Please introduce yourself here.
Please tell us:
- Your Avatar Name in Second Life:
- Your Interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs:
- What Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs are you currently in?:
- Your Avatar Name in any other Virtual Worlds or MMORPGs:
- Please also share anything else you feel comfortable sharing:
MOOC 
January 24th, 2012 at 9:19 am
I am a resident of Second Life, my name is lolli Sapphire. I came to SL with the intent to create the most real fantasy ever, and I believe I have found the most real reality ever. I have been working on my Masters Degree in Art Education. I am interested in Second Life and other virtual Platforms as being an art form. Everything from the narratives created to the artwork in world as well as out that is created through the process of living a individual reality. Art for me is all about the process of experience, the finished product is visual proof. I am interested in learning how art educators can benefit from virtual realities in their pedagogy. We are a mobile world. Thinking about one of my favorite books by Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who. We just don’t know what is happening right under our noses unless we explore. I am an explorer of my own reality, within the global community that shares a narrative.
I have also been looking at Minecraft as an educational platform. My name is PiClarity. I have to admit I spend all my time in SL so have not been within Minecraft enough to truly understand its tools. I did attend the Minecraft Con2011 in Vegas. I was very impressed with the people I met. The children I saw, and the uniqueness of the individuals. I attended several educational talks. 🙂 Great Ideas. I must say.
March 5th, 2012 at 11:39 am
Hello, Lolli! It’s great to meet you!
I love your approach to SL as an art form. I’ve often thought how amazing SL and other MUVEs could be for art students.
Have you ever been to this website before? http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SecondLife/SecondLifeGreatPlaces.html It lists some of my favorite places to visit that could be used in a classroom for educational purposes. In fact, wouldn’t it be a great capstone project to build an artistic recreation of some famous location or artwork in SL?
I’m looking forward to interacting with you in the MOOC!
–Cat Thexios (in SL)
March 7th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Will be very interested to here your comments on Minecraft sessions at the conference ….and how it can be taken further.
March 4th, 2012 at 10:21 am
My name is Aly Warrior in Second Life. I am a mentor, builder and educational trainer. My role in the VWBPE 2012 is the coordinator for presenters.I am also a gamer in Aion, WoW and city of heroes/villians. As an academic advisor I assist students, faculty and staff in my everyday life. As I have just completed my thesis on Second Life for education, I have helped to break down barriers and obstacles to implement virtual worlds for educators.
March 5th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Hi, Aly! I’m looking forward to seeing you around VWBPE this year! Whenever you get your thesis out onto the web, please let me know; I’d love to read it! Did you approach using MUVEs for educators from a higher education standpoint or K-12 point of view?
March 7th, 2012 at 1:11 pm
I actually looked at the barriers on implementation so I other educators can see up front what to plan for when looking at adopting it for their curriculum.
March 4th, 2012 at 11:17 am
I’m Kavon Zenovka – program chair for VWBPE and I seemed to be mixed up most other aspects of the VWBPE conference. I’m also part of the EduMachinima fest which is putting on Machinima evening and the contest. I’m also involved in the Virtual Worlds UnSymposium which is a VW and MORGPG symposium/conference that happens in October/November. I’m a member of ISTE SIGVE and end up hanging out on EdTech island in the blogger saloon a bit. I’m also a member of the Cog Dis WoW guild. I’ll be one of the facilitators for the WoW week for the MOOC. Please join in the MOOC during the WoW week and also join us for the WoW sessions during VWBPE.
Feel free to follow me at twitter @kzenovka and when I occasionally blog at Center4Edupunx http://www.center4edupunx.org or on flickr – center4edupunx
And please if you take a screenshot – please add it to the Virtual Worlds MOOC flickr group.
Also come look for us at our World of Wacraft poster session.
March 4th, 2012 at 11:43 am
Hello everyone,
I am Abacus Capalini (SL) and I am the Co-Program Chair and Poster Stream lead for VWBPE. I am also in charge of the voting process for VWBPE’s Machinima and Poster awards. I work a lot with Kavon and have been dragged along in her wake on many occasions. Almost always these draggings result in a new experience, meeting interesting people and doing a lot of cool and fun things.
