribuite them as she wished).
Therefore to set your objects no transfer or no copy is somehow the only way you have to protect your copyright.
Wednesday 18th August 2010 Time: 12am SLT (7pm GMT, 9pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON teacher meeting area
Agenda: Graham Davies will lead a session on Viewer2.
Added by Graham Davies, 11 August 2010
I am assuming that everyone who takes part in this session will be using Viewer 2, which is now the default viewer and automatically offered to newcomers to SL. I am not sure what people expect from this meeting, so suggestions would be most welcome. I have been using Viewer 2 since it was launched in February this year and on the whole I like most of its features. If you are unfamiliar with its new features I can talk about them - or maybe participants will just want to air their personal likes and dislikes. I have written a tutorial in Word format, with many links to video clips, which can be downloaded from Section 14.2.1 (i) of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT site (which I edit):
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#introsl
Feedback on the tutorial will be welcomed. I have already tried it out with a few friends who are familiar with SL and also a couple of SL newbies.
I always begin training sessions by setting "can do" targets. There is a Word document at the ICT4LT site which contains lots of sets of ICT "can do's":
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/ICT_Can_Do_Lists.doc
Page 25 of the document contains the SL "can do's". Again, feedback is welcomed.
I recently revised my SL tutorial to take account of the changes that were made to Viewer 2 last month, i.e. Second Life Version 2.1.0 (207030) Jul 16 2010. There were quite a few changes!
Friday 6th August 2010 Time: 11am SLT (6pm GMT, 8pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON teacher meeting area
Agenda:
- There is an interest in discussing the creation of a repository for teaching objects, possibly a platform-independent solution.
Added by Graham Davies, 11 August 2010
We have already started a repository of materials in the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ in SL. Teleport up to the Resources Centre from the Welcome Pavilion:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/31/32/22
There are boxes containing copiable materials, such as furniture, plants, buildings and clothing. There is also a box containing a large collection of landmarks of interesting sims, e.g. where languages other than English are spoken.
The Resources Centre is one of two decks above the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ. The upper deck, the Skydeck, is used for teaching and training - teleport to Skydeck. It is well out of earshot from the ground. The Skydeck can be booked for teaching and training at zero cost.
You may have heard that Gavin Dudeney intends to give up ownership of EduNation III, the island on which the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ is located. Randall Sadler (Randall Renoir in SL) is taking over EduNation III in early September 2010 and has announced plans of major changes to the island. See Randall's blog posting to the EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds SIG Ning:
http://virtualworldssig.ning.com/profiles/blogs/edunation-iiibig-changes
The most important change, as described by Randall, is:
"There will be a central holodeck station on the island where we can add fully functional educational simulations that will be accessible to any educators."
I'll be looking to get out of SL entirely by the end of September 2010, so am looking for a way of transferring all my scripts to a useful place where people can learn from them and adapt them... If anyone has any sensible ideas, I'll be glad to hear them. Gavin
I foresee EduNation III becoming more active as a teaching island. At present it houses mainly offices. By the way, you will notice that I have set up an announcement that the Languages of the Wider World (LWW) project (SOAS/UCL, University of London) will shortly be setting up a base on EduNation. The LM of the announcement is here:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/24/41/22
This is actually the LWW website on a prim - which is fully interactive for users of Viewer 2.
Summary: (by Zeynep)
Present at meeting: Yvonne, Wena, Pawlus, Gwared, Daffodil, Letty, Alexandra, Cvetka, Zeon, Anna, Susana, Annette
This meeting focused on the issue of creating a repository of all materials used by language teachers so that other teachers can look at and make use of these materials.
Yvonne suggested that it is important to think about intellectual property issues.
Anna said that it is not possible to export things if you have not done them yourself which means that you are already protecting your intellectual property.
Yvonne said this was the reason a repository did not exist and that there is a point to put more effort in building in a clean way and exporting.
Anna said it would be a great idea to recycle objects in another course and that teachers new to SL can really benefit form a repository of objects/ideas etc instead of trying to build things from scratch which can take a lot of time.
Nergiz also agreed that it was time consuming and cost quite a bit of money to build and that sharing was a good idea.
