Best of VEJ - The Virtual Education Journal, Volume Five

A note from editor

Hello

Everyone!

It’s Spring! As we watch the seasons change from winter to spring, so too, this month we saw the much anticipated use of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in the newly released Beta version of High Fidelity. As you can see from our visit onto the High Fidelity Grid, the potential of this new platform is game changing!

What remains to be seen, however is how many people will migrate to High Fidelity with the price of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and other head mounted displays with handheld devices running as much as $900 US and the fact that High Fidelity is an Open Source environment which means that people like me without coding and programing experience have a huge learning curve in order to settle into this new environment. I realized this as

soon as I logged into High Fidelity and discovered that every avatar looks exactly like every other avatar! It is hard to find people you know because we all look the same. For example, BJ and I had to jump up and down so we could see each other among the other avatars on the grid. Reminiscent of the early days of Second Life when the newbies always wore the same outfit (and we wondered how they knew we were newbies!

lationships we have with others and the personal connections we make that are meaningful and relevant to our own lives. From the Virtual Pioneers to ISTE to the Avatar Repertory Theater and more, you can discover in this issue of VEJ how people are creating a network of friendships as they build a Collegial Community of learners. Not an easy feat when members of the community can be anytime, anywhere around the world – yet, building that collegial community is so vital to the existence of any settlement, inworld as well as real-world. A special thank you to all of the contributors to this issue –a real testament to the work they have done to establish a community of learners in virtual environments.

CONGRATULATIONS to Andrew Wheelock (aka Spiff Whitfield) the 2016 VWBPE Thinkerer Award winner. Be sure to check out our interview with Spiff/Andy to learn more about why he is so deserving of this prestigious award.

The million-dollar question thus becomes,” should I stay or should I go?” And, even more so, what is it that keeps us coming back day after day to work, play, and learn in virtual worlds in general, or a specific world where you spend the majority of your time?

Most of us would agree it is because of the community – the friendships and re-

We also hope you like the new VEJ format and design. It took a little longer to get this issue out, but as you turn each page, we know you will find it well worth the wait!

So, dig in, VEJ out of this world, and take time to devour every byte!

Keep Smiling, Roxie Neiro (sl), Rosie Vojtek (rl)

Building the Community

Avatar Repertory Theater VWBPE16 Horizons High Fidelity

An Interview with Judith Adele Combs (rl), Ada Radius (sl)

From the Pirate Parade to the David Bowie Tribute Concert, did we have FUN, or what?

High Fidelity Goes Beta: Introducing Sandbox!

Andrew Wheelock(rl), Spiff Whitfield (sl)

Avatar Repertory Theater: An Interview with Judith Adele (rl) Ada Radius (sl)

The Art of Hello

Lazarus Returns: David Bowie Lives at VWBPE 2016

VWBPE 2016 Selfies

ISTE VEN Writer’s Group: Our First Experience

Lifeline

Martian Madness

Get Connected

Learning Disconnect: Learning Theories for Today’s Learners

ISTE Machinima Nights: How to get onto Avacon Grid

The Community Virtual Library

Building Community Through Social Activities @ VWBPE 2016

Community Building is Imperative in the Game of Ingress

VEJ Headquarters Satellite Office on VSTE Island

Cinco De Mayo Party

Drax Depres’ Profile of Not for Profit Commons Group

Writing For VEJ

To read VEJ online visit http://virtualeducationjournal.com/

follow us on Twitter @VEJournal or #VEJournal

Cover by Bob Vojtek (BJ Gearbox) adapted from Andy Wheelock/Spiff Witfield picture

And, the 2016 Thinkerer Award Goes To . . . [Drum roll, please] . . .

Andrew M Wheelock (RL), Spiff Whitfiled (SL)

CONGRATULATIONS, ANDY!

By Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie Vojtek (RL)

Andrew M. Wheelock (rl), Spiff Whitfield (sl), was named the recipient of the VWBPE 2016 Thinkerer Award. The following is the speech Lorraine Mockfield (rl), LoriVonne Luster (sl) made at the Closing Ceremony of VWBPE16.

In 2014, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Organizational Committee instituted a new personal achievement award to recognize an individual who has provided outstanding service to both the field of education and the virtual world community at large.

The THINKERER AWARD is presented to an individual whose deeds and actions have shown a consistent selfless service towards the promotion of learning, community, educational practices, and who exemplifies the spirit of cooperative development within immersive environments.

Recipients of this award are not simply outstanding professionals in their field. Award recipients must characterize transformational leadership qualities to:

• envision and guide change;

• enhance the motivation, morale, and performance of both peers and pupils;

• promote best practices and continuous improvement; and

• inspire others through their words and actions.

One such individual is ANDREW M. WHEELOCK, better known to us in virtual worlds as SPIFF WHITFIELD.

Andy Wheelock has been an educator for 22 years, working primarily at the elementary school level, and is currently a technology integrator. I decided to check out his LinkedIn profile to discover more about this amazing guy.

Here is what he as to say about himself there:

Welcome to the Department of Wild and Crazy Ideas!

It’s lonely here so I am always interested in learning from other wild and crazy educators who like to empower their students and colleagues using new technologies.

My most recent endeavor is a NY State Department of Education Funded project called the Islands of Enlightenment. This project uses an OpenSim virtual world technology designed to

help students learn about The Holocaust, Life in a Medieval Village, and the principles of architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.

This project has had tremendous support and help from WNED our PBS affiliate, The Anne Frank Project (Buffalo State College), and The Martin Complex. Please see the project website below for all the amazing people that have contributed.

My other passion is to learn and promote the awesome (and largely unknown) Edtech leaders from around the world. Their work and talent deserves recognition and I truly enjoy learning

from the best!

Check out my interviews at the Coffee with a Geek Website and my Edutekkie.org site.

I love collaborating and learning... So let’s connect. >>

“Let’s connect” really sums up Andy, don’t you

think?

As Spiff Whitfield, he joined Second Life in 2007. He is dedicated to the promotion of virtual environments to promote learning and excellence in education. In 2008, Spiff started the group, Virtual Pioneers. This group continues to be successful, with meetings each week for historical tours of SL sims or informal discussions. Part of the success of this group is the collaborative atmosphere, which Spiff promotes by encouraging everyone to be active participants.

He has willingly mentored many educators and assisted them with the immersive use of virtual environments. This includes Mary Howard, the upcoming ISTE VEN chair, Beth O’Connell, who does communications for many virtual worlds education organizations, and educators in his district who learn how to use the Islands of Enlightenment.

In 2011 Andy created the Islands of Enlightenment - where he is known as Professor Illuminati. This is an OpenSim immersive learning environment available to educators. He worked with a team of educators and historians to create a model build of the Anne Frank annex, providing a safe environment where students can interact using avatars to fully experience historical content.

“A virtual environment enables students to learn in a creative way that promotes higher order thinking,” he says on the project website (http://islandsoe.weebly.com/ ).

This project, along with his Heir of the King medieval history project, has been featured in several of Andy’s conference presentations, keynotes, and professional articles, helping to promote the use of virtual worlds in education.

Andy has been dedicated to the value of virtual environments both for professional development for educators and as valuable learning experiences for young people. He selflessly spends countless hours each week working on these projects and networking with people in all of the virtual environments of which he is a part. He is responsible in large part for the inclusion of virtual environments in ISTE, the international edtech organization. Andy Wheelock exemplifies a strong commitment to the promotion and development of best practices in using virtual environments in education.

It is for all these reasons, and more, that the

VWBPE Organizational Committee proudly confirms Andrew Wheelock, our Spiff Whitfield, as the VWBPE 2016 Thinkerer Award recipient.

Roxie: CONGRATULATIONS Spiff!!! Very much deserved! So, tell us about this –what were you thinking? How were you feeling as you accepted this prestigious award? What was going through your mind?

Spiff: Thanks so much for the great intro, you really lose perspective of your journey sometimes so it was interesting to have it laid out on the table for you, so to speak. This award is meaningful for educators that truly want to redefine education, so it was really humbling to win this. My first thought is that, gee, am I worthy? Have I done enough to deserve this?

I guess that answer should always be, “No, I need to do more!” (Which I plan to do!) Also, it brings a sense of gratitude for all the people that have worked with you and helped you. I suppose no profession is an island, so you feel a little guilty that you received the award and yet so many people helped you on that path... you wish they all could share in that honor. Because of that, I posted a digital thank you to everyone that has worked with me directly so that they could hopefully understand my gratitude. Thank You

my name linked to his is incredibly meaningful.

Roxie: Absolutely. You are so humble. But, LoriVonne Luster said the words at the start of this article about you when she presented you with the VWBPE 2016 Thinkerer Award at the VWBPE Closing Ceremony. But, in your own words, who are you and what do you do in real life, Second Life, and anything else you would like our readers to know about you?

Spiff: Hmm… well… I am an introvert by nature, and I get overwhelmed by lots of distractions. As a child, I was constantly in my “own little world” daydreaming and still do! As a matter of fact I chose the name Spiff, for my avatar because of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. One of Calvin’s alter-ego’s is “Spaceman Spiff”

Virtual Pioneers.

I guess professionally, I am a staff developer that travels around western New York, giving Edtech workshops to different schools. I am very passionate about teachers and schools using edtech, but I often get frustrated by the incredible gap of technology use outside of school compared to what happens in school. When I talk about my virtual environment projects I get lots of disbelief and skepticism which I tire of seeing. One of the great benefits of the receiving the Thinkerer Award is that it gave me some great fuel and inspiration to keep pushing forward!

Personally, I have a great family and friends and I love to play and watch Ice Hockey.

I’m also grateful because I am a big fan of Thinkerer Selby Evans’ work, so to have

which he uses to escape from the mundane parts of his life, i.e. School, long car rides, etc. Also, I enjoy reading about history, especially early American History. That interest led me to the genesis of the

As for Second Life, I love attending the Tuesday Night Meetings with ISTE’s Virtual Environments Network and the Sunday Night Tours and Meet and Greets with the Virtual Pioneers. Also, when I come in

Luxembourg 1887 Virtual Pioneers

with some free time, I love exploring new islands – in particular the new Mystery Style islands and Artistic Builds. I love taking photographs and sharing them to my Flickr Account. Flickr Username is spiffwhitfield84.

Roxie: How did you get started in Second Life in 2007? What brought you into Second Life? What are some of your first and or favorite memories?

Spiff: Well my supervisor at the time Michelle Okal, told our Staff Development Team to check out this virtual world. I was immediately skeptical thinking that the last thing students need is high powered video game interfaces that would be highly distracting without a lot of learning. But when I created an avatar I found an amazingly creative interface that allowed for a treasure trove of educationally valid possibilities. My first explorations had me drawn to the historical sims,

which led me to help found the Virtual Pioneers. The Virtual Pioneers travel as a group to various historical based islands to learn about history and culture. My focus going forward is the “Art Begets Art” philosophy of students creating art that can be turned into other art through photography or collaborative creations. Huge potential!

Roxie: Yes, I am a fan of some the artwork and photos you have done in virtual environments. I am printing one of my all time favorites here.

Spiff: Thanks. Some of my favorite memories involve the “noob” experiences we all fall into in virtual environments. My favorite was teleporting into the middle of a virtual Bible Study group while my avatar was dancing. I got a lot of angry comments over that, but it was completely accidental. Other favorite moments include the VWBPE Conferences that are always inspiring and informative, the Virtual Pioneer tour of the Holocaust Museum (still a favorite), our historical costume Frolics, and the fantastic Halloween sims that keep getting better and better, (and scarier) and lastly, Fannie Starr who is a Holocaust Survivor talking about her experiences at Virtual Pioneers.

Roxie: [Laughing] I would have thought you’d mention being the Best Man at BJ

Everyone Likes to Dress in A Costume from Some Period

Gearbox and my SL wedding. We were all so much younger then – hehe.

Roxie: You have been very active at ISTE Headquarters and with ISTE SIGVE, now the ISTE VEN group. What would you list as some of the greatest accomplishments and/or contributions that you and your ISTE colleagues have made?

Spiff: First and foremost I want to emphasize that Second Life has truly been the greatest Professional Learning Network I have been a part of. It provides all the great connections of a social network but really brings the experience to a new dimension. The whimsical and creative nature of the environment really adds to the experience. The people I have met as avatars in Second Life, and then met later in real life, have been this seamless

transition. We meet as lifelong friends. A great example is my good buddy, Scott Merrick [aka, OptoMystic, formerly ScottMerrick Oh]. I met him in Second Life and we bonded pretty easily there and when we met at the ISTE Conference it never really occurred to me that I hadn’t already met him. Mary O’Brien [aka, Serena Offcourse] is another person who I have never met in Real Life, and yet is a cherished friend.

Roxie: It is so true. I think the meet-ups are what make the ISTE conferences so much fun. Getting together at the ISTE VEN (Virtual Environment Network) playground in real life with virtual friends. It’s like you have known each other forever . . . we don’t miss a beat . . . just pick up where we left off . . . there is such a blur, or the seamless transition as you call it, between the real

world and the virtual world. What a gift we have discovered!

Spiff: Yes. Getting back on your question though, by combining the great benefits of being part of ISTE and extending the experience through virtual environments makes for a unique and powerful experience.

Secondly, the ISTE VEN events have been incredibly rewarding. Every Tuesday, we have something to offer educators. We have a Writer’s Workshop in SL, an Office Hours for discussion in SL, a Focus Series to talk with Virtual Environment Educators, a Machinima Night in Avacon to talk about making quality movies. All of these events offer something different and unique for educators.

Roxie and BJ Get Married in Second Life

Lastly, I think our group has spawned some other really great extensions. Many of our early VEN members have gone on to do work with World of Warcraft and Minecraft and Open Sim. Also, we have of course VEJ (Virtual Education Journal) which gives us a great platform to share all of the work we are doing in a practical, educator to educator perspective.

Roxie: Yes, I like to think of VEJ as doing the work of digital anthropologists. That is, making sure to tell our stories, share our work, and archive it all for future generations. Thank you for mentioning VEJ. You have mentioned the Virtual Pioneers several times. Tell me, how did Virtual Pioneers get started? What is the mission, the primary goal, for Virtual Pioneers?

Spiff: The Virtual Pioneers got started in about 2007 after I came into the world and saw the great historical builds here. We started with a group of about 8 teachers doing tours. Then we were offered a building on Kathy Schrocke’s Lighthouse Learning Island, which led us to our final destination to having a space on Eduisland 9.

Roxie: What are some of your favorite moments from the Virtual Pioneers? What makes Virtual Pioneers such a special group? What are you the most proud of?

Spiff: Well, I have already talked a little about this. I will start with the last part, what I am proudest of is that at each meeting we get someone new showing

up, which I think is always a good thing for a group to get growth from new membership. Also the diversity of each tour. We have gone to so many different places and explored so many different topics from the Holocaust, Machu Picchu, to Paris 1900, to name just a few.

Roxie: The theme for this issue of VEJ is “Building Community.” What are the important elements that need to be present in a virtual learning community and how have you helped to make sure they are embedded within ISTE VEN and the Virtual Pioneers as well as any other groups you work with in virtual environments?

Spiff: Well… I think this questions really encapsulates what I’ve talked about throughout in that this is the BEST Professional Development Network (PLN) because it allows for richer connections and ….dare I say it… WHIMSY!

Roxie: [Laughing and shakes head in agreement] How did the “Islands of Enlightenment Project” get started? What was your vision for the projects?

Spiff: Well, with my work with ISTE VEN and Virtual Pioneers I became convinced that this was a viable way to teach students because it reimagines education. With the support of my work, that provided server space, and a NYSED Grant that provided teachers with resources and technology, we created 3 learning adventures for students in grades 6-12. There is a magical moment that happens

when students log in for the first time . . . when you see them really having fun and embracing learning with relish and enthusiasm. It is magical.

So my vision is to keep pushing the envelope with these environments and getting to the point where students are the creators of content. For example, I would love it if the students would create a game inworld based around a theme. There is so much learning to be had, from narrative writing, scripting, coding, artistic renderings, movie making (Machinima) and collaboration, that I would love to see the teacher stand back and watch it all come together.

Roxie: There are several projects listed on “The Islands of Enlightenment Projects” website. First of all, tell us about “The Holocaust Project.” What did you do, what did you learn? If you could do it over again, what would you do differently if anything?

Spiff: The Understanding the Holocaust Project is meant to be an extension of the book, “The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank.” Students read the book and then get to experience in a digital form the streets of Amsterdam and the Secret Annex that is detailed in the book. It goes beyond that by having the students become Historical Museum Curators by creating their own digital display in the digital museum. We had some great help and support from PBS who allowed use of their teaching and documents from their teaching guides for the Masterpiece

Theater reproduction.

Roxie: Another Enlightenment Project is “The Heir of The King.” Tell us about this project including what you did, what you learned, and what you would do differently, if anything if you were to do it again. How was it different from “The Holocaust Project?”

Spiff: This was a year two project where students’ complete quests in a Medieval Village to learn about Medieval history, but to also solve a Arthurian type mystery. Teacher Mary Howard helped a great deal with this project and we had help from Buffalo State Theater Students to do some of the narrations.

Roxie: The third project is “The Martin House Complex” which features learning through Virtual Design. On the website, it says, “Stay tuned as this develops organically through teacher and student creativity and innovation.” Tell us about this project. Has it started yet? If so, what are teachers and students doing/learning?

Spiff: The magic of virtual environments compared to video games is the notion of creation. The empowering part of Minecraft or in our case OpenSim is that students become creators. The Martin House Complex in Buffalo has been a great partner in this concept and allowed us to work on site at the Darwin Martin House. (Frank Lloyd Wright’s beautiful design) I love seeing the builds from the students because, they organically digest

Wright’s principles of design and incorporate them into their builds. They also extend beyond his ideas and create powerful builds of their own.

Roxie: Is there a way for readers to be able to visit or view the work that has been done with “The Islands of Enlightenment Projects?”

Spiff: Any educator that would like to see the avatars is welcome. You just need to connect with me at awheelock@e1b.org and I will create you an avatar to see and explore.

Roxie: What other virtual environment/ worlds do you “hang” in? What special projects or activities are you engaged in while in these virtual environments/worlds?

Spiff: Avacon is a great space where we have been having meetings and explorations. I have dabbled in Minecraft and World of Warcraft, but spend most of my time in Second Life or The Islands of Enlightenment. Not enough time in the day to do it all. I have also explored a little in the MOSES grid hosted by the US Army.

My next 2 projects in the Islands of Enlightenment are “Teacher Gaming Academy” where teachers develop their own game for students to play. And the “Art Begets Art” idea to create virtual art exhibits for other students to create or build off of using digital tools or photography.

citing. You will have to share more about them once they are underway. You have co-hosted the ISTE VEN speaker series in the past. Who are some of your favorite speakers and what have you learned from them?

Spiff: Well, my favorite people overall, in my overall virtual environment experiences, are what I call the Wizard of Oz Trio of Peggy Sheehy, Scott Merrick, and Anne Collier. The Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow respectively. Peggy has been a courageous pioneer in leading the way and advocating for innovation. (Courage) Scott has brought passion, and good humor to our cause, (Heart) and Anne Collier has been a champion of educational technology, while promoting safety through empowerment, not fear. (The Brain)

Roxie: I love your Wizard of Oz analogy! You have a talent for interviewing people. I am really intrigued by your “Coffee With A Geek” Interviews. How did this get started? Who have you interviewed? What have you learned? Who are you scheduled to interview in the future?

Roxie: Those two new projects sound ex-

Spiff: In a nutshell, I love learning from others especially the pioneers in Edtech. Secondly, I think that so many parents and community members-at-large really don’t know what some of the innovators in education look like or do. So the Coffee with a Geek interviews were a way of showcasing great people doing great things for both other educators and the

community-at-large. I love every single interview I have done but I think my most memorable were interviewing Alice Keeler (“World of Warcaft made me a better teacher”) Pixar’s Danielle Feinberg (in my Edutekkie series) as well as, Yong Zhao. (Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon).

Roxie: VEJ readers can enjoy your “Coffee with a Geek” series at http://coffeewageek. weebly.com/. Over the years, one of the things that has fascinated me about you is your artistic talent. We have featured some of your art in previous issues of VEJ. You have captured some amazing moments in second life through your art. What are three of your favorite pictures/art pieces and why?

https://flic.kr/p/CeLn5F

https://flic.kr/p/BDUtFf

Some of my favorite artistically are:

https://flic.kr/p/Cv3epd

https://flic.kr/p/Cvbn94

https://flic.kr/p/FgjcaE

https://flic.kr/p/EKfB1p

https://flic.kr/p/BKBkSE

https://flic.kr/p/z4iZ1k

https://flic.kr/p/yHYcBX

https://flic.kr/p/rxT78x

Spiff: When I go to an artistic sim, I am always fascinated that there is usually someone else there sitting in repose. So, often I ask if I can take their picture and they almost always agree. Their avatars have the faraway look of a dreamer and I try to capture that moment. Here are some examples.

Roxie: Describe some of your future plans and activities in virtual worlds. Where do you go from here?

Spiff: First, carry on with Islands of Enlightenment Projects. Second, continue to work with Virtual Environments Network and Virtual Pioneers to enhance my learning. And, third, continue to advocate for redefining education through gamification, virtual environments, and creative learning endeavors.

Roxie: What makes learning in virtual worlds/environments so powerful?

Spiff: Creation, creation, creation!

Roxie: In your acceptance speech for the Thinkerer Award” you said, “as Walt Whitman wisely said, ‘The Powerful Play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’” You continued by saying, I “hope my verse will be represented in empowering learning by using virtual environments.” That being said, what would this look like, sound like, and feel like? One hundred years from now, what will we remember about your work and how learning was empowered through the use of virtual environments?

Spiff: I have been doing a lot of thinking about the S.A.M.R model http://www. schrockguide.net/samr.html for educational technology and I believe the virtual environments truly represent the “REDEFINITION” concept. Through virtual environments students can learn almost any subject with the ability to create en-

hancing the experience.

Roxie: Is there anything else you would like our VEJ readers to know about you, your work, or other activities for organizations you are involved with?

Spiff: I’ve often said that Second Life reminds me of that 80’s TV show “Fantasy Island”. The people I have met through Second Life don’t seem to be random, but chosen. Each person I have met seems to offer me something meaningful at just the right time. I’m so grateful for that.

Please connect with me through twitter @spiffwhitfield84 or http://about.me/ andrew.m.wheelock

Roxie: Again, CONGRATULATIONS Spiff!!! We look forward to your next projects and following your work in virtual environments.

Spiff: Thank you.

High Fidelity Goes Beta: Introducing Sandbox!

Come on, admit it, you know you have been waiting for that special invitation to beta test High Fidelity (HR), Philip Rosedale ‘s latest attempt at building the ultimate Virtual Reality platform!

Following his work in Second Life, Rosedale unveiled “a virtual toy room” during October 2015 by demonstrating how people could collaborate inside a 3D virtual world in real-time from anywhere around the world. Well ...

Wait no more.... Your time has come!

High Fidelity has launched the beta of Sandbox, a free, open source software that allows developers and, yes, educators, to use tools such as Oculus Rift, HTC VIVE, and Xbox controller to

By Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie Vojtek (RL)

begin creating, connecting, and building communities using the HF platform.

Under the Apache 2.0 license, High Fidelity software, including Sandbox, is open source. The company intends to use the software platform to build an interconnected world of virtual spaces in which content and people can move freely to explore and experience virtual environments.

Like most of you, I (Roxie) have been waiting for this moment since first hearing about Rosedale’s VR venture. So, after loading Sandbox I made my first landing into HR with BJ Gearbox right behind. We landed in a beautiful country setting (see picture below).

BJ Gearbox is on the left. Roxie Neiro is in center.

We quickly began experimenting with the browser and explored the countryside.

Using only a mouse and keyboard made navigating High Fidelity more challenging. It is recommended that users have a head mounted display like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and a handheld controller like the Xbox One controller, Razer Hydra, Oculus Touch, or Leap Motion Orion to manipulate the environment (which makes High Fidelity limiting with just the keyboard and mouse). A Vive for example, will cost approximately $830 USA while Oculus Rift will cost approximately $599 USA. Guess we

have to save our pennies! LOL

I quickly started exploring and figured out how to change my avatar to a human-like persona, albeit I still looked like everyone else who decided to be human-like as there are not many options unless you create your own avatar. There are, however, directions on how to create your own unique avatar on the High Fidelity website at https://readme.highfidelity.com/docs/creating-avatars-1.

