abstracts

=Presentation Abstracts=

Posters
http://amoration.org http://inkenzo.blip.tv || http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com ||
 * Booth || RL Name || SL Name || Email || Title || Abstract || Links ||
 * 1 || Beth Ritter-Guth || Desideria Stockton || bethritterguth@gmail.com || Monsters to Monarchs: Teaching Literature using SL || Teaching Literature in a 3D environment is helpful to those teaching online literature classes. Please stop by an view the poster to learrn about Literature Alive! || http://collegeenglish.wikispaces.com/vitae ||
 * 2 || Evonne Heyning || In Kenzo || inkenzo@gmail.com || ManorMeta Machinima || Studying the many ways to use Machinima in the virtual world, this poster mashes up many of our previous and future projects in a single look at moving cross-platform with new media. || http://inkenzo.vox.com
 * 3 || Mary Anne Clark || Max Chatnoir || mclark@txwes.edu || Splashing in the Gene Pool || The Gene Pool is a Second Life educational site where students in my classes, other people's classes, or anybody who wants to visit can learn about genetics. For introductory students or visitors the Gene Pool is part historical museum with information about the history of genetics and part laboratory for data collection and analysis. More advanced students and scientific collaborators can also suggest or create new objects for the site and contribute to its developing narrative. The Gene Pool is open for visitors! ||  ||
 * 4 || Ruth Martínez || AureA Memotech || rmartinezlo@yahoo.co.uk || Real Feelings from spanish learners in Second Life || Being Digital Native or Digital Immigrant can make a difference for long learning curve into Second Life, most difficult if you are spanish and don't know English at all... so what kind of learning activities could be usefull to cause interest on the users? What Second Life resources are suitables for them? What strategies could be use and when? How can we help them to manage their feelings? The answers of that questions are the parallel job of a workshop about learning activities on Second Life for students of the Expert eLearning Master at the University of Seville (Spain). That difficulties will show us possible improvements to consider into Second Life. || http://educasecondlife.blogspot.com ||
 * 5 || Lisa Perez || Elaine Tulip || leperez1@cps.k12.il.us || Chicago Public Schools in Second Life: A K-12 Perspective || I will prepare a poster that talks about our use of Second Life to-date and includes challenges and opportunities for K-12 teachers and librarians as well as the higher education educators who work with them. || http://blogs.cuip.net/dlis ||
 * 6 || Ed Lamoureux || Professor Beliveau || ell@bradley.edu || Teaching Field Research in SL || SL is a great place to teach field research (ethonography) methods as it serves as both a distance education platform and as a non-threatening yet rich environment for actual field work. This poster will link to a number of resources concerning the class. Professor Beliveau will be available for Q&A form time to time throughout the day. || [|http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/slstuff.html|link] ||
 * 7 || Chris Swaine || Chris Eggplant || chris@sleducationuk.net || Validating and recognising skills - a core competency framework || This presentation has been put together to support the development of effective learning and teaching in ‘Second Life’. Second Life is becoming increasingly pervasive. It currently has a community of over six million residents, a strong support community and a rapidly increasing business and educational presence. However, If Second Life is to move from marginal to mainstream use and enable real life organisations, practitioners and learners to use it effectively, we will need to start looking at quality and competence - in the same way we doing in real life. Our learners deserve nothing less, our internal and external quality assurance processes will require it, and both financial and staffing resources will need to be justitfied! A thorny issue with a delicate balencing act...so how can we deal with this? || http://www.sleducationuk.net ||
 * 8 || Westley Field || Westley Streeter || westley@mac.com || Getting started || How do you get started? What are the important considerations before you begin. Explore a framework that allows you to prepare for your new journey. What are the issues in getting started and what are the strategies you can use to enlist involvement from your school. This presentation uses established models and real life experiences to provide a forum to share ideas on everything you need to do before you begin the journey. || http://www.westleyfield.com ||
 * 9 || Jonathon Richter || Wainbrave Bernal || jrichter@uoregon.edu || The Salamander Project: Creating a typology of learning objects in Second Life || A recently funded grant by The NorthWest Computing Council has added to the capacity being built by CATE at the University of Oregon's effort to enhance higher education faculty to learn and teach in Multi-User Virtual Environments, such as Second Life. The SaLamander Project will enlist educators from all stripes in Second Life to nominate the many tools, builds, and locales in SL that are useful for teaching and learning to be described by content experts and placed in a searchable format both on the web and within Second Life. || http://www.hothousestrategies.com/tefblog ||
