SLENZ Project developer Todd Cochrane (SL: Toddles Lightworker, pictured), learning designer Leigh Blackall (SL: Leroy Goalpost) and members of the project team have put together a collection of notes, links, pictures, videos and comments aimed at helping people to use Second Life before and when they first enter the virtual world.
For both the experienced computer user and the virtual “newbie” – to the computer and virtual worlds – Cochrane’s “Using Second Life – a guide for learners” in WikiEducator in an attractive and easily-digested format should prove both useful and fun for those wanting a rewarding experience in the virtual world of Second Life.
The simple-to-use guide covers among other things: Creating your account; Landing in the right place; Moving your avatar and camera control: Personalisation; Search, locate, retrieve, store and manage information on locations; Inventory management; Safety; Appropriate behaviour – “SLetiquette”; Communicating in learning groups; How to build; Exercises – practising your skills; Education and training in MUVEs.
Although expressly created for the SLENZ Project, the guide provides a welcome addition to the growing body of material on Second Life in that it pulls a number of strands together in one place, in a practical, free-to-use format.
Immersed in Second Life one thing you notice, as in the real world, is when another resident changes his or her appearance – especially if they are close to you, as in a work or social relationship.
I don’t mean just a little tweak mind you – but a real change. These changes, often made once one gets comfortable with the technology, often mirror the reality and dreams of the personality behind the avatar and sometimes the real appearance, if one is really confident.
But one, I would say particularly a student, can determine the level of confidence – and competence – behind an avatar just from one’s appearance no matter how fantasy the figure is.
This is why I believe it is important for educators to have an avatar that builds respect, in an educational environment in virtual worlds such as Second Life, or at least an avatar which gives the appearance of being intelligent and friendly, not matter what the advocates of “stick men” and box figures argue.
Sometimes that avatar might mirror your real life physical appearance, at other times the reality that you perceive inside yourself. An avatar based on Freddie Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street or Chuckie might be fun and create some fear but loses out on credibility, unless of course one is a man or woman who carries a hatchet and wants the virtual world – and one’s students to know that, even if only subliminally.
This was brought to mind recently at a SLENZ working meeting on Koru when SLENZ project co-leader Terry Neal (SL: Tere Tinkel), returned from a real life trip to India into world as a n ordinary girl next door, rather that the blue-haired houri she has been for all the time I’ve know her in-world.
Todd Cochrane (SL: Toddles Lightworker) when he is in working garb
rather than being a dragon.
It also was brought to mind when I first saw the human-like lecture room presence of SLENZ developer and Weltec lecturer Todd Cochrane (SL: Toddles Lightworker ) rather than his more normal presence as Puff the magic dragon, or some dragon of that ilk, who has been pictured in this blog a number of times.
This normalisation of appearance must be catching because Manukau Institute of Technology lecturer and Foundation pilot lead educator Merle Lemon (SL: Briarmelle Quintessa – right middle) arrived at the in-world meeting in conservative garb rather than her normal more flamboyant, and one might say more limited attire, while Otago Polytech Midwifery pilot lead educator, Sarah Stewart (SL: Petal Stransky) also has changed her appearance, somewhat in the run up to the launch of that pilot.
Merle Lemon in the form of the “conservative” SL educator Briarmelle Quintessa.
Arwenna Stardust (Clare Atkins) is in the background.
There are some who never change, however, and strangely to me in real life I have begun to recognise their avatars as being really who they are. They include joint project leader Dr Clare Atkins (SL: Arwenna Stardust) who, for me, has almost become the light-bathed, elfin princess with golden tresses in real life, and lead developer, Aaron Griffiths (SL: Isa Goodman) , who I see in my mind’s eye as being Isa the “good man” rather than Aaron when I speak with him in real life.
Sarah Stewart as SL’s Petal Stransky.
And, of course, there is SLENZ learning developer Leigh Blackall (SL: Leroy Goalpost) who sometimes term’s himself the group contrarian, and is little changed from his early days with SLENZ and I don’t think ever will.
For me it’s all a matter of perception – and immersion – and I suppose my own superficiality when it comes to appearance both in Second Life and real life. I am a great fan of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).
The problem is we do all make subjective judgements – no matter who we are – based on appearance, especially in learning environments in all worlds. Our judgment depends on who we are., and where we’ve come from. After all in both worlds beauty (and one might say the appearance of brains) are solely in the eye of the beholder.
The never-changing persona of Leroy Goalpost – in real life, Leigh Blackall.