One of the advantages to using High Fidelity is the ability to run your own server and set-up your own domain (See Sandbox setup). BJ and I did this, but I think we have a lot to learn about using the editing tools and importing content to help build our worlds. We are just beginning to explore our home domain and learn how to interact with objects. Stay tuned. . .

In the meantime, we did have fun checking out links to other High Fidelity virtual worlds. One was “Playa” where I actually

had a great conversation with several avatars who were well versed in how to use High Fidelity. They gave me several tips that I am sharing with you in this article.

The avatars we met in High Fidelity were very friendly. Many of them, like us, were there for the first time or because they had heard that High Fidelity had gone Beta and wanted to see what was different.

Three things in High Fidelity were quite different. One is that there is no typing chat or way (that we could find) to friend people. But, that being said, it is easy to use voice to talk. Second, not all tools are loaded when you start. For example, to see other users online, you need to make sure that the “users.js” is loaded in “Running Scripts.” “Running Scripts” can be found under edit. Third, to teleport to other places, hit “enter” (at least on a mac) and then type the name of the place you would like to visit.

Roxie with new friends on “Playa.” Roxie is avatar with back to camera.

So, for example, to go to “playa” hit “enter” on the keyboard and then type “playa” and hit enter again. It will take you to “playa.”

At the moment, there do not seem to be many places to visit. Hopefully as more of us visit, explore, and claim land for ourselves, there will be more places to visit.

There is a lot of information about High Fidelity and how to use it (see resources at the end of this article). For example, on the

high fidelity blog I learned how to set off fireworks at Playa – it was a lot of fun!

I also visited “cellscience” and here is a picture (below) of Roxie “Inside the Cell.” Having seen “Inside the Cell” using Oculus Rift in (rl) last year at the High Fidelity exhibit during the ISTE15 conference, I can assure you once the price of the technology becomes more affordable, High Fidelity is going to be a real gamechanger!

For more information and documentation about High Fidelity, visit https://readme.highfidelity.com/. Continue to follow the official blog at https://blog.highfidelity.com/blog. And be sure to check out some of the latest youtube videos including https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXep2xUmluU&feature=youtu.be (showing how to draw on the whiteboard in High Fidelity) and Caitlyn Meeks explaination about basic hand-manipulation movements and physics while demonstrating how to create a simple garden at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=LccR-9a_Y20 . Be sure to also check out the January 2016 High Fidelity newsletter and video at https:// blog.highfidelity.com/blog/2016/01/high-fidelity-newsletter/. Totally Amazing!

And, should you venture into High Fidelity, because Inquiring Minds like ours want to know, be sure to look us, Roxie Neiro and BJ Gearbox, up! Like you, we will still be trying to find out way! Bon Voyage!

Lazarus Returns: David Bowie Lives on at VWBPE 2016

By MadKitty Aabye

As far back as I can remember, David Bowie’s work was a staple of rock music and he was loved by millions of people. Listening to classic rock on the radio for at least an hour—at any point in my life—was, and still is, a guarantee of hearing at least one of his songs. An artist to the end, knowing that his liver cancer was terminal, Bowie completed his final album, Blackstar, before his death on January 10, 2016. As the name “Lazarus,” a track from this album, suggests, he lives on through his music and his fans’ collective memories.

Since I’ve always enjoyed his music, I’m thrilled to be part of a tribute band that participates in his resurrection through his art. On March 12, 2016, Lightning Productions brought the magic of David Bowie to the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education

(VWBPE) 2016 conference in Second Life. I hosted the show, playing the part of his wife, supermodel Iman, as seen here near my “real” avatar. Both wear the same NASA jumpsuit in honor of Bowie’s outof-this-world sometime-alter ego Ziggy Stardust.

Extraterrestrials have been known to say, “Take me to your leader,” so I’ll assume Ziggy’s associates want to meet Coz Okelly, who manages Lightning Productions with plenty of input from the band. He once replied to a question regarding this by stating, “Running a band is like own-

ing cats. You don’t really.” At our shows, it may look like all he does is model the band t-shirts, but he actually works very hard. He creates those shirts, which are distributed at all of our shows. He also books and publicizes the shows, keeps our calendar, assigns our roles, creates the stages, streams the music, makes announcements, works the lights, and sometimes plays a band member.

A stage set may be difficult to design and build, but lack of petty concerns such as gravity and oxygen make simulating space much easier in a virtual environment. Mere spider webs elevated our

audience so they could see the famed singer descend from his spherical ship using a jet pack.

Inanna, as David Bowie, came in for a safe landing, and then sang cosmic favorites “Space Oddity” and “Moonage Daydream.” Next, the song “Changes” appropriately served as a backdrop for a costume switch to a replica of a real life outfit Bowie once wore.

“But where were the spiders…” asks Bowie in the song “Ziggy Stardust.” The Lightning Productions answer is, “Right here on stage, for your viewing pleasure!” Our

dancers, Alena and Keesha, bravely rode them throughout the show, and one giant arachnid was kind enough to give our tired singer a mid-set rest.

Even the most legendary singers need skilled band members to complement their work. Zonker “Not Zonkers, Please,” Cherry, MTrap and Kat played musicians Trevor Bolder, Mike Garson, Mick Woodmansey and Mick Taylor throughout the show. In honor, Zonker wore a replica of Bowie’s signature lightning streak face makeup, which was distributed to fans along with the t-shirt.

For the final number, Inanna channeled Bowie in his “Lazarus” video, robed and blindfolded. The band and dancers used the Second Life special effect dance orbs to denote the song’s surreal quality.

As the VWBPE closed for another year, the band had a wonderful time commemorating a legend so he can continue to live through his art. I didn’t know David Bowie personally any more than the average fan, but given the interest in resurrection displayed in his work, I like to think he’d have wanted it that way.

VWBPE16 Selfies

The Faces of Blubarker Lowtide Blu’s characters at VWBPE 2016

by Blubarker Lowtide

The East Coast Miner’s Guild

By Blake Bourque (TechplexEngineer), Kim Harrison (K4Sons), and Mary O’Brien (Mainecakes)

In the Fall of 2015 three virtual world enthusiasts united to form The East Coast Miners Guild. This Minecraft community is facilitated by two educators and a geek (aka - engineer) with the goals of encouraging communication and collaboration skills as well as enriching science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) skills.

Since its inception more than 30 creative kids, aged 16 and under, with a passion for building and learning in Minecraft, have joined East Coast Miners. Together they have created an amazing world! It is filled with many interesting buildings, an assortment of vehicles, sculptures, and art. In addition, they have created games, puzzles, and challenges for each other. As one of our guildies, Obosox, stated: “It is fun to be with friends to build creative and cool things.”

The Leadership Team encourages the building of our community by sending emails that include screenshots, shoutouts, and upcoming teasers. Weekly Guild Builds are held where many members join the server at a scheduled time to share what they have built that week and continue learning new skills together

Happy Mining from the East Coast Miners Leadership Team

and teaching each other. These evenings are fun! We often play Don’t Laugh, Hide and Seek, Dodge Ball, or another minigame built by one of the guildies. One of our miners, Aiden, said: “East Coast Miners is a creative server with plenty of fun things and people. One of the best parts are the guild builds! I enjoy the guild builds more than being on by myself or with 1 or 2 people.”

Our chat log is monitored regularly, and we often notice our young guildies working together on projects and helping each other. When asked what they suggest for improvements one guildie suggested that we work together on a giant singular project. So we are building a giant modern city with skyscrapers, businesses, and even a dog park! The collaboration and cooperation has been easier since we started using Discord voice chat for Guild Build nights. It is so much easier to work and play together when you don’t have to type everything.

Discord is a free voice server that we particularly like because it allows for complete anonymity for our Guildies. They can log on with their Minecraft names and protect their privacy.

When asked if they would recommend this server to a friend, this is what Guildie Wowmom98 replied: “Of course! Its really fun. I learned some new things about

minecraft, and I love how people help each other.”

So, if you know any cool kids who are into Minecraft and looking for a safe and fun server, please have them visit our website http://www.eastcoastminers.org/ and fill out an application.

The Second Life MOOC (SLMOOC16)

started on April 2nd and runs through April 30th. It’s free.

Celebration of Community

By Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie O’Brien Vojtek (RL)

On Saturday morning, April 9, 2016, Scott Merrick (aka, OptoMystic) and Andy Wheelock (aka Spiff Whitfield) sat at the expanding table in the upstairs library of ISTE Headquarters, and facilitated a conversation, “Everything About ISTE Virtual Environments Network.”

This hour of conversation was part of the 2016 SL MOOC. Many current and former ISTE core leaders were present at the table and shared fond memories from the early days in Second Life to the present activities in Second Life and other virtual environments.

You can view the entire ISTE VEN conversation and relive the memories at

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=_a08u_ ERn5M&list=PL8JUcjyABKxmmlov_ CYLmSvX1XgpMsMAU&index=19 and/or you can view the PowerPoint slides and chat from the Celebration of Community conversation at https://www.dropbox.com/s/ckglmgco4jq6k38/iste%20ven%20panel-slmooc2016.pptx?dl=0

For more information about ISTE Virtual Environments Network visit https://www. facebook.com/istevenetwork/

The Second Life MOOC (SLMOOC16) started on April 2nd and runs through April 30th. It’s free. The SLMOOC will feature more than 20 presenters in WizIQ, all over Second Life, on DigiWorldZ and in Minecraft! Main course in Moodle!

Some of the best include Draxtor Despres, Kate Mirando, Valibrarian Gregg, Pionia Destiny, Eugenia Calderon, Scott Merrick Oh and Spiff Whitfield, Beth Ghostraven, Elli Pinion! You can learn more and join the fun at https://www.smore.com/z6bna . Also follow all the activities on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ slmooc/

You can view all of this year’s SLMOOC16 presentations on the SLMOOOC 16 playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PL8JUcjyABKxmmlov_ CYLmSvX1XgpMsMAU

MACHINIMA NIGHTS

Grid describes Machinima Nights as the last Tuesday every Month in Second Life

FOCUS SESSIONS

Beth and Nova describe the focus sessions from the Virtual Environments Network (VEN).

ISTE VEN Writer’s Group

Our First Experience

By Helena Kiama (SL) / Barbara Seaton (RL)

Tuesday, April 5th, I took a group of 7-8 people to Memento Mori as our first experience.

At the top of the long sunlit staircase I pause. A single arch leads into the cathedral, its brilliance setting me in shadow. Filtered light fades the arches on either side into an iridescent white glow. A single piano note wafts through the rafters, riding on the wind, followed by another hesitant note, then another.

Standing in shadow, white spiral staircases race above me into the sky, their

patterns shaping the light. My eye follows their path, feeling the pull of their upward movement as if I was a small white bird, alone in the sky, catching the updraft. Piano notes fade, and the wind is left alone to create its own harmony as it flows through the lofty spires above.

Such is a place called Memento Mori in Chouchou (Second Life), in a floating cathedral up in the sky. The visuals are

stunning as well as the music. A cinematic HUD is provided which, when worn, allows your camera to “float” using the arrow keys, enhancing the experience. It is a place where you can totally immerse yourself and travel to places within your imagination.

It is places such as these we will visit and experience during the ISTE VEN Writers workshop in Second Life. The idea is to

MEMENTO MORI

It is places such as these we will visit and experience during the ISTE VEN Writers workshop in Second Life.

At the top of the long sunlit staircase I pause. A single arch leads into the cathedral, its brilliance setting me in shadow. A single piano note wafts through the rafters, riding on the wind, followed by another hesitant note, then another.

use those experiences to prompt our imaginations and write about wherever it takes us. Some places may be more fun in nature, or more thought provoking, but all will hopefully provide an immersive experience that inspires you to write.

The concept of a VEN writing workshop came about when I was visiting Memento Mori with Spiff Whitfield (Andrew Wheelock) and we started throwing around ideas about getting inspired to write. He suggested starting a writer’s workshop for VEN, and then asked if I’d be inter-

ested in hosting it. Scott Merrick, Beth O’Connell, and Mary Howard gave us the thumbs up.

Tuesday, April 5th, I took a group of 7-8 people to Memento Mori as our first experience. I remember smiling as I walked further into the cathedral to find a little porcupine standing silently, looking up, surrounded by glowing light. I backed away quietly so I wouldn’t disturb her.

But the experience doesn’t end there. We will meet to share our works on Tuesday,

MEMENTO MORI

Alternate views of the floating cathedral

May 3rd, 5:00 p.m. SLT (PDT) at the ISTE VEN headquarters. We will not evaluate each other’s work, but simply enjoy. The idea of the workshops is to take the time to be inspired.

Implementation of Google Cardboard in the classroom

By William Schmachtenberg, (RL), Dae Miami (SL)

In February of 2016, my students (Matt Brosinski, Ryan Murphy, and Devin McCulley won the 2016 Congressional App Competition for the fifth district. Their app was titled VR Atom History Explorer. For more details see: http://www.educationalvirtualworlds.com/ and click on the student showcase 2016 link in the menu.

What was extraordinary about their app was that it was designed to run on android cell phones and google cardboard viewers. They created the app in Unity 3D and used the Google Cardboard sdk (Software development kit) to export their sim to an android phone. I will give more details on this later.

Their win prompted a discussion of the possible uses of Google cardboard in our classes at Franklin County High School. Matt Brosinski brought in a cardboard version of the viewer, and I loaded some apps from the Apple App Store on my iP hone 5s. The principal of the high school, Deb Decked, met with Matt and me on Feb. 24, 2016, and was immediately fas cinated with how easily she could tour the streets of Paris using google card board. Being a former French teacher she could easily see the educational value of google cardboard in a foreign language class.

Amy Chattin, the chairman of science department said we should cut a purchase order for buying 8 cardboard viewers. I did a search of the Google Cardboard website and found that there is no “official” cardboard viewer. There are many companies that make viewers, but the problem I quickly discovered was that very few of them would take a school PO. Some companies would not give me their address or phone number, so I could not even use a school credit card.

One of the viewers that I found was the Mattel View-Master. Many of us have

fond memories of the old view master with the round discs you inserted into the view master and clicked the button to advance to the new slide. The new view master is compatible with Google Cardboard and requires the use of a cell phone. I found a review of the Mattel View Master on Before you Buy which was also helpful. Price is always an issue for schools, and the retail price of the view master is $30 whereas other cardboard viewers are $20.

In the classroom environment, I felt that the durable plastic was better than card-

board for protecting the expensive cell phones that were inserted into the viewers. Mattel said that their view masters were available in Walmart, Kmart, and Target stores, but I have better luck finding them in Toys-R-Us. Toys-R-Us was willing to price match to Target and I got my View-Master for $20! They also reduced the price of the experience packs to $13 from the retail price of $15. The experience pack I purchased was Space and had augmented reality of a shuttle and other space ships. To be honest, the image of the shuttle did not merge together and I saw two images. I thought Aurisma’s app did a better job on my iPad of augmented reality.

The View-Master experience pack came with a pass card that was necessary to unlock the rest of the content. It took many passes of the card to unlock the content in the space app that I downloaded from the Apple App Store. The effort was worth it. In the experience pack was a virtual tour of constellations that when you click on them revealed the name and an artist’s rendition of what the constellation was supposed to look like. Being that I am teaching the constellations this week, that exercise fit well in my lesson plans. They also had a fun mini-game on landing a spacecraft on the surface of the moon. You can also explore the planets in the solar system and play a game where you fire bullets in different gravitational fields. Clicking on objects brought up more information. My students saw me playing with the Mattel View-Master and

wanted to give it a try. It was very popular with students and some even said they wanted to buy one when they got home.

I have had several requests asking how educators can make their own apps for google cardboard. These apps are created in Unity 3D. You can get instructions from this website:

https://developers.google.com/cardboard/overview

ANDROID Google Cardboard Apps:

Creating an app for google cardboard is somewhat easier for Android phones than iOS. For android phones, you download Unity 3D to either a mac or pc. Then you will need some plugins to Unity 3D. Start with the Android SDK which will also install the Java SDK automatically to your pc. When you run the install program it will ask you for a directory, write down the default directory or pick your own,

but make note of it. Unity 3D will ask you for this root directory. You also will need the Java Development kit 7, and for windows pc I chose the x64. You need to accept the license radio button. You can get the Java Development kit from:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/ java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html.

Now install the Google Cardboard SDK and demo program into unity. The links to this are in the overview url above. Open the demo scene with the cube by double clicking it. Go to file build settings.

Under Platform, select Android and click the Switch Platform button. Wait until the Unity symbol appears next to Android. Then click Player settings and in Resolution and Presentation, change the Default orientation to Landscape Left. Then open the other settings and under identification enter a Bundle identifier. For android, you can make up whatever you want. I used co.evwllc.GCB. This is the name of your company followed by the name of the app. Now, click Build and select a directory for your app and the name of your app. Your app will be created with an .apk suffix. You can share that file via email or a website.

Now you can go back and change the contents of the scene to put whatever you want in there. This is your app and/ or your students! It is a good idea to save the scene and the project file from time to time. If you change the name of the scene, be sure to delete the old scene in the Scenes to Build window and then click the add current button.

iOS Google Cardboard Apps:

Things are a little more complicated for Apple devices iOS. You will need an apple developer account, which costs $99/year. You have to use a mac. Open Unity 3D, and import the Google Cardboard SDK and Demo scene. By the way, you can use the same project folder for android and iOS if you wish.

platform, select iOS and then switch platform. Under player settings, go into Resolution and Presentation, and for default Orientation, select Landscape Left. Under Other settings, put in your Bundle Identifier. You set that on the Apple developer website under Certificates and profiles. That bundle identifier must match what you tell Apple, and you have to load at a developer or distribution profile into Xcode.

have to submit it to apple review and send it out on the apple app store. By the way, if you get tired, seeing iPhoto and iTunes launch every time you plug in your iPhone, click the iPHone icon in iTunes, then select summary and scroll down to options. Uncheck the automatically sync the iPhone with iTunes.

Adding Content to Your Google Cardboard App

Next, click file then build settings. Under

Now click build and select where you want to save your app. Once Unity is done building the app, go into the folder and double click the Unity-iPhone.xcodeproj file so that it opens in Xcode. Once it loads, click on the project name on the left and then Build Phases and then open Link Binary with Libraries. Add the security.framework to this section.

Above the Link Binary with Libraries is a folder called Copy Bundle Resources. Click the triangle to open that folder. Check to see if the Cardboard SDK.bundle is in the library. If it is not, click File, then Add file to unity-iphone. Select the Cardboard sdk from your project folder/ assets/plugins/ios. Do not have two of these files in your xcode or it will generate an error message “Multiple Build Commands to….” If this happens, delete one of the CardboardSDK. Bundles. Click product clean to get rid of the error messages, and then click the play button at the top. The Google Cardboard app will then be sent to your iPhone 5 or 6. If you want to share your app with others you

Inside Unity 3d, you can add your own terrain and texture it. You can add assets from the asset store or you can create your own assets in blender or 3ds max and import them into your app. If you are going to create your own objects, save them as a .FBX file and just drag them into your Unity project folder.

I am not going into all the details about creating inside Unity 3D. If you want to learn that, read any of the books by Sue Blackman such as Beginning 3D Game

Development with Unity: All-in-one, multiplayer game development. Some of this information is out of date, but it is still a good introduction to UNIty 3D’s interface, terrain builder, and manipulating objects in Unity 3D.

So far we have only created static objects. Just looking around to static objects is not that exciting. If you want to interact with objects in Google Cardboard you

Be Sure To…

have to code it in C#.

Yes, to some of you code is a four-letter word, but I will try to make this as painless as possible. Let’s start with the cube in the demo scene. When you click on it, it just moves, but let’s destroy it when you click on it. To do that, open the demo scene in Unity 3D, and click on all scripts. Locate the teleport script and double click on it to open it in monodevelop. This is the script editor that comes with unity 3d. You can also use visual studio to edit the script. Scroll down to the public void Teleportrandomly function. Delete all the code in the curly brackets {} and replace it with this statement: Destroy (gameObject); then do file save all.

JOIN

THE FUN!

Now when you click the cube, it will be destroyed.

ISTE Social Night at House @ Blues the first Tuesday of Every Month! Join House @Blues group in SL for announcements of upcoming events!

Hope to see you there!

HELLO EVERYONE! That’s what we do… say “Hello”… unceasingly in Second Life (SL). In fact, up to 42% of our SL activity is saying “Hello.”

Why?

It’s fun! Hello is basic courtesy. Hello acknowledges people and honors our friends. Hello lets everyone know we are present and active. Hello invites a friendly response – another Hello. Hello is what we do and share most-of-all in SL.

SL is everywhere there is Internet, which is everywhere on Earth; 190 countries. It’s awesome. That means there are at least 190 ways to say hello. While in SL I’ve noticed there are special ways to say hello in SL cultures – ways to greet that don’t appear in textbooks. Vernacular (that is native or indigenous speech as opposed to literary or learned speech) is how ordinary people speak in a language culture. I’ve heard a lot of that in SL and picked up quite a few language tricks.

In this article, I will share how to say “Hello” in many SL vernaculars and cultures. Why? It’s fun! Because knowing local knowledge empowers you to travel anywhere in SL in any culture and “fit in” and greet people with warmth. Hello in their words honors their culture. The power to be accepted everywhere… ultimately becomes the possibility of world peace. Or spycraft! Tee Hee!?

The Art of Hello

By Maggie Mae Bhaktiguru (RL) any1 Gynoid (SL)

FYI – I use everything in this article frequently and fluently in SL.

Let’s get started. Knowing how to say hello in one nation is readily accepted in neighboring RL cultures. Example: Zdravo (Macedonian) is a greeting accepted by Greek, Serbian, and others nearby. Learn one; learn all!

In order by World Population

#1 CHINESE – Ni Hao is hello in our world’s most populous country.

#2 SPANISH – Hola is hello or Ola, which is also used in Portugal and Brazil.

#3 ENGLISH – Not everyone speaks English. It’s not required coursework in numerous countries. Nevertheless, English is defacto common language across SL and RL. All SL advertising is supposed to be in English. Common English hellos are: Hello, Hey, Hiya, Hi, and more warmly Hi Hi!

Tag lines are phrases you can add to most any greeting that juice it up, making it warmer and more emphatic. Meaning “you are VERY welcome my friend.”

Example: I greet “Hiya Jane! Hugs” and “Hey, John! Cheers!” Or to really juice up a greeting, add a double or triple tag line, like “Hi Hi Jane! Hugglez Babe!” and “Hugs John! GTSY Cheers Mate!”

Americans can always add “and stuff”… like “Hiya Jane! Hugs and Stuff!” lol

Simple huh? All right. Let’s go global!

#4 HINDI – Namaste is a universal hello, recognized throughout South Asia and new-age spiritual communities, literally it means “I pray to the god inside you.” By universal hello, I mean it is always appropriate everywhere.

#5 ARABIC – Salaam is hello, in response they say Wasalaam or type “ws”. These abbreviate the universal Islamic greet-

ing: “as salaam ‘alaykum” (Peace Be With You!) and in response “wa ‘alaykum salaam” (And Also With You!). Sound familiar? There is no unique spelling; it’s phonetic. Salaam!

In terms of population

#9 JAPANESE – Konichiwa and Konbanwa are good morning and good afternoon, and will be much appreciated by Japanese speakers. Tag line: Hai! Hai! means Yes! Yes! This adds great warmth and enthusiasm. Extend the courtesies: Arigato means thank you and Arigato Gomasai means thank you very much.

#10 PUNJABI (See #4).

#6 PORTUGESE (See #2) Bom Dia (good day), Boa Tarde (good afternoon), Boa Noite (good evening), Obrigado (thank you - oddly like the Japanese arigato), and Abraços (Hugs!)

#7 BENGALI (See #4).

#8 RUSSIAN – Privet (Hello); Spasibo! (Thanks); Pojalysta (please, my pleasure) and Dosvedanya means until we meet again. “Dosvedanya Comade!”

We’ve covered how to say hello to 3 billion people thus far… Now for some real fun!

#11 GERMAN – Hallo! German speaking people in SL are special, kind of wild, and fun. IMHO. “huhu” means friendly hello. You can embellish as “huhu du” and “huhu du du” adding warmth and great warmth. For friends you hold dear, you can add “chen” or “maus” to their name, like Janechen and Janemaus, terms of endearment, which literally mean little dog and little mouse. Danke Schoen!

