College Fair 2009 in Second Life

The College Fair 2009 in Second Life opened to a packed region of dedicated educators and enthusiasts.

I had a blast meeting educators new to Second Life and seeing some old friends at the Colorado Technical University exhibit booth.

On Sunday, I'm giving a presentation on Designing Games and Learning Activities at 6:15 AM Pacific time, which is also Second Life time.

And now, back to the news...

Saturday's sessions were lively as Claudia Linden opened with information about the educational opportunities, wikis, and resources available in Second Life.

In addition, she requested that educators send her updates each week of their activities in Second Life. This information will help her write additional case studies and to understand the state of virtual world education.

Her session was followed by Vic Michalak as he presented his research on Teaching International Courses in Second Life. He and Hopalong Oh, with his presentation entitled Why Second Life??? offered excellent information, tools and techniques.

Vic recommended the Universal Translator, which now supports 35+ languages, including Asian languages. Hopalong spoke about scavenger games and other stimulating activities in Second Life.

During the break before the Marcia Kloepper's Using Second Life for Agriculture, Animal and Poultry Science Instruction session, I toured the Front Range Community College's fantasy build. Their World of Warcraft image of an undead rogue wearing a pirate's hat in Booty Bay caught my attention. *grins*

I spent the next session listening to it from amid the flames from the Operation Afterlife (image on the left).

The evening ended with Krystine and Remington dropping by from a Caledon event. Krystine talked to Katie at CTU Online earlier in the day about Colorado Technical University's MBA program.

There are five speakers on Sunday with sessions running from 6:15 AM to 10:00 AM.

See you at the College Fair 2009 in Second Life!

Conferences for May - June

For the Global Learning Forum event in May, Andy Stricker, Mike McCrocklin and I are working on a paper that analyzes the benefits of collaboration in the game simulation. The measurements include interdependent group decisions and how the leadership role transfers within virtual teams. It builds on John Bransford's research on anchored-modular inquiry.

It also reminds me of Dr. Bransford's 2006 presentation on collaboration and cooperation. In Second Life, we floated on red seats above his maze where the participants needed to work together to open and navigate through each room. The ceiling was cut away so we could observe the action and video screens lowered around us so we could see video examples from the experiment.

After the presentation, we were able to wear a device as we entered the experiment during an informal tour. A copy of his transcript is available from SimTeach.

I am hosting the Mystical Festival on Acheron LV426 May 15-17 to benefit the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. It is sponsored by Elf Circle's RFL team, Circle of Life.

The Mystical Festival includes crafts, concerts, dances, fashion shows, Second Life classes, fortune telling and Elven magic in a Tolkienesque setting.

Check back for a listing of events and times. We have a series of events from March - June followed by the design of the campsites and run through the Second Life Relay for Life.

June 28 - July 2, I'll be in Washington, DC for the ISTE NECC conference. Many thanks to Lisa Linn for inviting me to participate in the Second Life Playground and workshops. The SL playground will run for three days this year.

CS 820 Week 3 in Second Life

On Thursday, April 30, we held two sessions in Breeze and created recordings of the following topics: selecting measurement attributes, setting goals, creating the usability specification and designing the test procedure, test plan and experimental design.

In Second Life, we gathered to discuss building techniques and created a stool, fountain head and lamp. For those who missed it, the notes are in a notecard giver within the lamp sculpture in front of the building information signs. (See the example at the top left). Click the lamp to get a copy of the notecard. It has instructions, textures and a sample of the finished product.

We also distributed texture folders (through stone), four sound folders, vehicles and the Lyr scripts folder. In the scripts, the tip jar/genie bottle script has examples of how objects can interact with the local chat log or via instant message.

If you did not want the chat log to spam the data collected to the test subject, you could have the object instant message the test conductor privately with the data collected. This is not required for our projects, but good to know. Another method is the llOwnerSay() function. Objects then communicate only with the owner or avatar that rezzed the object.

We are going to hold another Second Life class on Saturday, May 9, 2009, so look for it on the Calendar. The Breeze recordings will be posted on Moodle on Friday.

Have a great weekend!

CS 820 Spring 2009 - Classes 1 and 2

Greetings to our CS 820 Usability and Interaction class. Paul Thor and I are delighted to share this class with you.

We have met twice using Adobe Acrobat Connect (Breeze) and Second Life in April 2009. Our second SL class session was smooth as we moved from our Breeze discussion to building skills in Second Life.

Our first class focused on these Second Life skills:

• creating a Second Life account
• using voice in Second Life
• movement and camera controls
• introduction to the build menu
• introduction to sitting on objects (right click and sit/relax)
• tour of a device that rezzes new scenes (like a holodeck)

During our tour, we visited a coffee shop, the solar system, a Japanese tea room and we returned to the ground to remove and rebuild the castle in about 15 seconds or less. The tour device kept removing content too fast for comfort. *blinks and grins* I need to reset the scripts before we use it again.

