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Madelaine McMasters

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Everything posted by Madelaine McMasters

  1. Snugs McMasters wrote: Frawmusl wrote: I give you my sympathy, And also my laughter :3 Thank you, Frawmusl. I'll take the sympathy now and save the laughter until I'm able to put this behind me. You'll only be able to put half of this behind you, we share derriere physics as well.
  2. No, you may not ogle the new mailman with our right eye.
  3. Years ago, my cat ate at least a little bit of the neighbor's mean little Pekinese. I think it was largely a sport kill, proof of which he left on the porch in hopes I'd learn to kill future Pekinese for him.
  4. Ceera, how does Rutgers use their Opensim world? Their having 20 sims suggests they're doing something! I'm curious to know how (and what) virtual worlds are being used to teach.
  5. 7-25-1994 Famous event planner Julian Calendar is late for his own funeral when the hearse bearing his body is carjacked by members of the "Crips" gang, who mistakenly thought they'd joined the "Crypts". 7-25-2014 Ex US congressman and failed NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner reveals that, in his admissions of an ever growing number of lewd exchanges with women online (originally one, then three, then no more than 6-10), he omitted one important adjective... "dozen".
  6. I think whoever originally decided that block delimiters could be inferred should shot, or at least forced to eat at McDonalds.
  7. Czari Zenovka wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Amethyst Jetaime wrote: There is a lot of education going on in SL that takes place on private sims not open to the public. While the tools you name are valuable in some circumstances, particularly lectures and for limited interaction the immerse environment of virtual worlds is superior for others. The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is a very well attended conference with presentations and workshops taking place on a number of sims. It takes place in SL,as well as in Open Sim and in Cloud Party. It just started today. Last year the conference drew about 2000 participants. Respected educators and professors from major universities are making presentations on how they successfully use virtual worlds to enhance learning for elementary through university levels. Some of the participants are already using virtual worlds while some are new to it and come there to discuss and learn about the best practices for using virtual worlds and hear about successful examples and what makes them so successful vs.. standard classroom learning or using tools that you mentioned. All the ones I have spoken to are very interested in using virtual worlds themselves. Perhaps you should attend the conference. It might open your eyes a bit more to the opportunities available. Amethyst, I don't get in-world all that much, so won't be attending VWBPE. But I'd be delighted to hear of people making good use of SL as a teaching platform. I don't know how closely you'll be following the proceedings, but if you do see something interesting, would you bring a short synopsis back here for us? I haven't checked to see if they are still here, but a few years ago there was a company in SL called Languagelab that taught language classes using various platforms, meaning they were an established RL company prior to entering SL. The major portion of their activities within SL was teaching English to those from non-English speaking countries. At that time, when one went through the sign-up process for SL, there were quite a few "entrance portals" one could choose. I created an alt and chose the Caledon Library, for example. There were a number of portals for a variety of countries. Within those portals there was information about the various courses offered by Languagelab. I used to speak Spanish fluently but have become rusty over the years so I signed up for a Spanish class offered by Languagelab. Having originally learned Spanish over years in classroom settings, beginning in Jr. High School and continuing through my first year of college, "memorize & repeat" was the basic methodology used. In the SL course, a sim had been created that was a replica of a city in Spain complete with a hotel, restaurant, shops, church, a central plaza for entertainment, etc. I would have enjoyed living there if possible! The class was taught by a woman in Spain. Her profile includes: Elearning specialist. Teaching blended and online courses. Coordinator of the TESOL Electronic Village Online and co-moderator of the Becoming a Webhead EVO session since 2004. I'm not in world at the moment, but I'm pretty sure the bio I received in class showed her holding a graduate degree in languages. The point being, this woman came with great credentials for teaching not only Spanish, but within a virtual environment. The class was 10 weeks, iirc, and quite rigorous but a lot of fun learning within SL. Instead of just being in a static classroom, we traveled the sim, putting what we had learned to use in everyday functions such as securing a room at a hotel, learning the names of all the furniture in the hotel room as well as how to call for an elevator, etc. The same with shopping and paying for our purchases, and so on. I have spent a great part of my life in various educational venues, both as a student and instructor and this was a fabulous way to learn a language, second to actually being in a Spanish speaking country in RL. Since Languagelab's main concentration within SL was offering English classes, there were numerous sims dedicated to that. I sat in on a few of the English classes; one of which an instructor who was also a musician, used learning a song to to teach English and then had the class sing along as he played the piano. Just one of my personal experiences with education within SL. Oooh, this intriques me. It doesn't require either student or teacher to climb more than the first part of the SL learning curve, yet leverages immersion well. I learned a bit of German from my neighbor, mostly by immersion in her kitchen ;-) I've no idea whether this actually does improve learning over other methods, but I like it!
