Insight Virtual College is a “bridge between worlds” offering first life teachers the opportunity to teach to Second Life residents. IVC also offers Second Life skills classes such as building, scripting, role play, business, and new resident orientation.

The administrative staff of IVC are the dean of the college Stargazer Blazer, ReverendMathias Merit and Kee Llewelyn.

Stargazer told me, “We do offer opportunities for all teachers, from first life or second life, to share their knowledge with the community. We are always looking for dependable teachers who like to teach and can be self directed.”

The North entrance to Insight Virtual College slurl

To the right of the entrance is the Welcome Center and Lounge. You can get a notecard with a current class schedule on the front deck of the Welcome Center.

Looking South from the Welcome Center, the quad and classroom.

Standing on the classroom stage looking North to the Welcome Center.

Kee Llewelyn’s Weegee Gallery is currently exhibiting Xenophile Neurocam 2005-2010 A Retrospective

If you are a self-motivated teacher, IVC may be an opportunity for you.

In the NorthEast corner of the campus, a spot to sit and chat or spend a few quiet moments in the meditation garden.

The Chilbo community was established in 2006 as an association of mainland land owners determined to be good neighbors to each other. Through the years that ethic has continued to be the foundation for a diverse group of residents with a wide variety of interests, both land owners and renters. As such, it runs counter to the mainland stereotype of ‘anything goes and the heck with your neighbor’. A presence in the Chilbo community has the advantage of being a part of long term community.

Chilbo does have a small number of rentals available if your prim needs and budget are limited. Contact Maddog Easterling or Kristine Kristan about residential or office rentals. Chibi Lexenstar is the person to contact to see commercial properties fronting the Linden roads.

If you are looking for something larger, there are currently a couple of open parcels that can be sized to suit your needs.

Over 8000 sqm close to Linden Rt 10 slurl

Over 3000 sqm with Linden Rt 9 frontage slurl

Some new storefronts designed by resident extraordinaire, Kristine Kristan.

The previous Town Hall has been removed to make way for a newer, more functional space.

Want to learn more about the revitalization plans? Read the Chilbo Wiki here.

In contrast to Chilbo’s land economy with thoughtful design, many land owners have taken advantage of the parceling strategy in conjunction with ad farming.  I was pleased to see that Linden Labs is starting to look at the issue of land cutting.  In several weeks, according to the official SL blog it will be a policy “that makes the deliberate and extensive cutting of land a violation”. 

You can read about the post and more details here.

Pictured here is a “starter” residence in Chilbo.  The parcel is 192 square meters with a cottage of 25 prim.  The parcel will support about 50 prim or so.  This kind of economy affords many residents an opportunity to share space in Chilbo.  

Economy of land use in Chilbo

Connectivism Village in Chilbo

The Main Gate of the Connectivism Village down in the south Madhupak area of Chilbo.

This month marks the start of the Connectivism & Connective Knowledge course, a Massively Online Open Course.  From the course info:

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. George Siemens (SL: Whatever Russel) and Stephen Downes – the two leading figures on connectivism and connective knowledge – will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course. The course will run from September 7, 2008 to November 29, 2008 and will be fully delivered online.

Over 2000 participants from around the world have signed on to take part, and several members of the Chilbo community are fellow students, including Gann McGann,  Olando7 Decosta, Samuel Sputnik, Sine Rennahan, Tara Yeats, and Wainbrave Bernal.  The Chilbo Community is hosting the Second Life cohort of the class, and Cosimo Urbanowicz has also joined some of the early discussions and helped with the construction of the Connectivism Village down in Madhupak.

SL Cohort Wiki: http://chilbo.wikispaces.com/Connectivism+Course+in+Chilbo
SL Cohort Googlegroup: http://groups.google.com/group/connectivismSL
SL Cohort Tag: CCK08SL

Second Life Cohort Weekly Meeting Times:
Tuesdays at 11AM SLT (-7GMT)
Thursdays at 6PM SLT (-7GMT)
Sundays at 5PM SLT (-7GMT)

Purpose of the Connectivism Village

Initially, the impulse was simply to see if other students in the course who also had Second Life accounts were interested in meeting weekly in-world to discuss the Connectivism course.  Though there are many communications tools used as part of the course structure, I’ve begun to feel I haven’t really “met” someone until I’ve “seen” them – even if that meeting and seeing takes place in avatar form.  Psychologically, it seems as if I don’t feel the same level of engagement with another person through their blogs, tweets, or discussion board posts unless I’ve “met” them first, and I was interested in meeting other students in the class.

Thursday is ladies night?  Members of the Connectivism course discuss the first week in Chilbo’s Shrubbery Amphitheatre.