Annette suggested that it would be great for the next group of teacher trainees to be able to access a repository and that new teachers need new ideas, for example a different way of teaching.
Yvonne also said that it would make it easier for teachers to start teaching in SL if they new there was support in the form of a repository.
A teacher starter kit was suggested and there was a consensus among the group that this would be a good idea.
Yvonne suggested there could be one starter kit for beginners with, for example, clothes, animals, colours, furniture, etc. and one starter kit for conversation classes, etc.
Gwared suggested that objects should be attached to particular lessons and that we need some example lessons and objects. Another issue Gwared brought up was where we could store these things. Gwared gave the example of open academic sources in the UK which were not really used effectively because people did not know they were there and they did not know how to use them.
Daffodil suggested that we could start in a simple way by collecting the materials etc and then reorganise them according to themes.
Anna brought up the issue of vendors (vending machine for objects in SL) and said that one of the disadvantages with them was that if they were located in the same area where you are teaching that you could get a teacher coming to get some objects etc while you were teaching which meant that your teaching would get disrupted.
The suggestion of a skybox was then put forth and this idea was taken forward in the meeting.
Daffodil suggested putting a Teleporta, for example, in the Teacher’s Meeting Area with a clear sign to the Skybox or a platform to get to the repository.
Yvonne said that it would still make sense to make a whole scenario instead of just objects (not clothes per se but a shop).
Daffodil said that we would need people to create vendors and that if there were too many vendors with too many objects people might have the problem of having to scroll and see what is inside each one which would be time consuming.
Anna suggested taking a picture and putting it on the box.
Daffodil proposed two solutions: 1) A teacher can place the object and people can click to get it but we would need prims for this.
2) Using vendors (only has one or two prims) but process is complicated (taking pictures of objects and putting them on the box etc.).
Yvonne said you can add notecards, audio files so in the vending machine you can get whole description of the Italian course, for example!
Lots of praise for the Italian course, by the way!!!
Daffodil thinks that if we get the repository idea before the SLanguages Conference we could get people to see it.
Gwared said that if we created a vendor, say with Italian course Lesson 7, and show how we packaged it and then people can see and decide whether they would use it.
Yvonne said Italian Lesson 7 was a good one because it has a social aspect and not just objects etc.
Anna suggested that the number of scripts, prims and texture in a sim are very important: all of them count for the lag. and a laggy sim is not good for teaching. If you go to shops where they sell scenes/houses-prims are phantoms and they disappear after five minutes.
Gwared suggests as an action plan to start with Italian Lesson 7, show what is needed and try to see what could go into a starter kit. The plan would be to have a practical session in September where we can pack together a package.
Yvonne suggests adding audio files like instructions.
Letty said she was in favour of doing Lesson 8 in the Italian course as it had very nice social scenarios.
It was suggested that Anna could take initiative for the session where we could all engage in putting a package together (based on Italian course Lesson 7 or maybe 8?) and it was agreed that we would do this on our 3rd of September 2010 meeting.
anna says on the 14th of august: are you sure that you want a builder buddy workshop? would you not prefer a "vendor" tutorial (learning to create your own vendor?). And thanks Daffodil for the great job (as usual) in summarising the meeting.
