“Booralie” Virtual World for High School Learning

"Second Life" is free software that connects you to a 3D virtual space, shared and built by 100,000s of other virtual citizens.

My colleague Mark Liddell and I are presenting at an educators conference that takes place within this virtual world. The virtual world has an audio channel, so you'll be able to hear us speaking and see the slides we present.

We are presenting on our experience of using a 3D virtual space for our High School students. This virtual space we have called "Booralie Island". It is cut off entirely from the adult Second Life virtual world where we are presenting. Booralie Island is only for the students and teachers of our school.

We established the island at the start of this year. We've been using it for both open-ended projects with the students, but also for targeting specific skills.

Below is a summary of what we're presenting. If you'd like to join us but don't have a Second Life account, or have never used it, that's not a problem. Go to
www.secondlife.com
and sign up – follow the instructions to get into the virtual world. You'll appear in a special tutorial area. Find your way out of the tutorial area and onto the main part of Second Life. Then click here and you'll be teleported to right where we're presenting: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/231/177/25

The Presentation:

I'm going to start by introducing how we established the island at the start of the year, offering to register students early if they were willing to be 'moderators' of the island.

I also wrote the "Booralie Charter" to which every participant must agree:

We know that in Booralie, this is how we will…

…be

Our real life names we may choose to give out, or we may choose to keep tucked away. Our teachers know who we are. We're all in this together at Booralie. We always work hard to include everyone in our projects, activities and conversations.

…speak

Booralie is for open, public conversations. We will keep private conversations for real life. In Booralie we'll say exactly what we mean so we understand each other.

…work

We'll come into Booralie at the right times that suit our real life.

…enjoy

In Booralie, laughter comes from good times together, and successes.

…create

Everything we do, say or build will make Booralie better. We're in Booralie to learn, explore, build, perform and collaborate.

…share

We are all teachers in Booralie, sharing knowledge and skills freely and actively with each other.

I was very careful to keep statements in the affirmative, and keep them all-encompassing.

I'll describe our registration process to – essentially any student over 13 years old can 'opt-in' and get an account to access the world, but can only login at home with parental permission. Meanwhile we also register swathes of students whose teachers have set them up to use the environment in class.

All the way through our journey I've in mind that we're experimenting and trying to seek out effective practices. Some ideas will work, some won't, but I personally have two key criteria for good use of technology for learning:

1. LOW INPUT – must require minimum effort on the part of the teacher.
   


2. HIGH IMPACT – conversely, must have a real and powerful impact on the students' learning.
   

There are three broad categories of learning activities that take place in Booralie Island. We'll look at them one by one.

The first category is structured activities, run by class teachers for their classes, targeting specific student outcomes.

The second category is unstructured student collaboration, driven entirely by students. Almost every building on the island has been built from scratch by teams of students – they teach each other how to build, and how to program the world to behave in ways they've envisaged. Students do this in their own time, under no compulsion, but they're developing creativity, project-management skills, and collaboration skills that will last them a lifetime.

The third category is establishing a culture of celebration that draws in student creativity well beyond our little island. We have an in-world virtual Art Gallery, Bookstore, and live radio station, showcasing real-world art, text, and audio from across our whole school, Kindie to Year 12.

Here are the images for our presentation:

Year 8 Maths in Second Life - A guest post, by Mrs Tracey Cameron

My year 8 class had been introduced to Second life in their science class early in 2009 and were very enthusiastic about Second life and exploring Booralie Island. After looking at Booralie Island myself, I had an idea that I could incorporate some of the mathematical concepts that they had been learning into an exercise in Second Life.

The class had just been learning about data analysis and data representation and I thought this might be a good opportunity to put these concepts into practice on the island. I wanted the class to measure the heights of trees on the island, list the data in a table and then produce a graph of the data.

Steve Collis was instrumental in developing the "Statistics Garden" that was used for this activity:

One of the problems with measuring the heights of the trees was that the standard trees were all the same height. Steve managed to fix this by planting some trees deeper in the ground.

