Tuesday 27 November 2007

Major grant during session

My interviews go smooth, little problems. Sometimes a technical hiccup before or during a session, but not many or often. During my interview here however I was disturbed by a very happy occasion for a researcher. My contact heard that a major grant passed. There was no way to continue the conversation as the person must have danced through the room in real life. We 'll get in touch later, cooled down, the two of us.

Jeremy and I

He opened our meet saying: Shoot, my friend. I didn't as I am not a hunter. Maybe he is not aware of the risks he is taking. A nice guy to meet too. We sat down for an interview, Jeremy and I. As you can see in SL it doesn't matter what you look like. You could be a white male or an animal of any kind. What counts is where the mind meets. And they did.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

University Ulster Magee 229/110/38

HarmonyHill and I sat down 'as students in learning' in the auditorium. He showed me around in what students had developed as an assignment. Replica's of the Ulster University, built in small groups, evaluated on quality, collaboration and result. SL has some means to show what each student contributed to a group result. We discussed to what extent 'play' in construction maybe a part of the successful use of SL for learning. Nice guy, good session.

Monday 12 November 2007

First results

The first results on the interviews I held. So far I ve interviewed 20 SL - residents, a third of the number I target to question the coming weeks. When I put the results in Bernie Dodges' equation the spreadsheet gives a score of 24. Now this may seem very low to you at first sight, but if you test the equation in a spreadsheet, you might conclude otherwise. I will keep you posted!!

Sunday 11 November 2007

Impressed by a Giants Job

I wrote about VIT yesterday. Today I visited the location again and downloaded the viewer and the file with the VIT - mindmap in it. Almost a megabyte of clustered information on virtual information technology: websites, people, applications, .... a world of information on the subject. A tremendous effort to organise, order and visualise the subject in all its aspects. Still growing although the application is making funny noises bearing the load. Click the image to get all info.

Saturday 10 November 2007

VIT World

Butch made a huge and beautiful mindmap of virtual information technology data. The VIT project also built a 3d-image of it in SL. I will not trouble you now with mind- and conceptmapping but please go and have a look at it when you can. It is well worth a trip. I hope you meet the maker of this, he is nice, friendly and has a creative mind.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Lighthouse Learning Island 47/151/24

Kathy Dryburgh directed me to this place to meet for an interview. Having some time left I went there and had a stroll through the premises. It looks nice, is open and spacious and has all the facilities a modern and open learning place should have. She also provided a small number of free goodies to communicate or do other nice interactive things. I fetched a folder-distributor from the shelf. Look what it did to my appearance. Must ask Kathy what next to do...!

Monday 5 November 2007

First results

These are the first results on my interview in Second Life. People are asked to score the perceived added value of SL for teaching and learning using Bernie Dodge's equation: p = a *d *e, where P=power; a= attention; d= depth and e= efficiency. The score is taken stressing the need for an intuitive approach. My guests scored an average 7,2 for attention, a 5,7 for depth and 4,6 for efficiency. I leave it to you to interpret this.
You are very welcome to join this research by giving an in-world interview of approximately 30 minutes

Terra Incognita 156/145/23

Maggie Marat made a fine place in Terra Incognita. The first time I was here I was pleased to find a nice piece of work on building and some funny ducks. This time I saw a lot of resources for students in an action-learning model. A fine example. The Welcome To.......did the rest.

Sunday 4 November 2007

Get access : Joop Zuhal

This evening I could not log in to meet my friend Professor Dinzeo at his launch of the eLab City project. Intriguing and good for a network visit. I was looking forward to the bits and bobs at the reception tables. In a final attempt to get in I made a new avatar Alter Albatros and GOT IN. So much for old customers at Linden Lab. Now you know too. :-{. The people behind me just got in!!!!

Thursday 1 November 2007

Google Analytics on Aggiornamento II

Thank you all for your attention. I just had a good look at the Google Analytics - results of this blog. Although moderate in numbers it makes me happy that almost 900 people found this blog and returned almost 1 in 2. Some of you probably used it to make a start for a quick tour in Second Life. Winter is coming here, no doubt I will have more time to prepare some more trips and reports for you. In the mean time you can meet me in SL, in most cases busy with my in - world interviews. Please join my SL group: Educators: Interview P=A*D*E if you want to meet others or join in for an interview.