Transcript of the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable: October 18 2018
Topic: “Open Forum”
Lightly edited for typos by Sheila Yoshikawa; photo by Sheila Yoshikawa
Sheila Yoshikawa: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable. We meet on Thursdays at 12 noon SLT for an hour. 8pm In UK, 3pm EST. VWER is a forum to educate and inform the community about issues that are important and relevant to education in virtual worlds.
Sheila Yoshikawa: This is a public meeting, so we will be keeping and publishing a transcript. The transcripts can be found at https://vwer.info/ The VWER continues to develop a community of educators from around the world.
Beth Ghostraven: Hi Camie!
Camie Rembrandt: Hello everyone!
Camie Rembrandt: Hi Beth
Sheila Yoshikawa: Please join the VWER group here in SL. If you are on Facebook, please join our group there. Our group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/159154226946/
Elli Pinion: Hi Camie!
Camie Rembrandt: Hi Eli
Sheila Yoshikawa: I am moderating today. The topic for this week’s meeting will be: “Open Forum”
Sheila Yoshikawa: Let’s start as we normally do and introduce ourselves. As usual we will be in text chat for the whole session.
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 and recording this session on video; if you have any objection, please IM me.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I teach and research as a faculty member in the Information School, University of Sheffield, UK, I own Infolit iSchool island, and I am lead co-organiser of VWER
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Selby Evans, Blogger, Edutopia 1 and 2: Places for practicing English as a second language https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2018/10/2018-edu-edutopia-1-and-2-places-for.html
Camie Rembrandt: Independent eLearning professional with a BA in History and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education Endorsed in eLearning Pedagogy from Aberta University (Lisbon, Portugal); owner of Learning Lab island on Craft World grid; VWER organizer/moderator. Writer, digital storyteller, author of “Writing in a Virtual World: A Collection of Interviews.”
Elli Pinion: I’m Elli Pinion, just retired from being the Director of Online Course Development at the University of New Mexico, still teaching online a bit.
Elli Pinion: Nice to “meet” everyone. A great group!
Sheila Yoshikawa: OK
Sheila Yoshikawa: well today is an “Open Forum” so we can bring here any questions or issues we would like to discuss
Sheila Yoshikawa: about education and virtual worlds
Sheila Yoshikawa: has anyone got any burning topics or questions?
Sheila Yoshikawa: just leap in!
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): G+ closing
Beth Ghostraven: I’d like to talk about that too
Sheila Yoshikawa: yes and me lol
Beth Ghostraven: I’d especiallly like to hear about alternatives to Facebook
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I have researched alternatives
Elli Pinion: Me, too!
Beth Ghostraven: for communities
Elli Pinion: Share, Selby!
Sheila Yoshikawa: although they aren’t virtual worlds, they are certainly places where I learn about things to do with virtual worlds
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): many OpenSim leaders are moving to
MeWe
https://mewe.com
Sheila Yoshikawa: anyone here signed up to that?
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): educators may want to try Maybe replace: https://www.classroom20.com/
And: https://learningrevolution.com
Sheila Yoshikawa: Hi Darkehjade
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): hi folks 🙂
Beth Ghostraven: Hi Darke!
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): hi 🙂
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I need someone not in Linkedin to test:https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6457233685459582976/
Sheila Yoshikawa: we are just talking about Google+ closing for consumers and alternatives to Google+ and Facebook
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): will that open the page for you
Elli Pinion: Hi Darke!
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): hi 🙂
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): if we are in linkedin will it not work properly Thinkerer?
Sheila Yoshikawa: I will just mention that Google is continuing Google+ for its corporate clients, which includes my university, as we subscribe to the whole google suite as a university, mail, Google drive and so forth and also blogger and Google+
Sheila Yoshikawa: I think it is to see whether non linkedin people can see it too?
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): If you are in Linkedin, it should open
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Right sheila
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): ok will click the link 🙂
Elli Pinion: …and it isn’t going away until next year for the rest of us. However, if corp, it will just be internal, I assume?
