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.