Second Life

I visited several social networking softwares before choosing Second Life as the software to review for my distance education class. I chose Second Life because it looked like it was fun and indeed it is fun as well as some times frustrating. Second Life basic membership is free and easy to sign up. You simply supply them with very basic information, download the software, pick an avatar (your presence in the virtual world), choose a name for your avatar (mine is surreal Beck) and hop into Second Life. You begin in the Orientation portion of the universe where you learn basic navigation skills and rules. There is a map that you can use to navigate throughout the universe. You can even fly! I met several other new residents in the orientation area, bumped into several walls, and made a hard landing from flight! As a newbie to a three dimensional virtual world it was fun. My sons are very used to 3 dimensional virtual worlds, being game players but this was a new trick for an old lady. So I had some difficulty figuring out what to do and how to do it and I suspect most of my graduate students might as well.

Second Life is very versatile. You can create anything that your imagination can conjure using tools with the software and the rights to your creation becomes yours. There is a market economy where you can buy, sell, and trade. Second Life uses an internal event driven C/Java style language which allows the user to control object and avatar behavior. Again I think younger users might be more adept at learning and using this language. I haven't tried it yet but plan to do so.

Second Life has premium memberships for $9.95/month U.S. This membership allows you to buy or rent land for your personal use for an additional surcharge. You can then limit access to this land if you choose.

There are a number of universities, businesses, and non profits that currently use Second Life. I was surprised at the number. I think the possibilities are limitless. If I was going to use this sofware I'd want to collaborate with others to use the power of group imagination and skills. I don't think I'd be up to it on my own. I have a number of ideas in terms of educational uses but not a clue as to how to implement them at this point. Understand though that my exposure to this world is very limited. Perhaps with more time and exploration I'd feel more confident in my skills.

I also am aware that because I work in a university I have access to sophisticated computer hardware and a large bandwidth. I know that not all of my students have the same access, at least at home (they do on campus). So it may not be user friendly or even accessible to all students in their home environment.

I like this software and think it is worth exploring more. I, as surreal Beck, will continue to do so. I'm going to begin by exploring the sites of those universities that are already using it and by hopefully talking to the folks who have had experience with it.

If you want to learn more about Second Life please visit my narrated Powerpoint (13.5 minutes) or my podcast (to follow shortly).

Raptivity

I enjoyed playing with Raptivity. I thought it was intuitive and therefore easy to use with a number of applications that one might use to present material in a more interesting way. I chose to prepare an application for use in my multicultural counseling class. I used flash cards with photos of individuals from different racial categories to test students to see if they can "sort" people by race. Of course it is difficult, if not impossible, to do based on appearance which is the point of the exercise. You may access my activity at Sorting People by Race. I think the software would be useful but it's too expensive given that the UWG system offers a lower tech free version. While it is not as versatile it is free.

Using Survey Monkey

For my distance learning class I designed a formative survey for my multiculural counseling class. You can find it at Click Here to take survey. It was a very simple survey consisting of only 4 questions. I focused primarily on Web design, the usefulness of the various readings and assignments and a self estimate of how much time they spend on line weekly for the class. I also included an open ended question for comments/suggestions for improvement. Survey monkey was realtively easy to use and free (which is always good). I distributed the survey to 15 students and got 12 responses which is a great return rate. The results suggested that the students found the course to be well organized. They seemed to like most of the many readings. The amount of time spent online was interesting to me. 16% responded 1-3 hours; 25% responded 4-5 hours; 33% responded 6-7; and 25% responded more than 7. I think it would be interesting to test the accuracy of that self report. I suspect it is an overestimate :-). Fewer people responded to the open ended question (5 of 12). There were really no suggestions for improvement. Most of the responses were simply positive comments.

Snag It Screen Capture

This is a screen capture that I created using Snag It software. I found it very easy to use. This website is The Cinema Guild which is a great resource for documentary, foreign, and independent films.

Camtasia Video Project

Well I'm trying to catch up on my work after being sick for a couple of weeks, traveling, and dealing with the beginning of summer school. I actually did this video a couple of weeks ago but didn't have the time nor energy to upload it. It is a video of how to compress photos on a PowerPoint presentation before uploading the presentation to WebCt. My students in my Multicultural Counseling class have a couple of PowerPoint presentations as assignments that can be very large due to the size of the photo files that they choose. So I made this video to show them how to compress them. It's very simple but most students were unaware of how to do it. So it is linked here if you care to watch.

How to Compress Photo Files

Camtasia

Well here is my Camtasia PowerPoint Presentation. It's linked but unfortunately there is no sound. I have sound on it before I upload it to the server so it must be something I've done during uploading. I'll investigate and get it working. Right now I have a cold that I've been struggling with all week so I'm going to leave it until later. UPDATE: Well now it's later and I've fixed the problem with the presentation. Actually, I'm not sure there was a problem....I might not have had the sound on when I tried to view it... :-) I'm going to blame it on the cold.
Who Am I? Camtasia video presentation

Who Am I? Impaticized PowerPoint Presentation

I created this PowerPoint to use in my Multicultural Counseling Class. One of the assignments is to create a PowerPoint organized around the A, B, and C dimensions of identity (explained in the PowerPoint). So I complete the assignment and post it for my students on WebCt to use as a template for their work. I've uploaded it here for your viewing. Simply select the link to connect to my narrated PowerPoint. Enjoy.

