Yesterday we gave a session on the Islands of jokaydia as part of the Webheads in Action Online Convergence, a fantastic event which draws educators from all over the world together to share, reflect and collaborate on their work as online educators. There were some fantastic sessions - many of which you can catch up on via the WIAOC wiki. Congrats to Vance and all the Webheads for creating such a fabulous event!

Below is a summary of the session we presented, along with some notes on the thinking behind it. Im planning on developing these ideas further - perhaps into an SL Comic we can publish inworld and online.

Immersing in Virtual Worlds - jokaydia Style!

As those who have attended jokaydia events will know, we tend to try to be creative around how we structure events on jokaydia, often using a tour of the Island’s spaces as our presentation tool rather than slides and notecards.

For our WIAOC session I decided to employ the same technique, with a focus on illustrating the architecture of the jokaydia Community of Practice and some of the tools, environments and communication strategies we have used to support community building on the Islands. By that I mean not only the digital ‘bricks and mortar’ that we have built, but also some of the projects and strategies associated with the community that help to engage and support our members.

My aim was to illustrate how a range of elements come together to support learning and social networking on our Islands. They are:

• Community Entry Points: Inworld and web-based spaces that provide a pathway into our community for existing and new residents.
• Resident’s Locations and Participation: Our community members are our most important asset and bring their projects, ideas and willingness to share to the community.
• Demonstration Tools: Resources and spaces which demonstrate the potentials and can be used by both jokaydia facilitators and residents to share and explore strategies for teaching and learning in virtual worlds.
• Community Resources: 3D and web-based resources that provide visitors and community spaces with leads to projects, tools and teaching and learning resources; and most importantly to the broader SLeducation community.
• Community Learning Spaces: Space for practice sessions, experiments, sharing, just in time learning and project based learning - enabling mentoring and collaboration.
• Social Spaces: Social and informal spaces are an important part of making the Islands a welcoming and comfortable place. They encourage visitors to share, play and communicate with each others.

These elements form some of the key spaces and strategies that I have used to create a virtual place for the jokaydia Community of Practice, and also use to engage with and support our residents and visitors. Obviously the events and classes we run and the social and informal networking that happens on the Islands are also key factors in the community building process, but that’s for a later post/presentation! ;)

Tour Details

Each of the spaces I selected for the tour illustrate the elements detailed above and hopefully provided a good backdrop for the presentation. During the event we used a notecard with embedded links to move participants from location to location as well as landmark givers in each location as an addded navigation aid.

Tour Stop 1 - Community Entry Points: The  jokaydia Landing Point

To start the tour, we met at the jokaydia Landing Point (SLurl) to discuss Community Entry Points.

The Landing Point which is our ‘virtual front door’, but also the other tools we use to provide visitors and residents a pathway into our community and activities.

At the Landing Point, I have created a collection of tools which link to our 3D spaces, including our shared community resources and our resident’s spaces. Additionally the Landing Point houses links to jokaydia’s various web-based spaces which form an important part of our community’s presence online and provide a pathway into the community for those who can’t be inworld.

Tour Stop 2 - Resident’s Locations and Participation: Kangan Batman TAFE’s Job Seeking Skills Project

Obviously the residents of jokaydia are our most important asset - they create great tools and spaces and share their work in really generous ways; and of course their rent helps cover the costs for the Islands!

There are many fantastic resident’s spaces on jokaydia, but for this event I chose Kangan Batman TAFE’s Job Seeking Skills Project (SLurl) - which provides resources and information for students on career pathways and job seeking skills, including the ability to roleplay job interviews in immersive environments.

Tour Stop 3 - Demonstration Tools: Virtual Worlds Presentation Platform

The Virtual Worlds Presentation Platform (SLurl) is an immersive space designed to provide an environment for a  mixed reality presentation. This space was originally used for a presentation by Sean FitzGerald in 2007, but has since been used countless times as a demonstration tool to provide educators with an insight into how they can use Second Life to provide dynamic and interesting mixed reality or inworld presentations.

Tour Stop 4 - Community Resources: EduSquare

The Islands of jokaydia houses a wide range of community resources, including spaces to hold meetings and events, inworld tools and information in various spaces including the Newbie Garden and the PD Hut. However, the key community resource is EduSquare (SLurl), which is designed to provide a home for our resources and an informal meeting and networking space.

At Edusquare you can access landmarks to 30 Educational destinations inworld, check out some videos or meet with colleagues, connect to the jokaydia Community webpresence or experiment with simple information tools.

Tour Stop 5 - Community Learning Spaces: jokaydia’s SLoodle Hut

Spaces for experimentation and learning provide a space for residents to learn and collaborate together. Although jokaydia has a number of spaces designed to encourage this, for the WIAOC tour, we visited  the SLoodle Hut (SLurl).

