2020 #VWEDU: A plan for a field trip to CybaLOUNGE. Getting in is too easy. It would also be quick if I didn't talk so much.

A plan for a field trip to CybaLOUNGE 
Getting in is too easy. 
It would also be quick if I didn't talk so much.

A nine minute demonstration of what it takes for a beginner to enter a web-world and start doing things. 

• Watch on YouTube
• A short video on how to start in CybaLOUNGE, a web-world that runs in a browser.  
• The video starts on a flat web page in my blog 
• https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2020/04/2020-vwedu-people-international.html
• and travels to the 3D world of CybaLOUNGE on this url:
• https://nonprofitvirtualworld.org/location.html?locationid=800000002&dl=true
• Choose guest entry
• The only actions needed on this trip are: choose  an avatar and enter a nickname.

• Update 5/27/2020 Firestorm update for OpenSim. Metamodernism and Changing Literacy, Record number of OpenSim grids this month

Field trip plans: Below

2019 WW: #DTA Starting in CybaLOUNGE. A DTA content page designed for JIT learning

Starting in CybaLOUNGE.  
A DTA content page designed for JIT learning 
Updated 6/2

An example of Just-In-Time (JIT) learning design prepared to help incoming students and meeting attendees get started quickly in CybaLOUNGE. This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

Just-in-time

• Watch on YouTube
• CybaLOUNGE 
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• These instructions apply to a computer screen.
• You can access Cybalounge with a tablet or smart phone.
• The instructions for these will be different.
• Don't bother to register--come in as a guest
• Web-worlds are easy to get to. Here are a couple of examples.

This page supports JIT learning

• Don't read it though carefully.
• Skim through it if you like:  Look for any topic that interests you.
• If you see some that you want to know more about, read it more carefully.
• But don't bother with the details unless you want to use the information right now. 
• When you are ready to use the information, you will have a better idea of what you want to know. 
• The key to knowing a lot is no longer how much you can remember.
• The key is how much you can find out with a quick search.
• To search the page: click Crtl+f.  The search bar appears near the top.
• Enter a term you want to know about.
• Just-in-time learning
• Key terms are listed below.

Key terms (to search for)

• Go there
• Enter as guest
• Walk, turn
• Walk fast
• Sit, stand
• Talk in voice
• Chat in text
• Chat log
• Use a web link sent in text
• Copy the chat text
• Look for other people in CybaLOUNGE
• Go to another place in CybaLOUNGE

2020 #DTA: #VWEDU: The merit of badges: Define a useful skill set, specify a goal, give public recognition of skills.

The merit of badges:  
Define a useful skill set.
Specify a goal.
Recognize skills. 

Badges are sometimes thought of as deriving from gamification.  But they are widely used in more serious activities, though with different names.  And they may be used because they are thought of as motivators.  But, with proper design, they can serve other useful functions as well. This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

Goal seeking: a useful skill 

The naming of badges

• Merit badges
• The education system awards badges. 
• The Red Cross awards badges.
• They use other names: certifications, degrees, completing a grade.
• But they all require the same: demonstrate a specified skill set. 
• Badge is well suited to microlearning.
• A skill set is developed by practice and demonstrated by execution.
• Badge model of gamification
• Use-targeted learning plan for schools in digital worlds. Learners can pick the skills they need for the uses they intend. Gamified as a model

The badge system serves motivation and more

• It aims at a valuable skill set, such as First aid.
• It specifies the contents of that skill set.
• It specifies how to demonstrate the required skills.
• It can mark a step toward a larger goal (a set of badges).
• It is a short term goal that offers practice in goal-seeking.
• It encourages self-directed learning.
• It gives social recognition of learning achievement. 
• It reduces test anxiety, because learners take the test when they are ready. 
• And the "test" consists of demonstrating well practiced skills.

20220 #VWEDU: "Gateway to Thinking", an educational TelePortal for Education Monthly Tour #1. Library Land (CVL), Cookie, Tour Guide: Hajime Nishimura

"Gateway to Thinking", TelePortal for Education Monthly Tour #1
Library Land (CVL), Cookie
Tour Guide: Hajime Nishimura (Yan Lauria in SL/OpenSim), 
Abyss Observatory

For educators wondering how to teach online, visit here and talk to people who have been doing it for years.  See the teaching resources already available all the time, at no cost. 

