Check out the article describing the collaboration between Dr. Jennifer Wilhelm, PIMSER Outreach Professor, UK College of Education, and Winthrop Professor Grady Venville, the inaugural Professor of Science Education at University of Western Australia.

They met together with Dr. Wilhelm’s class of pre-service math teachers in their UKy Second Life classroom to talk about their science findings – and Dr. Venville writes that she found the added bonus of using an avatar to talk online live with students from another university to be intriguing. 

Dr. Venville writes:  “The lesson was a great success because it enabled ‘live’ discussion across the hemispheres which is an enriching experience when trying to understand and explain the phases of the Moon. Our goal is for these pre-service teachers to see the ‘added value’ that platforms like second life can bring to teaching…”

They plan to try and bring together their two classes next time – a combined meeting of aspiring teachers in Australia and in Kentucky.  Great things are ahead!

On Friday, October 28th, Dr. Philipp Kraemer presented “An Introduction to Second Life: A New Tool for Education and Research” as a part of the UK Psychology Department’s Cognitive Learning and Performance Cluster.

With the help of the UK Libraries and two undergraduate psychology students, Professor Kraemer has replicated a classic psychology research study in Second Life.

A good time was had by all.

As part of the Social Theory, Politics and the Arts Conference, an on-campus community event “Social Theory, Art and Immigration in Kentucky” will be hosted also in the UKy island’s Perennial Peace Garden for visitors to the UKy island from Second Life.

Please join us inworld at 5:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. SLT) when several local artists convene in the W.T.Young Library Auditorium (in real life) for a discussion with Marjorie Guyon, the artist of the Nation of Nations art installation.

This free event is co-sponsored by The Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice as part of their VOICES for Peace and Justice Series 2011.  The reception and discussion is open to the public and provides an opportunity to discuss critical questions in our community about immigration and debates over new state laws defining citizenship.  For more information, contact Bella Yan inworld or Randolph Hollingsworth at 257-0047.

Internet2 Meeting Presenters

A small group presented on October 3 to the Internet2 Fall Members Meeting. Doesn’t this look like a fun crowd?

If you are looking for more information about Second Life at the University of Kentucky, contact Patsy at pcarr3@uky.edu. We’d love to hear from you. 

Virtual Anatomy Lab in Second Life

Ricetopher Freenote (Dr. Christopher Rice) and Kezia1618 Landar (Dr. April Richardson) will join Wildcat Thursday (Patsy Carruthers) and Alice Burgess (Beth Kraemer) in-world for a brief presentation to the Fall Internet2 meeting. The focus will be Second Life as a K-20 tool that requires high-speed Internet access. Here is a description of our 15-minute session:

Virtual Anatomy and Political Science in Second Life – University of Kentucky uses its space in Second Life to support teaching and research projects as well as special events. April Richardson, Ph.D., (Kezia1618 Landar) teaches a virtual anatomy lab in SL, and Christopher S. Rice, Ph.D., (Ricetopher Freenote) has used SL to support his course American Political Thought, in which students explored political theory concepts in the built and social environments of Second Life. Visit UK’s SL project and link to resources and UK Island in Second Life at http://ukisland.wordpress.com/

Our session starts at 8:45am Eastern time (5:45am SLT) on Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, in the virtual WT Young Library. We will visit the virtual anatomy lab, as well (photo of lab building, which is next to the library). There are two ways to join us, but be aware that some challenges exist and, depending on how you attend, you may not hear all parts of the presentation.

1. Join us in Second Life*. We’ll start at the virtual WTY Library on University of KY Island and we’ll move to the virtual anatomy lab to wrap up. If you join us here, you will not hear Wildcat’s introduction; you will only hear the in-world presenters. Since Wildcat’s portion is very short, at the beginning, then you won’t miss much. We’d love to have you there to observe! (Please refrain from discussion if you attend in-world; we have only 15 minutes to present and will not have time for Q&A.)
2. Join via streaming for I2 Meeting attendees at https://www.mcnc.org/video-streaming/Internet2Members.

Questions?  Email Patsy Carruthers (Wildcat Thursday) at pcarr3@uky.edu.

*Get an avatar and download the Second Life viewer by visiting https://join.secondlife.com/.  (You can choose to be a person, an animal … even a vehicle. Note the choices at the top center of the page.)

On Tuesday, September 6th at noon (Eastern Time), people from all over the world will be gathering at the UK Second Life Island in the Perennial Peace Garden.  Anyone on the UK Campus who wants to learn how to get a Second Life account and navigate around can meet with Jen Bartlett in The Hub at the W.T. Young Library.

SECOND LIFE FACILITATORS:

Ellie Brewster: SL Minerva Island director, OSU Women’s Studies professor Sharon Collingwood
Joe Cupola:  Joe Floyd in RL, Librarian at University of South Florida
Oggie Ballinger: David Horror, IT consultant, University of Louisville
Kate Miranda:  Music Island in SL
Leyla Longfall: Jessica Anderson, Gaines Fellow and Perennial Peace Garden developer
Bella Yan: Randolph Hollingsworth, UK Division of Undergraduate Education
Wildcat Thursday: Patsy Carruthers, UKIT Academic Technologies
Hazzard Messerchmitt: Matt Hazzard, UKIT Academic Technologies
Alice Burgess: Beth Kraemer, UK Libraries IT
Ginevra Merlin: Jen Bartlett, UK Libraries, The Hub

AGENDA

noon – 12:30 p.m. Gathering of inworld participants/mentors to view the Nation of Nations exhibit in the Perennial Peace Garden (the SLurl to teleport directly to the Garden is at http://bit.ly/oAIXiY), tour the UK SL island if you want and get to know each other.