  8. Perrie Juran wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Freya Mokusei wrote: Funny stuff. The half dozen or so educational groups still in Second Life may well benefit from this - it's good news for them. I can see it being of some use to charities, though I note the minimum requirement of six months tier makes it useless for RFL and other large-scale/annual charity drives. Unfortunately however LL burnt the education bridge when they didn't give any warning when they pulled the rug out. Academic institutions can't just come up with money overnight, and no-one's going to suggest re-investing in a platform that made them all look like fools to their commitees. Once bitten, twice shy - and rightly so. LL yanked the discount before, I see no reason to assume they won't do it again. Educating groups who still have interest in VWs are elsewhere - they won't be brought back by costs still well in excess of the smaller service, and with no change to the SL support or control structure (OAR backups are especially important, but impossible in SL). SL adds nothing - they don't need visibility and they don't want cross-pollination of assets. Collaboration, where is has been important, has flourished outside of our walled garden. And congratulations to them. About 70 locations listed here: http://secondlife.com/destinations/learning/1 And this won't include the private locations. The use of Virtual Worlds as an education platform is still in its infancy. It may prove to be viable for only a small number of people, but at this point in time I am certainly not going to rule it out. I've attended some of the classes hosted by the Firestorm team and actually they were very effective as a teaching tool. Perrie, where these classes for SL related things? It would not be surprising for SL to have benefits as a platform for teaching about itself. My skepticism is for use of SL as a teaching tool for students who are not familiar with SL or other virtual worlds and who will not be taught about SL or other virtual worlds. In what way did you find SL to be very effective as a teaching tool? The whole experience, interaction with the instructor and with the other students, etc, provided a very effective learning environment. The word "tool" may not be the best word choice here. Environment may be a better one. Do you think the environment would have been as beneficial if you were learning about something completely other than SL, like perhaps economics or small engine repair? What I'm wondering is how much of that environmental advantage came from the course being about the environment. Have you used other collaboration tools? If so, did SL provide something they did not? Was SL missing something they had? Had you not already been familiar with SL, do you think the SL learning curve could have been a distraction? Sorry if I'm grilling you, but I am truly curious about advantages others see in using SL to teach. It's pretty clear I don't (yet) see the advantages you do, but I've also been a critic of just about every learning environment I've ever been in, except the workplace. Because it was Firestorm Centric I could apply what was being taught in real time and ask additional questions. I watched a video a few years ago of a chemistry teacher modelling a molecule built with prims. The teacher could add to it, delete from it, modify it pretty much as at will. Students could cam around the molecule. The teacher could grant edit rights so a student could make changes in real time and every one could see what was happening, comment and ask questions. In my minds eye I can still visualize that molecule in ways that other media would not allow. Now if it were an economics class, the main advantage to me would be the ability to shoot virtual spitballs at the instructor. I just downloaded "Avogadro", an open source molecular modeler. At the moment, I'm dragging a water molecule I built around the screen by one of its hydrogen atoms. The atomic bonds are stretching and bending as I do so. I can change the temperature of the environment to affect the dynamics (well, I think that's what I'm doing). I had the molecule built within two minutes of starting the program. I've never seen Avogadro before. Perrie, I don't doubt that you enjoyed (and clearly remembered) the chemistry demonstration you got in SL. What I wonder is whether existing teaching/collaboration tools aren't already ahead of SL. The framework's for things like molecular modeling are already available in tools like Avogadro (I worked with a client who used PyMol, another such tool) and the academic community already has a lot of time invested in those tools, both for use in research, but also as teaching