Wednesday 21nd July 2010 Time: 12am SLT (7pm GMT, 9pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON sandbox
Agenda:
- (add topics you would like to talk about or things you would like to do)
- I wonder if we could discuss how to make recordings in SL and what the best software is for recording students presentations / activities in SL. Also, if you have any tips / advice to share. Thanks! (suggested by Wena Merlin)
- I wonder whether I can talk again about our German course, the soap opera effect which we now call "teleportnovela"
Graham Davies (Groovy Winkler) wrote (19 July 2010:
I am particularly interested to hear more about the 1920s Berlin sim. I visited it briefly a couple of days ago and dressed myself in 1920s clothing. It looks good. Regarding the making of recordings in SL, I have experimented with Screen Jelly, Jing and Fraps. The free demo version of Fraps satisfied me that this was the best of the three and I therefore invested in the full version at $37. Fraps is designed for capturing the screens of online games and it produces smoother results than other free or cheap screen capture packages I have tried. I have been very pleased with the results so far. Camtasia does a good job too, but it's quite expensive. Russell Stannard uses Camtasia to caputure the training videos at his excellent website:
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/
There are training videos on Jing, Screen Jelly and another screen capture package called Screen Toaster at Russell's site. His SL training videos are very good too - but at present they all focus on SL Viewer 1. Regarding SL training, I am continuing to update my training materials on SL Viewer 2, which can be downloaded from Section 14.2.1 of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT site. Feedback welcomed:
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#secondlife
You can view three examples of recordings I have made with Fraps and uploaded to YouTube. The recordings are embedded in my ICT4LT blog at:
http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com/2010/05/second-life-videos.html
** Graham, thank you very much for all this information :) I cannot wait to have a go at making a recording - at the moment, I am busy working on the draft of a chapter for tomorrow, but as soon as this is done I'll investigate the applications and free demos you suggest. See you tonight! Regards, Rita (Wena)
Who can attend:
- Groovy Winkler (Graham Davies)
- Pawlus Twine (Pawel Topol) - if I and my car manage on time / returning from a trip tomorrow night.
- Rita Marriott (Wena Merlin)
- Gary Motteram (Gwared Morgwain)
(You can also attend if your name is not on this list :-))
Who attended:
Summary:
We re-visited old Berlin with Heike. See what was said last time (2nd July). There is a blog posting from Denis Newson about it here: http://teleportnovela.blogspot.com/ if you want to follow up this topic in more detail and get a better sense of what it is about. Heike has also started a discussion on the AVALON Ning: http://avalon-project.ning.com/forum/topics/ich-bin-ein-berliner for further contributions.
The second topic was about video recording. There is quite a lot above about the recording in 2nd Life above from Graham. Daffodil has also blogged about this topic. Daffodil gave us a link where she talks about the topic:http://slexperiments.edublogs.org/2009/12/19/recording-video-in-second-life-part-1/
There is a discussion on TLWW http://tlinvw.ning.com/forum/topics/recording-of-second-life
and I (Anna Begonia) forgot to say that you can find some useful tips here: http://aberriolo.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/learning-to-machinima/ for recording:
On the PC try to use: Fraps and Camtasia Fraps is rerasonably priced (around 40 euros) and can record only games (SL and similar).
Camtasia is expensive but records everything on your PC or Mac and it's a good editing tool, too. On the Mac you need the helper software: Soundfower to record input and ouput at the same time as taking part in an event. You might also try: Jing . You may find it jerky for SL but OK for other applications.
To edit video you can use the (free) Microsoft Movie Maker on PCs or i-Movie for Macs. For uploading and sharing it depends on the length, on whether you want it public or password protected, etc. Chunking of movies was recommended and generally keeping them short was considered good practice.
A good solution for Macs is: http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm
Cam Studio (free) works well on a PC, but as we have discussed there is difficulty with recording in and out at the same time without a second computer. Helper software is required. A quick search on the internet (Gary) reveals: http://jackaudio.org/ although I have never used it.
Additonal points
Gavin's latest SLanguages blog posting is a place to look at for some lively discussion: http://slife.dudeney.com
Cat Causton (2nd Life name) is running a number of German conversation classes on the Goethe SL Island:
http://www.goethe.de/z/jetzt/dejchat/dejsecon.htm
Friday 2nd July 2010 Time: 11am SLT (6pm GMT, 8pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON sandbox
Agenda:
- Viewer 2 (Remember to log in with Viewer 2 if you want to participate in testing media prims.)
(Add any other topics that you'd like to talk about or try out, including lesson ideas.)
Who can attend:
(You can also attend if your name is not on this list :-))
Who attended:
Summary:
(It would be good if we had a volunteer to provide some notes on the meeting here. Everyone else can then add to it. You are welcome to add images or video recordings as well. In case of recordings, just ask for permission.)
In the first part of the meeting, Gwen/Heike described a language learning activity which is taking place in the Berlin of the 20th sim which led to a discussion on how this could be named and what its value for language learning could be. We agreed that Heike will provide a short description of the "course" here.
