Constitution Day and Graduation Party

Our last Futuring and Innovation class featured a trivia game designed to celebrate Constitution Day and a party to honor our graduates.



Congratulations to our Colorado Technical University graduates! *cheers*

Game Simulation Tour in Second Life

As part of the Think Balm Innovation Community's Un-Lecture series, game design masterminds Mike McCrocklin and Dr. Andy Stricker in addition to the talented Toni Scribner and I will give a tour of their game simulation kit in Second Life for our LinkedIn Group attendees at 08:00 Pacific time today.

I created a third Animoto video to commemorate today's tour called A Game Simulation Kit in Second Life.

Speakers for the Un-Lecture Series No. 4

1. Charlie Herbek of CSC, http://tinyurl.com/n5a3r7

2. Leon Cych of Learn 4 Life, http://tinyurl.com/kqjo4e

3. Janalee Redmond of IMMERSION: tools.jam, http://www.linkedin.com/in/janred

4. Cynthia Calongne of Colorado Technical University, http://tinyurl.com/5uqgga

For more information about the game simulation at MyBase Zeta, visit my Slideshare presentation entitled Evaluating a Game Simulation Kit in Second Life. It features scenes from the game, rubrics for evaluating it, and a summary of student feedback after play testing the game in March 2009.

See you in Second Life! *waves*

Preparing for Graduation - Second Life Style!

In our CS 855 Futuring and Innovation class, we discussed the Animoto class activity and took a field trip to the NMC Orientation island's Educator Freebie Center to check out the tools, toys and avatar content.

We used the Game Design group voice channel so we could hear everyone even while traveling around Second Life.

Animoto is a fun, easy to use tool that takes your images, sets them to music and animates them. The free account allows you to create 30-second videos out of 8-15 slides.

While animated slides set to music may be foreign to some of us, the class found the Animoto videos stimulating and interesting.

At the end of class, one student modeled the NMC's regalia, and looked fine in his graduation cap and gown. This is our class's last doctoral course and we are looking forward to graduation. *cheers*

Our next class features a discussion of the final projects and observations from Technology's Promise by Dr. William Halal.

During our Second Life skills session, we will discuss presentation styles and tips for hosting conferences and seminars in Second Life.

Global Learning Forum Event Tour

Greetings! In ten minutes, I uploaded my photos and created a 30-second Animoto video from our Global Learning Forum tour of the VR Innovation Design Studio in Second Life, held August 20, 2009, for you to enjoy. My embedded video has a 640 x 360 player size and is set to normal quality. It features music from the repository of music on Animoto's site by Patrick Lentz entitled "It's Alright."

To avoid knocking your socks off, I recommend lowering the volume if you are in a public place. *grins* The controls are on the lower right corner of the video.



These scenes include the machinima studio and learning center on Huffman Prairie region and the game simulation at MyBase Zeta in Second Life.

Many thanks to Apollo Segall and Spinoza Quinnell, the masterminds behind the Global Learning Forum, for their delightful content and support.

Animoto Video - Second Life Summer 09 Classes

Our Week 8 class focused on analyzing alternatives for a modified Delphi process and a review of how Christakis' Energy Efficiency case study employed group work in their voting process. Our virtual world content creation activity examined how to create a heads up display (HUD) device.

As a retrospective from our CS 855 Summer 2009 classes held in Second Life, I created this 30 second CS 855 Summer 2009 Animoto video. The images highlight the discussions and virtual world building sessions held on Acheron LV426.



With Animoto, you can upload your images, drag and organize them, add text, set them to music and add a title and description before finalizing your video.

Creating a Heads Up Display Device

When creating a 3D HUD, the root prim may need to be rotated. Our sample HUD, the Boracay Hitchhiker's Guide to Second Life distributed by Corwin Carillon, had a 270 degree rotation on the y axis. This HUD uses images, landmarks, scripts and a notecard for associating the images with a category on the menu.

When editing the tour HUD, use Edit Linked Parts, a command on the upper right corner of the object edit menu, below the radio menu buttons. Edit Linked Parts allows you to edit a single prim within an linked object, in this case, the images and landmarks within the Contents tab.

Social Media's Impact on a Modified Delphi Process

While some modifications to the Delphi process reduce the number of iterations while preserving anonymity between respondents, Christakis used mixed methods with face-to-face participants, small groups and dialogue during a later iteration's voting process.