#18 FRENCH – In French culture, you are family (dear friend) or you are not. Numerous RL people think the latter. In SL,

we meet each other at the level of fantasy… immediate friendship if we connect properly. Bonjour means good day and Bonsoir means good evening. Bonsoir Tout Le Monde is hello everyone. Important To Know: Coucou is a very friendly form of hello. Be careful with the following tag lines, but for French people you know well it’s perfectly okay to add: mon chouchou which means my honeybun; je taime means I love you and mon cheri means my lover. Coucou Je Taime!

#50 DUTCH – Dutch people have a reputation for being crazy funsters. Well deserved. Hoi Hoi is a very warm hello. Moin is a bittersweet (subtly sarcastic) hello/ goodbye used in Germany, Belgium, and Denmark, too.

Lightning Round

Here is a quick review of other important ways to say hello…

AUSSIEs and KIWIs are very special funsters who make great fun at the oddest hours. G’Day and Gidday mean good day. Ahoy is nautical hello. Key tag lines: Oi Oi Oi and Mate! Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi is the national cheer.

New Zealand: Kia Ora is hello in Maori, the native people of NZ (a very important influence in SL)

SCOTTISH: Slainte (Cheers! To Life!); b’ah gabhar bras (hello hugs in Gaelic).

IRISH: Cead Mille Falte means 1000 welcomes.

ITALIAN: Ciao is hello and goodbye. Tag lines: Cara Mia means my love (careful with that). Bene Bene means it’s all good.

JAMACAIN: “Blessed Love” is a form of hello beloved in reggae, soul, R&B communities in SL.

HAWAIIAN: Aloha is a universal hello. Mahalo is hello and thank you;

YISROEL: Shalom means peace. Shabbat Shalom on Friday nights and Saturdays. Yom Tov on holidays.

SWEDISH/VIKING: Hej means hello and yes. Tag line: Pussar och Kram means kisses and hugs, Tack is thank you.

TIBET/Bhuddist: Tashi Delek means may good things come to your place.

MERMISH: Tala is hello. Lusa Em is goodbye.

DANISH: Hejsa! Is a very friendly hello!

AFRICA: Ubuntu (in Zulu) means “a person is a person through other people”... Possibly the most important thing you can learn from all this jazz.

Now, you know enough to be dangerous. Please don’t cause any international incidents. LOL

Go forth and have fun! From your heartof-hearts, these incantations of love will spring forth… and multiply… Spread Peace, Love, and Harmony.

ISTE Machinima Nights How to get onto AvaCon Grid

By Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie Vojtek (SL)

For Machinima Night on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 5 pm (slt) we will be using our space on the AvaCon Grid. This is an education-and-nonprofit-only OpenSimulator Grid. It is *not* accessible from Second Life, or with the Second Life viewer. You’ll need a different viewer, such as Firestorm (www.firestormviewer.org/) or Singularity (www.singularityviewer.org/).

If you already have an OpenSimulator account that is Hypergrid enabled, you can Hypergrid jump to http://grid.avacon. org:8002. When you arrive, look for Gridjumper or one of the ISTE VEN Machinima organizers and they will teleport you to our location.

More detailed info is available HERE: https://www.avacon.org/blog/avacon-grid/

A free AvaCon account can be set up on that page, too.

In case you missed the VWBPE 2016 Machinima Showcase, the following is a list of Machinimas that were featured. These are excellent examples of what people are creating in virtual environments. Enjoy these machinima. We also hope to see you at the ISTE VEN Machinima nights for even more creative and artistic machinima.

The Afro Latino Foodways Museum Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJTQC1P3E8U

The Dickens Project https://youtu.be/Xejz3P47OWM

Tour of Second Life Libraries 2015 https://youtu.be/KLBnDvr6KWY

Ethridge Minecraft Club 2015: We Built the School https://youtu.be/Y-IrvObSN9U

Frank Lloyd Wright

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nS-WiavY_wo

East Coast Miners Guild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxlaXBMzCtY&feature=youtu.be

Grand Oak Techy: The Rebels

https://youtu.be/pnZ3wZCfKRg

Grand Oak Techy: Jett – math Project

https://youtu.be/8XTQxkZjKoM?list=PLkQywCkpoIZjljHKzPEBj33bu1v7qVnvX

Grand Oak Techy: Misha – Math Project

https://youtu.be/wc3O2KbqkPs?list=PLkQywCkpoIZjljHKzPEBj33bu1v7qVnvX

Grand Oak Techy: Claire – Math project

https://youtu.be/8su_NbZ5Noc?list=PLkQywCkpoIZjljHKzPEBj33bu1v7qVnvX

Grand Oak Techy: Lilly

https://youtu.be/GUNI1Uewv90?list=PLkQywCkpoIZjljHKzPEBj33bu1v7qVnvX

Grand Oak Techy: Katie

https://youtu.be/JEvI14Q2mfA?list=PLkQywCkpoIZjljHKzPEBj33bu1v7qVnvX

Grand Oak Techy: Brandon

https://youtu.be/rXVW48T4qX0?list=PLkQywCkpoIZjljHKzPEBj33bu1v7qVnvX

Tour of the Innovative Learning Centre for Medicine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua0kvUdIDOc

The Wolf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xBm-agjCg0”,”https://www.youtube.com/

VWBPE 2016 Machinima Showcase

The Community Virtual Library A Decade of Virtual World Librarianship

By Valerie Hill, PhD (RL), Valibrarian (SL)

Introduction

As libraries moved into the 21st century, new formats and platforms for information delivery became available for diverse communities and the opportunity to explore virtual world spaces presented a way to share a sense of presence across distance. Several types of presence became possible beyond the physical walls of classrooms and libraries and beyond the flat text-based space of most online course management systems utilizing discussion forums.

Within a virtual world simulation, learners and participants create an embodied self as an avatar and communicate in a shared computer environment. Research shows three types of presence experienced in virtual worlds by avatars: place presence, social presence, and co-presence (Bulu, 2012). Bulu describes these three types of presence as, “The sense of ‘being there’, individuals’ response to what is ‘there’ as real or present, and individuals’ memory of the environment as a ‘place’ like in real life” (Bulu, 2012, 155).

Librarians understand the importance of providing resources to communities they serve not only through digital links, but through interaction with others where conversation leads to deep critical thinking about information needs and questions. Utilizing the interaction and sense of presence within a virtual world is one way to reach library users outside of the physical library walls. While not the only virtual world used for education, Second Life has been a popular virtual world with colleges, universities, and libraries for over a decade and many educational groups, such as ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) continue to collaborate and network on a global

scale (Wheelock and Merrick, 2015).

A Brief History of the Community Virtual Library in Second Life

The Community Virtual Library has been an active library hub since April 2006, when first founded by the Alliance Library System (ALS) of Illinois. Librarians from all over the world have volunteered to collaborate through this virtual library presence in the virtual world of Second Life (SL). In May 2006, a full sim called Information Island was acquired through a donation. A wide range of subjects and genres such as the arts, science fiction, mysteries, medicine, children’s literature and world religions were shared in a traditional library building and through creative simulation. During the first years, over 40 library partners served the SL community, including organizations, nonprofits, government agencies and educational institutions.

In 2010, ownership of the project was transferred to the Community Virtual Library (CVL) Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Then in 2015, CVL moved to Bradley Island near San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ Bradley%20University/57/114/27. CVL continues to maintain a library building with open source material, a reference desk, outdoor amphitheater and a pub, as well as an exhibit and meeting space. In addition, volunteers host regular discussions, programs, and storytelling events. Librarians are exploring the virtual “sense of presence” for both synchronous and asynchronous experiences. Volunteer catalogers help collect and share not only traditional resources (links to online information and books in eformat) but also catalog simulations and interactive

virtual world experiences on sims (regions or islands in the virtual world). In addition, volunteers build and script interactive library related exhibits and plan events on a global scale.

Lori Bell and Rhonda Trueman, two leaders and early virtual world adopters for librarianship, wrote the first book to address the potential for utilizing MUVEs (Multi-User Virtual Environments) for library services. Bell and Trueman shares numerous examples of librarians working in Second Life and they believe, “Innovation in virtual worlds shines through the collaboration, creativity and volunteerism of librarians from all over the world (Bell and Trueman, 2008, p. xviii).

After examining over 75 virtual world libraries in Second Life, Gannt and Woodland concluded virtual worlds present potential for librarianship. The researchers believe, “Building on the experiments and successes we have documented in SL, we are confident that libraries and information space will be created in new virtual environments” (Gannt and Woodland, 2012, p. 138).

The American Library Association has played an important role in

networking for librarians interested in exploring virtual worlds. The Association for College and Research Librarians Virtual World Interest Group (ACRL VWIG) holds monthly programs on library related topics, such as book discussions, presentations of research in information science, and sessions on new media formats and the library of the future. Another ALA group is the Virtual Communities in Libraries Member Initiative Group which meets jointly with the ACRL VWIG and welcomes librarians in any type of library.

Examples of Virtual World Librarianship

A program focusing on education in virtual worlds was held at the July 2015 ACRL VWIG meeting. Dr. Cynthia Calongne, aka Lyr Lobo, has been an educator and observer of the VW education scene since 2005. Dr. Calongne is passionate about gaming, simulation, virtual reality, education and socio-technical futuring. She presented research on virtual worlds and future game designs. Anyone interested is welcome to attend the monthly ACRL VWIG meetings, usually held on the third Sunday of the month at noon Pacific Time.

Figure 1 Dr. Cynthia Calongne speaks at ACRL Virtual Worlds

Group

Librarians have always understood the importance of serving communities by providing a space, a so-called hub, for gathering and sharing common knowledge and interests. The Community Virtual Library serves as a space for those interested in virtual worlds to form a network. Friends of the library, educators, and volunteers are encouraged to collaborate with the Community Virtual Library to promote educational events and services.

During the past decade, exhibits on display have held live tours to simulations on topics such as math, science, health, history, art, and literature. For example, in the summer of 2012, CVL shared an exhibit called Summer in Berlin. The exhibit featured the Berlin 1920’s simulation, built by an historical consultant, and volunteers held live tours to bring visitors into the experience. Many of these virtual world events have been archived through machinima (Hill, 2012).

The simulation of Berlin in the 1920’s exemplifies virtual world communities as real individuals working in a virtual space. The group wanted to give something to the creator as a gift of appreciation for developing the unique historical space and decided to work together on a virtual digital art project by making quilts. Residents of the Berlin sim were asked to help create something beautiful yet functional and Konder writes, “Over 40 Berliners responded with submission of a piece of fabric that represented something about their identity, or a precious memory, or something they feel about the town” (Konder, 2015, 1).

Zoe, a librarian in Hawaii, presented a session about the Berlin Quilt Exchange at the Community Virtual Library in August 2015. The concept of taking a personal digitized object and sharing to make a digital quilt for a community is unique and exemplifies that virtual world communities are made-up of real people who share real experiences in virtual spaces. These individuals have information needs similar to those in physical libraries but sometimes uncommon or completely new which offers exciting opportunities for librarians.

During the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference 2016, volunteers from CVL led a role-play event called Medieval Quest. Built by Brant Knutzen at the University of Hong Kong, the Quest simulation is a literature-based treasure hunt based on Camelot with clues scattered throughout a Medieval village. Educators from around the world attended the event and demonstrated how students of various age levels could use a virtual world to enter a simulation of history. The librarians met several times to plan roles and ways to help at the live event, including teleporting (immediately moving to another area) to lost participants, sharing instant messages, providing hints while remaining in character or interacting as a character from the village, such as a priest, villager, pub owner, old hermit, or member of royalty. The librarians could imagine students in the future not only reading a book or watching a movie about a subject, but “entering the book” as an active participant.

Other examples of innovative library programs and projects have taken place at the Community Virtual Library. Book discussions in all genres from children’s literature and poetry to science fiction or classic literature have been offered. Current books or even banned books (often celebrated during Banned Books Week to promote intellectual freedom) can be discussed with readers around the world. Books on display at CVL often have online links to resources about them or free versions for readers.

Figure 2 Librarian Zoe shares the Berlin Quilt Exchange at CVL

Looking Toward the Future of Libraries

Not everyone chooses to use virtual worlds for learning and collaborating across distance, but most everyone understands that technology tools now allow us numerous choices for communicating and sharing information and experiences. Some of the Web 2.0 tools and apps available make user-generated content appear sleek and professional but the actual learning take place is often shallow. For example, a student can create a puppet show that rivals a Hollywood movie production with a simple iPad app in under 3 minutes, but no deep learning is actually required. And many social media sites promote quick, trivial sharing of photos which might be called disposable media and rarely lead to deep learning. Research and inquiry are recursive processes that require revision, reflection, and what Kristin Fontichiaro (library science educator) calls ‘rigor’. Re-entering research concepts and continuing on a learning journey toward deep learning beyond quick disposable media requires critical thinking and embedding high-level content into any chosen tool but particularly technology tools and apps. Fontichiaro states, “Technology is not merely a showcase for student work: it propels the student work” (Fontichiaro, 2011, 9).

Finding the best technology tools to promote deep learning will be a challenge for educators in the future. Augmented reality combines physical and digital space providing links to video, images, and information and embedding them within “trigger

images.” Mulch, a high school librarian uses Aurasma, an augmented reality app, as a unique way to provide library orientation to students and teachers. He says, “Instead of my voice I imagined our students hearing and, more importantly, seeing like magic on an iPad screen their fellow students and teachers showing them around the library” (Mulch, 2014, p. 51).

In addition to augmented reality, virtual reality (VR) may soon enter libraries with head-mounted displays and VR coming on the mainstream market in 2016. A husband and wife team shared a recent demonstration of a head mounted display (HMD) at the Australian Library and Information Association in Sydney, Australia. Michael and Constance Wiebrands presented the potential uses of VR at a well-attended session for librarians. Both advantages and disadvantages were discussed as they told about providing virtual experiences in the library (Lewis, 2015).

Librarians have exciting opportunities ahead which include all spaces: physical, virtual, and augmented. Whichever space a librarian chooses to utilize to serve a community, it is imperative to evaluate both the tools and the information embedded within them and to help learners understand how to evaluate for themselves. No longer are we only citizens of a particular physical community, we are digital citizens as well with information intake of massive quantities. The flood of information can be overwhelming.

None of us can become experts at every tool and format now available as technology is rapidly changing; however, we can build a professional learning network to help us become aware of the wide-variety of tools available within all types of library spaces.

The Community Virtual Library is a virtual space which can help librarians build a professional learning network and share innovative technology trends in information science. With the goal of promoting digital citizenship and high quality learning envi-

Figure 3 Medieval Quest with CVL librarian volunteers, March 2016

ronments, we can be aware how easy it is to create disposable media. Certainly video games can be fun and engaging, but only through intentional design is critical thinking and accuracy of content provided for the user. This, too, is applicable to virtual world activities because exploring virtual worlds may be fun and exciting but only through evaluation of the simulation for accuracy, authenticity, and quality can deep learning take place. Choosing to learn in virtual environments in this manner might be called ‘intentional immersion’ and for some individuals, the learning curve is not easy.

Young students are certainly ripe and ready for learning in vir-

tual worlds as millions of them use Minecraft, a virtual world building space. Perhaps, as these youngsters enter college, virtual worlds will provide immersive experiences and simulations beyond what is possible in physical space. Medical simulations, historical re-enactments, space exploration and other exciting possibilities may be created in virtual worlds or in virtual reality.

Whether the Community Virtual Library continues in Second Life or evolves to a different format is unknown. The librarians who have worked at CVL will have contributed to the field of information science by pioneering new territory in a time of revolutionary change.

References

Bell, L. & Trueman, Rhonda B. (2008). Virtual worlds, real libraries: librarians and educators in Second Life and other multi-user virtual environments. Medford, N.J: Information Today.

Bulu, S. T. (2012). Place presence, Social Presence, and Satisfaction in Virtual Worlds. Computers & Education, 58(1), 154-161.

Fontichiaro, K. (2011). “Let it rest:” reflecting on instructional practice. School Library Monthly, 27(8), 8-10.

Gannt, J.T., and Woodland, J.R. (2013). Libraries in Second Life: Linking Collections, Clients, and Communities in a Virtual World. Journal of Web Librarianship, 7(2), 123-141.

Hill, V. (2012). Summer in Berlin Virtual Exhibit and Tours. Retrieved April 11, 2016 from https://youtu.be/l6YpgJlVwHk

Hill, V. & Lee, H. J. (2009), Libraries and immersive learning environments unite in second life. Library Hi Tech 27, (3): 338-56.

Kondor, S. (2015). The Berlin Community Quilt Presentation and the Quilt Exchange Project. Retrieved April 13, 2016 from https:// schoolofmines.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/the-berlin-community-quilt-presentation-the-quilt-exchange-project/

Lewis, R. (2015). Virtual Reality: Soon to Become Mainstream in Libraries? (cover story) Information Today. 32(4), 1-29.

Mulch, B. E. (2014). Library Orientation Transformation: From Paper Map to Augmented Reality. Knowledge Quest, 42(4), 50-53.

Wheelock, A. and Merrick, S. (2015). 5 Virtual Worlds for Engaged Learning. ISTE International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved April 13, 2016 from https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=395&category=In-the

Avatar Repertory Theater

Experimental Theater in Virtual Worlds

An Interview with Judith Adele (Ada Radius)

By Rosie Vojtek (SL), Roxie Neiro (SL)

I had the great fortune of getting to meet and work with Judith Adele (rl), Ada Radius (sl) and the Avatar Repertory Theater during the 2016 VWBPE Conference. The Avatar Repertory Theater performed Robert Frost’s 1915 modernist masterpiece, “North of Boston” using live voice on Friday, March 11, 2016 at 7 pm slt. The actors included: JadaBright Pond (Susan WolfeHill), Sodovan Torok (Iain McCracken), Emil Jannings, and Ada Radius (Judith Adele). The sets were designed by Ada Radius, using some builds by Arcadia Asylum.

Roxie: Ada, Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with me. I had so much fun getting to know you and watching “North of Boston” at VWBPE16 and wanted to learn more about your Ensemble and the Avatar Repertory Theater project. First of all, tell us who you are and who the ensemble members are.

Ada: Thank you Roxie, we had fun too! A list of our current members is on the Avatar Repertory Theater website. You can see it here. About half a dozen of us are off doing “real world” theater and television projects right now so we’re quieter so far this year.

Roxie: Sounds like you are busy! Please tell us how the Avatar Repertory Theater got its start?

Ada: That’s interesting – I’ve gotten the question recently from other people, about how ART got started, so I wrote an article for New Media Art’s blog. Rather than quote from it, I’ll just give you the link to the article, “Avatar Repertory Theater – past, present, future.”

AVATAR REP

Avatar Repertory Theater

Experimental Theater in Virtual Worlds

Roxie: Where do you perform your shows? Is there one venue that works better than another?

Ada: We have, in the past, performed mostly in Second Life, and we had a weekly show at Selby Evans’ Cookie sim for about seven years. Over the last year,

LIBRARY

We have put on about 290 shows, starting in 2008, mostly in Second Life.

we’ve been gradually moving to OpenSim venues – we performed at AvatarFest and OSCC in 2015, and plan to do much more, probably starting later this year or next year at the Cookie II world on the Kitely grid.

Roxie: What shows have you performed in Second Life?

Ada: We have put on about 290 shows, starting in 2008, mostly in Second Life.

Arcadia Asylum Library and Freebie Center

ART ACTORS

Avator Repatory Theater actors board so you can see the players avatar

Four immersive shows – Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”, and Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”, and several other shows that were part of an installation or special build. We’ve done quite a few virtual world conventions, and we ran a weekly show “Plays Around” for seven years – everything from simple workshops to fully staged plays. There’s an archive list and you can see more detail at other pages on our website.

Roxie: Which show(s) are your favorite?

Ada: I think the three I got the most out of were: Howard Barker’s “13 Objects” for the 21for21 festival in 2009; Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”, working with Jack Turner (Dolgoruky Umarov) on our own adaptation; and Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor” which was my first time working on an adaptation based on the quartos and First Folio.

Roxie: What show was the most difficult to produce and why?

Ada: Our two Alice shows – “Alice in Wonderland” in 2010 and “Through the

Looking-Glass” in 2011. They were two of our immersive shows, where we put the audience into the scene – falling down the rabbit hole, swimming in the pool of tears, riding the train with Alice, in the parlor with the chess pieces, and so forth. Each of these shows took a year for our teams to build and script the sets, design the all-original avatars, write the adapta-

ist out there – her stuff is wonderful for theater.

ning to end to bring a show to Opening Night?

Roxie: Thank you for sharing the Arcadia Asylum. I have never been there, and I bet many of our readers have never been there, either. What a GREAT find! Definitely worth exploring!

tions from the Lewis Carroll novels, test and rehearse. Wonderful experiences, but difficult.

Roxie: Yes, I can only imagine! But, how fun! So, how do you design your sets?

Ada: Our sets range from two chairs on a stage to huge immersive installations that take up a sim. Some of them are all original avatars and designs. More of them use off-the-shelf set pieces. The actors often provide costumes from their own inventories. I’ve used Arcadia Asylum/Aley pieces more than any other art-

Ada: Yes. We also pay a lot of attention to sightlines and Talk range for our audiences. Blocking and camera views for the actors.

Roxie: What building tricks do you use to make set changes quickly?

Ada: I’m currently using Builder’s Buddy scripts to store and rez sets. We’ve used other systems, but OpenSource scripts are better for modifying, copying and transferring.

Roxie: How long does it take from begin-

Ada: It ranges from over a year for the big immersive shows to maybe 3-8 hours prep for a director holding a workshop.

Roxie: It sounds like a lot of work. What are some of the challenges to doing so?

Ada: The biggest challenge is scheduling –our actors live in all the North American time zones, Canada, England and Australia.

Roxie: Finding a common time that works for everyone is always a problem. It seems like someone is always going to bed when someone else is just getting up. I am curious, what are some of the tips and tricks you have discovered to help actors change their avatar costumes quickly, attach props and use them easily, and move their avatars appropriately?

Ada: Each actor has his or own method –either folders in Inventory, or using links in Outfits. I usually use Outfits, and also open all the animations I’ll need (the ones not already in my AO – Animation Override) and stack them up on my screen. I stash props outside the Inventory folders so they’ll be in a numbered stack at the bottom of the Inventory window.

Roxie: Oh, those are good ideas. I am going to have to try them, as one of my greatest challenges in SL is the organization of my inventory! What are some of the bloop-

ers – or those things that you couldn’t have predicted would happen, and once they do, you just have to laugh at the situation or yourself?

Ada: [laughing] We laugh a lot! In the early years, 2008-2010 or so, the technical glitches were the big bloopers. Actors crashing, mics that fail, costumes that don’t rez. Along with griefers, the trolls of the virtual worlds. Now we can improvise around or cover for each other for anything except a total sim crash. We usually turn off our mics if we’re not going to be speaking for a while. Forgetting to turn it back on is the most embarrassing blooper of them all.

Roxie: Yes, from presentations I have done in SL, I know that feeling all too well, as do many of our readers. Our theme for this issue is “Building Community.” How have you built a community with your Ensemble, especially since members live around

the world?

Ada: Rehearsing and performing shows together – you get to know the other actors very, very well. We’ve also learned or invented a lot together, such as compensating for Talk lag by walking our lines back a few syllables into the previous speech. It takes practice and meticulous attention to detail, and we have to work together as a team.

Roxie: Definitely. It is all about relationships and working together. How does bringing theater into virtual environments help to create community?

Ada: The audiences participate a lot during performances. They comment and applaud in the chat channel, make friends with each other, have their favorite seats in the theater. Occasionally they’ve gotten together in our Second Life theater when we weren’t there, and sent us

snapshots of the party! Many are highly literate and knowledgeable, and their feedback is immensely helpful and to the point. We’ve designed our theaters and sets so actors backstage are within chat range, so we can read what they type during the show. They also communicate via the tip jar or by sending virtual flowers to an actor, or by inviting their friends to join them, increasing audience size. When we do something right, they let us know! When we’re boring, they leave; we’ve learned a lot from those experiences, too. It’s one of the irreplaceable aspects of live theater.

Roxie: How has the Avatar Repertory Theater used machinima?

Ada: We have recorded quite a few of our live shows and have produced several machinimas: trailers for live shows, one original piece that came out last year, and tutorials – links are up at the website. We have two projects in the works right now, a podcast of the entire North of Boston collection with New England and virtual world images, and a short horror video/ machinima from a short story written by Iain McCracken that he published at Amazon a few years ago.

Roxie: Tell me about “New Media Arts: Digital Arts Online and in Virtual Worlds.” How is the Avatar Repertory Theater involved with New Media Arts projects?