 * 10 || Alan Hudson || Apaul Balut || ahudson@med.wayne.edu || Collaborative Efforts at the SL Genetics Center || Second Life provides unexpected opportunities for collaboration with colleagues with related interests. In this poster Apaul Balut and Elizabeth Gloucester describe their collaboration with Max Chatnoir on exhibits housed on Genome Island. Elizabeth has written all text materials for the "Garden of Prokaryotic Genomes" and Apaul has contributed material to exhibits on mitochondrial genomes. ||  ||
 * 11 || Jeffrey Corbin || zazen Manbi || Corrbin@eazy.net || SciLands ||  ||   ||
 * 12 || Jean-Claude Bradley, PhD || Horace Moody || jeanclaude.bradley@gmail.com || Open Notebook Science || What would happen if patenting didn't impede progress? What would happen if scientists made their findings open, accessible, and modifiable via RSS technology? Come find out! || http://usefulchem.blogspot.com
 * 13 || Sharon Tettegah || Amaagariwah Kawabata || stettega@uiuc.edu || SLQuest: What happened to WebQuest? || This presentation explores a Second Life Quest of undergraduate and graduate students in a course on Computer Assisted Instruction. Twenty five (N = 25) participated in the course during Spring 2006. Opportunities and challenges are presented. || http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/stettega/virtualworlds/index.html ||

Presentations
http://www.GlobalKids.org || & Kyle Mawer || Baldric Commons & Frank Spearmann || graham.stanley@britishcouncil.es & kylemawer@britishcouncil.es || ESL, Second Life and Teenagers : Learner Autonomy for the Digital Natives || What is the best way to encourage learner autonomy for our 21st Century teenage learners? Perhaps Second Life, with it's richly visual environment can be used to appeal to our "Digital Natives" (Prensky, 2001) and promote this? In this presentation, I will outline the British Council's open access project in the Teen Grid of Second Life, which aims to engage both native and non-native speakers of English, bringing them together in a space that utilises discovery-based and game-based learning activities as well as more formal methods of learning. || http://www.britishcouncil.org http://grahambluecoat.edublogs.org || http://collegeenglish.wikispaces.com ||
 * RL Name || SL Name || Email || Title || Abstract || Links ||
 * Lindy McKeown || Decka Mah || decka.mah@deckamah.com || Action Learning in Second Life || With the support of a Queensland Government Smart State PhD Grant, Australian Lindy McKeown has created an innovative online professional development space on the virtual island of Terra incognita which was designed to support Action Learning online. By using Participatory Design Based Research, this learning space has been created with the input of experienced Action Learning facilitators, gamers, 3D world users, online learning specialists and the program participants. Action Learning has been identified as an effective professional learning strategy adopted by many professional associations and educational organisations for adult learning that leads to changed practice. Taking this successful strategy online in 3D has the potential to support reflective practice and distance learning by creating greater social presence and supporting critical thinking. Lindy will share the experiences of the first two programs in 3D, one in ActiveWorlds and one in Second Life. ||  ||
 * Barry Joseph || Globalkids Bixby || sl AT globalkids DOT org || An (Educator's) History of the Teen Grid of Second Life- A Global Kids Choose-Your-Own-Best-Practices Adventure || Since Feb, 2006, Global Kids - an educational organization in New York City - has run one of the only island in the grid open to mainland teens, funded by or doing in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, UNICEF, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the International Criminal Court, IBM, YouthVenture and more. Come participate in both a history of the teen grid and a review of educational Best Practices. Participate, you ask? But how? By determining the direction of the presentation. After every few slides the audience will decide the direction of the presentation. Watch videos, see comic book examples, hear anecdotes, learn best practices and be amazed. Help us test this presentation for possible inclusion in the upcoming SLCC. || http://www.HolyMeatballs.org
 * Kevin Jarrett || KJ Hax and Digital Mincemeat (Teen Grid) || kjarrett@waldenu.edu || A K-20 Educator's Journey Through Second Life || This presentation will provide an overview of the results of my grant-funded exploration of SL to date, which includes both the Teen and Adult grids. I will focus on the educational implications of SL by introducing several amazing educators and discussing the work they are doing (in both grids). I will explore the powerful interpersonal and social bonds that SL has fostered in my life. I will also be talking about The Center for Advanced Virtual Education, a.k.a. The C.A.V.E., a complex of three buildings on EduIsland II that promises to bring the greatest minds in EDTECH into SL, making them accessible to anyone. || http://www.storyofmysecondlife.com ||
