Visit Rime of the Ancient Mariner!

Need something fun to do today? Head over to Literature Alive's Rime of the Ancient Mariner build at Drexel Island!

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Drexel/189/35/24

Literature Alive! and the Conference Circuit

Working on the builds for Literature Alive! is only half of the work Eloise and I do in Second Life. Eloise has her own thriving business as a goddess scripter/builder and RL educator, and, of course, I have my own RL educator work at Hotchkiss. On the side, I do a lot of presentations, workshops, and faculty development projects including trainings, conferences, and workshops.

Conferences are energizing, and I truly love participating in them. Of the conferences I love most, NMC's conferences top the list. They really select top speakers/presenters, and I always learn the newest and most cutting edge stuff. Their energy is amazing, and Larry Pixel (RL Larry Johnson) and CDB Barkley (RL Alan Levine) and really great guys.

The NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning opened today, and I am presenting on Google in Second Life on Thursday. If you have teh chance, PLEASE go register! It is well worth the money spent, and it is all online, so you can stay in your jammies!

If you don't have spare cash, check out the Best Practices in Education conference happening this weekend in Second Life. The schedule was a bit hard to find, but here it is.

So, to see if anyone actually reads this blog; what do you think of Desi with short hair? T'is a little poll ;p

Rime of the Ancient Mariner, or The Albatross Returns

Now that House of Usher is done, we are moving on over to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner build. I love Samuel Taylor Coleridge's wicked sense of doom and gloom. We have all felt the weight of that albatross from time to time.

In my renaissance, I have been connecting with old friends in SL. Many of them are wearing the weight of those virtual albatrosses (albatrossi?). As budgets get cut, monies for virtual education are slim to none, and it gets hard to make a case for supporting virtual worlds when supporting the real world is hard enough. It is challenging to see value when the fog is thick and the seamates are dropping like flies all around you; it is easier to just to jump ship and swim to a safe shore where the birds are cute and don't smell like dead penguins.

However, there is hope. There is ground under that fog; there is light. The Mariner came back to tell his story. There was no dead yucky bird grossing out the bridal party; no - he lived to tell the tale.

We are all in a storm right now. But, there is hope, and we have a tale to tell. Our students need us to be creative all of the time. If we give up during the worst of times, our hope for the best of times is slighted. We need science folks to keep thinking about ways to cure the ills of the world; we need engineers to think up better and stronger bridges; we need people to find better and useful ways to communicate. It is only through the storms that we generate the best tales.

The Virtual Edgar Allan Poe Classroom ReBorn!

Eloise and I worked all day and night on recreating the Edgar Allan Poe Classroom (AKA "The House of Usher Classroom). Eloise whipped up a snappy drawbridge, and you can read or listen to several Poe texts before "trying" to gain entry to the House to find text-related artifacts. Stop in at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Drexel/200/25/24

Near the Poe Classroom, you will find a brief little exhibit called "Virtual Rhetoric." Complete with tank, the lesson address visual rhetoric in virtual worlds. Stop by at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Drexel/178/52/24

MANY MANY MANY thanks to Jean-Claude Bradley at Drexel for providing land sponsorship to Literature Alive!!!

The Heroic Journey

Among the builds that Literature Alive! still operates, the Archetypal Cave is among the list of the living. Visitors can learn about archetypal literary theory and the quest of the hero. In a classroom, it is an engaging and interactive lab full of hunts and student-created content. Alone, however, it is a pretty dish with stale candy....pretty to look at, but a little dusty.

In Second Life, this seems to be the norm. There are lots of pretty dishes. There are lots of fabulous places that are chalk full of content but are empty, abandoned, and, well, virtually dusty. Even my most favorite builds are empty when I take people to visit them...they have, somehow, lost their magic, their wonder, their passion...

Right now, Eloise and I are finishing a how-to chapter on building a viable workspace. This comes at a time when we have lost more than 50% of our donated land because the owners have given up. What can I possibly tell businesses about Second Life when we are holding on to Literature Alive! by a simple thread? Should we pack it in? The thought has occurred to me on more than a few occasions.