Ada: Avatar Repertory Theater is a project of New Media Arts Inc, which is a 501(c)

(3)nonprofit arts organization. We have three ongoing projects: Avatar Repertory Theater, Cookie II, and Antique Pattern Library.

Roxie: The Antique Pattern Library is also a part of the New Media Arts organization. How are the publications and patterns being preserved? Why is this important?

Ada: Libraries and museums are de-acquiring craft books by the truckload, and have been for over ten years. Readable reproductions tend to be expensive, and not easily available, even online. We think that works in the public domain should be free. We take in donations of scans of craft books in the public domain (usually published before 1922), volunteers edit them so that they’re usable by crafts people, and we publish them at the website: http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org.

Roxie: How interesting and exciting. What a lot of work – but so valuable.

Ada: Craft heritage is in our hands. There are many online groups that share their knowledge for specific crafts, such as Irish Crochet Lace or Renaissance carpen-

try. The library helps feed that, by preserving and publishing the information. Especially the graphics, such as embroidery pattern charts. Most of our books right now are needlework pattern books, but we also have book illustrations, music, carpentry, drawing and theater books –set design, costume design.

Roxie: Talk about the Cookie II project. How are you using virtual world theater in OpenSim spaces?

Ada: Susan Wolfe-Hill (JadaBright Pond), who performed with us for VWBPE, has been building out New Media Art’s world at the Kitely grid – Cookie II. It’s a 16 sim world that already has a blues club, a comedy club, a Renaissance theater, a black box theater, a sandbox, a colonial and a Victorian house for demos of patterns from the Antique Pattern Library, and some of the Arcadia Asylum Hobo/ Urban Blight builds. More venues are on the planning board. It’s already being used for WIP events for builders at the Sandbox, and a weekly DJ event at the blues club. We’ve also been using our limited access worlds at Kitely to produce video for a few years now. This new world will provide venues for all kinds of live theater and other events.

Roxie: I am going to have to check that out! Let’s plan to do a future story about your work on Kitely. I want to call attention to the “Have A.R.T. Will Travel Guide” that is posted on the New Media Website. This is a great way for avatars to learn how to hy-

pergrid to other virtual environments such as Kitely and AvaCon. We get questions all the time about how to hypergrid, so thank you for posting this wonderful resources on the New Media Website. Do you have any suggestions for Avatars new to hypergridding?

Ada: The guides tell all! The short answer: use a viewer, 64 bit if possible, compatible with OpenSim software – I’m using FireStorm for OS right now. Figure out where your primary login home will be –mine is at the Kitely grid, Emil Janning’s is at Metropolis grid, for example. Keep that inventory slim, and keep anything you need to travel with, especially your avatar parts and AO animations, in your Suitcase folder in Inventory. It’s a blast –there are thousands of grids to explore. Most information about OpenSim events can be found at Google+ communities.

Roxie: What New Media Arts Avatar Repertory Theater events have you done in other virtual worlds/environments?

Ada: We have a fund-raising video out that combines virtual world media with videos of our real-world selves. We also did a mixed media event in Boston, for the SL7B convention in 2010. Joff Chafer, who teaches at Coventry University in England, directed that. He combined ART avatars performing at the Coventry U sim in Second Life with a live ART actress as Alice in Boston to do the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland, using clever arrangements of cameras and mics.

Roxie: Very clever. I wish I could have been there to see it. Are productions more challenging to produce in other virtual worlds/ environments? If so, what makes them more difficult?

Ada: Each has its challenges. Since I’m working mostly in OpenSim grids these days, I can talk about them more accurately. Here are some definitions from Selby Evans’ blog. I think working in hypergrid OpenSim grids is easier for productions than the closed grids, such as Second Life and Inworldz. Some of the OS

I also enjoy the access to more free open source objects, animations and clothing –everything from the thousands of Linda Kellie and Arcadia Asylum designs to the military funded Moses worlds that are now available for free.

Since virtual land is cheap in the OpenSim grids, we can dedicate a whole empty sim for making avatars and costumes, so uploads and rezzing are very fast. Because uploads are free, we can test dozens of models and textures while working out design concepts with a team.

live thunderstorms with rain and lightning, but it’s difficult for an avatar to pick up a cup from a table and hand it to another avatar. The second criteria is that we have to be able to cast it – what voices are required, who do we have available. There aren’t that many skilled actors who are also skilled at running avatars at the same time. After that it’s fund-raising. . . we’re paying our artists, programmers, engineers and performers now, which means fewer projects, and, we hope, better ones with less burnout. So the project has to be appealing to potential donors or grant agencies.

server software is less advanced than in Second Life, such as physics, and that’s a problem that may improve. Tools available in the OpenSim grids that aren’t available in Second Life include Non Player Characters (NPC’s) that are easy to make and animate for extras and crowd scenes.

Roxie: How do you decide which shows you are going to perform? What criteria do you use for selecting the shows?

Ada: It has to be a story we can tell with avatars and virtual props. We can have live flying dragons, live explosions and

Roxie: If you could pick a show or shows that you would love to perform in a virtual environment what would they be and why?

Ada: I want to do all of the Shakespeare plays, adapting from the original folios and quartos. Shakespeare is ideal for performing in virtual theaters – it’s all about the voice acting. Sets and costuming can be simple, or as elaborate as we have time for. The early modern English of the 1600’s quartos and folios is spelled quite phonetically – which is how we’re beginning to communicate with each other in emails and texting in the 21st century. Using these adaptations, we can rehearse

a show in about the same number of rehearsals that Shakespeare’s company got –not many at all! It just works. And each new audience in virtual worlds that we perform for includes a few people who have never seen Shakespeare performed live. The outreach possibilities are worth exploring.

Roxie: Absolutely! What shows can we look forward to seeing during the 2016 season?

Ada: If a few more of our actors become available, I have an adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona waiting for them! But I applaud their success in traditional theater and media, so I’ll be patient. Meanwhile we’re working on the podcast and video.

Roxie: Is there anything else that I didn’t ask that you would like to tell our readers?

Ada: Yes! A.R.T. is always looking for actors! If you’re interested in acting in this

A.R.T. is always looking for Actors!

fascinating new media, please contact us! Information is at the website.

Roxie: Thanks again for taking time to do this interview with me. We look forward to watching future performances! Keep up the GREAT work!

Ada: Thank you!

Community Building is Imperative in the Game of Ingress

By Tanya Martin (RL), Gridjumper (SL)

Communities are “interacting population of various kinds of individuals “ according to Miriam Webster. Many games are aligned to that definition.

The augmented reality (ARG) online location based game, Ingress, comprises a variety of individuals who interact and play to accomplish a particular goal. Ingress is a product of Niantic Labs, a subsidiary of Google. The game includes a science fiction based narrative, providing players with a common “history” and vocabulary.

The Ingress community is a global community, the only requirements being the ownership of a smartphone with a data plan and eligibility for a Gmail account. Regional and local Ingress communities plan and play together as they contribute to the global Ingress “mission”.

Portals are culturally significant locations in the local community. In this image the Fort Lauderdale Welcome Sign is fully deployed and owned by the Enlightened Team.

Ingress requires players to physically walk around and locate sites, which have been identified as “portals.” Portals are culturally significant locations in the local community. In a sort of digital “steal the flag” scenario, the Ingress player claims, fortifies and maintains portals using the software on their Ingress scanner, a smartphone. Ultimately portals are connected and regularly scheduled checkpoints provide a score for the local, regional and global teams. Individuals level up and earn badges as they contribute to the community objectives. Badges are displayed on a profile page in the scanner and must continually be earned in order to level up in the game.

The image indicates each faction claiming ownership on two different sides of a park. The blue portals indicate Resistance ownership, green indicates Enlightened ownership, and white portals are yet unclaimed. It is interesting how factions interact within the game, as it varies among regions. Some are more competitive and even combative while others may work together to form a graphic that requires collaboration.

To participate in the Ingress community an individual must download the Ingress software (free in the App Store) and select one of the two possible teams, Enlightened or Resistance. Those wanting to play together are advised to join the same team. Upon logging in the local Ingress community, particularly the selected faction membership welcomes the new player and offers assistance.

An individual can play begin to play solo but eventually the need to collaborate and communicate with others becomes apparent. Community building is an integral part of the game as it is impossible to advance in the game without the assistance of fellow players. Often the strategizing is remote, using either the Ingress Communication channel or another communication software product like SLACK or Google chat.

Face-to-face meet-ups and events are common. Teams meet up by faction to complete missions that help everyone to level in the game and help the team faction. Organizers emerge, typically those who have played longer, and determine missions and meet-ups using the Ingress Intel Map.

Players can view the Ingress Intel map and zoom in to a specific area to strategize and develop plans for local, regional and global operations.

The three images above show regional, local and global scores at a particular time. Winning sides vary from location and time and increase of activity is generally apparent just before a checkpoint.

Ingress sponsored live events are scheduled and announced directly to players via their scanners as well as on the website https:// www.ingress.com/. The live events sponsored by Niantic are day-long events that have the two teams competing for specific day objectives, registration is required. Live events include a great deal of interaction and play among and between Ingress players. The results of the live events add to the narrative and to the global score. These events though competitive are social and community building events. After winners are announced everyone goes out to socialize.

A note from editor

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Warren Buffet

Today many of us are enjoying the shade from trees that have been planted across the metaverse thanks to the dedicated, hard work of early explorers, innovators, and pioneers, such as Matt Poole (rl), aka Cyrus Hush (sl), the recipient of the 2016 Edovator of the Year award. This is

thors shared insights into how educational avatars have successfully created virtual communities of learners in Second Life, opensims, and other virtual worlds. But, on June 5, 2016, for many of us, Second Life stood still as the news spread through digital channels. Quiet whispers, then shouts of disbelief, and then painful tears rocked our metaverse as never before of the untimely death of Matt Poole/ Cyrus Hush.

I don’t think any of us quite realized the magnitude and the strength of our various virtual communities, especially the

the highest recognition given by the Virtual Education Journal for an outstanding educator who has demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit across the digital and virtual educational realm. Among other things, Matt/Cyrus is best known in Second Life for his “Exploration Central” resources and his “Walkabout” VEJ columns.

In the Spring 2016 issue of VEJ, the au-

relationships among our intricate and tightly-woven circles of educational friends. . . a multicolored tapestry of organizations spanning virtual worlds across the metaverse grids.

As avatars gathered together to comfort each other, they shared many stories about Matt/Cyrus. From artifacts, pictures, and oral stories we began to glean all of the pieces of the puzzle that de-

fined the many qualities and patterns of Matt / Cyrus’s life. But, until now I don’t think many of us realized just how much hurt or how deeply our avatars feel pain and loss of another avatar. Lost. Gone. If a picture paints 1,000 words, the picture by Augusta looking at the “Offline Sign” of Cyrus at VSTE Island says it all (Page 51).

Although posthumously, the Virtual Education Journal Edovator of the Year Award Committee was unanimous in their decision to recognize Matt Poole (rl), Cyrus Hush (sl) as the 2016 Edovator of the Year. Well deserved, as you can see as you read through several articles and tributes to Matt/Cyrus. In addition, we have reprinted the first “Expedition… Walkabout” column by Matt/Cyrus and Matt’s Educational Philosophy.

In this issue of VEJ we are also celebrating “The Past, Present, and Future” of our existence in digital and virtual environments. As we go to publication for this issue of VEJ, Second Life is celebrating its 13th birthday, having launched from San Francisco, California on June 23, 2003. According to Linden Lab, by 2013 there were approximately 1 million regular users. With the advent of VR tools and the ability to hypergrid with suitcase in hand, the future seems infinite as we continue to explore the metaverse.

We hope you will enjoy the “Past, Present and Future – Everything About ISTE VEN” article by Scott Merrick/Scottmerrick Oh

and co-author Andrew Wheelock/Spiff Whitfield. We also hope you will dive deeply into this issue of VEJ and take time to enjoy the numerous url hyperlinks to videos and additional resources throughout this issue of VEJ that document the important work that has been done and continues to be done in virtual worlds to plant the shade trees.

Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners of the 2016 Virtual Education Journal Reader’s Choice Awards. Keep up the GREAT work!

We have timed this edition of VEJ to be published at the beginning of the ISTE2016 conference in Denver. As we go to press there are schedules and awards for the ISTE Games & Simulations Network and the ISTE Virtual Environments Network. Check them out and hope to see you at ISTE. If you are at ISTE, make sure to stop by the playground and say “hi!” We would love to meet you.

Finally, with this issue, VEJ is happy to celebrate 5 years of publications! We greatly appreciate all of the work that is happening in digital and virtual worlds and your willingness to share your experiences with the rest of us. Continue to plant those trees… Ten years from now we hope to have a lot more shade!

Once again, VEJ… Out of this World and devour every byte!

Keep Smiling, Roxie Neiro (sl), Rosie Vojtek (rl)

In this issue. . .

Past, Present, & Future

Past, Present, & Future

ISTE was at that time putting thousands of dollars a year into maintenance of ISTE Island, where a robust Docenting program scheduled educators to just hang out at various times of the International day.

Both Bill and Christine attended Matt’s funeral service on Saturday June 11, 2016 at 10 am (ET) at Oakey’s South Chapel in Roanoke, VA.

Content

ISTE Virtual Environments Pioneer of the Year Award

Congratulations Matt: 2016 Edovator of the Year

Expeditions: Matt Poole’s First Article May 2011

Past, Present & Future: ISTE Virtual Environment Network

Regarding Online Education

Remembering Matt Poole (rl), Cyrus Hush (sl)

VEJ Reader’s Choice Awards

In Loving Memory

Offline

Blended Government Courses

Learning Naturally

Collaboration on Mobile Devices

ISTE games & Simulations Excellence Awards

A Retrospective Vision

ISTE Games and Sims & VEN Playground Schedule

Writing For VEJ

To read VEJ online visit http://virtualeducationjournal.com/

follow us on Twitter @VEJournal or #VEJournal

Cover by Bob Vojtek (BJ Gearbox) adapted from photos of Matt Poole

And, the 2016 Edovator of the Year Award Goes To . . . [Drum roll, please] . . .

Matt Poole (RL), Cyrus Hush (SL)

CONGRATULATIONS, MATT!

By Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie Vojtek (RL)

The following is a copy of the speech by Rosie O’Brien Vojtek (rl), Roxie Neiro (sl), Virtual Education Journal (VEJ) Editor gave at the June 20, 2016 Memorial in Second Life for Matt Poole (rl), Cyrus Hush (sl) to celebrate his life and recognize him as the 2015- 2016 Edovator of the Year. The following is the complete text.

Good evening. My name is Rosie O’Brien Vojtek in rl and Roxie Neiro in sl. I am here tonight as the editor of the Virtual Education Journal, VEJ, to celebrate the life of Matt Poole, aka Cyrus Hush. Matt was one of our favorite authors and a VEJ columnist who brilliantly wrote “Expeditions” sharing some of his favorite places to “Walkabout.”

Cyrus was rezzed on November 13, 2006, about 3 years before me, Roxie Neiro. So, like an older brother, I have always looked up to him. Cyrus always had such great ideas, a fun-loving sense of humor, was there to help my clumsy and virtual world challenged self, and always had a new and exciting place to visit in Second Life.

I am not sure when exactly we first met. It was probably on ISTE Island sitting around the campfire chatting or dancing and having fun at an ISTE social. Cyrus often stopped by while I was serving as an ISTE docent. Along with other Second Life colleagues and friends we explored new places on ISTE Tours and Virtual Pioneer Tours. Over the years Cyrus and Roxie became good friends. Cyrus was a member of the VWBPE Social Committee for several years, participating in our fashion show and setting up expedition signposts so participants, especially those new to Second Life, could start exploring some of his favorite places.

In 2010 a bunch of us started talking about creating a publication to archive our work in Second Life.

It took us about a year to actually publish the first issue of the Virtual Education Journal. But in May 2011, five years ago, the first edition was hot off the press. As we like to say, VEJ – Out Of This World! That first issue was 40 pages long and included 11 different articles, one of which was “Expeditions” by Matt Poole, aka Cyrus Hush. In his introduction, he wrote,

Thanks to the SIGVE organizers, I will have the honor and pleasure of sharing some highlights of these explorations with you. As you read about and hopefully investigate some of these builds on your own, you may find out about new tools, new best practices, and new ways of using the medium yourselves. Or, you may just find some new places to explore! ‘See you on the road…

Cyrus

Before we published each issue of VEJ, I would contact Matt to see if he would be able to send me the next saga of his Expedition column. Many of our issues have featured Matt’s Expeditions. However, at submission time for the June 2013 issue of VEJ, Matt emailed the following:

Hi Rosie:

You are probably going to hit me but I can’t make today’s article deadline for the upcoming VEJ issue. However, you can put in my educational philosophy as an article if you want to (it’s never been published elsewhere; I’m job hunting). If your deadline changes I might be able to make it with another On Walkabout installment.

Thanks and sorry!

Matt/Cyrus

So, for the June 2013 issue of VEJ we published his philosophy. Matt ended his philosophical statement with the following:

Much like a piece of chalk, online education is just a tool in the hands of an educator. It can be used effectively or ineffectively, appropriately or inappropriately. It can be used at the wrong times or for the wrong reasons. However, the challenge and the responsibility for achieving learning objectives lie not in the chalk, but in the hand wielding it. A given online class might not be as good

as a given traditional class… or it might be just as good… or it might be far superior. The keys for success are design, implementation and, as with all things, effective communication.

Whether Matt/Cyrus was writing articles, blogging on his website, learning to produce machinima, exploring Second Life sims and other virtual worlds, or leading ISTE Tours, he was a great communicator. Like Lewis and Clark before him, Matt/Cyrus was constantly mapping his explorations and ventures into little known places, creating signposts for others to follow, and sharing his passions for newly discovered online tools and digital technologies.

During these past two weeks since his passing, Matt/Cyrus’s VSTE and ISTE friends, have shared many fond memories of him through emails and in virtual chats. We have shared stories and memories as we put together the many pieces of the puzzle that reflect the patterns of his life.

In so doing, it was clear to see Matt’s true complexity and incredibly humble and dedicated passion for moving digital educational technologies forward through their integration in online and virtual learning. It was an easy decision, even if posthumously, for the VEJ Edovator of the Year award committee to unanimously select Matt Poole/ Cyrus Hush as this year’s recipient of the highest award that the Vir-

tual Education Journal and Edovation bestows.

Although the Summer 2016 issue of VEJ will not be out until next week during the ISTE 2016 Conference in Denver, we are excited to reveal the cover, which is created with pieces from Matt/ Cyrus’s life that reflect the quintessential educator and innovator that personifies his life.

Congratulations to the 2015-2016 Edovator of the Year, Matt Poole/Cyrus Hush! Well deserved!

I would like to close with the quote that Matt used to begin his “Expedition: On Walkabout” column in 2011. The quote was by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It reminds me so much of Cyrus.

“Come, my friends,

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset…”

Matt/Cyrus was a GREAT explorer, a true pioneer, a brilliant blogger, and most of all a wonderful friend. He will be missed by us all.

*Note: You can read articles by Matt Poole in archived issues with at http://virtualeducationjournal.com/

I know that wherever Matt/Cyrus is, he is happily sailing beyond the sunset, mapping new places, blogging what he sees, and setting up Expedition signposts so one day we can all join him on his next walkabout!

Cyrus, ‘See you on the road…

Expeditions: Matt Poole’s First Article from May 2011

Reprinted from the very first

Expeditions

By Matt Poole aka Cyrus Hush

“Come, my friends,

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset…”

--Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Introduction

About a year ago, I stumbled across an interesting Second Life build. It was an extraordinarily detailed cyberpunk-art deco town with a lot of interactive content and a lush, atmospheric ambiance to it. My mini-map revealed a tight cluster of avatars in one corner of this sim. Approaching to investigate, I found a goodbye party in progress. It seemed that the day of my first visit was the very last day of this sim’s existence; it was being closed down for good.

At that point I decided to make a serious effort to wander about and keep up with the creative efforts of others in Second Life. I began a blog, an in-world group and a museum called Expedition Central, all with the objective of reviewing, advertising and cataloging as many cool and unusual builds in Second Life as possible. Many if not most of the 160+ sims that have been reviewed and cataloged to date are either of an educational nature or are related to Science, Art or Culture in some fashion.

Now, thanks to the SIGVE organizers, I will have the honor and pleasure of sharing some highlights of these explorations with you. As you read about and hopefully investigate some of these builds on your own, you may find out about new tools, new best practices and new ways of using the medium yourselves. Or you may just find some new places to explore!

‘See you on the road… Cyrus

Okapi Island

The University of California at Berkeley has dedicated this sim to the accurate depiction and investigation of the 7,000-10,000 year old Neolithic archeological excavation of Catalhoyuk, in Turkey. This project obviously has a significant budget and lots of helpers. There are instructional videos, background music and interactive exhibits all through the place.

You can climb in and out of reconstructed houses, examine artifacts and learn about the way of life for people who were just beginning to abandon the nomadic hunter-gatherer existence in favor of more permanent settlements. You can also learn about how an archeological dig is conducted and managed.

On the hillside behind the settlements you may notice a small round ball on the ground. Clicking this ball launches a short, educational and fun scavenger hunt for artifacts on the island. Clicking each item as you locate it brings you one step closer to the prize!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/30/200/23

Tropical Dry Forest

Among other things, Costa Rica is home to much of the world’s remaining tracts of tropical dry forest (meaning they actually have a hard dry season during the year). This type of ecosystem is quite rare, and remaining tracts are endangered. You can tour a recreation of the Palo Verde biological preserve at Tropical Dry Forest, nestled in the heart of the Costa Rica sims…

Upon landing you will have the opportunity to take a boat tour of the build. The boat tour is narrated, extremely informative and highly recommended. The texture details and sound effects are wonderful! I wouldn’t have thought you could do a convincing and worthwhile nature documentary in Second Life, but I would have been mistaken.

Back at the gift shop you can purchase a monkey, coati or caiman of your very own!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Palo%20Verde/179/48/22

Statue of Zeus

There are many lists of World Wonders, but the original list was the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This was a list of “must-see” Mediterranean attractions that were posted into Greek tour guide books around the First Century BC.

All but the Pyramids are gone now, but several of them have been digitally reincarnated in Second Life and it certainly is fun to wonder what the original designers would have thought…

“The Statue of Zeus was the fourth oldest of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built in Olympia in 433 BCE by the famous sculptor Phidias to adorn the Sanctuary of Zeus, where the Olympic games were held each year. It was 40 feet high…”

–retrieved from http://www.richeast.org/htwm/Greeks/wonders/statue.html

Nautilus City is actually part of the Linden continent of Nautilus. Cut through by a deep-walled canal that runs through its length, Nautilus Island sports a number of impressive-looking classical buildings facing the canal, including a reproduction of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Inside is the statue itself, which shows a seated Zeus leafed in gold. A number of other impressive Greek buildings are nearby, including a recreation of the statue of Athena from in front of the Austrian Parliament building in Vienna. This area is definitely worth a visit for any fan of classical history and architecture.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nautilus%20-%20Elissa/132/49/31

To be continued…

Note: This was the first Expedition column by Matt Poole/Cyrus Hush. It was originally printed in the May 2011 issue of the Virtual Education Journal.

Past, Present, and Future ISTE Virtual Environment Network

By Scott Merrick/Scottmerrick Oh with co-author Andrew Wheelock/Spiff Whitfield

Everything About ISTE Virtual Environments Network

Hi, Scott here. On Saturday morning, April 8, I arose as I typically do, around 5:30 in the morning. Ruby was singing the song of her people in the hallway. It was 3:30 am on the Pacific coast, Second Life Time, and I had around 4 and a half hours to get myself in gear for our presentation for the Second Life Mooc 2016. It was really only sketched out, but that’s how we roll at the ISTE Virtual Environments Network. Andrew Wheelock and I are sort of famous for working on the edge. We like to call it “Just-In-Time Design and Delivery.” It sounds much better than “Habitually Winging It.”

I dealt with the menagerie, our pups Watson and MacGuyver and our aforementioned senile cat, Ruby.

I set up my relatively new Toshiba Satellite laptop and logged into Second Life. That sounds so simple. Actually I was sidetracked for around 5 minutes as a new update of the Second Life viewer downloaded and updated software on my computer. Then I logged in.

Once Scottmerrick Oh rezzed completely, becoming him/myself out of the swirling cloud on the screen, I ambled upstairs to the Library of ISTE VEN HeadQuarters. Andy typed “Hi, buddy” and it registered on my local chat window. He was checking out the space himself, and he had updated the south library wall with a web page display prim populated with our Virtual Environments Mentors padlet page.