Progress on Kowhai
Meanwhile, according to joint project leader, Terry Neal, on the SLENZ sim, Kowhai, good progress has been made on on the SLENZ pilot, Foundation Stage 1, with Griffith completing an easily rezzable/de-rezzable interview room, a catwalk, and the “outfit shop”. Lemon is currently making an introductory video and wells as planning the specific scenarios needed for Foundation Stage 2.
Midwifery Stage 1 is almost complete while the context and learning design has been completed for Midwifery Stage 2, with working beginning on animation poses.
With Orientation Stage 1 completed Cochrane and Atkins were able to successfully use a subset of the lesson plan developed by Cochrane and Blackall to orient the initial batch of educators connected with Midwifery Stage 1.
Neal said that work on Orientation Stage 2 was focused on creating a resource package that distance students and others could use on their own rather than in f2f environments.
The Foundation pilot’s catwalk, like its outfitter and various interview rooms,
Trainers, Dr Clare Atkins and Todd Cochrane with Kate Spencely, Dr Deborah Davis
and Sarah Stuart. (Pictures from Sarah Stewart)
The importance of a time for “play” when people are initiated into Second Life was reinforced for the SLENZ Project’s joint leader, Dr Clare Atkins (SL: Arwenna Stardust), when she led an orientation workshop for a group of mainly SL “newbie” midwifery educators from Otago Polytech’s School of Midwifery.
“I learnt again just how important it is to allow people the time and opportunity for play when they first get into Second Life,” she told a SLENZ Project meeting on the Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology’s Second Life island of Koru. “They want to play around with how they look and how they can change themselves and what they can do. I’ll never forget them all doing the chicken dance and laughing (in real life). It was very much about bonding and the creation of confidence.
“… nobody, but nobody, is not concerned with how they look,” she said, adding that although there had to be time for “play” the learning process had to be focused and based on a clear structure of what had to be achieved in the time frame.
Atkins, of NMIT, and SLENZ developer Todd Cochrane (SL: Toddles Lightworker), of Weltec, conducted the training session for the eight educators from Otago and Canterbury midwifery schools, in person, on the Otago campus and on the SLENZ island of Kowhai, in what was both a real life and Second Life “bonding and learning” workshop.
Human nature
Cochrane said, “Working with the midwifery instructors was absolutely fantastic.
“I also I learned a lot about, well, human nature.
“They were completely interested in the way their avatars looked and moved,” he said. “Getting the right clothing and the shape of their avatar’s figures right turned out to be the major activity. I had expected this to take some time but not to the extent that it did.
“I was completely stunned when one pulled out an animation that made her avatar walk , in a more than catwalk manner, and that everyone wanted their avatars to walk that way too.”
The lead educator for the midwifery pilot programme, one of three SLENZ Project pilots, Sarah Stewart (SL: Petal Stransky), said she had been “very encouraged by the enthusiasm” of the educators who attended the two-day workshop.
Noting that some had been apprehensive about the move into virtual worlds, she said, “They were extremely enthusiastic, very reassured and very excited at the end.
“It was good to have it face-to-face. There were some ups and downs during the two days but everyone is now a lot clearer where we are and where we have to go in the next few months.”
Stewart, however, noted that while the majority of participants had found the “play” – trying on new clothes, doing the chicken dance etc – “valuable”, there has been some who had wanted to focus only on what needed to be done and felt they didn’t have time for those sort of things.
SLENZ learning designer Leigh Blackall (SL: Leroy Post), who had a major hand in setting up the training session, said proof of the success or otherwise would be in seeing if and how the midwives came back to Second Life … “we need to observe these midwives,” he said.
From his point of view, though, the workshop had been “very successful” and he had enjoyed “watching it from a distance … The fact that the midwives were physically together might have lifted the spirit. It will be interesting to see if it really does translate into persistent use.”
The pilot is scheduled to put its first real students into Second Life May 25.
The chicken dance – need for a moment for play in orientation.
The SLENZ Project’s Birthing Unit – Te Wahi Whanau – has been given a great introduction with the release on April 30 of a a video which explains simply and cogently why and how the pilot midwifery project has evolved.
“I think it is brilliant and I am just so excited,” Dr Deborah Davis, principal lecturer, School of Midwifery, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, said in announcing the release of the pilot project video on the SLENZ List. “In just seven minutes a lot of information gets imparted; both about the importance of birth environment and about the project. It is going to be a great little resource and “taster” and I am sure it will make interested people want to find out more.”
