Several University of KY island residents participated in the Second Annual Rowdy KYians training session hosted at the University of Louisville yesterday.  The day-long workshop was intended as training for new Kentucky educators interested in Second Life, and also as a chance for experienced users to meet and share.

We had an overflow crowd, with all 40 computers occupied and several experienced UofL Second Lifers floating in the room to provide tech support support.  Participants represented colleges and universities, K-12 educators, public libraries, as well as other Kentuckians interested in learning more about educational applications of Second Life.  New users created accounts and learned the basics of Second Life:  how to edit your avatar, how to communicate  and navigate in the virtual world, how to find educational sites in SL, how to get a box off your head!  We toured several educational locations in Second Life, including (of course) University of KY island.  Several UK attendees conducted tours, facilitated discussion, or conducted demos.  Kathryn Moore of UK provided an overview of her experience as a Nursing faculty member in Second Life.  Dwight Newton of UK did a building and scripting demo.  And Beth Kraemer conducted the University of KY island tour.

If anyone who participated in the workshop is not yet a member of the Rowdy KYians, please join!  You can post any follow up questions to the list to get help.  The purpose of this group is to provide a place to share information and support each other.  Use the Google Group page to request membership.  If anyone has images from the event, please add those to the Rowdy KYian Flickr Group.

Thank you to David Horrar and everyone at UofL for all their work to create this wonderful event!

Participants in UofL's computer classroom.

Rowdy KYians avatars on UofL's island

Building demo in the UofL sandbox.

The University of Kentucky is hosting a Common Reading Experience event this fall, and University of KY Island will host one of the discussion sessions!  Visit the CRE website for information about the book (James McBride’s The Color of Water) and other CRE events on campus.

NOTE:  The date has been changed!  See below’

The Second Life session on UK’s island will take place on Monday, Sept. 28 October 12 at 6:00 PM EST (3:00 PM SLT) in the virtual Young Library on the island.  Miranda Hines (Erimentha Hitendra in SL) will lead the discussion and Beth Kraemer (Alice Burgess in SL) will be on hand to help out any new Second Life users.

We hope to see many of our island regulars for this event, as well as some new faces!  If you are new to Second Life and would like more information about how to get started, contact Beth at kraemer@email.uky.edu.  We are planning a campus training session to be held a couple of weeks before the 9/28 event.  More information will be posted here soon.

Wildcat reading on University of KY Island

Short URL for this page:  http://tr.im/oNPm

New video of the current exhibit in the virtual Young Library space on the island, Unbridled History: Celebrating the Horse Industry of Kentucky.  This short video tour is meant as an overview of the exhibit, to encourage visitors and show non-SL users what an exhibit in Second Life looks like.

The University of Louisville is hosting a “Real Life” Second Life event on Tuesday, July 7th 9:00 AM to 4:00PM.  This session is intended as a training session for new users and a meeting of experienced Second Life educators in Kentucky.  See

https://louisville.edu/student/form/2009rowdyconference

to register.  Registration deadline is June 30.

This is your chance to:

• Learn
• Network
• Brainstorm
• Share experiences
• Just plain enjoy each other!

We will do live training for those new or less familiar with Second Life in the morning, with the more experienced serving as guides and mentors. In the afternoon we will have skill building and general networking to fill each other in concerning on-going projects, successes, failures and fresh ideas.

The conference fee is $15 dollars and includes lunch.

This is the second real life training and networking conference of the Rowdy KYians, Kentucky educators exploring Second Life.  If you are not a member of the Rowdies, see the group page to sign-up! We have a listserv and occasional inworld meetings and events, too.

Remember way back in November we had a Harvest Festival on the island?  This event was the first time we had a blended RL/SL music event on the island.  The Bluegrass band Hog Operation performed on campus and we streamed the music live to the island, where several visitors gathered for fun and dancing and an opportunity to view the quilt exhibit in the virtual Young Library exhibit space.

We have finally been able to put together a video from the event.  Touch the image below to listen to Hog Operation perform live in the Niles Gallery on the University of Kentucky campus and to see scenes from both the live and Second Life events.

UK’s PS 545 class is doing their research presentations tomorrow afternoon (May 5) from 1-3pm at the virtual WT Young library on UK Island in Second Life (http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20KY/179/147/30). All are welcome to come.

The class is aware that their presentations are open to the general public. The course website is at http://ps545spring09.pbworks.com – their research projects should be up by now, and can be accessed through the “Group Pages” link on the left.