 * Beth Ritter-Guth || Desideria Stockton || bethritterguth@gmail.com || Where is Beowulf? The Point of Literature Alive! || Second Life is a rich environment for teaching and learning; yet, there is only program devoted to teaching literature in SL. After discovering the lack of quality literary content, Beth developed Literature Alive! as a non-profit program to bring literature to SL. The program boasts an average of 75 new visitors a week, and is home to a popular training series for faculty. || http://collegeenglish.wikispaces.com ||
 * Ingrid Moon || Roxxor Foxley || imoon@aii.edu || not named || I have any number of items I can speak to or present a panel or rount-table/discussion on, or perhaps even create an "interactive experience" for. * business models for independent education islands: who pays, who gains - instructional design - thinking outside the virtual box - conducting effective user/learner research to best meet students' needs Please let me know what you need! || http://www.ingridmoon.com, http://www.linkedin.com/in/ingridm ||
 * Peggy Sheehy || Maggie Marat || classacteach@optonline.net || Ramapo Islands: A New Dimension in Learning || Ramapo Central School District, in conjuction with FireSabre Consulting has established a presence in Teen Second Life. By June, 400 8th grade students will have demonstrated knowledge and explored the virtual platform. While some of the learning has been structured and project based, the students are offering thought-provoking feedback that far exceeds our expectations for their experiential learning. || http://rampoislands.blogspot.com ||
 * John Jamison || Virtual Bacon || jjamison@imagilearning.com || Two Years of Introducing Educators to Second Life in 60 Minutes, or: Tips for Dinosaur Wrangling. || "How do explain Second Life to my boss?".."How do I explain Second Life to my budget officer?".."How do I get my faculty to use Second Life?".."How do I get my IT people to....(fill in the blank)...". These are some of the most common questions appearing in the SLED listserve, and the ones I hear most often from the educators visiting imagiLEARNING. Add those to the "Where can I find..." questions and you've got a pretty good picture of where many educators spend their time in SL. According to my friendly greeter bot, Alex, imagiLEARNING has hosted more than 7,000 educator visitors in the past few months, and this session will present the gleanings from interactions with most of those folks. Participants should come prepared to get involved and not just sit back and try to lurk their way through the presentation...WOOT. Sorry... This session will also feature VB's Seven Critical Issues for Educators...and you certainly don't want to miss those, now do you? || http://www.imagilearning.com ||
 * En Ye || Yearn Au || ye.yearn@gmail.com || A multiplayer online software engineering process game MO-SEProcess || MO-SEProcess is a 3-D Multiplayer Online Software Engineering Process game based on the SimSE game (a 2-D single player game) from UC Irvine. It aims to teach students the principles of the software engineering process by simulating the development of a moderately sized software project. The player will serve as a software engineer, and collaborate with other players to develop a software system. The goal of the game is to release the software to the customer as complete as possible and with as few errors as possible. After the release, the game will end by giving a team score between 0 and 100. We have used this game in two computer science classes, one at Ohio University, the other at the University of Mary Washington, to help teach the principles of software development processes. || http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/index.php/Software_Engineering_Process_Game ||
 * Cynthia Calongne || Lyr Lobo || calongne@pcisys.net || Colorado Technical University in Second Life: the Amusement Park and the Maze Game Class Projects || During January-March 2007, three Colorado Technical University (CTU) classes held team and individual projects in Second Life. They prototyped the Amusement Park and Maze Game projects using a blended classroom style. Come join us as we review our class methods and examine the projects. We will also discuss the effectiveness of Second Life as a course tool for campus, hybrid and online classes. ||  ||
 * Suzi Mazzenga || Xirconnia Morphett || smazzenga@peirce.edu || Drawing on SecondLife Experiences To Enrich the1st Life || Points for Discussion: 1. Virtual Self-Awareness vs. Self-Awareness in Real life 2. Using SL to Expand Imagination 3. Using SL to Enhance Group Dynamics 4. Gaining across-the-board Self-Awareness by Becoming Your Exact Opposite || http://cuttingedge-ucation.wetpaint.com ||
 * Nola Johnston || Cardhu McArdle / Enjay Ellison || nola@nolaj.ca || A Learning Quest || Although my build of a Celtic music themed puzzle quest game is not being done in affilation with either of the institutions I teach for, its goal (apart from providing entertainment to sim visitors) is to explore how educational elements can be integrated into an interactive game in SL. It therefore deliberately incorporates educational elements, some of which are essential to solving its puzzles. Although this game is likely too complex to be used in an educational setting, the approach could be simplified and adapted for directed educational use. This presentation will include a slideshow, puzzle exercise and discussion of how such tools could be profitably used in education. || www.nolaj.ca ||
 * Graham Stanley
