The Chilbo Road Press

Take a field trip with the ISTE Newcomer’s Committee! Join us for a dance party and outdoor cafe at the Educator’s Resource Room in Greater Chilbo on the Mainland. Hosted by Maggie Larimore of the Newcomer’s Committee and ISTE Member Josain Zsun, the Chair of the Chilbo Education Committee. The Educator’s Resource Room is full of great freebies and other resources for educators. So come and dance, snack and “shop” with us!

ISTE Newcomer Social
Thursday, February 18th, 2010, from 5-6pm, SLT

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/128/48/2

On Tuesday, February 9th, the Insight Virtual College Community Centre will host a gala ball and auction benefit in hopes of raising funds to offset tier fees. All monies raised during the event will be used to keep the IVC free for all residents.

The event schedule:

3:00 pm to 5:00 pm DJ Bcreative Wilde
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm Auction!
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm DJ Dakota Christensen

Formal attire is requested. A copy of the auction catalog is up for view at the Education Resource Center:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/76/81/65

Location of the Gala Ball:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Insight%20Virtual%20College/40/130/33

The International Society for Technology in Education will be hosting a Newcomer Social tomorrow evening at ISTE Island.

Maggie Larrimore, a Chilbo community member who is affiliated with the organization, says it will be “a picnic/county carnival kind of thing with a merry-go-round and cotton candy…,” and that it is “a way for newcomers to get together, practice some skills and have some fun.”

The Newcomer Social starts at 5pm SLT at ISTE Island.

SLURL http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/128/128/2.

Information on ISTE can be found inworld at ISTE Island, or on their website.

Cheers to Chilbo community member L1Aura Loire who was one of the keynote speakers for the 2009 NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning.  Her  keynote presentation on March 25th, “Virtual Subjectivity”, was part of the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, which explored the impact of new media on teaching, learning, research, and creative expression, especially in higher education.

Picture courtesy of L1Aura Loire from her keynote presentation at NMC

L1Aura is the avatar of Dr. Lori Landay who is no stranger to higher education.   She holds multiple degrees and received her Ph.D. from Indiana University in English and American Studies.  Lori Landay is a recipient of the Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship at Berklee College of Music for her project, “Virtual Worlds” where she is exploring the possibilities for education and music in online immersive environments. She is Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and the author of Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture and various articles on new media, silent film, and I Love Lucy. 

L1Aura shared her virtual stage (wearing a stunning gown by Eshi Otawara I may add) at NMC with Nettrice Beattie who is the avatar for the real woman Nettrice R. Gaskins.  Nettrice is an artist and educator who bridges the actual and virtual worlds and explores how these realities can have a transformative impact on people’s lives.

Nettrice and Lori at NMC Symposium keynote address

If you did not have an opportunity to hear L1Aura or Nettrice speak live you still can check out their thought provoking presentations as documented on Lori Landay’s blog as well as the NMC’s website which features a variety documentation including machinima, slideshows and papers from most of the speakers who presented at the symposium.

Lori has smart ideas and a great sense of humor and has brought that persona into SL through L1Aura.  I am certain you will learn something new and inspirational when you take a read through her blog which covers many topics and links.  So when you see L1Aura around the  Chibo community give her a wave and a smile to brighten up her sabbatical in Second Life. 

Without a doubt, she has contributed to the community with her thoughtful discourse about the creative and social experiences we all share in one way or another in this virtual world.

Gann McGann gives seminar to students in Chilbo office (Madhupak)

Chilbo resident Gann McGann was quoted in the UK’s TimesOnline, discussing the educational potential of virtual world platforms like Second Life:

Mark Childs, who is doing a PhD on the effects of using programs such as Second Life for learning at Warwick University, says the real advantage is that it is a 3D environment: “You can recreate scenes from ancient life – such as a theatre – and students can get an idea of what it might have been like to be there.”

Then a few weeks later was a featured speaker at the UKCLE seminar on simulation learning where he created a great resource for educators looking to explore Second Life for the first time.

Congrats to Gann, and this is what happens when you get too far behind on your feed reader – you miss great stuff that Chilbo residents are doing!