But as I began to read more about Connectivism, I started to think that it might contain concepts that could be better visualized in 3D, and for SL building, the Second Life cohort would need land and prims.  After talking with folks in the community, we cleared up the Fairgrounds area and made room for a temporary Connectivism Village project that would last three months and house members of the course who needed a home base in Second Life.

Small mini-homes and offices are available for members of the Second Life Cohort of the Connectivism course for the duration of the class time.  Some students are interested in finding roomates!

The Fairgrounds area is also large enough to host some central facilities and resources for the course, to help make sense of the plethora of web based feeds, tools, readings, and course media.  The Connectivism Second Life Cohort Office will simplify the process of folks joining the cohort, and the Connectivism Reading Room contains all of the assigned weekly readings and some introductory materials for the course.

The Connectivism Reading Room can help students visualize course readings and discussion archives, as well as provide a place to discuss readings ad hoc through the week.

The Connectivism Course Tools Sundae Shop is a whimsical take on the somewhat overwhelming nature of the course structure.  With several websites, communication mediums, RSS feeds, and course emails, Moodle forums, Facebook, and on and on, it’s a little rough trying to figure out which tools will work for your particular needs.  The Sundae Shop is a metaphor for taking the flavors you like and sampling some of the others, not putting every choice on the sundae!

The “Menu” of various course tools in the Connectivism Sundae Shop.

Beyond the few buildings near the plaza, however, I think it will be the Connectivism Sandbox that will hold the most interesting content of the course.  Here we can play with models, particles, sets, artwork, media.. whatever strikes our fancy as we play with the concepts of the course and learn more about Connectivism.  For those who are new to building in Second Life, visit the Ivory Tower of Primitives for a walk through, self-paced building tutorial.  The Ivory Tower is a cultural institution of Second Life and shouldn’t be missed even if you’ve learned on your own!

An overhead view of the Connectivism Village in the Chilbo Community (Madhupak sim).

I look forward to seeing how the Second Life cohort of the course progresses, and I encourage anyone from Chilbo to participate or check it out!   If you have time to wander down, please say hi to any students you see too!   They are members of the Chilbo Community Building Project group and have the group tag “Chilbo Connect!”   ~  Fleep

The past few weeks have been a flurry of activity as we clean up the sim in preparation for the Chilbo Summer Faire. The Faire will take place on July 20th through July 26th, and we hope you’ll help us get ready! But first, news from the sims…

Sidewalk Repaving Completed, New Lamps/TP posts

In order to conserve on the number of prims used for infrastructure in the community, a massive re-paving project was undertaken in the past few weeks. A pleasant brick-like path way was chosen and Scalar Tardis developed a ribbon-like lamp post with an illuminated column to replace the hodge podge of lamps around the sim. The old black and blue Teleport to Town Hall posts were also removed and incorporated into a banner that teleports the user to Town Hall upon left-clicking. Together these efforts saved over 380 prims in the combined sims!

Residents may want to check their plots to see how the sidewalk now connects. Some minor discrepancies may need to be fixed, since megaprims are much less flexible and difficult to work with. Please contact Fleep Tuque or Rachel Corleone if you need minor terraforming or adjustments at your place!

Banking & Exchange Kiosk

Situated just in front of the Town Hall, a new kiosk with terminals for Linden dollar transactions and the popular web-based Second Life shopping exchanges SLExchange and OnRez is now available for our residents’ convenience.

New Information & Events Kiosk Area

A new plaza was created south of the Shrubbery Amphitheatre & Park to display notices and information about live entertainment events in Chilbo or elsewhere. Residents, be sure to use low prim displays!

New Bridges in Madhupak

We’ve taken advantage of megaprims to attempt to connect the sidewalks on either side of the Madhupak road. If anyone can build a better bridge that’s more aesthetically pleasing, Fleep would love to know about it! Have a walk down south and check them out.

Chilbo Summer Faire – Fairgrounds going up!

Planning and development has commenced for the Chilbo Summer Faire, scheduled for July 20 – 26th. The Faire will showcase the many talents of our residents, have live events and performances, as well as games and exhibits. Come join us for a virtual summer faire celebrating community! If you would like to showcase a project or help with the planning, contact Fleep Tuque or Rachel Corleone.

In James Howard Kunstler‘s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life — the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about. Reengineering our cities will involve more radical change than we are prepared for, he believes, but our hand will be forced by earth crises stemming from our overconsuming lifestyle. “Life in the mid-21st century,” Kunstler says, “is going to be about living locally.” Passionate, profane and funny, this talk will make you think about the place where you live.