A recent addition to the Islands, the SLoodle Hut seeks to provide a space for jokaydia residents to explore the use of SLoodle and Moodle in their projects. We have also provided a moodle space for experimentation at http://jokaydia.com/moodle which residents are using to develop and pilot web-based resources to support their inworld resources.

Tour Stop 6 - Social Spaces: jokaydia Beach

jokaydia has lots of social spaces, which have been both fun to create and use. The jokaydia Beach (SLurl) is a good example of the types of informal spaces we use. It has been setup with a range of toys and tools and can be used for parties, events or learning activities.

The informal activities that take place on the Islands are a key part of creating a sense of community and a welcoming environment for visitors. I try to update them regularly and include new things to explore.

Asynchronous Tour

If you’d like to take the tour and check out the spaces for yourself, I’ve left the WIAOC Event Resources on the Island. You can pick up the notecard for the first location at the jokaydia Landing Point (SLurl).

Simply use the WIAOC Signs (as pictured above) to grab  a notecard and Landmarks for each location.

Event Recording

Special Thanks!

marlonj - one our wonderful jokaydia residents came along to support the event, and managed to capture a great recording which you can view above. Thanks so much marlonj!!

Thanks also to slammed Aabye and Sapphire Ceawlin who came along to help me with the event!

Last year we started a jokaydian tradition, and I would be letting Ms Pandora down if we didnt continue it! (hehe!)  Come and enjoy some silliness and fun with the jokaydian Community!

The countdown is on for the Eurovision Song Contest - a celebration of cheesy glam, bad lyrics, hilarious costumes and questionable choreography, and we’re getting ready for our annual jokaydian Eurovision Party!

Join us @ jokaydia to point and laugh at the coverage of the event - on SBS TV if you’re in Australia or via the Eurovision website coverage if you’re somewhere else.You’ll need a glamourous virtual outfit, a sense of humour.. and a love for bad karaoke might help too! ;)

Event Details:

• When: Sunday 17th May 2009
• Time: 7:30pm AEST / 2:30am SLT (CHECK YOUR LOCAL TIME HERE!)
• Location: jokaydia Beach (SLurl)

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the Eurovision Song Contest website - isnt it hysterical??! hehe! You can also follow the SBS team covering the event via Twitter for regular updates!

Now… im off shopping to find something sparkly to wear,  and i think i need a new top hat! ;)

Eternal Life: Using 3D Virtual Worlds Technology For Life Extension and creating the new “Uploadable You”.

Futurist Dell Wilberg will be sharing his insights on the use of existing and future Virtual Reality and 3D worlds to extend your life both today and tomorrow. Did Ponce de León have the right idea and the wrong technology? Dell will set out to prove that you do not have to explore the everglades of Florida to find the mythical fountain of youth. It exists today if your willing to open your mind to the possibilities of Virtual World life extension.

Want to live forever? Find out how at Dell’s presentation. Presented using Second Life Voice and Multimedia!

Event Details:

• Date: Sunday 3 May 2009
• Time: 2pm AEST/ 9pm SLT. Check your local time here
• Location: jokaydia Meeting Hall (SLurl)

Thanks again to the fabulous Stephan Bethune aka Steph Ridgway who has made great recordings of our April Unconference! You can access them via Talking VTE.

Click on the links below to access:

• Audio recording of Session 1 Unconference #3 - Introductions and News Updates by jokay Wollongong& update from Emerly Alter
• Audio recording of Session 2 Unconference #3 “The Pulsar Project and MMetaverse Surface” by with marlonj Myers

Planning for our May Unconference is well underway, with futurist Dell Wolfensparger offering an intriguing session which I am sure will spark interesting discussions! It’s titled ‘Eternal Life: Using 3D Virtual Worlds Technology For Life Extension and creating the new “Uploadable You‘.

For more info or to voluteer to facilitate a session check out the jokaydia Wikispace!

We’ll be holding our regularly rescheduled newbie session tonight on the Islands of jokaydia and everyone is welcome!

The aim of the Newbie Sessions is to help new residents to learn some of the basic skills of Second Life including:

• Using the Camera Tools
• Using Objects in Second Life
• Creating and Editing Your Avatar
• Landmarks and Notecards
• Communication Tools

We’ll also have time for touring of the Islands of jokaydia, a Q & A session and some inworld exploring. To join us, simply Teleport to Edusquare on the Islands of jokaydia (SLurl).

Event Details:

• Date: Wednesday 8 April 2009
• Time: 8pm AEST / 3am SLT (Check your local time here)
• Location: Edusquare on the Islands of jokaydia (SLurl)
• IM jokay Wollongong for more info or support during the event!