tools for those climbing the ladder of knowledge behind them. Here's a demo of Avogadro in action... This sort of modeling is also a virtual reality, but not an entire world. And as such, it doesn't have a worldly learning curve. CreatorVerse is a LL designed example of a physical modeler that might be a better learning environment for basic physics than SL. I recently joined a community theater group and thought I might be able to use SL to model stage designs. After building a few basic pieces in SL and assembling them into a mock stage, I realized that I could more quickly cut little pieces of wood to make a doll house playset that could be used by anybody in the group. I brought my box of parts to a Sunday morning set design meeting and was soundly trounced by a woman who brought a ream of typing paper, a ruler and a pair of scissors. She was able to cut and fold set pieces faster than I could arrange and fasten (with double sided tape) my wooden blocks. Then a growly fella pulled out "OpenStages" and showed a model of a complete set which he'd built the evening before. It had rudimentary lighting already in place, along with a few "actors" to give a sense of scale and stage crowding. Granted, this particular collaboration was face-to-face, so SL's remote collaboration ability wasn't needed, but I've had many professional collaborations via phone conference and GoToMeeting in which I did things (like share files and editing of documents with others) that SL cannot do. I've attended Linden office hours (you've been there with me) in which very little was accomplished. I'd have hung up on a conference call that went so poorly. We can blame some of that on LL, but I don't think SL is a particularly effective conference mechanism. What I have yet to see for myself (that doesn't mean it's not there) is a compelling example of something made easier or more efficient to learn or teach because of something SL provides that's not available in a better form somewhere else. I do think it's worthwhile for some people to learn SL so they can try things, like reactive art installations, in a rudimentary form before committing to a full RL investment. But I'd not be surprised to discover there's an open source modeler for things like that as well. I do hope Amethyst or someone else returns from this meeting with an interesting story of SL being a better way to teach or learn something. I won't discount your story, but will note that, as an existing resident, SL's learning curve did not stand between you and that chemistry demonstration. ETA: I do understand the advantage of spitballs, and fireballs, being virtual.
  9. Innula Zenovka wrote: Ciaran Laval wrote: The reason people complain about discounts for leasing 100 sims is more to do with the hush hush nature of the deal. Very few people complained about educational discounts when they were here before and I see very few complaining about them now, it's a clear, transparent and easy to understand criteria. As for LL offering other kinds of discounts, it really depends upon how they'd apply them. A discount based on someone's opinion would be more controversial than the discounts for large land owners. However a discount because your sim is only open weekends or 12 hours a day, would be less controversial, because it's a set criteria. LL could do more to encourage people to own sims, private regions fell below the 20K mark at the weekend and I don't see the trend changing much, even with this boost for non-profits and educational sims. I wasn't complaining about the educational discounts, or the charity ones. I was, though, questioning the wisdom of the suggestion that LL should consider providing discounts to private sims on the basis of their being valuable parts of most people's SL experience. While we can all think of plenty of sims run by residents, as opposed to educational institutions or charities, that contribute lots more to most people's SL than do many educational institutions or charities, I think giving the resident-run sims, no matter how deserving, discounts would end in a massive row. To my mind, the only question that makes any sense is "will this measure create a net increase in LL's income vs expenditure?". That's what I'd be asking if I worked there, anyway. I agree, Innula. Look at all the consternation the forum feels over something as simple as moderation. Imagine attaching real money to LLs subjective measurements of "worth" in the form of discounts to residents and you'd have exactly the massive row you envision. Using already accepted external guidelines for eligibility makes sense. I'd also be expecting a return on this investment in discounts and wonder how LL believes they'll get it.
