Final Session -Face to Face !!

We took off to the Botanical Gardens for our break-up session, and the students got the chance to meet each other in person.
Their last homework assignment was to think up an icebreaker and after guessing how many chocolates were in the box, and seeing how many pegs we could take off a clothes line one-handed, we had some photos taken and settled down to lunch and a discussion on learning in Second Life.




The outcome of this discussion gave us the information that students felt that the personal experience of face-to-face learning wasn't lacking in Second Life, although they eventually felt the need to meet.
Many students spoke of increased confidence in their "Real Life" and stated that they developed additional skills because of their involvement.

Comments like:
"Wish they had something like this when I was in High school"
"- they don't see you go red in the face when you get something wrong"
"You can fix everything by the click of a mouse"
and
"I feel like I can do anything electronically now - I'm not scared of going down that path"
indicate that our pilot project was hugely successful, and students were enthusiastic and keen to enroll in another course. All were impressed with their experience and delighted to meet each other.

Although initially learners struggled a bit with adapting at first they said that after they had got the hang of it their learning experience was enriched by the class environment and the experience of meeting others.



"I can work from class or home with others from around the state. WOW! Technology is awesome."

"I didn't expect the graphics ...so much better than a real classroom, casual setting,fun, stimulating and
I met new people"

We are offering 'Work Effectively with Others- Virtually Anywhere' again next year with resources now at our disposal.

Developing the learning tools was time consuming,sometimes frustrating and technology let us down down at times but we now have Second Life accessible in 4 Campuses, voice capability enabled, multiple registrations accepted with Linden Lab,
developed useful resources and successfully delivered a unit to students from all over the state.

The Powerpoint show for our Edayz presentation can be found here along with the first session plan instructions for Facebook, moodle, Skype and Second Life
http://www.box.net/tansecondlife

Final assignment and Edayz

We gave the students a list of places to choose from for their major assignment and session 5 to research locations and organize their excursions while we went off to Edayz09

Our presentation went well despite the heat. We had a packed room to present to and 5 of the students came in world to answer questions in real time. We had no problems with technology, proving that going in the evening before to run a check was definitely a good idea.
Many people approached us with questions during the lunch break and we continued to answer questions at the showcase after. Our postcards looked great!!

The students were left to their own devices for session 5 and all have posted their choice of location to the moodle as requested. As part of their assessment they must work together to organize excursions for the class. There has been lots of activity in Facebook with the learners using it to send messages and collaborate on their assignment.
This week’s session will be the last in SL, we plan to meet in town next week for a face to face session and questions.

The Research paper is underway and it will be interesting to see student’s post-test answers and compare them with the face-to-face class.

In world, the students appear confident and relaxed and manoeuvre their way around the island easily. Communication issues have settled down into accepted methods with everyone understanding the need to respond and to keep local chat to a minimum unless requested.

Despite the problems we were experienced, the learners remained interested and keen (mainly I think because we incorporate some play and exploration) they co-operate and communicate well.

Helaine and I were constantly re-evaluating our session plans to adapt to the needs of the students and we managed to stay on track with only a few re-adjustments

While setting up instructions and planning session was time consuming as problems were ironed out and overcome this became more routine and less time intensive, and with resources now in place, shouldn’t prove a problem for future classes

During the project, we found that it was best to:

• make our exercises adaptable, incorporating course work embedded into a task that helped orientate students to the world of SL
• have ‘test runs’ to sure all contingencies were anticipated and planned around
• use phones often to keep in touch with students
• have a space we had full control over, where students felt safe and welcome
• use activities to keep interest and pace going
• (concentrating on a disembodied voice can be tiring
• have more frequent shorter breaks
• ·allow students ( and facilitators) time to acclimatise to the virtual environment
• ·use a social network tool - specifically Facebook – for the students to socialise
• ·offer lots of resources via a LMS like moodle
• ·use multiple forms of communication in-world (and out)
• ·email session plans and instructions a few days prior to the session time

November

We logged on in week 4 to find the students ready and waiting for us although unfortunately two students have dropped out – one because she felt she had too heavy a workload to participate at this time, and the other because she had missed so much that it's doubtful that she will catch up.
Aside from a few glitches with voice volume (soon sorted by quick phone calls)
everyone else was present and eager to start.
The students have got the hang of communication in world and our session ran smoothly, at break time the learners all got up at the same time and did the thriller dance - they had conspired against us before we got there - effectively working with each other!

