Transcript of the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable: May 31, 2018
Topic: Virtual Worlds MOOC 2018: Part 1
SLMOOC organizer Nancy L. Zingrone will talk about the upcoming Virtual Worlds Massive Open Online Course (VWMOOC 2018).
Camie Rembrandt: Hi everyone! Welcome to the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable. VWER is a forum to educate and inform the community about issues that are important and relevant to education in virtual worlds. We meet for an hour every Thursday at 12 Noon SLT. This is a public meeting and we will be keeping and publishing a transcript. Since 2008, VWER has been developing a community of educators from around the world.
Camie Rembrandt: Please join the VWER group here in SL, and if you are on Facebook, or Google+, please join our groups there as well. Also, find and post pictures to our Flickr group, and follow us on Twitter @VWER. When you blog or tweet about our meetings, please remember to include the hashtag #vwer. VWER’s new domain is http://VWER.info (Kudos to Beth Ghostraven for creating the new website.)
Camie Rembrandt: Today, SLMOOC organizer Nancy L Zingrone (Maggie Larimore in SL) will talk about the upcoming Virtual Worlds Massive Open Online Course VWMOOC18.
Camie Rembrandt: As usual, our discussion will be in text. We will start as we normally do and introduce ourselves.
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): hi , I’m Darkejade, an academic librarian from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI .
Marly (Marly Milena): Niela Miller, M.S. Ed/Communications: Gestalt therapist, educational designer/facilitator, trainer, coach, multi-artist. Group in SL- Octagon:Creative Exploration. See http://www.peoplesystemspotential.com.
Camie Rembrandt: Independent eLearning Professional. Adult and Continuing Education Teacher with a PGDE endorsed in eLearning Pedagogy. Owner of Learning Lab island on Craft World Grid. Portable OpenSim enthusiast http://teachingwithsoas.blogspot.com/ VWER Moderator on SL
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): Lynne Berrett, NYC Metro area, owner of Inspiration Island, CEO of Whole Brain Health brain-training program. FB: Virtual Inspiration Island; website: http://virtualinspirationisland.org. Board Member NonprofitCommons
Sheila Yoshikawa: I teach and research in the information School, University of Sheffield, UK
Maggie Larimore: I’m an adjunct psych prof from Northcental University and one of the organizers of the VWMOOC (previously known as the SLMOOC) in SL
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Selby Evans, Blogger, Graduate Student Collaborative. Online students need not feel isolated here! https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2018/05/2018-edu-suny-graduate-student.html
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Found some virtual museums: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/vt3/NMNH/z_NMNH-016.html
https://www.spymuseum.org/about/virtual-tour/
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=Vz8kCqGRjQA
Camie Rembrandt: Oh, very nice Selby. Thank you!
Beth Ghostraven: I’m Beth Ghostraven, middle school teacher-librarian in RL and owner of the Book and Tankard Pub in Victoria City, Caledon in SL; owner of Ghostraven Professional Attire, classic clothing for educators in SL (http://bethghostraven.com); Communications Chair for the VWBPE Conference; Communications Chair and Focus Sessions Producer for the ISTE Virtual Environments Network; and unofficial liaison between education groups in SL.For information on events for the educational groups that I work with, see the ISTE VEN Massive Open Online Calendar at http://venetwork.weebly.com/calendar.html; Twitter: @booklady9 I’ll be taking photos to publish with the transcript; if you have any objection, please IM me.
Camie Rembrandt: Okay, Maggie, please tell us all aboutVWMOOC18!
Maggie Larimore: Thanks Camie
Maggie Larimore: I prepared an info board last night with landmarks, a URL listing playlists from previous years, and a notecard inviting speakers, telling students how to sign up and so on. [Notecards are appended at the end of this transcript.]
Sheila Yoshikawa: Great!