As a consequence of running with Kavon, I have accumulated many names and even more alts. I’ve been known as Abacus, Biggersby, Abaci, Abaci2007, Kuwapi, and many other names. I’ve been an accountant, guild master, altoholic, tank, healer, obsessed with companions; but never dps. 😀 The most common names I respond to is Abacus and Biggs 😀 It has been in an interesting journey that will continue as Kavon, myself and others guide you all through the four weeks of this class.
I turned to virtual worlds as I was looking for a novel environment where my accounting students would conduct projects and gain experiential learning. My first foray was into epistemic games, which were initially well received until the students began feeling like the games were too simple. I turned to MMORPGS and SL to provide a more complex learning environment that like RL was unscripted and full of twists and turns. Since those early days, I’ve used World of Warcraft, Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, SL, Open Sim, and many other games to teach students how to apply the concepts they learn in the classroom to a variety of environments. The key to why this work is that the fundamental concepts and tenants of accounting are constants and do not change regardless of environment. You debits and credits must always balance whether they are from the ledger of a real business or the virtual financial statements of your class guild. 😀
March 5th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Your Avatar Name in Second Life: KK Millet or Di (pronounced Die) Lectar — get it? Wife of Hannibal? 🙂
Your Interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs: I mostly tag along with Kavon & Abacus: interested in IMMERSION in humanities
What Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs are you currently in?: Second Life
Your Avatar Name in any other Virtual Worlds or MMORPGs: n/a
Please also share anything else you feel comfortable sharing: I am currently the Associate Dean for Liberal Arts & Communication at CCCOnline (Colorado Community Colleges Online) where I oversee four online course program areas: Arts & Humanities, World Languages & Literature, College Level Writing & Composition, and Developmental Studies & Literature. I am one of the writers here (Exquisite Corpse) and am very excited to see what artistic works we might create as a group! with the Exquisite Corpse activity!
March 6th, 2012 at 11:03 am
You have me very excited to learn more about Exquisite Corpse! Looking forward to it! 🙂
March 5th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Hi, I’m Leedale Shepherd! I am a member of the MOOC Working Group as well as the Center4Edupunx.
My interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs stems from loving to control environments. I love seeing the changes in the landscapes and ambience in World of Warcraft, or exploring an artistic build in Second Life. Finding things that are Not Possible In Real Life (NPIRL) is one of my hobbies.
In real life, I am a Multimedia design instructor and a Computer Science program chair. I try not to let it go to my head. 😉
Bringing my students into contact with something NPIRL is one of my favorite things to do!
In the various virtual worlds I’m in, I am usually some variant of Leedale. I’m currently in Second Life and OSGrid. I wander, build, go to meetings, try to teach and dispel confusion via graphic and virtual environmental design, and just generally dabble at a bunch of different things. I am constantly in a state of wonder at how ***awesome*** the people who teach using immersive environments are!
Leedale
March 5th, 2012 at 11:21 am
Greetings! My name is Catherine (Cat) Flippen, and I’m a part of the MOOC Working Group. At VWBPE, you’ll see me at all the World of Warcraft events, among others, as well as staffing the Welcome Desk on Social Island (Eduisland8) as Newcomer Chairperson within the Social Committee.
Your Avatar Name in Second Life: Cat Thexios
Your Interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs:
I’m interested in Virtual Worlds as a means of organized (and for-credit!) professional development for educators. There is something alluring about development opportunities in which you don’t physically leave your desk but still have a (meta?)physical presence in an immersive virtual classroom setting (that is possibly way more engaging than an actual classroom). I believe that using MUVEs with teachers can expand collaboration to incredible lengths and create better classrooms for students.
As for MMORPGs, I am fascinated with the concept of high school students “questing” to attain knowledge and subsequently “leveling up” in some manner. While I more than likely won’t use WoW in my classes, I can use the gaming aspect of kids completing quests (or quest chains) with boss “fights” and skill rewards (through various electronic badges) that gives points toward “leveling up.” The gamification of education isn’t necessarily in an actual game itself!
What Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs are you currently in?:
SecondLife, ReactionGrid, JokaydiaGrid, World of Warcraft
Your Avatar Name in any other Virtual Worlds or MMORPGs:
In all MUVEs, I’m “Cat Thexios.” In World of Warcraft, I’m Hecatera (Human Paladin)
Please also share anything else you feel comfortable sharing:
I’m an educational technology evangelist/enthusiast and a high school Spanish, Music History and Music Technology teacher in Metro Atlanta (also in Charlottesville, Virginia for one year). I’m on Twitter http://twitter.com/CatFlippen and I blog at Ctrl+Alt+Teach (http://www.ctrlaltteach.com).
You can find out more about who I am at http://about.me/CatFlippen
I’m looking forward to facilitating some amazing discussion with all of you, getting to learn your fabulous ideas, and adding you to my network of fantastic educationally-minded people!!
March 7th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
And is there anything that recently happened that you would like to share?
March 7th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Most definitely, Kavon!
I was just accepted today to the Doctor of Education in Educational Technology program at the University of Florida. 😀 I am extremely excited!
March 11th, 2012 at 7:01 am
Woot!
March 20th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Congratulations Cat! I am so impressed by your work and can’t wait to see what you do with U of FL!
March 21st, 2012 at 5:10 am
Aw, thanks, Kimmer!! I’m super excited (and anxiously awaiting the creation of my UF email account just so I can spam my friends!) and I hope that I can put forth some research in VW and Games in Ed. There really isn’t enough of it, you know? 😀
So glad to see you on the MOOC!!!
March 7th, 2012 at 2:58 am
Hi all,
greetings from Italy. (PT – 9).
I am exploring virtual environments for language teaching and educational games. A Travian player for a couple of years, I am in SL since July 2011, SL Avatar Rosavioletta.
I have recently discovered machinimas as a member of the 2012 MachinEVO Workshop. My Italian team video production won ex aecquo the Best Visual / Special effects Award and Best Director Award.
I’ll be presenting a paper on machinima making from scratch at the VWBPE on March 17.
I hold an Italian Degree in Educational Sciences and a PGCE in Online and Distance Education at the Open University UK. I worked as tutor-facilitator and EFL teacher to adults in Company courses for a private language school in Italy until 2010. Currently working independently in designing a module to teach Italian online.
I look forward to this new learning experience!
Been wondering about cowboys and aliens, I think as a winged avatar I should fall under the category of non humans…an alien fairy ??!! ;-D
Best regards,
Angela:-:Rosavioletta 🙂
video links
http://machinevo.pbworks.com/w/page/48342681/Week%205%20FILM%20FESTIVAL%206%20Feb%20-%2012%20Feb
March 7th, 2012 at 6:06 am
Benvenuto, Angela! It’s awesome to have an Italian language teacher among us! I’m a Spanish language teacher in the US (Atlanta, Georgia, specifically). Are you originally from Italy or from elsewhere?
With your winged avatar, you definitely fall udner the “Be Epic!” them of the VWBPE conference! 🙂 Did you attend the SITE conference kick off last weekend with the “Cowboys and Aliens” theme by any chance? I was there as a quasi-cowboy. I didn’t want to take off my EPIC shirt! 😀
March 8th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Gracias Cat!
Thank you for your very warm welcome! Yes, I’m Italian and live in Italy. 🙂
Unfortunately I was not at the kick off and have to work out the planned activities with extra care, time zones been so different!
Hope to meet you all soon, best regards!
Looking forward to seeing your epic shirt! 😀
March 7th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
The Cowboys v. Alien theme was really a way for us to sneak in SteamPunk and Cyber into a Western theme.
March 9th, 2012 at 9:02 am
Was searching infos about SteamPunk when I came across this: http://www.odyssee.cartier.it/#/film.
Apart from its beauty, educational aspect (a geographer would be thrilled at the wonderful sites), and fantastic animation/photography, I imagines this might be defined as a Steam Punk inspired video… Would you agree?
Enjoy!
March 11th, 2012 at 7:08 am
The video is absolutely exquisite. Art deco, a little bit of machinery thrown in – the narrative really reminded me of the Golden Compass. Thank you for sharing!
Would love to hear what Aevalle thinks about.
March 28th, 2012 at 7:10 am
Gorgeous work!!!!
March 7th, 2012 at 7:14 am
I’m Tanya Smedley and/or Gridjumper in Second Life, Opensim, Reaction Grid, Jokadia, and 3rd Rock. I may have registered in a few others- the Virtual World keeps expanding and I’m trying to keep up with it, jumping grids has become a hobby.
