Moved to WordPress

I've moved this blog to WordPress. If you want to continue reading about my adventures in educational technology, please go to http://4rxt.wordpress.com/.

Presenting at Conferences

I've been thinking lately that I'd like to try presenting at a conference or two next year. There are a few scheduled that I should be able to attend:

• Colorado TELECOOP, April 16-18, Breckenridge (proposals due January 26)
• Colorado Community College Conference on Composition, April 18, Greeley (proposals due January 31)
• Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange 2008, June 5-6, Orem, Utah (proposals due Feburary 1)

Obviously, I'll have to choose between the TELECOOP Conference and the 5Cs. Why did they have to schedule them at the same time?

Hallelujah!

Our team has finished our presentation for IT 6750. It was great working with Alex and Blake to analyze the trend of using virtual worlds, specifically Second Life, in higher education and corporate training.

Another Presentation on SL in Higher Ed

Muve'in On Over

From: intellagirl, 3 weeks ago

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Presentation for the 2007 Serious Games Forum at Purdue University


SlideShare Link

Presentation on Second Life and Education

I have to confess that I haven't watched the presentation yet, but I'm sure that if Laura was involved, it will be very informative.

From: sorry.afk, 1 day ago

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SlideShare Link

CSI: New York and Second Life

I finally got around to watching the episode of CSI: New York from last week that was supposed to portray Second Life. One question kept going through my head: Had anyone involved in producing the episode actually ever been in Second Life? It certainly didn't seem so.

The avatars and sims did look like ones that could exist in Second Life. However, the CSI characters' avatars did things that I've certainly never seen avatars do: find out from a white rabbit (or anyone else) where a particular avatar is currently located, walk off in synch while holding hands, teleport together to a different location, assemble a crowd on the spur of the moment for any kind of activity, pick something up with a hand.

I'm afraid this show is only going to make it harder for educators to convince administrators and students that Second Life is different from violent computer games.

Twine

I read about Twine in a post on Read/Write Web. It looks very interesting. According to the About page, "Twine is a new service that intelligently helps you share, organize and find information with people you trust." In addition, "Twine uses the Semantic Web, natural language processing, and machine learning to make your information and relationships smarter."

I've requested an invitation to try it in beta, but I haven't heard back yet.

Review of Renaissance Island

Sherpa Voyager at Second Seeker reviewed Renaissance Island in a post yesterday. Her review was generally positive. She wrote that she was "was delighted to find myself in a community that has some claim to historical accuracy." The most exciting thing was seeing my place, the Poet's Corner, in the first picture.

Book of Poetry

For a while, I've been putting a different one of my poems on an easel outside my house on Renaissance Island. I finally put them all together in a book and put it outside. The price is L$100. I've been thinking about creating books of some poetry from Tudor England as well.

Co-Author at Tek Trek Blog

I'm going to be co-authoring the Tek Trek blog with Bethany Bovard. I hope to post my first entry next week.

The Crystal Cave

About a month ago I finally bought some land in Second Life (from a private party not Linden Labs). My property is on an Athurian-themed sim named Logres, which is one of the historical names for Arthur's kingdom in England. I bought a cave with crystals, so, naturally, I had to name my lot The Crystal Cave, after Mary Stewart's novel about Merlin.

Successful Renaissance Festival

At one point there were close to 50 people on Renaissance Island for the festival last Saturday. I got to be the queen's lady in waiting. (Floria is in the red dress in the picture.)

The jousting went quite well, and a lot of people want to do it next time.

List of Podcasting Tools

Thanks to the Savvy Technologist for pointing out this great list of podcasting tools at Mashable.

50 Ways To Tell a Story

Alan Levine is using a wiki to prepare workshops for his cross-country tour of Australia this month. The first workshop is titled "50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story." Participants in the workshop will use one of 49 Web 2.0 tools to create a story.

In another workshop titled "Precious Web 2.0 Gems," participants will select a tool from the "Web Gems Starter List" or "Web Gems Other Lists" to try. He's used the tag "webgems" to identify these tools on del.icio.us.

His other two workshops are still "on the drawing board," but I intend to check back later to find out more.

Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning

According to an e-mail message sent to the SLED (Second Life EDucators) listserv this morning, the Sloan Consortium "has embarked on an initiative to help online educators gain a better understanding of how the technologies available today can help make their classrooms better." To accomplish this, Sloan-C has launched a new website. The site was designed to support Sloan-C's upcoming conference on emerging technologies for online education, but the site and its forums are open to anyone interested in this subject, not just people who attend the conference.

SL-NET's First Professional Development Session

On Friday, SL-NET held its first professional development activity. Shaun and the other committee members did a great job pulling it together. CDB Barkley and Max Chatnoir talked about what educators are currently doing in Secondlife. At one point, we had about 35 "people" present.

There are more pictures available at the SL-NET website.

Blog vs. Wiki

Since last January, I've been using a blog for my classes at Red Rocks Community College. I post what we've done in class, so the students don't have to try to get in touch with me if they miss class or forget. I also have links for each class.

It finally occurred to me this week that a wiki might suit my needs better, so I've started one at PBwiki, though I don't have anything in it yet.