For more information, contact
Dr. Christopher S. Rice
Lecturer and Internship Director
Department of Political Science
1649 Patterson Office Tower
Phone: 859.257.7030
Second Life: Ricetopher Freenote or Twitter.com/ricetopher

The island Derby Party we held on Friday was a great success!  Horse racing in Oz’s new track, mint juleps and of course a great new exhibit in the virtual Young Library!  Here are some pictures and a video of one of the races.  More images on Flickr in my set from the event.   If you took pictures at the event, please post a link and contribute to the UK Island Flickr group, too!

Many thanks to Zephyr Pennell of Lone Start Ranch [SLURL] who provided kiosks for demo horses to use during the event.  They were easy to operate, looked great and were a lot of fun!

(Touch above to play short movie.)

Having Juleps

A horse in the library

At the post

Getting ready for the races.

On May 1st, the University of Kentucky’s W.T. Young Library welcomes its newest exhibit – Unbridled History: Celebrating the Horse Industry of Kentucky. The exhibit will be presented in conjunction with a Derby exhibit held on the University of Louisville Island. The opening of the exhibits will be celebrated with a Derby Eve Party on Friday May 1st from 11:00 SLT (2:00PM EST) – 1:00 SLT (4:00 PM EST

The exhibit housed in the virtual W.T. Young Library will feature information about the Daily Racing Form Digitization Project as well as historical photographs and facts about how the horse industry has influenced Kentucky culture over the past two centuries. Some of the sub-subjects included in the exhibit will cover harness racing, industry, jumping, early history, racing, library delivery, and farm life.

On the University of Kentucky Island, the party will include horse racing, mint juleps and other fun activities. The main feature of this celebration is the new racetrack build created exclusively for our Derby Eve Party! The track includes a beautiful virtual grandstand to simulate the feel of being at the Kentucky Derby. So get your Derby dress or Jockey attire ready to party on these great Kentucky Islands! Demo horses by Lonestar will be provided for visitors wishing to participate in the horse races – or feel free to purchase your own.

For more information contact UK Libraries’ own: Sifriya Devin, Erimentha Hitendra or Alice Burgess.

Teaching faculty from the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, College of Medicine, held their first Second Life class activity on UK Island with student volunteers on April 16.

A virtual anatomy lab was constructed on the island, incorporating interactive stations equipped with supplemental multimedia, while a simulated cadaver “walked” among the student group. Student avatars attended the one hour session wearing “virtual” scrubs and lab coats, and they were asked to interact with fellow classmates and faculty avatars in the study of the anterior compartment of the thigh. During the session, a small group of undergraduates, medical students, and dental students worked through a multimedia approach over the anterior compartment of the thigh (atlas/cadaver images, guided video tours of cadaver anatomy, and videos of cross-sectional anatomy).

Student feedback deemed the in-world session a success. Peer learning and the ability to get positive and instantaneous feedback from the instructors, along with the role of anonymity played through the use of avatars, allowed for free and open exchange of ideas. A subsequent meeting with the group will gather formative feedback that will be used to revise and expand the Second Life experience. Specifically, feedback from this pilot study will be used to complete construction of the virtual anatomy lab for optimal learning, and to incorporate this technology-based novel approach to anatomy into the undergraduate curriculum.

This project highlights an innovative approach to anatomical science education and suggests that the millennial student responds positively to this specific pedagogical style.

Key contributors to the project include April Richardson, Anatomy and Neurobiology, College of Medicine Course Director; Dr. Jennifer Brueckner, Anatomy and Neurobiology; Student Affairs, College of Medicine; Matt Hazzard, Teaching & Academic Support Center (TASC); Beth Kramer, UK Libraries; Sandy Challman, College of Dentistry ; Patsy Carruthers, TASC; and Jacqueline Yoon, Dental Student, UK College of Dentistry.

Photo by Cheri Daniels

The Second Life Drop in session hosted at the University of Kentucky went well!  We had reasonable attendance despite torrential rain, hail and a tornado warning.    My guess is we might have had a few more folks in attendance had the weather been a bit better!

Those who braved the weather were interested in hearing about educational applications of Second Life and several stayed around for quite a while talking about experiences and potential uses.  We had faculty, staff and students from a wide variety of colleges and departments, including Dentistry, Nursing, Biology, Education, English, UK’s Human Development Institute and the Office of Community Engagement.

A big “thank you” to island residents, Rowdy KYians and other visitors who stopped in to the island or in “real life” to talk with attendees!

A couple of attendees commented that they liked the drop-in format of these information sessions, which allows people to come in without advance sign-up as their schedules permit.  We staffed a computer lab from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and visitors could come in anytime and stay as long as they liked.  We took down contact information for each visitor and in some cases recorded requests for more information to be sent later.  Several attendees requested links to information or Second Life locations focused on a particular subject area.  So the session provided the initial contact, but we expect to have follow-up conversations with many attendees.

This was the second “drop-in” style information session we have hosted at the University of Kentucky.