Click here to View PowerPoint Presentation

Click here to view video

Click on the link to view a video of my travels in South America

Podcasting

Well I finished my module on podcasting. I created three podcasts that talked about my trip to South America and if you are interested the link is located on my blog on the lower right corner. I enjoyed creating the podcasts. It was relatively easy to do on Odeo. If you listen to the podcasts it's easy to discern that they were "unscripted". I generally knew what I wanted to say but it is very conversational with some pauses and mistakes and corrections. I'm not sure that fits everyone's listening preference but it is my speaking style and preference. I've narrated online PowerPoints before and when I first began I scripted them. I and the students found them hard to listen to. After that I just used an outline to speak from and that worked out much better. It sounded much more natural. The podcasts I created were brief (all less than 10 minutes) but it's amazing how long that is and how much information you can convey in that short time. I've listened to several of my classmate's podcasts and am interested in the variety in our styles. I find it harder to listen to carefully scripted podcasts (as I'm sure some find it hard to listen to my unscripted one). I think that people's personalities come across in their podcasts. At least the audio on the podcast seemed to reflect the glimpses of personality one gets from written interaction. Of course I'm a counselor and pay attention to those kinds of things. It was a fun experience, easy to do, and I will be alert to the opportunities to use podcasts in my online teaching.

Tuesday musings

When I was setting up this blog for my distance learning class, I pondered for a long time about the name. I wanted it to reflect that it was in association with my class but wanted something that reflected me as well. I finally decided upon Becky's distance learning lounge. As I now view my blogging habits, it seems a fitting title, although that was not my intent at the time. A lounge is a causal place that one visits from time to time. Not particularly structured but comfortable. That tends to be how I blog. I'm not as ambitious as many of my classmates in posting faithfully about my learning experiences.I guess that's just who I am. I think it's an important consideration when using blogs in education. There will be a range of "styles" among our students as well. We need to tend to those differences in styles by providing an opportunity for students to use the tool in the ways that will benefit them most and in the ways in which they will learn the most.

Learning New things

Working furiously trying to get everything done before leaving on Friday for my trip. Thought I'd jump in and get Module 3 done in the course and move on to other things. But things are never quite as easy as they seem. I finally wrote to Jay because I couldn't get Odeo to record. He responded quickly (thank you) and suggested that I try a different browser. I was using IE and switched to Mozilla Firefox. Voila. It worked great. So here is my short audio file on why I think people don't use audio more in distance education.
Why not audio?
And now for the GabCast recording Gabcast! distance education channel #1

I spent a good part of the day today working on my class assignments. What fun! I really enjoyed learning about RSS feeds and setting up my BlogBridge. I'm excited about the possibilities and how I might use this in my classes. In the mean time I went a little crazy choosing what I wanted to download onto my aggregator. I can now get all of my Atlanta Braves news , my recipes, travel information, and main stream and alternative press in one place. How cool is that!

It's a cool Sunday morning in Georgia. Hoping for rain today to knock all of the yellow pine pollen out of the air. My son and his fiance are coming by today for dinner. That's gotten to be a Sunday ritual since they moved to Georgia from Virginia last year. It's one that I enjoy. I have to do a little (well actually alot) of house cleaning today. Saturday is usually our day for that but we were busy all day yesterday with school and friends. So that leaves it for today. I'll call my oldest son sometime today. He still lives in Cincinnati with his wife and my granddaughter. I selfishly wish they were all nearby but I'll be grateful for the fact that David wanted to move to be closer to Mom. I try to drive up (8 hours) and see the baby at least every other month. She changes so quickly. Her first birthday party is this month but I'll miss it because of my trip to Argentina. That's really ok though. She's not old enough to know and I won't have to share her with all of her other grandparents :-). I'll see her when I get back. Here is a recent photo of her. Guess I'd better get cleaning and cooking.

Hi and welcome to my distance learning blog. I've played around with blogs in the past and am looking forward to doing it in a more structured way. I'm enrolled in a distance learning course at the University of West Georgia where I'm a faculty member in the counseling and educational psychology department. One of the requirements of the course is to develop a blog for the course. I'll be posting here from time to time about my reactions to the course and what I'm learning in it. I'll also try to make it a bit fun by posting some other elements from my "world". The photo that I've posted here was taken at a koala preserve in Australia last year. Koalas are marsupials, not bears, and although they are adorably cute they are wild animals and really not at all cuddly. The little fellow I'm holding here had a little fit right before the handler handed him to me for the photo. The koalas that they use for the photos are only "worked" for 30 minutes every 2 weeks (I need a gig like that) and the exorbitant fee that they charge for the photo is used to support the sanctuary. But enough about me for today. More to come later.