I guess it seemed logical to use a blog because I was making regular chronological posts about the classes. However, the students aren't commenting on the posts--at least no one has to date--so I don't really need that feature. Another problem with the blog is that during times when I'm not teaching a particular I can't save the related links in the sidebar except by leaving that element on the page. In the wiki, I can just hide (or not link to) a page I don't need during a semester, but the content is still there. With the wiki, I can also embed a widget from Box.net for the folder with the files for the class rather than just linking to the page.

Too Little Too Late for Wikipedia

I just read in a post on the Socialtext blog about an article in the Telegraph, which states that Wikipedia "is to stop people from editing entries after a series of questionable updates cast a shadow over its accuracy and reliability." Does anyone really believe that Wikipedia has ever been accurate and reliable? This is certainly a case of too little too late. I won't let my students cite an article from Wikipedia in any papers they submit. I know of some faculty members who require their students to use Wikipedia but only to demonstrate how inaccuate and unreliable it is.

Citizendium, an encyclopedia project that aims "at credibility and quality, not just quantity," and Scholarpedia, a "free peer reviewed encyclopedia written by scholars from all around the world" are already traveling on the path that Wikipedia seems to want to take.

Article on Naming of Ship

This week's issue of the Metaverse Messenger has an article (starting on p. 22) about the christening of the Gloriana on Renaissance Island on August 18. I was mentioned and pictured in the article because I submitted the name that was chosen for the ship in the contest.

More on Ning

As I mentioned before, I'm using a Ning social network for my hybrid technical writing class at Red Rocks. Each week the students have to do an online assignment, most of which will be in site, where they can post in forums or on their own blogs.

Their first assignment was to join the site, post an introduction, and respond two at least two other people's instroductions.

In class yesterday, we talked about tools for technical writing, primarily rhetoric and technology. Here is their second assignment, to be done this week:

On the web, find a free or trial version of a software program or web-based service that may be used for creating documents, communicating, and/or collaborating (as discussed in Chapter 3 of the textbook). Test the program or service. On your "My Page" create a blog entry in which you tell where you found it (be sure to include a working link to the website), explain what it does, and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Use the name of the program or service as the title of your blog post.

I've also joined another Ning social network. This one is called College 2.0, and it's for people in higher ed who are interested in online education and Web 2.0.

This Is SOOOO Cool!

TouchGraph Google Browser (also available for Amazon.com and Facebook) shows connections between websites listed in Google's database. You can graph connections based on URLs or keywords. Here's part of the graph I got when I put in "instructional technology" with the quotation marks. I focused on the section with CU-Denver bcause that's where I'm taking an instructional technology class.

I read about it on TechCrunch.

Also posted at Issues and Trends in IDT.

Sad but True

According to an article linked at Ray Schroeder's Educational Technology News blog, "University students may be encouraged to be critical but they don't seem to question Google's ranking system, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication."

This is disheartening but hardly surprising considering that people are using the word google as a verb to mean "using a search engine to search the web." I cringe every time I hear someone use it that way.

As I understand it, Google ranks results based on popularity: how many people click on the link and how many other pages link to it. Popularity does not equal relevance.

Also posted at Issues and Trends in IDT.

Top 100 Tools for Learning?

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has prepared a list of the "Top 100 Tools for Learning" based on responses from 109 "learning professionals." I ran across the list while I was searching for references to AECT and Second Life together and got a hit that took me to the Centre's page for Second Life. I was excited until I looked at it more carefully.

It's hard to take the list seriously when Tool #4 with 37 mentions is Google's search engine. The next "search engine" listed is Dogpile (#98), which is a metasearch engine or metacrawler not a regular search engine, anyway.

Ask.com and Exalead are much better search engines than Google, but I always advise my students to use metacrawlers (like Dogpile, Kartoo, Clusty, and Ixquick) or directories instead. They get much more relevant results that way.

Also posted at Issues and Trends in IDT.

Controversy Close to Home

One of the first people I met in Second Life was Jeff Corbin (his name in real life), a research associate in physics and astronomy at DU. He has built the Science School in Second Life, which DU will be using for classes.

Andy Guess, in an article titled "In Second Life, There's No Fallout" at InsideHigherEd.com, describes Jeff's Island: "Science School is nestled behind a three-dimensional, real-time weather map with pixellated clouds hovering above the ground, near a telescope that can be used to view constellations during the winter, when its real-life counterpart at the University of Denver is inaccessible due to snow-covered mountain roads."

With grant money from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Robert C. Amme, a professor of physics at DU, and some colleagues are going to build a nuclear reactor in Second Life as part of a master's program "in applied science with an emphasis on environmental impact assessment that will feature classes held in Second Life."

The comments on the article indicate what we face in using this technology (Second Life and other MUVEs) for educational purposes.

Educational Uses of Second Life

I saw this video at http://elearndev.blogspot.com/ and thought it did a good job of presenting Second Life's educational potential. It also showed the Globe Theatre on Renaissance Island, where I "live" in SL.

Ning in Education

I've been really impressed with Ning social networks since I started using one for Sloan-C SL-NET. The primary advantages over Blackboard or Moodle are its public visibility, the ability of members to start forums and form groups, and the accessibility of RSS feeds. I'm using a Ning site for a hybrid technical writing class I'm teaching this fall. (It's private for the obvious reasons.) I've also joined a social network for educators who are using Ning in education.

