Virtual Campus Blog

If you haven’t been to BGSU Interaction lately, you’ve been missing some of the most fun and exciting attractions on the BGSU Virtual Campus! Visit now: http://slurl.com/secondlife/BGSU%20Interaction/14/241/33

First, the BGSU Virtual Campus is sponsoring a contest to build new racecars for our racetrack. Anyone in Second Life is eligible to apply. The best entries will be featured on the Interaction island racetrack.

The Virtual Campus Planetarium was one of the first interactive exhibits on our original island. We are currently looking for faculty, staff, students or Second Life residents who would be willing to add additional content to the Planetarium. This could include useful links to web content, a recorded mp3 or video walkthru, or anything else related to our solar system.

Our Researcher in Residence, Dr. Lance R. Williams has been working on the BGSU Virtual Campus for over a year. His research deals with using the Scheme Programming Language in Second Life and using SL scripts for distributed computing. Dr. Williams will be visiting the RL (real life) campus on April 16th & 17th. He will have two lectures about his work in Second Life, one for a general audience and also a Computer Science Colloquim for more specific in-depth information.

For more info email afontan@bgsu.edu

From our friends at Designing Digitally, Inc.:

I wanted to invite you to the 2009 Thinkbalm Un-Lecture at our island on Feb. 27th 2009 within Second Life. This will be held at our Designing Digitally Inc. island. If you click on this link you can register and will automatically land on our island. Please pass this along to any and all that would be interested in attending. Of course it is free, and you will have the ability to network and to listen to some very interesting topics around educational learning in virtual spaces. Please see the details below. I hope to see you all there!!!!

We’ve added another speaker to the agenda for the third installation of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community’s “un-lecture” event series. This series is designed for members to share things they are working on, learn about exciting projects others are up to, and build valuable connections. All presentations, demos, and tours are on topics related to using the Immersive Internet at work. Each presentation is 10 minutes long or shorter.

The Details

What: Un-Lecture #3

When: Friday, Feb. 27th from 11AM-noon EST

Where and how: Designing Digitally island in Second Life (SLURL here) — thanks to Andrew Hughes of Designing Digally for hosting. We will use Second Life voice.

RSVP: By replying to this email. Please include your Second Life avatar name if we don’t already have it.

Agenda

Act I

Location: Designing Digitally island in Second Life

1. Sam Driver: Welcome and introductions all around
2. Henrik Bennetsen: The Sirikata open source platform for games and virtual worlds in development at Stanford
3. Koreen Olbrish: Immersive technology evaluation for learning initiatives
4. Robin Gomboy: Building culture in virtual world communities

Act II

Andrew Hughes will give each attendee a landmark so we can teleport to an interactive science lab built by Sycamore High School (Cincinnati) seniors.

1. Andrew Hughes and kids from Sycamore High School in Cincinnati: how they built their own interactive science lab
2. Erica Driver: wrap-up and commentary on today’s session

We hope to see you there.

Regards,
Erica

Attention BGSU!! Are you interested in learning to build and design architecture and environments in a virtual space? Would you like to collaborate on the development of the BGSU Virtual Campus in SL? Now being offered this summer as a workshop:

Architecture in Second Life
Content Creation and Theory in a Virtual World

http://summer.bgsu.edu/container.php?x=workshops#Technology

This came via email from our good friend Fleep at Ohio Learning Network:

Just a reminder/invitation to join us tomorrow for February’s OLN Second Life event with guest speaker Dr. Douglas Danforth, from Ohio State University.  Here are the details (please note the time zones, tomorrow’s event is 2PM EST for Ohio folks):

2/11/09 11AM SLT (2PM EST) – Douglas Danforth (SL: DrDoug Pennell) – Ohio State University
Guest speaker Douglas Danforth (SL: DrDoug Pennell) will discuss the Ohio State University Second Life presence, and then following Q&A, will take us on a tour of the OSU island – including a giant model of the human testes that you can fly through!    Join us for an engaging discussion about how OSU is using Second Life and how virtual worlds can be used to experience 3D models in a new way.

If you’ve never attended before, you will need to create a Second Life account prior to the meeting at http://secondlife.com and sign up to request access to the OLN island at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pHSojRbSnGxe3y8FjdxEWJg&hl=en

The meetings are very newbie friendly, so don’t be worried if you aren’t too experienced with Second Life yet!

We usually use a combination of voice chat using Second Life’s built in Voice-Over-IP tool and regular text chat.  You do not need a headset/microphone to be able to hear the voice chat, but if you wish to speak in voice at the meetings, you will need a headset/microphone to participate.  These headsets can be purchased at any store that sells electronics equipment (Walmart, Best Buy, etc.) and usually cost between $30-60 USD.  Please note: Due to issues with echo and reverberation, using a microphone built into your computer or laptop is NOT recommended!  When someone else is speaking, the sound travels out of the computer speakers and back into the built-in microphone causing very loud distortion.  A headset/microphone resolves this issue and is the recommended way to use voice in Second Life.

Second Life Location:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/OLN%20Island/128/127/26/

And don’t forget to save the dates for the remaining OLN Second Life Events!

3/4/09 9AM SLT (11AM EST) – Daniel Livingstone (SL: Buddy Sprocket) – University of The West of Scotland
Guest speaker Daniel Livingstone (SL: Buddy Sprocket) will demonstrate the open source SLOODLE project, to be implemented on the Ohio Learning Network island in Spring 2009.  SLOODLE is an Open Source project which integrates the multi-user virtual environment of Second Life® with the Moodle ® learning-management system. Sloodle provides a range of tools for supporting learning and teaching to the immersive virtual world; tools which are fully integrated with a tried and tested web-based learning management system used by hundreds of thousands of educators and students.

4/9/09 11AM SLT (2PM EST) – Brenda Boyd (SL: Stargazer Blazer) – Miami University
Guest speaker Brenda Boyd (SL: Stargazer Blazer) will discuss Miami University’s Second Life project, and her experiences as Dean of Insight Virtual College, an institution that teaches Second Life skills.  Following Q&A, we will take a tour of the Miami University and Insight Virtual College campuses and learn practical tips about teaching in Second Life!

5/5/09 9AM SLT (11AM EST) – Anthony Fontana (SL: AnthonyFontana Chevalier) and Bonnie Mitchell (SL: BonnieMitchell Miles) – Bowling Green State University
Guest speakers Anthony Fontana (SL: AnthonyFontana Chevalier) and Bonnie Mitchell (SL: BonnieMitchell Miles) will discuss their experiences facilitating a Second Life Learning Community at BGSU.  Following Q&A, we will take a tour of the BGSU campus in Second Life and learn more about facilitating learning communities in both the virtual and the real world.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Sincerely,

– Chris/Fleep