Maggie Larimore: As most of you know already, Dr Nellie Deustch (Nellie Homewood in SL) had the original idea to do a multiplatform MOOC on virtual worlds education back in 2014. She enlisted the aid of her ESL/EFL colleague Dr Doris Molero (Pionia Destiny in RL) to organize the first SLMOOC in 2014. I was a student of that MOOC and helped with the WizIQ moderation, attended the Moodle portion of the course with 800+ learners, and set up the Integrating Technology for All building in Madhupak at the Southern end of the Chilbo neighborhood. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 I’ve been a co-organizer of the course with Nellie and Doris. Many if not most of you have presented in past years, sometimes several times
Maggie Larimore: The MOOC started in April but with Nellie’s heavy online and onsite conference schedule (both organizing and speaking), and with her returning to full-time ESL/EFL teaching at a high school near her home, we’ve been moving the MOOCs back month by month. This year, as you can see on the info, we’ve made a big leap back to August, and I’m hoping we’ll stay put in August from now on, but we’ll see
Beth Ghostraven: oh good, August! I had heard it was July, but August is much better for me
Maggie Larimore: Although Doris is building a teaching business in Argentina and is very much focused on the situation in Venezuela where she’s from, she will still be working with us to recruit teachers. But mainly Nellie will be handling the Moodle portion of the course (I’ll mention why that’s important in a bit), and I’ll be handling the development of Second Life resources and so on
Maggie Larimore: Because I have had to reduce my tier recently I have moved my own library up into the community, and have been working on a remodel of the VWMOOC Headquarters. I have also been inviting individuals from the old SLMOOC Second Life group to the new VWMOOC and updating the Facebook page now called Virtual Worlds MOOC
Maggie Larimore: Camie has taken an office on the street where the VWMOOC HQ is and will be building an installation to give students information about Sim-on-a-Stick
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): so we should leave the old group?
Maggie Larimore: Yes please
Sheila Yoshikawa: You’ve been busy @Maggie
Maggie Larimore: the new group is called Virtual World MOOC in SL (the Facebook group just had a name change so you’re good there) and I’ll be going over our old list from both the M & R Educational Group and the SLMOOC group before I eject folks from that old group and close it down. In the meantime whenever SL lets me …. sigh … I’m inviting folks to the new group. The Google docs links are also in the info board
Marly (Marly Milena): I joined new group but when I try to leave the old one I get message “Unable to leave…”! Oh, you may have to do it!
Maggie Larimore: Oh dear, not to worry Marly by July I’ll probably be ready to evict everything from the old group and close it, so not to worry
Maggie Larimore: The Google docs only have the syllabus built out. While the presentation sign up sheet is there (and if you’d like to present let me know and I’ll get you the edit permission), so far that presentation sheet just has the opening and closing ceremonies. We’ve had a lot of interest to join the faculty from Mark Childs one of the excellent keynote presenters at this year’s VWBPE conference, so we’re hoping to have him sign up too
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): 🙂
Sheila Yoshikawa: so we contact you if we are interested in contributing?
Maggie Larimore: otherwise we’re open to presenters (you can do presentations in world, on your own webinar system, or in another virtual world … last year we had WizIQ, Adobe Connect, Minecraft, Digiworlds and so on ..
Maggie Larimore: we’re also looking for folks who want to highlight their own work, their student’s work, give tours of their installations, we’re also hoping to get a bit more research this year, and of course find the time to set up a skills workshop or two or three. I usually have the hopes of doing that myself but haven’t had time in some years
Beth Ghostraven: a skills workshop, Maggie? What does that mean?
Maggie Larimore: but if you have a date in mind, you can find that on the presentation doc and/or let me know of it you just want to let me know that would be great
Maggie Larimore: well Beth we’ve always had this plan to do some make and take kind of things like Mandie used to do for VSTE. I’ve asked her every year but she hasn’t been interested herself
Beth Ghostraven: oh, Norma Underwood has been doing some of those for VSTE lately
Maggie Larimore: some years back I did a camera workshop and a building a framed info board and putting together info. I’d love to do more of that kind of thing, maybe some basic building things, but usually I don’t have the time. If you could talk to Norma Beth that would be terrific and then I can follow up
Marly (Marly Milena): Are process skills included?
Maggie Larimore: sure any kind of skill that helps people who want to teach or learn in Second Life would be welcome
Marly (Marly Milena): What is your maximum of number of presenters?