During our second class, we used the Build button in the bottom center of the display to learn how to rez or create a primitive shape (called a prim), name our box, set the permissions for it, create a simple script, color it and take it into the inventory. We also noted how content that is returned to us is returned to the Lost and Found folder in the Inventory.

Our class building activities included:

• create a box
• name it using the General tab
• set the permissions to copy/mod/transfer
• used the Contents tab to create a New Script
• used the Texture Tab and color white icon to color the box
• copied our box using the shift key and one of the green, red or blue arrows
• used the shift key to left click both boxes
• used control L to link both boxes into a single object
  

Once we were finished editing the box, we clicked it and noted that it stated in the local chat log that the box was touched. This feature is handy for collecting automated measurements during usability tests.

With this script, we can collect a log that lists the interaction objects that are touched. In the preferences menu (ctrl P), and the Communicate tab, you can display the time in the chat log and store it for later use.

We also tested a student project from a past class. Students received a copy of the procedure for the test plan by touching a box that gave them a notecard with the test cases and instructions on it.

Notecards are Second Life content files that allow us to add text, and drag objects, images, landmarks and other content from the Inventory to the card for easy distribution.

As time progresses, we will examine different types of interfaces, how to texture your creations, how to prototype your class project and conduct usability tests with our class. In addition, you will receive freebie folders of content, including vehicles, tools, a touring HUD, a notecard with landmarks for visiting other sites, more texture folders, scripts, sounds and access to an online tool that writes scripts for you.

See you at the residency and online! *cheers*

TCC 2009 Worldwide Online Conference presentations

Greetings! The TCC 2009 Worldwide Online Conference is a great opportunity to explore the content and share ideas with over 1300 educators in 90+ international presentations and keynote addresses on education, technology and tools.

While the live conference sessions have ended, each Eluminate session was recorded and remains in the archives. In this post are images from the Second Life sessions that were either held synchronously in Eluminate or only held in Second Life, including Melita Farley's Using Blended Learning to Increase Skills in the Workplace (video recording) and Media Rich Intake Environments for Learning in Virtual Worlds by Annie Jeffrey, Scott Grant and Emily East, held solely in Second Life.

Both of these sessions featured gardens and elegant learning spaces that are designed to relax the mind and invigorate the spirit. The Media Rich session also included tours of a Music Garden and a Chinese College.

It is not too late to enjoy the sessions and discuss the topics with educators, instructional designers and administrators from around the world. Join the TCC conference 'OHANA (a Hawaiian word for family) and participate in future TCC conferences.

On April 2, Nick Noakes, Jeff Hiles and I hosted a TCC pre-conference session in Second Life. The slides from that session are embedded on this blog and available at Lyr Lobo's Slideshare under the title Poised at the Edge of the Unknown: Surviving and Thriving in Second Life.

To my great delight, my Tuesday, April 14, 2009 presentation on Digital Learning Environments Context Sensitive and Imaginative Classes in Second Life was full of new SL users. The slides are available under Lyr Lobo's Slideshare and I'll add content from this session in a later update to this post. Racing to get to a meeting. *laughs*

CS 820 Spring 09 Begins

Greetings to CTU's CS 820 Spring 2009 class on Usability and Interaction!

You've heard of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition? No? Well, for those who are not fans of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, they are a humorous set of rules that offer bits of wisdom. I jotted down a few to guide our discussions early in the course.

Calongne's Rules
(for Usability and Interaction)

Rule 1: Uncertainty is not our friend.
(or the user's friend, for that matter!)

Rule 2: The "change your mind task" is the most commonly performed task. We should see a "change your mind" task in each usability test and final project.

Rule 3: Save time and number your discussion contributions. It is easier to tell when content is missing.

Rule 4: When in doubt, the general rule for every assignment is to "describe 3-5 of ...."

Exceptions include the number of user classes in your user profiles activity (2) and the number of pages required for your informal lessons learned paper (2-3).

Rule 5: We get very excited when a student makes a mistake or demonstrates a lack of understanding. It is an opportunity for learning. Points are not deducted until the activity is complete (or we grow tired and the course ends).

Rule 6: Learning comes first. It just looks like rule 6.

Rule 7: Check back for more rules! Don't hesitate to propose new rules. *grins*

TCC Pre-conference Session in Second Life

Poised at the Edge of the Unknown...

Aloha from the TCC Pre-conference session!

Nick Noakes, Jeff Hiles and I (Cynthia Calongne), hosted a humorous presentation on the challenges that perplex educators who are new to using virtual worlds called Poised at the Edge of the Unknown: Surviving and Thriving in Second Life.