I had to practice my shocking typing skills - repeating everything Helaine said for the students that had difficulty hearing at first – an issue soon sorted by a quick phone call in the break and some volume adjustment. We sat down as a ‘proper’ class and discussed Norm’s and our major assignment.

Our trip to the women's Resource hub ran like clockwork and so did our talk about Occ Health and Safety. Some of the women have already got together via facebook and started working out locations for their excursion next week, and I've seen a few log into SL out of class hours.

Feedback from students continues to be mostly positive despite the technical hiccups. One student stated that it was irksome waiting for her partner to respond (we know the feeling) but as Helaine pointed out; this shows that working effectively with others requires patience and tolerance.
We also have problems with students responding in a timely manner and so have decided to incorporate question and answer quizzes into our session plans
It's encouraging once again to see the students interacting at their own instigation on facebook. Some strengths are emerging in different aspects of SL skills - a prime example being Urshie’s photographic skills. It's something she does a lot of in real life too and it’s interesting to see the two worlds overlap.

Having the class perform so well was a great boost and Helaine and I started our Egems conference

(Can you hear me now? - Communication matters) later that day feeling good.

You can access the archives here

http://networksevents.flexiblelearning.net.au/webx?13@427.lRsdaGTlbuU.12@.1aec4d7f

October Activities

Hi,
I’m Cathy Gauci,
Michelle is on leave and I’m blogging for her in her absence :o)

Our first ‘real’ class session seemed at the time to be fraught with problems, and while
Helaine ‘woman-ed’ the phone and dealt with red tape, I waited in-world to meet and greet the students.
We had 9 enrolled - three from Elizabeth, three from Port Adelaide, two from Noarlunga and one from Millicent. To make our project as close to a true indication of distance based learning as possible Helaine and I worked from her office and had no face-to-face contact with students making the process entirely electronic.
The moodle server was down at Port Adelaide campus, and the 'can't register more than 5 people' problem came back to haunt us. There was little we could do about the moodle but 'Jojo'
saved the day by letting two students share her avatar, giving us 5 avatars in-world (7 including myself and Helaine) and 6 students present. Unfortunately, students from TafeSouth could not join us at all. These problems were compounded by problems with Helaine's email and a slow computer and she spent most of the morning on the phone trying to iron out the glitches and co-ordinate our students.
On the SL front, the students were marvellous, they read instructions, listened intently, and were very patient with us.

Our second session was somewhat better than the first.
Luckily, everybody managed to register an avatar of their own this week although students at Port Adelaide still had Moodle issues and those from TafeSouth could not get into SL at all. We later found that this was because Second Life was still blocked in Tafe South
The learners that had attended in SL last week went off to explore Tafe Island while the newcomers checked out the classroom and got their bearings, and Helaine again dealt with phone calls and frustration before joining us in-world,
We set the disappointed Tafe Sth students to download and reading the instructions on moodle.

After a break, we did an exercise designed to show how distance in SL can affect communication and ways to overcome this. We had a bit of a glitch when one student tried to voice call another instead of IM'ing, but that was soon sorted and we once again went back to the beach to unwind with a dance and a few pictures..

In week 3 we finally had all our students in world with us - for a little while at least - but not until we had to chase up the IT dept and get access unblocked at the south campus. After being informed that we were not authorized to even request the job, Michelle stepped in and saved the day for us. We learnt not to assume that because we had things worked out at our campus that they would be elsewhere too. Our student from Millicent was trying to access SL from home but had internet issues and couldn’t stay logged in.
The students that made it for the first time caught up quickly with a little help. This leads me to believe that the extra time spent reading all the instructions is beneficial.

This week we had students attempt a modified version of the obstacle course, tasks 1-4 gave them a gift at every stop, including a scooter and a thriller dance. We used a Halloween theme and reactions were positive. There seems to still be some issues about using IM's and communicating with each other, time got away from us and we had to drop the excursion to the Women's Ed resource hub.
Apart from not completing the session, the lesson went well and the main points this week under consideration are whether to have shorter, more regular breaks and how much we can expect to accomplish.

September's Activities

September has been busy with finalising the plans for delivering the training with real learners commencing the first week of Term 4. As a group we decided to have a third trial in September rather than a team meeting, to give us a chance to put into practice what we learnt from the first and second trial. More on the trial later.