Maggie Larimore: And I’ll be putting this info board in my Chilbo shop over on the other island
Maggie Larimore: it’s a month and we don’t like to kill ourselves because we have to keep up with the video load for those venues that don’t create automatic videos
Marly (Marly Milena): So, how many slots for each day in August? Two hour sessions or shorter?
Maggie Larimore: So back to the question, oh we’re thinking at least 4 somethings per week throughout August and they don’t have to be weekday, anything convenient for you all
Sheila Yoshikawa: So if we have ideas, should we just fill in on the document, or IM you first Maggie?
Maggie Larimore: usually we have about 24 presenters plus other stuff
Maggie Larimore: you can email me at nancy@theazire.org Sheila if you just want to chat and/or send me a notecard in world – sometimes I don’t get inworld and my IMs get capped
Marly (Marly Milena): Do presenters indicate how long they want the session to be or do you have guidelines for that?
Maggie Larimore: I usually set up a discussion forum once a week, I may be alternating them between SL and Digiworldz this year
Sheila Yoshikawa: thanks @Maggie
Maggie Larimore: usually a presentation/tour etc is between 30 and 90 minutes (I need to make a guideline notecard …) but really they can be what you need and we’ll just advertise that
Marly (Marly Milena): Thanks for the info
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): so even if people cannot attend the session they can access it through you afterwards?
Maggie Larimore: The way the Moodle works is that we get quite a lot of people who are interested in virtual worlds but don’t have the tech to be able to join us in SL or in other VWs so they join the Moodle version of the course to which we post the videos, the extras and have discussion forums. In the first MOOC in 2014 we had 800 people in the Moodle portion and only about 30 came in world, so the Moodle portion that Nellie runs is important to people who are interested in how this works but may not be able or ready to do something in a virtual world at the moment
Marly (Marly Milena): Will there be a direct URL link to videos of the sessions? Do you do filming of all of them or do we arrange that ourselves?
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I could run sessions in my web world with links to the existing videos
Maggie Larimore: the playlists on Dr Nellie’s YouTube channel is also a permanent archive of all the past materials, and once the physical syllabus is up in the HQ there will be links to that as well
Maggie Larimore: you can video yourselves if you prefer
Maggie Larimore: in your case Marly I think I got you last one from you guys
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): yes Selby–that would be a good way for many to participate
Maggie Larimore: sometimes that doesn’t work out so well, we’re still waiting on the one the Cavanserai people were doing for us
Maggie Larimore: and sometimes I get bogged down or am technically challenged and procrastinate myself into oblivion, which is what happened to last year’s presentation by Xenia Bastet
Maggie Larimore: so we’re flexible basically
Marly (Marly Milena): You filmed my last one, Maggie, but we are taking clips from that for an education video we are making (among others)
Maggie Larimore: you can set things up to your liking, rely on us, rely on yourself, let us know, whatever you do or you want to do yourself, we’ll work with you
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): yes–you are always good to work with
Beth Ghostraven: agreed, Liss!
Maggie Larimore: I try, sometimes I get grumpy and for that I apologize in advance, but mostly I’m just toooo excited about everybody’s work/presentation to do anything but be enthralled and monumentally grateful to all you guys!
Maggie Larimore: I’m going to do another talk in June on the 21st for VWER. I’m distributing info boards. I’m doing a little article for VEJ’s next issue [Virtual Education Journal, https://issuu.com/edovation] which will be out in July; and any help you want to give us with marketing it is great. It’s free as always
Maggie Larimore: and forgive our dust in the HQ, I’m trying to finish up my own Library first, and then will finish up the HQ
Maggie Larimore: anybody have any questions?
Maggie Larimore: I hope some many or all of you will contribute
Maggie Larimore: so far I’ve only heard from Dodge Threebeards
Marly (Marly Milena): Will you have a reliable (as much as one can say that here!) MOAP board for showing videos or would you prefer that we send people to do it through their browsers in the session?
