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.