2019 ART: LEA closes. Art has opened in OpenSim. Looking forward

LEA closes. 
Art has opened in OpenSim
Looking forward

A virtual art exhibit closes.  OpenSim grids remain open for art--new or recovered from elsewhere. 

Installation art by Gracie Kendal

• This is not a painting. Gracie Kendal

Articles about LEA and LEA closing

• LEA linden lab (search)
• LEA linden lab closing (search)

Art in OpenSimulator

• OpenSimulator already has a thriving art community.
• With a lot of artists and content from LEA:
• Artlandia: Spiral Silverstar, Gracie Kendal, Alpha Auer, Freewee Ling
• Much of the art that was in LEA can be transferred to OpenSim grids.
• And OpenSim grids can easily host all the recoverable art from LEA.
• I am offering at least 20 sim-sized plots (256X256) in Kitely.
• Interested? Contact me (Selby Evans) in Kitely or as a comment on this article.
• Here is my place: Creative Collaborators
• Note that in OpenSim, you can save your sim as a file (OAR).
• An OAR stores everything you created and can be reloaded on another grid.
• You can give or sell  an OAR file.

• #VWEDU update 7/18/2019 Firestorm splits into OpenSim and SL versions. LEA closes

2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: Digital coaching is needed for the DTA: Do we have the technology for that?

Digital coaching is needed for the DTA:  
Do we have the technology for that?   

Preliminary analysis of the functions of a digital coach in a MUVE and consideration of how some of those functions could be provided by a digital coach using current technology.  Future articles will cover more functions and more details.  This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

The Empty Classroom

Survey the requirements

• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. 
• We need to know what we want from Digicoach in a MUVE
• We can start with coaching activities in education. What do coaches do?
• Educational coach 
• Academic coach
• homework coach (Wikipedia)
• Homework coach (search)
• Instructional coach (search)
• Two levels:(1)  improve study practices;(2) help with learning specific content.
• The Difference Between Tutoring and Academic Coaching
• Here I take up improve study practices.
• Online education, sure. But why a virtual campus? Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?

2019 EDU: TKR: Learning something? Use your head. Learning Skills

Learning something?  
Use your head.   
Learning Skills. 

You can learn how to learn.  Sure.  Learning is a skill.  Not something they usually teach in school.  Not an obvious skill, like being able to read.  Actually, learning calls for a collection of skills and habits.  And it calls for smart choices about the best way to use those skills and habits.

• Learning how to learn | Barbara Oakley | TEDxOaklandUniversity
• Use your head! They always tell you that. They never tell you how

-

• How easy is it for you to learn new things?
• Do other people seem to learn new things more easily than you?
• Do other people use learning skills that you are not using?
• Below is a list of skills that people commonly use.
• See if you are using all the skills you could use.

• #VWEDU update 7/18/2019 Firestorm splits into OpenSim and SL versions. LEA closes

2019 #VWEDU: BIZ: Education builds skills. Skills are assets. Assets are marketable if you can show them. Your portfolio shows your skills.

Education builds skills. Skills are assets. 
Assets are valuable if you can show them.  
Your portfolio shows your skills.

A portfolio (or at least a vita listing publications) is the mark of a professional.  Colleges should be teaching portfolio development and maintenance.  More than that, they should be publicizing the portfolios of their graduates and upcoming graduates.

The Empty Classroom

• What does a classroom have to do with your professional portfolio?
• Trick question.  You don't put class notes in your portfolio.
• Your portfolio fills with things you did.  
• And you probably did them elsewhere.
• That's why I show the classroom empty.  
• The students should be out doing things.
• And creating record of what they do:  That's what makes a Career portfolio

Portfolios and online presence

• Teachers build portfolios (search)
• Your transcript shows what grades you got; your portfolio shows what you can do.
• Get Started with a Digital Teaching Portfolio
• Career portfolio
• Building an Online Presence More Important Than Ever
• Building an Online Presence as an Educator
• Building Online Presence for Educators
• Teachers, Build Your EdTech Portfolios
• Top 5 Items Every Teacher Should Have in Their Professional Portfolio

• #VWEDU update 7/18/2019 Firestorm splits into OpenSim and SL versions. LEA closes

2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. Language as an example

Just-In-Time (JIT) learning 

in virtual schools,

maybe with DTA coaching.
Language as an example
Updated 1019/2019

Some suggestions on how to use virtual worlds to provide JIT Learning.  Further suggestions are offered on how a Digital Teaching Assistant ( DTA) and game-based learning could be incorporated for more efficient learning. 
This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

The Empty Classroom

Just-in-time learning

• JIT Learning: Just-in-time learning, instruction provided just when it is needed.
• Popular for corporate instruction.  Obviously beneficial for learning.  
• A big advantage in Hypertext.  Click for help with unfamiliar words.
• Not practical for book learning--you don't need to know it when it is right in front of you.
• But consider the instruction manual: The Secret of the Instruction Manual
• You read it, start work, and soon realize you don't remember what to do next.
• Conveniently, you still have the manual at hand, so you get JIT learning.
• And once you do it, you really know how to do it.  
• To use JIT learning in school you create conditions where the student needs the  learning.
• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary

2019 #VWEDU Online education, sure. But why a virtual campus? Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?

Online education, sure.  
But why a virtual campus?  
Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?
Updated 10/19/2019

A campus is much more than a collection of classes.  Any physical campus offers a number added services. Here I consider which of those services should be carried to the virtual campus as we move from virtual classrooms to complete educational institutions in the digital world. This article is explicitly licensed licensed Public Domain (CC0).