The content ranged from simple to controversial topics, drawn from our experiences and insights from the past three years.

Featured here are a couple of pics taken after the session (click to enlarge them). We had 27-50 attendees join us during the course of the evening. *cheers* See you at the TCC Worldwide Online Conference, April 14-16, 2009!

Nifty Assignments and the ACM Digital Library

The last Rocky Mountain CCSC presentation demonstrated the use of games and creative solutions in Nifty Assignments.

Are you interested in how students solve problems using a variety of games? Visit the ACM Digital Library. to read how they used Hunt the Wumpus (updated to Hunt-the-Terrorist), football scores, maze creation, anagrams, stable pairings and Missile Command for class assignments. The Rocky Mountain CCSC has offered Nifty Assignments for the past few conferences and this year, offers a paper for those who were unable to attend.

Due to the multiple conference tracks, I missed some wonderful presentations and workshops. For more information, use the titles listed in the CCSC Rocky Mountain Conference program and visit the ACM Digital Library.

jGRASP: Teaching Hard Concepts with Intuitive Visualizations at the CCSC

Dr. James Cross presented jGRASP, the Java virtual machine version of the Graphical Representations of Algorithms, Structures and Processes in his workshop jGRASP: Teaching Hard Concepts with Intuitive Visualizations at the CCSC Rocky Mountain Conference held at Colorado Technical University (CTU).

jGRASP is funded by a National Science Foundation grant. Previous research on GRASP was supported by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the Defense Information Systems Agency DISA) and Lockheed Martin.

Download and use a free copy of jGRASP and the tutorials in Windows, Mac or Linus formats. This visual tool is easy to use by dragging and dropping program elements into a viewer window.

CCSC Workshop on Animated Database Courseware and Gamemaker for Game Development

Yesterday at the CCSC Rocky Mountain Conference at CTU, Dr. Mario Guimaraes led a riveting presentation of how they use the 2D game design tool Gamemaker in An Exploratory Overview of Teaching Computer Game Development. He noted that Gamemaker is available by a free download. It is easy for students to use and best for designing 2D games.

Today, his workshop on Incorporating Animation Courseware into the Teaching of Complex Database Concepts: Conference Workshop demonstrated how to integrate Flash and Java to animate the entity-relationship notations to depict various ways of learning how to model and understand a relational database design. Visit the Animated DataBase Courseware research site to experience animated instruction and the assessment of advanced database concepts.

CCSC Rocky Mountain Conference 2008 at Colorado Technical University

Papers from the Seventeenth Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Rocky Mountain Conference were presented October 17-18, 2008 at Colorado Technical University in Colorado Springs. The CCSC conference was hosted in conjunction with the Institute for Advanced Studies' doctoral residency at Colorado Technical University.

The subjects ranged from the use of games in education, such as Neverwinter Nights in Learn These Sums or Die, Using the Ancient Game of Rogue in CS1 and Alice to accessibility tools for blind students and ethics in technology.

Congratulations to my co-authors Steven Endorf, Dawn Frankovich and Johnny Sandaire for their work on our paper entitled A Virtual Environment for Designing User Interface Prototypes. Our presentation on Slideshare was lively as we integrated slides and a Second Life (SL) session to demonstrate the class projects and SL's powerful project creation tool.

It was a great opportunity to demonstrate the accomplishments of CTU students who studied and created projects within the virtual world of Second Life during the Winter 2008 offering of CS 820 Usability and Interaction. Many thanks to Dawn and Steven for presenting their work at the conference as they were not required to attend this term's doctoral residency.

Our Keynote speaker, Kevin Cox, from Microsoft's SQL Server Product Group, discussed the Technology for Very Large Databses, citing his case study for the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-Starrs) project.

James Morgan's presentation of statistics from a study he conducted on The Development of Student Perceptions of Ethical Issues in the Use of IS segued nicely into our banquet presentation.

Keynote speaker Dr. David Teneyuca, Dean of Information Technology at CTU Online, discussed Ethics and Technology. He offered riveting examples of inappropriate use that ranged from robot sex to how technology may be influencing a shift in ethics and values.

We appreciated Site Chair Dr. Bruce Harmon's efforts in hosting the conference at CTU and the CCSC Rocky Mountain Steering Committee's hard work in organizing the papers, publication, sessions and future events. Attendees enjoyed the generous donations from the vendors and sponsors who distributed Cenage canvas bags, Pearson Education textbooks, literature from Colorado Technical University and made this wonderful learning experience possible.

My loot bag included two new books on usability and interaction! *grins*

For more information on tomorrow's conference sessions, visit the CCSC 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Conference.

If there are papers that you would like to read from this conference, use the session names from the CCSC program to review them in the ACM Digital Library.

