Posted by dmirliss | Sep 30th, 2006

Semester of Conferences

Its been a crazy semester with lots of travel (2 trips to Texas still to come).  Just yesterday I gave a presentation on the electronic portfolio projects that I have been involved with at work.  Thanks to the recommendation of a friend, I was asked to speak to a small group of representatives from various NJ colleges at Centenary College  – their efforts are funded by a UPS Venture grant supporting the...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 27th, 2006

Fashion in SL

 I get teased a lot for my shopping addiction in SL (esp. by partner in crime Heidi) but a recent Wall Street Journal article says that I am not alone.  According to the article, and this should be no surprise to other SL residents, clothing is emerging as the hottest market.  What does this tell us about the attachment to our avatars?  Why do we care so much about our appearance?  In the Slatenight article...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 26th, 2006

Ubiquitous Computing

From looking at my blog you might think that my disseration has something to do with virtual worlds, that just happens to be a side interest.  My real focus is on CSCL and learning communities in a variey of environments (SL being just one of them).  My pilot data was collected in on a campus that can be described as a ubiquitous computing environment.  I was struggling for a theoretical framework but then got...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 25th, 2006

Flickr Plugin Working!!

I knew that I needed to just take a rest from trying to fix my flickr plugin.  It took awhile but I cleaned out all of the files associated with that plugin from my server, I think that the cache files (all 2 million of them) were causing the unresponsiveness I complained about before.  The new version of the plugin allows you to hide certain albums or pictures!  This is great – I do not mind sharing my...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 24th, 2006

Looking Out the Window

I have spent have the day fighting with my Flickr photo album plugin and have officially given up.  If you use the Silas Partners plugin which allows you to inlcude Flickr images in your post as well as create photo albums (I took down the photos page on my blog since it showed all my images even ones available to only family and friends) you need to get a Flickr API.  In a posting on the TanTanMoodles Flickr...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 24th, 2006

A Visit at Play2Train

A special thanks must go to Ramesh for taking the time to show me the biohazard simulation that he has built in Second Life.  The Play2Train project is part of the Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness program.  The program is described as: The program’s objective is to enhance the knowledge and skills of health care professionals to meet the public health preparedness and emergency response demands...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 19th, 2006

Machinima – Seriously Engaging

Machinima seemed like such a mystery to me before doing some research on how to produce such movies.  If you are looking for some good resources check out my machinima tag in delicious – if you know of any other resources please let me know.  Hopefully I will find some time to play with making a machinima soon (hopefully both Second Life and my tablet PC will cooperate).  If you have not already seen...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 18th, 2006

Upcoming SL Events

“Teacher’s Lounge” hosts prominent researcher John Bransford in-world in two weeks: Dr. Bransford is a prominent education psychology researcher and edited the often cited How People Learn book. He agreed to chat in-world about his work with the L.I.F.E. center. He and several graduate students who read this list are doing research in SL. EVENT DETAILS: Monday, Oct 2nd 12 noon-1pm, SLT (San...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 13th, 2006

Kids Go Global Part 1

Finally, after a month of working on this article it is published on the SLATENIGHT.com blog.  Many thanks to Dan Winckler (AKA Dan Magpie) for all of his help and Anya for her patience in waiting for this piece to be finished.  Be sure to check it out:...

Posted by dmirliss | Sep 12th, 2006

Harvard Prof in SL

I am sitting here at a conference in Colorado waiting for my turn to present (toture) so I decided to check up on the NMC SL blog.  In case you have not heard a Harvard Law School professor is bringing a class in SL.  I really like the idea of having the short movie clip and Heidi and I are going to explore making a movie for the class that we are bringing into SL.  Here is the...