  10. Perrie Juran wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Freya Mokusei wrote: Funny stuff. The half dozen or so educational groups still in Second Life may well benefit from this - it's good news for them. I can see it being of some use to charities, though I note the minimum requirement of six months tier makes it useless for RFL and other large-scale/annual charity drives. Unfortunately however LL burnt the education bridge when they didn't give any warning when they pulled the rug out. Academic institutions can't just come up with money overnight, and no-one's going to suggest re-investing in a platform that made them all look like fools to their commitees. Once bitten, twice shy - and rightly so. LL yanked the discount before, I see no reason to assume they won't do it again. Educating groups who still have interest in VWs are elsewhere - they won't be brought back by costs still well in excess of the smaller service, and with no change to the SL support or control structure (OAR backups are especially important, but impossible in SL). SL adds nothing - they don't need visibility and they don't want cross-pollination of assets. Collaboration, where is has been important, has flourished outside of our walled garden. And congratulations to them. About 70 locations listed here: http://secondlife.com/destinations/learning/1 And this won't include the private locations. The use of Virtual Worlds as an education platform is still in its infancy. It may prove to be viable for only a small number of people, but at this point in time I am certainly not going to rule it out. I've attended some of the classes hosted by the Firestorm team and actually they were very effective as a teaching tool. Perrie, where these classes for SL related things? It would not be surprising for SL to have benefits as a platform for teaching about itself. My skepticism is for use of SL as a teaching tool for students who are not familiar with SL or other virtual worlds and who will not be taught about SL or other virtual worlds. In what way did you find SL to be very effective as a teaching tool? The whole experience, interaction with the instructor and with the other students, etc, provided a very effective learning environment. The word "tool" may not be the best word choice here. Environment may be a better one. Do you think the environment would have been as beneficial if you were learning about something completely other than SL, like perhaps economics or small engine repair? What I'm wondering is how much of that environmental advantage came from the course being about the environment. Have you used other collaboration tools? If so, did SL provide something they did not? Was SL missing something they had? Had you not already been familiar with SL, do you think the SL learning curve could have been a distraction? Sorry if I'm grilling you, but I am truly curious about advantages others see in using SL to teach. It's pretty clear I don't (yet) see the advantages you do, but I've also been a critic of just about every learning environment I've ever been in, except the workplace.
  11. Hippie Bowman wrote: Good morning all! Happy Thursday! Peace! Hiya Hippie. A little lower and to the left, please...
  12. Hippie Bowman wrote: I will keep the people of Spain in my thoughts and prayers today Val. Peace. Sad news, I'll send my best wishes to the friends and families of those involved.
  13. Perrie Juran wrote: Freya Mokusei wrote: Funny stuff. The half dozen or so educational groups still in Second Life may well benefit from this - it's good news for them. I can see it being of some use to charities, though I note the minimum requirement of six months tier makes it useless for RFL and other large-scale/annual charity drives. Unfortunately however LL burnt the education bridge when they didn't give any warning when they pulled the rug out. Academic institutions can't just come up with money overnight, and no-one's going to suggest re-investing in a platform that made them all look like fools to their commitees. Once bitten, twice shy - and rightly so. LL yanked the discount before, I see no reason to assume they won't do it again. Educating groups who still have interest in VWs are elsewhere - they won't be brought back by costs still well in excess of the smaller service, and with no change to the SL support or control structure (OAR backups are especially important, but impossible in SL). SL adds nothing - they don't need visibility and they don't want cross-pollination of assets. Collaboration, where is has been important, has flourished outside of our walled garden. And congratulations to them. About 70 locations listed here: http://secondlife.com/destinations/learning/1 And this won't include the private locations. The use of Virtual Worlds as an education platform is still in its infancy. It may prove to be viable for only a small number of people, but at this point in time I am certainly not going to rule it out. I've attended some of the classes hosted by the Firestorm team and actually they were very effective as a teaching tool. Perrie, where these classes for SL related things? It would not be surprising for SL to have benefits as a platform for teaching about itself. My skepticism is for use of SL as a teaching tool for students who are not familiar with SL or other virtual worlds and who will not be taught about SL or other virtual worlds. In what way did you find SL to be very effective as a teaching tool?
