My Other Me
Second Life is a virtual world. You download the software to your lap top and then you can enter this world. When you do, your avatar represents you. An avatar is a digital representation of yourself. When you select this avatar you have to give it a name. I named my avatar Mazarine Rhode. I have just spent an hour or so changing Mazarine’s look from this:
to this:
Of course she looks nothing like me (I have blonde hair and wear red glasses!) but that’s part of the fun of it. You can change all sorts of details of your avatar - the size and shape of any body part, how far or narrow set the eyes are, skin colour, freckles, height, weight etc. I must prefer Mazarine’s new look! I hadn’t spent much time playing around with appearance until now. Now I’m ready to party!
A few weeks ago I went into Second Life with a few other teachers from the OZ/NZ Educators network. It was a session for newbies like me. We spent the time on the island of Jokaydia. I took a quick video so you can see a very little bit of what Second Life looks like - in an art gallery! I recorded this with SMART Recorder and the quality isn’t great, but it will give you a bit of an idea if you are interested!
I never thought I’d be really interested in this sort of thing. I’m not into computer games at all, and so I didn’t think I’d like it. But, it’s great fun, and there is heaps of potential for education and business! People are making real money in Second Life doing all sorts of things. Lots of conferences on all themes are held in Second Life. Just search ’second life conferences’ in Google and there will be a whole bunch listed.
I am hoping to spend some more time in SL and start thinking about using virtual worlds for language learning. I’m a member of the Second Classroom Ning, a social network for educators interested in students using virtual worlds. I’ll keep you updated…
Oz NZ Educators Live Blogging Meeting
The ePlanks Podcast - on a cyberwave near you!
This is a cross-post with technoLOTE
The ePlanks podcast is up and running! We have 4 episodes all ready to go for your listening pleasure. ePlanks is a project that I am working on with Anne Mirtschin. We are trying to lay the ePlanks of the virtual classroom and a Web 2.0 school. We’ve been a bit busy lately with my little iPod and it’s voice recorder -which has become my favourite piece of technology lately!
Episode 1 - We talk to Virginia as she begins her journey as a blogger. We ask her what she thinks of the whole Web 2.0 thing. She’s feeling a bit left behind, but that’s ok - never fear, Jess and Anne are here!
Episode 2 - We found Sandy Phillips from the Victorian Department of Education’s Education Channel and so we sat her down and asked her how Global Teacher got started, which is the blogging campus we have set up many of our students and teachers with for their blogs.
Episode 3 - We (myself, Anne and our greatly treasured librarian, Faye) had a little chat amongst ourselves in the car about blogging as we drove back to Hawkesdale from Melbourne. 
We chatted about how we started, some fears and just jumping in and trying it.
Episode 4 - As part of our ePlanks project, Anne and I decided to go and visit Coburg Senior High School, who are not just talking the talk of a 21st century school, but also walking the walk. You will have to listen in for more details of this pretty amazing school.
We are planning many more episodes for ePlanks, so keep an ear open - we are on the cyberwaves!
Click on the player here to listen to our episodes, go straight to our podomatic site, or you can subscribe through iTunes.
Testing Windows Live Writer
I’ve just downloaded Windows Live Writer, so I thought I’d test it out here. I really should be heading to bed - it’s very late! I’m heading off to see Will Richardson speak tomorrow, and very much looking forward to it of course. I’m also going to meet a couple of people from my PLN in person.
Sitting Wherever She Likes
This afternoon as I sat playing around on my laptop my cat, Angel, came to let me know that I was not paying enough attention to her. In order to do this she sat on my lap despite the fact it was already taken up with my laptop. She cared not about this and simply settled herself in. She then proceeded to fall asleep with her head resting on my hand. I managed as best as I could for a while, but then had to gently remove her. I then got up and took her outside for a while. We’ve just moved house and so she was getting used to her new backyard. Angel is here with me now as I am snuggled up in bed early on a Saturday night. She’s having a lovely sleep right next to me. Oh, to be a cat.