We chatted in text just a minute, and I told him that I was having sound issues in SL, and that I would finish out the shared Google Slides document and get it inworld prior to 8 am SLT, or my 10 am and his 11 am. If I were granted godlike powers I would eliminate time zones. That’s another story. I went to work.

Most of my images came from my years-old Flickr Pro account. I kept getting sucked down rabbit holes as I perused photographs that documented years of involvement with learning and teaching in Second Life and beyond. I had completed the first slide (view entire slideshow at http://bit.ly/everythingVEN). Plain and simple: Slides to spark memories and discussion. Let’s start at the beginning, sort of narrating here as I was to do in person. There is a video online at http://bit.ly/everthingVENvideo, since Maggie Larrimore, AKA Nancy Zingrone, was filming; so if you really want the whole shebang, viewing the PowerPoint (link above) while watching the video in a second window will pretty much do the trick. Let’s begin:

Images of David Warlick and Claudia Linden should get things off to an auspicious start, as would two snapshots from ISTE in Washington, DC, where we hosted the last of several “Second Life Playgrounds.” Note our Peggy Sheehy in the right-hand pic—holding forth to students visiting the Playground.

And here’s me at the crowded 2005 NECC in Atlanta. It was my first time with a Playground, and it was so exciting I was hooked. Love the title banner in the background: “MUVES AND STUDENTS.”

2008, San Antonio. I put this together and roped in some of the most influential virtual environments pioneers on the globe to share the bully pulpit. It sold out all 30 seats well in advance of the National Educators Computing Conference and we had a blast. The links on these slides are https://sledupotential.wikispaces.com and https://www.flickr.com/photos/optomystic/ sets/72157605927790311/

I see Kevin Jarrett, the late Scott Swanson and Peggy again, and Bill Freese, a shim in the attendee pool. What fun that was, and it was the first time we had contact with Linden Lab in the lovely form of their Education Community Manager, Claudia L’Amoreaux/Linden.

The inworld build for SLedupotential is something I threw together in a holographic virtual room within Second Life, up above the iconic ISTE Island. That was a packed sim for over two hours.

ISTE was at that time putting thousands of dollars a year into maintenance of ISTE Island, where a robust Docenting program scheduled educators to just hang out at various times of the International day. I was a volunteer in that program, and I remember how exciting it was to have teachers pop in to see what was up. We would gather on the front sidewalk and widen our circle as new colleagues rezzed. I called that “wircling.” That term hasn’t made it into the dictionary yet, but I deem it appropriate. And memorable.

The next slide held some talking points about ISTE Conferences and how our community has bellied up to the conference bar with evocative location-specific builds for those both at the conferences and unable to attend. The Red Rocks build last Denver conference was a great example. We had presentations in there concurrent with the ongoing ones at the Playground. That’s me sitting in the chair with our first Grand Poobah hat. It’s become a tradition, and we also have one we take turns wearing at conferences, though it does not have a video display and is more of a fool’s bonnet.

I blogged regularly from 2007 until the 434th post in 2014, when I shut down “Oh!VirtualLearning” to move on to other projects. The first post, May 27, 2007, proclaims my intentions: Read it here. I still believe it’s a rich resource for any educator interested in learning and teaching in virtual environments, and it developed directly as a result of the strong community that became VEN, now 1200+ members strong in the ISTE organization.

Rosie Vojtek, creator and publisher of Virtual Education Journal along with her capable husband, Bob, was on hand at the session to share some of her perspectives. I missed that due to crashing computer/sound issues, so I’m looking forward to the archived video. I don’t need to tell you about VEJ here, though. You’re reading it!

Well, I will say that it is our body of work. Published at least every 6 months since May 2011, it contains articles, some scholarly, some less so, about topics we care about. Considering that you are reading this, you do to. Peruse back issues at Issuu.com and download the app to read away on your mobile device.

Kevin Jarrett, AKA KJ Hax, hosted a long run of ISTE Island Speaker Sessions back in the day. We picked that up when KJ decided for professional reasons that Second Life was taking too much of his effort and time. As Andy and I were to share, the events went from very professional and orderly to loose and laid back. We still model that and we’re not ashamed to do so. That’s how we roll, well, in addition to liking to produce work “just-in-time.”

Definitely a talking point slide here. We met for weeks that seemed like years as we sought consensus on the pathway forward after ISTE announced closure of ISTE Island. Committee members brought widely divergent paths to the consideration table, and it took a lot before we finally agreed to continue based on ISTE’s gracious continued support in the form of (a much smaller) rental property on Eduisland 9.

Serena Offcourse, AKA Mary O’Brien, was enlisted to design and put in place our new HeadQuarters on Eduisland 9. It brought over many of the qualities that made ISTE Island Headquarters so inviting and successful. The front sidewalk was left behind, but a campfire meeting place with multi-pose Adirondack chairs took its place. The room we sat in for this session, the library, features an expandable table, as attendees discovered when they sat down. It is LSL-scripted so that when a new avatar sits down, another chair is added to the table, which in turn grows in size. It’s epitomic welcome.

It would become a much used resource over the next few years. Since 2012 there have been over 88,000 personal visits to the meeting place. While it may be true that a thousand of those were mine or Andy’s, that’s still a lot of bang for ISTE’s buck. What do we do there that draws so many visitors? Let’s start at the beginning at ISTE Island:

Andy (Spiff) and I took over the Speaker Series from our friend Kevin Jarrett when he stepped out of Second Life. At the new HQ, the presentation series changed from bi-weekly to monthly, held every 3rd Tuesday of each month. We focused on experts who could share successes learning and teaching in virtual worlds, and the introduction/interview format was retained, with Spiff leading interviews and Scott stepping in when needed. HQ was fitted with benches in an audience style format. For a good while, speaker enlistment and program delivery was handled by Barbara Truman and Frankie Antonelli. When they handed it back over to Andy and Spiff, some redesign was in order.

It was time to morph Speaker Sessions into Focus Sessions. We had a focus, after all, but more importantly we wanted to move away from the “sit & git” sort of lecture/presentation format into more of a discussion. Consequently, the audience layout was redesigned into more of a living room, with posable furniture arranged in a big circle. Focus Sessions were born. Still each 3rd Tuesday, we meet at 5pm SLT to share successes and challenges, plans and dreams. Beth and Nova do a smash-up job of lining up our focus and bringing the right leaders in to guide it. Join us, any month, to spend an hour or so in a community of learners you won’t likely forget. Keep in touch with our schedule at or in the Massive Open Online Calendar.

And then there’s Gridjumper. She leads our Machinima Nights, switching up formats so that we never know exactly how we are going to explore machinima making and sharing, just that we are going to do just that. On a recent Machinima Night, for example, our Bluebarker Lowtide explored the importance of sound in machinima-making, at one point playing a segment with one sound track, then replaying it with another to demonstrate how important a role music can play in eliciting reactions from viewers.

The ISTE Island front sidewalk meetups have been replaced by monthly informal “Open Office Hours,” led by VEN leaders and often with agenda, but just as often without. Join us. Oh, I already said that.

And finally:

The 1st Tuesday in April, Helena Kiana, AKA Barbara Seaton, led us into new territory for the first time. We met at HQ at the usual time (5pm SLT) and she laid out the goal. We would visit one evocative region in Second Life each month, and—atypically—limit our IM and chat, just roam around and explore, discover, experience; all with the goal of coming out of the hour with inspiration to write…something. ISTE VEN Writers Group was launched. The first place chosen to visit was Moneti Mori, by Chou Chou. Built as a venu for the Japanese Electronica duo’s performances, its region stream contains their music and serves as a stimulating audio track for exploring its unique cathedral-like design. I came out of the experience with a little haiku, which can be viewed online.

We tied up the session with a discussion of this year’s ISTE Conference in Denver, Colorado; we shared the news that our PLN “Virtual Pioneer of the Year” award winner will be announced in Denver at the annual meeting, which traditionally follows our 3 hour Virtual Environments Playground and will so this year. Pictured in the slide above is our “Money Shot” from ISTE 2015, where we dropped balloons out into the teeming hallway below in a fairly successful effort to draw larger attendance at our tucked-away Playground location. We apologized to Google, who was presenting beneath us, for the machine gun-like cacophony that resulted from the directions on the balloons to pop them.

In closing, thanks to everyone at SLMooc16, especially Nellie Deutsch, for the opportunity to share this live and archived. Thanks to my brother-from-another-mother, Andy Wheelock, for allowing himself to be roped into another adventure with me, and for holding down the fort during my multiple bouts with crashing computers and lost sound. And thanks to everyone who attended! And thanks to Bob and Rosie for sharing here, and thanks to YOU, the readers! Come join us for ISTE 2016 in Denver, Colorado, whether in person--where you get the annual free hugs from me-or in SL, where I can do the same! This year, in addition to action-packed interactivities (I may have made that up), we are featuring an opening keynote by Cynthia Calogne (Lyr Lobo) and a closing keynote by Bernhard Drax (Draxtor/Depres).

WOW!

See you. Life(s) is grand.

PS. . .

The future holds some very interesting options for us in Virtual Environments Work. It’s always hard for us to project into the future in any technology because of the constant ebb and flow of tech change and disruption. However, I do foresee some exciting possibilities going forward. Trends that are on the horizon

for Virtual Environments:

Art and Architecture: Virtual environments have amazing potential for artistic and architectural renderings that haven’t been tapped into by education in particular. Creating virtual art in Virtual Environments allows for interaction for the user. For example, a RL Art museum only allows for the viewer to look. Interaction is not participatory. However, art in a virtual world, could allow for others to create off of art – that is, to see art in other dimensions as well as take photographs off of the art and thus creating more art with inspiration from the original artist.

I can of course hear the naysayers, “How are my students going to use this outside of school?”

Easy: Jobs from construction workers to game designers are using virtual world tools and 3D creation items in their work. These jobs are valuable, needed, and in most cases offer careers that are sustainable and financially stable.

No longer is the stereotype of an artist, the “starving artist” caricature.

Virtual Reality is coming… (We hope) Occulus Rift1 , Samsung Gear VR2, and Google’s Expeditions3 were some of the initial entries into “Goggle On” Technology. Google has created a teaser for their new VR technology called, DayDream4. It looks as if it offers great possibility for us Virtual World builders. What’s more exciting is, it offers interactivity through a “wand” type device, which is essential for education.

Stay tuned…

“Oculus.” 2014. 15 Jun. 2016 <https://www.oculus.com/>

“Google VR - Daydream.” 2016. 15 Jun. 2016 <https://www.google.com/daydream> 1. 2. 3. 4.

“Samsung Gear VR - The Official Samsung Galaxy Site.” 2015. 15 Jun. 2016 <http://www. samsung.com/global/galaxy/wearables/gear-vr/>

“Expeditions Pioneer Program - Google.” 2015. 15 Jun. 2016 <https://www.google.com/edu/ expeditions/>

Regarding Online Education

By Matt Poole (rl), Cyrus Hush (sl)

In recent years, the growth rate for online degree programs has soundly surpassed that of “brickand-mortar” institutions. Traditional universities have understandably regarded this trend with a certain amount of trepidation. A few traditional educators have even decried the online academic environment as being cold and impersonal; even symptomatic of a “dumbing down” of the educational system. Aficianados might be inclined to defend the online educational environment by pointing out the convenience and flexibility of online classes for working adults, as well as the need to maximize educational efficiencies in the face of ongoing budgetary cutbacks.

Both sides of this debate may be missing the larger point, however. The suggestion that online classes have to be qualitatively inferior to traditional classes in any way is simply not true. Arguments against the value of an online education might include accusations that educators and students never meet face-to-face, that the intellectual dynamics of classroom discussion and debate are missing and that subtle cues of interpersonal communication cannot be expressed in an online environment. Such statements rely on assumptions, however, and the assumptions may not be valid or may not be valid anymore. Indeed, given the speed at which the Web is evolving, any limitations to Web-based learning that might still exist could disappear tomorrow.

For many educators, assumptions or misconceptions about online courses probably stem from memories of correspondence courses wherein a student received a package of readings and assignments through the mail. Once completed, the student would mail it back to an instructor for a grade. While convenient, this model was not only impersonal but made it very difficult to receive timely feedback on an assignment. However, if a given online class is destined to be merely a high-tech vision of the venerable correspondence course, it is not going to be because of a technological limitation but rather because of a limitation of vision on the part of educators.

Online education is (and always has been) going through a transition. In many cases the expectations of traditional educators and the general public are rooted in memories of earlier models of distance education, or in their own general anxieties about the online environment. However, these expectations may not be shared by their students, who may have different experiential frameworks entirely. Modern Millennials have had the opportunity to grow up in an environment of video games, video-chat, texting, email, social networks and other technologies. Educators of another generation may have adopted these technologies, either reluctantly or joyously, but they may not have had the opportunity to learn as children how to be Web natives. To many of our students,

however, the idea of online collaboration seems neither sterile nor impersonal but already a necessary part of their lives.

Apple Inc. recently launched a new series of textbooks available through their iTunes outlet. As with many of their other products, they took an innovative approach. Rather than first creating the printed text and then making a static digital copy, Apple’s innovation was to start from scratch and to leverage the full capabilities of e-book technology for each title, delivering dynamic and interactive multi-media resources that a traditional textbook, for all its tactile charm, could not be expected to match. To achieve its fullest potential, online education has to develop the same way and be built from the ground up to maximize the student experience with media-rich content, constant “check-ins” from instructors and mentors, and lots of collaborative, interactive group projects to challenge the students’ critical thinking skills.

Today, you can take a virtual tour of great museums with Google Art Project. You can dive out of the sky and explore any point on the planet with Google Earth. You can have a face-to-face conversation with anyone in the world using Skype and a webcam. You can have lively group meetings using webinars. You can network with friends and colleagues using socialnetworking sites. You can enter a virtual world as an avatar and simulate a classroom environment, complete with an avatar-instructor and other avatar-students. All of this is possible right now.

Much like a piece of chalk, online education is just a tool in the hands of an educator. It can be used effectively or ineffectively, appropriately or inappropriately. It can be used at the wrong times or for the wrong reasons. However, the challenge and the responsibility for achieving learning objectives lie not in the chalk, but in the hand wielding it. A given online class might not be as good as a given traditional class… or it might be just as good… or it might be far superior. The keys for success are design, implementation and, as with all things, effective communication.

Matt Poole May 15, 2013

First published in June 2013 issue of VEJ, pages 163- 165

Remembering Matt Poole/Cyrus Hush

An Interview with Bill Schmachtenberg (rl), Dae Miami (sl) and Christine Gries (rl), Darra Nimbus (sl)

Robert Matthew Poole, age 55

December 25, 1960 – June 5, 2016

RCyrus Hush, age 10

November 13, 2006 – June 5, 2016

Bill Schmachtenberg (rl), Dae Miami (sl) and Christine Gries (rl), Darra Nimbus (sl) knew Matt Poole both in real life and Second Life. Christine worked with Matt at the American National University (ANU) where he joined the faculty in 2003. Matt served as department chair for the information technology programs at the ANU Roanoke Valley Campus, director of online education, and director of online academics, before assuming responsibility as an online faculty member. Bill knew Cyrus in Second Life and had the opportunity to meet him at a VSTE Day Conference.

Both Bill and Christine attended Matt’s funeral service on Saturday June 11, 2016 at 10 am (ET) at Oakey’s South Chapel in Roanoke, VA. They agreed to share their friendship and memories of Matt/Cyrus as well as highlights from the funeral service with VEJ Readers.

Roxie: First of all, thank you Bill and Christine for sharing your memories of Matt/ Cyrus with us. Let’s begin first with you, Bill. How did you and your avatar first meet Cyrus Hush in Second Life (SL)?

Bill: Many years ago, my avatar, Dae Miami, first met Cyrus Hush on a Thursday night ISTE tour. Cyrus was piloting a virtual spaceship through our solar system. It was clear from our first meeting that Cyrus not only was adept at navigating the educational virtual worlds in second life, but he was a master of science. Dae was quickly hooked on these Thursday

night tours, and tried to attend them as often as he could. The problem was that I taught a class at Ferrum College at that time in the Fall, so Dae could not go as often as he liked.

Roxie: I’m sure that was frustrating. Cyrus did many excellent tours in Second Life on Thursday nights for ISTE!

Bill: As Dae went on more and more of the ISTE tours, Dae and Cyrus became good friends. Dae loved it when he heard his greeting from Cyrus as he logged into the ISTE sim and heard over his speakers,

“Hey, Dae!” Cyrus’s low tones are embedded in Dae’s head. Dae does not need photographs or videos to remind himself about how special Cyrus was.

Roxie: Yes, Cyrus was always so welcoming to everyone who showed up for his tours. Did you ever get to meet Matt in real life? Or, were you just friends in Second Life?

Bill: Yes. Years later, Karen Richardson, Director of VSTE and George Washington, Director of Technology for Franklin County Public Schools, organized a VSTE day

Interview by Roxie Neiro (sl) Rosie Vojtek (rl)

at the RPDIT (Regional Professional Development for Instructional Technology) during the Summer. I had taught for 23 years in Franklin County and was honored to be asked to present at VSTE day. That presentation was on the topic of Second Life, and was presented at the conference in both real life and Second Life.

referred to me as Dae in his answer. That day, I realized how our Second Life and real life personalities could be merged together.

Roxie: It is such a strange feeling when you realize how much you are your avatar and your avatar is you! How did you get the news about Matt’s passing?

Roxie: Interesting.

Bill: Only 6 people attended my presentation in real life, but 29 showed up in Second Life. That is when I got to meet Matt Poole for the first time in real life. He attended my session and then I attended Matt’s’ session on World of Warcraft. During his session, out of habit, Bill asked a question and started with “Hey Cyrus….”

I think only Karen and Matt understood why I used that greeting. Matt in reply,

Bill: The day I received the email from VSTE friends that Matt was no longer with us was a total shock. There was no warning. I was working with other teachers, and had no choice but to excuse myself to the bathroom so I could cry. This was the first time I had faced the loss of a real life and second life friend. Unlike losing a loved one in real life, I felt I had no immediate support from friends, colleagues, or relatives since they did not know this kind man. I had to wait until that night on VSTE island for Dae to be with people

that could support us both in this time of grief. I was glad to hear that Christine Gries, would be coming to the funeral.

Roxie: After attending the funeral for Matt, you sent out a summary to many of us who were close to Matt and Cyrus who could not attend the funeral because we live around the world. Would you just share with all of our readers your memories and experiences at the funeral?

Bill: On June 11, 2016, the funeral for Matt Poole, aka Cyrus Hush, was held in Roanoke. As far as we could tell only two members of the Second Life community were in attendance: Christine Gries (Darra Nimbus, SL); and me, Bill Schmachtenberg (Dae Miami, SL). The service began with biblical readings and songs. Meredith Poole, Matt’s sister, gave some reflections on the life of Matt. She started with a mention of his presence in the virtual reality world of second life and mentioned his SL name: Cyrus Hush. Meredith said that she knew that when word of Matt’s death reached the internet on Monday, a group of friends and colleagues gathered on the island (presumably referring to VSTE island) and said words of support of Matt. Meredith had read the commentaries and was touched by what we said, but did not read them during the funeral for the sake of brevity.

Roxie: How wonderful of her to recognize all of his close friends in SL. Did Meredith or anyone else talk about Matt’s personal life?

Bill: Yes, Meredith talked about Matt’s childhood – how he was raised by two older sisters. She talked about the death of his father at 13 during a rock dig and how Matt became a gem expert (calling everything rocks). Matt loved to read. He loved science fiction so much he shared it with his children by reading all of the Lord of the Ring Trilogy and Harry Potter to them. Matt also collected bugs. Once he hid a jar with a collection of ants in it.

with his son, but his son was better at it!

He said that Matt had started a “real” second life now that he had passed on. It was a beautiful tribute to an outstanding educator and friend. After the service, I had the opportunity to meet with Meredith, and tell her how much we all loved Matt in Second Life. I told her I, that is my avatar, Dae, was going to give a science lecture in Second Life that afternoon and

However, his dad made him release them because they were termites.

Roxie: How funny! Yet, sounds just like the inquisitive him!

Bill: Matt played a musical instrument and loved music in general. Meredith talked about how while working at JC Penny’s jewelry counter Matt would read his wife, Claudia, jokes from the World’s Worst Joke book. Reverend Todd Meyer gave a Eulogy for Matt. At the end he brought up Second Life, but defined it in a new way. Reverend Meyer also talked about how Matt played World of Warcraft

would dedicate the lecture to the memory of Matt. She was pleased.

Roxie: What a great tribute to Matt/Cyrus, to dedicate one of your science lectures to him. How did it feel being at the funeral for someone you have a stronger virtual connection with than a real life connection?

Bill: This was the first time I have attended a funeral of a friend that I have known in real life and Second Life. I had no idea what to say or how to act. I felt I didn’t have social protocols to follow for such an event. I felt the best thing to do was to honor Matt, and not bring up Second

Life. But, I was relieved when Matt’s sister, Meredith, started her reflection with his Second Life name, Cyrus. Then, having Reverend Meyer discuss Second Life told me it was ok to discuss Second Life with his sister. I had the opportunity to do that after the service was over. Later that night, I went to church with my family and was able to talk to a seminarian, who was familiar Second Life. I got the feeling that the seminarian felt it was acceptable to bring up the interests of a departed one as a way to pay tribute to them.

Roxie: Have you been back in Second Life since Matt’s funeral?

Bill: This morning, I woke up at 6:30 am, which is early for me especially since I am off for Summer break. My mind goes back to all the fun times Dae had with Cyrus in Second Life on the ISTE tours led by Cyrus. In addition to being sad, I am sort of angry that we lost Cyrus/Matt in 2016. Many see this year as the year of virtual reality. Google cardboard is very popular especially at my school. Facebook launched the latest version of Oculus Rift, and there are many other VR devices coming on the market such as Samsung VR. The commonwealth of Virginia recognized years ago that Virtual Reality must be a part of our student’s education and included it in the computer technology standards for high school students. Yet, the Department of Education (DOE) failed to give any instructions on how to carry out this worthwhile standard. It is a shame that we don’t have Matt/Cyrus still

here to guide us during this time.

Roxie: I couldn’t agree more.

Bill: It is up to us to continue Matt’s/ Cyrus’s legacy. I am glad to see his Thursday night tours continuing. I hope to bring more of my colleagues into Second Life. Recently, I brought in a friend from Alaska. So, if you see Geology Bob running around Second Life, welcome him, please. I am also happy to say that Alex Hastings will be coming into Second Life for a lecture on Titanoboa at the Second Life Science Circle sim on July 30, 10 am (SLT), 1 pm(ET)). You can attend by clicking on the slurl below: http://maps. secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/94/230/21

Roxie: Any last memories about Matt or

Cyrus you would like to share?

Bill: Matt’s final IM to Dae was “OK Bro.” How appropriate that he felt that way about Dae.

Roxie: What about you, Christine? What are your last memories of Matt?

Christine: Matt’s last words to me (Darra/ Christine) were, “Thanks for keeping me sane.”

Roxie: How did you get to know Matt/ Cyrus?

Christine: Matt and I have known each other for the past eight years (in Second Life time that is 17,520 days). During that time we have explored Second life, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and a few other

virtual worlds together. Matt encouraged me to become proficient at WOW and Guild Wars, but alas, I am a bit challenged in multiplayer games. Nonetheless, his patience helped me level up.

Roxie: Level up?

Christine: I use this term because Matt always helped people level up. For instance, while pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Leadership I attended Penn State World Campus. My true passion was instructional designing and teaching, which I was already involved in at work. With his guidance I changed programs and schools and obtained my BS in Instructional design. Matt helped me level up in my educational endeavors. When he needed an ID, since his ID turned in notice and classes were to restart in four weeks, he asked, “How soon can you come to Virginia?” In two weeks I found myself in Roanoke. Once again Matt helped me and my husband level up in life, with a better job than what I had left, and a life in a nicer part of the country.

Roxie: What was it like to work with Matt?

Christine: Our place of employment, experienced some very frustrating times, with both management and operational challenges. During our meetings at work Matt continually questioned policies that were not always favorable for students, in his mind. It was our goal to help the students, level up. During our time together

at ANU it was not always smooth sailing. We sometime argued, and he would always have a smart aleck, roundabout way of making his point. . . kind-of-like going the long way around on a WOW sim to avoid the big boss guy ready to stomp on you. Matt fostered our online team to be the best they could be by allowing us to handle the challenges and deadlines and to help him meet organizational goals. . . in essence we all leveled up.