12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Offer mini-workshops on SL avatar basics at various places around the Garden (one-on-ones ideally, but small groups if necessary) regarding how to adjust sound, view, touching items to make the scripts work, etc. Ellie Brewster (OSU’s Minerva Island director and Women’s Studies professor Sharon Collingwood in RL), Joe Cupola (aka Joe Floyd in RL, Librarian at University of South Florida), Oggie Ballinger (aka David Horror, IT consultant, University of Louisville), and Kate Miranda (of Music Island in SL) have offered to help visitors learn how to use the various technologies and access the audio-visual stream simulcast of the UK Core Celebration beginning at 1 p.m. These inworld mini-workshops will be aided and abetted by the wonderful folks led by Jen Bartlett in the UK Libraries “Hub” where the SL client is installed on public computers. Bella Yan
will be inworld and her view will be projected on the screen in the WTYoung Auditorium (Room 1-62) for the folks at the UK Core ceremony who are curious about all this.

1 – 2 p.m. We will watch the simulcast of the UK Core ceremony taking place in the W.T. Young Library (thank you Patsy, Ben, Chris, Beth, Matt, Dwight and everyone else who has been so wonderful in helping to make this work inworld!) which concludes with a statement by the artist, Marjorie Guyon, and a challenge from JJ Jackson, our V-P for Institutional Diversity, for all of us to respond to the Nation of Nations exhibit personally.

2 – 2:30 p.m. For those who want to stay and participate, we invite avatars to interact with the Nation of Nations VoiceThread (see the assignment we’ll be asking people to do both at the W.T. Young Library and inworld at the Garden to do – http://nationofnations.wordpress.com/learn-and-teach/believe/) and/or be interviewed by Wildcat TV journalists via Bella Yan with a microphone set up in the UK Library auditorium where we will be projecting the activities in SL for those interested in seeing the inworld component to the celebration.

Please let Randolph Hollingsworth (dolph@uky.edu) know if you have any questions – we hope to see everyone there either inworld or via the UK website where the ceremony will be streamed (www.uky.edu/GenEd).

The University of Kentucky’s W. T. Young Library is now hosting a major 10-panel art work titled “Nation of Nations,” installed in recognition of a central theme of UK’s new general education curriculum to be implemented in fall 2011. “Nation of Nations” is the work of Lexington artist Marjorie Guyon. A UK press release provides more information about the art installation and its relationship to UK’s new general education program, UK Core.

A celebration of the exhibit and UK Core will take place this fall semester at the W. T. Young Library, and you and your students are invited to the event.

The event will also welcome to campus UK’s new president, Dr. Eli Capilouto. President Capilouto will offer opening remarks. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, September 6, from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. in the W. T. Young Library and will be streamed live into the UKy Island’s Perennial Peace Garden.

UK 101 students who attend the event may complete an assignment as one of the three required UK 101 assignments related to campus events. The work group planning the fall celebration has built a “Nation of Nations” website (http://www.nation-of-nations.com) that includes a link to a teaching resource page. Faculty are encouraged to assign either of the two assignments found on the teaching resource page as the reflective follow-up to their attendance at the Young Library celebration on September 6. The two projects are:

• “This I Believe” essay
• “My Voice is Powerful. . .” group project

Please contact Dr. Randolph Hollingsworth (dolph@uky.edu) in the Division of Undergraduate Education for more information about the teaching resources related to the “Nation of Nations” initiative.

Thanks to Mark Schneider for this description of a recent class meeting on UK island!

Course: EDC543-201 Digital Game-Based Learning

Instructor: Joan Mazur

TA: Mark Schneider

Digital Gamed-Based Learning (DGBL) is a method of instruction which uses interactive computer games with educational content.  One example of DGBL is the POD game, where you are responsible for dispensing medication in the middle of an Anthrax event.

For this particular class in Second Life, students were introduced to the concept of building.  First the concept of PRIMS was explained, along with their benefits and limitations.  Although it was outside the scope of the class, LSL was briefly discussed.  One, two and multiple prim objects were displayed.  Finally, the students were instructed to stand behind a black line and face toward the instructor.  Ten students participated in building a one prim stool, a two prim vase, and finally a five prim table.  YouTube videos were provided prior to this training, allowing students to view how these constructions were accomplished.

The students did exceptionally well.  The highlight of the building was one student modifying her table to make a ping pong table, complete with paddles, net and ball.  It was very impressive.

Afterward, students remained in the sandbox, experimenting with various shapes, sizes and textures.

 

The University of Kentucky’s Academic Computing Committee visited the island today for a Second Life intro and tour of the virtual anatomy lab.  Here are a few Flickr shots from the visit. Thanks to everyone who helped!  Committee members:  Please contact any of the island regulars if you have any questions.

Jessica Anderson, a Gaines Fellow at the University of Kentucky, has begun creating a Perennial Peace Garden.  Located directly in the center of the University of Kentucky island and downhill from the virtual W.T. Young Library, the garden will serve as a place for personal reflection, small group discussion sessions and for international gatherings.  The virtual world environment allows for a wide range of opportunities for conversations with peace advocates from around the world, and the flexibility of the 3D environment allows for deep learning experiences gained by well designed roleplay and simulations.  This work is conducted in partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Education as well as the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice.  More on this academic and community outreach initiative to come.