  14. Amethyst Jetaime wrote: There is a lot of education going on in SL that takes place on private sims not open to the public. While the tools you name are valuable in some circumstances, particularly lectures and for limited interaction the immerse environment of virtual worlds is superior for others. The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is a very well attended conference with presentations and workshops taking place on a number of sims. It takes place in SL,as well as in Open Sim and in Cloud Party. It just started today. Last year the conference drew about 2000 participants. Respected educators and professors from major universities are making presentations on how they successfully use virtual worlds to enhance learning for elementary through university levels. Some of the participants are already using virtual worlds while some are new to it and come there to discuss and learn about the best practices for using virtual worlds and hear about successful examples and what makes them so successful vs.. standard classroom learning or using tools that you mentioned. All the ones I have spoken to are very interested in using virtual worlds themselves. Perhaps you should attend the conference. It might open your eyes a bit more to the opportunities available. Amethyst, I don't get in-world all that much, so won't be attending VWBPE. But I'd be delighted to hear of people making good use of SL as a teaching platform. I don't know how closely you'll be following the proceedings, but if you do see something interesting, would you bring a short synopsis back here for us?
  15. Dillon Levenque wrote: Regarding online education, the Cal State college in the heart of Silicon Valley started a massive online education program a year or so back, aided of course by the local tech community. They've just recently announced a major reduction for the new semester. Statistics showed that online students were not learning as much as in-class students of the same courses. It may be the future but it appears it needs some tweaking. As for all this sudden news regarding the education discount, it has been suggested that much of it has to do with the currently underway VWBPE conferences, some of which are being held in SL over the next four days. That stands for 'Virtual World Best Practices in Education', and deals specifically with course designed in and around virtual worlds. They even subcategorized that as 'immersive' virtual worlds in another place. I think LL is taking advantage of the fact that academics will be here. It might be a good strategy, too. These academics will presumably already KNOW what to expect from a virtual world and might have expectations that SL can meet. There's no consensus about the efficacy of MOOC. I've read articles claiming that students taking courses online fare better than those receiving face-to-face instruction, and articles claiming the opposite. Stanford, MIT, Georgia Tech and others continue to expand their online course programs. Coursera (founded by two Stanford profs) now has five courses approved for college credit. Bill Gates is a big fan of Salman Kahn, founder of the online Kahn Academy. As one who received a non-traditional education, my only familiarity with classical education was in college, which was enjoyable, but not nearly as challenging as RL (yes, I'm insinuating that academia is not RL). I often wonder how SL might be used to collaborate on RL projects, or to teach/learn about something. I've visited numerous SL educational exhibits which I've found less accessible than standard web pages covering similar topics. I am more skeptical about the value of virtual world technology for teaching than I was when I arrived in SL five years ago. Now that I think about it, I might be more skeptical about a lot of things than I was five years ago ;-)
  16. Marybeth Cooperstone wrote: I understand the need for education programs about Second Life, and to educate people who are already active in SL. However, I do not understand why a university or educational organization would set up an education program in SL. Linden has been advertising to educational institutions and organizations about the advantages of an on-line presence for education. On-line education, particularly short courses and seminars, has been around for many years. There are a number of tools for on-line education such as Blackboard, Sakia, etc. that are used by colleges and universities for online courses. Courses, particularly for short continuing education and professional development, are even taught using Go To Meeting and similar tools. These do not require as much computing power for students. Any laptop and, for some courses, mobile devices such as iPads and tablets can be used. I have taught a few on-line CLE courses (continuing education for attorneys) and taken many. Some involve lecture and discussion, and use cameras and mikes for those that have them. So you see the actual instructor and some of the other students - the real people, not avatars. Some of the tools such as Sakia have built in chat, forum, testing, and other features. On line education, both for college credit and for continuing professional education, are here and will be growing in use. I just don't see why Second Life, or any other virtual world or grid, would have any advantage. I agree. SL is a terrible way to collaborate/educate on anything that's not SL. Educational institutions learned that years ago. They won't be back, unless to give students a glimpse of a virtual world. In my professional work, tools like GoToMyMeeting are vastly superior. There's been a lot of buzz about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and the tools to facilitate them. NYTimes declared 2012 as the "Year of the MOOC". I don't think they ever declared a "Year of the Virtual World".
