Posted by dmirliss | Aug 26th, 2006

Testing Social Bookmarks Bar

Preparation for the beginning of a new semester has preventing me from contributing as much as I would like to my blog but I thought I would share a Wordpress plug that I am also testing in this post.  Hopefully (fingers crossed) a social book mark bar will appear with this post.  If it works and you like it you can find it at Apostolos Dountsis’...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 22nd, 2006

Visit with Aura Lily

I finally got a chance to visit Aura Lily’s ancient Egypt sim in Second Life.  Pathfinder sent a link to the SLED listserve awhile back but I got busy and forgot about it until tonight when I was preparing a presentation on Virtual Worlds for tomorrow.  It was a real treat to meet Aura – she took me on an extensive tour of the space including a throne and secret tomb complete with a mummy.  It is such...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 21st, 2006

Teachers Buzz on NMC Campus

What a day crazy day!! Tomorrow starts three days of non-stop faculty workshops but luckily I had some time to join the NMC Teachers’ Buzz Session. I give CDB and Corwin a lot of credit – it is not easy to manage a large crowd with many threads of conservations going at once. Their goal is to host a session once a week to support teachers working in SL – one a week might be hard to keep up with as...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 20th, 2006

Get your first editiion of SLATENIGHT

SLATENight Launch Party SLATENIGHT is now available for download in a beautiful PDF format (available through my server until I see a link for it on the main site).  I am very proud to see that my article appears on page 3 – be sure to check it out!!  I am already hard at owrk on my next article thanks to Daniel Winkler (Dan Magpie in SL) detailing his work with Kids Connect.  I cannot tell you more...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 19th, 2006

2006 Campus Technology Innovators

Appalachian State University & Purdue University were awarded the 2006 Campus Technology Innovators award for their creation of a 3D virtual space using Active Worlds technology.  Appalachian state describes their students as “a mid-career educator who is not familiar with immersive learning environments, has only a basic understanding of traditional web-based learning systems, and has access to rather...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 17th, 2006

Synthetic World Initiative

 The end of the summer is always a tough time – lots to do at work, prep for teaching and dusting off that pesky literature review.  I have been making a big effort to try to keep up with the SLED list especially since the weekly meetings seem to be on a break (although NMC is going to start a weekly Monday meeting).  Recently there was a post about a new group being started with weekly meetings on Tuesday...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 16th, 2006

Hotel in Second Life?

Is it possible that I could go on vacation in SL and stay at a swanky hotel?   The article Second Lifers get first look at new hotel chain describes the project undertaken by Starwood Resorts to build a 3D replica of the real-world Aloft Inn scheduled to open in real-life in 2008.  The SL version is being contructed by the Electric Sheep Comany, the same development group that built the NMC Campus.  It is...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 14th, 2006

Training in SL

I was so excited to see a post regarding a training environment on the SLED list today especially after my unsuccessful campaign to gain access to Masie’s LearnLand for my students.  It would be ashame to only use SL for one unit in my organizational psychology class especially when so much preparation and training involved in getting a group of students used to the SL environment.  As soon as I saw the...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 11th, 2006

Hello from Block Island, R.I.

 Its funny, there is no TV in our room but I was able to get a faint wireless signal.  We are having a wonderful time on Block Island – the weather is beautiful!  This is our last vacation before the summer ends and I am glad that we got a chance to get away one more time.  Check out my pics on Flickr – don’t be too jealous ...

Posted by dmirliss | Aug 10th, 2006

SL Comics

Comics in SL???  Yes, its true.  I have to admit that I thought it was a quirky idea when Anya first told me that Jokay created a comic book for the slatenight.com magazine but I am absolutely in love with the idea.  I have to credit Heidi with bringing the comic back to our attention (its has been a crazy couple of weeks) and if you have not seen it be sure to check it out.      Imagine the possibilities,...