New Blog for IT 6750

For the class I'm taking, IT 6750, each student has to have a blog (or a blog page) dedicated to the class. I've created one titled Issues and Trends in IDT (i.e., instructional design and technology) at http://itidt.blogspot.com/. My plan is to copy any interesting posts to this blog, too.

Gloriana

The ship on Renaissance Island has been completed. The managers held a contest to name it. I submitted three entries, and one of them was the winner: Gloriana. The other two names I suggested were Ariel and The Golden Dragon.

Sloan-C SL-NET First Activity

SL-NET had our first activity Friday night, a dance party at the Sloan-C site in Second Life. The picture gives a good idea of the set up and shows one of the avatars the chair of the Social Networking Committee wore during the evening.

IT 6750

I've registered for IT 6750, Current Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology, at CU-Denver this fall. It will be taught as a hybrid class. Here's the description: "Seminar examining definitions, history and current trends and issues in the practice of instructional technology. (Topics vary.)"

I'm looking forward to it. It's starts this Tuesday evening, which is coming up fast.

Progress with Sloan-C SL-NET

After the meeting on Aug. 3, it was clear that some people were interested in organizing groups based on topics of mutual interest in addition to committees for organizing events.

It seemed logical, then, to divide groups within SL-NET into two categories: committees, which are responsible for organizing and facilitating the group and its activities, and research or study groups, which people can set up to pursue their interests.

We have three committees already:

• Social Networking--to plan and organize strictly social activities
• Professional Development--to plan and organize discussions, classes, etc., related to the use of technology in higher education
• SL Skills Workshops (name TBD)--to plan and organize workshops to train members in SL skills like building, scripting, and so on

I'd like to have one more committee that would be responsible for communication, outreach, scheduling, etc.

At the meeting a lot of people were interested in a group to research effective practices. I expect to see some interesting things come from them.

As a result of the meeting, it was also evident that we needed some way of facilitating our organization and discussion in real life beyond the mailing list. It was suggested that we use Moodle forums on the Sloan-C web site, but another member of the group recommended that we look at a Ning social network. The Ning network has advantages over Moodle because it's publicly visible, and members can create their own groups and forums as well as customizing individual pages.

Because a couple of people had trouble with the SL-NET social network the day I set it up, we're doing a "beta test" by anyone who is interested to see if it there are any problems using it. So far, it seems to be okay.

As of this morning, we have 30 people in the Ning-based social network, 44 in the SL-NET group in SL, and 67 in the mailing list. I expect that we will be using the social network, and I'd like to move all discussions to it, leaving the mailing list for announcing events and any urgent situations like the one Friday where a member of the group was doing a presentation on SL and education to a group of legislators in the afternoon and requested suggestions for sites in SL to show them.

SL-NET Communication

To facilitate communication within SL-NET and with people outside it, I set up a mailing list hosted by FreeLists, started an SL-NET group in Second Life, and created a Google calendar for scheduling our events.

Anyone can subscribe to the mailing list by sending an email to sl-net-request@freelists.org with 'subscribe' in the Subject field.

Someone can join the SL-NET group in Second Life by using the Search function to find the group, and then clicking on the Join button.

The Google calendar is public. Anyone interested in our events may open it in a browser or subscribe to the feed.

We're also looking into ways to provide forums for RL discussion.

SL-NET Meetings

I think both meetings of SL-NET (Second Life - Networking Education and Technology) this last week went pretty well. I took the snapshot at the brainstorming session Wednesday night. People had a chance to meet and discuss topics of interest. One thing that came out of the meetings was an enthusiastic group of members interested in effective practices using SL and other technology. I hope to see some interesting things come from them.

Nearly twice as many people as I expected showed up for the organizing committee meeting on Friday. I think we got a lot done, but it's really hit home how different holding a meeting is in SL compared to RL. I'm waiting for reports from some of the committee chairs before I send out a report.

I wasn't able to take any snapshots at the meeting Friday. However, Topher Zwiers did, and he's posted about the meeting on his blog. There's a link to more pictures near the end of his post.

Sloan-C SL Activities: Committee Meeting Date and Time

Based on the responses I received, I’ve decided to hold the organizing committee meeting on Fri., Aug. 3, and a preliminary brainstorming session on Wed., Aug. 1.

Location

Both sessions will be held at the Sloan-C SL site (Teaching 48, 213, 22). Here’s the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/48/213/22 .

Committee Meeting

The committee meeting will be held on Fri., Aug. 3, at 12 noon SLT/PDT (1 p.m. MDT, 2 p.m. CDT, 3 p.m. EDT). I plan to end the meeting after one hour.

At this meeting, I hope we can determine what type(s) of events to hold and when to hold them, schedule the first one or two events, and plan for others. If enough people are willing to help with the organizing and there is enough interest in different types of activities, we may form subcommittees to streamline the organizing process. We will also schedule the next committee meeting(s).

Brainstorming Session

People who can’t (or can) attend the committee meeting on Fri., can stop by to see me, and anyone else who’s there, to discuss any ideas on Wed., Aug.1 between 6 p.m. SLT/PDT (7 p.m. MDT, 8 p.m. CDT, 9 p.m. EDT) and 7 p.m. If enough people come, we can hold an informal brainstorming session.