 * Stacey Fox || Sage Duncan || renard@ku.edu || LIve performance in Second LIfe || Sage Duncan will present a 1 hour concert of world music and video with an interactive chat. This presentations will utilize animations, custom built instruments, live audio feed and video. || http://www.staceyfox.com ||
 * Birdie Newborn || Birdie Newcomb || birdie.newborn@gmail.com || Breaking Loose: Educators at Large || A brief survey of island owners, leaders, and myself who use Second Life to create open environments for learning that challenge traditional roles of student to teacher, teacher to college. Where can independent educators go — part-timers, independent scholars, or those unable to get a budget out of an uncomprehending administration? || http://beachcollege.net/blog/ ||
 * Kathy Schrock || Kathy Dryburgh || kathy@kathyschrock.net || Guide to SL for K-12 Educators || This presentation, through screenshots on an interactive whiteboard within Second Life, will introduce K-12 educators to a number of educational venues located in Second Life. The sites that will be shown include those that are in support of teaching and learning and also those intended educator professional development. A corresponding blog entry on this page ([|http://kathyschrock.net/blog/)] will allow easy access to both a SLURL and corresponding Web information about the showcased sites. || http://kathyschrock.net/ ||
 * Debs Butler || Debs Regent || debs@debsregent.com || A Living London: Non-Educational Sims that work for Education || A Living London: Non-Educational Sims that work for Education Opportunities for students: There really are good places in SL to send students to, where they can learn and understand about the subjects they are working on in their courses, within a real life practical situation. It is not wise to see SL as a flat, Internet based, page. It provides interaction with it's own set of rules and social skills that must be learnt. Already accepted as being the forerunner to the next generation of the Interney, companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Sun are embracing this as a place to educate their own staff. For education, sims with cultural and historical significance are there to provide students with an insight into that culture, as well as for them to look at their own surroundings more accutely. How many of us look at real buildings and take in their splendour or appreciate why they were built? Now students often say 'I can do that, or I know someone who can do that, building in 6 prims'. Non Educational sims of this style are built with appreciation of the real life environment. Ease of use is important with the Internet - so making people feel 'at home' is prime. To do this, it means attention to detail, both of the history and relevance of the region and to the actual construction of the virtual buildings themselves. Art appreciation and historical knowledge are important in building in SecondLife, as is a passion for reproducing and creating a Virtual World that people feel comfortable in to work, socialise and play. From a good foundation, such as well reproduced historical buildings, comes an opportunity to learn about commerce too. These regions do not come free, they require considerable set up costs and maintenance as well as the dreaded tier costs. This requires a team of skilled labour, many with transferrable outside skills, such as selling and marketing, graphic design and journalism. These skills cover a plethora of abilities and students have an opportunity, at present, to learn and practice skills in this mocrocomplex, they may then take out into the macro world and use confidently. The London Virtual Commerce project provides internship opportunities for students in a vast range of transferrable disciplines, with knowledgable mentors and guides. This long list include sales and marketing, journalism and creative writing, finance & management, graphic design with historic and current research, as well animation, script design and web building skills. Most importantly, an opportunity to work as part of a team and develop social skills. Other ways to use non-educational sims is via treasure hunts and as research material. The interactivity of the medium means that as people forget less when more of their brain is engaged, engaged, more information should be retained here, than using more traditional teaching tools. SecondLife interviews are also an excellent source of material. I myself have been interviewed twice, once on campus, because I just happened to be there, the other by a Psychology Student for their dissertation. Summary: SL has good, safe, Non-Educational Sims that work for Education. These sims offer support for educational establishments, providing transferrable skills students can use elsewhere. The London Group of sims are part of that network. Attention to detail and accuracy is paramount within the London Virtual Commerce team. Good foundations and research ensure stability for progress. Historical accuracy is imporant, as out of the past comes the future and to ensure stable commerce we need an attractive location too. As well organised regions, it is easy for learning to take place within a well educated and comitted team. Internships are obviously welcomed by the group. Therefore I hope to show that Non Educational sims do work for education and collaboration with sim owners is to be encouraged. The most perfect shape in nature is a sphere so Best Practice in Education is also perfect when well rounded. ||  ||