But then I think about those wandering avatars. The ones that get tired of the hair of the week hunts and lucky chairs and type "Poe" into the search box. They will find the Literature Alive! Edgar Allan Poe House of Usher plot hosted by AJ Kelton and Montclair State University. Or, if they type "literature" they will find the Literature Alive! group that was formed for 3 people and now is home to a few hundred. They can find Dante's Inferno in a simple search and learn about Italian and literary history. These are the reasons why packing it in is not an option. As a teaching professor, the mission was always to get students to love literature. The goal wasn't to be the most popular professor, but to be the professor that sparked interest and cultivated a little flame

The virtual dream was the same. I started Literature Alive! alone as an alternative to the crappy content that can be found in SL. Literature Alive! would have died without the scripting genius of Eloise Pasteur, and since she came on board, we have celebrated all sorts of successes for over 2 years now. The students that have gone through, most notably Daliah Carter, have become proficient communicators. Daliah is such a success story...an adult learner gone from sewing factory worker to newspaper editor. She never planned to be a writer., but Second Life gave her a chance to write publicly. It is for the the Daliahs of the world that we need to keep on track.

That said, we do need some fresh air; we to open the windows in our virtual world and kick out the rugs. Once the light cracks through the dust, we can see what it is that makes us love virtual worlds. Eloise and I have been kicking up the rugs, and underneath the dust, we are finding the gems that have made us strong. The content, the builds, and the documentation have all been strong since the first prim was raised in the name of Literature Alive! While things might be dusty, the is solid. There is no structural damage. There has been no weathering.

Jean-Claude Bradley (SL Horace Moody) is donating some of the land at Drexel Island to Literature Alive! In real life, Jean-Claude is one of the most inspirational people I know, but he has now become that open window of fresh air for my virtual life. Literature Alive! is organic, much like the chemistry he teaches, and it relies on constant care, examination, and experimentation. Alone, the structures are just molecules, but adding the chemistry of intellect and passion will be the air that is much needed for us to stay successful in SL. What makes SL the tool of choice is its ability to connect people together - the collaboration of many for the sole purpose of educating others.

OK, so we have let ourselves get dusty. There are always Pledge and Old English. We need to grab our rags and polish and get to work. It is time for Spring Cleaning!

Where Have I Been???

Lordie! It seems that I have been away from this blog FOREVER, and then I checked the date, and, d'oh! - t'is true!

Life, as is usually does, got in the way of composing witty posts for all y'all. Most specifically, my mother's terminal illness raised its bar on Christmas Day, and it has been an all consuming journey. She is stable for the moment, and I can breathe once again.

Sooo....I'm back!

My Second Life is a little smaller now, as I have packed up a number of our builds. Sadly, the economy is hurting everyone, and my generous donors are giving up property left and right. One day, Literature Alive! might have its own island to call home, but, for now, all of the builds are available on request with a few stable properties left standing. It is sad to watch SL shrinking. It is a great tool for educational collaboration, and I hope that, one day, the powers that now rule LL will see the educational value of programs like Literature Alive! - the ones that serve the community as a whole and not a specific college or university. But, then again, they are a business, and money is usually the bottom line, so I guess we will just keep on trucking with what we have out there.

It feels good to be back :-)

A Card from the Boys

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Support Joel Tenenbaum

Please join me in supporting Charlie Nesson (Harvard) in spreading the word about supporting Joel Tenenbaum. Joel is being charged with pirating 7 songs using Kazaa in 2004. He could have to pay a million bucks for those 7 songs. I urge you to gaze at your iPod and count how many songs you might have to pay for if you were in his shoes.

There is a Facebook group to join, but also BLOG about the issue! Twitter it! Spin it off into the viral world. This poor guy is standing where any one of could be...let's STAND UP FOR HIM!

Award Winning

T'is the Season to win awards. MANY congrats to Drexel Island for winning a nomination for the EduBlog Awards! I would like to hope that Literature Alive!'s Women and War Classroom helped, but, truly, it is likely that Jean-Claude Bradley's amazing work with chemistry is the culprit! To vote for them, go to EduBlog Awards voting.

I always wondered how these voting things work. I didn't get to vote for the Webby Awards, and I didn't even know that the EduBlog Awards were happening. I always think those things are stacked anyway. The same bloggers (the "A" List) win every year, and yet the people who I always think should win (Vicki Davis/Kathy Shrock/Larry Ferlazzo) do not. And, of course, I never voted because I had no idea there was voting going on. So, the blogosphere is a bit like High School. The popular kids are very popular amongst themselves, and the other kids, the ones that really make a difference, get little recognition. The prom queen is someone made only of legend and taffetta. Not that I think the winners aren't deserving, and there are surprises every once in a while (YAY DREXEL!). But, I have vowed to vote for these things from now on.

