The Rowdy KYians came together in Lexington yesterday (and today) to showcase work being down by universities and secondary schools with Second Life to offer immersive learning experiences connected to significant learning outcomes.

David Horrar of the University of Louisville together with University of Kentucky’s Christena Gazave, April Richardson-Hatcher, Matt Hazzard, Dwight Newton and Randolph Hollingsworth came together with Joe Clark of Florida State University’s Distance Learning Office to discuss the pro’s and cons of using virtual worlds and specifically Second Life for (what Kuh calls) DEEP learning experiences.

See more at “Education in Second Life showcased at Kentucky Commonwealth Commitment Summit 2013″.

Saturday Grooves at Deep Think, Open University.

A Human Anatomy professor at Univ. of Western Australia (UWA) is planning to teach classes in SL and contacted April Richardson about her work. UWA has been working with the professor to plan the construction of a facility on the very active and creative UWA sims (see more at http://uwainsl.blogspot.com).

They’re thinking about crafting some kind of mutual cooperation agreement between the two universities. This would be a fabulous first for UKSL!

Next up, Ohio State University’s wonderful Sharon Collingwood who is also seeking university-wide partnerships to continue her good work in SL (see the Minerva website at http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/collingwood7/minerva/minerva.html)and other immersive environments on gender analysis and social identities.

Cosmopolitan in Second Life.

Our A&S Wired class “Between Shadow and Light: Co-Mingling in Physical and Virtual Communities” has started up again! We’ll be using the UKSL island for orientation training next week. The UKIT computer lab in the M.I.King Library will host our students as they work together to learn basic skills in navigating the diverse landscapes in Second Life and in respectful communications.

Please join us as we play! We’ll be inworld on Tuesday and Thursday of next week, 5-6:15 pm.  Contact Randolph Hollingsworth (Bella Yan in Second Life) or Richard Greissman (Ansel Guisse in Second Life) if you would like to help mentor first-year student “newbies” as they explore SL’s international communities and work on their digital projects together. See more on the goals of this course at the UK Shadow Light blog.

Ongoing Second Life Projects

1. The Virtual Anatomy Lab on the UK Island in Second Life: An Introduction to Regional Anatomy (ANA309) was approved recently (it had to go through five levels of approval this past year), so it will be offered in Spring 2013. This will include a regional approach to anatomy via online Blackboard modules, and students will meet in Second Life once a week for a team-based learning session on the topic for that week. Matt Hazzard of UKIT Academic Technologies has been instrumental in getting this ready, as well as Chris Bentley (an undergraduate who has helped with some of the coding in SL). The class will cap at 24 the first time, so we can see how the technology/course will run at first.
2. The Cranial Nerve Skywalk: Built in collaboration with Dr. German Ramirez, an oral biologist at the University of Manitoba, this is a 3D tutorial of the cranial nerves III, V, VII and IX. It was presented at the American Dental Education Association in Florida in March and at the American Association of Clinical Anatomists in Grenada in July. Approximately 90 Physician Assistant/Physical Therapy students and approximately 40 dental students used this in Spring 2012; it was also used for 120 students in the medical class this fall 2012.
3. Cultural Competency in Medicine: a collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Brueckner-Collins, Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville.
4. Virtual learning and telehealth: a collaboration with nurse Dianna Vice, a UK Telecare clinical coordinator, using the virtual world to simulate clinical experience/case studies for nursing students. We are in the process of submitting a publication to the Journal of Nursing Education this summer.

Congratulations!

Alice Burgess and Wildcat Thursday

Beth Kraemer, Director of Emerging Technology in the UK Libraries (SL: Alice Burgess), has created a new exhibit “UK Island Observes Banned Books Week” in the virtual Young Library space on the island.  This year marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week - the theme is “30 Years of Liberating Literature.”

Here’s the SLURL if you want to visit the new exhibit on the UKSL island: 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/University%20of%20KY/114/100/29

The exhibit includes links to information on Banned Books Week, several Social Media “boards” (live Twitter searches), and a table with a few banned/challenged book objects that link to the full text via Project Gutenberg.

Adventures in Dee. An A&S Wired student finds the dangerous narrows between adherence to role in a roleplaying sim and stereotyping.

Second Life Progress.