The tour starts

Click image to enlarge

• Location: Library Land (CVL), Cookie
• http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cookie/81/85/21
• 100 TP boards are arranged in 9 categories. 
• Each TP board displays 512x256 snapshot of destination. 
• On touch a board puts information into local chat:
• A brief description of the destination and
• A clickable link that takes you to the destination (and a return link)

• Record number of OpenSim grids this month Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales Multi-college diversity in Kitely.

2020 CAG University (Turkey) has a virtual campus and teaches a course about virtual worlds there.

CAG University (Turkey) has a virtual campus 
and teaches a course about virtual worlds there.  

A virtual campus in Second Life.  A real campus in Turkey.  A class in both places.  Here Magua Therac tells about the class he offers in both places.  

 CAG university main entrance

Click image to enlarge

• CAG University Website
• Cag University (Wikipedia)
• Course: "Virtual Worlds"
• Teacher: Magua Theriac
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Cag University (search)

Goal

• Magua Theriac: I want to take it to another level.
• I want to make it international with some other schools.
• A university from USA or Europe or both together.
• (The classes are conducted in English) 
• Magua Theriac is the teacher's SL name You can contact him in SL

• Record number of OpenSim grids this month Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales Multi-college diversity in Kitely.

2020 #VWEDU: ACRL tour of Cybalounge. Meeting in a browser. CybaLOUNGE is 30 seconds from anywhere. Even from lockdown

ACRL tour of Cybalounge.  
Meeting in a browser.  
CybaLOUNGE is 30 seconds from anywhere.  
Even from lockdown 

No social distancing on the web.  We digitals are already immune.  We can talk.  We can show you around our digital places.  And we can make videos to show anyone, anytime, anywhere.  No travel costs.  No carbon footprint.  All the time and costs focus right on the goal.

• Watch on YouTube
• The Community Virtual Library Cybalounge Branch at the Metaverse School  
• Sponsored by the ACRL Virtual World Interest Group
• Led by Dr. Valerie J. Hill
• Speaker: Dieter Heyne, CybaLOUNGE developer
• Drop by my web offices Weekdays: 12:-12:30 pm Central time (US)
• I am available for free consulting on any topic in this blog.
• CybaLOUNGE is a web-based virtual world which requires no download.  
• Simply click here  to enter.  
• No need to register. Enter as a guest.  
• Just choose your avatar and a nickname. 
• Use the arrow keys to move.
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• Details after the break

• Record number of OpenSim grids this month Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales Multi-college diversity in Kitely.

2020 VW: OSCC19 OTHER SOCIAL WORLDS AND THE FUTURE OF THE METAVERSE

OSCC19 OTHER SOCIAL WORLDS 

AND THE FUTURE OF THE METAVERSE

Panel discussion on the future of the social metaverse.

• Watch YouTube
• OSCC videos are up
• VidReader

Related

• Scholarly articles for social virtual worlds
• Scholarly articles for multi user virtual environment
• Multi-user virtual environment (search)
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary

• Record number of OpenSim grids this month Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales Multi-college diversity in Kitely.

2020 #VWEDU: An educational workgroup meeting in a browser. 3DWebWordz

An educational workgroup meeting in a browser. 
3DWebWordz 

Personal Learning Networks are more useful on the web, especially when we need technical information or advice about online education.  Here we show excerpts from a discussion about online streaming of a musical event and asset-based learning.  How many high schools teach about online streaming as part of the music classes?       

• Watch on YouTube

An educational workgroup meeting in a browser.  

• We meet in the Orientation 1 zone of 3DWebWorlds

Topics: 

• Streaming in OBS 
• Copyright management 
• The awesome online performance of James Olmos
• School systems blocking of web sites and handling that 
• Using Chromebooks.  (They work on web-worlds if access is not blocked.)

2020 HG: OSCC19 STATE OF THE OPENSIMULATOR COMMUNITY

OSCC19 STATE OF 
THE OPENSIMULATOR COMMUNITY

Presentation by Maria Korolov on the state of the opensimulator community at the end of 2019

• Watch on YouTube
• OSCC videos are up
• VidReader

• 391 grids active in 2019
• 33000 active users
• 73000 standard region equivalents
• KItely Market:  nearly 15000 exportable items
• Hypergrid Business
• Hypergrid

• Update 5/13/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 BIZ: Meeting remotely in a digital place: CybaLOUNGE. Remote collaboration without the hassle.