Our discussion focused on whether today's collaborative tools offer opportunities for tailoring and using the Delphi method. The class noted excellent reasons for using private responses vs. open collaboration, yet remarked on how online collaboration may encourage increased participation from the contributors who are less outspoken.

See you in Second Life! *waves*

Second Life Class on Campfire and Genie Chair Rezzers

This week's CS 855 Rezzer 2 Class featured using and creating a rezzer with one linked object.

Each student received a folder with sample rezzers for a campfire meeting and for a genie chair rezzer and a second folder with instructions on how to make a campfire meeting rezzer.

The genie chair's instructions were designed by Vanilla Jessop and the chair depicted at the left was created by Lyr Lobo. When you move the rezzer box, the chair moves with it.

The campfire meeting object was designed by Lyr Lobo.

The class discussions included the Delphi wiki activity, comments on the student blogs, the Structured Design Process and the August's Global Learning Forum event.


How to make a campfire meeting rezzer

By Lyr Lobo, a.k.a. Dr. Cynthia Calongne
Seating animation scripts by Lyr Lobo
Builder's Buddy Scripts created by Newfie Pendragon

1. Click the Build button on the bottom of your display window.

2. Rez a box (a cube - click the first icon on the Build menu and drop your cursor to the ground). Name your box Campfire rezzer on the General tab. Check the permissions at the bottom of the General tab to Modify and Copy.

3. Click the following Campfire rezzer texture and copy it to your inventory.

(a campfire rezzer texture is visible in Second Life)

Next, you will texture your cube with the Campfire rezzer texture.

4. Select the texture tab and select the big woodgrain texture box in the center left.

5. Look for your Campfire rezzer in your Textures folder or search for the texture Campfire rezzer, highlight it and press the Select button.

6. Select the Contents tab and drag the Builder's Buddy Base Script into your Campfire Rezzer box. It is located in your folder, but if you misplace it, click this Base script to copy it to your Scripts folder.

(a script called the Builder's Buddy Base Script is visible in Second Life)

Next, we will stop working on the rezzer box and rez the campfire meeting object in step 7.

7. Drag the object called Lyr's Campfire Meeting - no script from the folder (provided in class or available from Lyr Lobo) and drop it on the ground from your How to make a campfire rezzer folder.

8. Move the campfire meeting object about 1-2 meters from the rezzer box. Use the General tab and rename your campfire meeting object, removing "no script" from the title.

9. Drag the Builder's Buddy Component Script into the campfire object's Contents tab.

(a script called the Builder's Buddy Component Script is visible in Second Life)

10. When your campfire is in the right position and elevation, stop editing your project. Click the Campfire Rezzer box that has the base script inside it and click the Record button on the menu at the upper right of your display. It records the current position of the campfire from the box.

11. Take the campfire into your inventory (right click it and Take). Edit your Campfire Rezzer box that has the base script in it.

12. Drag the campfire meeting object into the Contents tab of your box. You should see the Base script and the campfire meeting object in your box.

13. Take your box into your inventory. Nothing should remain on the ground.

To use your Campfire Rezzer:

14. Drag the Campfire Meeting Rezzer to the ground (the base box).

15. Click the box and select the Build command.

16. The campfire appears and relocates itself to your recorded position.

To remove your campfire:

17. Click the box and select the Clean button. The copy of your campfire is deleted.

Enjoy your new campfire rezzer. If you make changes to it, repeat the earlier steps and record the new location. *smiles* Be sure to put a new version of your campfire inside the control box and delete any older versions after making changes.

You could make a rezzable environment with several objects each with a component script inside it. Once it is ready, click the Record button to record the locations, take all of the objects into your inventory and drag them into your base object for use.

Lastly, if you do not change the primchannel in both the base object and every component script that is used in the project, you may find that a similar base object deletes your objects. Use different primchannels inside your script (near the top of it) to avoid communication conflicts between objects.

Have fun! *waves*

Lyr Lobo, a.k.a. Dr. Cynthia Calongne
Colorado Technical University
August 19, 2009

Learning in Immersive Reality: What is Social Reality?

Today's Global Learning Forum event features Dr. Jeremy Bailenson, Founding Director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and Dr. David Jonassen, Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Missouri. The session begins at at 5:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Pacific time on the Huffman Prairie Chi island in Second Life.