Mashable, by far my favorite blog ever, is promoting the Open Web Awards. They have all sort of nifty skippy categories, and you can have a voice in who gets picked.

I am not a campainer, but I will champion this one cause: VOTE FOR DIIGO! Diigo is the best social book marking system out there. It is easy to use, and, honest to Pete, I get so many great resources from there! SO VOTE.

Choices

I caught this TED talk by Barry Schwartz on the "Paradox of Choice." Fascinating. Although created in 2005, I believe the content is still important (and, I am holding out for the Creme Brulee torch!). We have so may choices, and the paralysis of choice is very true.

Here is his advice: "The secret to happiness is low expectations." and "We all need a fish bowl."

He is a great speaker:

The Book Club

I needed to feed my brain. It was starting to dry rot. Well, maybe it was always a bit touched with soggy wood, but I felt the need to read something other than a blog.

The beauty of New England (besides the leaves in fall) is that everyone belongs to at least one book club. I joined the one for female faculty at Hotchkiss, and I was so excited and motivated at the first meeting.

Instead of the traditional format, this month they did a "share" session where you bring in books you have recently read and loved and share them. At the end, you toss them into a circle and pick out a few to take along to read.

I selected three books, and have started the first one: La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl by David Huddle. So far, the book is an excellent read (even though I HATE the main character, Suzanne). But, truly, to get me to hate a character so well is a gift of genius. The opening story about Suzanne on the school bus sets the tone for her character, and I dislike her already. If La Tour is indeed an "old fart,"Suzanne is his modern prodigy (an old "fartress"?).

For our next meeting, we are all reading Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Ms. Brooks spoke at Hotchkiss earlier this term, and I am eager to read another book by her.

People have asked if I have given up on Second Life. The answer is no. I am not teaching right now, and so I am using my free time to explore some other things, but I will be back again once I am teaching. Plus, my best friends are in SL (Eloise and Dal), so I will be back very soon.

Is Blogging Dead?

I just read a fascinating article over at the Economist about the "death" of blogging. My knee jerk reaction was that, NO! BLOGGING IS ALIVE!

Is it?

True Confessions of a Social Media Slacker!

Lordy...I updated my MySpace page today. Jeebus; the pics were like 2 years old! Then I got a Plurk thingy that said I had to update my Plurk. And, I hadn't been there for a majillion moons! I Twitter every time I Diigo, so that seems like I am on 40000 times a day, but, well, not so much. There seems so much to keep track of out there!

I took a break from SL for a bit. Since I am not teaching this semester, there isn't an urgency to be there, so I tried out some other things. I start coaching diving next week, so I may still be a little scarce until I start teaching in January.

In any case, I thought that I should "try" to be more useful to the online community and post useful things here again. So....

My presentation for NMC is located here. The cool A-Z tools wiki is here. But, to make life a wee bit easier - here is the list!

A = Amazee, Animoto, A.viary and AwesomeHighlighter

B = Broth and BlockPosters and Brush Video

C = CoSketch and Campfire

D = Discipline Specific Tools and Diigo

E = Encyclopedia of Educational Technology and EgoBoxes

F = FURL

G = Google Suite and Group Table and Go2Web2.0 Directory

H = Huddle and Hulu

I = Indezine

J = Joodo

K = KEEP Toolkit and Kwout

L = LectureFox

M = Mixbook and Merlot

N = Ning

O = OneTrueMedia

P = Penzu, Project Gutenberg and Preezo and Picitup

Q = Qlubb and Qollage

R = RTM, Rememble and Review Basics

S = Slideshare and SpringNote and SlideRocket and Storytlr and scrnshots and Scrapblog

T = Technology Dictionary and Teacher Training Videos and Teacher Tube and TimeRime

U = Udutu

V = VoiceThread

W = Wikispaces and WeGameand Web2Rights

X = Xtimeline

Y = YouTube and Yudu

Z = Zotero

A New Day Has Arrived

My children will never know what it was like to only have rich white men in the highest office in the US. This is a good thing. I hope, in my life time, that the words "Madam President" will also be a reality.

