stuff:ED

It's time for a move....

2007-02-24T07:38:00.000+11:00

After using Blogger for a couple of years to establish a PLE and record some of my work and play on the web, I'm finally moving on to a new blogging space. I've set up my very own hosted Wordpress blog, which you can access at www.jokay.com.au.

I'll probably still use stuff:ED from time to time when I'm demoing blogging to my colleagues or recording something specifically for work, but jokay.com.au is where I'll be focussing my blogging energy.

I hope some of my stuff:ED readers will join me over in my new space.
Update those rss readers! ;)

Azzura's Deck

2007-01-11T10:39:00.001+11:00

Safety Girl! aka Azzura Supplee has rebuilt her lovely deck at her new spot in Waterworld. Such a lovely spot!
posted by jokay Wollongong on Adria using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Tarot at Castle Leon

2006-12-19T08:33:00.000+11:00

All I need now is a medieval outfit and I'd fit right in here. Here I am having a virtual Tarot reading - which was mostly good ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on St Guilk using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Visiting Santa

2006-12-19T07:27:00.000+11:00

I couldn't check out the Winter Festival HUD without fitting in a visit to Santa. Here I am making a wish for Christmas. Funny tho... Santa wasn't very animated and he had absolutely nothing to say - even when I asked him how Rudolf was doing! ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Tipsico using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Rooftop Dragon

2006-12-19T07:06:00.000+11:00

Here's one way to attract people to your virtual home........ add a giant rooftop dragon!
posted by jokay Wollongong on Hubbard using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Standing on top of the Virtual World

2006-12-12T04:21:00.000+11:00

..... in my new groovy tutu! ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Virtual Retail Therapy

2006-12-11T20:39:00.000+11:00

I've got new hair - hooray! We won't talk about all the other stuff I bought! ;)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Panache using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Postcard from Second Life

2006-12-11T13:57:00.000+11:00

Hanging out with Leigh (and some Otago people via his avatar) at the Medical Library. Im looking forward to hearing a bit about their impressions, and ideas they have for using Second Life!
posted by jokay Wollongong on Healthinfo Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Ballooning with Otago Polytechnic

2006-12-11T12:45:00.000+11:00

Here I am with Leroy Goalpost getting ready for a little tour of Second Life with some educators from Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. Virtual Balloon rides are so much fun! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Checking out Dell Island

2006-12-10T23:54:00.000+11:00

Nice Garden.. and some signs with notecards for newbies. I wonder how newbies would handle it tho...it's a bit complex. And didn't we already do this at Orientation Island?
posted by jokay Wollongong on Dell Island 2 using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Going for a ride with Sean....

2006-12-08T19:00:00.000+11:00

On a Shark! Eeek! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Millions of Us using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Popsci.com

2006-12-08T18:45:00.000+11:00

Check out the Popsci Build - love the gardens, and the whole place is wind and solar powered! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Millions of Us using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Checking out PopSci

2006-12-08T18:42:00.000+11:00

Whilst exploring the PopSci build with Sean today, I noticed the 'Future Now' stage and couldn't resist standing in the spotlight for a picture! Love the details here... worth checking out.
posted by jokay Wollongong on Millions of Us using a blogHUD : [permalink]

A Watermeloney Couch!

2006-12-07T15:39:00.000+11:00

This could only belong to one person! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Montara using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Working on Christmas Lights!

2006-12-07T09:03:00.000+11:00

I've been working on some flashing Christmas Lights for Sean's Lighthouse. All very strange - I would never put up elaborate decorations in my real life house... but in Second Life, I have the urge to create a huge and flashy tree! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Hanging out with Bee

2006-12-06T22:18:00.000+11:00

Hanging out with Bee Kerouac in Stillman. She's found a groovy model house and has been squatting here until temptation takes over and she buys her own virtual home!! Bee swears she's not gonna spend any money in SL... but the temptation is so hard to resist! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Stillman using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Chitzen Iza Coffee Shop

2006-12-06T21:33:00.000+11:00

Sean Drinking Coffee at the NBC Universal Headquarters. The textures and lighting around here are amazing!
posted by jokay Wollongong on NBC 16 using a blogHUD : [permalink]

BB has done something weird to Sean!