After the Distinguished Speakers session, Dr. Andrew Stricker (Spinoza Quinnell) and Mike McCrocklin (Apollo Seagel) will provide an update on the use of virtual agents in the multiplayer game simulation on interdependent leadership. Dr. Cynthia Calongne (Lyr Lobo) will discuss the assessment of interdependent leadership and transactive memory.

At the end of the session, they will host a tour that features a dozen immersive learning design examples.

GLF registration will be available at the event location (in the newly completed GLF Event Hall located on the Second Life region called Huffman Prairie Chi. (See the image to the right for the location).

Click on the images to enlarge them.

20 Aug 2009 GLF Event Agenda:

5:00-5:10 Opening Remarks

5:10-5:30 Dr. David Jonassen, (University of Missouri) Building Blocks and Cognitive Processes for Learning to Solve Problems

5:30-6:30 Dr. Jeremy Bailenson, (Stanford University) The Use of Immersive Virtual Reality in the Learning Sciences: Digital Transformations of Teachers, Students, and Social Context

6:30-6:50 Dr. Andrew Stricker, Dr. Cynthia Calongne and Mike McCrocklin: Introduction of new overview video and description of 12 learning environment design prototypes; also, an update on the use of virtual co-player agents in the multiplayer game simulation on interdependent leadership

6:50-7:00 Break to prepare for the learning environment prototype tour. We ask tour participants to meet at the north-entrance (facing the lagoon) of the GLF Event Hall at 7:00pm CST. Dr. Andrew Stricker (Spinoza Quinnell) and Mike McCrocklin (Apollo Segal) will host the tour. Participants can also take a self-directed tour using the provided tour note card or teleport board.

About the Global Learning Forum

Global Learning Forum (GLF) members critique researching, learning, instruction, and assessment approaches that underline effective cyber-scholarship, advanced distributed learning (ADL) course design, teaching practices, and innovations made possible by educational technologies. A desired outcome of GLF is for members to help scan, focus, and act on promising cyber-scholarship innovations, including the methods and assumptions used when applying learning science theory to instructional design. GLF members collaborate to harness the power of virtual communities to innovatively transform ways to learn, instruct, and discover. Many of the innovations and research work of our GLF members can be seen at the Huffman Prairie region in the Virtual Educational Technology Support Center (VETSC) building. You can freely join the GLF within Second Life (use the search tool to find the GLF group).

The GLF event brochure and agenda was produced by Dr. Andrew Stricker and Mike McCrocklin. Many thanks to Andy and Mike for hosting this exciting event.

Is that a Holodeck in your pocket? An introduction to rezzers

Tonight's class in Second Life included Second Life rezzer tips and an introduction to Christakis's case studies.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could create content that appeared when requested and disappeared when it is no longer needed?

To understand how rezzers work, we examined a simple rezzer, an object that copies and renders new objects when touched, and how rezzers work. Our example uses the Builder's Buddy rezzer design by Newfie Pendragon with its base and component scripts.

We rezzed and tested the Builder's Buddy interface, building and cleaning up our component objects, then discussed the primchannel variable in the Builder's Buddy program.

A primitive is a basic shape and the channel is a communication path. Prim = a primitive shape. A primchannel is a channel that the object uses to communicate with other objects. It is a variable name in this program.

Objects communicate over negative or positive channels. Avatars only use positive channels. The local chat, our default text chat channel, is channel 0 (zero) and does not require specifying the channel number to use it.

When objects are communicating only with other objects and not receiving instructions from a user over a channel, then use a negative primchannel (a negative number).

Our first task is to ensure that the base and component scripts use the same prim channel. You want to reset it to a matching number in both scripts so your object is not sending instructions and listening over the same channel as other objects.

When we did not reset the prim channel number, one student could request his rezzer to clean or delete his component object and everyone's component objects were deleted.

Next, we linked the primitive shapes into an object by editing a prim, holding the shift key, selecting the remaining objects and using the ctrl+L command to link them into a single linked object.

The four prims in the image to the left are linked. The prim with the yellow outline is the parent object. Child objects have a blue outline around them in edit mode.

After a brief study of rezzers and linked objects, we tore down the tree house with a single command and rebuilt it with a second command.

Next, we discussed a review of the Christakis' case study from Chapter 14 on how to get a drug developed and to market faster [1]. In addition to being an excellent example of using SDP to facilitate change, the case studies also illustrate alternative research methods using an action research approach.