As a former middle school computer teacher and current Staff Developer I have an Interest in using Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs for teaching and learning, increasing productivity, and having fun in the process.
I tag along to help Kavon Zenovka – with VWBPE and EduMachinima fest. I also try to help Spiff Whitfield with ISTE SIGVE stuff. It is always a learning opportunity to hang with the folks associated with these organizations. I am fascinated with the potential of Machinima, attend weekly Machinima meetings with non-educators and chat with educators on the subject whenever I can. I’ll be facilitating the Machinima week for the MOOC, please join in the MOOC to learn and share together.
I welcome your follow at twitter @gridjumper and my blog at http://gridjumper.net/.
March 7th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Tag along…please we are in awe of her blogging prowess, research ability and how she somehow seems to turn curation of edtech information into an art form.
March 7th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Hi all,
Aevalle Galicia here (Stasia Weston in that…other life *grins*). My boss actually got me into virtual environments–came into my office and said something like “I’d like you to explore SL to see what we can do with it.” He thought with the creative writing and theatre design background I have that it would be a nice fit. And the rest, as they say, is history. I took to it like a duck to water and haven’t really looked back since!
I try to visit at least one “non-SL” world/grid a week, so I’ve been around, but I seem to be most comfy in the ones most similar to SL–and I’m always Aevalle or some derivative thereof, so I’m easy to find. 🙂
March 7th, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Hi Stasia / Aevalle! 😀 The story of how you came to be involved with virtual worlds is sincerely fascinating (and special). And I admire your oomph to visit other worlds/grids as frequently as possible!
March 9th, 2012 at 6:48 am
Hi everyone,
I became a resident of the Internet in 1997. I learned, made friends virtual and RL, researched & found information and help, planned my holidays and played on the internet. That’s how in 2009 I found out about SL and immediately afterwards OSgrid, while looking for new ways to use the Internet for learning, Training & Coaching and it was love at first sight (sim?). 🙂 Pinksamurai Fairlady is my first SL account but not the only one. Gemini Unplugged is the one who started traveling other virtual worlds and has a home on OSgrid.
In SL I help English Language learners practice and improve their English and I have experimented with Coaching and think VWs are a very good medium for it. Last year I volunteered to help around VWBPE and loved it so I am doing it again this year.
In Virtual Worlds I discovered that I can be creative in areas that I never thought I had the talent for. Perhaps that will encourage me to take a leap of faith and start blogging (I am scared of writing) 🙂
On Twitter I am @PinksamuraiVW
In RL I am a Management Consultant, Trainer Instruction Designer, Life and Executive Coach.
Look forward to learning and experimenting with you on this exciting MOOC
March 11th, 2012 at 7:10 am
It’s funny how those of us who never thought we were creative – come into a virtual world and find out we are.
March 14th, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Hi folks!
D’lightful Doowangle (in SL) at your service, looking forward to mooc with you all as we delve into the possibilities of enriching our reality with virtual worlds and games. D’lightful was created out of participation in the New Media Consortium’s efforts to research Second Life for educational purposes in 2006. She has not been in world much until the last couple of years when she restarted a doctorate degree in Computer Science, Emerging Media with Colorado Tech. Her dissertation is on the topic of game-based learning and she is getting the best global perspective by getting involved and learning from other passionate educators in virtual worlds.
My day job in Orlando involves serving on the leadership team of Online@UCF where I am the Director of Course Development, Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. My background is in instructional design and I was the founding director of a department called Course Development & Web Services since I began working at UCF 15 years ago.
I participate as myself in MOSES, and Lightful Truwoman in open sim. My highest achievement so far in WoW was a 4, but look out when I am done with my doctorate. I am going to be one of the people in the United States who figure out how to make/adapt MMOs for educational use and obtain grants to make it happen. I hope these immersive learning environments cross domains of formal, informal, cradle-grave learning and generations.
I am serious about the value of play. Let’s have fun learning and enjoy life by keeping the conversation going…
March 15th, 2012 at 7:29 am
Hi Barbara/D’lightful! I’m Cat Thexios in SL (I wasn’t as creative as you were in naming my avatar, clearly), and I have to say that I truly enjoyed reading your introduction! I am looking forward to reading your dissertation one day, and I will happily cheer on your efforts on MMOs specifically for education. I completely understand the “high” WoW achievement; myself being busy with work, social media, events, and other such things, I am not as dedicated to WoW as I ought to be!