Following the end of the very successful Chilbo Summer Fair, we said goodbye to the Ferris Wheel and fabulous rides, artworks, and projects and made way for a new three month project 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

Great crowd and exceptional panelists!  Here’s the transcript for the Saturday August 23 session on community-building in SL:

Chilbo Community – Summer Faire panel on Second Life Community-Building: What we’ve learned

This panel discussion focuses on what can make–or break–communities in Second Life. What’s the “glue” that holds virtual communities together? What helps people get involved? What Second Life tools and features help or hinder the process? Today’s panelists are Sophrosyne Stenvaag of Extropia Core, and Fleet Goldenberg of Eduislands talking about the island sim  perspective. Panel moderator: Tara Yeats

—————————————————————-

Tara Yeats: Welcome to the first of two panel discussions about Second Life community-building.

Tara Yeats: We’ll be talking about what holds virtual world communities together, what helps people get involved, what Second Life tools and features help or hinder the process. Today’s session focuses on Island-based communities. There’s a second session tomorrow focusing on mainland communities.

Sophrosyne Stenvaag: wow, you’d think that’d be a fairly popular name…

Tara Yeats: I’ll start off with some brief introductions and we’ll hear from our panelists, then move to questions. For now, if you have a question for our panelists, please send it to me in IM – we’ll open this up for general discussion a bit later.

Tara Yeats: BTW, this will all be in text so you won’t need to toggle anything

Tara Yeats: First, to my left…. Sophrosyne Stenvaag is Director of Extropia Core, which describes itself as an exemplar of the future we want, today, where technology is used exuberantly in the service of beauty and fun. Residents are encouraged to govern their own affairs to the greatest extent possible. Extropia started in 2007.

Tara Yeats: Welcome Soph! To get things rolling, tell us a bit about Extropia – how did it get started?

(more…)

Cecilia Delacroix gives a poetry reading at the Chilbo Summer Fair 2008.

Yesterday, two exciting events at the Chilbo Summer Fair – Cecilia Delacroix gave a poetry reading of her Seasons Cycle in the Shells plaza, and accepted our invitation to become the official Poet of Chilbo!

Chilbo residents and visitors listen intently to Cecilia’s poetry in the Shells Plaza.

Cecilia has christened two of our public venues with their first ever performances, and donated the beautiful images to the Shrubbery Amphitheatre background, so we are very pleased indeed to have her with us. If any Chilbo resident needs to commission our Poet, please contact Cecilia Delacroix!

Rezago Kokorin leads the Virtual Artists Alliance Workshop in the Chilbo Sandbox.

Later that evening, Rezago Kokorin gave a presentation in the Chilbo Sandbox at the Virtual Artists Alliance Workshop. The premise of these sessions is simple: the host introduces a concept or technique that can be applied to building in Second Life, and the remainder of the session is dedicated to experimentation, using the concept or technique for artistic application.

Chilbo resident Kim Link asks a question while Rezago looks on.

Chilbo residents and guests took the scripts Rezago provided and began practicing the various techniques he discussed, asked questions, and learned about creating prims that are responsive to an avatar’s proximity. Rezago will be leading another workshop next Tuesday in the same place – be sure to join us!

Residents of Chilbo joined Lizzette Zenovka as she celebrated the opening of the new SL HIV Prevention and Education Center Annex at Tethea.  The main center is located in Chilbo, but the new Annex will provide additional opportunities for outreach.  “We’re working to fight the stigma of AIDS in Second Life,” said Director Lizzette Zenovka, “we’re all at risk.”  Chilbo resident Krystale Bailey will be hosting a fundraiser for the Center on the Modus Vivendi sim on May 24th and 25th.   We hope to see you there and make sure to stop by and check out the new Annex!   posted by Fleep Tuque on Tethea using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Fleep Tuque dancing with Alanagh Recreant at the island opening of Virtual Africa!  Created by Uthango Social Investments, Virtual Africa works to create a gateway for Africans into virtual worlds, and specifically into Second Life, to advocate for their real world innovative programmes in sustainable development and establish linkages with like-minded pioneers.  See the Virtual Africa blog at http://slafrica.wordpress.com/ and make time to stop by and learn more about their work!  posted by Fleep Tuque on Robben Island using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]