The SaLamadar Project - Stuff useful for Teaching and Learning in Second Life

The SaLamander Project is a collaborative project coordinated by researchers and educator at The Center for Advanced Technology in Education at the University of Oregon. This project aims to create a resource that frames and focuses the need for a Community of Practice surrounding the use of Learning Objects in the Second Life MUVE.

The project is to enlist people in collaborating together to find, index, and discuss aspects of MUVEs that have educational value and share in the research, development, and training opportunities associated with those factors.

Why all this Second Life stuff??

Well this blog is all about e-learning at Hong Kong PolyU, and Second Life has served as a test bed for our e-learning over the past 6 months. Starting with our student orientation programme for new students in the School of HTM, we have since held some joint workshops with our Educational Development Centre with almost 30 teachers and others involved.

Session 1 was a lunchtime open session 15 November on the features and possibilities of using SL, Session 2 "Get a Second Life" was a more detailed introduction on 20th November, and this was followed by a support session on 22nd November for teachers wanting more details or help installing and setting up SL on their laptops. We ran a 'how to use SL' session on 27th November with 9 participants online in SL.

The session went fine in a technical sense (no serious lagging or crashing, though communication between facilitators and participants using text-based chat was found challenging as we hardly knew whether the participants were with us in the process. Audio was not used because not everyone had the tools set up in advance.

We introduced some basic controls and tools in the first 45 minutes and then teleported to Boracay, where Nick Noakes from HKUST very kindly spent about 30 minutes to introduce some educational tools on his island.

Interest in SL has been quite strong in the PolyU, especially from the Student Affairs Office, Library and English Language/ELC departments. We also had a contingent from the HK Police College for session 3 to learn more about using virtual worlds for simulations and role play for crime scenarios.

We plan to continue to provide follow up to these sessions, and to probably form some support group and share experiences using SL. We have opened departmental 'sandboxes' on our island and will meet with departments to see how we can explore working together. In addition, we will be discussing renting a cluster of islands so we can interact more easily and learn together.

10 Challenges & Solutions to Teaching in Second Life

10 Challenges & Solutions
to Teaching in Second Life

November 17, 2007

These responses were authored by graduate students and faculty, and compiled as part of a weekly assignment in EDTECH 597: Teaching & Learning in Second Life, Boise State University, EDTECH Island. Topics were chosen based on the author’s own interest.

See link here

Many thanks to Lisa Dawley of Boise State University for sharing these thoughts from here EDTECH class, on the challenges and solutions to teaching in Second Life.

Bibliographies: Web 2.0 and Education

ICT4D Bibliography � Bibliographies � Reader: Web 2.0 and Education

Introduction to Second Life

SL Teaching video

NMC Virtual Campus

Second life library space

A vision of students today

Second Life Research: A Comparison of Virtual Worlds

Second Life Research: A Comparison of Virtual Worlds

3pointD.com

3pointD.com

Wikis in Plain English - a useful & fun video

Click To Play

SHTM Teacher's Wik

Student Orientation in Second Life - Video

Virtual Destinations

Some interesting introductions to Second Life tourism and travel destinations

Old junk into new home

One of my childhood dreams was living on a boat – in the UK it would have to be a narrow boat on one of the rivers or canals – and I discovered to my pleasure and delight that living on the water was possible in this amazing island off the coast of Southern China. Hong Kong is probably one of the most affordable places in the world to rent or own and live on a houseboat, surprisingly, when rents for houses and apartments here are among the most expensive in the world. My wife May and our daughter April have lived together on a houseboat in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter (see location picture) for the past five years. The typhoon shelter, or one of the five marinas here, are great places to moor a boat.

Turning old junk into something of value is certainly a challenge. In January this year we sold our original boat and bought a second-hand, 20-year old Chinese junk built with Burmese teak. Previously a weekend pleasure boat for company jaunts, complete with karaoke room and beer table, we have converted it to a very comfortable home, by restoring the old teak and rebuilding the interior. Not only did we manage to create a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home with large kitchen-diner and living room, we also have a spacious rooftop and front deck to barbeque and entertain friends in the sunny weather. In addition, we can up anchor if we want to, and sail out to some of the most deserted bays and beaches around Hong Kong. Excellent beaches are scattered among the coves, inlets, and many outlying islands, and water activities includes fishing, diving, sailing, motor-boating, and windsurfing.

