We’re off to share the TAFE NSW Western Institute Virtual Tourism project today… at the NSW Flexible Learning Framework’s eLearning2010 event. Slides are available below.

Christmas is fast approaching and we’ll be announcing some celebratory events inworld very soon!  However, I’m very excited to announce today our first Annual Christmas Rental Offer and Fundraising Appeal at jokaydiaGRID!

In honour of the festive season we are offering a 50% discount on setup fees for all new sims on jokaydiaGRID until the 5 January 2011. That means – you can have your very own sim for only $25.00au one time setup fee + $25au per month rental fee!

Sim rentals at jokaydia include: Full region connected to the jokaydiaGRID, Light scripting – limited timed/physics scripts, Up to 25 Avatars concurrently depending on build/activity, Full terraforming rights, Parcel media movie & MP3 streaming. Estate Managers. Parcel divisions allowed, Access to jokaydia Community resources including events spaces, SLoodle tools and other goodies!

For more information and to signup for your new sim click here.

But wait… there’s more!

As well as offering this Christmas discount to new residents, jokaydiaGRID will also be supporting Plan Australia’s Because I am a Girl’ Campaign, by donating $10.00au for each new sim rental created between Wednesday 8 December 2010 – 5 January 2011 to their ‘GIRLFUND’.

Help us help to help Plan’s global campaign to fight gender inequality, promote girls’ rights and lift millions of girls out of poverty and join the fabulous jokaydiaGRID Community at the same time! (Records of the doners and the final donation will be published @ jokaydia.com.)

Who Gets the Cash?

This year we’ve chosen Plan’s ‘GIRLFUND’ as the organisation we will donate to. TheBecause I am a Girl’ Campaign is a global initiative designed to fight gender inequality, promote girls’ rights and lift millions of girls out of poverty. From their website:

“The campaign is based on a series of reports titled Because I am a Girl: The State Of The World’s Girls. To be published between 2007–2015 from Plan International, these reports examine the rights and needs of girls throughout their childhood, adolescence and as young women – and how they are uniquely placed to break the cycles of intergenerational poverty gripping many people in developing countries.”

To find out more, check out the Because I am a Girl’ Campaign or watch the video below.

Plan is one of the largest children’s development organisations in the world. They work with communities in 49 developing countries and raise funds to support their work in 21 countriesaround the world. They aim to actively involve children, and work at a grassroots level with no religious or political agenda, with the goal of transforming the world for children. Find out more by visiting their website.

But I am already a resident or I just like to visit… how can I help?

If you’re already a resident, but you’d like to support our annual fundraising efforts, you are more than welcome to make a donation to the cause. Simply click on the button below to donate via Paypal. We’ll make sure your funds are added to our donation which will sent to Plan International on 6 January 2011. (Records of the doners and the final donation will be published @ jokaydia.com.)

Why Are We Doing It?

One of the things the jokaydia Project has always strived to do is support initiatives and activities that support positive change – whether that’s in how we work and collaborate together inworld, how we deliver learning and teaching in virtual environments or by promoting social issues of importance. This has included fabulous projects like the Virtual Classroom Project, Blue Day, our fundraising activities for the Cancer Council in South Australia and most recently our involvement in the 3D AIDS Quilt.

Our Christmas Rental Offer and Fundraising Effort continues that philosophy and will become an annual event which gives us the opportunity to help to support those who live in poverty around the world. This year we have selected GIRLFUND, as we believe that the inspiring work that PLAN are doing has real world impacts for women and girls around the world.

Dates and Deadlines

This offer is open from 9am Wednesday 8 December 2010 AEDT until 9pm Wedneday 5th January 2011 AEDT.  Your sim order must be received within this period to be eligible.

For more information and to signup for your new sim click here.

Wednesday 22 September 2010, 10am – 3pm Sydney Time / Tuesday 21 September 2010, 5pm – 10pm SL Time (PST)

I’m very pleased to be supporting Dean Groom and his team from the Learning and Teaching Centre at the Macquarie University for the Ignite NSW 2010 event which is happening TOMORROW, both in the metaverse at the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life and in real life at the Macquarie Uni campus!