2006-12-06T21:09:00.000+11:00

A scary snowman has squished Sean's avatar... I hope he recovers! ;-)
posted by jokay Wollongong on Kingdom of Media using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Checking out Big Brother with Sean

2006-12-06T21:03:00.000+11:00

Finally found time to go check out Big Brother space, and talked to some of the residents.
posted by jokay Wollongong on Kingdom of Media using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Winter at Safety Girl's Place

2006-12-01T05:24:00.000+11:00

Safety Girl aka Azzurra Supplee has gone all wintery at her place in Scape.

I love the sense of humour in this creation!

posted by jokay Wollongong on Scape using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Postcard from the Stage in Wasp

2006-11-30T21:00:00.000+11:00

Second Life blogging as performance art? ;-)

posted by jokay Wollongong on Wasp using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Note: Yes... I think this means I'm blogging again! ;-)

Using a cool Second Life tool called BlogHUD, I'm able to create text and pictures from within Second Life and simultaneously post it to both my BlogHUD page and my blog. Yay!

Get set for an ongoing stream of crazy places, events and people from within Second Life - I'm inspired again!

FLNW - What You're Missing!

2006-09-21T17:38:00.000+10:00

The frantic pace of the Future of Learning in a Networked World Open Space Conference.... lots of fun being had by all.

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to travel on the Taieri Gorge Railway and got to see just how beautiful New Zealand is first hand. The gorges we travelled thru and the landscape we saw was pretty amazing... as were the conversations had by the FLNW crew and many locals about a whole range of issues including virtual worlds, online network building and everything in between.

Check out Conrad's fabulous pics on Flickr to get an idea of what we saw.

Today, it was a pretty fast paced open conference session with staff members from Christchurch College of Education.

Yet again, I talked about Second Life, and was excited to meet several people interested in virtual worlds and gaming in education - including Tim Greig who talked about becoming a gaming librarian. He is also exploring Second Life and the possibilities there for library services. I'm looking forward to meeting him in-world! ;-)

Right now I'm sitting in a pretty speccy hotel room in Whangarei, getting ready for the next leg of the tour in Northlands. The fun continues... stay tuned ;-)

Day 2 in Dunedin

2006-09-19T11:24:00.000+10:00

The Future of Learning in a Networked World Unconference has kicked off with style. We just spent several hours at the Hutton Theatre of the Otago Museum talking to a bunch of educators about the work that members of the FLNW group have been up to.

I had the pleasure of presenting some info about Second Life and the work I've been doing there. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the participants join us in exploring virtual worlds.

Next stop - a bit of a tour of the teaching and learning context in the Otago province, visiting schools, unis, training units... followed by a cocktail reception at the Student Centre and a cafe crawl for dinner.

CLC - is there anybody out there?

2006-09-11T23:25:00.000+10:00

There's a bit of a discussion going on at the Connected Learning Community blog about the engagement and sustainability of the community. Thanks to both Sean and Mark for some thoughtful posting.

I for one am still hoping that we can get this Connected Learning Community thing going! Where is everybody else? (Jo peers at her very quiet feed reader!! ;-p)

Anyway, having read both sets of posts on this topic, I gotta say.... Before we go crazy setting up a zillion accounts and spaces for the CLC and creating group blogs, I think we need to remember what the original philosophy of the project was about.

From the list on the Project Launch Wikipage the words that stick out for me are Self-organising, Learner-centred & self-directed and Peer-to-peer. The goal that gets me excited is the idea of exploring and modelling the process of creating a network of learners centred around flexible PLEs built using Web 2.0 tools.

I'm concerned that if we start to create announcement lists and email based forums or organise formal synchronous sessions, we are moving away from that idea and resorting to 'Web 1.0' approaches to online community building... which is really not the point if we are looking to explore some of the ideas around networked learning and connectivism.

Maybe this is because the old ways of building online communities are easier? I'm not sure. I do know tho that my inbox is full, and my calendar pretty busy in terms of both online and offline synchronous events. I can't fit in much more email, and I can't facilitate many more events or sessions... and I recognise that many of us who are involved with the CLC are suffering from the same overload.

stuff:ED as a graph - made with Websites as a graph

My reasons for joining the CLC are about getting to know a community of people via their personalised learning environments - be it a personal blog, wiki, start page, and I want to be able to subscribe to this via some sort of RSS feed. It was not to join another mailing list - I am already a member of lots of those.

I want to be able to engage in the CLC in flexible ways - commenting and adding thoughts on community members personal blogs, responding in my own spaces, using the blogosphere to have a conversation, sharing links and resources via a simple tagging system.

