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Lorraine Charron

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Everything posted by Lorraine Charron

  1. Rockerduck (any relation to Disco Duck? ;-)), Thanks for your most sincere wishes of good will. FYI, we are going to TRY and stay in SL for the foreseeable future, because we do enjoy collaborating with many other educational institutions world wide. I can't see how we can have a full conference with hundreds of attendees on another grid, or collaborate with (for example) Virtual Ability, Renaissance Island, NC Education region, Ann Myers Medical Center or any of the other wonderful educational ventures in SL. But an alternative grid MUST be an option if the higher ups reject the SL price increase. We have invested too many years in this and there is too much benefit. Things may be a little "clunky" elsewhere, but it's better than not having a virtual world at all. Being only a doctoral student/part time graduate assistant/instructional support person, I haven't got much say there. I await their decision and will provide alternative suggestions as needed. We are grateful for the kind offers of others to explore and even use their space in SL or other grids, and we'll surely look into that. BTW, the "fiasco" I am referring to is not necessarily Viewer 2 itself. It was the admitted (by the Lindens themselves) "heads-down" approach they took to its development. They said they failed in listening to their constituents, and they would not make that mistake again. But what are they doing now? We shall see.
  2. Thanks so much David. I agree with you on the cooperation, and I also hope and pray you're right about it blowing over. Maybe even for a reversal of decision. But the silence (by Lindens) is killing me. After the Viewer 2 fiasco, they said they would listen to us and be more responsive to our concerns. We are waiting. Meanwhile, Plan B (and C and D) is under progress...
  3. Thanks Ignatius, I am talking to a few folks re: these alternative grids, I will explore them again, I appreciate the support and ideas!
  4. Cierra, homesteads are not an option for most of us. As for the regular teaching initiatives I am involved in, I am dealing with classes of 40 or 50 students at least. Also we regularly run 3-day educational conferences in here which have 500 or 600 attendees overall and 3 concurrent sessions with at least 40 or 50 attendees at each session...and a keynote with 100 attendees. The SL conference I am referring to (the University of North Carolina Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference, aka UNC TLT) used to be a "RL" conference. Well, budget was slashed for that (as budgets for worthwhile things so often are) and so a core group of us now volunteer our time and efforts to keeping it going in SL. Thanks to UNCP for providing administrative support and overall coordination, and for the kindness and grace of the NC Community Colleges in allowing us to use their beautiful sims, were able to offer a conference not only to NC educators but well beyond. In fact this past Spring's TLT conference actually brought together hundreds of educators from all over the world. It deeply saddens me that such a wonderful educational community event of sharing, learning and networking could be in jeopardy. http://conference.unctlt.org/
  5. Oh my goodness.. thanks so much Doggie!!!! The donation will go to very good use and I will let my college know - thanks again and keep in touch!
  6. Oh... I am sure you're making no negative implications with your post Dekka. Though it relates tangentially to this topic, the issue of age restriction and preventing minors from accessing adult content is probably a little more suited for another forum. But I spend the better part of my day, every day in here and have for 3 and a half years, and I don't want my almost 16 year old daughter in SL, at least as it is now. And it would take me a lot of convincing it could be made safe. I don't run into overt porno either. But when someone brings in their mostly nude "pet" (human) on a leash into a PG mall and they are actively roleplaying a master-servant bond, complete with verbally describing every boot-licking action in public as they shop, or worse yet, if she was to receive some lewd comments or solicitations by an adult male, call me crazy but I really don't like that possibility.
  7. Nany thanks again, please friend me in SL and lets do talk. Would love to see your project and University of New Mexico. Collaboration would probably really benefit the students too.
  8. True Herman, we ditched Blackboard for Moodle ourselves at UNCC. Good point, it just may boost things as you say, and thanks :-). It will take awhile though, these other grids have a long way to go, and a poverty of nice builds and animations will impact the quality of our efforts. But if we have to rough it to keep our projects going, so be it.
  9. Thanks so much Nany. The conference space... well it may be needed and thanks. OTOH, two of my projects are a 1950s and a 1930s simulation, complete retro towns that are the sites for two American Studies undergraduate courses. These were developed so the students can experience the sights, sounds, art, architecture and culture of those eras, role-play what it was like to live back then, and talk about the things that people of those days were concerned about. You can look up my profile to find them on my picks. I was fortunate that my old friend and colleague Aedann at NC Education loaned me 2000 prims each to make these towns, and they are getting good use (the 50s town is in its third successful semester). Those kinds of projects would be difficult to find space for if their current sims were no longer funded. Also the Nursing sim I am designing (also on my picks) has a hospital starting up, and wants a full simulation of a nursing home so the nursing students can practice and role-play, and these projects will be very primmy. We also want to do a re-creation of a historical hospital as well, as part of our Florence Nightingale Nursing Museum. In other words, the educational sims I design per educators specifications are really customized. If they were just classes in classrooms it would be easier. I may just let these courses use a platform on my own sim if needed, I am prepared to do that, rather than let these projects die. Other than that we may need to try another grid though it won't (yet) have any where near the variety of resources to choose from. The faculty and I have come too far and worked too hard, and we believe in these projects as effective ways to provide hands-on, experiential and immersive learning.
  10. Galileo, not sure what you mean by "get real". This is a real problem, affecting real people. Please IM me in SL and I will be happy to show you what our University stands to lose.