We have a fantastic array of speakers – check out the details below, or visit the IGNITE NSW 2010 Event Website and particularly the Virtual Worlds Event Schedule.

Join us to learn more about a range of fabulous educational projects and strategies being used in virtual worlds and gain insights from some of Australia’s leading virtual worlds educators.

Learning and Teaching Week – “Ignite NSW” – Virtual Worlds and the Quest for Integrated Learning

• Teaching in a Virtual World: A Snapshot and Evaluation of Different Institutions – Sue Gregory, School of Education, University of New England presents a snapshot of how virtual worlds are being used in Australian Education.
• Beyond Second Life - Kyle Gomboy, CEO of Reaction Grid demonstrates and discusses the use of virtual worlds, beyond Second Life such as Unity 3D and Open Simulator, describing the potential and support available to enducators.
• Rules for Engagement in Virtual Spaces - Steve Collis, Director of Innovation at Northern Beaches Christian School promotes the use of the new online spaces at his school. Steve explains some of the issues and projects he has created to engage students in virtual worlds.
• “Who’s leading our students into 21st century learning” - Dr Bronwyn Stuckey, consultant educational technologist and researcher will explore the findings of research into the identity of teachers adopting virtual worlds and games (Quest Atlantis, Second Life, WOW, Reaction Grid) in their teaching and showcase some of their stories. The session will dispel many of the myths that surround the “digital immigrants and digital natives” debate and show that it is teachers confident in their practice and effective pedagogies who are the real change agents in educational environments and that technological skill, age or stage of career development are neither an excuse or barrier.
• The ‘Technospirit’ Sim - Lucy Barrow, Ballarat Grammer School will share an overview of The “TechnoSpirit Sim” which was created by the Ballarat Grammar’s Virtual Worlds Project Team, made up of students and staff. She will explore how the Project Team created different areas of interest including a gallery, meditation garden, presentation area, avatar store, building plots and chapel. We will look at how the TechnoSpirit Sim was used as a Year 8 Elective offering students the opportunity to explore the themes of “Signs and Symbols” and “Places of Worship” in an engaging and challenging environment.

How to Participate

To participate in the event, simply choose one of the options below:

• Join us at the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life! (SLurl)
• Watch us live on the web via the Onlinevents.co.uk website
• Join us in real life at Macquarie University

If you are new to virtual worlds, check out this handy guide to joining Second Life and visiting the Macquarie University Campus inworld.  Please note that we will be using Second Life voice tools throughout the event, so its a good idea to make sure you’ve tested this prior to big day!

Event Times

Our inworld sessions will commence on Wednesday 22 September 2010 at 10am Sydney time / Tuesday 21 September 2010 at 5pm SLT. Check your local time here.

The amazing Henny Zimer aka @Teacherman79 aka Jeff Agemenoni has done it again! Ground-breaking as usual, he’s setup a fantastic 2 week long Virtual Worlds Camp for kids in his local district in Montana. During the camp, the kids are exploring Quest Atlantis and jokaydiaGRID and learning, fun and a little bit of virtual chaos are definitely in order!

The kids range in age from about 10 to 14years, and had their first explorations of jokaydiaGRID today. It was awesome to see them excited to learn and explore…. seeing kids have fun on jokaydiaGRID NEVER gets old! I cant wait to see what they create on the Montana sim over the coming days!

You can also check out some great images captured by the kids via Jeff’s Flickr stream.

Congratulations to Henny and the Montana kids – it’s truly awesome to have you with us at jokaydiaGRID!

A huge welcome to Team jokaydia to the truly fabulous Azzura Supplee – one of my oldest and dearest friends from Second Life!

Az will be joining me to assist with various projects and brings stellar building and scripting skills with her – WOOT! So far she’s been collaborating with me to bring our WIT Tourism build to life, and you can view some of her excellent work on the Western Institute sims.

Older jokaydia Residents might already know Az from her work on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life back in 2008/09.. but if you havent met Az, feel free to drop into her home sim – Mirinesse @ jokaydiaGRID and say hello. She’s already created a great environment there with some handy resources!

