Librarians are Hiding Something

Ok, I’m not hiding something but it feels like I might have been hiding. It’s been a while, but I have been very busy. Not a lot to share today. I’m gearing up to do a virtual reference pilot in Second Life. It should be interesting. As much potential as there may be in SL, until our students our there, we are only helping the SL community (which isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re under staffed, one needs to consider priorities). I recently gave a lecture on learning (my first time guest lecturing – lots of fun) to a first year multimedia class, some of the students seemed interested. It would be interesting to know if any come visit our space on account of that class.

Have you checked out Scribd? It looks interesting. All the web 2.0 social software for your documents. I’m not sure I want people tagging and commenting on my work just yet. I’ve been using Google Docs for collaboration recently and I think I’ll stick with that for now.

And in case you haven’t heard already, the title of this post is courtesy of Stephen Colbert.

Active learning 2.0?

Well, it’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy with company and projects keep popping up. I hope to report more on the projects a little later.

I had a neat experience in Second Life the other day. I was attending a real world contest that was being simultaneously broadcast in SL. Unfortunately, I had to leave it for a moment but when I returned, I discovered that while the conference was proceeding, a second discussion on open access had arisen among those present (including some who were both at the rl conference and the sl environment). Active learning and discussion were taking place in sl rather than the conference! It was a really neat experience and highlighted some interesting potential for sl. Whether everyone could handle the two discussions at the same time is an entirely different question.

Well, I am behind in my learning 2.0 activities and hope to catch up over the weekend, so I may have more to share on that front later.

Web3D

Yes, I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, Second Life is the beginning. But the beginning of what? A new 3D social network? A new 3D internet? A new virtual world? A new way of teaching, learning, or collaborating? The beginning of web 3.0? All of these? Well, there have been some interesting posts on Web3D and why they think it’s the next step. Check out Vicki Davis’ post on Cool Cat Teacher (scroll down to the entry The Frontier of Education: Web3D) and a response at Sean’s Emerging… Definitely food for thought.

I think the important point is that our students are comfortable in this type of environment and that 3D environments will help allow students to collaborate, explore and learn in ways that are more appropriate to them.

We’re Moving!

Just a heads up – the Mac building in Second Life is on the move. In a move that reflects my own moving habits, we’ve just moved down the street. I’ll have the new SLURL posted as soon as the building is back on the ground (it’s hovering in the air right now). Sorry for any inconvience.

A Third Life?

I’ve often mentioned that Second Life will not necessarily be the end all and be all of virtual worlds, that something will likely replace it. What this next step will be, I’m not exactly sure. Second Life certainly has some problems to overcome at this point. The exciting thing about being part of Second Life at this point is that we can help shape what will happen next, whether it’s Second Life 2.0 or something else entirely. Check out this blog post from Infocult which surmises what the next step might be.

I Survived!

Yes, I have survived 3 straight days of statistics! I think I deserve a badge of honour. The Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians was actually quite good. The small size allowed for lots of conversation and connections. As I’ve often said, the informal discussion is often some of the most enlightening parts of any conference. I like to find out what others are up to and how they’re approaching similar problems. As it turns out, I knew more than I thought about statistics. Sometimes you just need to be reassured that you are indeed on the right track.

Now it’s time to start my first 2 week research leave. I’m quite excited about the chance to concentrate on research again – it’s been a while. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this leave will be devoted to some work on Second Life. I’ll let you know if anything comes out of it!

Let the Blogging Begin!

We are in week two of our Learning 2.0 and participants are being introduced to and creating their own blogs. People are really quite excited by this program and it will be interesting to read their blogs.

On another note, I’m frantically trying to put the final touches on a presentation I’m giving tomorrow – Learning in a New World: Social Networks and Second Life (I’ll link to the slides once they’re up). The presentation is for the McMaster Learning Commons Partners’ Learning on Learning Forum. It’s been interesting research and I’m hoping all goes well. Then, in an attempt to pretend to be a jet-setter, almost as soon as I’m done the presentation, I jump on a plane and head out to Edmonton for the Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy. More on that when I return!