Looking forward to MOOCing it up with you!
March 17th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Birdie Newcomb in SL, Birdie Notion in 3rd Rock Grid, ReactionGrid, OSGrid (possibly others)
I entered Second Life in 2006, just when I was trying to start an online college, based on my college publishing, Bandanna Books. It seemed like an ideal setting, and I found a lot of educators from various colleges there, who would bring their classes into SL. After 4 years, I gave up that project, and my sim, to return to what I know best, which is publishing. The transformation in education, however, is occurring on many fronts, including the small screen of smartphones, so I find no lack of things to work on. I appreciate and participate in the educational community, which is now in Diaspora it seems, to investigate other virtual worlds, even other platforms. Currently, I’m focusing on various formats for literature texts, with an eye toward Jibe, which promises to come to the Web without a special browser. We continue to be connected in so many ways. As for publishing projects, I’m expanding from early college students to include the teachers and grad assistants as well, as I re-examine for myself the justification for teaching literature at all. (Well-rounded? does that still hold?)
March 19th, 2012 at 4:57 am
Hi, Birdie! It’s great to meet you! I’m Cat Thexios in SL (and all other MUVEs that I visit). I truly LOVE your description of the diaspora of the educational community; it’s so very true! Teachers are spreading to the limits of new collaborative/communicative technology. I think the magical moment of “ah ha!” by the whole educational community will be when someone combines all these different corners and pulls them together in a functional and effective way.
Glad to be working with you in the MOOC! 😀
March 17th, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Hi everyone! My name is Becky Adams. I attended VWBPE last year (2011) but jumped in with the help of CallieDel Boa. VWBPE 12, I assisted her, in organizing the volunteers.
Your Avatar Name in Second Life: Elli Pinion
Your Interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs:
I was introduced to Virtual Worlds toward the end of my doc program, in 2007 and thought it was pretty strange, until my husband, in his boredom while I finished my dissertation, got to enjoy two things he really loved and missed, live music and Australia. When he was so engaged with the interaction and real life connections he had, I, being the educator to my core, became fascinated with the educational possibilities. I am more interested than ever and give my pre-service teachers, as well as my grad students an introduction to SL every semester, sure that it is the beginning of what is next in education. I am slated to teach a course inside SL about Virtual Worlds this summer, if all goes well. I find that extension of ourselves to our avatars and the possibility of connection and interaction so much deeper with those we share the Virtual World a compelling factor to continuing to pursue the possibilities.
I am a believer in students “doing,” so Machinima is also a fascinating option, and as I hang out with all you wonderful educators the list of possibilities and reasons grows. My Vygotsky/constructivist center drives me to continue to build possibilities for students and learning with Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs.
What Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs are you currently in?:
Second Life primarily. I am interested in others.
Your Avatar Name in any other Virtual Worlds or MMORPGs:
In all MUVEs, I’m Elli Pinion. I have been briefly in OSGrid, Reaction Grid and 3RG.
Please also share anything else you feel comfortable sharing:
I’m am the Assoc. Director for New Media and Extended Learning at the University of New Mexico. We work with main campus faculty to assist them in putting their courses online. My PhD is in Educational Technology and I teach courses both face to face and online at the College of Education Teacher Ed and Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology departments.
I have so enjoyed this years conference, the great people involved and the amazing dedication to teaching and learning that was everywhere. I look forward to continuing to learn from each of you.
March 19th, 2012 at 8:39 am
Hi Becky! It was great to read your introduction into SL! How nice to have a husband who understands the concept of Second Life/MUVEs, too! Mine is still struggling to grasp why I think SL, et.al., has so much potential educationally, but at least he tries to be supportive. 😀
You and Callie worked incredibly hard before and during the conference. Thank you SO much! I hope you’ve had a little time to rest mentally; the MOOC will definitely be stimulating your brain some more!