For further information about our regularly scheduled newbie events, check out the jokaydia Wiki or the jokaydia Events Calendar.

How exciting! The jokaydia.com Blog has been nominated in our friend Scottmerrick Oh’s fabulous Blog O’ the Month competition!

Held over at the Blogger’s Hut on ISTE Island in SL (SLurl), this monthly community vote is a fabulous way to keep up to date with who’s blogging about education in virtual worlds, and we’re very honoured to be included among a list of great candidates this month, who are:

• Discovery Education Second Life–Nancy Sharoff et al
• The Educators Coop-Joe Sanchez and Leslie Jarmon
• The Islands of Jokaydia - Jo Kay (yay! that’s us! hehe)
• New World Notes–Wagner James Au

Sooo, get our avatar on and take yourself over to the Blogger’s Hut (SLurl) and vote for us today! All you need to do is click on the big yellow button!

And if you need help on how to use the resources at the Blogger’s Hut (SLurl), check out Scottmerrick’s fabulous tour video, which I’ve embedded below!

Find more videos like this on Second Life Education Videos

Thanks Scott for including us in your fabulous monthly vote, and for all the work you do at the Blogger’s Hut!

Below are resources and links from the Unconference sessions:

Session 1: The Pulsar Project and MMetaverse Surface with marlonj Myers

Marlonj facilitated a session which covered the Pulsar Project which he has been working on since April 2008, and also his latest work with MMetaverse Surface. Check out the resources from his presentation below:

My favourite part of marlonj’s session was this great video he presented on his work with MMetaverse Surface, which seeks to create a tangible interface to control avatars from a real life surface, and uses free and open tools including those created by the LibOpenMetaverse group and reacTIVision - a toolkit for the rapid development of table-based tangible user interfaces (TUI) and multi-touch interactive surfaces.

This work is really exciting and points to lots of exciting applications of these types of user interfaces for virtual worlds in the future.

Marlonj has even made a great machinima which shows a prototype model he’s built in SL to demonstrate how this type of tangible interface for virtual worlds could be used. As marlonj notes, it could be used to interact with objects in the virtual space via a series of objects placed on a table in the real world, and would allow for a sense of greater immersion via a 360 degree view of of the environment via projections on the walls of the space.

For more information on marlonj’s work check out:

• marlonj’s Blog
  
• The Pulsar Project

Session 2: Using the Builder’s Buddy Tools

For session 2, we visited the jokaydia Sandbox to experiment with the Builder’s Buddy tools, which allow users to create ‘rez-boxes’ pretty easily using open source scripts. A special thanks to Gnu Curry, who has made a great package of the scripts and some resources which we used during the session. (Yay, Gnu!).

If you’re interested in getting a copy of the Builder’s Buddy tools, visit the jokaydia Sandbox (SLurl) where they will be available for another week or so. We’ll try to re-run this session at an upcoming jokaydia event for those who missed it! ;)

Other News and Updates: Emerly’s Project

Emerly Alter aka Vimani Perera is one of our newer jokaydia residents, but she has wasted no time getting started and has created a brilliant example of how virtual worlds can be used for teaching and learning as part of a tertiary Management Consulting course. You can visit her space on jokaydia II (SLurl) and I really recommend it as a great example of use of video, information tools and Sloodle. Congratulations, Emerly!

During the unconference Emerly provided a little information about her projects, and also invited people to help contribute to her research. Check out the info she’s provided below and give her your support!

A note from Emerly:

I am a Master Student in Business Studies at Department Management of Massey University (New Zealand - Wellington) . I am conducting a research on virtual worlds. I am studying the perception of educators regarding their acceptance to conduct classes in virtual worlds. My research questions are as follows.

1. How do the known determinants of Technology Acceptance (according to existing TAM related research) influence the intention of educators to use MUVE to conduct virtual classes?
2. How do the educators perceived the potential benefits of educational use of MUVE claimed in the literature?

I have selected Second Life as the virtual world and I have created a this class to include education tools in Second Life including sloodle.

I am at the data collection stage of my research and I am searching for volunteers. In particular, I am searching for educators who have a background in traditional teaching or educators who are already conducting classes in Second Life. If you know of anyone who could potentially help me this it would be greatly appreciated.

Give Emerly your support by answering her questionaire or passing it on to you colleagues!

• Click here to download Emerly’s Research Questionaire (Word Doc) and provide her with your responses
• For more info or to submit your responses email Emerly directly.

Other Updates:

Dont forget the other updates and projects we discussed during the event!

