Instructional Media Lab MSU-Bozeman

Jim Vernon laminating 77 feet of feet. The laminated feet are being used in an awareness campaign on campus.

This week we are working with visiting Thai educators. We are all connected through a Google group and Blogspot blogs, so for the moment, you will find a lot more from us over there.
Bill at Blogspot
Jim at Blogspot

The International Society for Technology in Education is celebrating their Grand Opening in Second Live with a Scavenger Hunt, the ISTEGOSH. Task one in the hunt was to visit 25 numbered locations on ISTE’s island in SL, take pictures, and post them on Flickr. So, if you want to see 25 pictures of my avatar posing with numbered flags (and no, I can’t imagine why you would) they are at Flickr.

Claudia Linden let it be know that Linden Lab is working on a future teen accessible area of the Second Life main grid, where educators and kids could mix more openly than on the highly restricted Teen Grid. Details have clearly not been worked out yet. Much work remains to be done. But many present saw great potential in the statement and the discussion which followed.

Claudia Linden: “Now, we are considering creating a PG area on the main grid where educators can have classes with students 13-18+.”

The meeting, held Sept 18, 2007 at the ELVEN Institute on Cybrary City II in Second Life, was attended by more that thirty educators and interested folks.

A drop of blood promoting a blood drive dropped in today. The voice was familiar, but we couldn’t place the face. Pictured, Jim (holding sign) and the drop.

Sunday, July 15th, Bill Friis, the Second Life avatar of Bill Freese, attended the grand opening of the ELVEN Institute in Second Life. The institute is devoted to helping preK-12 educators and librarians to integrate new technologies into teaching and learning. The event was held on the rooftop of the institute’s building on the Cybrary City II sim. Dewey Jung and Puglet Dancer hosted. The event was very well attended, filling the sim to the point that no new avatars could arrive. Following the opening ceremonies, a dance was held. Taking a cue from the name of the institute, dress was ELVEN semi-formal.

Vassar’s site in Second Life has just opened a reproduction of the Sistine Chapel. I have a photo I shot in the original (along with a thousand other tourists breaking the no photo rule that day) and roughly the same shot in Second Life. The Second Life copy is very good, and much less crowded. You can stay as long as you like. You can fly up to the ceiling for a closer look. And you can bring in the Raphael tapestries, normally seen only on special occasions, with a single click.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/vassar/165/91/24

There has been a discussion among the Second Life educators about whether or not Second Life is Web 2.0 or Web 3.0. Web 2.0 is a phrase that was created to describe a phenomenon. But, once the term Web 2.0 had been coined, it was pretty obvious that Web 3.0 would be coming next. So that gave us the phrase, and a phenomenon was needed to hang it on. Various folks have described various things as being Web 3.0. Of course, then there will have to be Web 4.0. I started searching for Web 4.0, Web 5.0, Web 6.0, etc. on Google. I finally got no hits when I got to Web 61.0.

If a thing exists, it can be Googled. So, I have coined the term Web 61.0. I have no idea what Web 61.0 will be, but when we get there, Bill Freese gets credit for coining the term.

The New Media Consortium campus in Second Life has announced the winners of their Impact of Digital Media Photo Contest. Our effort was an image inspired by photos of Montana pioneers, but this time the pioneers were moving into a virtual frontier. We tied for third place. Makes us quietly proud. And a bit richer. Prize was a thousand Linden dollars, which we are using to fund the efforts of our students in the exploration of instructional media in a virtual environment.

The Montana State University Instructional Media Lab now has a wiki. I wonder what, if anything, we will do with it.