Voice Chat in SL

As he related in his own blog, KJ Hax and I spent some time play with the newly enabled voice chat last night at ISTE HQ in SL. It worked quite well. I had assumed that there would be a 20-meter limit, but after some experimentation, we discovered that we could hear each other 80 meters away.

I also gave KJ some voice gestures that I originally got from Milos Lundquist of Sloan-C.

It is nice to hear other people's real voices, but this will make it harder to eat when in SL. ;)

Sloan-C SL Activities

We've had 56 responses to the questionnaire about holding events for higher-ed folks in SL. I had no idea how many to expect, but I think we'll be able to plan and hold some interesting activities with that number.

I e-mailed everyone who completed the questionnaire to find out who would like to participate on an organizing committee and when they could meet this coming week. So far 27 people have responded, and most could make it on Friday afternoon. I scheduled the meeting then with a brainstorming session on Wednesday night for people who can't make the meeting but want to offer suggestions.

Triangle Stool

I did some building in SL this week. First I made some bookshelves for the library that's being created in the manor house on Renaissance Island. Then I discovered a web site with pictures of a type of stool used in the 15th and 16th centuries. I created some in Second Life. Two, one dark wood and one light, don't have the smaller vertical pieces, and two more, one each color, do. I have some ideas for other pieces of Tudor and Elizabethan furniture I'd like to try making.

The Poet's Corner

Since my house on Renaissance Island is on the village square, I decided to create a sign and give it a name. I called it The Poet's Corner and put out a poem of the day at the corner of my house and the intersection. I'm rotating the poems so there's different one every day. Maybe this will motivate me to start writing more.

Sonnet for Theater Opening

I've been working on a sonnet for the Grand Opening of the Globe Theatre on Renaissance Island (in SL). Here's the first complete draft, which still needs some work:


To a New Globe

The deaths of lovers end their families’ strife;
a feckless prince becomes a warrior king;
a jealous husband kills his faithful wife;
the king and queen of fairies dance and sing;
a king’s ungrateful daughters drive him out;
a duke usurped receives his own afresh;
an indecisive prince gives voice his doubt;
a maiden saves a merchant’s pound of flesh--
these scenes have oft been played upon thy stage.
With topics elevated and benight
in poetry like music on the page,
the bard will still enlighten and delight
within thy walls--in second life or third--
arising as the legendary bird.

Sloan-C Second Life Initiative

I’ve with working with the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) on a new initiative to hold networking sessions in Second Life so folks in higher ed can get to know each other better, exchange information and, at the same time, discuss some of the issues that have been raised in the SLED listserv.

Anyone who would like to participate should complete the questionnaire at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/networking_discussion/.

Globe Theatre Grand Opening

Globe Theatre Grand Opening
Renaissance Island (204, 45, 27)
Sunday, July 22, 2007
1 PM-6PM

The original Globe Theatre opened a few years back in the Autumn of 1599 in Southwark on the River Thames. Join our scholar and builder as they discuss the history of this remarkable Elizabethan theatre.

There will be two discussions/Q & A sessions, fireworks, and a dance, too! Not to worry--William Prynne will not be reading from his loathsome Histriomastix against theatre and dancing. Do feel free to wear your favorite Renaissance/Tudor period attire! (Visitors will find free attire in the welcome center located at 69, 183, 150).

Here is the schedule:

1-2PM Discussion by Dolgoruky Umarov (in RL Dolgo has a PhD in English and Theatre Arts and has performed in 4 major Shakespearean roles; he has also researched the Globe Theatre extensively). Dolgo will be joined by Globe builder extraordinaire Charlene Trudeau. A Q & A Session will follow.

2-5PM Globe(al) Dance Party with Fireworks around 3.

5-6PM Dolgoruky and Charlene will repeat their earlier program.

Parish Poet

On Sunday I agreed (volunteered actually) to be the poet for the Parish of Reading Primley (i.e., Renaissance Island in Second Life).

I have ideas for a couple of sonnets to celebrate upcoming events. I hope I'm able to get them finished.

Renaissance Woman Wiki

I've been working on a wiki with information on writing and research--at least for starters--for my students. I also promised Desideria Stockton that I'd provide information on research for her Collaboration Station in Second Life. So far I've got the first of four sections done. The third section, on actually doing research, will be by far the most involved.

CCC SLED Numbers Increasing

As of last night, there are seven members in the SL CCC SLED (Colorado Community Colleges Second Life EDucators) group. I'm looking into free listservs, specifically Coollist and FreeLists. We'll need one if we keep growing. I haven't spent as much time looking at FreeLists, but I'm rather dubious about Coollist because of spelling and grammatical errors I saw.

My Virtual Room

I don't know why it happened to show up in my RSS feeds, but this morning I read a post dated March 31 by Maryanne Campo at Blended Edu about Elluminate's free vRooms. I signed up for one this afternoon. It looks like a great possibility for holding virtual office hours. The "room" will hold up to three people and, according to the web site, provides

• Two-way audio
• Interactive whiteboard
• Direct messaging
• Application sharing
• File transfer
• Synchronized web tour
• Live webcam
• Breakout rooms

It looks like a great tool, and I want to play with it soon to see what it will do.