Meeting remotely in a digital place: CybaLOUNGE.  
Remote collaboration without the hassle.

Before you buy collaboration software, meet the sales representative in that software.   Or insist that they let you hold a meeting to try it out.  Digital places in web-worlds present a mostly familiar environment with the resources of your laptop (because they run in your browser).

• Watch on YouTube

A workgroup meeting

• Dieter describes his recently completed presenter
• Not just a slide presenter, though it can do that.
• A web page presenter that shows a live web page.
• If the page has animations you see them.
• If  the page is YouTube the video fills the screen and runs.
• If the page is your Google doc, you can type on it.
• If you share the Google doc, others can type on it.  
• Go to CybaLOUNGE with this url:
• https://nonprofitvirtualworld.org/location.html?locationid=800000002&dl=true
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary

Meeting bulletin board

Click image to enlarge

• After the break: Dieter's new office

• Update 5/13/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 #VWEDU: STEM. Breadwinner thinking. Project-based learning. Growth-oriented learning. Goal-directed learning. The future of work is online.

STEM.  Breadwinner thinking. 
Project-based learning.  Growth-oriented learning.  
Goal-directed learning. The future of work is online.

Online students can practice project-based learning by interviewing professionals in a digital workplace.  The result can be a report (text or video) about the job opportunities in related fields.

• Watch on YouTube
• A workgroup at work in a digital place. We travel the web. Less travel time, more work time. What workgroup work is not talk?

Students investigate the world of work

• Free Educational Videos for Kids with Expert Discussions
• Student-thinking versus breadwinner-thinking versus entrepreneurial thinking: coming of age in school
• Students investigate the world of work (search)

How can students learn about work?

• Nepris
• Nepris Short Overview   (Video)   
• Nepris BacktoSchool 2019   (Video)  
• Nepris in 60 seconds   (Video)  
• #neprisconnects   (search)
• STEM education (search)
• Professionals meet students (search)

• Update 5/13/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 #VWEDU: MUSIC: The digital stage: Performers are doing it. Are educators doing it?

The digital stage: 
Performers are doing it.  

Are educators doing it? 

An overview of the expanding use of performance on the digital stage: Music, theater, stand-up comedy.

• Watch on YouTube
• Frogg Marlow at Inspiration Island 
• How to attend a live performance in 3DWebWorldz. Student performance or professional. Music, theater, commentary
• Streaming media (Wikipedia)

Below

• Streaming
• Performances in digital worlds
• Music
• Stage
• Video capture

• Update 5/13/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: The DTA can encourage good time-management habits

The DTA can encourage 
good time-management habits

Is time management a reasonable learning objective for school?  If so, how would a school teach it?  Here are some suggestions. This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

Thinking 

about time management

• I don't mean tell the students about good time management.
• And then check that they remember what you told them.
• Once you hear lecture about swimming, you never forget what you learned about lectures. Talking is not teaching
• Knowledge does not make habits.  Practice makes habits.
• A digital teaching assistant (DTA) can ask for and  monitor practice.
• Evaluated practice can be a class requirement.
• Or it could be a rewarded action (rewards provided by teacher or parent.)
• Someday...we should rework the calendar

2020 #VWEDU: OSCC19 DESIGN CHALLENGES IN YOUTH-SAFE VR ENVIRONMENTS Virtual Private Grids

OSCC19 DESIGN CHALLENGES 
IN YOUTH-SAFE VR ENVIRONMENTS

Eileen O'Connor discusses the challenges and resources met in offering virtual world education to students in the K-12 range.

• Watch on YouTube
• VidReader

• The input form mentioned in the talk
• Mentioned: OSCC19 EUREKA WORLD AN ECOSYSTEM FOR LEARNING. School campuses in virtual worlds: teachers, students, mentors, developers.
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
• Pre-developed VR environments for youth, in K-12 schools and in other youth-oriented organizations
• Adaptable environments to ease development while leaving flexibility.
• In OpenSim, complete regions can be saved as OAR files, sent in email, and loaded onto a different grid.
• Kitely’s Organizations (Virtual Private Grids)
• Youth-safe interface and a practical registration system
• Can you put a high school next to a porno place? Not even in a virtual world. But there are solutions
• Gathering educational support in OpenSimulator. Scenegate, RezMela™, Kitely Organizations, DTA
• MALET, Empire State College (SUNY)

• Update 5/5/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 #VWEDU: Institute for New Paradigms. (INP) - An Overview of VR for Educators. What can you do in VR? What can't you do in VR.

