Scottmerrick Oh's Page

I wrote this last night just before falling asleep at the keyboard:
Random good things have happened today. Tomorrow, of course is our SLedupotential presentation in both rW and SL.

This morning, we leap into the fray, 9 dedicated educators from 9 different states, all of whom met one another inside a computer platform in a place that doesn't exist, gathered together in San Antonio Texas to share a vast and essentially indescribable phenomenon to 30 mostly strangers we will be meeting for the first time this morning.

Life(s) is good.

Here's how I'm going to start, formally, in a little under 2 hours--

Good morning. I'm Scott Merrick and I welcome you to SLedupotential.

We've brought all these people into this room, and into this platform (welcome to any of you in Second Life, wherever you are in the RW (real world) for a whole bunch of reasons. Each of us is here for his or her own. Let me share some of mine.

I'm here because I believe the Present of teaching and learning is changing. You'll hear a lot of folks this week talking about the Future of teaching and learning. I want us to focus today on its Present. At this very moment a new tool for collaborative technology is poised in the wings of the internet's stage, going over its lines the way many of us up here have gone over theirs walking or in the cab on the way to the conference center this morning. The makers of this technology want us to use this tool to change the way we work, the way we collaborate, the way we view the world and most importantly--the way we spend our time.

I don't know what that technology tool is. None of us does because it hasn't been released yet. Last week it was Plurk, meant to be a "Twitter Killer app." Today it'll be something else. How do we see it and share it? Through our Personal Learning Networks.

Second Life has been that for me. Every single one of the dedicated teachers up at the front of the room with me this morning I met for the first time in Second Life. Every one of them has something special to share about her or his vision of the Present. Let's get started (speak to agenda notes).

The agenda is at the wiki. The tag for this session, btw, is n08s987. Please tag all your pictures, video, blog posts, anything with that tag. It'll make it easier for everyone to find what's going on.

In the "real world," I'm packed and ready to sleep a few hours before my wife drives me to the Braniff National Airport, Nashville's finest, to fly to sunny San Antonio for NECC. Here in SL, I've recently added a sign in the ISTE Island Podcasters' Place linking to the most recent "Inside the Lab" podcast from Linden Lab, which features Claudia and Pathfinder Linden being interviewed about "Education in Second Life." 

Just out, an Inside the Lab podcast from Linden Lab, featuring Lindens Claudia and Pathfinder, announced at RezEd by RezEd member Rik Panganiban. I'm listening to it now. You should too!

DEN got a nice mention, as did Metanomics, but so far no mention of ISTE. Still it's a great discussion, 38:03 long.

Some highlights:

• Pathfinder describing the robust use of SL as a platform for language learning.
• Claudia talking about touring a new sim to train medical personnel for prenatal care in 3rd world countries...
• Not all that fond of Pathfinder's repeated use of the term "academics" to refer to educators.
• • but..."everything in Second Life is about conversations in the context of the content..."
  • and "The greatest resource(s) for educators in Second Life are other educators"
  • and "When educators come into Second Life and succeed, it's good for the whole community, because the community becomes more interesting..."
    
• a discussion of the Linden Lab Education Grid site is very informative
• Edunation, Infoisland, Eduisland, New Media Consortium, all mentioned for collaboration and inexpensive rental for educators
• Claudia adds an interesting bit of advice for educators new to Second Life--"find a practice partner" and THERE's the ISTE mention, YAYYYYYY!
• • also, "use the SLED listserv to introduce yourself and your project"
  • "Second Life is an 'echo system'--It's the platform but it's also the many blogs that discuss it"--YAY!
• Pathfinder plugs The Second Life Official Guide as an excellent text for those new to SL
• Claudia plugs The Second Life Community Conference, upcoming in Tampa, FL in September
• Claudia: I see the future in some of the incredible innovations I see in Second Life (mentions a 3D wiki -- "studio wikitexture")
• Pathfinder: I get excited when I see people trying to study the efficacy of learning in Second Life...is it teaching them differently? How is it teaching them better? The plural of anecdote is not data. You actually need to have some research..."
  

Go listen for your own durned self!!!

Hey!

It's been a while since I posted something just plain fun here, and here goes!

My friend Gia introduced me today to the Museum of Robots, in the Kubrick sim (here's a SLurl), and I had a blast looking around, especially in the museum art gallery, OMG!!!

Artist Eric Joyner has obviously spent years creating his real world paintings, and images of those are on display through the month of August in the art gallery of this clever and comprehensive build, an homage to robots in literature, television/cinema, and the visual arts.

I'm going share some snapshots at a flickr set, with the caveat that these are low-res snapshots of very good scans/photographs of real world art. That said, you MUST visit this gallery to see some of the best use of Second Life for art display that I have yet found. I particularly love the audio commentary that accompanies many of the images. Want to hear the artist, in his own words and in his own voice, describing the painting? Just click on the pink donut!

The artist's website is here.

Just in time for NECC, I've put up a little rental storefront at Publishing Island, space number 95. I'll have adverts for me CD and me novel, as well as links to me teacher workshops and me bloggies. Why am I talking babytalk? Hmmmmm. Perhaps because I'm the world's perpetual n00b.

Anyway, stop by if'n you will, and also peruse the other shops on the island. There's something for everyone there, whether your tastes run eclectic, academic, altruistic, comic, or any other "ic" you can name!

Here's a pic and a SLurl!