SL Connections

One of the first "people" I met in Second Life was Milos Lundquist, who, as he tells everyone in his SL profile, is John Bourne, Executive Director of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C). Last Saturday afternoon I spent almost an hour talking with him and one of the staff about how Sloan-C could help institutions using SL for education and how I could help Sloan-C.

Later I told KJ Hax, one of the founders of SLolar-Central, about our visit and my mentioning SLolar Central to Milos/John. KJ got in touch with Milos, as he mentioned in his blog this morning, where he graciously thanked my SL persona, Floria Beaumont, for the introduction.

Sloan-C Workshop

From June 20 through yesterday, June 29, I've been participating in an online workshop offered by the Sloan Consortium titled "Learning Online 2.0: Engaging, Interacting and Syndicating Applications." I was actually surprised at how much I already know about web 2.0 applications.

As part of the workshop, each participant had to review a web 2.0 application and post the review in a wiki. I reviewed Second Life since I've been spending a lot of time there lately.

I'm going to include part of my review here because these are things I've been thinking about a lot lately:

Educational Potential

As many people are realizing, SL has a lot of potential for educational uses. (Dozens of colleges, universities, libraries, and professional organizations are currently using SL.) Some of the ways SL can be used have been documented on the SLEducation (Second Life in Education) wiki. For me the greatest potential of SL is for networking and my own professional development.


Cautions

The lack of web access is a definite disadvantage for students who do not own computers and depend on a school's computer labs, even if the institution is fully supporting the educational use of SL and permits the software to be downloaded to all computers on campus. The software is also frequently updated, which would make maintenance on campus more time consuming.

. . . As I mentioned, SL has a lot of potential, but we need to be careful not to try to do things in SL that can be done better with other tools or in other venues.

Renaissance Classroom in SL

Here's a snapshot of me (Floria) outside the Renaissance Classroom on Renaissance Island in Second Life.

Literature Alive! Renaissance Classroom

I finished making a presentation on the sonnet for Desideria Stockton's Literature Alive! Renaissance Classroom in Second Life. I also created a t-shirt to be distributed for free.

There are now four members of CCC SLED.

SL Memberships

In addition to CCC SLED, of which I'm the only member right now, and SLolar Central, I've also joined the following profession-related groups in Second Life:

• Best Practices in Education
• Early Music Group
• ISTE: Educational Technology Association
• Literature Alive!
• NMC Guests
• NMC Teachers Buzz
• Parish of Reading Primley (Renaissance Island residents)
• Renaissance Island Dancers
• Sloan-C

Second Life Projects

This week I put together a presentation on the sonnet for the Renaissance Classroom that's part of Beth Ritter-Guth's Literature Alive! project. I still need to write up some study questions to go with the presentation. I'm also working on a presentation on research for her Collaboration Station.

Two other people who work for the Colorado Community College System have posted in the SLED (Second Life EDucators) listserv since I joined it. I contacted both of them, and they were interested in an SL group, so I created CCC SLED in Second Life. I also let some other people know about it. If we actually get a few more members, I'll look into creating a RL group using Google or Yahoo!

SL Membership and Shopping

I couldn't figure out how to get both pictures in one post, so I'm creating this one with a picture of the inside of "my" house.

I've spent some time, probably too much shopping for Renaissance clothing and furniture. In some cases, I've had to settle for medieval.

I've also upgraded my SL membership to premium. I figure that the signing bonus and weekly stipend will be almost what I paid for an annual membership.

My Continuing Adventures in Second Life

I'm afraid I haven't been spending much time at SLolar Central this week--at least since Wednesday. I've rented a house on Renaissance Island. Here's a picture of the outside. The house is right next to a building that is being used for a Renaissance literature classroom.

I met the woman who is organizing the project, Desideria Stockton (SL). She sent a message to the SLED (Second Life Educators) listserv about a Collaboration Station with information for students on composition, technical writing, business writing, and journalisting writing. I e-mailed her for more information, and she invited me to help with the design, so I am. At this point, I'm not good at building, but I can provide content on research and other topics. I'm also going to provide content on sonnets for the Renaissance classroom.

Second Life Scholars (SLolars)

I've been accepted into a program, Second Life Scholars (SLolars), that will give me free office space for a month while I explore Second Life; learn how to move, communicate, build, etc.; and, hopefully, get to know people. Here's a snapshot of me in front of my desk today. The chair, which I modified, and the rug were in my library. I bought the roses, lamp, and laptop in world, and I made the plant stand and bean-bag chair. (I love the lamp because it's stained glass, and I can turn it on and off.) I tried making another chair, but I couldn't figure out how to make it let me sit on it in the right place. I've also done a fair amount of looking around. I'll write more about that later.

Second Life Best Practices in Education

Friday I "attended" some sessions of the Second Life Best Practices in Education International Conference:

• Beth Ritter-Guth (Desideria Stockston-SL) on "Monsters to Monarchs: Teaching Literature Using SL"
• Catherine Dutton & Lillian Chenoweth (Catherine Soderstrom & Prof Kuhn - SL) on "Asynchronous Student Orientation to Second Life"
• Cynthia Calongne (Lyr Lobo-SL) on "Colorado Technical University in Second Life: The Amusement and the Maze Game Class Projects"

All of the sessions were in Second Life.