You can also visit the Azztech Blog @ http://azztech.net/blog/ for more info on Azzura’s adventures in virtual worlds and also online gaming.

SO, WELCOME AZ! ;) It is awesome to have such a wonderful collaborator onboard to help us to grow jokaydiaGRID!

We’re very excited to be trying out a new virtual worlds platform called Jibe, which has been created by the lovely people at Reaction Grid and is based on the Unity3D engine.  And one of the coolest thing about Jibe? … it’s browser based! ;)

For more info on Jibe and how it works check out the Reaction Grid website. You can also find info on the jokaydia Virtual Worlds Wiki, where we’ll be sharing our learnings!

You can even visit the Reaction Grid Jibe-STEM demo pictured above to do some exploring – check out: http://reactiongrid.com/Jibe/JibeSTEM.aspx.

For the next few months we will be experimenting and learning about this new tool…. so as long as you dont mind the construction zone, feel free to visit us at: http://jokaydia.metaverseworlds.com/jibe/.

Once we’ve learnt a bit more we’ll be looking for teacher’s to collaborate with us on a Virtual Classroom Project – so feel free to leave your ideas in the comment section below or email: joannamkay@gmail.com.

A note for those new to Unity based apps – you’ll need to download the Unity WebPlayer which is available here: http://unity3d.com/webplayer. I’m finding it works rather nicely in Mozilla Firefox! ;)

Seeya in the Jibey-Metaverse soon! ;)

Today I had the pleasure of giving an online presentation in Elluminate for students from the New Learning and New Literacies Online Masters program at the University of Illinois. It was a jam-packed, super speedy session to give them a taste of some of the fabulous things happening in virtual worlds and games, and I hope they enjoyed it. I’ve published the slides from the session above.

To follow-up we’ll be meeting with the group in Second Life this Saturday morning (aus time). Check out the session description below for details, and feel free to join us!

New Learning and New Literacies Session 2: Second Life Field Trip

• Friday 14 May 7pm (US) & Saturday 15 May 10am (Aus). (Check your local time here.)
• Venue: The Islands of jokaydia in Second Life
• Meet at the Islands of jokaydia Landing Point to attend (SLurl)

Join us for a hands on workshop in Second Life with Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong, an Australian designer and facilitator working across a range of virtual worlds to support education, arts and social change! The main elements of this session will be:

• Second Life Basics: Moving, communicating, searching and teleporting
• Dressing Up Your Avatar: Using the avatar tools to create your virtual you
• Exploring the Islands of jokaydia – the home of the jokaydia Community of Practice
• Virtual Touring – including visits to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Headquarters, Foul Whisperings, Strange Matters: Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Second Life, ISTE’s Headquarters and StoryBook Island.

During the session you will develop skills in using Second Life, meet some educators who are currently working in virtual worlds, and develop a better understanding of how educators and institutions around the world are currently using Second Life and other virtual worlds for teaching and learning.

How to Attend the Second Life Workshop

1. Click on the SLurl link above to open a map of Second Life and a teleport Link.
2. Follow instructions on the page to login to the right location for our workshop – the jokaydia Landing Point. If you get lost you can IM jokay Wollongong inworld for a lift to the venue!

Additional Virtual Worlds Events and Opportunities

There are also a range of other sessions that we can attend. Go to the events calendar.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on cleaning up the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life, preparing our new environment at jokaydiaGRID and generally giving the jokaydia Virtual Worlds presence a little makeover! Over the coming weeks you’ll start to see lots of new resources and tools popping up around the place, and I invite you all to click on things, try things out, explore and share your comments and feedback!

So without further ado, I introduce our new jokaydia Rental pages!

You can visit them at: http://jokaydia.com/rentals

I’ve used an opensource tool called ‘Open Realty’ to set this up, and hopefully it will provide much easier ways for both prospective and existing tenants to get an idea of the spaces available.

Also from an administrative perspective it makes things much easier for us to manage, especially now we are working across multiple spaces in the metaverse! (woot!)