Roxie: It sounds like you had a great working relationship. It also sounds like he was a great mentor in real life, just as he was in second life to so many people.

Christine: Matt’s many kindnesses extended not just to people. Matt loved animals. In the case of Zoro, the Greyhound, I dragged Matt, one lunch hour to the local greyhound rescue wanting to look at this dog I saw on the pet adoption pages during one of my sleepless nights. I was hoping Matt would talk me out of the hound. Matt confided in me later that he saw that I fell in love with the critter and was not going to even try. When Sarah, the kennel operator, let Zoro out in the exercise yard, Zoro immediately made a beeline for Matt and wanted to play. Zoro finally decided to check me out as well. They say animals can sense the good in a person, even when others cannot see it. Zoro knew Matt was a cool person who loved to give ear scratches. Zoro leveled up because I wound up adopting him.

sharing that with us. Do you have anything else you would like to say about Matt or Cyrus?

Christine: Cyrus/Matt, like his hero Richard Halliburton, was an explorer, a consummate educator, a good and loyal friend and I know that he is helping some angel somewhere, to navigate some scenario, to get their wings and level up.

Roxie: What a great story. Thank you for

Roxie: I couldn’t agree more. Thank you both, Bill and Christine, so much for sharing your memories of both Matt and Cyrus with us.

Brief Obituary:

http://www.roanoke.com/obituaries/poole-robert-matthew/article_b20b615a-a80e-5eff-bf2fc0193c584397.html

Guest Book:

http://www.roanoke.com/obituaries/poole-robert-matthew/ article_b20b615a-a80e-5effbf2f-c0193c584397.html#user-comment-area

Full Obituary with Guest Book:

http://www.oakeys.com/sitemaker/sites/ Oakeys1/memsol.cgi?user_id=1808132

In Loving Memory. . .

A Tribute to Matte Poole (rl), aka Cyrus Hush (sl)

Matt Poole was a kind and dedicated educator. My fondest memory of him in rl was when i met him at the RPDIT conference in Franklin County. He was giving a passionate talk about World of Warcraft. I went to ask a question and by habit referred to him as Cyrus. Karen Richardson and Matt were the only people in the room who know what I was saying. He by habit referred to me as Dae even though we were in rl.

I always loved going on his ISTE tours, and I am glad they will continue.

His last IM to me said it all...ok bro.....it was nice to know that he felt that way about me.

Bill Schmachtenberg

Dae Miami (sl)

Cyrus Hush was dedicated to education in virtual environments. He was always ready and willing to help with all sorts of projects. These two pictures are from VWBPE Conferences. In 2011 Cyrus participated in the fashion show and wore a Steampunk outfit complete with goggles. He had an inventory full of fashion and unusual avatars. The following year Cyrus brought his best educational landmarks from Expedition Central to the Social Island for a special garden walk. He was diligent in making sure the landmark givers were all in working order and provided excellent

photos for each sign. This walk provided landmarks to new avatars who visited our island. These are just two examples of Cyrus’ dedication to education in virtual worlds. His gentle, relaxed and helpful demeanor will be greatly missed.

A Gentleman and a Scholar A Tribute by

Mary O’Brien (rl)

Message for VSTE Email Newsletter:

It is with sorrow and regret we have learned that pioneering virtual educator Matt Poole passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, June 5. As an early adopter and a docent on ISTE Island, he was a mentor to many of us as we began in Second Life. He was instrumental in celebrating the opening of our own sim, VSTE Island, in 2009 and continued to be an active member through tours of science, art, and historical builds. An explorer at heart, Matt founded Expedition Central in Second Life, where he curated numerous landmarks for avatars wishing to find interesting, educational, or beautiful sims to tour.

Serena Offcourse (sl)

Matt co-presented and supported the VSTE Virtual Environment PLN at VSTE Conferences in Virginia Beach and Roanoke and supported us in all our sessions. He was bright, friendly, and patient in helping new users grasp this innovative social network.

Matt was a professor at American National University (ANU) in Roanoke where he especially enjoyed teaching Environmental Science online. He dreamed of getting a PhD and teaching at a public university.

On Monday, June 6, members and friends met to comfort each other on VSTE Island, and twenty-five or so people from all over Virginia and the country came to share their memories of this incredibly smart and kind man. Whether they knew Matt in the physical world or only virtually, to know him was to like him. He had a great sense of humor and entertained us often with his quick switching of avatars from the humanoid to the bizarre creations he found and enjoyed.

On behalf of the VSTE family and all educators, we express our great sympathy to all who knew and loved Matt Poole. He was a valued member of our community, admired and enjoyed for his humor and intelligence.

Kim Harrison VSTE VE PLN Chairperson

Matt Poole aka Cyrus Hush Machinima Tribute

In memory of Matthew Poole - family man, educator, friend, colleague, virtual environment innovator and gamer. Matt Poole worked to enhance online teaching and learning by using multiple methods to engage students.

I have fond memories of Cyrus Hush tours in SL and retro raids with Caravaggio. The real and virtual world has lost a good man… He will be missed.

Published on June 10, 2016

Gridjumper

Tanya Martin

YouTube Tribute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqn4eCquVsA

Note: Video was all taken from his videos on his channel. The music is Gorillaz, a group that Matt was fond of.

The last time many of us saw Cyrus Hush was at the June 2, 2016 ISTE Social. We were all sitting outside House @Blues “Just chillin.’” Bluebarker Lowtide was spinnin’ the tunes and the rest of us were having fun dancing and chatting in the pool. Cyrus is in the white shirt

Cyrus was a GREAT explorer, true pioneer, brilliant blogger, and most of all a wonderful friend. I

know that wherever Matt/Cyrus is, he is setting up Expedition Signposts for his next Walkabout! VEJ won’t be the same. Second Life won’t be the same. Miss you, Cyrus!

Roxie Neiro

People of Second Life: Cyrus Hush (2006-2016) aka Matthew Poole (1960-2016)

Kay T. Burnett, who lives in Russia and attended the memorial for Cyrus Hush, aka Matt Poole, in Second Life on June 20, 2016. Kay wrote,

It was an honor to be at the SL Memorial on Monday, June 20, 2016, and to learn more about somebody who has made such a huge impact on Second Life in particular and the use of the digital worlds in general. Let’s carry on that spirit of adventure, let’s not let it die off!

Kay T. Burnett (KayT)

“The job Cyrus has done for Second Life, while done in the digital world, has been impacting the residents in the very real way, and the service, while held

in the digital world, is just as powerful as the one that took place in the physical world, if not more powerful –because people from all over the world have this opportunity to get together at one place to celebrate life of this truly remarkable man.”

Quote taken from Blog written by Kay T Burnett (Kay T) Read entire blog at https://goo.gl/2F7QTu

Read other memories and tributes to Matt Poole /Cyrus Hush:

Brief Obituary with Guest Book: http://www.roanoke.com/obituaries/poole-robert-matthew/article_ b20b615a-a80e-5eff-bf2f-c0193c584397.html

Full Obituary with Guest Book:

http://www.oakeys.com/sitemaker/sites/Oakeys1/memsol.cgi?user_ id=1808132

http://www.roanoke.com/obituaries/poole-robert-matthew/article_ bbf2898e-036e-534b-a136-ba67401537f1.html

Learn more about Cyrus Hush / Matt Poole check out the the following:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/metaverse

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cyrushush

Article: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cpe/vol1/iss2/4/

Website: http://mattpoole.net/

Expedition Central Blog: http://mattpoole.net/EC/

Second Life: https://my.secondlife.com/cyrus.hush

Twitter: @cytec and https://twitter.com/expeditioncentr

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.poole.5661

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MatthewPoole/posts and https://profiles.google.com/u/0/106039328568155355372/about

View Complete Memorial Tribute Memorial: http://www.roanoke.com/obituaries/poole-robert-matthew/article_ bbf2898e-036e-534b-a136-ba67401537f1.htm

Memorial Ceremony Tribute Area on VSTE Island http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE Island/61/129/22

Memorial Garden on VSTE Island

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/234/183/21

VSTE Island: The R Matthew Poole Memorial Center For Teacher Resources

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/214/169/22

Matt Poole Expeditions in VSTE Teacher Resource Center

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/209/229/22

‘There are people you meet in life who change you forever, and Cyrus was one of those people for me. I will always have a place in my heart for him, and will miss his love of adventure, his sense of humor, and his dedication to us all.

~Augusta’

Photo by Augusta Carolina Maria v.Nassau (gardengirl), sl

Learning naturally through motion-tracking gameplay with the Intel Realsense camera

By Fleet Goldenberg

Since June 2014, my non-profit company Sambiglyon – the name is Greek for ‘Education, Entertainment’ – has been developing a PC game powered by the $129 Intel RealSense motion tracking camera. Called ‘My Father’s Face’, the game translates real-time inputs provided by the camera about the positions of

bone joints and facial landmarks into mirrored movements and face expressions on a full-body player avatar.

The basic philosophy behind using motion tracking for control of the avatar is that it minimizes the need for the player

to be trained in the controls via cumbersome tutorial lessons. Because they interface with the game world in the same way that they would approach problems in the real world with their flesh body, life experience has already given them the practical knowledge for tackling most in-game situations.

In ‘My Father’s Face’, the player assumes the role of Lannel Pharaoh, a twenty-something walking, talking squirrel who has come

home temporarily to the family’s tree-house home to help his mother after his father was involved in an accident.

As well as making use of the information and resources in the world to make money to cover the family expenses, Lannel also uses a large touchable interactive wall mirror to explore his own thoughts and perceptions, and his difficult relationship with his father that the father’s injuries have brought to a sudden head.

By exploring Lannel’s mind in the mirror, the player also leans how to analyze their own thoughts too as the camera replicates their facial expressions and emotions on Lannel’s face in realtime.

Accompanying the player’s personal journey in the mountaintop city of Skyline is his mother Mrs Pharaoh, an artificial intel-

ligence character with realistic emotions who is on hand to give the player advice whilst living her own active and independent life each day with choices – like a real person – that are based not just on regular routine but also on how she is feeling.

Outside the tree-house windows in the busy city of Skyline meanwhile, a multitude of AI citizens are living their own lives in

workplaces, schools and on the roads and sidewalks. No matter what is happening to the player as they guide Lannel, they are

constantly reminded that there is a whole world that continues to exist and move forwards no matter what they do.

Every aspect of the player’s avatar character is designed to ease their camera-controlled engagement with the world. As well as 1:1 control of virtual arms and head with the player’s real counterparts, the avatar can grip and release objects with their virtual hands by closing and opening their real fingers. It can also lean forwards and kneel to pick up objects that have been dropped on the ground simply by lowering the real-life head as though

stooping or kneeling in the real world.

Furthermore, the animal nature of the player character provides further opportunities to overcome interface problems typically encountered with motion control of virtual hands. Thin claws on the tips of the avatar’s fingers act like a mobile device’s stylus pen, enabling in-game buttons to be targeted and pressed precisely without mis-triggering the wrong option.

What the RealSense motion camera contributes to learning above all else is the ability for the player’s in-game performance to improve as their confidence and physical motor skills improve.

Positive emotions are detected by the camera and enhance the avatar as much as negative emotions hinder it, whilst faster and more precise body movements will be translated by the camera into increased avatar prowess, enabling them to do more in the game world.

The pleasure of new-found capability in the digital world will feed back to greater success in the real world as the player realizes that they are capable of achieving more than they previously imagined.

There is something much simpler than all of this that informed Sambiglyon of the potential success of ‘My Father’s Face’ though … observing the sheer boundless joy of young elementary-age relatives as the squirrel man responds to their hand-waving in front of the camera, and fighting to have a turn with it!

Fleet Goldenberg is the co-founder of Sambiglyon (www.sambiglyon.org), a non-profit developer of learning content.

The images in this article represent a work in progress and do not reflect the final quality.

Avatar Mouth and Lip Controlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UF3Y3WfgQY&feature=youtu.be

Avatar Dual Arm and Leg Controlwww.youtube.com/watch?v=CT56zP3FP1U

Avatar Arm and Leg Control v.. 2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nUkuqzGDJ0

Avatar arm side-swinging with motion camerawww.youtube.com/watch?v=jCT1umewRME

Pokeman + Ingress = Pokeman Go!

The Evolution of A Trading Card Game to Augmented Reality

By Tanya Martin

You may remember the Pokeman Trading card game, back in the late 90’s and early 2000. There was both a collectable aspect to the game and a competitive one. Collecting them was akin to collecting baseball cards, each character had skills and talents listed on the card and some even sparkled. These same cards were used to “battle” an opponent based on the skills of the characters. Several video games based on Pokeman trading cards were released around 2000.

In 2010 Niantic Labs, an internal startup at Google, worked on augmented reality mobile games and in 2012 released Ingress. The game is also referred to as The Niantic Project. Ingress is an augmented reality game played on an Android or IOS device. It requires that the player “capture”, and maintain portals in the community for their side. Portals have been

identified by early players of the game and are sites of cultural significance in the community. There are two sides to pick from and a narrative that accompanies the game. Players collect gear, level up and ultimately need collaborators to get ahead in the game. Real world events are held that progress the game and the storyline.

The player screen appears on the mobile device and tapping buttons will activate an action. In this screen the Welcome to Fort Lauderdale sign is owned by the Enlightened team, indicated in Green. The player screen appears on the mobile device and tapping buttons will activate an action. In this screen the Welcome to Fort Lauderdale sign is owned by the Enlightened team, indicated in Green.

Pokémon GO was developed by Niantic and The Pokémon Company. One of the 2016 Superbowl Ads featured Pokeman Go! The augmented reality game will be released sometime in 2016. The game combines the Niantic game engine and Ingress mechanic combining the use of mobile device and a Bluetooth wearable device that alerts players of the presence of a virtual Pokemon to ultimately battle, train, and trade. The game is currently out in Beta for field testing. Ingress players have been invited to register for possible inclusion in the beta test and a site is open to anyone wishing to apply at http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemonnews/participate-in-the-pokemon-gofield-test/.

The mobile device screen will work in conjunction with the wearable device to indicate where in your neighborhood the Pokemon are located.

As Gamebased learning and virtual and augmented reality are becoming more the norm, the implications for education are fascinating. The entertainment industry is likely to have an impact on how we teach and learn.

Planning, Organizing, Managing and Loving Every Minute of the SLMOOC Series

By Nan Zingrone, Nellie Deutsch, and Doris Molero

Background

Late in 2013, Dr. Nellie Deutsch (Nellie Homewood in Second Life), a passionate teacher of English and online technology, got a big idea. Nellie is an evangelist for online education and technology in education in general, and for free online courses and conferences in particular. So she wanted to develop a free multiplatform professional development course that would introduce education in virtual worlds to teachers who are either unaware or wary of the resource. Dr. Doris Molero (Pionia Destiny), then a professor of education in Venezuela, saw the value in Nellie’s big idea and so did Dr. Nan Zingrone (Maggie Larimore). Doris is well-known in many EFL teaching and learning networks, and Nan’s online teaching education started with Nellie. Doris knew everybody and Nan had taken over the management of the Chilbo Education Village in SL and was setting up Nellie’s Integrating-Technology building there. We were good to go.

Organization

Over the past three years, the organization of each SLMOOC has followed a very systematic process. It starts with a Google drive doc for the syllabus followed by a doc for the live presentations. Recruited experts can choose a date and sign up. Once the list of presenters gets going, a biographical PowerPoint on a Google drive is created and presenters are invited to add a slide. Next, live sessions are scheduled on the social media teaching platform WizIQ.com (webinars), in Second Life, or on other virtual worlds and webinar systems if the presenters prefer. Everything

is then updated on the Moodle and in the “physical” syllabus in the SLMOOC Headquarters.

Nellie and Nan create marketing videos and tutorials and Doris updates and expands the Facebook Group Second Life MOOC with information about the course, its theme and goals, creating other sources of information as well. Doris also encourages participants and presenters to contribute to the Facebook page by uploading photos, links, announcements and posts. Finally the inworld syllabus is added to the SLMOOC building by constructing informational wall and teleport boards and notecard givers. Furniture, food, and drink is also added to make the SLMOOC HQ more welcoming.

Second Life Headquarters

The SLMOOC HQ becomes the inworld course information hub. Doris constructed the wall boards in 2014, and Nan took over in 2015 and 2016. When participants click on a wall board for any presentation, a folder appears in their inventory with a notecard that carries the relevant info including the presentation’s SLURL or URL. A landmark is also included in the folder. When additional materials are uploaded to the Moodle or the Facebook group, that’s added to the SLMOOC HQ as well.

First meeting of the SLMOOC14 in the HQ

Maggie chilling before SLMOOC15

We believe that a MOOC needs to be multi-platform, free, and open to anyone who is interested. We also believe that the quality of a MOOC is directly proportional to the time spent preparing, supporting the participants’ learning before, during, and

after the course ends. We want the SLMOOC to encourage positive attitudes toward personal and professional development in participants.

The Moodle for Teachers Moodle website was chosen because the platform allows for unlimited numbers of participants, and

Moodle

Pionia and Maggie on their Virtual Cell Phones on First Day of SLMOOC16

for the creation of badges and certificates that are awarded when required tasks are complete. In addition to containing all the course info as the Google docs and the SLMOOC HQ, the Moodle includes discussion forums, some with specific reflection questions for the badges, some for sharing, and some for course support.

Finally, the Moodle provides a way for individuals who haven’t gotten the necessary technology to experience virtual worlds first hand to participate in and complete the course. This aspect not only extends the reach of the course, but also the depth of

Nellie Homewood and Pionia Destiny and Students at the Learn It Town Presentation in 2016

At Dr. Becky Adam’s (Elli Pinion) presentation for University of New Mexico in 2016

learning and sharing among participants.

WizIQ

Like Moodle, WizIQ offers a stable online environment for webinars and integrates readily with Moodle. With over 16,000 followers, Nellie is able to market the SLMOOC to a wide, international group of teachers and learners on the WizIQ platform. Having this third “wing” to the course also allows participants to make free accounts and click through to the webinar-based presentations in real-time instead of waiting for the recordings to be uploaded.

Facebook

The Facebook group, Second Life MOOC, is an extremely important part of the course as well. Like Moodle and WizIQ it allows individuals who can’t come into Second Life to engage with the activities of the course. Thanks to Doris’ constant care the Facebook group not only alerts learners to the schedule but also gives out all the relevant links. It also provides a great repository for course photos and videos created by the participants, presenters and the three of us. The sense of community is elevated to wonderful level by Doris’ management of the Facebook group: Even those who only follow the Facebook group felt very much a part of the proceedings.

The Presenters

In 2014 we enjoyed presentations by Martha Eugenia Lino (Eugenia Calderon), Liz Falconer (Tamara Kuhn), Saeeid Dastmalchian (SaeeidD), Andy Wheelock (Spiff Whitfield), Neila Miller (Marly Milena), Lynne Berrett (Wisdomseeker Lissena), Jacob Glazer (Erebius Loxely), Tim Beck (Diogenes), Jay Jay Jegesethan (Jay Jay Zifanwe), Scott Merrick and friends, Sharon Collingwood (Ellie Brewester), Matt Poole (Cyrus Hush), Amparo Cervantes A.(Amparo Devalle), Max Ugaz (Maximo Eames), María Sol Cordovez (Losairam Pelliot), Juan Jose Greco (Luto Noyes), Helen

Myers (Karelia Kondor), Heiki Philp (Gwen Gwasi), Edith Paillat (Cybele Placebo), Vicki Robinson (Oddprofessor Snoodle), La Familia Gomez (Alfonso Garavito Olivar, aka Alfonso Perfelle; Inés Rodriguez aka Ines Diglione; Juani Ruiz aka Tuajana; and María Sol Cordovez aka Losairam Pelliot), Lauren Thurman (Laural McCallan), Lori Weedo (Lori Galli), David Deeds (Deeds David), Kip Boahn (Kip Yellowjacket), Agile Bill Krebs (AgileBill Firehawk) and Schmoo Snook. Doris and Nan also presented.

About half of the presentations were in Spanish and included a tour of the La Familia Gomez set and a lecture on the Second Life campus of the Universidad San Martin de Porres (Chile). Participants visited ISTE Island and Virtual Pioneers, the University of the West of England’s campus, and enjoyed two visits to the Instituto Español, to hear the same talk one in English and once in Spanish. Tom Hodgers (Tom Atuto Mate), an language and culture educator, helped facilitate the course. It was a rich, exciting course and over too soon.

Upper right, David Deeds and Nellie Homewood before the presentation; upper left Amparo Cerventes A. taking questions, lower left, Cybele Placebo’s group getting settled, and lower right, Vicki Robinson sharing her sky box of physics experiments.

In 2015 Doris was unable to serve as an organizer so Tom Hodgers joined the team along with Kip Boahn of Virtlantis. The presenters were Lee Graham, Kip Boahn, Lynne Berrett, RoseAnne and Bob Vojtek (Roxie Neiro and B. J. Gearbox), AgileBill Krebs, 112

Andy Wheelock, Scott Merrick, Aaron Griffiths (Isa Goodman), Martha Lino Acosta, and Vasili Gianoutsis (Bluebarker Lowtide). Nan also presented.

From upper left to lower right, Eugenia Calderon presenting in her new school in Central Chilbo, Spanish with Eugenia, Roxie and B.J. presenting on the Virtual Education Journal, Aaron Griffiths giving us a tour of his holodeck installation, and a meditation experience on Inspiration Island during the tour day organized by Lynne Berrett.

In SLMOOC16, Doris returned as an organizer. She and Nellie recruited widely. Most presentations were live in Second Life but participants also traveled to Kitely via a screenshare, Lord of the Rings Online through a video, and visited Minecraft, EdMondo and Digiworldz.

The presenters were Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Gregg), Scott Merrick, Andy Wheelock and a host of eminences from ISTE past and 113

present, Alice Krueger (Gentle Heron), Heiki Philp and a group of colleagues including Doris from EVO, Berhard Drax (Draxtor Depres), Martha Lino and James T. Abraham (Prof Abraham in DigiWorldz), Gina Pickersgill (Nina Lancaster), Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond (Zinnia Zauber), Linda Rogers (Kate Miranda), Lettizia Cinganotta and Andrea Benassi, John Orlando, Kess Crystal, Becky Adams (Elli Pinion), Shannon Wildenstein (Donati Fire),

Beth O’Connell (Beth Ghostraven), G. Ronnie Kraegel (Namaura MacMoragh), Vance Stevens and a group of colleagues, Shelwyn Corrigan, Laura Jeffcoat and Ana Gema Gallego Garcia, Meredith Abarca (Abarcam), Janet Hill (Madelein McMinnar), Helena Galani (Erlina Azure), Kip Boahn, Christel Schneider (Letty Pienaar), and Scott Anstadt (Ewan Bonham).

We toured the Community Virtual Library, attended an inspiring conversation with current and past leaders of ISTE, listed to Gentle Heron detail the importance of Virtual Ability, listened to Drax Depres’ on favorite machinima, visited Spanish language teaching on Digiworldz and watched Italian teachers teaching English on Edmondo. We also toured an Afro-Latino Foodways museum and were wowed by a stunning ashram tour guided by, literally, an angel (StJohn Noyes). Nan gave two lectures and tours, Doris and Nan ran the inworld discussion forums and, for the first time, we got all the presentation videos up on the

SLMOOC16 playlist before the students started to complete their reflections for the certificates. The SLMOOC15 playlist is here and the SLMOOC14 playlist is here.

The Future of SLMOOC

These are the constants: Participation from amazing teachers across the grids involved, enthusiastic participants whose new eyes on virtual worlds, all of this has inspired us.

Upper left, Scott Anstadt and StJohn Noyes before the Ashram Tour, upper right, Doris (Pionia) taking a group photo, lower left and right, Letty Pienaar giving her presentation on machinima in teaching and learning.

We had a core of teachers who came back again and again, and many new presenters who made more than one presentation, not to mention participated in many of the course events. Although Matt Poole, the incomparable Cyrus Hush, prepared a video for us in the 2014 MOOC, he wasn’t able to participate in 2015 and 2016. We remember his generosity, though, in opening the Expedition Central towers, on VSTE and then in Chilbo, to

tours for our participants. His presence in the background will be missed.

We three have also found working together to be a joy. We have different skills and have divided the labor in a way that works. So for the future, we say yes, there will be a SLMOOC17! Whatever happens we know it will be wonderful!

