NMC Orientation Island Ideas
From NMC-Campus
NMC Orientation Island Education Resources
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NMC is building a custom Orientation Island for educators and students - we will host our own account creation form, and new users will land at the NMC Orientation area (see http://sl.nmc.org/2007/04/24/birth/). We’d be most interested in hearing your ideas as to what are some key things that should be included in the orientation process and/or what resources, etc might we provide to new edu avatars.
[edit] The Basics
- How to walk, fly, move around
- How to use your camera
- How to dress and change your appearance
- How to make friends and set up groups
- How to use your map
- How to communicate; how IM and chat differ; Skype, etc
- Inventory and how to find stuff
- The pie menu; how to sit, buy, delete
- How to attach things to your av
- Basic av advice; setting up your male/female avie; shopping tips
- Guides to SL
[edit] Add Your Ideas Here
- How to find free stuff (flea markets, yard sales, etc)
- How to use web based purchase systems like SLexchange, etc
- How to create machinima
- Changing lighting
- hidden features of the Debug menu
- Learning gestures and animating avatar
- Optimizing client settings (preferences)
- Not to plan events for Wednesday AM
- How tell and share time (converting SL time to local time)
- How to prepare presentations in Sl (both in communication styles, etc, and use of screens and whiteboards)
- usign video (e.g. Freeview)
- using audio (external tools for now, eventually built in)
- Simple scripting
- Some Sl versions of Classroom assessment techniques
[edit] Ideas from SLED
suggested by participants of the Second Life Educators listserv
- A basic tutorial on basic building/scripting
- A station that addresses ethical use of Web 2.0 materials, copyright, etc.
- A collaboration station where professors and researches and students can post up their needs, shout outs, calls for papers, etc. We sooo need a repository :-)
- A landmark cafe with LMs to good educationally sound places.
- Networking. Communication. Interaction. Connecting.
- If I were a new educator coming into SL, I would want to get connected with other faculty members or other researchers, especially in my own area. I wonder if there’s some way to connect people through the avatar creation/registration process (ie: I am a Sociologist researching/teaching Blah blah blah
- Something like this would be extremely helpful for those of us who are ready but do not know what resources are out there in SL for instructors to use. Is there a way sociology courses can take advantage of this environment as well as math, composition, etc.
- information, features for accessibility to people with disabilities
- vending machines for free teaching tools together with details of why they are useful plus details of what else is available and where to buy
- notecard vendor with useful material/hints and tips on teaching in SL
- details of educators groups in SL and corresponding webpages etc
- a teleport station with TPs to a range of useful/interesting education places eg ICT Library, Ivory Tower Prims, 'must visit' campuses
- tips for dealing with a) disruptive, mean, psychotic avatars and b) things one might encounter that are not normally part of a learning environment (sales pitches, porn, etc.) -- I think these things are a big impediment to the uptake of SL by educators.
- one of the stumbling blocks right off the bat is not knowing where to go once you create your avatar.
- I really think the idea of helping new academic users by hooking them up with a buddy for an excellent one. I have done this informally on a few occasions and would be willing to sign up to do so on a regular basis.
- I think a place where newbies can find landmarks to resources, maybe accompanied by a notecard explaining what they will find there would be helpful as well.
- Need to be aware of social mores or lack of them when they leave the cocoon of NMC
- They need a place to landmark as home, hopefully you will permit them to call your neighborhood home, many women and perhaps some men, get approached by questionable people who are not nice and they need a quick way to leave a dangerous situation. And yes I know they are just avatars but believe me when some 300lb muscle man tries to abduct you it is not fun where ever you are.
- They need to be aware of difference between calling cards and making a friend designation, and how to use the friend options
- It would be nice learn how to bring printed material from SL to computer so can be printed out, especially class materials, I still struggle with this
- They need to have a mentor, SL is overwhelming and need a person that can be contacted to help you through the confusion.
- How to tie SL into Learning Management Systems for attendance tracking, etc.
- What about office spaces – even temporary ones or ones that educators can use for periods of time. Not everyone will be purchasing land and be able to create ones of their own for some time (if at all).
- I would highly emphasize the importance of a mentor. Having at least one friendly face to always go back to for help would be very nice. I would think that it would be easy to create a list of volunteers available to mentor new residents (teachers, after all, generally make great mentors).
- I don't need a massive university or some grand structure, but I would like to construct a one-room school where I can host small groups for short tutorials and such. It would be nice to have some advice about where to locate a one-room school. It may even be that some larger educational institutions would permit me a bit of space out on their periphery to conduct my work.
- I've been asked if it is likely that instructors teaching in public spaces will find their classes disrupted by passers-by. I'm talking here about people who wander in and say "what are you doing?" or start distracting activities such as building rather than real griefers.
- how to rent a house, where to look, what’s reasonable in terms of cost (what if it’s in pieces, how do I put it together?) and how to search for office furniture and supplies that I need.
- after modifying/creating my avatar identity, learning to manoeuvre, fly, chat and zoom in on things etc etc.
- a place to change and edit my appearance in ‘private’.
- I'm getting from those we're training and demoing for (last count 250+ new avatars), about 90% of them report problems figuring out and navigating the current Orientation experience. It's gotten harder and less fun for some reason....we're seeing lots of complaints as people attempt to navigate, along with the usual getting hit on nonsense that always seems to happen in public help spaces.
[edit] Stuff newbies should know - from the librarians
shared from discussions among Second Life Librarians
23 Things for SL Librarians
- Introduction
- (1) Intro: What is 23 Things? What is Second Life?
- (2) What is SLL2.0? SLL2.0 Google group(s); InfoIsland.org
- (3) Getting an SL account (Free accounts, choosing a name); Logging in for the first time (Computer requirements, downloading software, downloading updates, SL Orientation Island); SLetiquette; Getting help (SL wiki, Help Island, lag, server problems, abuse)
- Getting around
- (4) Walking
- (5) Flying
- (6) Teleporting (Landmarks, setting Home, red beam/arrow, accepting & offering teleports)
- (7) Opening doors
- (8) Sitting down
- (9) Using Map and Mini-Map
- 10) SLURLs
- Communicating
- (11) Chat; 'Say' vs. 'Shout'
- (12) IM; Group IM
- (13) Histories; Copying & Pasting
- (14) Muting
- Avatars
- (15) Who am I? How to make basic changes in appearance and wardrobe
- (16) Shopping and Freebies; Opening boxes (i.e. don't be a "boxhead")
- Notecards
- (17) Reading & Keeping
- (18) Writing
- Inventory
- (19) Inventory management
- Searching (& Finding)
- (20) Searching for places; events; people; groups; shopping
- Attending meetings
- (21) Meeting SLetiquette; Chat distances; Review of sitting; Lag at meetings
- Volunteering
- (22) Groups, projects, & contacts
- Taking pictures
- (23) Snapshots; Screenshots; Flickr Pool
