Yvonne Lumet

Well it finally worked! After easily setting up for Voice, Marmaduke Stransky and myself were disappointed to find that it wouldn't actually work - we couldn't see that elusive white dot! Unfortunately, that white dot appeared next time I logged in to Second Life. Ah hah! I thought. Perhaps we needed to log out each time before we can set it up. It appears that now, we don't need to! It just works. I found that out when I visited Kim Pasternack's SL Island to have a trial run. By the way, if I hadn't already tried out Skype with my headset I am sure it would have been a harder thing to work out. The sound quality was okay but it can be confusing if you are used to texting and using IM. I am still working on the voice aspect and should really spend more time on it so that I know exactly how it functions.

Well the ECAWA Conference has been and gone. I presented a further introduction to Second Life which was more heavily geared towards alerting ICT teachers and ECAWA members to the educational uses of virtual worlds. This presentation also included an introduction to setting up your accoung, much the same as I completed at Murdoch University - showing delegates how to begin their Second Life. I also ran a hands on session during which we were able to create only 3 accounts due to the IPs all coming from the same venue. Unfortunately, I had not been forewarned about this aspect of account creation. Needless to say, I allowed a couple of people to take over my avatar so they could get a feel for navigating the User Interface. Several ECAWA members are now represented by avatars in Second Life and are testing the waters informally - with an open invitation to ask for help if they need it! Thanks also to Decka Mah for her permission to use Terra incognita during our try outs and also as a meeting place for new avatars. Without her generosity, we would be less well-placed to try and become more established in Second Life.

Recently, I had the good fortune to meet a Voice mentor who explained to me that I needed to download the First Look (Voice) client if I wanted to attempt to use the Voice aspect. We debated the merits for using Voice in the various SIMS of Second Life and both agreed for educational aspects it was most suitable. We also agreed that when in Role Play situations, text is definitely better!

I sent a group notice to the ECAWA SL members in order to pass on the information in the hope that we might get together and try it out.

Well we had arrangements in place for use of a lab at Murdoch University but these have fallen through possibly due to a lack of time on the part of those who may have wanted to participate.

However, we have decided to re-run the introductory face to face talk at the ECAWA Conference in August, hopefully followed by a hands on workshop in which participants can make their avatar account and go through the Tutorial Island with some experienced buddies on hand to help. Once this is over, we will later hold other informal meets online before actually hosting the final event.

A long drawn out process but some things take time!

The final group meeting to hear of each other's experiences and successes throughout the projects.

 

On June 10th I attended a final Learning Set Meeting with several others who had been taking part in their own Action Learning Projects. We all agreed that we had learnt so much participating in our varied projects. The chance to bounce our thoughts and ideas around with like-minded colleagues, even though they may have been in other parts of the world, was seen as the most important aspect of this sort of learning experience. A community linked by socially constructed knowledge and ideas.

The main experience shared by all was the feeling of being a nOOb when first experiencing Second Life. I believe it remains a hurdle for all educators who are trying to engage adult learners who are unused to game interfaces. The need for buddies and mentors to help one through the initial steps is paramount if the use of virtual worlds in education is to flourish. There are many ways of overcoming this like having face to face workshops so that participants are gradually introduced to the online virtual world with immediate situational help available or holding weekly in-world meets during which participants learn a new skill to use in the virtual world or visit a place which holds educational potential.

After the meeting, we viewed Wonko's project and met another Australian educator.

 

I later had the opportunity to meet an avatar from a NSW High School who spoke about developments that are occurring in his school on an island in the teen grid. This is definitely another aspect that warrants further investigation by secondary educators in Western Australia.

All in all, I am so pleased to have taken this journey – and pleased also that it is to continue to its fruition!