This month we have been promoting our project at every opportunity. After contacting our marketing department, Helaine and Cathy had a phone interview and we provided background information and photos. Shortly after there was an article about our project in the inDFEEST newsletter. I was also approached by staff from the Knowledge Tree E-journal http://kt.flexible.earning.net.au to make a contribution to the next edition. This entailed me logging in and providing verbal responses to a set of eight questions about VET Practitioners and E-learning. Most of my responses were informed by my experience of being involved with our project and what we have learned. Additionally, we have also been approached to present at the "Showcasing E-learning" on-line conference 4-5th November http://networks.events.flexiblelearning.net.au . Helaine and Cathy will be presenting our project on the 4th November. We will also be presenting at E-dayz which we are very excited about. Hope you come to our session!

This month we have also been continuing to finalise our evaluation framework in preparation for the delivery phase and again a big thanks to Ian for all his support. So far we have our framework for the evaluation, we have identified the areas we need to focus on, decided the methods for collecting data and now Ian is developing up the questions that we will use. There is a lot of interest in the research we will be undertaking in our project and we are excited by the prospects of being able to contribute back to the e-learning community.

Technology has continued to be challenging for various reasons but as always the issues just continue to reinforce how important it is to plan and prepare for when the technology doesn't work and to use preventative measures as well. A recent example is that Cathy's USB stick became corrupted and she thought she may have lost all of her files for the project including powerpoints, word documents and images. Fortunately she located a recovery program and was able to recover her files. This program can be found at http://www.tucows.com/preview/504783 if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, however, the learning here is to back up your files!

Cathy and Helaine have finally managed to get Helaine's voice on all of the powerpoint resources but there are still some issues with 2003/2007 office compatibility. The solution here has been to save the files in various formats including PDF so that they can be printed off for any learners who prefer a hands on approach.

Communication via technology has also continued to proved to be challenging and this has prompted Helaine and Cathy to develop a reference guide with very basic step by step instructions and hints for troubleshooting Skype, voice in Second Life, local chat and individual messaging. They have come us with the catchy name of 'Can you hear me now? - communication matters' and it has been uploaded along with all the other resources onto the project's moodle.

And now to the 3rd trial....

Having 2 trials under our belt already and a whole lot of learning it was decided that this time all the teams would log into Second Life off campus or from their desks and not be in the same room! The focus of the trial was to test the refinements and to get feedback from the team ready for the start of term. There were again some issues with voice as Helaine was having trouble with her sound card and had to change to another computer which put a bit of a spanner in the works. However, once this was resolved to a satisfactory point the trail moved on to cover:

• Communication techniques including local chat and individual messaging (IM)
• Exchanging of teleport invites
• Adjusting microphone levels
• Finding friends & groups
• Mini-map use
• Flying, sitting and standing
• Adding friends
• Personal inventory usage
• Opening boxes of clothers & putting them on
• Setting Capricorn Cove as "home" for the purpose of the course

This really represents where our learners will begin when they start with us in Term 4, this first introduction and orientation will really prepare them for engaging fully into the Second Life environment. The risk with not addressing these fully is that it will divert attention away from the actual training we want to deliver. These areas really are the basic skills for being able to communicate and interact in the Second Life environment and the are in stark contrast to the basic skills of a classroom based learner.

Overall the trial went exceptionally well, the team have given feedback that it was a productive session. Some team members really enjoyed being able to hear Helaine and Cathy but not having to speak back, but instead use local chat. Others liked the fact that this time round there was more time to sit in one place and just focus on a few key skills before attempting anything. For one team member who was at home with demanding children fighting to get their attention, it was a very real representation of what it could be like for our learners. This member found it hard to concentrate but was able to cope and this is a good indiction that we are on the right track with how we structure this first session and subsequent sessions so they are manageable under different situations the women may find themselves in.

At the end of the day it seems we have gotten both the content and pace right which is fantastic. The trials have really been beneficial.

Stay tuned for the commencement of our project with learners next week and we will try to bring you a journal entry on each session.

August's Activity

August has been a buzz of activity with a lot of the detailed work being done in preparation for the delivery of the training in October. I have drawn heavily from Cathy's blog to ensure I capture all this fantastic effort. August was also a big month for Cathy as she successfully completed her TAA qualification. Well done!