Additionally, now we have decent html on a prim tools with Viewer 2, these listings can now be easily viewed both on the web or via the viewer at the jokaydia Landing Point (SLurl)

You’ll find listings for both the Islands of jokaydia and jokaydiaGRID here, as well as information on our rental services and the jokaydia Covenant. Check it out and lemme know what you think!

One thing to note – the new jokaydia Rental deal provides that all Second Life residents on the Islands of jokaydia receive a ‘Pioneer’s space’ on jokaydiaGRID. This means you get a new virtual worlds space to play in for no extra cost! I hope everyone will enjoy these spaces and use them to explore options for using OpenSimulator spaces, and especially our multigrid experiments!…. and you can use the jokaydia Rental pages to find one!

For further information check out the jokaydia Rental Pages or contact jokay Wollogong inworlds!

After a few weeks of development and reconstruction, I thought it might be time to do some celebrating and socialising in jokaydia’s little corner of the Metaverse, and so we’ll be holding a number of events in the coming weeks! Check out the details below, and feel free to join us.. all welcome!

Sunday@ the Islands of jokaydia this week! – Monthly Social Events Starting Up Again!

Join us on Sunday at the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life for our regular monthly social event! This month we’ll be touring the new resources on the Islands and talking about upcoming events! We’ll also be doing a little partying in the newly designed jokaydia Beach! All welcome… bring your togs and floaties! ;)

• Event: Islands of jokaydia Social Event
• Location: Meet at the jokaydia Landing Point (SLurl)
• Date: Sunday 18 April 2010
• Time: 9pm – 10:30pm Sydney Time / 4am Second Life Time
• Check your local time here!

TwitterLits Bookclub Meet and Greet

“A Virtual book club for tweeps from the edublogosphere – reading those big ideas books that you’ve been meaning to get to…!”

Pandora Kurrajong aka Kerryj will be hosting a meetup and social gathering over at her lovely space on jokaydia II. Those interested in participating in the Twittlits Bookclub are welcome to attend! Check out the Twitterlits Community Ning for more information on the group!

• Event:TwitterLits Bookclub Meet and Greet
• Location: Kerry’s Place on Jokaydia, in Second Life (SLurl)
• Date: Monday 19th April 2010
• Time: 8:30pm – 9:30pm Sydney Time / 3:30am Second Life Time
• Check your local time here!

Builder’s Workshop – The Sandpit, jokaydia@ReactionGRID

Join us in the Sandbox on the jokaydia Sim at Reaction Grid for some building fun! This is an open session for all levels. Not a formal training session, rather a chance for jokaydians and friends to come together and share their building skillz!  For information on how to signup and join us at jokaydia@ReactionGrid click here.

• Event: Builder’s Workshop @ Reaction Grid
• Location: The Sandpit, jokaydia Sim @ Reaction Grid
• Date: Friday 23 April 2010
• Time: 9pm – 10pm Sydney Time / 4am Second Life Time
• Check your local time here.
• Tip: To find us at jokaydia, simply search the main map, or IM jokay Wollongong inworld for a lift!

Pioneers Open Day @ jokaydiaGRID!

Are you a current resident on the Islands of jokaydia? Have you moved into your FREE Pioneer’s space on the jokaydiaGRID yet?!! Come along and stake your claim and join us in building our new virtual world! All jokaydia in Second Life residents who rent 1024m or higher are entitled to a free parcel! Contact jokay Wollongong for more details, and signup for jokaydiaGRID here!

Keeping up to date with the jokaydia Events Calendar

You’ll find information about these events on our freshly updated Google Calendar which charts upcoming events over the next few months. Check it out below or view it on the Events page!

The calendar has been setup so that events are also displayed at the jokaydia Landing Point (SLurl) and both the jokaydia.com and jokaydiaGRID.com sites.

I’ll also promote all events via Twitter @jokay and @jokaydiaGrid, our inworld jokaydia News and Info Group channel and our jokaydia Facebook Group.

How to Support jokaydia Events!