During the lesson, students, went to the statistics garden and calculated the heights of the trees by using the location coordinates on the toolbar. The students found the coordinates of the base of the tree and then flew to the top of the tree. They then found the height of the tree by finding the difference in coordinates.

Once the students had collected data for half a dozen trees they were then able to create a table of data in Excel. They then used the excel graphing tools to produce graphs of their data.

The best graphs were then posted in second life:

This last part was the biggest incentive for the students. Having their work displayed in second life gave them a great deal of satisfaction and pride.

My second expedition to Booralie Island with Year 8 was after we had been working on geometry. I had the idea that the class could generate their own treasure map using geometrical terms and bearings. To do this, I provided the students with a blank pro-forma and asked them to develop a 10 step treasure map :

The follow up to this activity will be when we place treasure at the end of the treasure map and ask the students to follow someone else's treasure map. Steve will again assist in this process by providing password protected boxes with treasure inside for the students that correctly follow the treasure map.

I have not yet done this second part of the activity, but am very excited to see how it works!

My Manifesto Presentation on Connectedness

Have you developed a mythology or theology that positions and interprets technology?

A few weeks ago I was given an entire HOUR to present to my friends and colleagues at Northern Beaches Christian School. I did not take the opportunity lightly. I spent ages trying to distill what I think about the internet, and connectedness, and how to understand what it is doing to us.

It seemed crucial that when I present I include an online audience in addition to my face to face colleagues. In the videos, below, I've copied the online chatter by people before, during, and after the presentation, which was broadcast live over webcam.

Here is Part 1 (but I suggest you click the link down the bottom of this post to get the full 8 video playlist). 

If you're short of time, the best bits are in parts 1, 2 and 3 I think. I project the backchannel in the later parts.

The scariest thing about the presentation was that I wanted to provoke the thoughts of Christians and not-Christians alike, without alienating either. YOU TRY DOING THAT, KKTHXBYE... lolz a bit of kudos ladies and gentleman, pleez!

I tried to go back to 'first principles' and then bring them to bare on the new connectedness, the new space (my term). You have to stop and think about what you think about technology, and you have to be consistent. From fire to the internet is not so great a leap. It has everything to do with how we relate to our environment and to each other.

I am really proud of what I managed to pull together for the presentation. I've watched myself several times now, after the fact, and reflected more on where we are as a species, how we get along, how we connect, and where on earth we're going.

Click here for the playlist of all 8 parts of the presentation: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DEADCA74F2553FAE

Notice each one is available in 'high quality'. I uploaded them to YouTube in full DV quality - 1.6 gig for every 8 minutes of footage. This is why it has taken a couple of weeks to upload.

I welcome all comments! If you want to msg me, get on Twitter and tweet me @steve_collis

P.S. the best quotes from the presentation are, in hindsight (because at the time I was making it up):

"If you're not on Twitter, know that you're not, and be at peace with that." ha ha!

"Privacy is gone forever - the horse has bolted, it's not coming back in the barn."

"Your résume should be 'google me'."

"Since when was privacy a kingdom value?"

"At the start of history there's a garden. At the end there's a city." (First noticed this thanks to Brian McLaren)

Lolcatz Phenomena Harnassed for Language Teaching

First, please vote on my Year 8 students' lolcatz photos here, and then I'll explain all about how I used this in my lesson below (after all the photos!)

In language classrooms we're always trying to stimulate communication.

Lolcatz is an internet phenomena you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat In very brief, it involves putting a cute quote on the bottom of a photo of a cat, in a weird version of broken English that we imagine a kitten might use (but it is implicitly a parody and a version of the broken English people use on the internet, in text messages etc). LOL stands for Laugh Out Loud.

There's countless lolcat images here.

You can make your own lolcat images and even share them with the world here.

Did I mention this thing is so popular that the nameless hordes on the internet have translated most of the bible, including the boring bits, into lolcatz? http://www.lolcatbible.com http://www.lolcatbible.com

And that's what I'm about to do with my Year 8 French students. I've just found a voting website which should allow me to upload their photos and then insert the voting system on this blog post: http://www.polldaddy.com

Why work this way?