Rather than read the case studies passively, we urge scholars to consider how to employ the method as a catalyst for social change.

As we shift to online collaboration, we recognize that document management may be insufficient for stimulating effective communication and rapid change. Christakis' observes that the 3-6 days of dedicated workshops accomplished the tasks that would normally take weeks or months to complete [1].

Next week, we will continue our discussion of Christakis' research and develop some new Second Life skills. To obtain a copy of the rezzer exercise folder, send an instant message in Second Life to Lyr Lobo.

References
[1] A. N. Christakis and K. C. Bausch, How People Harness their Collective Wisdom and Power to Construct the Future in Co-Laboratories of Democracy, 1 ed. Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age Publishing, 2006, pages 93-98.

Great Thoughts - The Futurists

In our Week 5 class, we discussed the following thoughts about the future. This extends last week's discussion, when we observed that there is no single method for predicting the future.

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Albert Einstein)

"Any useful idea about the future should appear to be ridiculous." (Jim Dator)

"A part of our future appears to be evolutionary and unpredictable, and another part looks developmental and predictable. Our challenge is to invent the first and discover the second." (John Smart)

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” (Albert Einstein)

“Forecasting is not a respectable human activity.” (Peter Drucker)

After discussing the semantics and how we would re-phrase them, one student closed our session with the following quote.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of the Future" - Clarke's third law).

Next week, we will examine how Christakis describes the SDP method and discuss a case study from his book during our Second Life class session.

Visit the CS 855 Summer 2009 list of blogs to the right to view the student discussions each week. The topics range from inspiring videos from Ted Talks, our opinions about the Horizon Report's predictions, the use of collaborative Web tools and our reflections on the future.

CS 855 Week 4 Classes in Second Life

We gathered twice this week to discuss our perceptions of the myths and truths that are associated with creativity and innovation.

Does creativity require creative people? Bill Breen raises the question in The 6 Myths of Creativity. Our responses ranged from no, anyone can have creative ideas to yes, when they are stimulated by necessity (a requirement) or executed by talented individuals who have the tools and skills to envision these ideas.

Each of us has the opportunity to meet the creative challenge.

Does technological innovation have a method? Scott Berkun, in the interview about his book The Myths of Innovation, notes that in retrospect, the stories of how certain innovations evolved may seem as if they were derived from a logical progression of steps. Yet, if the creators of each incremental development were interviewed, the failures and uncertainty associated with evaluating and rejecting alternative approaches would surface. There is no single method.

While we did not constrain our discussion of creativity and innovation to technology, one of our focal points in this course is to understand how new ideas become future technologies.

Near the end of class, we created content in Second Life, using the building tool to develop a one prim design that began as a tube, evolved into a 1) one prim stool, 2) twisted into a fountain and 3) rotated, stretched and textured into a Tiffany lamp.

The term prim is describes a single primitive shape, one of the beginning shapes offered in the Second Life building tool. These shapes a cube, prism, sphere, cylinder, torus, tube and ring. There are also modifications to these basic shapes and a sculpted shape available in the SL building tool.

Next week, we will meet on Thursday (August 6th) from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM Mountain time. The first and last half hour will include some Second Life content and skills while the middle of the class will explore futuring and innovation concepts.

CTU Doctoral Defense News

Congratulations are extended to Matthew Purkeypile for his research on Quantum Computing, Paul Yanzick for his research on Web Services for Embedded Devices, Brent Wilson for his research on Distributed Networks and Neighborhoods and David Graves for his research on IT Service Management. They successfully defended their doctoral research and presented it to the Institute for Advanced Studies during our Doctoral Symposium last week.

In addition to our formal graduation ceremony, we held a ceremony during our Doctoral Symposium to share the celebration with the Doctor of Computer Science students and faculty.

Dawn Frankovich and Will Henry presented their research during the Spring Doctoral Symposium and are also graduating this Summer. *cheers*

The graduation photos depicted in this post were taken by the friends and family of Paul Yanzick and Matt Purkeypile, and are hosted on Matt, Paul and Brent's Facebook sites.

Maurice Dawson's doctoral defense is scheduled for Friday, July 24, 2009 at 1:00 Mountain in our Adobe Acrobat Connect meeting room. As future defenses are scheduled, I will also announce them in Twitter.