Early on in August Helaine and Cathy started mapping out the activities for the Orientation with lots of input from Susan. The idea was that Orientation would occur like a Treasure Hunt, with everyone having to complete different tasks that required the development of some basic skills needed to effectively work in Second Life. As an aside Cathy 'gave' Helaine and Susan a Pegasus so they could practise using the treasure hunt map. Susan proved to be quite the unicorn rider and managed to land on a bridge which is no mean feat!

In terms of course content so far work has progressed well and includes a plan for:

• Students logging into Moodle everytime to collect lesson plans/instructions
• A registration day - adding friends, teleporting and group photo
• Information day - OHS, course overview, learning outcomes and get to know you exercises
• Orientation day - treasure hunt, lots of photos and discussions on selecting a major project
• Quizzes, group outings and role plays on OHS and staying safe in Second Life
• Excursion to Ohio Uni's Women's Education resource library
• Excursion day - going on the trips each student planned as their major project
• Feedback and break up party
  

In preparation for the second Trial in August Jenine lent a hand with posting all the instructions onto the Moodle. Cathy's partner Rich, set to work and 'built' a lounge and chairs in our beautiful Island beach classroom and Helaine sent out a message to all the team to be registered, posted on Moodle and be ready to go at 10am sharp!

And so we began....

This time Helaine, Cathy and the team were all in separate rooms and this helped maked it seem more real. We all teleported to 'home' and took our seat on the 'lounge'. This proved to be a bit of a giggle as some just couldn't get their Avatar to sit and one found their Avatar sitting right 'in' the lounge with legs semi buried. The biggest annoyance for us all was that despite having our headsets all working, there was problems with feedback and echoing which made it impossible. Initially we tried to recify the problem but with little success. We did find out later that there was a broader issue with voice across the Asia Pacific region, which again just demonstrates that there is always a risks with technology and some things we have no control over.

In the end Helaine was the only person who was 'allowed' to use voice and the rest of us 'students' commuincated using local chat and instant messaging. This was semi successful because with Helaine and Cathy not in the physical room we just talked to each other instead of using the tools! As a result of this more time will be given to teaching the real students how to use local chat and instant messaging during the actual delivery because it does require a degree of confidence and skill to make it work effectively.

Helaine invited each Avatar to introduce themselves to the group and tell them why they chose their Avatar's name. This proved a bit time consuming because we had to type our answers and not everyone is a touch typist. Also, people waited until the person before then had finished before starting to type their own answer.

Soon enough we broke up into pairs and headed off down the beach to start the treasure hunt. Poor Helaine and Cathy, there were Avatars in all directions. I think I have said it before educators are not good students. Poor Cathy had to give chase down the beach to catch one lost soul.

At each checkpoint we found 'note cards' that gave instructions on what to do and how to do it. Some of us found this easy, some did not. One of the problems is working out who does what in your pair and collecting the tools as you go. I missed collecting a very important piece of equipment, the actual treasure map with all the locations of the checkpoints. My mother always told me to follow my nose when I was a young girl, so I hung onto that little chestnut and did OK. At one point my partner and I got completely lost, (see the photo at the top of this post) but hey we were having fun.

Eventually we all made it to checkpoint three and at that point we decided to call our treasure hunt to an end. We ajourned to lunch for a debrief and the general consensus was:

• Everyone needs to know how to use various forms of communication
• Note cards are a great tool but the content needs careful consideration as it can be overwhelming
• The treasure hunt was great fun but it could be simplified and still get the results we are looking for
• There is alot of learning that can be done as a whole group rather than in pairs which would help speed things up and keep people focused
• It is good to have an orientation that people can go to in between scheduled group times and they can work through it at their own pace as much as they want

An important thing we all noticed is that there is so much happening on the computer screen when you are in Second Life. It can be distracting and a bit of sensory overload at the same time. It is important that we help the students to choose what to keep on their screens and what they can hide/reduce.

Overall the second trial provided us with more valuable information and is again shaping our thinking. Helaine and Cathy continue to modify the 'classroom' and the resources in Second Life and on the Moodle. Little things like using 'pose balls' to help people sit down and face the front without problems help to make sure our learners are not sidetracked unnecessarily.

We have a third trial planned for the 25th September and this time we will all be in different locations and suburbs. Should be fun! Tune in again to find out what happens......

July Activity

From L to R Susan, Cathy, Michelle, Rianna, Karen, Janette and Helen at the 1st Trial.

Helaine, our Project Facilitator, leading us in Second Life. The team in the background.