The Dark Portal: Warcraft Past, Present, and Future

By: Trish Cloud

For those of us who have seen Warcraft, the movie just released, which tells of the beginnings of the World of Warcraft story, many might be wondering what was that huge portal the Orcs came through? Where did it come from? And what does it mean?

Well the Dark Portal has been around for some time, for players of the game, you go through the Dark Portal for the first time at level 60 to quest and run dungeons. Then again at level 90 you go through the Dark Portal again, but this time you go back in time to the time before the Orcs ever came through the Dark Portal.

For those of us who enjoy studying the lore of the game all of this can be quite confusing and hard to keep our timelines straight. Now, Legion, the new expansion, is coming out August 30, 2016 and once again the timeline is going to be altered. So, I think we are going from the past back to the present which is really the future? Who knows?

But let’s look at how we got here so you might understand the movie and the game a bit better.

This story starts in a novel called Rise of the Horde (written by Christie Golden). In this novel we are introduced to the namesakes of many of the legendary Orcs that towns and areas are named after in Kalimdor, the continent the Horde primarily controls in the game, including names such as, Grommash Hellscream, Ogrim Doomhammer, and Durtotan. These are names of the legendary Orcs that are held in reverence. The entire area that the Orc capital city resides

in is Durotar, the capital city is Orgimmar, and the main governmental building is Grommash Hold.

All of these names are given faces in the Rise of the Horde. We see they live in a land filled

with wildlife and hunting. Tribes that get along, not only with each other but with nature and their shamans, keep that connection going. They live in harmony with a group of foreigners (aliens) that also reside in Draenor. The Eredar, or as they are called since landing there, the

Draeni. Unfortunately Ner’zhul, the head shaman, starts listening to some strange voices and begins tampering with fel magic. This is not good. Not good at all. Ner’zhul has an apprentice who is greedier and who is more than willing to completely give into the darkness that wants to control not only him but all the Orcs. His name? Gul’dan.

What neither of them realize, however, is that this force taking control of them, is not interested in them as much as using them to destroy the Draeni. And, to do this, whispered lies about the Draeni are told to Ner’Zhul and Gul’Dan to embolden them to stir up the Orcs into invading the Draeni areas and kill them. The Orcs give into this and attack the Draeni and almost eradicate the entire peoples. Some escape and flee to Azeroth. This sets the dark force to convincing Ner’Zhul and Gul’Dan that the Orcs must build a portal to this land to conquer it.

To do this Ner’Zhul and Gul’Dan truly embrace the fel magic that has been “gifted” to them. Fel magic, when used, pulls the life out of everything. So the land that had been verdant for the Orcs and filled with wildlife begins to die off. People begin going hungry. Gul’dan has now replaced Ner’Zhul as head shaman, and he no longer calls himself a shaman. He now refers to himself as a warlock and is part of the Burning Legion. He begins having the Orcs shamans partake of the fel and converts them into warlocks. And, the land continues to die. Gul’Dan then tells the Orcs they have to build a portal to take them to a new land they can conquer and take over. And this is where the movie comes in –where the Orcs leave their devastated world and enter the world of Azeroth.

Over the course of several years a war rages between humans and orcs, until finally a band of humans, night elves, and dwarves go through the Dark Portal to close it for good leaving themselves trapped on the other side. Of course, it does not stay shut and the war continues for

control of Outland as well as Azeroth.

When we next encounter Outland (formerly Draenor) is not until the end of the Mists of Pandaria expansion and accompanying books. There we learn the son of Grommash Hellscream, Garrosh Hellscream, who has been leader of the Horde, desperate for his Horde to completely dispatch the Alliance, has managed to travel back in time. He is there when the Orcs originally partook of the fel that started them on this path. He intervenes in that timeline and begins the rise of the Iron Horde. The Iron Horde divides, part in legion with Gul’Dan, part fighting Gul’Dan to stop the progress of the fel influenced Horde and Burning Legion.

This is where we are now, preparing to go back through the Dark Portal to battle the Burning Legion face-to-face. The Burning Legion is all that is evil in Azeroth, and is more ancient that than the Dark Portal itself.

When we are and what will happen will be revealed to all the millions of World of Warcraft players on August 30, 2016.

ISTE Virtual Environments Network

Pioneer of the Year Award

This year’s PLN Award goes to Mary O’Brien, oftentimes known as Serena Offcourse (Mary’s Second Life avatar name).

Mary has been an integral part of so many educational endeavors in Virtual Environments, yet she has always maintained a “behind the scenes” persona. However, her vast effort and work has not gone unnoticed by the educational groups that she has put her heart into.

Some of Mary’s many contributions are listed below. I think anyone seeing this list will get the sense of Mary’s amazing body of work and her commitment to redefining education using her powerful influence and talent.

• Mary, with the help of “TechPlex Engineer,” designed and put into place the ISTE Virtual Environments Headquarters building and grid. As of this writing, there have been 11,162 avatar visits to this engaging space.

• Mary has been organizing Virtual Pioneer Tours and

guest speakers for the past 5 years. The Virtual Pioneers are an educational history and culture group that explore Second Life sims which focus on these topics.

• She has also organized and promoted countless social events like our Victorian Gala, 1920’s Beach Party, Fall Costume Frolic, and more.

• She worked on the Open Sim- Understanding the Holocaust Project. She designed and built the “Streets of Amsterdam” including a recreation of the Secret Annex detailed in the book, Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank.

• Mary also worked with Kim Prentiss to design and build the castle and surrounding medieval village builds for the Heir of the King Open Sim project.

• She has been an integral participant in World of Warcraft educational ventures with the Games and Simulations Groups.

• Mary has worked with VSTE to help with projects and educational initiatives.

• She created her own learning space in Reaction Grid

• This stellar educational thought leader participated in countless Minecraft learning opportunities.

• Working with Barbara Seaton, she developed the Machinima space and island areas at the ISTE VEN Avacon Grid.

• Serena has organized and hosted numerous ISTE Socials for SIGVE, now VEN.

• She has served on the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) Social Committee for numer-

ous years helping to plan and host events and design and build the social areas.

Mary’s unswerving dependability and her calm practicality lend powerful energy to each and every one of the educational projects and collaborations which she has supported over the years.

She is truly deserving of our ISTE Virtual Environments Network Pioneer of the Year Award.

We are so grateful for all of your dedication and hard work. Mary, Serena, we humbly present this award to you in anticipation of your many contributions to learning and teaching you have yet to share. Congratulations

Virtual Education JOURNAL

From The Executive Editor

Torgon’s Fun Park: An Interview With Torgon Woodget

Cindy Bolero’s Journey With Unity 3D

In Loving Memory of Our Dear Friend and Colleague, LadySlipper Constantine

Volunteer for VWBPE17

ISTE VEN Fall 2016 Socials:Tiny Social, Monster Mash Bash & Fall Into Fall

Virtual World Live Music: Outstanding and Free

ISTE Games and Sims Network and Virtual Environments Network Playground 2017

Father’s Face’: An Update

Educators Make and Share Machinima in Multiple Worlds

Klikaklu: Using Augmented Reality for a Collaborative Mobile Learning Quest

An Honest Look at Virtual Reality in Education: Current Research in Virtual Reality within Education

New Home for the Bibliothèque de Coeur

A Student’s First Experience on Second Life and The Grand Canyon Sim

LAN Party Meetups

From The Executive Editor

Expeditions: Marchin On!

Tech To Be Thankful For

2016 Favorite Places to Visit in Second Life

Inside the Horizons Experience in Second Life

Retweet SHOUTOUT to Gord Holden

”An Evening With Howard Hughes” VWBPE17 Sponsorship Social

VWBPE17 Sponsorship Social “ The Roaring ‘20’s” Oh, The Places You Can Go!

VEJ Executive Editor: Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie Vojtek (RL)

VEJ Design Editor: BJ Gearbox (SL), Bob Vojtek (RL)

Expeditions Columnist: Darra Nimbus (SL), Christine Gries (RL) Cover by BJ Gearbox (SL), Bob Vojtek (RL)

A special THANK YOU to all of our contributing authors. VEJ is only as good as we all make it!

To Read VEJ online visit: http://www.virtualeducationjournal.com/ or the archive issues of VEJ at https://issuu.com/edovation.

Visit VEJ Headquarters in SL at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland%209/20/37/22 and our satellite office on VSTE Island at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/21/168/22

Follow us on Twitter @VEJournal or #VEJournal

FROM THE EXECUTIVE EDITOR

ROSIE VOJTEK (RL) ROXIE NEIRO (SL)

What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room.

“Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

(Margery Williams. The Velveteen Rabbit. March 29, 2004. eBook #11757]

What is Real?

As I (Roxie) sit at my desk at VEJ Headquarters in Second Life (SL), while I (Rosie) sit at my computer in Real Life (RL) writing this editorial, I am struck once again by just how blurred the lines are becoming between RL, VR/AR, and Mixed Reality.

This past month has brought a lot of hype and attention to VR/AR and Mixed Reality from vendors and game developers on the Internet, gamers sharing their new discoveries and experiences on Youtube, and news from conventions such the 2017 Consumer Technology Association (CES) show in Las Vegas. Reading articles such as Vive Tracker by Josh Miller on c/net, watching demos of the latest games, such as the review by Phil Hornshaw and Nick Hastings, “These 12 Oculus Rift Games Are The Best Way To Experience Virtual Reality” (January 25, 2107), and following the latest newsfeed about VR on websites such as 3DVRCENTRAL leaves all of us to ponder, like the Velveteen Rabbit, just What is Real?

For example, in December 2016, I immersed myself for the first time in the experience of wearing the Oculus Rift head-set with the new Touch controllers. While shooting hoops in the middle of a packed stadium I literally lost contact with the real world. I was there, in the moment! My avatar felt the weight of the ball as I picked it up and took the shot. The crowd roared as I made baskets. And I, caught up in all the excitement, yelled and screamed and jumped for joy! Totally oblivious to the rest of the shoppers in our local Best Buy store!

In that moment, was there “really” another world? If so, I was not cognizant of it. The poor salesman doing the demo, however, had to make sure I stayed in the safe area. Thinking back, I can only imagine how the large crowd of shoppers who gathered around to watch this spectacle, must have thought I was totally on a different planet! My avatar really did have, as the velveteen rabbit described, “the things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle” that created this whole new level of sensory experiences . . . REALLY!

So, what is Real?

I have written before about the blurred lines between Roxie and Rosie – Second Life and Real Life, and how these two have become one. Anyone who has been connected to their avatars for a period of time, understands when the Skin Horse says, “it doesn’t happen all at once. You become.” And as we have discovered after losing some of our best friends in SL, such as Cyrus Hush and LadySlipper Constantine, it hurts. It really hurts!

Over the years, many of us in SL and other virtual worlds have often shied away from trying to explain the phenomenon of “being” an avatar. I guess the great news in all of this is, as Cindy Bolero writes in this issue of VEJ, how being “a professional avatar” for ten years she “used to briefly attempt to describe what we do. Prior to James Cameron’s Avatar,” most people couldn’t understand it. After many people experienced the movie, I could spend a little less effort trying to explain.”

And, so, maybe it will be for us. As more people experience this new mixed reality of VR/AR, we all may walk away with a greater understanding of . . . What is Real . . . REALLY!

Just sayin’!

So, hold on tight to your hats and goggles . . . and get ready for the wildest ride yet in the Metaverse!

We hope you will find the articles in this issue of VEJ as exciting as we do. A special THANKS to all of our contributors.

Grab a copy, devour every byte, and be sure to share it with others!

Keep smiling

Roxie Neiro (SL)

Rosie Vojtek (RL)

PS. Keep doing what you do best in every virtual environment you hang!

Torgon Woodget is one of my favorite creators in Second Life (SL). Last year he helped build and script the People Mover Ride on the VWBPE 16 Social Sim. He is working with the VWBPE17 Social Committee again this year, so expect an even more amazing ride under the sea March 29-April 1, 2017!

I caught up with Torgon recently to find out more about him and his work.

Roxie: Hi Torgon. Would you please tell our readers a little about who you are and what you do.

Torgon: My name is Torgon Woodget in SL, most other grids and in another life far, far away also known as Ulli. I’m a software developer from Germany and usually create backend systems for large-scale web applications.

Roxie: How did you get started in SL? What made you take the plunge?

Torgon: A couple of years ago, I was in a long-term project in Switzerland. If you’ve ever been working abroad during the week and heading back for the week-

end, you’ll quickly learn how boring nights alone in a hotel can be. And hotel bars tend to get expensive in the long run. So one night I remembered seeing something about SL, logged on - and got stuck. Especially as I spent a few more years working in London later. And there [In London], hotel bars are REALLY expensive!

You think? So-o-o true!

Torgon: So, I got onto SL, enjoyed meeting and partying with people from all over the world, but relatively soon the dark side of SL dragged me under... No, not what you think!

Roxie: Good, you had me scared for a minute! What, then are you talking about?

Roxie:

Torgon’s Fun Park

An Interview With: Torgon Woodget

By Roxie Neiro (SL), Rosie Vojtek (RL)

Torgon: A software developer, in a world where everything needs a script or two to work. . . . Bad combination! Well, at least one that quickly reduces the time for partying. Relatively soon I was shanghaied by a couple of friends that needed help with their builds, and soon after I started making my own stuff. Ok, admittedly, being a developer doesn’t bode well for your design capabilities, and thus I mostly stuck with teamwork. Over the years, quite a few products came out that are still selling today. Even good looking ones, but that wasn’t my fault.

Roxie: Maybe not, but you definitely have a talent that has helped to create some pretty amazing products! So, what is it you do and what are you passionate about?

fits with even my design capabilities: Rollercoasters. Those were my entrance into the world of Blender and Mesh, and helped me to finally learn it.

Roxie: Yes, you have created some amaz-

of technology and nature – a space where you can relax in a park or enjoy my builds.

Roxie: Yes, it is pretty amazing! I could stay there all day! The time just flies when you are having a good time! There is so much to see and do.

Torgon: Right, and when Linden Labs finally came through with the increase of the number of available prims on a region I finally had what I wanted – enough prims to not only have a nice park to relax, but several other levels with different kinds of fun.

Roxie: What do you mean?

Torgon: For me, SL and similar environments offer one thing I don’t have in Real Life (RL) –Fast turnarounds. If I write software in RL it takes months and sometimes years to make it to completion. Here in SL I can create stuff that’s fun for me and others in a matter of hours or days. I frequently joke about being a lazy sob, as I try to make the computer do my work. So, making sure that stuff is easy to use could be said to be my first priority, while still allowing it to be as adaptable as possible.

Roxie: What about scripting?

ing rollercoasters! They are so much fun! I love Torgon’s Fun Park and Store. Can you describe them for our readers and let them know what they can see and do when the visit these two special places.

Torgon: Building stuff is all fine and dandy, but it’s no fun if you can’t really present it inworld.

Torgon: It’s winter, at least for most of the people I know, and I build rides, so what can one do? Build a Winter Fun Park… a wintery styled fun park full of rides and places to relax. If its concert time down at the region owner’s jazz club, you can even hear the live singers while riding a rollercoaster!

Roxie: [Smiling] How fun! Kind of like the Rock ‘n’ RollerCoaster at Disney World! So, tell us about some of your favorite rides – that you built.

Torgon: A favorite ride? That’s always hard to say, but I would guess it’s the “unlimited” coaster, because it combines a lot of different things in one ride: On the one hand, it’s a ride the way I can build them, technically working very well and looking quite OK, too. On the other hand, it allows others to add their custom look to it. And then it gets really great, as you can see from the wintery coaster decoration that’s currently up in my winter park.

Torgon: For most of my SL time I’ve stuck to scripting, because, to be honest, I’m far from a good designer. A while ago, though, I finally found the one thing that

So, when friends of mine bought a region a while ago I was able to convince them to let me have a full sim sized skybox. And, I convinced a different friend to design a store environment that looks like anything but a store. When you come to my place now, you’ll see a fantastic mix

Roxie: What else have you designed/built in SL or other virtual environments?

Torgon: Oh dear, now that’s a long list. In addition to my rides, I think the best known things are my race systems for horses, from track to gymkana. Or, my

book creator. . . create virtual books by drag and drop. Currently I’m working on a set of combined inworld/web systems for different uses, like a grid-wide digital ad system. But that’ll be done whenever its done. I build for fun and when I get the time to build.

Roxie: [shaking head] I certainly know that feeling! Of all the objects you have built, what are you most proud of and why?

Torgon: I don’t think “most proud off” is what I would go for. Lets take “remember most.” That’s much more fun.

Roxie: [Laughing] Agreed!

Torgon: Actually, it’s the first two complete builds I ever made. I still remember those! A house inside of a giant elephant, and an enormous glass of café latte. One was just for the heck of it, trying to see if I can build anything inside of a sculpt; the other one started out as an art gallery.

Roxie: Interesting! How do you get your ideas? That is, ideas like the rides and activities you have built?

Torgon: Most of the time by saying “I wonder if I can do this.” Who needs a sim-sized Ferris Wheel anyways? But yeah, it can be done!

Roxie: Yes, kind of like the VWBPE Social

Committee, right? [laughing, and thinking about plans for the 2017 conference]. Which begs the question, what skills did you need to learn in order to design/build the rides?

Torgon: Funny enough, it was the other way

virtual worlds? What have you had to do or learn to be able to overcome the obstacles?

round. I wanted to learn a skill, but that’s always a lot easier for me if I have something to work towards. In case of my rides, it was to learn blender. Well, I think that worked.

Roxie: From riding your rides, I would say it sure seems like it worked! Your designs are excellent and there is not a hitch with the scripting. I remember the early days when people first started building roller coasters and you would get on it it would be stop and go all the way. But, your rides just flow – so much fun!

Torgon: [smiles]

Roxie: What would you say has been the most challenging part of your work or the biggest obstacles for your work in

Torgon: The biggest obstacles on SL, and to a lesser degree on similar platforms? The very limited capabilities of the scripting languages if it comes to complex activities with lots of data. Currently, once it goes beyond some basics, the only way to get through is by putting parts outside of the environment, e.g. on a webserver.

Roxie: If SL (or other virtual environments) were more user-friendly for designers/builders/scripters like you, what would they allow you to do that you can’t do now?

Torgon: I don’t think virtual environments must be that easy for creators. I think it’s much more important to make the learning curve for users as flat as possible. And to be honest, SL sometimes has a learning curve akin to the flight profile of a Saturn V. What I would love to do is more physically realistic stuff, but that doesn’t work in any grid.

Roxie: Maybe someday? Which leads to my next question, five years from now, what will virtual worlds look like? What do you hope people/avatars will be able to do?

Torgon: Probably not too much different from today, we’re approaching the uncanny valley and I doubt technology is advanced enough yet to do the jump, thus people will probably shy away from graphically better

systems for a while. Never mind that the user-base, a system like SL has, won’t be that easy to move, not even for LL.

Roxie: Right. Speaking of which, have you experimented with virtual reality (e.g., using Oculus Rift, HTC VIBE)?

Torgon: I would love to, but I never got beyond the Samsung Gear. And with LL having scrapped the Rift support for SL there’s no reason for me to spend the money right now.

Roxie: Understandable. What tricks/tips do you have for our readers if they would like to learn how to script and build rides?

Torgon: Just do whatever you like. Virtual Worlds are a fun tool to use and to be whatever you want to be. If you want to learn to script, grab an idea and go for it. Talk to people that do script. Most of them will go out of their way to help you. If you want to build rides? Grab a big bottle of headache pills, then try to create a track in Blender or Maya. Then go back to the pharmacy for another, bigger, bottle, and repeat. It took me several tries to get a grip on Blender. If you’re still persistent, look at Nurbs or Bezier curves for the track layout and Array and Curve modifiers for the track’s rail.

Roxie: [Doubled-over laughing] Too funny, Torgon! Excedrin Headache number 7! I can feel it coming on! [laughing out loud]. OK. [Catching her breath]. So, what projects are you working on now? What can we look forward to riding next?

Torgon: Right now I’m back at doing some data-oriented projects in SL, like a gridwide ad panel system for clubs or magazines, or a web market for breedables. If I get those out soon, there might be a nice ride for Valentine’s Day. Optimistically, even in time.

Roxie: Oh, that would be fun!

Torgon: For now, though, enjoy the fantastic winter ride decoration that was built for one of my rollercoasters, to be found at the Park.

Roxie: Thanks Torgon. It has been a lot of fun to talk with you, walk around your park, and especially to ride the rides. I really enjoyed the winter roller coaster. I can only say how glad I am that this is SL instead of RL as I would have been really scared to do all the loops! I especially liked the way the sleigh turns so that you can see the different animals in the middle of the ride. Everyone should try this ride!

I want to encourage all our readers to check out your winter park and store area. Everything you have built is absolutely amazing! So much fun! Thank you for sharing this with us.

I would also encourage all our readers to plan to attend the VWBPE2017 Conference, especially the social activities and explore the social island to see more of Torgon’s work! Check the schedule as it gets closer to the conference for activities and times! Thanks again, Torgon for taking time to talk with our VEJ Readers and me.

Myself, and many others in the virtual worlds community, are at or around our ten year mark of being a ‘professional avatar.” It is a term I’ve used to briefly attempt to describe what we do. Prior to James Cameron’s “Avatar,” most people couldn’t understand it. After many people experienced that movie, I could spend a little less effort trying to explain.

Next up will be Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” in 2018. Which I could almost guarantee, hundreds if not thousands, of VR and online 3D startups will be going after the education and training market. They may think it’s a new idea, and they may think they are the first, but as we all know, online 3D education and other immersion software is already an industry.

Regarding the VR hype, don’t get me started! Here in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco, it feels like VR Ground Zero. I’ve tried out a lot of amazing tech and experiences. And, if one has the time, here in the SF Bay Area, one could go to a VR event or Meetup pretty much every day of the week. There’s even the occasional dilemma of two

or three being scheduled the same time. It got to be overwhelming. I had to take a break. When I started going again after some summer travel, I saw several Meetup and tech groups are now charging tickets average $1525.Not to mention, average VR/AR conference registrations are over $1000.

The bottom line is; wonderful, amazing, and compelling content is the easy part. It is the hardware that has a long way to go. Remember cell phones being the size and weight of bricks back in the early 1980s? We can probably all agree that ‘clunky’ is the current state of VR. Which by the way, is yet to be seen – will consumers even embrace it? We’ll just have to give it time. Manufacturers will eventually come through with more comfortable and innovative gear.

In the meantime I’m in no hurry whatsoever to bring expensive VR tech to the classroom or occupational training. Education in virtual worlds needs affordability, ease of use, safety, privacy, and multiple device distribution. As you know, most of the latest VR eye-candy tech is out of reach of average classroom. Some educators say they need the high-tech wow-factor to get students attention. Others feel they should just teach well without hightech. Either way, it’s all getting there. Slowly.

By Cynthia Stagner (RL)

Cindy Bolero (SL)

So, where are we at now? Some have been using a virtual worlds platform, and have a presence that has worked for them for many years. Some of us were just never quite satisfied with what’s available, and continue to look towards what is necessary and ideal.

That is my situation. My quest has been to have something that works in all aspects. I don’t want to settle and struggle with platforms that don’t fulfill the criteria needed. We need new user-friendly quick-ac- clamation interfaces. We need white label privacy along with safe and secure access. We need affordable content. We need robust integrated multimedia tools, and we need environments that look as good as consumer video games.

In 2012, I began exploring and tinkering with Unity3D with my pals Gord (Golden Greymoon, and Bill (Dae Miami), trying out Alpha, Beta, and released platforms which were

either specifically or non-specifically, designed for education and training. Once an educator or trainer experiences feature-rich virtual worlds like Secondlife, it’s not easy for Unity3D or other game engine developers to deliver all those desirable features. For example, Second Life is millions of dollars and fifteen years or so of R&D. A very tough act to follow!

Recently I was invited to the Unity-based user-generated content MMO platform in Beta called Sine.Space. Thank goodness this developer team has extensive experience with virtual worlds, and wants to take it to the next level. It’s a new day! You could even call it a paradigm shift. And thank goodness, they are not forcing VR tech on us, though the platform is VR-capable.

Keep in mind that Sine.Space is in Beta. New features, better interactivity, and new content are added regularly by the developers and user-creators.

Upon my first session of trying out Space’s Unity Editor package, my existing Unity projects from prior SDKs, converted easily and were back online in a snap. My newer assets look fabulous. It is a nice pipeline with a lot of flexibility and features. There are so many features coming with this new world to get excited about, that I just can’t cover it all here. I don’t even know half of what it has to offer. All I know is that it’s what many of us have wanted and needed.