Wena then asked "what are people's overall theory in SL? sociocultural? social constructivism?" which led to a text chat discussion about various theories applicable to virtual worlds or game-based learning in MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games). Other terms and references that came up were:
SCT, cognitivism, behaviorism, social constructionism, Cop, chaos theory, flow theory;
Salmon (2010), (Kress, 2010), Todd Bryant (links language acquisition to " natural" WoW roles), Steven Thorne (has also written about using WoW for SLA and about Second Life).
A chapter written on language learning in a recently published book,
A link to an article on MMORPGs for SLA.
Daffodil reminded everyone that we have been collecting articles, papers and books on virtual worlds and language learning on this wiki page: http://slexperiments.pbworks.com/SL-Educational-Links
Finally, the question on how to log chat came up. You can have text chat (private and public) automatically logged for you by the viewer (settings in preferences). There are also scripted tools for this purpose one of which Pete shared with us. If you use Moodle, you can also use the SLOODLE chat log function.
Please feel free to edit this summary and add more detail. You can also add your names to the references that you have provided.
Language teaching in Berlin of the 20s
Allow me all to thank you for listening to this idea of mine on Friday.
We have started teaching in Berlin and it has been delightful to see the results in the short few lessons we did.
There are a couple of interesting facets to this approach which I would describe as:
"Language lessons related to community talk-about of ficticious roles/ events and characters for the purpose of creating a narration that entices learners to come back to 'hear the next episode of the story' (soap opera effect), a role that is inherently a passive role on the part of the learners, passive in the sense that they don't necessarily role-play themselves but just talk about those who roleplay"
Why not roleplay? Because it produces more language not to roleplay.
Compare the effect that 22 'role-playing' football players have with the amount of language that is produced in talking about how they play.
Far fetched, maybe. But the amount of soaps on TV, the amount of tabloid press about celebrities, the amount of reports about politicians... one can not stop thinking that people spend more time talking about other people and what is happening to them, than they actually talk within their given roles as business man, as housewife, as student etc.
I read up on Todd Bryants experienced with WoW and it is fascinating. What I like about it, is the role of the teacher of truly being a guide here. He also mentions that the game is s.th. totally out of control of the teachers moderation when "the learner can not think of model verbs when a bear is chasing him". The task oriented approach certainly produces lots of meaning making and it certainly has to so as not to lose the game or the quest.
As to our experiment in Berlin to tap into an existing community, Berlin has been a great choice indeed because of it is such an active and lovely community.
So far, the German students in Berlin of the 20s have been very productive indeed and the first few lessons have been very encouraging. The results are posted on the www.1920sBerlin.com forum
What I was after though was a scenario that ...
a) if successful, means work for language teachers in SL
b) fosters community thereby adding value to an already exisiting sim
c) entices the students to return again and again whilst leaving the lesson structure open to work with those at hand
BTW, Piona (Dr. Doris Molero) has offered to give this a try in Arstoria, her role-playing community and one of her first learners will be Hajnalka Beck (Nika), who is German teacher in Berlin together with me. She would like to experience this effect as a learner because she raises two strong counter arguments: a) one can not mix beginners with intermediate (she is right but so far, we do not have enough of each group to warrent two groups) and that not role-playing misses the point of SL.
What do you think?
Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Time: 12am SLT (7pm GMT, 9pm CET)
Meeting point: AVALON teacher meeting area.
Agenda: What came up during the meeting
Who attended:
Anna Begonina, Annette, Alexandra, Yvonne, Gwared, Daffodil Fargis (Nergiz), Mary Roussell, Letty, Osnacantab, Zeynep
(Please add your name if you were present. Feel free to add your real life name as well if you like.)
Summary:
(These are Zeynep's notes. Please feel free to add and edit information.)
Issues discussed:
1. Viewer 2
Alexandra said that in her experience Viewer 2 crashes more. She asked whether all the chat notes clear when there is a crash as she found this to be the case with her use of Viewer 2.
Daffodil and Gwared talked about a group for those who come together for this meeting. Such a group exists but newcomers need to be added to it.
