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=Welcome to the SL IDD group for Dr. Dempsey's Trends and Issues class. =

** Second Life Experiences ** Second Life (SL) is an exciting new virtual world technology that has great potential for educators. Our session topics will follow the course's weekly topics closely (see your class schedule for these). Each session will consist of two parts—(1) an inworld meeting and (2) Reflective posts on our SL Trends class wiki about your thoughts and experience. Of the fourteen weeks, you must participate in a minimum of eight units.

1- Inworld meeting

Each week we will visit an area inworld (in Second Life) corresponding to the scheduled topic for that given week. Information about the assignment will be posted in each unit. This will include days and times as well as “seed questions" to get you thinking about your inworld experience and provide focus for "field notes" while touring the locations.

We will always start out from the College’s Jaguarland Island. If you have downloaded the Second Life client on your computer, y ou can just post the following address in any regular Internet browser and you’ll get there. []

2- Reflective Wiki Posts

As soon as possible after the Second Life session for that unit, you will post at least one reflective statement about your experiences (250 words minimum) on the SL Trends Class Wiki (see http://sliddtrendsandissues2010.wikispaces.com/ ). In addition, you should respond to at least one other person’s posting on the Wiki. Make sure you have your posts in the discussion each week before we visit the next location.

We will meet inworld at the College of Education’s new Jaguarland Island welcome center at times posted in the particular unit. Be on time in SL. Don't the class waiting for the SL experience.

Reflective posting(s) and comments during the SL experience should include the following elements:


 * clear language and expression
 * thoughtfulness
 * reflective statements have support from reasoned argument, links, or references to the literature.
 * commentary is relevant to the topic of the course and its relation to the SL experience
 * Reflection moves beyond a simple description of the experience to an analysis of how it could contribute to learning and understanding
 * Comments in SL and on the Wiki connect to experiences you have had or are familiar with
 * Sources are cited (especially because the Wiki is a public forum)
 * Comments appear to have a focus or purpose and show insight

="Make-Up" Tours on Fridays= = = ===Stasia/Aevalle will be leading a repeat tour on Friday afternoons from 5-6 pm central. These tours will set off from the Oxbridge University Lecture Hall ([])    ===

===Please note that the people on these Friday tours are not just from this class--they're from all kinds of backgrounds, schools and locations. Don't be afraid to strike up a conversation--you might just meet a colleague who is going through the same "adjustment phase" as you are! :)=== ===Because of the structure of the Friday tours (I generally have no backups and more tourists), I can't answer a lot of "How do I..." questions. Please make sure you go through a tutorial for the basic information about SL. If there are any curious questions as we go along about how to use an AO, how to override fly, how to create a notecard, etc., I'll be glad to answer those at the end of the tour--I just can't answer questions from 20 people and lead a tour at the same time. :)===

For those who are interested, I keep a running listing of the tours I do on my vita site ([]).
Happy In-worlding! Stash/Aev = =