CSI: New York comes to Second Life
It looks like CSI: New York has an upcoming episode dealing with Second Life. Thanks for the lead, KJ!
Second Life in Higher Education
It's clear from this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that the lines are continuing to be blurred between "pedigrees" and that Web 2.0 tools like Second Life level the playing field and emphasize the "what have you done lately" not what brand is on your diploma.
The only mistake that educators have made that I can see is spending way too much money to buy entire islands and lavishly building them using high-priced programmers and designers. They could get a fraction of the land and spend a fraction of the cost and still get value. Of course, if you spend the roughly $10,000 to get a private island and pay the maintenance fees for a year, you have more control, it’s like buying your own network and servers for a small office.There’s a simple explanation for the bitter nastiness of a post like Navin’s, which isn’t encumbered with much experience in Second Life: it’s not a platform that requires MMORPG gaming skills or pedigrees — they are irrelevant. And it’s not a platform that needs IT guys to hold your hand all the time — it’s pretty simply to use after the initial steep ramp-up, not always made easier by a gaming background in fact.
This comment indicates that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water. Just like we didn't need to learn to program computers to use them, we don't have to know how to design and build in Second Life. While it works well for those incorporating student hands-on projects, it's not as necessary for those in higher education looking for a different type of experience in Second Life. Look how fast designing webpages evolved - now Contribute and even the web publishing features in Office are SO different from having to utilizing programming languages or even command line code.
Learning 2.0 - China
Once again, KJ has some great info about this conference.
Thanks to Facebook Crosses the Lines
This Businessweek column discusses how various social networking applications are integrating themselves into the lives of teens and working adults and how the "digital divides" are rapidly shrinking. We all need new ways to connect and make sense of information overload. Even old style networking at conventions and other professional meetings is greatly enhanced by social networking. Alas, one of the challenges is how you ever change friendships as we all do over the course of our lifetimes. In other words, how do you "de-link" to friends who are no longer friends? Can you "delete" without offending? We're still grappling with effectively and politely adding new acquaintances.
No Quechup for me, either
I wondered why I received several invites to Quechup all at once:
No Quechup please
Quechup - a social networking site that starts each new subscription with anti-social spamming!
I'm interested in social networks and community sites, so I've joined many such services, only a few of which I actually use with any regularity. A few minutes ago, I got an invitation to Quechup and went ahead and signed up. Unfortunately, I didn't Google their name and check other people's comments in advance. [I'm just back from vacation and not thinking???] Worse, I blasted through their sign up procedure without my usual caution.
During the signup process, Quechup.com suggests it search your address book to check if some of your email contacts have already signed up as well, so as to give the networking process a head start. I've seen this before and I'm usually very suspicious, but this time I acted like a total newbie. I let them see one of my address books, in which they found only the person who had invited me. What they didn't mention is they immediately spam each of the addresses they got access to.
If you got such spam, I deeply apologize. I've been on-line for years. I should know better. I do know better! What else can I say? I'm sorry.
Luckily, I did not allow them access to my address book!
Teen Grid Innovation in Second Life
Someone I met in RL at the SLCC in Chicago last weekend posted this earlier this month on his blog. It's an example of how those younger than I am natively use the technology that best fits their needs rather than conforming to the technology.
Video of Educational Possibilities in Second Life
Thanks to KJ for pointing this out:
Second Life/Real Life
Here's KJ's video retrospective on the conference:
http://www.storyofmysecondlife.com/?p=390
Social Networking at Second Life
The diversity of avatars represented as real life human beings was quite amazing in Chicago this weekend. Linden Labs did a great job organizing the conference - including regrouping when the education sessions overwhelmed their allotted space and they switched us out with one of the smaller groups.
Some are starting to question the potential here. I've heard comments like "lots of buildings and place but no avatars/people." I think it's still in early stage development and, as more is built, more will come. In the early days of the web, there was the idea that you had to be able to program to make the most use of it. While you need to have some concept of what programming can do and what it can make possible and how it works when it works correctly, the same assessment applies to Second Life. As long as you understand a bit about what building entails, you don't need to know how to build. There are plenty of in world characters and companies that will build for you so that you can spend your time in other ways.
I still mainly enjoy interacting with others that I wouldn't meet in real life but with whom I share common interests. It's also a great way to stay in touch with people you don't physically see on a regular basis. We're all so busy these days and a few minutes popping into Second Life is like a quick phone chat or IM in some ways.
Of course, Chicago is always a great location for a conference.
The bottom line is that there is so much out there in the world of technology that we all need to use what makes the most sense to use in our world - whether we are talking about our professional lives or our non-professional lives. One of the session leaders commented that kids decide what they need to do without worrying too much about the tools. We that are not kids any more still worry the most about selecting the correct tools _first_. If we want to continue to be effective teachers, we have to understand where the students are coming from and address their interests. It's also the concept that they pull the information and learning they need when they need it rather than passively accepting _only_ what we deliver. Learning is certainly changing. I keep thinking that I would have been all over this as a student - I was always looking for workbooks, etc., in the dime stores (and there's very few of those any more, either). My brain would have been glued to my computer.