No matter what side we were on last night, today we must all work together. This was the message that both McCain and Obama stressed in their speeches (and, why, oh WHY, couldn't ALL of the speeches have been that good???). As a member of neither of the two major parties, I watched with interest as the polidoofi (my term, not theirs) talked little about issues and more about the costs of dresses and someone's great aunt Annie. But, all that is behind us...today is a new day.

Working together is never easy, but working apart is so much harder.

Today, I had the excellent fortune to present at NMC's Fall 2008 Virtual Symposium. The number of new faces was refreshing. NMC does an amzing job of getting new people hooked into the newest technologies.

So, today, educators started our day together...finding ways to teach and learn together. And, outside of the conference, others spent their new day doing the same.

Scientists like Jean-Claude Bradley are finding ways to do research together - breaking down the barriers of patents and antiquated publishing methods. Teachers like Eloise Pasteur are technology to help learning disabled students harness intellectual freedom. Lawyers like Charlie Nesson are challenging the music industry to stop abusing their power. There is a lot more sharing and less competition...and this is an amazing time to live.

But, we still have work to do. 52% of Californians voted down the right of marriage equity. My concern here isn't the number or even the final vote, but that there are literally two nearly even sides of that issue in CA and both sides need to listen to the other. Where can they find compromise? Where can they talk without feeling bashed (and, truly, I mean that for either side)? There seems to be a need for a discussion - not just name calling and veiled threats?

We have lost the art of conversation. Whilst the computer might be part of the demise, I suspect it has a lot more to do with not wanting to anger anyone...or not wanting to "cause a problem."

Teaching Naked requires one to think about life as both being dressed and being open. It is very easy to try new clothes on all the time...it is easy to buy a new outfit when things get rough or go south...it is easiest to layer up the clothes so that the layers can peel off easily in any situation. It is much harder to teach naked...everyone sees all of your everything every minute of every day. But, it is real, and they can expect it always to be real even sometimes imperfect.

I hope that President-Elect Obama will "Govern Naked" as much as he can without selling our national soul; I hope that Charlie Nesson will continue to work toward changing our outdated copyright system; I hope that we will all try to work together to save our planet, our children, and our future. This is a GREAT new day...let change begin with me.

(side note...here is a clip someone took of me and put on YouTube):

Catching up!

I can now see. Really. Had the second cataract removed on Thursday (yes, yes, I am too young, but tell that to the eyes). Since I can't really see, I am not going to type much, but, rather, leave you with a great artist to listen to :-)

That John Denver Song

Many thanks to the anonymous poster who sent me a link to this:

Good Gravy! The Blog is Back!

As I have settled in to my new life, I have really let posting fall by the side of the info super highway. It has been like TWO MONTHS! Does anyone still subscribe?

Fear not faithful readers (if there are, indeed, any of you left), I am back!

Life in Lakeville, CT is MUCH MUCH different than in PA. For one, the scenery is simply incredible here. Our house overlooks the golf course and distant mountains. The clouds are spectacular here; it is almost as if they are closer to the ground than the ones in PA. Maybe they are smore swirly or swishy - I donno - they are just cooler.

We are adjusting to life at Hotchkiss, and I am daily amazed by the talent of the students and teachers. In one week, we heard a GREAT lecture about historical travels to Antarctica in preparation for a school trip to the Antarctic donated by Mr. Forrest Mars (think M and Ms); the faculty met with Sir Michael Barber, formerly of the Tony Blair administration, on change in education; listened to the unique music performed by Alturas Duo; perused paintings by artist Steven Romm, and, oh, did I mention that we had the honor of meeting and listening to a lecture by President Enkhbayar of Mongolia? Imagine - this was just ONE WEEK.

I am incredibly impressed with the faculty here; they are talented, engaging, smart, opinionated, diverse, and resourceful. They don't follow one another blindly; they carefully consider opinions, positions, and, truly, discuss matters. Previously, I would have winced at the conversation about the VP candidates in the hallway near my office; after this one, I was actually excited to hear everyone's take on it.

Who knew that there could even be a group of such diverse people that can laugh and debate and still trust each other at the end of the day? Amazing. I am blessed to be surrounded by such great and inspiring people!