March 18th, 2012 at 7:18 am
Hi
I am DeeSnow and I am resident on Edunation1 in Second Life. I am interested in language teaching in virtual words. Recently I have worked on the Machinevo project. I’d like to find out more about the possibilities of other virtual worlds so I was very excited when I heard about this course at the VWBP conference
March 19th, 2012 at 8:41 am
We are very excited to have you join! I’m a language teacher my (Spanish to high school students), and I’m also eager to see how other virtual environment might play into learning a language. Great to meet you! 😀
March 19th, 2012 at 9:21 am
Hello!
In Second Life, I am Letty Luckstone. That is the only virtual world in which I have avatars. It has consumed my time, and so I have not had an opportunity to explore other worlds.
I first got interested in virtual worlds because I wanted to give my students an opportunity to immerse themselves in learning. I am fortunate that our university has four islands for faculty use, and so I had an elementary school built there so that my future elementary teachers could have an opportunity to simulate teaching and being children. My learning spaces at our island now include a playground, a greenhouse, a museum, and a game portal that my students use. Oh, and I just built a baseball field!
I have found that Second Life affords me the opporunity to build the environments my students use. I need creative outlets, and so this has been a perfect opportunity for me, since I love to build in world!
In RL, I am an assistant professor about to be tenured, and I have shifted my research focus onto learning in virtual worlds. I’m looking forward to learning more!
March 19th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Hi, Letty! It was great to see you last night at Virtual Pioneers! I’m Cat Thexios in SL (not very original with the first name, now, was I?).
I sincerely LOVE that you thought to use SL as a place where elementary teachers could simulate being elementary children. What a great way to keep their minds centered, fresh, and refocused on what their students might be feeling and thinking. Brilliant!!
I am very much looking forward to interacting with you on the MOOC. 😀
March 19th, 2012 at 10:48 am
Hello everyone!
I’m gardengirl in SL… and also known as that girl with the impossibly long name. Augusta Carolina Maria von Nassau is a role play identity that I have been using… but that’s a whole different story.
I was introduced to SL this past summer, as it was part of a NorthTIER online course I was taking for recertification credits. I am totally hooked, and a firm believer that VW is going to be an effective and creative way to teach kids.
My RL work is as a high school History teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia. I work in an International Baccalaureate school, and have been involved with IB both as a Diploma Programme examiner for History Paper One and as a Middle Years Programme moderator with the Humanities team. My school is also affiliated with the PDS program at George Mason University, and I have been one of my school’s clinical faculty members, working with teacher interns from GMU.
My short-term goal with this MOOC is to learn how to create Machinima to utilize with my 9th and 12th grade honors History classes. I want to develop a number of “flipped” lessons with it and think that this will be a really intriguing way to get my students interested on a whole new level. My long-term goal is to network with more people who recognize the educational power of SL and other VWs. There is so much potential here that needs to be tapped, and I am hoping to be one of the many educators who bring this tool forward in the K-12 classroom.
March 20th, 2012 at 5:46 am
Yay, gardengirl / Augusta! I am so excited that you’ve jumped on board the MOOC train! I’ve always wanted to be involved in an IB program; I think that high school degree track is TRULY the “college prep” degree.
In regards to Machinima with high school history classes, I think you’ll find a lot of material here for you to utilize. I’ve recorded the Day of the Dead (via the Smithsonian Virtual Latino Museum) before for my Spanish 1 kids with all the activity and what not going on. They LOVED it.
March 20th, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Hello!
I am Kimmer Jameson in SL and Fairekimmer in WoW… I taught high school special education and journalism prior to coming to work at the local PBS station where I help promote education initiatives related to public broadcasting media. It is a fancy way of saying… how can we put the great shows people see on television and online into classrooms and use after school.
I have shared Second Life and Islands of Enlightenment (Open Sim) everywhere I can get PBS people to listen and once I learned how to enjoy WoW – that added to my elevator speak also. Most would tease me about my imaginary online friends but the more research I share, the more they would listen. I have been involved in local PBS community outreach efforts with Frontline Digital Nation and CPB My Source. I continue to look for ways to help grow public interest and, of course, funding, in these valuable means to help all of us (including me) learn!
Lately, at VWBPE 2012, my youngest, age 8, even showered and got dressed so he could enjoy the keynote about Minecraft.
Currently, I look forward to participating in the MOOC and learning all that I can.