In July we conducted our first Trial to test our induction and orientation materials. We met in the Women's Ed IT suite at Elizabeth campus during the holidays and cracked the packaging on the headsets. We shared the room with an electrician who was also working on the lighting and at times Helaine our Project Facilitator had to compete with an electric drill!

To start with the headsets didn't work and we all found out that there is more to making them work than just trying to turn up the volume. Luckily our Learner Rep Cathy knew exactly what to do and stepped us through the process, which has now been turned into a electronic guide for the learners. This was a bit like hearding cats though as she tried to get everyone to pay attention so she only had to do this once. Sorry Cathy, educators make the worst students!

Next step was registering in Moodle and locating the Second Life group. Helaine had put a digital welcome on the Moodle which gave the heads up on what to expect, where to find the resources and step by step instructions via a powerpoint 'how to'. The first task was to set up and register to use Skype. This turned out to be much harder than it should have been as Skype was having a bad day. It took ages to load then when it did we couldn't register and use it as it kept dropping out and telling us to try again. So much for our backup communication system if voice doesn't work in Second Life! Oh well we moved on.

Finally we were up to registering in Second Life and for some of us this was a slow process as we cautiously followed the powerpoint, switching between screens to make sure we did everything right. Others who are IT savvy, fearless or were already registered and had an Avatar flew on ahead. It was at this point we hit a major hurdle, we had reached 5 registrations under the TAFE IP address, and some of us got a message telling us we couldn't proceed with our registration. So that meant there were some with an Avatar and then there were the rest of us that could go no further.

Well not to be deterred we got on the phone and tried everyone we could think of to get some advice on what others in the same situation had done. Message banks all round!!! Everyone was on holidays. IT couldn't help us with this one because we needed Second Life to tell us what was really wrong and that wasn't going to happen there and then. So we moved on regardless with what we had and in my case Cathy let me use her Avatar as I am a real live example of someone for whom Second Life is completely foreign and therefore a good test dummy.

Next thing for us to do was to all meet at Cathy's Island for our Second Life welcome. Unfortunately this is where the mob went quite wild, the worst was me I think. There are lots of buttons, lots of options, things to see, the ability to fly and much much more in Second Life. So getting everyone to listen and follow the welcome was again a bit like herding cats, nearly impossible. I found the gesture drop down box and had a lovely time clicking on all the different types of gestures one's Avatar can make. I laughed and giggled away as my Avatar did a jig, waved, blew kisses and then unbeknown to me sang a rather rude song. Cathy's Avatar is quite an advanced young women with lots of customised gestures. As my headset wasn't working properly I didn't realise that my Avatar was making a lot of rude sounds and saying rude things! The text box doesn't quite do the whole gestures thing justice. Once Cathy got my headset sound right and I heard some of them I stopped straight away.....I promise.

We then were introduced by Helaine to the TV screens in our meeting place which explained to us how to invite each other to be friends and then start interacting. There was lots of 'talking' and we all tried to help one of us who couldn't quite work out how to walk to the group and face the screens. We all got there in the end and the trial really helped us to understand what it will be like to be a learner in Second Life. We are all looking forward to the second trial on August 28th.

We are actually thinking that our orientation and induction process might actually be a good 'module' and that as a side product we could later, run some peer training with other educators who want to start working with Moodle, Skype and Second Life.

We all learnt quite a lot from the trial including how important it is to have a back up plan for when the technology fails. Because our class itself exists within the technology, when the technology goes on the blink we can't communicte with our class to say OK lets switch to another print based activity or run an impromptu class activity. We have to plan and think ahead and communicate to the learners what needs to happen when the technology fails.

One of the frustrations for the project has been gaining access to the TAFESA Island. The increased used of the TAFESA Island has resulted in a management committee being established. This has slowed things right down and despite the intent to give each of the three TAFE Institutes equal access on the Island the reality is it has gotten caught up in a bit of red tape. As we needed a space immediately so that Helaine and Cathy could set up the resources and equipment in Second Life ready for the Trial we had to make other arrangements. Fortunately for us Cathy has a partner in Second Life and together they have their own Island which they have allowed us to use for the project. This enables us to tell our learners where to teleport in, to have a secure space that cannot just be accessed by anyone and provides us with excellent physical facilities within a beautiful environment. We can also leave our resources there without fear that they will be moved or removed. Our trial could never have occured without this fantastic support and we are so grateful.

Tune in again later in August to find out how our trial goes and to see our Avatars.