Congratulations to our Colorado Technical University graduates! *cheers*

Second Life Relay for Life 09 Totals

Due to the hard work of the volunteers, organizers and participants during the Second Life Relay for Life 2009, we raised $271,277.00 for cancer research.

Many thanks to the wonderful team members from team Circle of Life, Blynn Heron and Erielle Clary, our co-captains and our many friends in Elf Circle. You led dozens of events and designed magnificent gardens that served as an inspiration to us all. It has been a privilege to serve as your team captain.

Tim Harrison, my brother in spirit, died just prior to our Relay for Life.

I was so thankful to be able to honor him in addition to the many loved ones that we have lost to this terrible disease.

Our struggle is not in vain; Cindy, a dear friend who shared her journey through Stage Four cancer with me in 2006, survived, and at last account, is enjoying a very full life. We are quite powerful when we work together! #slrfl #slrfl09

Second Life Relay for Life - One World, One Hope

The Second Life Relay for Life begins July 18th, 2009 at noon, followed by the moving cancer survivor's and caregiver's lap at 1:00. This year, residents from over 20 countries are expected to participate, reminding me of my first SL relay for life in 2006.









See the schedule later in this post for more lap information. I will be unable to walk for much of the day while teaching at Colorado Technical University's doctoral symposium, so I took a few photos so I could enjoy the lovely Circle of Life fantasy gardens at RFL An Iema.

Many thanks to the wonderful Elf Circle designers who crafted a lovely setting for our celebration of life.


As you walk a lap, take a moment to stop and dance with the elves on a dance floor that floats above the water amid finely crafted bardic instruments as a dolphin that swims around you.

Every hour during the SL Relay for Life, the residents of Second Life will walk through the campsites and learn more about the strength and courage of cancer survivors and the people who love them. Many of the walks are themed and the schedule includes the following themed laps:

Saturday, July 28, 2009 (All times are Pacific/SLT)

Noon - Opening Ceremonies
1pm - Survivor/Caregiver Lap
2pm - Team Spirit Lap - Team Shirts & Banners
3pm - One World - International Outfits Lap
4pm - One Hope - Rainbos Lap - The Hope of a New Day...The Promise of Calm after the Storm. Wear all the colors of the rainbow and celebrate One HOPE
5pm - Flower Power Hour Lap - 60's outfits
6pm - Tackle It - football, rugby or any sports clothing. Let's tackle cancer together - united, we can beat this.
7pm - Western Theme Lap
8pm - Bald is Beautiful Lap (Fay, this one's for you)
9pm - Luminaria Ceremony (please no events during this time)
10pm - Magic Lap - Wizzards, Magicians, Fairies, etc.
11pm - Tacky Tourist Lap

Sunday, July 19, 2009 (All times are Pacific/SLT)

12am - Midnight Masquerade
1am - Health Matters - Maybe you are a banana, or an orange, or a carrot. Live a healthy life - we can all make a small change that improves our life.
2am - Crazy Shoes Lap
3am - Meet a New Friend Lap
4am - Silly Hats Lap
5am - Tinies, Furries, Tails & Wings
6am - Fight Back Ceremony
7am - Caring & Curing Lap - Dr., Nurse, Scientist - Working together to beat cancer
8am - Coffee Curlers, Slippers & PJ's
9am - Here Comes the Sun - Dress for a day at the beach. Always remember to protect yourself from the sun on land and sea, even on a cloudy day.
10am - Formal Wear Lap
11am - Closing Ceremonies (Teams Lap to follow)

Come enjoy the live music throughout the festival and help us fight cancer. If you are using the Map within Second Life, visit the RFL An Iema region. #slrfl09

Go Relay! *cheers* #slrfl

Futuring and Innovation: The next 5,000 days of the Web

Kevin Kelly discusses the next 5,000 days of the Web on Ted Talks

Imagine for a moment that you summarized the Web's development as the first 5,000 days (13.7 years) that led to the Web as we know it today. Travel back in your mind 13-14 years. What were you doing prior to the Web?

In 1986, my family and I ran a BBS for 150 Mac users out of our home. Sending email messages in 1988 across a defense network required long email addresses that identified the machines en route.

What will the next 5,000 days of the Web offer in terms of capability and use? Kevin Kelly compares what we know today to what it will be like in 13.7 years.

The statistics from today's Internet use help us to put our experience into perspective.