Institute for New Paradigms. (INP)   
An Overview of VR for Educators
What can you do in VR? 
What can't you do in VR?

A video of some things educators can do in Virtual Reality (VR).  And an indirect hint that something students can do is make videos reporting on the results of their educational activities. 

• Watch on YouTube

VR:  Virtual reality

• Virtual reality is not new and it is not expensive. The new and expensive: stereoscopic (VR) headsets. They may be good for first person games. What will they do for user-built virtual worlds?
• Kitely
• A consultative think-tank for a new kind of learning:
• interactive, engaging, immersive
• What can you do in VR?
• What can't you do in VR?

• Update 5/5/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 #VWEDU: Web-worlds are easy to get to. Here are a couple of examples.

Web-worlds are easy to get to.  
Here are a couple of examples.

Two demonstrations of how easy it is to get to virtual worlds on the web (web-worlds).  

An easy visit to CybaLOUNGE 

• Watch on YouTube
• A short video on how to start in CybaLOUNGE, a web-world that runs in a browser.  
• The video starts in a flat web page of my blog 
• https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/
• and travels to the 3D world of  CybaLOUNGE on this url:
• https://nonprofitvirtualworld.org/location.html?locationid=800000002&dl=true
• The only actions needed on this trip are choosing an avatar and entering a nickname.
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• After the break: Visit 3DWebWorldz

• Update 5/5/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 DTA: Draft plan for teaching elements of digital citizenship: How to become a digital guard. Game elements for digital self-defense. Sure you can improve it.

Draft plan for teaching elements of digital citizenship:  
How to become a digital guard.  
Game elements for digital self-defense.
Sure you can improve it.

A draft plan for teaching elements of digital citizenship with the aid of a digital teaching assistant (DTA) and methods from gamification.  This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

The new martial arts

Plan for teaching elements of digital citizenship

• To be managed by a Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA)
• Badge model of gamification.

Objectives

Digital Safety Badge (DSB)

• Apprentice: Recognise and report scams and phishing.  
• Journeyman: Help others to recognise and report scams and phishing. 
• Master: Mentor others as they work on the DSB.

Digital Guard Badge (DGB)

• Apprentice: Recognize and report instances of cyberbullying
• Journeyman: Help others to deal with  instances of cyber-bullying.
• Master: Mentor others as they work on the DSB.

2020 #DTA: #VWEDU: OpenSim Traveller badge: Knowledge base. What you need to know to be a world traveller in SceneGate. Travelling the Hypergrid.

World Traveller Badge: Knowledge Base (KB).  
What you need to know 
to be a world traveller in SceneGate.
Travelling the Hypergrid.

A collection of information you need to travel the Hypergrid easily and to teach others how to travel the Hypergrid.  Specifies the knowledge expected of one who holds a DTA World Traveller Badge.

Places panel

Click image to enlarge

A DTA badge page

• This page has the information we think people need to travel the Hypergrid with SceneGate.
• It will be updated as needed

What is the Hypergrid?

• A grid of grids.  A lot of OpenSim grids connected so you can travel from one to another.
• Like a national highway system connects cities.  But much faster.
• You just teleport.  May take nearly a minute.  
• Key terms: region. hypergrid address, suitcase, places panel 

• Update 5/5/2020 Kitely Market Passes $250,000 in Sales. Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic

2020 #VWEDU: How could we staff a digital campus? The MGE method can get an existing faculty comfortable in a digital world

How could we staff a digital campus? 
The MGE method can get an existing faculty comfortable in a digital world
The Mind Gathering Experience© (MGE) method
A project by J. L. Mittag

How do you train your faculty to teach in a virtual world?  Here is an option.

A demonstrational campus
Mind Gathering Experiences

A school campus is made of people

• Online web pages cannot replace people.
• A dean  considers the idea of a digital campus online.
• "It's not like another campus across town. Where would I get faculty?" she says to herself.
• We interrupt this story to introduce another character, MGE so the dean (we'll call her Lorna Dean) won't have to talk to herself.   
• [More after the break.]