The first public showing of the video was scheduled to take place at the Open University in Delhi, where it was to be presented by joint SLENZ Project leader, Terry Neal (SL: Tere Tinkel). The lead educator for the pilot is Sarah Stewart (SL: Petal Stransky).
The video, originally conceived and pushed by SLENZ learning designer Leigh Blackall (pictured below right, SL: Leroy Post), was produced by Blackall (audio recording and editing) and SLENZ lead developer, Aaron Griffiths (pictured above right, SL: Isa Goodman) (video images and editing). Blackall is currently working on a comic to go with the video as part of the introduction to the Otago Polytechnic project.
The midwifery pilot on Kowhai is one of three pilots being worked on by the SLENZ Project which has been funded by the Tertiary Education Commission of New Zealand.
The project has been designed to determine how multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) might benefit New Zealand education and how this can best be done. Using the multi-user virtual environment Second Life, it aims to delineate and demonstrate to New Zealand educators and students the educational strengths or otherwise of learning in a virtual world.
Gearing up for a face-to-face meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, in two weeks time ( March 23-24) the SLENZ Project team is now moving steadily forward with its three pilot programmes – Foundation learning, Midwifery and Orientation – according to joint project leader, Terry Neal (SL: Terre Tinkel) in her latest project update.
With co-leader Dr Clare Atkins (SL: Arwenna Stardust) she expects to be able to post the agenda for the face-to-face meeting early next week.
Speaking about the individual pilot programmes Neal reported that Foundation learning lead educator Merle Lemon (Pictured at right, SL: Briarmelle Quinetessa) , of Manakau Institute of Technology, had written a context and learning design for Foundation Stage 1 (blog, best in Firefox, describes the foundations students and the issues simply and extremely well: http://briarmelle.edublogs.org/2009/02/26/foundation-education-context/ )with work to begin on the build (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kowhai/138/177/26 ) shortly. The Foundation pilot group plans to hold an in-world meeting at 9am on March 17 with the aim of understanding potential access issues for fellow educators in the programme and to give them an opportunity to provide feedback on the learning design and as much of the build as is completed.
Briarmelle Quintessa & Toddles Lightworker
Neal said that work on the in-world build for Midwifery Stage 1 had been delayed by challenges in deciding which items to include in the birthing unit for Stages 1 and 2 and by finding suitable images. As a result team members Deborah Davis and Leigh Blackall, project learning designer (SL: Leroy Post) had even visited a local hospital to take pictures.
“Then,” Neal said, “we have had challenges in where to put the images and how Aaron [Aaron Griffths (SL: Isa Goodman), project lead developer], can access them – all part of our process development. Hopefully, these are resolved now and Aaron, Clare and Todd ( Cochrane, SL: Toddles Lightworker and project developer), can make good progress on the build in the next week.”
The midwifery team, Neal said, had organised an interview session for the video that was being made “to engage” tutors and learners before they entered Second Life, while Sarah Stewart (Pictured lower right, SL: Petal Stransky and midwifery pilot lead educator) and Blackall had begun developing lesson plans. At the same time Davis and Stewart had devised labels for the various objects which would be in the birthing unit. A feedback session for the pilot’s educators has been organised for March 2o.
Birthing unit … decisions on wall colours/covering and furniture
Commenting on the Orientation pilot, Neal, noting that Blackall had put up a wiki with a list of agreed skills for orientation, asked SLENZ team members again for links to other good orientation packages. The
place to do this is the Googledoc for orientation linked from the one stop shop SLENZ blog as the Context Summary Document-Orientation ( https://slenz.wordpress.com/slenz-project/project-processes).
Neal said the protocols for the evaluation of the project were still being determined.
Concluding, Neal hoped the introduction of the “one-stop shop page (for “understanding our process and accessing the various documents we are creating to communicate with one another”) in the SLENZ blog would help team members all feel they could navigate “through our many files more easily and help us differentiate between ‘thinking out loud’ and ‘decisions’.
“I want to echo Clare’s ‘thank you for your patience’ message,” Neal said. ” We have some minor tweaking still to do, such as linking to images effectively, but we have made a lot of progress beyond where we were
two months ago. Clare and I both believe our discussions to date have helped us create something that will work well for the rest of our project, and beyond.
The original initiators of the SLENZ Project, Dr Clare Atkins (SL: Arwenna Stardust), joint project leader, and Aaron Griffiths (SL: Isa Goodman), lead developer, have always dreamed of creating an Aotearoa -New Zealand education archipelago within Second Life.