Maggie Larimore: what’s a MOAP board
Marly (Marly Milena): Media on a Prim
Maggie Larimore: the videos will all go to YouTube we hope within a day
Maggie Larimore: presenting videos during your presentation we’ll have to see about that
Marly (Marly Milena): I mean ones WE (presenters) might want to show
Maggie Larimore: reliable MOAP boards are not so easy to find
Maggie Larimore: right, if you can bring something, we can also check in the Apollo Theater in the Chilbo Welcome Area. She has a great auditorium there (Duet Parx, a long-time resident of the Chilbo community) and a viewer; we might be able to use that. Otherwise we’ll work with you all to do that
Marly (Marly Milena): Or could we take attendees to our own areas for the MOOC sessions?
Maggie Larimore: absolutely–as always, many of the presentations are onsite in the presenters’ own area. Only those who want to use the headquarters need to use it, we’re flexible, and it’s a lot of fun for the students to travel
Beth Ghostraven: Maggie, Norma is on her way; she thinks she might be able to help out
Maggie Larimore: Hi Norma
Marly (Marly Milena): Yeah, but things change so I pretend that each year is a different story! LOL
Maggie Larimore: we were talking about you!
Norma Underwood: Hello everyone
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Best plan on offering both MOAP and link to YouTube –Some may not see the MOAP
Marly (Marly Milena): Yes, Sel, I just wondered if the MOAP would be one option or not at all
Maggie Larimore: right, I like to have links to youtube videos or other external sources that can be put in chat during presentations for those who want to see something and can’t see what’s being present
Sheila Yoshikawa: yes always a good idea
Maggie Larimore: we’ll also have a google calendar and I’ll push to keep that up to date, including updating presentation descriptions with posted videos
Maggie Larimore: Norma your name came up because our annual course would love to have workshops on building skills for the students, and if that’s something you’d like to help us with we would be thrilled. The information on the course is in the info board
Marly (Marly Milena): When will you be ready to receive proposals? (Forgive me if you already answered that)
Norma Underwood: I am always happy to teach building
Maggie Larimore: last year Sparky Mandelbrot built us a display space for powerpoints and info boxes and so on for the presenters
Norma Underwood: are we talking college students?
Maggie Larimore: this info board has the URL there as well
Maggie Larimore: the students are usually teachers and some college/post grade students, but usually mostly teachers interested in teaching in virtual worlds
Norma Underwood: sweet
Norma Underwood: Love to teach other teachers
Maggie Larimore: so currently the SLMOOC17 display land is still up and I’ll be clearning it out in July probably
Maggie Larimore: I’ve just written Sparky to figure out when we’re going to do that
Maggie Larimore: but this year presenters, workshop holders etc can also take a kiosk and put in their materials and that will be available in Chilbo until VWMOOC2019
Maggie Larimore: if you presented last year, I’ll be getting in touch with you after the June 21st talk for VWER on how it’s going, and then sending you the materials from last year
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): didn’t you do that last year too?
Maggie Larimore: yep, and all those boards are still up and available, and I want to keep that as is until the end of June so that people who see this board can go check out last year’s stuff for inspiration
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): you are coming here again?
Maggie Larimore: Camie signed me up for June 21st when we should have more folks on the sign up list and have more idea of what the curriculum will be
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): great!
Maggie Larimore: we don’t know who the moderator will be in June yet
Camie Rembrandt: Maybe you, Maggie? Could you do it?
Maggie Larimore: and then I’m hoping to go to Not for Profit Commons, maybe something ISTE/VSTE at the end of June/early July, plus we’ll already have 2018 tutorials up on the VWMOOC2018 Playlist on Nellie’s channel by then
Sheila Yoshikawa: Kali may be here but we are not 100% sure at the moment
Maggie Larimore: oh I’d love to see Kali again
Sheila Yoshikawa: I will entice her with that thought 😉
Camie Rembrandt: :))
Maggie Larimore: if any of you guys know folks doing research, we would really like to have a bit more academic content this year as well
Marly (Marly Milena): Remember that Valibrarian and I are doing a program in SL via ISTE Chicago conference on Monday, June 25 so hope you will keep that free and all come to that!