I also wanted to "go to" one of the keynote presentations (by Sarah Robbins (RL)/Intellagirl Tully (SL)), but I couldn't see or hear anything in the overflow areas I tried.

I can see some potential for using Second Life in my classes, but I want to work into it slowly. I've found several "in-world" groups that should prove helpful.

My SL name is Floria Beaumont. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to pay for a premium membership. It might be nice to own some land and build my own place. I probably won't have time for that until later this summer unless one of my classes is cancelled.

Wikinomics

This week I finally finished reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. There's a companion web site for the book. If I had known that the book was more about economics than wikis, I probably wouldn't have bought it. However, it was in this book that I first heard about Second Life, which I joined this last week (more later). In addition, reading about the Geek Squad and Best Buy in the book convinced me to go to Best Buy yesterday to get a new video card and additional RAM for my computer. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble with the video card, so I may need to use the Geek Squad as well.

Use of Blog and Box.net in RRCC Classes

For the Spring semester at Red Rocks, I created a blog where I posted what we did in class so that students who were absent (and present) could keep up. I also created folders, which could be reached through links on the blog, at Box.net so the students could download handouts I created.

I did a survey at the end of the semester to see how many students actually accessed the blog and the files. I've posted the results on a page on my website. (The website is still under construction.)

Since 61% of the students checked the blog, I think it was definitely worth creating. Fewer students (34%) downloaded files from Box.net. I didn't find out until just recently that some students didn't know how to download the files, even though I went over that in class at least a couple of times.

Sloan-C Workshop

I joined the Sloan Consortium as an individual member so I could get a discount on a workshop they're offering this summer. The title of the workshop is Learning 2.0: 20 Engaging, Interacting and Syndicating Applications. I've been interested in Web 2.0 applications, and this sounds really interesting. In addition to the workshop content, I'll be using Elluminate Live! and Moodle, so I'll have a good opportunity to become familiar with them.

Spring Semester at Red Rocks Ending

My classes at Red Rocks end tomorrow and Tuesday. Final grades are due by May 15, but I hope to get mine done sooner than that. I'll have to grade narrative essays for my ENG 090 classes and formal reports for ENG 131.

It's a Wiki Wacky World

I recently read Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools by M. Katherine Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny. I learned about the book when I read an article on "Using Wikis" by Huetter and James-Tanny in the January 2007 issue of intercom. Part II, "Evaluating the Tools," was particularly useful, but I was disappointed by their companion wiki, It's a Wiki Wacky World.

I'm currently reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

Summer Classes for Westwood's Denver South Campus

For the May term at Westwood's Denver South campus, I'll be teaching two sections of HUM 300, which is an overview of the humanities. One section is a blended class, and the other is completely on campus. It will be interesting to compare the two.

5Cs Conference

Friday I went to the 5Cs Conference at Aims Community College in Greeley. The weather forecast promised 10 or more inches of snow, but we didn't get any. The speaker and sessions at the conference were interesting, but the best part was talking to other writing instructors.

Technical Writing Textbook

I've selected the textbook for my hybrid technical writing class this fall at Red Rocks. It's a new book published by Pearson-Prentice Hall. The title is Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century, and it was written by Sidney I. Dobrin, Christopher J. Keller, and Christian R. Weisser.

Humanities Class for Fall

As of Thursday, I'm scheduled to teach a humanities class at Red Rocks this fall:

HUM 121, Survey of Humanities I--Introduces students to the history of ideas that have defined cultures through a study of the visual arts, literature, drama, music, and philosophy. It emphasizes connections among the arts, values, and diverse cultures, including European and non-European, from the Ancient world to 1000 C.E.

The textbook for the course is Vol. I of The Humanistic Tradition (fth ed.) by Gloria K. Fiero. It's published by McGraw Hill.

Textbook for Developmental Classes

I've decided to use the newest edition of Sentences, Paragraphs, and Beyond for my developmental classes this summer and fall. I have to have my book order for the summer semester in tomorrow, and I'm waiting to hear back what the ISBN would be to include the access code for Houghton Mifflin's WriteSpace with the textbook. I hope I get it in time. If not, it's my own fault for waiting so long to contact the publisher.

5C's Conference

On Friday, April 13, I'll be attending the 5C's Conference. Some of the sessions look pretty interesting. Several of them are on grammar, so I'm hoping to get some ideas for my developmental classes at Red Rocks this summer.

Serious about Writing Poetry Again

I guess I'm getting serious about writing poetry again and having it published. I bought a copy of 2007 Poets Market and have been looking for markets for the type of poetry I do and want to write, primarily traditional lyrical forms.

I ran across a form I hadn't tried before: the cinquain. This form has five lines (hence the name) with two, four, six, eight, and two syllables, respectively. It can be iambic, but that isn't necessary. When I first read about this form, I thought it would be interesting to write one with all synonyms for being alone. Here's what I came up with:


One

alone --
solitary --
solo -- isolated --
segregated -- separated --
lonely


I like the way the syllable "lone" frames the middle three lines. I also like the irony of all the words for being alone having an even number of syllables.

Yesterday I also wrote a couple of haiku, scifaiku, actually. I'm not going to post them because I want to try to get them published, and some publishers apparently consider being posted in a blog or on a web site to be prior publication, which means they will pay less or not accept them.