Sheila Yoshikawa: well, you can only set them up if you are internal, but you can make them public
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Mewe has free offering also, but may be internal anyway
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): If you are not in Mewe, Please try this link: https://mewe.com/group/548f146ce4b0a86262e18a05
Sheila Yoshikawa: it has made me think why I like Google+ over, say, Facebook e.g. – not just one column, you have a little control over how you see it, can use tags to retrieve posts on specific topics, and of course not so much distracting rubbish around the column of information you are focused on
Beth Ghostraven: How does Mewe finance themselves, if they’re not selling our info?
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I need to see if these posts are limited to users
Sheila Yoshikawa: yes that mewe one is limited to users
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I hear that they have a pro version they sell to Corps.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I do find that frustrating e.g. with pinterest you used to be able to view boards without signing in and now you can’t
Elli Pinion: Yeah, FB and Google+ require a log in, I believe. That is different than internal, to me. Internal means you need to be part of the organization to use it.
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Did the Linkedin link works for anyone?
Sheila Yoshikawa: I don’t think there are any communities just focused on virtual worlds, I mean web-based ones like https://learningrevolution.com that Shelby mentioned but just focused in VWs? There used to be
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): it worked for me Thinkerer, but it wanted me to sign in to leave comments and such.
Elli Pinion: Yes, but I have a Linkedin acct. The MeWe did, too. Took me to the “Get Started” ag.
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Thanks, Darke — just the info I needed
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): the Mewe was the same for me as ELLI
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Elli with the Google+ we have we have the option to restrict membership of a community to just Uni of Sheffield, Or to allow anyone to join, and to allow it to be visible/searchable to anyone or not
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Elli — the MeWe link did not open the target page– right?
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Selby Mewe did not open at target page
Elli Pinion: OK, that’s the “public” option.
Sheila Yoshikawa: just prompted me to join
Elli Pinion: correct
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Thanks — I need to report that
Elli Pinion: Do you believe MeWe can be “public” where you can view without a membership/log in?
Sheila Yoshikawa: Just to repeat my question – is any one aware of any web communities (self-contained ones like https://learningrevolution.com that Shelby mentioned but just focused in VWs? There used to be ones that were – e.g. there was for people doing research in virtual worlds (mainly SL)
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I am looking for ways to communicate to the public — I thing MeWe will be adequate for inworld talk.
Beth Ghostraven: I don’t really want an outlet that’s focused on virtual worlds–I want to be able to publicize events to outsiders
Elli Pinion: Good question….
Sheila Yoshikawa: Presumably just as the SLED list declined so it is minimal now, those also disappeared
Sheila Yoshikawa: partly because some of the platforms they were using either disappeared or became priced
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I gave up on SLED long ago
Elli Pinion: Similar to Google+ now and FB….must have a “log in”
Elli Pinion: I miss a robust SLED
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Beth but it needs to be outsiders that can find out how to get into Second Life
Beth Ghostraven: I still put events on SLED when I think of it
Sheila Yoshikawa: Yes me too @Beth
Elli Pinion: I still subscribe.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I think there are quite a lot of people still signed up
Sheila Yoshikawa: mostly people only unsubscribe when there are too many posts
Beth Ghostraven: lol that’s not likely
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I will used FB and Linkedin for outsiders, but maybe the 2 edu places i mentioned
Sheila Yoshikawa: So we seem to have transitioned to – publicising events etc. happening in virtual worlds
Sheila Yoshikawa: and good ways/places to do that?
Elli Pinion: 🙂 So what makes something like that remain robust?
Elli Pinion: I think some of it is that people just get too much email.
Beth Ghostraven: yes, I’d always like to know where you see the most info about VW events
Beth Ghostraven: which media outlets are the most effective?
Elli Pinion: I feel I’m not in the loop for many of them and I would like to know where to find things. And I’m on FB, Google+, Twitter….