Universal campus (Kitely)

• MUVE (virtual world)
• Ok archtecture.  Beginning architects can design and build in a virtual world.
• And landscaping.  Make a model of the finished product.  
• Rapid prototyping for an entertainment park, Mike Mchugh 
• Architecture: Virtual Library of Birmingham
• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. Can it be done?
• Digicoach can support homework in virtual worlds with JIT learning, immediate feedback
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary

What does a campus offer beyond classrooms?

• Commons area for students to study together or socialize
• School library (and librarians to help people find what the need)
• Conference rooms where students can work together on projects.
• Laboratories (where students often work together).
• Sponsored educational events
• Sponsored cultural events
• Sponsored competitive events
• Sponsored intellectual events
• Dormitories for students living on campus
• In loco parentis
• A virtual campus should offer some of these things.
• Details after the break 
• This article will be updated as other articles are published.

2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. Can it be done?

A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. 
Can it be done? 
Updated 10/19/2019

The  Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in a virtual world (MUVE) :  Desired functions and present possibilities.  Some important functions can readily be supported by current technology.  Others may well be possible now, but will need some planning.  This is the sedond article of a series on the subject. 
This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

The Empty Classroom

No DTA either

Any journey starts with knowing why you want to go there

• A Teaching Assistant (TA ) can handle routine classroom chores 
• If those services can be offered by a computer, they could be offered widely.
• Teachers would have more time to do what they do best.  
• Skills embodied in a DTA  can be made available to millions.  
• The DTA will reliably perform the same skills for all of the millions. 
• The DTA can have options to accommodate people with disabilities.
• A DTA can provide just-in-time teaching, and distributed practice.
• A DTA can select instructional content to fit learning styles.
• A DTA can give individualized and student-centered learning.
• A DTA is available any time, wherever the student can use a laptop. 
• Education for the future should prepare students to use computers as assistants.
• A DTA  would be a natural way to augment instruction in a virtual world. 
• The internet, a browser, and search capability are available with a click.
• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary

Who would be interested?

• Online schools and colleges
• Homeschoolers 
• Parents of children with disabilities
• Teachers of online classes
• Young people whose parents are not rich.
• The practical education. Avoid student debt. Go to college on the internet.

• #VWEDU update 7/11/2019 DTA in the MUVE. Competitive sports for online schools

2019 #VWEDU: Bring the virtual campus into the school: Kitely custom viewer login page

Bring the virtual campus into the school: 
Kitely custom viewer login page 

Every virtual world has a entry page: a flat web page that gets the users grid identity information and displays promotions, and announcements,  Schools do not like to send their students to a web page that is promoting games, adult content, or sexy clothes.   They would rather send their students to a page that carries announcements and promotion for the school.  Now, in Kitely, they can

The Empty Classroom

• Custom Viewer Login Page (Kitely)
• The Viewer Login Page appears in Firestorm when you select a  destination grid .
• Kitely Organizations are virtual grids, and so each has a Viewer Login Page.
• The main function of the login page is to let authorized users sign into the grid with name and password.
• Can Kitely handle several thousand students?
• Sure.. They would be spread over many regions, just as they are spread over many classrooms.  

• #VWEDU update 7/11/2019 DTA in the MUVE. Competitive sports for online schools

2019 #VWEDU: Virtual Exchange: International competition, grants, fund virtual youth exchange programs

Virtual Exchange: International completition,  
grants fund virtual exchange programs  
US and the Middle East + North Africa (MENA).

Virtual exchange supports cooperative learning experiences for youth in the US, Middle East, and North Africa.  Virtual may not imply virtual worlds in this case, but perhaps it should. 

The Empty Classroom

They are in the Middle East

• Going to the Middle East costs a lot and takes a lot of time. 
• Going to a virtual part of the Middle East costs nothing and takes 20 seconds.
• If you have collaborators there they can show you around the place.
• If you were learning the language, you could practice by talking to them.
• Or if they were learning your language, they could practice speaking that.
• You could have virtual places familiar to you and show them around those.
• All this without leaving your house.  
• Training and Collaboration in Virtual Worlds
• Architecture: Virtual Library of Birmingham
• Rapid prototyping for an entertainment park, Mike Mchugh

Press Release

Washington, DC, April 24, 2019 –– Today, the Stevens Initiative announced funding for five organizations that participated in an international competition to fund virtual exchange programs in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

About Virtual Exchange 

• Virtual exchange
• Articles about Virtual Exchange (search)
• JOURNAL OF VIRTUAL EXCHANGE
• Stevens initiative

• #VWEDU update 7/11/2019 DTA in the MUVE. Competitive sports for online schools

2019 #VWEDU: WRITE: Mystery Manor (1), a game of games. Solo solving, group roleplay, scene stories.

Mystery Manor, a game of games. 
Solo solving, group roleplay, scene stories.

A mystery adventure like Clue , but redesigned for solo play and set in a 3D place.  Unlike a board game, the 3-dimensional manor is a fully dressed set, suitable for many other stories.  In this article I report on the story-game presented by Suzy Silverweb.  In a later article I will probably report on other ways to use this elegant set.

Mystery Manor on Kitely

Click image to enlarge

• Derived from the game Clue (or Cluedo in some countries).
• Full avatars are on the wall in the Hall (for role-playing).
• Creator: Suzy Silverweb
• Web Site

Other mystery Manors

• Facebook Mystery Manor community
• Mystery Manor (Wikipedia)
• Mystery Manor (search)

Go there

• In Kitely use the Firestorm hop:
• hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Mystery Manor/128/35/22
• Hypergrid address:
• grid.kitely.com:8002:Mystery Manor
• Paste the HG address into the Find bar of the World Map, Click Find, TP

• #VWEDU update 7/4/2019 Competitive sports for online schools. Libraries for education