Gerhilde said that she couldn’t add anything to notices like landmarks and objects.
Daffodil said it is easier for people to use Viewer 2 if that’s what they started out with. Gwared said that we have to establish that Viewer 2 is relatively stable, at the moment it works better on Mac and not so good on a PC.
Daffodil added that if the teacher training course runs again we need to make sure that everyone is sing the same viewer.
Alexandra feels that the media in Viewer 2 is the most frustrating aspect.
Daffodil mentioned that Pete created a wiki where everyone can write what woks and what doesn’t work in Viewer 1 and Viewer 2. This helps in saving time for people as they don’t have to try everything out themselves.
Gerhilde did some experimenting in accessing Moodle through Second Life during the meeting and there were some issues with this. While some are able to login as guest and access it, this does not seem to be consistent.
2. Building in Second Life
Annette asked if she could build an object that everyone could move and this brought on some discussion about permissions. We experimented with moving an object that Alexandra created. Anna showed that we could move and object more easily if it was hollow.
Anna talked about ‘meshes’ and explained that with meshes you can build outside SL. She added that meshes would make SL more professional but that because you would need to spend money for something average looking, not a lot of teachers may be able to afford this. She said before it was easier to find full permission freebies but that now this will be more difficult.
Anna then explained how ‘sculpts’ worked.
3. Future agendas for our meetings:
Gwared suggested that we have a session on media prims and how to use them effectively (what can we see what can’t we see). It was decided that if Pete is around we could talk more about this.
Another topic to discuss in more detail is ‘meshes’ but Anna suggested we wait for Linden to allow them first.
We had our first meeting with the AVALON teachers and there was quite a good turnout. Those who were present jointly decided to make these meetings regular ones. These meetings will take place, or at least start out, in the AVALON sandbox or the teacher meeting area nearby.
Their will be one meeting on 23th June (Wednesday) at 7pm GMT (12pm SLT, 9pm CET)--> Teacher meating area. After that, the meetings will take place every first Friday of a month at 6pm GMT (the next one will be on 2nd July) and every third Wednesday of a month at 7pm GMT.
Because we are all busy, we thought meeting twice a month will be enough. This does not mean that the SLExperiments or AVALON members cannot meet every week (and in different locations) if they wish so. And, of course, you can have these meetings on EduNation II, as before.
If you want, you can see the meetings above as a bit more "official" where you know there will some teachers/teacher trainers around.
If possible, we will continue providing a summary of the meeting here but we would need volunteers from participants :-)
Looking forward to meeting you again soon.
Nergiz
Friday 11th June 2010 Time: 11am SLT (6pm GMT, 8pm CET)
Hi everybody! It's been a very long time since the last meeting and even longer since I could join you. Next week, I will finish my MA assignments and the courses are also slowly finishing as everybody is getting into summer holiday mode/mood :-)
So, I though before everyone starts going on holiday, I'll try to get a meeting going. Here is my suggestion:
Meeting place: 1. http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/176/93/21
(We will start at the usual meeting point on EduNation and teleport to the AVALON Learning Island later: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/106/85/36).
Agenda
- Get together, meet new and old members.
- Talk a bit about what has been going on in the SL language teaching world (teacher training courses, language projects, SLanguages conference).
- Visit AVALON Learning Island and learn about their projects
- Decide on when and how to continue with the meetings
- Using multimedia in Viewer 2
Who can attend: (add your SL /RL names if you can participate)
1. Nergiz Kern
2. Zeynep Onalt-Stelma (AVALON)
3. Claudia Piemont (maybe I am a bit late because I am working - could you pls give me the meeting point in Avalon as well, thank you Nergiz)
4. María Pinto ( SL Mary Roussel)
5. Edith Paillat (SL Cyber Placebo)Claudia, the meeting address is at the link for Edunation +
No voice from me in the first 10/20 minutes of the meeting as I will be gulping buckets of coffee to wake up (6 am NZ time - groan :-)
Glad to have you back on SL, Mary!
