Remote teaching assistance in Second Life

For todays class I logged on to Second Life from home to see how much help I could be from there.
In a nutshell, it was a great way to observe the kids interacting virtually and be a part of that interaction.
In terms of assisting the students it wasn't very effective, although many may need a short lesson on using the communicate tool so they are not limited to communicating with avatars they can see.
I had very little idea of what was going on in the lesson, when I met the students they were hanging around an apartment which one of them has taken over. The one who had taken it over (B) had built a wall locking the rest in. I showed them how they could get out using the camera, so it was actually a lesson most of them will remember.
During this interaction a student from the US popped in. The transcript for this is included in the field reports.

Teaching in Second Life - how students respond

One of the more interesting issues which has arisen so far is how various kids are responding to classes in Second Life.
Something I noticed to an extent last year with the TAFE kids and has also been mentioned to me this year by the class teacher, is how it is surprising who responds to each lesson. It would be very interesting to get the teachers views on this as well, as he knows many of the kids quite well.
Overall there seems to be a trend towards those kids who are usually on the outer, with perhaps less traditional literacy skills, being interested and engaged in Second Life.

The other aspect of how engaged the students are is the activity we are doing. For example it was surprising to see how more students seemed engaged when we were making the t-shirts than when we were initially modifying avatars, perhaps because of the more real and personal nature of the t-shirt activity(the kids can upload their favourite team/message/brand).

As we now get through to more complex lessons (creating comics) and after we have told them the best get to go to Sydney, more and more students seem to be showing more and more interest.
That said, the three who were pointed out at the beginning as the most talented continue to be the least engaged.

Eyob's comic

I missed this, another good one from class today, from a young guy who lost all his work and had 5 minutes to make it all up. Very creative (if not entirely PG).

Second Life compare to Teen Second Life (Skoolaborate in particular)

I thought I would write this on the train on the way home, as it's something I have been thinking about quite a bit lately.
Since going into the censored, calm and also uncluttered environment of Skoolaborate(TSL), I have been more inspired to build and communicate 'in-world'(some lights, cameras and a van for our machinima making class, as well as several positive and productive conversations). The classes I have held there have all been a joy.
I returned to the main (adult) grid on the weekend to shop for some talking animations I could use with the machinima films we are making.
My experience was something that has kept me away from the main grid in recent times, without me being fully conscious of it.
Firstly even though I knew what I wanted, and knew it existed, it was impossible to find it without wading through piles of adult animations.
Which had people testing them.
When I see two avatars acting something out, unfortunately I know that there are two people controlling those avatars(possibly both male based on some statistics) and the whole experience of shopping for a talking animation(seemingly innocent) - turns into a walk on the depraved side of virtual life.
Sadly it seems there aren't many experiences which don't in Second Life at the moment.

Going through all of this has made me realise how good it is to be in a controlled and smut free environment.
This is something which few people in the main SLpossibly consider due to commercial concerns, which involves traffic, but perhaps the adverse could be true in the future.
Benefits include;
- There is no content, so people have to use their imaginations rather than their vast inventories.
- No griefers (no strangers at all, period).
- No obvious idiots - I would like to phrase this in another way, but it's not just the griefers, it's that being in Second Life is often like sitting on the train around 4pm listening to schoolgirls gossip(except they are 40ish). I find this incredibly annoying. The schoolgirls who do gossip are thankfully (so far) not using Skoolaborate for that purpose.
- No ads everywhere, sales pitches messing with facts.
- Less lag.
- People are there for good reasons, and worth talking to and meeting(either teachers or students.) I have met some great people in Second Life but it is always through a personal introduction or connection of some kind.
- Being able to look at something and say, 'this guy made it all from scratch, and he is from here...."
- Kids have to make things, there are no cheap short cuts.
- Responsibility/Accountability (linked to all above).