Classes I'll Be Teaching

During the March term at Westwood's Denver South campus, I'll be teaching HUM 400, Creative and Critical Thinking. I've taught the course on campus before, but never online or in a hybrid format, as I will be this time. When I've taught the class in the past, I've selected a controversial topic for the class to examine and then required each student to follow the process on his/her own and write a paper about it. I'm thinking of using global warming as the topic this coming term.

I like to show 12 Angry Men (the original black-and-white movie, not a remake) in classes when we discuss critical thinking.

For Red Rocks, I'm currently scheduled to teach one section each of ENG 030 and 060 (developmental classes) this summer and one each of ENG 030 and 131 this fall. The section of ENG 131, Technical Writing I, will be hybrid, which will be an interesting experience. I developed and taught a technical writing class for Westwood College Online in addition to teaching it "on ground."

The Red Rocks English Department (along with some others) had a book fair on Friday where faculty could exam publishers' offerings. Choosing textbooks will be hard because there are so many options.

Just for future reference, I'm going to include the course descriptions for the Red Rocks classes here. I got them from the Colorado Community College Common Courses page.

ENG 030, Basic Writing Skills--Focuses on sentence and basic paragraph structure and development. Enables the student to review and improve grammar, usage, and punctuation skills while employing critical thinking strategies and the writing process to respond to a wide variety of writing situations.

ENG 060, Writing Fundamentals--Focuses on paragraph structure and development and introduces the formal essay. Enables the student to review and improve grammar, usage, and punctuation skills while employing critical thinking strategies and the writing process to respond to a wide variety of writing situations.

ENG 131, Technical Writing I--Develops skills one can apply to a variety of technical documents. Focuses on principles for organizing, writing, and revising clear, readable documents for industry, business, and government.

Another Haiku

The Comet

Solar-wind-blown hair
frames the crater-marked face drawn
always toward her sun.


I'm not entirely happy with it, but I've had this idea in my mind for some time.

My First Haiku

--at least it's the first one I remember writing. Yesterday I mentioned to someone that, having grown up in Missouri, one of the things I missed here in Colorado is fireflies. It occurred to me later that fireflies would be a good subject for a haiku:


Fireflies

flitting, flickering
in the darkness, delighting
enchanted children


I liked the idea of linking the words in the lines with alliteration, though the alliterating sound should be on stressed syllables, which it isn't in delighting in the second line.

Technical Writing and Web 2.0

The theme for the January issue of Intercom was technical writing and Web 2.0. The best articles were "Writing and Web 2.0," "Podcasting: A New Layer of Communication," and "Using Wikis."

In "Writing and Web 2.0," Keith Hoffman discussed social networking, AJAX-based web sites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS, as well as web-based word processing. There are several items in his list of "Suggested Readings" that I'd like to look at.

The authors of "Using Wikis," Brenda Huettner and Char James-Tanny, along with M. Katherine Brown, have used a wiki, It's a Wiki Wacky World, to write a book titled Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools. I bought a copy of their book, along with copies of Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration by Jane Klobas, which I've already read, and Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Change Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

These should be useful for the formal report assignment I'm planning for my technical writing class.

I decided that to find time to read these books and others related to my work, I had to stop reading the murder mysteries I was getting from the library.

Handouts for RRCC Classes

I finally got smart and moved the Word files with handouts I've created for my Red Rocks classes to folders at Box.net. I had been uploading them to the WebCT course shells, but that meant I had to create each folder and upload each file for ENG 090 three times, once for each section. With the folders at Box.net, I only have to do it once for all three sections. I also had trouble opening the files from WebCT; I'm hoping it will be easier this way.

Writing versus Literature and Humanities

I finally realized (duh!) this week that I'd much rather teach literature and humanities courses than writing classes. Of course, that's what most of my classes are in. I'm working on my c.v. so, hopefully, I can apply to some other colleges or universities to teach more classes in those areas.

I also wouldn't mind teaching some poetry-writing classes, though I probably need to do more poetry writing myself. All that I've done recently has been lyrics for political songs, and I did that more than a year and a half ago.

The other day, I did write another poem that is less political. I was going to make all the lines end in a rhyme with weary, but I decided to break that up:


Snow Weary

skies dreary
eyes bleary--
kids cheery
snowballs forming

still leery
of “theory,”
my query:
global warming?


I do like the way the title rhymes with most of the lines as well as the way I used punctuation but no verbs.

I'm going to have to start carrying a notebook with me so I can do some writing when I have the time--or the inspiration.

Technical Writing Textbook

When I taught technical writing for Westwood College, we used Technical Report Writing Today by Riordan (Houghton Mifflin), and others for earlier editions. I liked the book, but when I needed to select a book for my class at Red Rocks, I picked Technical Communication (8th ed.) by Mike Markel (Bedford/St. Martin's). I'm beginning to regret that decision.

First, I don't care for Markel's definition of technical communication as "workplace communication" There's a lot more to it than that.

Second, when he presents the writing process, he treats technical documents the same as any writing assignment the students would do for a class. He leaves out considerations of budget, deadlines, publication, distribution, etc.

I didn't care too much for Riordan's definition either, but he did a good job of covering the writing process as it occurs in the workplace.

