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, especially if you are as artistically challenged as myself.  I see comics for faculty development workshops, student training materials and other campaigns on campus.  So cool!  I downloaded the free trail software for Comic Book Creator – I will be sure to share some of our creations.  Any volunteers to act as models in the comic???

If you are on my friends list in SL then you have one of these waiting in your inventory.  Anya is officially launching slatenight.com, a collaborative project that I am proud to be a part of.  I hope to see you all there!

Heidi and I were successful in introducing 13 faculty members to the NMC Campus in Second Life.  We have introduced students to the SL environment before but gave them an introduction and then required them to use the environment for an exercise sometime later.  Many students explored the environment between this time and became familiar with its functionality which made it much easier to coordinate the actual activity. 

The introduction to the NMC Campus was part of a day devoted to Educational Gaming at Seton Hall University.  The day began with our keynote speaker, Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D, and was followed by an introduction to avatars including the NMC tour.  Ruben did a fantastic job of setting the stage for our day.  Once his talk was finished our faculty could not wait to actually play in a virtual environment.  We started them off by creating their avatar names on the SecondLife web site.  This part unexpectedly took soooo long – it seems that having so many choices for your last name is not a great idea for moving people along.  Individuals finished the registration process at different times so some were able to explore orientation island before being teleported to the NMC Campus.  Once at the NMC Campus they were greated by my welcome sign and gift box that you can read more about on NMC SL blog. 

We were then greated by our gracious hosts, Alan Levine (AKA CDB Barkley) and Larry Johnson (AKA Larry Pixel).  Since all of our faculty and tech helpers were in the same room we were able to communicate with our virtual guests through their teamspeak server.  It would have been next to impossible to get everyone used to the Second Life environment and learn how to use Teampeak at the same time (just too overwhelming) so I communicated with Alan while projecting my screen and connecting my audio to external speakers.  We were then greated by our gracious hosts, Alan Levine (AKA CDB Barkley) and Larry Johnson (AKA Larry Pixel).  Since all of our faculty and tech helpers were in the same room we were able to communicate with our virtual guests through their teamspeak server.  It would have been next to impossible to get everyone used to the Second Life environment and learn how to use Teampeak at the same time (just too overwhelming) so I communicated with Alan while projecting my screen and connecting my audio to external speakers.   

We were then greated by our gracious hosts, Alan Levine (AKA CDB Barkley) and Larry Johnson (AKA Larry Pixel).  Since all of our faculty and tech helpers were in the same room we were able to communicate with our virtual guests through their teamspeak server.  It would have been next to impossible to get everyone used to the Second Life environment and learn how to use Teampeak at the same time (just too overwhelming) so I communicated with Alan while projecting my screen and connecting my audio to external speakers.   Our tour began with the library and since there were so many people in the space the walls turned a soft red color (really cool to see).  We explored the functionality of the library including the Thinc books that were on display.  We them moved to the gallery and practiced our flying skills a bit as we took in all the hanging art pieces.  Finally we moved to the Spohrer Center were we saw the Whisper exhibit and played with the musical instruments.  It was only at this point that I remembered that Anya would be able to stop by for a visit – I had been so busy up to that point with all the new SL residents.  Luckily Anya was still online and able to join us and finally meet Larry and Alan.  It was such a hectic morning, even with all of the preparation and planning that we did for this event but so well worth it!!

HA! What fun. Definitely something that I would not do in real life. There is a bit of a story behind my latest adventure of skydiving with new found friend Audio Zenith. I recently posted to the SLED listserve a bit of a formal blurb about the grad student group. Audio and another responded that they would prefer more informal conversations in SL which is fine by me but I think that some structure and formality would help poor struggling grad students, like myself. So I responded about the purpose of the group, blah blah blah. After reflecting on my response I started to feel badly hoping that no one would take that personally. When I saw Audio online I wanted to make sure it was all OK. Funny thing is that he had no idea what I was talking about, LOL, so we went skydiving!

Informal meetings are great – look how much fun this spontaneous get together was and what I learned about Audio and his 6 years of exprience in distance education. The social affordances of SL allows us to experience that “water cooler” talk that is known to bind communities. But without the formality of the Grad Student group and our meeting I might have never had the chance to meet Audio – what place does each have in building community?

