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.
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