Elli Pinion: SLED
Elli Pinion: lol
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): FB has groups specifically for VW people
Sheila Yoshikawa: there are several – I suppose that is the problem – which ones to sign up to AND to pay attention to
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I will work up a list for FB.
Elli Pinion: I agree
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Selby, you mean a list of the groups/pages about VWs on FB?
Sheila Yoshikawa: that would be useful
Elli Pinion: We actually had two Google+ groups for VWBPE, I believe.
Elli Pinion: have
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): Sheila — Yes that is what I mean
Beth Ghostraven: Elli, we have a group and a page–they’re different
Camie Rembrandt: Have to leave, sorry
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Elli I was there in the early days, and in 2007/8/9 there would be numerous posts per day on SLED, with announcements and discussions, people asking questions and offering advice
Beth Ghostraven: tc Camie! see you next week!
Sheila Yoshikawa: By for now Camie!
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): There is a VWBPE group in FB
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): bye Camie have a good night
Elli Pinion: By Camie
Elli Pinion: Right. But I believe a member started a Google+ page/group and the Committee did, as well.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Also the VWMOOC page on FB
Elli Pinion: Yes.
Elli Pinion: I like your comment, Sheila, “AND to pay attention to”
Elli Pinion: So there are a couple of issues for us as people trying to get information and for us who are trying to get information out.
Sheila Yoshikawa: There are also useful blogs that I dip into ocasionally that alert me to intersting things like Inara Pey’s
Elli Pinion: What are people going to? And how do you find the info you need?
Elli Pinion: Ah, and then blogs.
Sheila Yoshikawa: https://modemworld.me/ has a mixture of nitty-gritty stuff on technical developments and interesting events and places to go in SL
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I will also develop a list of relevant blogs — on many blogs you can leave comments
Sheila Yoshikawa: oh and of course new world notes http://nwn.blogs.com/
Elli Pinion: There used to be a tool for Social Media that brought it all together on one page.
Sheila Yoshikawa: those aren’t educational, but useful to keep up on news and interesting places, which can be relevant to educational initiatives or just sparking creative ideas
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): We can start an educational blog
Beth Ghostraven: Selby, you already have an educational blog
Sheila Yoshikawa: um yes e.g. https://www.netvibes.com/en
Sheila Yoshikawa: I have a few things on netwvibes but haven’t kept them up to date, but that used to be a useful app
Sheila Yoshikawa: (tool to draw together different social media)
Sheila Yoshikawa: 😉 @Selby @Beth
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): My blog is not specific to education– but I would post VWER articles as invited articles if people want.
Elli Pinion: I think that is what the Dashboard for Google+ is suppose to be like, but I believe that tools like this help the user
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): People can comment on my blog.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I was just feeling embarrassed about how I hadn’t updated this netvibes dashboard for ages but at https://www.netvibes.com/sheilawebber#Home you can see the sort of thing you do, except tons of the links don’t work after 7 years!
Sheila Yoshikawa: in fact it’s a wonder any of them do
Sheila Yoshikawa: I think some social media apps like Twitter made it more difficult for people to insert twitterfeeds into other apps
Elli Pinion: And that is another “issue” things go away…
Sheila Yoshikawa: By the way, if people have any OTHER topics they want to talk about, feel free!
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Elli, yes, like Storify disappearing
ThinkererSelby Evans (Thinkerer Melville): I tested an embedded Twitter feed a few years ago — It worked, but could not find a use for it
Sheila Yoshikawa: the more useful feeds are ones which are searches on specific hashtags
Elli Pinion: I laugh in my RL. When I started 13 yrs ago, as managers, my colleague & I decided Communication was going to be our top objective. Thirteen years later we were still working on it and had decided that would never be as accomplished as we would like.