I was hard at work tracking down a speaker for our grad student meeting Wednesday when I got an IM from my friend Noir asking about the public NMC campus space. I had heard on the SLED listserve that there was going to be a public campus but I did not think it had officially launched. I went on the SL Observer and there was nothing (poor CDB is still the lone writer – I need to contribute soon!). I checked the search feature in SL and it also turned up empty since the new name was not announced.

Snooping around, which seems to be what I do best lately in SL (still trying to track down anyone from the Masie LearnLand campus – they must think I am crazy) I came upon flickr pics of Learn, NMC’s new public campus.

There has been much discussion about closed spaces and some members of the SLED/Grad student group felt very strongly about meeting in a public space. There is some value to people floating in and out without needing special access. While I understood this point I was disappointed not to use the NMC campous with all its great meeting spaces. We could have really used the ampitheater when we hosted Chris Dede’s talk – the turn out was wonderful. Well, I personally cannot wait to use this space and will continue to consider the closed space for when I introduce my undergraduate to SL in the fall.

Great job guys!

Update on photography in Second Life – the best lighting is Sunrise but you have to be facing East (the sun) to avoid harsh shadows on your face.

Anyone in RL who knows me also knows that I love photography. For a short time I worked for my family’s photography studio and photographed hundreds of highschool seniors. Even though I decided to leave the photography profession it is still something that I love to explore as a hobby. Recently I had the pleasure of being photographed by Anya and decided to experiment with creating “professional” portraits in SL. Would the same skills needed to create portraits in RL apply to SL? What new skills would be needed?

Linden Lifestyles did a good job of providing a novice SL photographer with a few tips on lighting and controling the gaze of your AV . Once you have the Altl + Click mastered the hardest part is composition. You do not want your AV smack dab in the middle of the frame nor do you want to have the shoulders squared off to the camera (end up looking like a line backer).

The key is to have a bit of a tilt in the shoulders – just like a RL photograph (thinking back to all the high school students who I made look thinner with the technique *smile*). I did go ahead and purchases a simple modeling studio that I set up in my sky box – this helps to give that “studio” look. I even saw a soft light box for sale that might help control some of the shadows. Purchasing one would be exciting – getting closer to a real studio set up. My dad would be proud (although he might think I am crazy).

The SL Grad Student Colony and SLED group had a great turnout during their meeting last night.  The goal of the meeting was to plan the Educator’s event to be held at the Second Life Community Convention 2006 being held in San Francisco this August.  Sadly, I will not be able to attend but we are planning on creating a blended event – those who cannot attend in person will due so in SL.  Not sure how this will go, there has not been a lot of like with this type of hybrid meeting especially when the in-person event is held in a hotel (with unreliable connections, etc).

Heidi and I still plan on submitting a proposal based on the work that we did with my class last semester (if you are unfamiliar with this project you will have to wait for the conference *smile*).  Speaking of my class, does anyone know what happened to Masie’s LearnLand in SL?  This seems like a perfect tie in to my org psychology course but no one will respond to my emails

Making great progress on setting up my blog thanks to the help of David (see the third owl link in my blog roll).  I think that it is really shaping up *smile*.  Still no time to write anything serious (academically speaking) but I don’t want to stop writing otherwise there will be nothing to read. 

Relay for life is still going on in Second Life and designer Elikapeka Tiramisu (ETD) released a new must have hairstyle.  I absolutely had to make another purchase to support this great cause (ok, it gave me an excuse to go shopping again).  Linden Lifestyles also recommended an amazing skirt and top set from Dazzle – it is more beautiful then the pictures on their blog.  The flexi prims are just amazing.  One more purchase to mention – check out the elegant sea shell table and chairs that were purchased from my favorite place, Creative Fantasy Home and Garden in Serenity Falls.

The RL Grad Students in SL are meeting tomorrow so hopefully some academic content will follow.

If anyone is reading this I apologize for all the changes – I am still working on a template that I am happy with so do not be surprised to see a number of different schemes.  Yesterday I had a wonderful time supporting the Relay for Life event taking place in second life.  You can read more about this event on lindenlifestyles.com – there are lots of links to great items.  Below is a picture of me with new skin and hair that I bought to support this very worthwhile cause.