Second Life: Education in a Virtual World part 2

JJ Drinkwater Director of the Caledon Library JJ Drinkwater. Image used with permission 10/23/07 © All rights reserved. First, the institutions stated mission: put content out there, teach people, solidify the cultural matrix, whatever. Second, help grow the world. The reason I want to give away not just materials (books, reference collections, whatever) but tools, is to help make more of Second Life. Every time we give away an object, or a script, that someone can play with, can modify, and make into a better tool for their own research or study, or into a different tool altogether, we help seed knowledge and understanding into our world. We're at a point in our world's history where intellectual generosity counts many times more than it will later, when this (or some MUVE) is fully realized.” “ I firmly believe that a library in Second Life has a duty to hew as closely to the tenets of Open Source as it can. This world is just in its incunabular stage. The purpose of an institution like a library or a school here is twofold.

On Virtual Worlds… “ Every library doesn’t need to have a separate library in a virtual world like Second Life so it offers and ideal way to test collaborative service models. Working in 3-D and in real-time is a way to get a fresh perspective on traditional library services and on seeing how to present resources. Some librarians are extending normal services into SL, for example, a map/gis librarian has begun offering GIS consulting at regularly scheduled times on info island. I’m interested in bringing government information resources and services into second Life…the collaborative opportunities are a good fit for this kind of online resource.” Hyacinth Cortes “ I see Second Life as a cost-effective way to collaborate on ideas and projects. And once we've designed something in Second Life, it's easier to communicate our vision and make it a reality.” Lyra Weston

Collaborating Poster Session & Machinima (video) for ACRL 2007, Baltimore Three librarians from Illinois, North Carolina, California collaborated in Second Life to develop the posters and machinima (video) for ACRL poster session. For this presentation, Mica and I collaborated in Second Life and via email. We uploaded files to slideshare.net (we have never met in person)

What am I doing? Teen Second Life & Main Grid

Providing support and instruction on machinima at the Machinima Institute

Working with Kelly Czarnecki (PLCMC) & teens in the Teen Grid

Machinima Weekend: free software, online editing sites, teens & adults co-taught

Created multiple youtube/ jumpcut accounts for students to test services

On the main grid, working a weekly reference shift on International InfoIsland

Volunteered with Peggy Sheehy’s Suffern Middle School team to create a video on the Ramapo Islands for NECC 2007 (now has 800 students)

Instructor for the machinima portion of University of Illinois Urbana Champagne’s Virtual Worlds Librarianship program offered in SL

NASA has a Presence on Eye4YouAlliance Island & in Main Grid

Real Time 3D Video Instruction Stream QuickTime Video into Second Life Machinima Institute Moving from ALA Arts InfoIsland to Eduisland

What is Machinima ? Machine + cinema = Machinima

“ Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.”

Marino, Paul. 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima. Scottsdale: Paraglyph Press Inc. 2004, p.1.

In other words, it is capturing video in a video game or a game-like space such as a virtual world using the built-in recording features or third party software.

Why should we be interested in machinima production?

Useful, cool and fun

familiar to gamers of all ages (many games have built-in video capture)

popular media & has been around since the early mid-90s

to learn new skills & move into new environments

to engage youth & adults on group movie projects

to create content that can edited, shared & mashed up on popular video hosting sites and streamed into Second Life

to use in library programming, instruction, marketing and outreach

Machinima / New Media Books Kelland, Matt, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd. Machinima. Boston, MA: Thomson / Course Technology. 2005. Marino, Paul. 3D game-based filmmaking : the art of machinima. Scottsdale, Ariz: Paraglyph Press. 2004. Hancock, Hugh, Ingram, Johnnie. Machinima For Dummies. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing Inc. 2007 Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Library Related Projects Using Rich Visual backdrop of Second Life:

Community Service Projects for San Jose State University’s MLIS Program LIB 246 (hybrid course in Second Life & Real Life)

Creation of a bibliography on Machinima seeking sources in both Second Life and Real Life, to be published in Second Life & on the web.

Supporting video shared on YouTube (audio mixed on YouTube’s new TestTube service).

Visualizing Information Literacy: depicting the ACRL IL Standards using Second Life:

Melissa Browne (UC Davis), Yemila Sanches (SJSU) & Bernadette Daly Swanson (UC Davis)

Using animations and Second Life camera tool to create interesting imagery for marketing campaign to appeal to undergraduate audience at UC Davis - images, instructions & documentation uploaded to Flickr.com (available Nov. 2007)

Caledon Library

Branch of the Alexandrian Free Library

Serves the intellectual and cultural life of Caledon

Dedicated to immersive learning about the 19th century imagination

Sponsors events of interest to the residents:

celebrations, story sessions, lectures, etc

Increasing popularity

The library collects:

Primarily Victorian source material

Research materials concerning the world of the 19th century

Secondary materials for studying Caledon’s important genres.

http://thelibrarymilitant.net/blog/about-the-library-militant.html

What am I Doing?