Sheila Yoshikawa: actually perhaps it was THAT that became impossible
Sheila Yoshikawa: for example there is a #infolit tag of twitter
Sheila Yoshikawa: that is very good for getting a twitter stream relating to information literacy
Elli Pinion: YES! Communication is challenging and with all the wonderful tools we have at our disposal, it is just more and more challenging.
Sheila Yoshikawa: it is mostly used by librarians and thus tends to be used quite consistently 😉
Beth Ghostraven: what other hashtags do you all follow?
Elli Pinion: I love librarians!
Sheila Yoshikawa: #librarianlove
Elli Pinion: I’m just getting barely comfortable in using Twitter, I’m sorry to admit.
Elli Pinion: I’m sure the others have good ones…
Sheila Yoshikawa: some institutional feeds are useful e.g. Pew Research Center on Twitter publicise their excellent research studies
Sheila Yoshikawa: I don’t actually LIKE Twitter much
Sheila Yoshikawa: but i find it professionally useful
Sheila Yoshikawa: definitely
Sheila Yoshikawa: in fact it is one medium we could use a bit more to publicise VWER
Beth Ghostraven: Sheila, yes
Sheila Yoshikawa: educationalists in the UK use it e.g. there are tweet chats on education regularly
Sheila Yoshikawa: higher education and also school teaching
Elli Pinion: I have many education friends that use it regularly
Beth Ghostraven: I get some of my best ideas from Twitter
Sheila Yoshikawa: your secret is revealed lol!
Beth Ghostraven: my school district is letting us use Twitter this year, so my library has a Twitter account
Sheila Yoshikawa: I’m lucky because we don’t get things blocked at the university
Elli Pinion: It can be very effective. And now that we use our phones for everything…
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): I must go folks. I have a student in need here. Have a great night / day!
Sheila Yoshikawa: great to see you!
Sheila Yoshikawa: and I see that Beth has rezzed a poster!
Darkejade Tempest (Darkejade): bye , you too .
Elli Pinion: Bye!
Sheila Yoshikawa: so do you want to introduce that beth
Beth Ghostraven: yes, that’s for the Caledon Oxbridge U fundraiser that’s Saturday
Sheila Yoshikawa: there was also an event that Valibrarian was publicising
Sheila Yoshikawa: i will just find the notecard
Beth Ghostraven: yes, that’s Sunday
Elli Pinion: How fun!
Sheila Yoshikawa: VIRTUAL CYBERSECURITY EXERCISES with ACRL Virtual World Interest Group
When: NOON Pacific Time Sunday OCT 21st
Where: Community Virtual Library (Meeting space in Selby Park)
Cookie (100,107,21)
Description
Cybersecurity expert, Erik Moore, will guide participants through cybersecurity exercises to demonstrate learning digital citizenship (particularly Internet security) through immersive simulation.
Open to all and sponsored by the ALA Association of College & Research Libraries Member Interest Group.
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-moore-6348a211/
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Beth Ghostraven: there, you got it twice, lol
Sheila Yoshikawa: lol
Elli Pinion: That sounds very interesting!
Beth Ghostraven: Erik has some really helpful ideas
Sheila Yoshikawa: yes, I should be able to go to that
Elli Pinion: and timely
Sheila Yoshikawa: not sure about the fundraiser, I’m suffering from a nasty cold and trying not to stay up too late…
Sheila Yoshikawa: Any last ideas?
Sheila Yoshikawa: Next week by the way
Elli Pinion: It’s nice that Selby will be making those lists for us!
Sheila Yoshikawa: Camie is leading a session relating to november writing month
Sheila Yoshikawa: https://nanowrimo.org/dashboard
Sheila Yoshikawa: talking about alternatives to the book writing that nonowrimo focuses on most
Elli Pinion: Lovely!
Sheila Yoshikawa: If noone has any other announcements
Sheila Yoshikawa: I think that is it for this week
Sheila Yoshikawa: Thank you all for coming along
Elli Pinion: Thank you!
Sheila Yoshikawa: and contributing
VWER - Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable 