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.