• Dont forget to add your feedback to our first annual jokaydia Community Survey, and help us plan an even better jokaydia!
• Provide feedback to the Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education Conference 2009 team on the conference last weekend. They need your comments and suggestions to help shape next years event!
• Newbie Event happening this Wednesday… check out the jokaydia Wiki for more info!
• jokaydia Community Meeting happening this Thursday … stay tuned to the blog for more details!

Thanks to one and all for contributing to yet another fabulous event! Special thanks also to Stephan Bethune who battled technology to record the event for us.. I really appreciate it Steph!

Our next Monthly Mini Unconference is happening on Sunday 10 May 2009 . Make a note in your diary now! ;) Details are on the jokaydia Wikispace.

If you’re interested in presenting a session on your projects inworld, or would like to facilitate a discussion as part of our Unconference series, please contact me!

One of the things we’ll be launching at our Unconference today is our very first jokaydia Community Survey.

I’ve created this short questionnaire to gain some feedback from everyone, and also gauge interest and availability for various jokaydia Projects.

Please complete the survey and add your comments! Your feedback and suggestions will be used to improve jokaydia activities and provide better inworld experiences for everyone!

Note: Your contact details will be kept confidential, but de-identified results from this survey will be published on the jokaydia Wiki in May 2009.

Thanks in advance for your feedback and contributions!

Dont forget our monthly mini unconference is on at the Islands of jokaydia tomorrow!

This month we have a fantastic session from jokaydia resident marlonj Myers, who is doing amazing things in two projects:

• The Pulsar Project: Second Life Tools for Educators is focussed on identifying, locating an create tools that are useful for teachers and students in Second Life.
• MMetaverseSurface Interactive Installation is a tangible interface to control avatars and objects inside Second Life or OpenSim.

There’ll also be updates on various projects on the Islands of jokaydia including Edusquare (Slurl), jokaydia SLoodling and some of our upcoming events.

We’ll finish up the Unconference with a short building tutorial! By special request from a number of residents on the Islands of jokaydia, we’ll be going through a quick demo and tutorial on using Builder’s Buddy to make ‘rez boxes’ which allow you to rez a set of unlinked items in configuration - sorta like a holodeck you can carry around in your inventory! ;)

Please note, this session is best suited to participants who have a basic understanding of the building tools in Second Life. If you’re completely new builder, please visit the Ivory Tower of Prims (SLurl) and check out their self-paced tutorials prior to our session to learn the basics!

Event Details:

• When: Sunday 5th April, 2pm AEST / 9pm SLT. Check your local time here
• Locations: We’ll be starting at the Pulsar Project Headquarters (SLurl) and then visiting the jokaydia Sandbox (SLurl) for our Builder’s Buddy session.

Coming up this weekend is the huge and amazing Virtual Worlds - Best Practice in Education Conference - happening in Second Life from the 27 - 29 March 2009.

If you havent been to a big event in SL before, you really should check this out, as all the innovative educators and their projects will b e displayed at poster sessions, shared at presentations, discussed at panel sessions or demoed at workshops.

From the conference website:

The VWBPE Conference provides opportunities for virtual world communities to showcase projects, courses, events and research that lead to best practices in education. The end result of collaborating, sharing, and co-construction of knowledge during the conference is the creation of innovative and immersive environments in which virtual world residents can learn, work, and play.

In past years the event has been an absolute blast, so I urge you to check out the conference program and attend some of the sessions! Dont forget you can figure out your local times using the fixed world clock on Timeanddate.com.

And finally, I’m happy to announce that there will be a jokaydian Panel session at the event:

Creating Communities of Practice in Second Life: A Panel Session with residents from the Islands of jokaydia

Description: The Islands of jokaydia opened in Second Life in September 2007 and provides a range of services and opportunities to educators who are exploring the use of virtual worlds in education. We are a self-funded community of practice which spans a broad spectrum of the education sector including k-12 education, tertiary education, professional development, vocational education and workplace based training. Our community is international, drawing members from Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, France and Columbia and we host both individual educators and organizations on our Islands. This panel session will provide a case study of the journey from empty sim to a maturing community of practice and will include panel members and presenters from the jokaydia community to share their experiences and inspirations.

Featuring: Jo Kay (RL) Jokay Wollongong (SL), Konrad Glogowski (RL) Konrad March (SL), Bronwyn Stuckey (RL) Bron Bloxome (SL), Dean Groom (RL) slammed Aabye (SL), Liz Dorland (RL) Chimera Cosmos (SL), Robyn Heyden (RL) Spiral Theas (SL), Second Life and Jeff Agamenoni (RL)  Henny Zimer (SL).

• Event Date and Time: 7am AEST, Saturday 28 March/ 1pm SLT, Friday 27 March (Check your local time here.)
• Location: ISTE (SLurl)

I hope you can join us!