Displays

Prinney: Cartoons satirizing the Prince of Wales (Group effort by several Caledon Librarians)

Notes of Love: excerpts from love letters of British Victorian poets, novelists, and playwrights (Feb 2008)

Google Custom Search Engines

Aetheric Search Gizmo http://google.com/coop/cse?cx=015330499799466611175%3Aaf0xg9rscyg

Planning on the creation of several others

Collections

Needlework & Airships

Harry Potter Celebration – 4 locations, included music, dancing, and trivia costume contest

Possible Questions

How can we add value to our current services with

a presence in a virtual world?

Question from http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/virtualworldsenetworks07

New Media: Cross Platform (TV, Web, Virtual World, etc.)

Web 2.0: Selected Mashups

SLoodle: moodle meets Second Life - open source

learning tools & structures for educators exploring 3D multi-user virtual environments

Connect Facebook Users to your SL Presence :

Second Life link beta (see if your friends are in SL)

Gridmarker.com:

store, share, view other people’s locations from the web

Life2Life: integrating Amazon’s remote shopping cart system in SL

Flickr in Second Life: bring your Flickr images into SL

Del.icio.us & Second Life

Slurl Maker & Second Life: bounce into SL from the web

Intellectual Property It’s all yours… it is built into the code “ Second Life has taken the Creative Commons license a step further… Creators in Second Life can mark their content with the license they want. If it is marked with a CC license, someone can take a picture of it without express permission. If it is not marked with a license, then if you try to take a picture of it, the object will be invisible.” “ If a right is violated, it gets remedied through the law.” Lessing, Lawrence. Code: Version 2.0. New York: Basic Books. 2006 CC Atribution-ShareAlike Machinima: Filmmakers are migrating to Second Life as it is one of few games or game-like spaces where machinima can be created and used/sold commercially. Few games offer this freedom.

Summary of Top Two Things

General

Unlimited bandwidth.

Seamless transition from SL to RL search & discovery

personal electronics that could "sense" the presence of a virtual visitor and convey this information to its owner so that the two may interact by VoIP or SMS

Real Life

Would like my AV to be able to work RL (real-time) reference.

Stream Second Life into Real Life

Dedicated computer for Second Life with a projector and large screen

Second Life

Monitor or marquee or video screen that could display RSS feeds.

Full web functionality INSIDE SL

Stream Real Life into Second Life

Seamless Digital content (ebooks, ejournals, etc.) available in SL on a text reader

Scan something directly into a file in SL and creating a searchable archive

New organizational scheme for information that can be retrieved in-world

spell check

A "walk through" manipulatable catalog/database interface

Historical or geographical sims that the library could move around in based on discussion topics

Unicode for anything textual

Seamless built-in translation/interpretation capabilities for anything textual or audible.

Receive text or the audio in the language you set

On Virtual Worlds…

“ In a library notably absent of huge ranges of books and rows of computers we can create new services or rethink what it means to be a library. What I have noticed is that the librarian becomes even more important and visible to the residents of SL, in RL librarians might be approached last when students are desperate. In SL if you have a librarian tag be prepared to be stopped at anytime.”

“ I can test out my ideas without the worry of making mistakes… brainstorm with librarians from around the world with an opportunity to rethink media and services in 3D and traditional environments. We need to be thinking of multi-platform strategies & participating alongside library users on group and open media projects." HVX Silverstar HVX Silverstar

Land for Projects or Students? educators | librarians | researchers | non-profit

Campus: Second Life (Linden Labs)

Apply for free temporary space on Adult or Teen grids

Spring 2008 semester - space limited http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Campus:Second_Life

Private Islands or Mainland Plots (Linden Labs)

http://secondlife.com/community/land-islands.php

50% discount for verified real world educators and schools/academic institutions or 501(c)3 non-profit http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/education

3 New Islands, Suffern Middle School, Teen Second Life

Land for Projects or Students? educators | librarians | researchers | non-profit

Info Archipelago (Alliance Library System & Partners)

Move your own island to the Info Archipelago OR

Lease small or large parcels: $100-400 year (lots)

http://alliancelibraries.info/secondlife.htm http://groups.google.com/group/alliancesecondlife

Info International and Info Island

NMC “Sparkling Innovative Learning & Creativity” http://sl.nmc.org/

New Media Consortium (NMC)

Leasing small or large parcels: $100-400 year (lots) - $5540 (sim)

http://www.nmc.org/pr/virtual-worlds-lease-available

http://virtualworlds.nmc.org/docs/NMC_announces_EDU_communities_in_SL.pdf

Red Rocks Amphitheater at Research Park (39,18,45)

What’s our point!

Explore collaborative service models

Use SL as a mode of networking by attending conferences and talks

SL projects don’t need to be large, start small

Think of added value, what can your library contribute in terms of unique resources

Explore Second Life:

What would you need to know to move to another MUVE

Envision instruction in 5+ years and a MUVE is more integrated in instruction, how would you support those students and faculty.

Get an account, create an avatar and explore the educational and library spaces

Resources

Simteach -http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

Social Networking, the “Third Place,” and the Evolution of Communication. The New Media Consortium 2007. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Evolution-of-Communication.pdf