Hong Kong has a long maritime history. Before the British colonized the ‘barren rock’ in 1842, it was a haven for pirates on fast sailing junks who robbed passing merchant boats and hid in the many coves and inlets around Hong Kong and its 234 outlying islands. Chinese junks were first developed during the Han Dynasty, around 200 BC, and were efficient and sturdy ships with advanced sail plans (they could sail into the wind with their junk rig) and hull designs that were later adopted in Western shipbuilding. The traditional Hong Kong sailing/fishing junk was later modified as a weekend pleasure boat for corporate parties with inboard diesel engines and no sails.

We purchased this old junk for around US$12,000. It had been patched up over the years, but under the paint and varnish it was very rotten, as rainwater had penetrated the hull and infrastructure and left it in poor shape. However, we saw the potential of a 50-foot boat with living space for a small family. We decided to buy it, and spent the past 8-months doing renovation work, restoring the original teak structure and refitting the interior to make it liveable. We have just moved in, and are happy with a home that still feels like a boat, drives really well and gives us a spacious home on the water.

The restoration meant gutting the most of the interior and rebuilding. The main structures were sound, but the hull and decks were rotten. Almost every time we removed paint or varnish we found hidden wet rot. We ended up replacing around 30 percent of the decking and the major cost was the ship's carpenter and wood for the decks and interior. We started by gutting the boat, removing rotten wood and replacing wood on the roof, decks and hull to make it watertight. When this was done, we rebuilt the master cabin, bathroom and fitted a new kitchen (May loves to cook). We then moved in and continued work on the rest of the interior.

Problems living on the boat are minimal in our view. Typhoons can be a bit scary, especially the major ones that hit the island in the monsoon season from June to October. However, the typhoon shelter has been built to protect boats, and apart from strong and noisy wind and rain, we have not had to abandon ship for the shore. We are moored in a row, and rope up to our neighbours to maintain stability in the storm. Maintenance of a wooden boat is one of the major challenges, as the humidity, strong sun and rain do affect the varnish and wood. We take the boat into the shipyard every 6-9 months for cleaning below the waterline, antifouling, and to touch up the woodwork where needed. May is very good at caulking and varnishing, so she does the routine work before it gets in need of major repairs.

Transport to and from the shore can sometimes be a little erratic, depending on the time of day and weather, but we plan to buy a motorized dinghy in case of emergency. Everyday our daughter takes a sampan (water taxi) to the shore and picks up her bus to school. Many sampans ply the harbour, and some of the owners are on call day and night by cell phone! Practical issues include getting connected to shore power, fresh water and telephone line. An ex-fisherman friend supplies ours and other houseboats with these utilities connected by undersea cables from his workshop on the shore. We also have a landline telephone cable with wireless Internet, and of course local TV. We have heard of a couple of people who have also fixed up dishes to receive satellite television!

We have fitted out ‘Watermark’ with modern appliances. The bathrooms both have domestic shower units with fibreglass shower trays to keep the bathroom floors dry, and we installed electric toilets. In addition, we decided to have a normal kitchen designed and made in China. This includes a full domestic oven, hob and dishwasher, and is fitted into an area with non-square corners and sloping floor (originally designed to allow water to run off the decks). There is lots of storage and work space, so it makes cooking a pleasure. When we had the bed made, the carpenter didn’t allow for a 10 percent slope on the floor, so we end up half way down the bed by the morning! We plan to buy some Chinese recycled rustic wood furniture for the living room and study which will fit in well with the antique wooden look of the boat. We can have furniture made to measure in Macau (about one hour away by ferry) at a cheaper price than Hong Kong and includes free delivery.