“In the early days Isa and I used to talk about how good it would be to have a New Zealand education archipelago, and now it’s beginning to happen,” Atkins said in a joint announcement with Land of the Long White Cloud’s creator Scott Diener (pictured) (SL: Professor Noarlunga) (http://scottdiener.edublogs.org/) at a SLENZ meeting on Koru. Diener is currently the Associate Director, IT Services at the of University of Auckland, and is responsible for the Academic and Collaborative Technologies Group at the University. He also teaches in a large stage III research methods course in the Psychology department.
The scenically attractive University of Auckland (http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/) island, houses a dedicated medical centre simulation that includes a project run in conjunction with Boise University, USA. This island is soon to be joined by another Auckland U island sim, named Kapua, which will be initially dedicated to architecture studies under the direction of Judy Cockeram (SL: JudyArx Scribe) a senior lecturer in the university’s Faculty of Architecture and Planning. She also hopes to establish an architectural community of scholars in Second Life that stimulates Real Life architecture.
Atkins and Diener said that it was planned to join the Koru-Kowhai sims to the Long White Cloud sim by a “void” ocean sim.
Diener, who will be presenting at the EDUCAUSE Australasia Conference 2009 – Innovate, Collaborate & Sustain, in Perth, Western Australia, May 3 – 6, also disclosed that his Auckland group is in the process of entering into a virtual world consortium with Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Wollongong University and other educational institions to establish a high performance virtual world environment group.
He also noted that the Boise end of the nursing student pilot study being done in conjunction with Auckland had been receiving considerable good press in the United States over the last few months.
Meanwhile the SLENZ Project’s specialist midwifery pilot has made further progress with the virtual completion of the Learning Design stage. Lead educator Sarah Stewart (SL: Petal Stransky) has said in her blog, Sarah’s Musings, of February 21 (http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2009/02/linking-objects-to-information-in.html) that she is feeling “at last I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the first stage of the Second Life Birth Unit project.
“My feelings of frustration are changing to optimistic excitement,” she said. “Yesterday, Leigh Blackall (SL Leroy Post), Deborah Davis and I had a meeting which has led to an agreement to the learning activities and time lines for Stage 1 of the Project.”
The creation and melding together of the design and development phases of the SLENZ pilot programmes has proven a slightly more difficult process for the SLENZ team than initially envisaged.
“We are making progress, albeit slower than I anticipated or would have liked,” joint project leader Terry Neal (pictured right) said recently. “The focus over the last couple of weeks has been agreeing the processes, terminology and templates that will enable us to work together effectively for the design and development phase of our project.
“Once we have finalised these, we then need to use them,” she said.
From the outside – and part of my brief is to view the project from the outside – one of the difficulties facing the team producing the three pilots – in midwifery, foundation learning and Second Life Orientation – has been the confusing number of platforms (Second Life, IMs, blogs, emails, googledocs, wikis) being used by team members to disseminate their ideas to each other.
Although the pilots are still at an early stage it appears, at times, that team members are not talking “in the same virtual room” although this is probably through no fault of their own, and is possibly a feature of every virtual world “team” effort as opposed to VW individual efforts. The problem is, however, that the oft-quoted proposition that in virtual worlds the learner is more important than the teacher/researcher/creator might be forgotten, with ever-widening, more ambitious ideas being put forward and the possibility that the goals of the pilots might be buried by words.
This is not to say that the ideas are not excellent, but at times, in my view, grandstanding, reinventing wheels (a New Zealand habit), and widening the scope of a pilot, rather than containing it, can reduce the effectiveness of a project and lead to the initial aims and goals being, if not forgotten, glossed over.
The problem appears to be compounded by the fact that SLENZ is a temporary team with the members physically removed from each other who, once the project is over, will go on to do their own things: the academic life blood after all might be said to be publishing papers and individual recognition.
Significant milestones
Basically, I believe, as team members, we need to recognise that each of us will get something more valuable out of the collaborative team effort, rather than from our individual contributions, if we get onto the same page and work in the same virtual room with the same language, even if on different campuses and with different world views. We will also lessen the workload.
As Neal said in her most recent project update, and this probably applies to all virtual world collaborative education projects, “We need to effectively refine and merge … and agree our terminology because (we) are using quite different terms for the same things.”
Despite the difficulties the team has already achieved some significant milestones with its initial reports and discussion documents – the SL Literature Review, written by Dr Ben Salt (research and evaluation), Dr Clare Atkins (joint project leader, pictured lower right), ) and Leigh Blackall (learning designer), is being picked up by a noted peer-reviewed virtual world journal – and obviously will achieve other major milestones in the future.