March 21st, 2012 at 6:17 am
Man, the Virtual Pioneers are representing well! 😀
I love your job. I don’t think most people realize the potential of PBS within their schools, you know? I wish that more schools would promote after school times during which they could utilize PBS resources, especially with high risk kids who might need that extra time and support.
I also do the “elevator talk” with whoever will listen, but, like you say, the usually either tease me or think that I’m crazy to say virtual worlds of any type will be big in the future of education. ::sigh:: Hopefully, now that our neighboring school district is implementing Open Sim, people will start to change their minds as I continue to talk about it!
I’m SO glad you are in the MOOC! 😀
March 21st, 2012 at 5:54 am
I am the Second Life administrator at East Carolina University. Most of my experience is in Second Life and my avatar names are Scarlett Sismondi, Abbie Michalski, and others that I use for my institution’s projects. I continue to look at other options for virtual worlds such as Unity, OpenSim, etc. I have been in Reaction Grid and was on a team that received a grant for the SciSim projects for STEM.
Virtual worlds are enticing to me and ECU faculty have been very successful in implementing courses in the environment. I would like to learn more from this group about how virtual worlds are being used, how to create material in them that is effective for learning, and what everyone thinks the next step will be.
Sharon Collins
March 23rd, 2012 at 5:12 am
Arrrrrrrrrr, Go Pirates!
East Carolina is a beautiful university! I visited the campus November of 2010 when my husband was looking at the possibility of working there. In fact, one of my husband’s best friends works at ECU (Michael Ward). I didn’t realize that ECU had a big SL presence; that’s very nifty
Welcome to the MOOC!
March 22nd, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Your Avatar Name in Second Life: Aletheia Lyre – you can call me Lethy
Your Interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs: Educational and personal. I am homebound in the physical world, and do most of my teaching online. I am interested in successfully integrating SL into my online courses. I am tried this with mixed success over the past few years. Time to get serious!
What Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs are you currently in?: Just Second Life – I am a resident of Four Bridges.
Your Avatar Name in any other Virtual Worlds or MMORPGs: n/a
Please also share anything else you feel comfortable sharing: I am very interested in this emerging pedagogy and in virtual worlds. I am especially interested in the work being done to make VWs universally accessible to the many people with disabilities who benefit from VR and VW, as well as AR.
I look forward to learning with you!
March 23rd, 2012 at 5:16 am
Greetings, Lethy! Great to see you on the MOOC portal!
I think it’s great that you are able to teach even while being homebound; I think that’s one of the great things about Educational Technology. Whenever I’m home sick or with a sick baby, I can still communicate with my students via Edmodo (free LMS with android/iphone app) and, of course, email, so I know exactly what is going on that day in class even while being 30 miles away.
Do you teach K-12 or Higher Ed, by the way?
March 23rd, 2012 at 9:39 am
I teach at the University of Maine. I’m the only Classicist, and I also teach Universal Design, a great course called Pop!Tech, and direct Peace & Reconciliation Studies. Thanks for asking!
March 22nd, 2012 at 6:46 pm
•Your Avatar Name in Second Life:
•Your Interest in Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs:
•What Virtual Worlds and MMORPGs are you currently in?:
•Your Avatar Name in any other Virtual Worlds or MMORPGs:
•Please also share anything else you feel comfortable sharing:
In SL I am bigd flanagan. Love Gaming and do WoW, Star Wars – Old Republic. In Wow, let’s see a few to choose from……Garvar Lvl 83 Priest, Garvoink Lvl 85 DK, Tigarvar Lvl 68 DK. So far, my kids won’t let me on Old Republic long enough to make an avatar.
Ima solid bro and love too many things to even attempt to list. Okay my wife and kids fill the pole positions. Ask me more and I’ll answer.
March 23rd, 2012 at 5:11 am
Hi, bigd! You’ve seen me as Cat Thexios in SL. 🙂 It’s great to see you on the MOOC! If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://p2pu.org/en/groups/a-virtual-worlds-games-and-education-tour/sign-up/ and follow/sign up for the coursework!
I am thoroughly impressed with your WoW characters. I just have one that I’m leveling these days (human paladin). I started an undead character, but haven’t made it past level 6 with her yet. I need more hours in the day! 😀
March 28th, 2012 at 7:07 am
Knowclue here.. and I have no clue what to say except… w00t m00c! You can learn me here: http://knowclue.wikispaces.com