 * Ferdi Serim || Hodjazz Edman || ferdiserim@mac.com || Boats on Mars || Boat builders incorporate the effects of environmental interactions into their designs, and have done so before written language existed to describe the rules. The wide variety of boats reflects diverse purposes, patterns of tides, currents and seas, and even the types of bodies of water to be traveled. What happens when we change worlds, where different rules of physics and psychology come into play? How does our accumulated knowledge of boat building apply on Mars? The new world demands re-examination and redefinition of “boat-ness”. The forms of learning required by moving to a constructed environment, such as Second Life, demand similar re-examination what it means to learn, as well as to teach. Transplanting traditional methods to these new worlds is like bringing boats to Mars. What assumptions about context do we bring as baggage with to these new digital worlds which limit our imagination? By doing and reflecting. || http://isteemergingtech.wordpress.com/about/ ||
 * Marlene Brooks || Zana Kohime || marlene.brooks@rogers.com || Developing Communities of Learners and Practitioners || The mission of the International Second Life (SL) Education Research Society is to provide a venue for participants of Second Life involved in teaching, learning and research to explore, develop and disseminate resources for SL participants by SL participants. This presentation provides an overview of the mission, goals and values of the society. Key areas: ethics, teaching, research, and avenues for support and participation will be explored with a panel of society participants. || http://iprc.pbwiki.com/International%20SL%20Research%20Graduate%20Society ||
 * Catherine Dutton & Lillian Chenoweth, PhD || Catherine Soderstrom / coming soon! || cdutton@twu.edu || Asynchronous Student Orientation to Second Life || This session will focus on student orientations for second life in a 100% online environment where a face-to-face orientation may not be possible. Orientations include directions posted in the class platform and a scavenger hunt for students once they arrive in Second Life. Skills essential to SL orientation will be addressed. Components of previous scavenger hunts will be shared along with success, challenges and areas for future consideration. ||  ||
 * Peter Twining || Schomer Simpson || P.Twining@open.ac.uk || Using Teen Second Life to explore visions of schome (not school - not home - schome - the education system for the information age) || In this talk we will explain what schome is (not school - not home - schome - the education system for the information age) and what it is not. We will then talk about the ways in which we are working with around 150 13 to 17 year olds on Schome Park (our island in the Teen Grid) to extend our thinking about schome and to test out our ideas for what schome might be like. This will be linked back to five dimensions of education (Aims, Environments; Actors; Curriculum; Support). For each of these dimensions we will outline the directions in which we feel schome should be moving and will illustrate what we are doing in Schome Park to try out our ideas. We will aim to 'present' for around 20 minutes allowing 30 minutes for questions and discussion about our work on schome in general or our activities in Schome Park in particular. In preparation for the session participants might like to engage with the schome community website (wiki and forum) - http://www.schome.ac.uk/ || http://www.schome.ac.uk ||
 * Marie Digne || Soso Gao || marie.digne@gmail.com || The Center for Water Studies: a virtual simulation for real life education || Second Life is a unique medium for education in that it combines interactive visual and some audio with written interactive dialogue. As such, it has the power to engage people emotionally as well as intellectually. This combination makes learning both more enjoyable and more long-lasting. The Center for Water Studies on Second Life's Better World Island is an ongoing experiment in promoting environmental awareness and responsibility, as well as encouraging innovation in the management of precious real life water resources. It is also an example of what can be done with minimal resources to provide rich, multi-media educational experiences. To that end, the Center contains simulations of six different real life water habitats: a Mangrove Swamp, a Pacific Northwest Rainforest, Pondlife, a Waterfall with stream, a Coral Barrier Reef, and an Ocean beach with Undersea Marine life, all of which are stressed by human activities in real life. Each setting provides both visually attractive places to explore and meet with others, and notecards with information about the real life counterpart habitat. The Center also hosts educational presentations and discussions by environmental groups who are working in Second Life. In that way, the Center is a catalyst for community-building that has reached individuals in many different real life countries. || http://www.omidyar.net/group/bwi/news/22/ ||
 * Beth Ritter-Guth || Desideria Stockton || BethRitterGuth@gmail.com || The GenX Professor: Teaching Issues for the Non-Tenured, Round Table Discussion || Participants will discuss teaching issues that impact tenure and promotion. || http://bethssecondlife.blogspot.com