  11. Cierra, as I said I really do appreciate your suggestions. I know you are trying to help (unlike some here that simply criticise us "whiners" without offering new ideas). But I know the "powers that be" at my university - I've been working under them for 10 years. I know their thinking. This move will say to them "time to leave". I just feel like crying. Sorry, but 3 years of my effort as instructional designer to make a difference in the courses I am helping with? Out the window. Students saying what a difference this effort made in their understanding of their subject? Gone. Educator conference??? - future uncertain. Sigh.
  12. Cierra, I appreciate your idea, but I am afraid that charging will limit the volume of attendees and presenters, negatively impact the sharing spirit of our conference and minimize the level of positive outreach that we have been able to achieve. Most online educaional conferences do not charge for this reason. And if we continue to limit BOTH RL and SL conferences due to budget constraints, we will swiftly run out of ways for educators to share their ideas, challenges and best practices.
  13. The only eye-opener: The comments of some of the "educators" posted here i think it might not be a bad idea for some of them to move on. They should not be educating anyone. Radein can you please support that statement?
  14. Ayla, I do see what you are saying and yes of course bringing children in will take money and resources to police, because right now there are many dangers to children in SL. As Kate says, why bring kids in and then take away the educator discount making it even less kid-friendly and giving the children less options for safe and positive outlets. I am scratching my head.
  15. LOL Stone, then you need to be Thelma to my Louise and we will drive off of it together, take pics and post as protest. Where is the biggest cliff in SL??
  16. Shirley, Linden Labs definitely *will* see a mass exodus of educators out of SL to other grids. Many of us educator advocates have been fighting for years to legitimize educational uses of Second Life, because we believe in SL as a unique medium which can offer creative, hands-on, collaborative and immersive educational experiences like no other. Some of us have strugged for years to convince the "powers that be" (i.e. educational administrators that pay the money for this) that Second Life IS worth our time, money and effort. However unlike the instructional designers, support staff and dedicated faculty that work directly in SL and are pouring their whole hearts into it, the higher level administators always remain a tough sell and are often never fully committed to these SL projects...its simply too abstract for them as they are not generally directly immersed in it themselves. This drastic cost increase (which is SO much more than just a simple cost increase but really a thumbing of SL's nose at education's importance) will simple give those "powers that be" a very good reason to cut the purse strings for these initiatives....ending Second Life courses, student collaborations, educational resources, conferences, support jobs, trainings, graduate assistantships, dissertations, and so much more. Lorraine Charron Instructional Designer Administrator, UNC Charlotte Nursing In-World Operations Coordinator, Annual UNC TLT Conference (in SL)
  17. Doggie said: "I've been to some of these university sims, they have massive huge vacant buildings sprawled all over the sim or sims, clock tower, office furniture and many many rooms, fountains and all the rest. Atmosphere is great, the buildings look fantastic, but you don't need 16 campus buildings spread all over 4 sims! So the fix is, you partnership with another edu or non profit and share one half of a sim each or whatever, and the cost is half of $295/mo for 7,500 prims. The only issue with universities and sims is concurrent avatars, I've been to plenty of full sims which are allegedly able to support up to 100 av's grinding to a near halt at 30-40 avatars with lag so bad commands etc took minutes to finally execute." Doggie, my university has only ONE sim and it has been a struggle to acquire. A grant was acquired but now what? (since that was a fixed amount). And our sim supports unique educational experiences and initiatives that are needed by health educators and nursing students learning at a distance, and (due to their success) we had plans for many more initiatives to follow. We need the full island space to make these things happen. Because university money is tight, and I as the graduate assistant, sim admin, trainer and Instructional Designer care so much about these initiatives, I just spent about 75 USD of my own money to outfit our new teaching hospital with the finest virtual hospital equipment (which btw I can't bring to or purchase on any other grids). We not only have a required course but also planned to have health educator conferences on that land. We were starting to build a Museum of Nursing History on the island. I am seeing 3 years of effort (along with my dissertation) now going out the window. Right now, I feel like throwing my avatar off a virtual cliff.
  18. Ayla said: Well this is a smart move if any. It was the non profits and educators that wanted the kids on the main grid. The slight increase I take it is to pay for the added security programming that is needed? Ayla, I hope you are being tongue in cheek? I am an educator against bringing in under 18s because I have an under 18 year old child, and if she saw what is going on in some supposedly PG regions I'd be mortified. But after 3 years of struggling to get SL initiatives going at my university (a never ending uphill battle) this will only serve as the biggest roadblock ever. We have a major Distance Ed program that after 3 years finally got approved for SL tech specs and got their own SL island. Really worthwhile efforts to reach out to students at a distance in new ways, and now what will happen to it? I shudder to think.
  19. Ignatius, if "Linden Lab is so desperate for an income stream that they'll boost prices in hopes that educators have long-term investments in SL and will need to stay for a bit longer."... then that is a VERY big gamble they will likely lose. They are counting on administrators continuing a very esoteric and difficult to justify initiative.. because in most universities Second Life is not a fully supported learning management system (in the way that Blackboard or Moodle is). Faculty and staff who advocate SL generally have to beg and plead for budget, trainings, lab use and more to maintain these initiatives. I'll bet that many upper level educational administrators are simply looking for a good excuse to get rid of SL and here it is. They will at minimum halve their SL projects rather than double their payout. And if they can get something as good elsewhere, for less cost, they will. I am looking to see which grids most educators are flocking to next, and then I will suggest to my bosses that my university follows suit. Lorraine Charron Administrator, UNC Charlotte Nursing region
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