In Riordan's last edition (9th), the page layout was changed so there are wide outside margins. I didn't care for that or the effort to expand the textbook to cover technical "communication" instead of technical writing despite the title. I also don't agree with his assertion in the first chapter (an addition to the latest edition) that "technical writing is global." I also wish he had a chapter on fliers, brochures, and similar documents.

However, I may go back to his book the next time I teach the class.

Web 2.0 and Teaching Technical Writing

I think I've finally figured out how to incorporate some of the new internet technology (web 2.0) into my technical writing class. I want the students to write formal reports, and I've decided to have them collaborate on that assignment. I believe what I'll do is assign each group one of the following to research and report on:

• blogs
• wikis
• RSS feeds
• podcasting
• free and open-source software

In their reports, they would include how this particular type of communication or technology is or can be used in business, as well as how to find and use it.

Web 2.0

I think I first read a reference to web 2.0 in one of the blogs I subscribed to in Bloglines. According to the article on "Web 2.0" in Wikipedia, the phrase web 2.0, which was "coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users."

About a month ago in a blog entry on O'Reilly Radar, Tim O'Reilly offered a definition of web 2.0:

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")

In an article posted in September of 2005, "What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software," O'Reilly tried to explain what is meant by web 2.0. In this article, he explored seven principles:

1. The Web As Platform
2. Harnessing Collective Intelligence
3. Data is the Next Intel Inside
4. End of the Software Release Cycle
5. Lightweight Programming Models
6. Software Above the Level of a Single Device
7. Rich User Experiences

I'm still not sure I understand all of the technical terminology, but I'm interested in learning more. The issue of Intercom I received last week is about web 2.0 and writing.

Apparently, there's also web 3.0.

Using Blogs in Technical Writing Classes

In the September/October issue of Intercom (the STC magazine), there was an article by Tom H. Johnson titled "Corporate Blogging and the Technical Writier." I'm going to be teaching a technical writing class this coming semester at Red Rocks Community College, and reading the article got me thinking about how to use blogs in my class. I don't think I want to go so far yet as to have each student create and maintain a blog for the semester, but I'm considering including a group project where students study how blogs are used.

The article referred to the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, which is a directory of Fortune 500 companies that have blogs. This might be a good starting point, especially since it includes a list of sample blogs from the companies.

I also read the first couple of chapters of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers before I had to return it to the library. I've reserved it again because I think it might be useful in planning this assignment.

At the end of the article, Johnson referred to a couple of studies that I want to look at:

• "Corporate Blogging: Is It Worth the Hype?"
• "Blogging: Bubble Or Big Deal?"

I've included them in my bookmarks at del.icio.us.

Purpose of This Blog

After Richardson's book, I read Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere by David F. Warlick. I didn't find it as useful, but it also helped inspire me to start this blog. I'm planning to use it to keep a record of my reading and ideas relating to my teaching, mostly writing but also some math.

More recently I read Wikis: Tools for Information Work And Collaboration by Jane Klobas and others. It's a great reference to have on hand; unfortunately, it costs almost $60, so I had to settle for checking it out of the library, though I would like to own a copy. The authors created a wiki to accompany the book. It includes an overview of the book and a page for each chapter. I just wish it provided more information, especially the links in the book.

Inspiration for Teaching and Blogging

In November I read Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. At the time I was thinking about changing careers, but this book inspired me to continue teaching. In the book, Richardson covers

• the read/write web
• weblogs
• wikis
• RSS
• social bookmarking
• images online
• podcasting and screencasting

What got me most excited was reading about blogs, wikis (which I'd only learned of a few weeks earlier), and RSS feeds and the ideas I had for using them in my classes, particularly the research writing classes (particularly ENG 122 at Red Rocks) that I frequently teach.

Unfortunately, I'm not scheduled to teach ENG 122 this coming semester, but as soon as I do again, I want to use what I learned from Richardson by having the students create and maintain their own blogs to record their research and establish an account where they can track RSS feeds from sites relating to their topics. I'm also thinking about creating a class wiki about research, from generating research questions to documentation styles but focusing on reviews of search engines, metacrawlers, directories, and other internet research tools. When I taught ENG 122 last year, I had the students demonstrate search engines and metacrawlers in class. I want to expand that assignment in the future to include, at least, directories, and to have the students in groups develop criteria for evaluating research tools, select the best examples, demonstrate the ones selected, and record their decisions and reviews in the wiki.

I also intend to establish a blog or blogs for the on-campus classes (as opposed to online and blended/hybrid) I teach to communicate with students. There are a couple of full-time faculty members at Red Rocks who have their ENG 121 (essay writing) students create blogs, but I'm not ready to go that far with my classes this semester: ENG 090 (developmental essay writing), ENG 121, and ENG 131 (technical writing). I do think it would be appropriate to do something with blogs and wikis in my technical writing class; I just haven't figured out what.

As a result of reading Richardson's book, I established an account with Bloglines to keep track of blogs related to my work. I also created an account with Furl, but I decided to switch to del.icio.us and will be closing out the Furl account. I used to have a lot of bookmarks for my classes (primarily research related) in an account with MyBookmarks, but when I didn't use it for a few months, it was closed, and I lost all the links I'd collected. At least with del.icio.us, I can backup my bookmarks. I think the tags are interesting, but I'd really prefer a more hierarchical method of organization: folders within folders.