6. Alexandra Koukoumialou (SL Alexandra Ergenthal)
7. Paweł Topol (SL: Pawlus Twine)
8. Helen Myers (SL: Karelia Kondor)
9. Heike Philp (SL: Gwen Gwasi)
10.
Note from Pete - unfortunately can't make this time. Hopefully will be able to manage other ones, but Friday a very difficult day generally.
Saturday 20th March 2010 Time: 7pm GMT
The next Friday I can manage is 16th April, and I'm missing our get-togthers!
In response to Nergiz' suggestion that we can still arrange other meetings if it suits us, can I suggest that anyone who wants to meet up to report back on things they've done since the conference and especially to report on how they have used the new viewer could come along to a meeting this Saturday 20th March 1900 GMT at the same meeting point as usual?
If no-one comes, don't feel sorry for me .. I won't take it personally!!!! I'll keep looking at this page to see if anyone suggests any other time, and I expect I might find something to entertain me ...
Agenda (suggestions)
- Experience with the new Beta viewer - potential [personally I'm interested in this .. has anyone got flash games to work so that more than one person can operate the game?)
Who can attend:
- Karelia Kondor / Helen Myers [could give a little tour of our new Skytower and hanging garden and relate a cautionary tale ....!]
- I want to play with the new beta viewer tooo! anna begonia
----> Pete has created a wiki where we can add web 2.0 tools that we have tested with the new SL viewer. I can't find the link but you could ask him and the results of your tests. ---> Found the link: http://webtoolsonaprim.pbworks.com/
Not attending:
Thanks Nergiz. So sorry Anna! Let's play next week!
- Edith/Cyber (sorry guys really tied up with RL work/home at the moment :-) But I will share all I know and how I use it with some students probably next meeting :) Feel free to visit the Virtual resource Centre and look at the two boards around the meta presenter & cushions, and also the laptops (zoom in max) IM me
February 26th 2010
Time: 7pm GMT (11.00 am SLT)
Agenda: (suggestions)
- Meeting and greeting new members.
- Short introduction of the group's purpose and the wiki.
Who can attend:
- Nina Liakos (Nina Zaytsev)???
- Adolfo Arrieta(Xander Ireto)
- Marisa (Marisolde Orellana)
Who attended:
- Nina Liakos (Nina Zaytsev)???
- Adolfo Arrieta(Xander Ireto)
- Marisa (Marisolde Orellana)
- Laura Blumenthal (Roula Camino)
- Alexandra (Alexandra Ergenthal)
Note from Marisolde: It was very nice to get together again and meet some of the new members. I like the informatlity of the meetings and let's try to keep them up because we are always learning something from someone!
Today, Cyber took us to her learning space for French and afterwards gave us a copy of her Meta Presenter which we learnt how to operate - it;s a great presenter which allows you present anywhere you can rez and you do not have to have rights to the land. Thanks Edith!
Short Note from Laura/Roula: Thanks, Nergiz for hosting this session and inviting all of the TLinVW 10 participants. I'm looking forwad to these weekly meetings. And thanks, Edith for a very enjoyable, educational, multilingual session in your holodeck (is that the right word?) and in the sandbox.
P.S. I don't think Xander Ireto was there, but quite a few other people were.
Note from Nergiz: I'd just like to thank those who kept the SLExperiments meetings going during my absence, especially Dennis, Cyber, Anna, Carol and the others who have been active. This a sign for me that the meetings are benefitting members and that a community has formed.I'd like to encourage all members to participate actively. When you have an idea for the agenda, want to invite a guest, demo something, etc, simply add it to the agenda and lead that session if you want. Set up a meeting if nobody else has done it yet and if you want to set up one on another day for some reason, feel free to do that, too. We have so many members from so many different time zones now that it's impossible to find a time and date that suits all. Although, I do like to have one regular time in general.
Also, if you want to add resources/links to existing pages or want to create a new page, do so, as long as it is at least broadly related to our topic(s). If you want to make pages look nicer, you are very welcome to edit them.
Remember that we also have an in-world group, which you can use to send out group notices to which you can add objects, notecards and landmarks for all members. If you don't know how, ask here or in the next meeting :)
If anybody has some spare time, we need somebody who could collect all the Builder's Buddy scenes and put them in boxes and then in Dudeneyge's shop and maybe also in the resource centre of EUROCALL. Make sure your scene has the "clean" button when next owner wants to use it (test it with someone).