The students are equally diverse, but also equally passionate. There is no apathy here; they are engaged. This stems from having great teachers (ones that want more than spitting back MLA formatting). But, it also illustrates the culture fostered in an awesome place like this.

It is great fun to play board games with the boys on my floor, but we also have great conversations about sports and politics, too. They are informed, and make strong arguments to support their positions. We just won our home football game (really, like 5 minutes ago), and the kids are in the hall having fun, laughing, and just being teenagers. It is a great place to be.

The Whirlwind

Picture: Mustache Man takes a break from being a cowboy...

Patient blog readers! Methinks you need a raise. I have not posted in a long while, as I have been moving and starting life in a new state.

Our move to Connecticut was fairly smooth. While a fair amount of china was crushed, all of the humans, pets, and fish have arrived safely.

New Faculty Orientation started Sunday evening, and, dare I say, I am actually enjoying it. Hotchkiss is an amazing place for a number of reasons, but it is most refreshing to be surrounded by bright and engaged faculty members. They do not agree on everything, but they celebrate diversity of thought, and it is simply a rich intellectual environment.
Picture: Sharpie Boy takes a break from drawing number and letter machines (um, Talking Word Factory thingers).

Training lasts from sunrise to sunset, so I am generally too tired to do anything else, but I am up early today because my Dad is having surgery on his stomache cancer. So, the worrier in me is up with him (though the distance is hard at a time like this). If you are of the praying sort, his name is Paul Ritter, Jr., and I appreciate any prayers you can send his way.





The kids are adjusting fairly well. Julian cried every single day last week, but is getting a bit better this week. DD is finally meeting some of the other kids around here, and is loving his newest Star Wars addiction.

The Boss starts EMT training tomorrow night. He is happy to get off campus :-)

I am happy but truly exhausted; I am looking forward to some kick back time in SL!

Favorite Diving YouTube Videos

Here are some of my favorite diving videos from YouTube (yes, yes, I should be packing).

Highlights from Athens (and a welcome for sync diving! WOOOOOT!):



2004 men's 3M Diving

The Olympics Vs Packing

As much as I NEED to be packing the kitchen, I am sitting on my butt watching the Olympics.

The sport I am most interested in is Diving, but I also wanted to catch swimming, fencing, and archery. When I got my certification to teach archery, my instructor was a retired Olympic coach.

Anywho.

Here is my recap...although I TOTALLY recommend NBC's website.

The opening ceremonies were GORGEOUS! Many kudos to Beijing for putting together the BEST opening I have ever seen. I get very emotional during the parade of nations, but usually calm down during the speeches and the lighting of the torch. But, this time, I had Kleenex by my side for the whole thing, and I needed almost a whole box for the torch lighting. I know it is dorky, but I always think about those athletes from small countries like Sierra Leone. And I think about those countries that are allowing female athletes for the first time. And, I think about those countries that have just ONE athlete...imagine how proud that person's mother must be! Even as a kid, I always rooted for the Moms!

I am just incredibly touched by the idea that there are these athletes that have beat the odds of poverty and are now standing in the center field surrounded by the most incredible fireworks display EVER. Even though we know those folks have no shot at a medal, still they stand proud representing the thousands of people who can not even watch them on TV. Ack. Where are the tissues!

Of course, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Mike Phelps (US Swimmer), and I love his Mom. In Athens, I cried as his Mom watched the race. And, of course, I cried this time because not only did Mike set a new world record and capture the gold, but he couldn't find his Mom in the crowd. The kid has a bajillion things going through his mind, and he wanted to find his Mom!!! If you missed the race, here is NBC's video of it!

I watched fencing with great interest, and was rooting for Sada Jacobson. But, I was happy to see Mariel Zagunis win the gold. Mariel was the first US woman to win the gold and she defended her medal well.

Sadly, I missed most of archery. I caught a piece of it live, but the coverage wasn't all that great (hint: focus the camera on the ARCHER and then the TARGET).

I did catch the gold medal ceremony for Judo, as I was proud as pie of the Romanian athlete, Alina Dumitru. She came out of the blue, wasn't the favorite, and won the gold. When they raised her flag, she cried, and I cried, too.

Okay...the dishes won't pack themselves. I am off to an Olympic sprint in the kitchen!