  17. Hippie Bowman wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: Morning Hippie! Have a great day too. Phew, I finished landscaping and decorating my new land, looks about fine now. Plus, the kitchen is in perfect order for you to raid. I added a full plate of finest macarons thinking of you! Hugs you all! I'm on my way... Hey Maddy! That's mine! HEHEH! Peace! Ooops! I slobbered all over it. Still want it back?
  18. valerie Inshan wrote: Morning Hippie! Have a great day too. Phew, I finished landscaping and decorating my new land, looks about fine now. Plus, the kitchen is in perfect order for you to raid. I added a full plate of finest macarons thinking of you! Hugs you all! I'm on my way...
  19. 7-24-2019 Religious scholars are thrown into a frenzy when archeologists uncover conclusive evidence that "an eye for an eye" was not an ancient code of justice, but rather one of the rules of trade for a children's game similar to modern day "marbles".
  20. Perrie Juran wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Kylie Jaxxon wrote: I am actively in & out of my.secondlife all day long, every day...although the last day or two it has been slow/borked, that message shows for me numerous times throughout the day, for months...I'm assuming it's something that they can't fix You just have to retry each time and it usually goes through. I suspect LL purchased the feed software from some small company and has absolutely no idea how it works, or if it works. There has never been a day where it has responded less than glacially for me, sometimes producing error messages, sometimes yielding server timeouts, sometimes doing nothing at all. LL services are perhaps the only I know that put the user inside the error correction algorithms. Getting computers and/or programs that were not designed to "talk" with each is a specialty. What we have is LL trying to integrate Second Life with other Web Services and Second Life was not designed with this in mind. So what we wind up with constantly is a communication breakdown that drives us insane. That's at least my two cents on the topic. The problems we endure on LL's web properties (forums and feeds) are, I think, largely independent of SL's internals. Yes, LL may have some difficulties interfacing the web properties with SL databases, but even the straight-up web stuff is riddled with problems. The feeds and forums are the worst performing web properties I frequent. I participate in numerous forums, some enthusiast/hobby type, some with a more professional bent. All of them have more traffic than SL's properties. All of them run smoothly. None of them are afflicted by spam. I will give LL credit for their remarkable ability to gather together almost every kind of online technical affliction I've ever experienced, all into one place.
  21. valerie Inshan wrote: Having a baby, royal or not, is a complete mystery to me. Don't know of I should feel sad or not about it. In any case, all my best wishes to Kate and William. That's a mystery to me too, Val. I've new RL neighbors, a young family of five. One of the children asked me if I liked pets. I said "I love them, and I'm gonna happily spoil the three that just moved into my neighborhood." Their mother replied to her kids "Do any of you know what Maddy meant by that? I'm afraid I do." We needn't understand the mystery to enjoy the babies.
  22. 7-23-1936 Not content to spend yet another summer in Davenport Iowa, arm wrestling with his grandfather, Pop McMasters lies about his age and joins the Navy. 7-23-1936 Not content to spend yet another summer in Davenport Iowa, arm wrestling with his grandson, Great Great Grandpop McMasters lies about his age and moves to Wisconsin.
  23. Perrie Juran wrote: Rolig Loon wrote: Maybe she looks in wireframe mode (CTRL + Shift + R) ? :smileylol: that deserves a kudos! She gets mine!
  24. valerie Inshan wrote: Good morning Hippie and all! YAY! Thunderstorm and rain at last!!!! *hugs you and sings in the rain!* Thunderstorms are yummy!...
  25. Kylie Jaxxon wrote: I am actively in & out of my.secondlife all day long, every day...although the last day or two it has been slow/borked, that message shows for me numerous times throughout the day, for months...I'm assuming it's something that they can't fix You just have to retry each time and it usually goes through. I suspect LL purchased the feed software from some small company and has absolutely no idea how it works, or if it works. There has never been a day where it has responded less than glacially for me, sometimes producing error messages, sometimes yielding server timeouts, sometimes doing nothing at all. LL services are perhaps the only I know that put the user inside the error correction algorithms.
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