I'll probably be away for another two Fridays but I will read my email and the summaries of the weekly meetings :)
Have fun!
Short note from Su: Hello everybody. I'm so sorry I could not attend our last meeting. It is getting more difficult for me to be home by that time on Fridays and NOT ONE of the computers in our university (which is an Institute of Technology (!!!!) ) supports SL.
However, I'll try my best to be around :)
My research is still slowly (this one being the buzz word) going ahead ... I am in full time teaching so I'm doing what I can in my spare time (mostly weekends ...).
See you soon :)
Su
Note from Simon: I haven't been to one of these for months - in fact, I haven't been in SL for ages. New projects coming up so I need to keep my hand in - will try to be there on Friday if possible. My SL teaching muscles are feeling somewhat atrophied...
Note from Alicia (Wonderalica) : Looking forward to coming back to this year's meetings. I bet might be possible. My school year has not started but guess this time might fit. Sorry I cannot make it this Friday 26th but for sure next one. Kisses to all!
Note from Anooja (Ann Monitor): I was not able to attend any meetings for sometime now; actually I haven't been in SL for so long- was quite busy with new assignments in RL. Anyway I so wanted to attend today's meeting, but unable to do so. Its very late here already and have to make an early start tomorrow :( Will try to make it next time.
Hope the meeting goes off well. I am looking forward to reading the summary of the meeting at least.
Have fun!
Short note from Alexandra: It was nice meeting you all - I was amazed at how many different countries and cultures were "present" in our informal meeting! And thank you Cyber for showing us your holodeck afterwards, sorry I couldn't contribute more to the discussion but I'm still quite a newbie! :)
January 8th - Feb 21st 2010
Question from Helen/Karelia: During the 'conference' season, will we be having our regular Friday meetings, or shall we resume afterwards?
TLVW10 (Teaching Languages in a Virtual World) is a group to support the TESOL EVO session (http://tlinvw.ning.com/) - a hands-on collaborative teacher development workshop to explore how we can teach languages in a virtual world.
When is the workshop?
Jan 11 - Feb 21, 2010 (Registration starts on January 1st 2010)
Let's resume it after this season. Those who are interested can join the TLVW10 session either as a "learner" or as mentor or both :) (Nergiz)
December 18th 2009 --> Meeting??????
Time: 7pm GMT (11.00 am SLT)
Agenda: (suggestions)
- Any ideas for things I can take into Skoolaborate for learning languages? (I'm hopingto set up a 'Lingualand' for asynchronous and the occasional synchronous competitions e.g. scramble/anagram solver
- Wish everyone a happy 'season'? (personally will not be able to make 25th at 2 pm!!)
Who can attend:
- Nina Liakos (Nina Zaytsev) - now that the semester is done :-) Sorry guys, something has come up and I can't be there. I hope to be a more regular participant in the New Year. Happy holidays to all who celebrate winter holidays! Nina Z
- Cyber Placebo (Edith) - Helen, you might want to make contact with Bron Bluxome (SL) for Quest Atlantis and Steve Collis (RL) to hear about their endeavours in building virtual worlds for primary and teens.
December 11th 2009 --> Meeting??????
I am usually teaching a conversation class - well - taking part in one - on Fridays, but I'm off sick today and, can attend a meeting agin, if there is one.
I see that I promised to move these accounts together.... promises, promises. :-)
Well, I'll be back at the appointed time. Apologies for my long absence, but I enjoy working with the 6 or 7 young people, all born in Germany but, as they say here - people with an immigrant background i.e. their parents come from elsewhere, Turkey, Kosovo, North Africa... There is a marvellous organisation here, the society for supporting the children of immigrants (roughly tanslated) and all although all the kids are bilingual - at least - some speak up to 5 languages - they have difficulties in school, largely for cultural reasons. They are a great bunch of people and love having a native speaker to get them to speak English, make them English tea, show them photos on his laptop and take them into Second Life! Interestingly, all the young people who are interessted in English conversation are girls, no lads at all - they are all working hard in another room on Maths and Physics!