Ultimately, I hope we can show that the kinds of informal networking and learning that many of us are doing with our PLEs really does work. That it can translate to a larger network of learners... that it can work as an effective delivery option for teachers and students, or another other community of practice looking to learn together.

So what should we do?

In my opinion, the key to keeping the CLC going is participation from community members. Mark, Sean or myself can all easily setup all the tools and accounts for the CLC to use, but if nobody else participates, there really is no point.

If the CLC is to be sustainable and interesting, all of us must engage in this process, or it will indeed die - about the same time as the money runs out that there's no one left to manage the zillion sites and services that nobody is responding to!

So, CLC members... I'm putting out a challenge... this is not the time for lurking!

Write something about what you did with a Web 2.0 tool this week and tag it in del.icio.us with the 'clcommunity' tag.
Create a howto on one of the tools you're already using in your PLE.
Add some useful links to the feed if you're not a blogger.
Tag a photo of an event or workshop. I'd love to check out what your up to!

Go on.... I double dare you! ;-)

Touring Second Life for the eLearning Networks Event

2006-09-07T12:15:00.000+10:00

I've posted this information to the eLearning Networks Event Forum, but thought I should also make it available on stuff:ED for other colleagues who might be interested in joining us.

I'll be holding a tour in Second Life tonight for educators - from 7pm - 8pm AEST, starting in Wasp. All welcome!
_____________________________

Getting Setup For Your Virtual Life!

Setting up for Second Life is pretty easy - but there are some key steps you'll need to take....All who are intending to join us for the live tour on Thursday will need to go through these steps.

1. Check that your computer meets System Requirements: Second Life has specific software and hardware requirements. Check the website for further information. If your computer doesn't meet these requirements, you may not be able to participate in Second Life effectively.

2. Visit the Second Life Homepage and Go to the Join Now section where you will find an online form to fill out.

3. Choose a Name for Your New Avatar: You don't need to use your real name... be creative. Choose a first name of your own creation, and a last name from a drop-down list of choices. As certain names reach a certain quota of residents,they drop off the list and new last names are added. Options currently on the list include 'Mata Hari,' 'Pluto,' 'Gallinda' and 'Jinxing'.

4. Choose from Some Basic Avatar Options: New users need to choose a basic setup for their new avatar. There are a number of male and female options on the website to choose from. (see pic.) Don't worry too much about this, as you will be able to modify and create your avatar later on.

5. Complete the Registration Form: Add the required details to the final registration form (name, password, email address etc) and submit. You're pretty much signed up now and ready to go! ;-)

6. Optional:Premium Accounts or How to Get Linden Dollars to Spend in Second Life: If you're interested in owning land or engaging in the Second Life economy, you may wish to sign up for a Premium accout. Premium account holders recieve a one-time grant of Twelve Hundred Fifty Linden Dollars (L$1250), plus a weekly allowance of L$500. However - to join our tour on Thursday night and explore the possibilities of Second Life, you do not need to spend any money - simply skip this step.

How much does it cost?Your basic Second Life account is free. A basic account will allow you to visit Second Life and meet its residents, you will have access to all the tools and events. Additional Basic accounts cost a $9.95 one-time setup fee. Premium accounts (required for owning land) start at $9.95/month and up. For more information about pricing see the Second Life website. Note all prices are in US $.

7. Download and install the Second Life client: Users need to download and install the Second Life software onto their computer. (About 25MB for Windows users and 57MB for Mac users). You must have this software installed in order to access Second Life.

8. Log in to Second Life and Start Exploring!: That's it! You're ready to start your Second Life. Launch the Second Life software and login. You will arrive on Orientation Island where you you will be able to use the resources there to familiarise with the Second Life interface.

IM Me... I'd love to meet you: Once you're in Second Life - we'd love to hear from you! To get in contact with me, you can use the Instant Message tools built into Second Life. Simply click on the Search button, and under 'people' search for jokay Wollongong. Using the Instant Message button at the botton of the People Search tab you will be able to send me direct messages.

You can also visit my virtual home in Wasp via this Slurl, which will teleport you directly to my spot.

A few notes:

For everything you need to know about Second Life check out the Second Life Wiki or the Second Life FAQ
All prices quoted above are in US$
Contact me via joannamkay@gmail.com or via Skype - username: joannamkay.