There are some bad things;
- I have less control personally- money/land/returning objects/scripts and things I have already done in the main SL(going to Sydney should fix half of that).
- We are trashing the place at the moment, leaving a lot to be returned (same issue, I need more permissions).

The thing about the regular internet and real life, is that to a certain degree, people cannot act out their fantasies in public(on an unwilling audience anyway).
In a virtual world they can, for better or worse.

Please note that this blog has been written knowing that our own students cannot access it from the school network. If your students can and you have any issues with any of the content, please feel free to contact me directly.

Beginning to learn Comic Life

Here is Ashav's first attempt at a comic using Comic Life and Second Life. Today was an introductory lesson, over the coming weeks the students will be working in groups to create more in depth stories/comics, the best of which will be made into a machinima film.




And another one....with some great style;

Some t-shirts from todays class as a comic

Plasq / Comic Life is helping us out

My new favourite software company, Plasq, have generously agreed to donate 25 copies of Comic Life to Debney Park so the kids can have more copies to make their machinima comic book (Soundhouse has 12). At $30 a copy this quite valuable in terms of money and allowing the kids to be able to work on their assignments at the same time.
Thanks to Mark and the team at Plasq.

A quick round up of the past few weeks

It's been a while since my last confession so here goes...

Firstly the Comic Life and Second Life idea is definitely a goer. I met with Magdi and Gene a couple of weeks back, and we have agreed on the following basic structure;

1 - Kids storyboard ideas (in Comic Life). We have 30 day demos, and 12 copies in the Soundhouse studios, but I have emailed them asking for more support(25 copies).
2 - Kids take snapshots in Second Life to create a comic, several pages each. This will then be published as a book. We need some sponsors/funding for the printing.
3 - The best story is then chosen for the group to make a short machinima film of, with help from Gene. Each student will play a role in the production (eg. set design, costume design, director, cameramen, lighting)
4 - We organise a Flemington Youth Film Festival late in the year where all students from all schools can contribute. Lots of sponsors needed here.

Secondly - classes are in full swing;

This week I have so far attended on Monday (lunchtime and double period after) and Wednesday (double period and then lunchtime) for the first full classes we have been able to have.
Monday was the introduction to Second Life, where kids were shown how to sign in, the basics of getting around, and how to edit their avatars and take snapshots.
Both curiousity and 'keeping up with the joneses' meant that kids were keen to learn how they could do everything, they were very keen to get things like motorbikes and hover boards, and helped each other learn a lot. At first people often refuse to share things (like the motorbikes) until they realise that giving it to someone else doesn't cost them anything, and they get into the spirit of giving.

Mondays class was the group I will be taking for the remaining 8 weeks of this semester, year 10s who have so far been doing Alice (quite complex software by Carnegie Mellon). They responded very positively to Second Life in particular.
The lessons objective was to create an avatar and to take some snapshots of it, which all students managed to do without any problems.

Tuesday I found out we did have some unnoticed issues, after receiving and participating a long email thread based on;

"You will find attached a screenshot of two Australian people on the Skoolaborate grid, who were saying some rather inappropriate things."

At the end of the day it was all resolved but it is a touchy issue which will need more attention on my behalf in the future.

I have now included a more intense lesson regarding the rules into the introductory lessons.


On Wednesday many students were on a school excursion so we had half a class of year 9s, half year 10s. I started with some augmented reality just to get their attention (techno magic) and we then once again explored Second Life, beginning with a run down of the rules then working mainly on avatars and the basics like adding friends and using inventories. We shall teach the same group on Friday.
Gene commented that two of the girls who are very into Second Life normally struggle to show an interest in anything computer related. I think this was perhaps happening across the board in several different ways, each person was totally engaged and as opposed to the first lesson we had very few distractions.

Lunchtime we had some of the younger students in once again, they were very keen. K and his little buddies jumped straight on and into it, and barely asked a question all day, bringing in a few more new members with them. We may have to restrict who can attend lunchtimes in the future, it is going to be full next week I think.