Note: The images included in this post are by C. Calongne. The first four depict the projects from Winter 2008 CS 820 in Second Life and the last photo includes projects from several classes in Second Life.

SLEDcc 2008 Best Practices in Education exhibit

Greetings from the Second Life Education Track at the SL Community Convention, held in Tampa, FL and in Second Life. The posters were excellent and as Lyr Lobo, I had a blast setting up our Colorado Technical University in Second Life booth and chatting with the educators, researchers and visionaries who made it possible for us teach and learn in a virtual world!


Sloan Skjellerup of SL's Rockcliffe University and I observed that Second Life changes rapidly, making it a challenge to stay current with the growing number of universities and educators teaching in a virtual world. Ellie Brewster shared her research in Women's Studies at Ohio State University and noted that Virtual Praxis: A Conference on Women's Community will be held in SL on Minerva island in November.

Tab Scott and Troy McLuhan came by to share their research activities in Second Life. Troy McLuhan was active with the International Spaceflight Museum in Second Life and is now prototyping several science exhibits and museum collections in Second Life. Tab's research at Montana State University blends student culture, architecture, art and music into a learning mashup that extends beyond the classroom to promote sustainable community.

Featured in this image is a panorama of educational highlights in Second Life, including the NMC Symposium, the Testis exhibit and much more. These research highlights were included in last week's Tour of Second Life landmarks.

While most of the exhibits focused on tools and SL education at universities, the K-12 community recognizes that the future is here. The USDLC offers teacher conferences, curriculum and content development in Second Life.

Interested in cool rezzers and science in education? Be sure to check out the StoryMachine and other data visualization tools by Graham Mills (scripts by Troy McLuhan). Graham distributed a copy of it and offered a session during SLEDcc on the Worlds within Worlds.

Due to the wonderful educational discussions, I did not get a photo of every exhibit, and recommend that you visit the SLEDcc 2008 wiki to see the podcasts, Flickr photos, blogs and other media that depicts the state of education in Second Life.

Think Tanks and Second Life Gestures

In Tuesday's CS 855 Futuring and Innovation classes, we explored the similarities between our think tank activities and the innovations predicted in Technology's Promise. After reflecting on the technique that we used to identify likely innovations, we asked how our results differed from other think tanks?

For Second Life skills, we activated a set of speech gestures and inserted slides into a preloading slide viewer for giving presentations in Second Life.

In both CTU classes, we discussed the podcast assignment, noting that some students used their podcasts to talk about predictions while others evaluated the podcast technology. For using open source or custom-created mp3 content, embed it with a photo into a video and upload it to your blog.

Congratulations go out to the one-month-old birthday of our newest class member and his proud papa (depicted in this photo).

Both class sessions stated that the use of Second Life helped them to connect, share ideas and learn virtual world concepts in a relaxed setting. Students who are graduating this term asked us to hold a virtual graduation in Second Life as many of them will not be attending the next residency. I'll contact Stella Costello from the NMC Virtual Worlds team to see if we can use the NMC cap and gowns. *grins*

Next week, we'll continue our discussions on futuring and innovation, and take our first virtual field trip.

Second Life Futuring and Innovation Class

Nine CS 855 students valiantly navigated Tuesday night's class in Second Life, studying camera controls, the profile, how to use Voice over IP, chat logs, sharing content, gestures and drinking hot cocoa.

*makes a note to add more gadgets to the next class*

The discussion shifted from SL mechanics to reflect on social media and how people collaborate online. Our use of the Web 2.0 tools and Second Life helps us to understand today's capabilities and to envision what will be needed in 10-15 years.

With a nod to famous futurists, Winston Churchill's observation that the future was "one damn thing after another" [1] made us ask why anyone would pursue a career in forecasting. Yet, given the $200 billion spent annually on predictions, it is no small wonder that many feel that the 85% (or higher) failure rate is well worth the risk.

Weather forecasting was noted as one of the more successful prediction systems in W. Sherdan's The Fortune Sellers. Why is the weather important to technological innovation? Its direct influence on the physical environment affects other systems and their outcomes.

Upcoming assignment: As you start to design an audio podcast, two presentation styles that came to mind were Ask Dr. Science and Bill Nye The Science Guy. In your podcast, tell us about your favorite futurist (real or fictional), or share tips about a Web 2.0 tool.

Tip: Keep it short, offer new information and have a great time sharing your ideas!

Don't forget to post feedback about Dr. Rheingold's video from Monday's discussion.

Class ended with a description of the Programmatic Research paper and information regarding the final doctoral defense. Next week, we will continue our discussion of socio-technical futuring and discuss additional virtual world capabilities.

[1] Sherdan, W. A. (1998). The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions. John Wiley & Sons, New York, p.7.