The Web 2.0 has provided us with a wealth of free collaboration, broadcasting and social tools. In the future, Kelly's notes that your identity and your ability to find friends across future social sites will be consistent as you travel between tools.

For the Semantic Web, Web 3.0 and the giant global graph to be effective, we need to be open to sharing our data in addition to sharing web pages and our computers. I can see a few barriers to open access when it comes to private and sensitive data.

Moving to a world with the easy retrieval of data will require a culture shift from today's compliance and control to an effective information accountability system that supports the fair use of data. How we feel about web privacy and the protection of data limits what we share today.

Linking things between the Web and the real world, as noted by Kelly's observation about the Internet of Things helps us to experience a seat on the plane or to reserve a table at a restaurant, as I proposed in my Futuring and Innovation course introduction.

I wrote my introduction before watching his video and am gratified to see that his vision of the future aligns with mine. *chuckles*

Will we become co-dependent on the future Web as Kelly suggests? *grins* His summary notes that We are the Web and we will become the machine. What do you think?

He concludes by observing that the result from the next 5,000 days (13.7 years) won't be the Web that we know today, only better. It will offer a smarter, more personalized and ubiquitous experience.

I am ready for it! Are you?

Freedom Writers' Diaries - Erin Gruwell at ISTE NECC 09

Erin Gruwell shared her inspiring story and the stories from her students as they learned a love of literature and to develop their voices. She showed several video clips that were heartbreaking in their honesty and empowerment.

We left NECC 09 energized and ready to develop the stories of our students. Her work with the 150 teachers across the country on the use of technology reminded me that despite our level of technological sophistication, we all have hurdles and challenges to overcome.

If they can do it, we can do it! *cheers*

I had a grand time working at the Second Life Playground and want to thank Lisa Linn, Scott Merrick, Susan Toth-Cohen, Peggy Sheehy, Bernajean Porter, Marianne Malstrom, Lloyd, Laura Sheehy, Pamela and our wonderful Second Life educators!

See you at ISTE 2010 in Denver! *waves*

ISTE NECC 2009 - Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell's keynote address at the ISTE NECC 2009 conference began with an analogy of Fleetwood Mac's success with the album Rumors and how the band struggled to perfect their music over the 16 albums that preceded it. #necc09mg

Without 10+ years of hard work, it is hard to achieve mastery. The live blog and discussions over twitter reflected on this thought. Some felt that it did not account for the creative genius of the talented educators who are new to the practice of teaching.

My thoughts? Practice makes perfect is not always the outcome, despite how long some folks practice their craft. Learning from experience and creating knowledge from it aligns with my constructivist philosophy. One of my favorite quotes comes to mind.

Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.

(attributed to Will Rogers and Barry LePatner)

We need opportunities to fail and to learn from failure in order to appreciate and achieve success. #necc2009mg

I enjoyed last year's keynote address and the reflections on the wisdom of crowds. This year, I'm humming "Rock on, Gold Dust Woman" and looking forward to tomorrow's sessions. *grins* #necc09 #necc09mg

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*

HASTAC III Traversing Digital Boundaries

Dr. Sharon Tettegah and I, as editors of a book on Identity, Learning and Support in Virtual Worlds, introduced it at the HASTAC III conference on Traversing Digital Boundaries.

What was unusual about the session was that I gave my presentation from Second Life, using an impromptu feed over Sharon's laptop into the live conference session. After all, we were traversing digital boundaries and what better way to do it than through a spontaneous connection?

Blended reality conferences are not new; we have been conducting mixed avatar and live conference sessions since 2006, but with a lot of prior planning. The photo on the right is from the October 2006 NMC Symposium with the MacArthur Foundation.

Our HASTAC III panel discussion was spontaneous, did not require advance technological planning and was designed to support a variety of delivery models.

As a presenter in Second Life, we had no audio or video feed back into Second Life, so I could not hear or see the live conference attendees nor could I hear my co-presenter. When she appeared, typed a welcome note, asked me to introduce myself, we were on our way to hosting a fun session on identity and learning. It reminded me of being a newscaster in the field, waiting for the cue to begin.

The night before the conference, I ripped my custom-created gazebo apart and into a stage, hoisted my slide viewer against the castle, and let the castle and garden plants form a backdrop for the session.

We had a great time and would like to thank the organizers of HASTAC III and the participants for such a warm welcome!