Maggie Larimore: can’t wait for that, wish I could go, I grew up about 70 miles northwest of Chicago and lived there for 11 years in the 70s/early 80s and haven’t been back since 2004
Maggie Larimore: sigh ….
Maggie Larimore: thanks for your attention guys
Maggie Larimore: and yes if you want to present, sign up; if you want to brainstorm, send me a notecard or email me at nancy@theazire.org
Marly (Marly Milena): We should make a Dunce List. I bet all of us are clueless about some things and brilliant about others! LOL
Camie Rembrandt: Thank you, Maggie!
Maggie Larimore: we’re gearing up to get there
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): SL has a bug in the permissions setting, retaining system
Maggie Larimore: sheesh
Sheila Yoshikawa: sheesh indeed, thanks Selby
Sheila Yoshikawa: Thanks to Camie for organising this and the last few weeks of VWER!
Camie Rembrandt: You’re welcome 🙂
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): claps
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Has had that bug since 2008 that I know of
Maggie Larimore: and thanks to Camie fo thinking of setting up an installation on Sim on a Stick just down the street from the HQ such a GREAT idea!
Wisdomseeker (Lissena): will come look
Camie Rembrandt: Thank you, Maggie!
Sheila Yoshikawa: Thanks Maggie!
Maggie Larimore: and if you visit Chilbo we’re in the process of rewriting the walking/flying tour again
Beth Ghostraven: thank you so much Maggie! This is a TON of work that you’re doing!
Camie Rembrandt: It’s my contribution to VWMOOC18 – since I’ll be away
Maggie Larimore: new gardens and some other changes
Marly (Marly Milena): Maggie <If you can keep your head about you while all about are losing theirs….>
Camie Rembrandt: Thank you for coming everyone!
Notecard: VWMOOC2018 Google Docs
The syllabus of the course is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D56c4suwSN4iOCPYD3EyBVGzwdMlz_mVGCwrVT8UDrg/edit?usp=sharing
As the course builds out the other areas will be available from the syllabus and the other Google Docs.
The Facebook Group is available here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vwmooc/
To sign up in the new Second Life Virtual Worlds MOOC Group please head to the VWMOOC Building and click the Join the Group Board on the inside of the front door, to the left above the Mailbox.
The landmark to the VWMOOC Building is:
IT4ALL Virtual Worlds MOOC Headquarters
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/107/90/63
Notecard: VWMOOC2018 Recruiting Speakers
This year the Virtual Worlds MOOC 2018 is recruiting speakers and presenters to showcase their own work as educators in virtual worlds (OpenSim worlds are more than welcome — we’re hoping to become even more metaversy than previous years …), the accomplishments of their students, research, theory of practice, and anything that might impact on the betterment of educational usages of Virtual Worlds in all levels and types of education.
Nellie Homewood (Nellie Deutsch in RL), Pionia Destiny (Doris Molero in RL) and Maggie Larimore (Nan Zingrone in RL) are this year’s organizers.
Our theme this year is Connecting iin Virtual Worlds, Communities of Practice. If you have any idea for a presentation, please IM Maggie Larimore or Pionia Destiny, email nelliedeutsch@gmail.com or nancy@theazire.org.
If you have ideas of others, would like to volunteer for filming, discussion forum moderation or skills workshops, please let us know.
Notecard: URLs to Previous SLMOOCs YouTube Playlists
For more information on previous years presentations visit these playlists on the Nellie Deutsch YouTube Channel. Each one is a list of videos that include tutorals for the students, and presentations and tours that made up the bulk of the curriculum.
SLMOC2014 Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmMRh25riCA&list=PL8JUcjyABKxkyil1ZrPM4YYGpBCpaOquV
SLMOOC2015 Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwKlyZiIE8w&list=PL8JUcjyABKxnzGo1B7uQzP14qokUJq3h-
SLMOOC2016 Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9cLoBdXTHY&list=PL8JUcjyABKxmmlov_CYLmSvX1XgpMsMAU
SLMOOC2017 Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boze-tEWuas&list=PL8JUcjyABKxkl1QRALo5jHYpMCCf7Kh_a
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