Mindgathering Experiences (MGE)

• MGE can offer virtual world onboarding services to teachers and leadership of membership organisations
• For more information, contact mindgatherers@gmail   
• Education in MUVEs (virtual worlds)
• Educational Technology (Wikipedia)

• Update 4/30/2020 Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic Kitely upgrades for better scalability

2020 #VWEDU: Museums on your lap. Going places in your laptop. An online presence extends the reach of a museum and gives new meaning to the idea of a field trip.

Museums on your lap.  
Going places in your laptop.  
An online presence extends the reach of a museum 
and changes the idea of a field trip. 
Updated 9/1/2020

Museums provide a lot of educational material.  In the old days, most of that was only available locally or after expensive travel.  A museum on the web changes the game.

Visiting a museum 

in SineSpace

SineSpace

• SineSpace home
• Natural History Museum location

Museum resources on the web

• The Virtual Peale Museum on your laptop. Disabilities are left behind when you travel on your laptop
• 100+ Museum & Art Gallery Websites For Design Inspiration
• Best Museum Websites: Top 10 Examples - Weblium Blog
• 12 World-Class Museums You Can Visit Online
• Gallery or Museum websites
• 19 Steps: Planning for Extended Covid-19 Close Down
• Museums on the web (search)
• (The above search will be updated when you use it.)  

2020 Library: Music:. Marly Milena Music Library at the Community Virtual Library: Grand Opening Tour: Collaboration in the digital worlds

Marly Milena Music Library at the Community Virtual Library: 
Grand Opening Tour: 
Collaboration in the digital worlds

The next killer app is people working together across distance, national boundaries, cultural divides, and quarantines.  Here we present an example of that collaboration and a product.  Digital places are places where people can work together and bypass those things that keep them apart.

Valibrarian introduces the tour

• Marly Milena Music Library
• This library is a collaboration between the Community Virtual Library and Octagon: Creative Exploration.
• Mission: Find, connect, and support composers and performers in Second Life and to catalog, display, and document/preserve their original music in varying formats.

Goals

• 1. Find and connect composers in SL & display/catalog their music.
• 2. Encourage performers who give concerts in SL to submit concert recordings for display and sharing at the library.
• 3. Display and share scores for SL pianists, etc. that might be interested in playing the pieces.
• 4. Display and share books about music, famous composers, singers, etc. for people interested.
• 5. Host periodic garden performances (stream in chamber music and have animated figures playing or have singers, dancers, etc.)

• Update 4/30/2020 Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic Kitely upgrades for better scalability

2020 COMEDY: March-April . 2020: Lauren's place, Tuesdays at 5:00 PM Pacific NSFW

2020 COMEDY:  March-April  2020: Lauren's place,   
Tuesdays at 5:00 PM Pacific NSFW

March-April collection of comedy from Lauren's place:   WyNott,  Catboy, HiTech, Amouretta, Randy, Jamie, Synnove, Selby

• Watch on YouTube

• At Lauren's Place Tuesdays 5 pm Calif. time (NSFW)
• Place:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cookie/122/242/23
• A one-hour comedy show in voice.
• Tell the MC that you want to do comedy.
• If you can do a good 3-5 min. set with a good close will make a video.
• Our Comedy Channel
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGw_HANVLFY&list=PLmXCeJpxLXokSPNK_UVR1rS9qHSfJJsNM
• JOKE BANK - POPULAR JOKES
• Joke search

• Update 4/30/2020 Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic Kitely upgrades for better scalability

2020 VW: IMA: SceneGate for OpenSimulator: the Market button, grid money notice and button, and find friends online

SceneGate for OpenSimulator:
the market button, 
grid money notice and button 
and find friends online

SceneGate will adjust its services to fit OpenSimulator, cleaning up some viewer features left over from services on a previous grid.  Since SceneGate must adjust for multiple grids, the adjustment is complicated. 

A viewer can do better than that

• From comments in the Kitely Sunday meeting and conversations on the forum, I learned of four items of user interest:
• A Market button on the viewer should take the user to a market they could use.
• The Buy grid money button should take the user to where they can buy grid money.
• The grid money amount notice should give the correct amount for the avatar.
• Some users wanted a notice of friends online before they login.
• The first three of those are viewer issues, so i asked the SceneGate devs about them.
• The fourth item is a grid issue, but suggested a feature that SceneGate is aiming for.

• Update 4/30/2020 Multi-college diversity in Kitely. OpenSim grids show growth during pandemic Kitely upgrades for better scalability