Watermark is now a unique home. Old wooden Chinese junks are reasonably cheap to buy here, and moorings are sensibly priced by the government. Houseboats are a realistic alternative for those of us who have no desire to live in a small apartment in the crowded and polluted city – and pay crazy rents! Obviously the warm weather here helps, along with boat-friendly government policies, natural harbours, provision for sailors and boat owners – these all make it feasible to live on the water. Very hard to go back to the land after the freedom of the seas – after all, if the neighbours are noisy we can move away in a few hours, and we don't have to put up with traffic, vandals or other land-based problems. All-in-all, a very civilized existence, and one we would recommend, despite the small problems of barnacles, typhoons and the occasional transport problems.

e-Portfolios for Learning

There has been a lot happening with e-portfolios recently, and they are a great tool - quickly moving to becoming more than a store of artefacts and more like a living diary. Elgg (the Learning Landscape) and OSP are two open source options available and are very comprehensive. They give the user a place to gather and develop their own resources, as well as share and collaborate with others.

I liked the response by Helen Barratt in e-Portfolios for Learning to a question about assessing portfolios. She commented that "the portfolio should be theirs (the student's) to assess. If anything you (the teacher) assess their assessment." Students are encouraged to have goals for their portfolios, and therefore can learn how to rate them according to criteria that they develop individually or with other students.

An excellent article from Educause titled, 'Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space' The writers' put the case for a model that provides "a personal Web space for everyone, for their lifetimes and beyond." I had begun to think about e-portfolios as more than documents for storing resume and artifacts, and as lifelong archives, to use, share and develop. Beyond this life, got me thinking about the importance of leaving an intellectual legacy of our ideas and personal records for others.

I noted too that there are many e-portfolio developments going on, including open source Sakai and a Blackboard version integrated into WebCT.

There seems to be divergent thinking between the institutional e-portfolios and the personal/educational portfolios over who should control them - institutions or the individual student. It must be the student, otherwise it becomes just another assessment instrument and loses the power to become a life-integrated communication tool.

Finally here is an excellent diagram from the Elgg people on the Conceptual Framework for E-Portfolios.

Keywords: e-portfolio, learning landscape, open source, personal web space, sakai

PolyU Virtual Campus

So we launched the programme yesterday with a fireworks display in the Square. Now the fun starts!

Some of my favourite education quotes

"Great teaching requires taking risks. It comes from leaving behind methods that are familiar and comfortable, and trying new ones that may seem strange and ill-fitting. It comes out of being dissatisfied with what is merely adequate, and aiming for that which could be truly amazing." (from San Francisco State University, Center for Teaching & Faculty Development)

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." - Socrates

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." Albert Einstein

add some more:

Connected Classroom

An interesting angle on education today!

Teaching with Second Life

This semester the School of Hotel & Tourism Management is providing an orientation programme in a virtual world.

We have developed a virtual campus – PolyUSotel – in a 3-D world called Second Life. The aim is to help students get familiarized with their new study environment and learn some study skills and life skills. In PolyUSotel, students assume a personal 3-D character (avatar) to explore the virtual PolyU campus and team-up with other students in a series of safe, competitive and structured activities.

There will also be virtual consultation sessions with teachers and senior students from the School. We will provide both a social environment where new students can meet with others, as well as some serious games where students can discover their preferred learning styles, find out how to be an 'active' learner and learn techniques to manage time and handle stress etc.

The programme will run for 4-5 weeks during September and October 2007. For further information see the website.

Educational uses of Second Life

A good resource on how educational virtual worlds are developing, with examples.

One project is Paluma Bay Resort, a virtual holiday resort. Undertaken in 2006, the GippsTAFE Victoria's (Australia)'Virtual Worlds – Real Learning!' project explored how Second Life could be used to achieve real life learning outcomes. Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) students completed their 'Work Related Skills' unit by 'becoming' the staff at the Paluma Bay Resort.

The basics of Second Life for Education

Educational options for virtual worlds

Sample of University Second Life Campus

Games in Education

Games in Education video created by Mark Wagner and Michael Guerena of the Orange County (CA) Department of Education's Educational Technology group. They have given permission to post.