1/Marisolde Orellana - Marisa can come to a meeting later in the evening from 21:00 GMT onwards if anyone is up to meeting.
December 4th 2009 --> Meeting!!!
Time: 7pm GMT (11.00 am SLT)
Agenda:
Who can attend:
- Carol (if traffic permits it :))
- Pete / Ruddell (If my lesson finishes on time).
- Pawel Topol / Pawlus Twine (happy we will meet again) :)
- Cyber Placebo (Sorry folks, I have been soooo busy these last 2 months! I will try my best to be there on time - 7am Sat, after a x-mas dinner out!)
- Anooja / Ann Monitor (Hopefully, I'll reach home on time after the class.)
- Marisa/Marisolde Orellana
Apologies:
1. Graham Davies (Groovy Winkler). This time on a Friday is usually impossible for me. Friday evening is my main evening out each week, especially this week, when my wife and I will be taking our younger daughter out to dinner to celebrate her birthday. Latest (4 Dec): I have had to cancel dinner as I have a lousy cold and have almost lost my voice. I might lurk if I find the energy. Bad week this week: I had the swine flu innoculation on Wednesday, which left me feeling very groggy on Thursday morning. Graham: I hope you feel better, Nelba. Thanks, Nelba, I finally got out to dinner with my wife and two daughters yesterday, 8 December, It was a great evening - Graham.
2. Nelba Aeon. Sorry I could not join you on Dec 4th because I did not see the mail :-( I would like to know if these meetings will be only oral because I am partly hearing disabled. If you could possibly consider do oral meetings with some written chat, I will join you. Warm regards from Argentina. nelbaq@gmail.com Nelba if I am there and we are using voice, I can transcribe the meeting for you and anyone who hasn't got sound :-) Thank you , very much. Let me know when the next meeting is!!! :-)
Summary:
We tested the SkyTables and version 2 of the BrainBoard.
Please, add your feedback and comments here:
Who attended:
- Carol (if traffic permits it :))
- Pete / Ruddell (If my lesson finishes on time).
- Pawel Topol / Pawlus Twine (happy we will meet again) :)
- Cyber Placebo (Sorry folks, I have been soooo busy these last 2 months! I will try my best to be there on time - 7am Sat, after a x-mas dinner out!)
- Anooja / Ann Monitor (Hopefully, I'll reach home on time after the class.)
- Marisa/Marisolde Orellana
- (add those who are missing)
If you want to add your snapshots to this slideshow, simply upload them to flickr and add the tags: SLExperiments and Dec2009 (You can also add your snapshots to the SLExperiments group. If you want others to be able to use your snapshots, you can change the permissions to a creative commons one.
Comments (4)
mmvcentro said
at 6:23 am on Oct 2, 2009
I got this notice: "Failed to enter edit mode: Security error."
So I'll use this comment area to let you know that... I can attend October 2nd meeting Osna, my 14:00 GMT (9:00 am in Mexico) patient cancelled.
I hope this can be fixed to add my name at the right place.
See you soon.
Mmvcentro Jewell (Maru)
Alexandra K said
at 8:22 am on May 28, 2010
I'm just finishing classes at that time, but I'll probably make it . It'll be great to see people again :))
Heike Philp said
at 12:03 pm on Aug 11, 2010
Hi Nergiz,
Is this maybe an idea to add a page per meeting?
I dont really know where to start a discussion about repositories.
If the meeting is on one page, at least we have a comments box although this one is only active when you are logged in. But better than nothing.
rgds Heike
Nergiz Kern said
at 12:38 pm on Aug 11, 2010
Hi Heike
The usual problem with discussion on a wiki… Unfortunately, pbworks doesn't have a discussion page or forum like some other wikis. This is why we had created a SLExperiments GoogleGroup but it has never been popular. Participants rarely continued discussions there.
I think creating a new page for each meeting would be overdoing it, especially as often there is no discussion.
However, when a member wants to start a discussion or add resources for a specific meeting, they can always create one.
Does this sound like a workable solution?
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