The students will hopefully enjoy having a big audience 'out there' and not 'in here' judging their work. Should 'up the ante' with the quality of what they do. They'll make lots of photos and we'll just upload their best shot. HERE WE GO!

SO HOW DID IT GO:

I've just finished the lesson! It was a manic 60 minutes, but they got going, made lots of lolcatz, and then sent me their best one. I had to stay behind an extra 15 minutes to upload them to the polldaddy.com website, and now I've just embedded the poll into this post!

In one week I'll give the students prizes depending on the votes!

New Currencies in the New Space

On Monday I said there is a new space. Not the virtual space. Not physical space. Rather, the overlaying of the virtual space over the physical world. (Kevin Kelly: http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html) I call this combination the new space.

This has already happened. The distance between me and you is less even if we're physically distant because we are virtually connected, even if only by mobile phone, twitter etc. Physicallity is already only one of dimensions through which we move. The physical dimension is crucial for some aspects of existence. The virtual for others. Already we move between the two without thinking of making a distinction.

As this new space develops, what will its currency? By currency I mean agency. The scope of your potential action and affect in the world.

Normally money is our currency.

Now then:

1. Money is power.

2. Knowledge is power. 

3. It's not what you know it's who you know.

4. Time is money.

Add to this the notion of scarcity. Scarcity increases the difficulty in acquiring something, and thus its value.

1. Money is abundant. We've got far more than we need.

2. Knowledge is abundant. The internet makes it crazy easy.

3. Connectedness is abundant. You can eat until you're sick.

4. Time is scarce.  ARGH!! I've only got 24 hours in a day!

Confused? Reflect on the above factors. Read on when ready:

We have to let these factors play out a bit further:

1. Time is money but money is abundant.

So we don't need time because we don't need money. Failure to grasp this is the cause of much unhappiness in Australian society. Have a read of this book to see how materialism is a strong correlaive with misery: http://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Happiness-Psychology-Potential-Fulfillment/dp/0743222970

2. Connectedness requires time.

There is nothing cheap about connectedness. You purchase it at a great price. Just read http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/frames.html and reflect on your life. I say connectedness but I mean relationships. They grow slowly, with vulnerability, giving out, getting back, forging a shared history and risking betrayal or disappointment. Online relationships may seem different in texture to face to face relationships, but they grow with the same process and lead you to the same place:

In a relationship you matter to someone, and they matter to you.

Ain't nothing cheap about new space relationships.

3. Time has no value in itself. Think of 100 years in a prison cell - it is of little value. This is why prison sentences are a punishment and are referred to as 'doing time'. Time is a means to an end, even if it's just time to think. It's just you need time in order to... anything.

4. THEREFORE, connectedness is scarce.

Is it possible that:

Connectedness is the currency of the new space.

If there is a new distinction between the social classes it will not be defined by money, which is more and more abundant, or education, which is at everyone's fingertips for free, but by connectedness.

In our current world we find it a dillemma to manage our money. We only have so much of it, how do we spend it? It feels difficult to manage this in a balanced way.

In the future, the new currency in the new space will be connectedness, and the challenge of having a balanced, wise, healthy life will be the balance of how do I manage my connectedness.

Oh, sorry, do I sound like I'm trying to convince you? No, I'm just thinking out loud.

In the new space, connectedness comes in smaller denominations.

I connect with a myriad of people. I do so meaningfully and authentically because the tipping point of connection has become much smaller. The BIG denominations - family, colleagues, fishing friends, are still there. In the new space many other people can matter to me too.

To be wealthy is to connect well

There are junk connections out there. People are printing counterfeit currencies! Thus, SPAM was born! But too, woe am I who ignores my family to connect with my twitter teacher buddies. Someone asked me on Monday "Isn't Twitter just people building egos?" Ego is counterfeit currency. People who purchase ego pay a high price for a handful of nothing. In the new space, connecting is easy, connecting well when we're time poor, is rare and precious skill. A skill worth our learning, and a skill worth our teaching.

Where are you in your spider web of connections in the new space?

I want to connect widely.

I want to connect wisely.

I want to connect well.

I want to be rich in my relationships.

(Ain't nothing changed at all.)