There already has been agreement between Atkins and Todd Cochrane (developer) on such things as a template, naming conventions and version control, both within and outside Second Life.
Despite the “foundation learning” pilot appearing to be on hold while the midwifery pilot has taken precedence, Merle Lemon (lead educator) has been busy talking to the other academic collaborators to enable her to feed their needs into the pilot as well as determining how to make intra-team communication more effective.
The next major step, according to Neal, and one might say unenviable task, is for Atkins to translate the thinking of various members of the team on the birthing unit into the technical specifications/production plan for further development of the guidelines for the birthing unit and templates.
Salt has done an initial draft of the evaluation process and is currently completing it in more detail.
Finally, according to Neal, the team needs be ready to seek ethics approval in March.
Neal concluded, “While our process and template decision-making is taking longer than I had anticipated or hoped, it is worth taking the time to get this right and will set us on a stronger course for the next 11 months.”
-written by Johnnie Wendt/John Waugh
ESSENTIAL READING!
Are avatars really useful?
This is essential reading and I really mean essential. Even if you don’t read another thing on your computer this week there are two articles/blogs that as an educator you must read.
His thoughts, which he is the first to admit are “off the cuff”, make sense to me on a variety of levels. They are easy to understand and they mirror my own virtual world reality. That said, they also provoke considerable thought, and I would think will provoke lots of valuable discussion if not changes in attitude.
ROI in Virtual Worlds – Anatomy of an Avatar, is the second of a series dedicated to answering why virtual worlds are a good alternative to existing technologies; and how one can best get a Return On Investment (ROI) from virtual world ventures.
Booker argues initially that avatars yield returns on several levels: 1. They allow people to “see themselves” taking part in the experience; 2. Your perception of who is participating is greatly enhanced; 3. Open and honest communication between employees is greatly facilitated; 4. You always have an ice-breaker; and 5. You’re always ready for work.
Later in a reply to a comment from Nic Mitham, of Kzero, he simplifies this in a business environment to: 1) Real user engagement; 2) Increased customer contact;3) Improved employee relations; 4) Easier initiation of sales contacts; 5) Happier, more productive employees.
And I’m also indebted to Booker for the following link from Collegehumor.com which compares avatar creation on the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 consoles.
He comments, “their observations are brief and superficial but what I like about it is that this is very much the knee-jerk reaction from outside the industry echo-chamber -you know, the place where customers come from!”
Robbins (www.ubernoggin.com and http://www.intellagirl.com) is a PhD candidate, Ball State University and director of Emerging Technologies, Kelley Executive Partners, at Indiana University.
The top 11 according to…
Promoting his new ebook , Virtual Worlds for Business Nick Wilson ( pictured) of CleverZebra.com has released an interesting teaser identifying what he considers the top 11 virtual worlds technologies for meetings, training and collaborative work which he believes will change the way we work. http://cleverzebra.com/virtual-worlds
There are some “old” standbys on the list and some interesting and unusual new choices: his reasons for his choices are thought provoking.
His list includes: ActiveWorlds, OLIVE, Protosphere, Quaq Forums, Second Life, web.alive, Multiverse, OpenSim, Project Wonderland, 3DXplorer, Vastpark.
The Virtual Life Education New Zealand (VLENZ) blog (slenz.wordpress.com) is designed to provide an independent view of progress and technological/social developments in MUVEs (Multi-User Virtual Environments) in New Zealand and around the world with an emphasis on education.
The blog is based on the personal experiences of and observations concerning MUVEs and MORPGs of the editor, John Waugh (SL: Johnnie Wendt) and,
from time-to-time, guest editors/writers'. As a result it may not reflect the views of the VLENZ Group, individual VLENZ members and/or the Group's leadership, and/or the various tertiary institutions and other organisations connected to it, either directly or indirectly. The views expressed and posted are completely those of the named author of each article unless otherwise stated.
Second Life® and Linden Lab® are registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. No infringement is intended.
From the outside – and part of my brief is to view the project from the outside – one of the difficulties facing the team producing the three pilots – in midwifery, foundation learning and Second Life Orientation – has been the confusing number of platforms (Second Life, IMs, blogs, emails, googledocs, wikis) being used by team members to disseminate their ideas to each other.
Sarah Robbins (SL: Intellagirl Tully) (pictured at right), as part of her dissertation research, has noted 10 specific facets that occur in the 70 virtual worlds that she has studied over the past 18 months. She has published her useful chart of them here: 
collaborative work which he believes will change the way we work. 