The jokaydia community hosts free educational and social events for educators and artist who are exploring virtual worlds. There are lots of ways you can support us to continue to provide open and collaborative events for all, including:

• Come along and join in the fun!
• Volunteer to host an event or share your work at one of our regular events – we love collaborative learning! For further info contact jokay Wollongong.
• Share our links and retweet event announcements – help us get the word out!
• Join the Community –  as a rentals tenant, as a member of our jokaydia News and Info Group inworld, as a photo contributor in the jokaydia Flickr Group or as a member of our jokaydia Facebook group.
• Make a donation to jokaydia! Funds raised help to pay for our virtual presence, tools and resources at the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life, jokaydia@ReactionGrid and the jokaydiaGRID.

A big thanks to all who continue to help us to explore virtual worlds and games for education, arts and social change!

Seeya in the metaverse soon!

Over the next 24-48hrs, jokaydia (inSL) residents will start receiving special (and super exclusive) invites via their Second Life avatars. The invite box will include the note above (larger version for your viewing pleasure here), and some extra information on how to join us in our latest virtual worlds adventure… the jokaydiaGrid!

Please follow the instructions that are included in the notecard you receive everyone! … I can’t wait to share the fun with you all!

What is the jokaydia Grid?

I’ve setup a new grid for the jokaydia Community so that we can fully explore the uses of opensimulator for education, arts and social change. It is designed to extend the work we’ve been doing since 2006 in Second Life and allow us to truly immerse in virtual worlds creation, research … and most important, FUN! Some of our early goals for the grid include:

• Exploring ways to ‘multi-grid’ – eg. creating strategies, techniques and best practices for creating presence across a range of virtual worlds, and learning how to best use each environment for and to its best advantage
• Engaging kids in our virtual worlds adventures – the jokaydiaGrid gives us the freedom to create a PG environment which is much more viable for k-12 educational use
• Learning about Opensimulator – we are excited to be joining the opensource virtual worlds community and look forward to both learning about and contributing to the development of opensource virtual worlds options for education
• Developing new 3D educational resources – Leveraging off the flexibility available to us on the opensim platform for public and private delivery (without the scary pricetag!)
• … and post importantly t0 Play! We aim to continue to create a community that learns, inspires, explores and shares.

The jokaydiaGrid is hosted by the lovely people over at ReactionGrid, and we are very pleased to be extending our working relationship with such a fabulous team. For more info, check out their website.

Anyway, I thought I’d answer the two questions I’ve been asked most since we started exploring and creating new options for jokaydia…..

“But What About the Islands of jokaydia in SL?”

I’ll say it again…. jokaydia IS NOT leaving Second Life. The Islands of jokaydia continues to live on in Second Life. and will always be an important part of our suite of virtual worlds platforms and tools. In fact!….check out my OTI@jokaydia Flickr set to see groovy pics from our OCTIA visit to the new Online Therapy Institute Campus on jokaydia, held just yesterday!

We particularly value the connections jokaydia has built with other members of the educational community based in Second Life and will continue to provide events and activities to both jokaydia Residents and our extensive networks. Keep an eye out for our next jokaydia Unconference in SL which will be happening in May.

“Dont you already have a space on ReactionGrid?”

Yes! Our recently launched jokaydia@ReactionGrid sim allows us to learn and share with the fabulous people forging new business and education communities over there in the ReactionGrid universe, and is an important part of our suite of tools.

Our jokaydia@ReactionGrid regions will remain a community space (for regular meetups and discussion), with simple tools (sandbox, events space, tutorials) and resources (landmarks library, tutorials, newbie packs). It will also provide us with a space to explore hypergridding the possibilities for sharing, connecting and collaborating across virtual worlds.  To find out more about how to come and visit us at jokaydia@ReactionGrid click here.

So What’s Happening Next?

To celebrate this great new challenge and adventure, I’ll be releasing lots of new info, tools and resources throughout the week across all of our homes in the metaverse – so stay tuned as it all starts to unfold!

To kick things off – today I’ve kicked off a new @jokaydiGrid Twitter account – which you can follow for news, updates and information about our exploits in a brave new virtual world!

For our extended jokaydia community of family, friends and colleagues – we’ll be inviting you to join us at the end of the week for a grand opening party – details will be revealed shortly!

Let the new virtual worlds games…. BEGIN! :)