The other Beta testers in Space come with varied skillsets. Some with game engine software experience, and others with years of virtual worlds experience but new to Unity. Some are content creators wanting to open shops, some want to produce game, questing, and storytelling experiences. Everyone is very friendly and helpful.

What I am most looking forward to, is the ability to white label. The privacy, safety, and lack of distraction needed to conduct practical use of virtual worlds. Sine.Space not only serves entertainment, fashion, recreation, fantasy, roleplay, romance, etc, but educators, trainers, therapists, and B2B, will be able to re-brand and tuck themselves away from the public side to keep their users focused on what they brought them online for.

Some of you may know me from my work and support with

hazardous occupations training simulations in virtual worlds and beyond. My land group in Secondlife, Aero Pines Park, supported firefighter training for several years. I also supported an electrical linesmen substation training simulator. Since then, I’ve worked with or consulted with companies about MMO simulators, as well as created 3D scenes for procedure evaluation, facility remodeling, accidents, and failure analysis.

It was the four years of firefighter training at the Aero Pines Park sims that was the most intriguing, which led me to be-

Electrical Linesman safety exercise on Maple Street, coming soon in Sine.Space

Example of a small auditorium that will have a variety of multimedia features

“Earthquake Aftermath” for First Responders and Urban Search & Rescue. It was originally created for VRFD (Virtual Reality Fire Dept) in a VR MMO. Unfortunately, Oculus Rift ceased Mac support so we had to find another MMO with better multiple OS support and device distribution. Again, Sine.Space is saving the Day!

come a California state disaster worker supporting county Offices of Emergency Services (OES), Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), Red Cross, and others. I started learning Unity to take hazardous occupational training to another level with MMORPGs. While at the same time, also training with my “Boots on the ground” with real-life first responders on a regular basis.

At an average real-life exercise, I’m either training with others or I serve as a wounded or trapped victim to extricate. Just in the last three months I’ve been buried in heavy rubble, received simulated treatment and extracted, then carried to triage, then transferred to a hospital tent. I participated in a crashed passenger jet plane exercise in a large hangar for County OES and first responders at San Francisco International Airport. Next week I’ll be extracted from a commuter train wreck, followed by an ambulance ride to a hospital, where nurses and doctors will practice multiple victim intake with a large number of volunteer victims.

I also train on weekends with other team members in small or very large groups. Recently we did a post-earthquake scenario practicing triage, treatment, and Command Post operations. We utilized former Naval Air Station barracks at NASA Ames Research Center as a mock apartment building full of families. Many volunteers of all ages from the community assist us, serving as injured and trapped victims.

I’m sure you’re seeing where this is going!

Yes! I do have a disaster management simulator and training grounds in development. I know first hand from disaster training in real-life, what is missing in those trainings (e.g., chaos, confusion, crowded radio channels, and other sensory overload). I know how beneficial a simulation environment can be. I had tried a few Unity-based platforms, which were not ideal for one reason or another. It was the invitation I received from the Sine.Space team that is getting things back in motion to fulfill the potential.

In the fall of 2016 in the Alpha version of Aero Pines Park v2, A mountain lion peers over a family of deer. Will they escape unharmed? Find out with a visit to Aero Pines Park v2 in Sine.Space

barrier to bump against.

Some of you may know me and are with Aero Pines Park in Secondlife. I’m glad to say that the park made it to its 10th Anniversary! Unfortunately, in recent years, the original 16 region recreation area has reduced to only 3 sims. We are still hosting our annual Winter Festival with our legacy skating pond and other activities, but the big surprise is “Aero Pines Park v2” beta recently launched with our 10th Annual Winter Festival in Sine.Space as well! It’s a work in progress, and much optimization needs to be worked out as more content is added to it every week. Here’s an early tour review video by a fan in a Vlogmas series.

I was able to put the ‘aero’ and the ‘pines’ back into Aero Pines by restoring the airstrips, as well as marinas and other sport vehicle fun. There is much dense forestation going in as well as soon to be teaming with wildlife.

If you were already familiar with the roads and trails and landmarks in Aero Pines Park, the Unity3D version is pretty much the same map, but is scaled up and more dynamic. The continent is currently the size of 150+ SL regions, with the open ocean being infinite. There’s no invisible void wall

Now you’re probably anxious to see it, and logins are available now that it’s on the Sine.Space public server. It’s best to click on the Download button and install the client viewer. The park is currently too heavy to run on a webpage. It’s a very large wilderness with much interactive content in the works. And do keep in mind the platform is in Open Beta, which means the avatars and controllers are interim, communications features are in development, and the content creators new to Unity3D are experimenting and learning how to best present environments. What is not working right now, will be working later. Features you want now, are in development and are coming.

Keep an open mind and visualize the potential such as I do. The future is looking good. Thank you Sinewave Team for working so hard at getting things right!

Editor’s Note: You may also want to read “Winter Wonderland at Aero Pines Park” in Nu Vibez Magazine. It is an interesting story about the history of Aero Pines Park and additional information about the park.

In Loving Memory of our dear friend and colleague LadySlipper Constantine

After a valiant fight against cancer, our dear friend, LadySlipper Constantine, passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones on September 17, 2016. LadySlipper was active in Second Life for a number of years. She was active in One Billion Rising, the Virtual World’s Best Practices in Education Conferences, Burn2 and it’s DRUM group, and Virtual Ability. You can read an Interview with LadySlipper Constantine by Bixyl Shuftan in SL Newser – People.

LadySlipper was always here when we needed her . . . she will be missed by us all!

Editor’s Note: Read more at “Burn On” by The Lamplighers and “LadySlipper Constantine Passes Away” in the Second Life Newser.

The authors rocking the dance floor with Miss Lou

By Maggie Mae (any1 Gynoid)

Virtual worlds (VW) have evolved a live music economy with hundreds of daily shows that are free to attend. Starting as play-for-tips in Second Life (SL) and now popular in OpenSimulator (OpenSim), where a typical talent fee is L1000, about US $4. A select handful of professionally represented musicians command fees ranging from up to L6000 (see Whispering Sands Live Promotions, and contact Spotlight Promotions in SL). Even so, many major VW stars only play for tips in SL and small fees on OpenSim.

Starting in 2008, I cataloged live music talent in virtual worlds to support my SL classes at New Citizens, Inc. First I

Virtual World Live Music: Outstanding and Free

tried to track all the performers at all skill levels. When my talent list hit the thousands, it became unmanageable. Therefore, I raised the talent bar to this: must be great entertainer, must be musically flawless, must be a nice person (including manager), and someone that I would trust to headline a major festival event (e.g. SL’s Imagine PeaceFest). I do not want friendship to be a factor. In fact, these standards exceed what music stars in real life (RL) can rarely attain. In 9 years, I have identified more than 300 musicians who meet these impossibly high standards. I am happy to share my AA-level talent list with you! Just instant message me!

Photo Art by Reno Perkins (vjblue)

For example, one of those stars, Wombat Quinell, transitioned to SL performance after a professional RL music career. When he was an RL professional, he had about 50 songs that he could perform flawlessly. Many of our VW performers are certainly of that caliber!

Why is VW musical talent so terrific?

Quite a few reasons. VW musicians can get significantly more performance experience in front of audiences than RL counterparts, right from their own homes. There is a Darwinian system of music competition in VW. The oversupply of free performances drives the audience ticket price to zero. Plus VW’s lack of scalability (e.g. < 100 avatars per region) implies that it can’t be profitable. Some future VWs will solve the

region scalability challenge (e.g. 100,000 fans at a VW event), then I believe the biggest RL stars will be here competing for our attention.

To prospective performers in VWs: Welcome! Practice makes perfect. And there is a trick! Record your concert (or practice session) and play the audio/video back to yourself. Your brain will almost automatically fix the flaws and improve your delivery. And it helps you remember the lyrics and melody. I confirmed this with several successful stars in VWs. This practice is simple, effortless, and it works. Progressively improve from performance to performance and you will delight your VW and RL audiences.

Dylan D. Moonlights is an outstanding new SL torch singer

Leeman Convel is an up and coming SL country rocker

‘My Father’s Face’: An Update

the summer of 2016, I reported for the first time about the development of my non-profit company Sambiglyon’s camera-controlled PC game, ‘My Father’s Face’ (referred to as MFF from this point onwards). In this 2017 issue, I provide an update on that project and the changes in thinking regarding child-friendly user interfaces that have come about.

To recap: MFF is a character-driven game in which the player can control an anthropomorphic squirrel-person

By Fleet Goldenberg

www.sambiglyon.org/new16/dev

avatar, viewing the game world in either third-person or first-person perspective depending upon their preference.

Its control system follows a philosophy that is the reverse of most PC games, where the emphasis of the controls is on navigation at the expense of realistic interaction. In MFF, walking and running is regarded as the most boring aspect of play and one that requires little conscious thought. Walk and run therefore takes inspiration from ‘endless runner’ mobile games by being toggled on and off with a button press, so that the controls can be focused primarily on using the avatar’s arms whilst in motion.

MFF, the result of over two years of prototyping, utilizes the Intel RealSense motion-tracking camera technology to control the avatar arms with a precision that mirrors the movement of the player’s real-life arms almost 1:1. This was made possible by extensive arm anatomy research that enabled Sambiglyon to work out how simple control inputs can be automatically translated into the deceptively complex motions of the human arm joint structure.

A new player requires minimal tutorial training, because the controls enable them to approach situations with the avatar in the same way that they would use their body in

the real world. Their life experience has provided them with all the training that they need to play the game.

Most of the above information was reported in last summer’s VEJ article about the state of the game at that time (Fleet Goldenberg. Summer 2016 VEJ. Learning Naturally Through Motion-tracking Gameplay with the Intel Realsense Camera pp 55-59). As is common in game development though, designs evolve as the developer learns new skills and gains new insights. And so it also proved to be the case with MFF. Here is what has changed ...

Perfectly human arms

Originally, the avatar’s arms could only swing inwards towards the chest and return to the sides of the body. However, testing found that this created a jarring experience for the player when their virtual arms returned to the sides and stopped, while their real-life arms kept traveling outwards away from the body but were producing no on-screen movement. In short, it broke the player’s immersion in the game world.

After months of prototyping, we achieved the holy grail –a truly human virtual arm that can stretch out fully straight to the sides, making the ‘airplane wings’ action that children so love. This had an enormous impact on using in-world controls: not only does it feel right, but it enhances ease of interaction by enabling the player to reach towards something instead of having to awkwardly sidestep the avatar to touch an object.

More ways to play

MFF was originally a one-player game. This was necessitated by the game being an offline game that relied on motion camera technology that was only practical for use by one person directly in front of the camera lens.

Later in development though, we made a technological breakthrough: the ability to control the avatar arms using a joypad or mouse with almost the same level of control precision and ease as the Intel RealSense camera provided. This meant that the game could reach a far wider audience because the player no longer needed to purchase a special camera to be able to play.

The other main consequence of the tech achievement was that it was now practical to support two human players simultaneously, with player one using joypad, keyboard/mouse or camera, and the second player using a joypad.

Non-discrimination

This led to yet another realization. It was no longer adequate for only a male avatar to be provided. We needed both a male and female avatar. Once that decision was made, it became clear that if we forced Player 1 to be male and Player 2 to be female, we would be discriminating against those who wanted to play as male and male, or female and female.

To cater for every possible preference, we therefore engineered a highly flexible character selection interface at the start of the game that enables the players to pick any combination of genders they wanted.

Player 2 avatars have the opposite fur color of Player 1 avatars of the same gender (Red and orange for Player 1 male and female, and orange and red for Player 2 male and female). This enables the players to easily distinguish which character is which, even from a distance.

even when in motion, with the arm positions trembling due to the locomotion but not preventing the arms from being used almost as precisely as if the player were standing still. With this technology, children truly can run with their arms stretched out like airplanes!

Full-body contact

Having avatars that navigate and interact almost the same as the real human body led to some inevitable conclusions. Just as children may use the avatars for chase and play, grown-ups can equally use them for more … grownup activities. We therefore made the decision not to give the avatars sexual features, deciding that we would give the two players the tools to interact with each other however they wanted to and leave it at that!

Having said that, the avatars are capable of most tasks that real humans can do, aided by rotatable wrists for

While the Intel camera enables the player to set hand orientation with a simple wrist-turn in front of the lens, the joypad and mouse controls make this just as simple by automatically turning the hands palm-down as the arms swing inwards towards the chest. This was because anatomy tests found that most of the real-world tasks use this hand poise when the hands are in front of the body, examples being typing on a keyboard or swiping the fingers on a tablet.

The ability for both players to use a joypad to control their avatars lent itself well to comfortable “sofa gaming” on a couch some distance from the screen. Distance meant that visual elements potentially became harder to see though. For this reason, we used large avatars and a large, legible font for subtitles

so that they could be easily read from the couch without straining the eyes.

Recognizing that two people are not always able to play together for long periods of time, we also implemented a ‘drop I, drop out’ feature for Player 2. At the touch of a button, Player 2 can instantly drop out of a game yet have their progress saved, and then instantly jump back in beside Player 1’s side no matter where they have moved to in the game world since Player 2 suspended play.

Body language

A particular advantage of the RealSense cameras is that they can generate eye, eyebrow, mouth and lip movements on the avatar’s face that closely mirror the expressions that the player is making with their real face. Furthermore, an innovative real-time lip sync system converts microphone voice chat audio into live avatar mouth movements.

Connectivity

With such realistic avatars, there would inevitably be regret in some corners if the game were limited to local co-op play. There are many couples in the world who are only able to interact over distance through a chat-room, with basic virtual world avatars or through online video-gaming.

After some difficulty, we succeeded in creating an online 2-player mode, where each person in the connection can choose a Player 1 male or female avatar and then play together in the same game session side-by-side. Each player is also able to utilize the full capabilities of their avatar to interact with the other player in just the same way as if the two people were physically in the same room together. If each of the players has a RealSense motion camera, the ease and precision of this interaction is magnified greatly. Unlike local play, both players can use camera control because they each have their own camera in their real-world locations.

The automated lip sync mechanism also has consequences for language localization. As well as reacting to mic input, it can also convert a pre-recorded audio voice track into lip movements, meaning that story cutscenes can be instantly localized for other dialects without changing the lip animation, since the lip movements automatically align to whatever language is on a recorded voice track.

Conclusion

While there is still much content to be added to the game world at the time of writ ing, the avatar technol ogy is es complete, crafting environments that encourage the player to truly make the most of the abilities that are at their fingertips for the first time.

Sambiglyon welcomes inquiries from teaching professionals who are interested in beta-testing the game in their schools. You can contact Sambiglyon directly at marty@sambiglyon. org

Educators attend a Machinima Showing in Second Life.

Educators Make and Share Machinima in Multiple Worlds

Machinima comes to us from the video gaming world. Video gamers began to screen-capture moments “in-game” to show-off achievements and help fellow gamers. This practice led to creative editing to make movies using game engines but not necessarily having anything to do with the game per se.

Today, machinima is created within games and within virtual worlds to instruct, to enlighten, to entertain and to have fun. Educators and students are taking ad-

by Tanya Martin

vantage of this novel approach to movie-making with some amazing results, though the process itself is a learning experience on multiple levels.

The art form is one that can be successfully carried out by very young students as well as mature students and educators. Skills enhanced range from technical skills of screen-capture and editing to storytelling, acting and even 3D modeling. Students must also work together, solve problems and make decisions to ensure a

work that will provide what it intended, an ideal way to incorporate Project-based learning.

For several years ISTE’s Games and Simulation Network has partnered with the Virtual Environment’s Network to host The EduMachinima Fest. This annual, new media Film Festival begins with a brief keynote address and showcases games and virtual environment formats combined with cinematic arts to instruct, inform, entertain and inspire. It features both student and educator works in a variety of categories. There will be a change in format this year, making the event more of a showcase than a competition. A committee will, however, still make recommendations for works to be included at the 2017 Showcase and ultimately for playlists to share with educators for instructional use.

A group of educators meets monthly (4th Tuesday of every Month at 5:00 pm SLT - 8:00 pm ET) in ISTE’s Virtual Environment’s OpenSim parcel on the AvaCon grid, to view machinima as it may pertain to teaching and learning. The Tuesday Machinima Night meeting is open to anyone interested and provides an “online and real-time” space where attendees can watch machinima that attendees have chosen to share with the group as having some educational merit. For help getting to AvaCon, see https://www.avacon.org/blog/avacon-grid/. You do not need an AvaCon account, but when you arrive for the first time you’ll need a teleport. Contact Grid Jumper once you arrive to get that teleport.

Works shared during Machinima Night may be person-

ally created, student created, or created by a third party and posted online. A lively discussion typically accompanies the watching of the videos providing all attendees to benefit from insights and technical expertise. Each month the focus of works to be shared is determined ahead of time to assure some organization and emphasis in the hour-long meeting. The group of gamers and virtual–worlders is currently compiling the list into categories along with the eventual “playlist” that will be shared at the Edumachinima Fest ISTE event during the ISTE 2017 Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

To date, the Machinima shared was produced in a variety of game engines and worlds including Second Life, OpenSim, Horizons, Sims 2, Halo, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft. This list can certainly grow as any game engine or virtual world can be screen-captured and edited with the use of screen-capture software like Camtasia, Fraps, or Screencastify. The content can be serious, comedic, instructive or inspiring. Categories have included Tutorials, Holiday-Themed, Curriculum Content-based, Creative Storytelling, Expository, Comedy and Parody.

The 2017 EduMachinima Fest will be held on Tuesday, June 27 from 5:45 to 7 pm at a location within the ISTE Conference site in San Antonio. RSVP is requested at http://edumachinimfest2017rsvp.eventbrite.com. Those interested in having their machinima considered for the playlist and/or Fest please use submission link at https:// machinima4meremortals.wordpress.com/.

Klikaklu: Using Augmented Reality for a

During the annual 2016 ISTE Conference in Denver, a collaborative group of Mobile Learning Network members created and held the Mile High Photo Quest. One week before Niantic Labs introduced Pokémon GO, we had over 100 educators running around downtown Denver and the Auraria Campus chasing augmented reality clues and lining up their findings using the mobile app, Klikaklu.

Klikaklu is a mobile app available on iPhone and iPads. Sorry, there is no android version but the way we dealt with that was by dividing people into groups and making sure at least one person in the group had an apple device with camera and GPS.

Michael Mills started our group out by suggesting Klikaklu which he had used with his faculty at the University of Central Arkansas.

There are two key components to using the Klikaklu app. You will be using your phone camera for taking pictures and the GPS on your phone for geolocating the overlay of the picture.

See A above-for an example, of a picture taken from the campus.

Educators following our clues had to go to the location and get the right shot (see B above overlay).

For the 2016 Quest, Angie Wulff, Chris Luchs and I then went out on reconnaissance and found two pathways for educators to get to know Denver. We developed The Casual Campus Crawl which took you onto the Auraria Campus which houses the University of Colorado- Denver, the Community College of Denver, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver. The more aggressive route was

the LoDo (Lower Downton) Lope which took you into the urban arena and down to Union Station. The evening before the Quest, right after getting into Denver, Michael went out on the routes we designed and created the picture treasure hunts.

While it doesn’t have the backstory or the monsters of Pokémon GO, you can develop your own clues and narrative. We made a Google doc of our planning notes http://bit.ly/mobilequestiste16 for anyone who would like a template or a starting point in planning a quest for your classes or for

professional development. This app would be great for any history, architecture or even English class. We ended up making another Quest based on literary terms (see C above Literary License).

We have to thank everyone who made it possible: Susan Welles and Caitlin McLemore procured the prizes that were the added incentive to our hunters; Laura Sheehy and Laura Briggs who provided information and suggestions; Trish Cloud who was our Voxer administrator; and Chris Luchs and Sherry Jones who staffed the lobby and helped round people up at the end.

We’ll be creating another mobile quest for ISTE 2017 in San Antonio. If you are interested in helping please let us know. We need everyone but if you are a San Antonio resident – we could really use you for reconnaissance! Please email me – Kae Novak

A - Here is a picture taken from the campus

B - Here is a picture of the overlay

Collaborative Mobile Learning Quest

By Kae Novak

We’ll be creating another mobile quest for ISTE 2017 in San Antonio. If you are interested in helping please let us know. We need everyone but if you are a San Antonio resident – we could really use you for reconnaissance! Please email me – Kae Novak at gamesmooc@gmail.com

C - Quest based on literary terms

An Honest Look at Virtual Reality in Education: Current Research in Virtual Reality within Education

By: (rl) Vasili A. Giannoutsos (sl) Bluebarker Lowtide

Imagine being able to walk the surface of Mars, being able to explore its alien terrain while learning about real geographic features and its unique atmospheric composition. Now imagine bringing a whole class to Mars to experience it.

This sounds practically impossible – that is, to do this realistically in the public school system at this point in time. However, through the power of Virtual Reality (VR), a teacher can bring students to a virtual re-creation of Mars and allow them to work with real astronaut gear and vehicles to explore this new world. With the precision from NASA and backing from NASA, the MARS 2030 Experience can use VR headsets for absolutely free (Mahoney, 2015).

Experiencing things in a virtual space grants students opportunities to interact with subjects and topics in a way that was not available to them through textbooks alone. These kind of VR experiences support personalized learning by allowing students to approach topics at their own speed and interact with objects without the risk of harm to themselves. Not just Science or History, but Math and English can also benefit from these virtual experiences.

Between Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality there is an issue of viability within economically challenged schools through models ranging from low technology (low tech) mobile VR to high technology (high tech) machine VR. This fails in comparison to the emphasis and importance exposing students to this kind of immersive technology in a safe environment as to better prepare them for the technologically-dominated world that awaits them.

The term Virtual Reality is still in a state of flux. How-

ever, Nadan, Alexandrov, Jamieson, & Watson seem to agree that “virtual reality is a three-dimensional (3D) simulation of a real or imaginary system” as a succinct role to encompass current VR technology (2011). VR is a simulated system that allows the interaction among objects and the environment itself to be impressionable by the user as effects are rendered in real time. An unknown phenomenon is the user’s experience to be so subjective that the feeling of one’s physical self-being reflected within a virtual environment evokes a self-awareness in the virtual space. As Nonny de la Peña states, …you connect to your virtual self in this incredibly intense way… it turns out we’re hardwired to adopt representations of ourselves as real… and, while within a virtual space, our mind and body create this mental connection between what we are doing and seeing in a virtual reality, even if we are not doing it in the physical world (Hendricks & Hendricks, 2016).

Our brains from a very early age learn through mimicry of our mothers, fathers, and siblings. As we grow, we learn by copying what others do until we have mastered it for ourselves. To see and do it virtually is essentially that same principle of observation and imitation; which are still innate learning mechanisms of the human brain.

An easy mistake is to confuse virtual reality with augmented reality. Although both can be useful in education, the two are incredibly different concepts. As virtual reality is a complete 3D simulated environment, augmented reality acts as an overlay to our real world that allows us to interact with digital objects in our physical world. Such interactions with augmented reality applications and holographic images, for example, have been known to improve fine motor skills of those with severe brain injury (Ludlow, 2015). The two are separate concepts that are difficult to combine at this point in time because the technology does not yet exist and the conceptualized definitions of VR and AR can change due to this unforeseen technology.

The complex realm that is science education is benefited by the use of virtual reality to teach difficult

concepts to students. Through the Mars exercise in the introduction, teaching astronomy and planetary science is suitable for an Earth Science class at both the middle and high school levels. These science concepts are hard to visualize, yet they can be seen and explored within a virtual learning environment provided by VR that is unlike textbook diagrams.

A technology native student, that is, a student that has been born into our technology-driven world, needs such expressive materials within a personalized learning non-place (Coyne, 2007). From the expansive to the micro, the world of cellular biology seems perfect for a VR innovation to teach the of basic biological concepts. Within the personalized learning environment, “students can fly through the 3D bone cell and observe in detail the structure of each component,” while seeing first hand demonstrations of how these structures interact with one another (Shudayfat, Moldove, Moldove, & Gradinaru, 2013, p. 624). Herga, Cagran and Dinevski observed an increase in retention and engagement with chemical reaction concepts among seventh graders within a virtual reality environment (2016).

The role of virtual reality within education can be fur-

ther infused into other subjects. History, social studies, and civics are but a few subjects where virtual reality has flourished. History has long been taught with a textbook where the technology native students struggle to stay engaged. Chris Fowler has researched, even with the formulaic learning paradigm of history and social studies, a shift towards “design[ing] a specific learning experience that best meets the pedagogical needs of the learner” is a step towards personalized learning through virtual reality experiences (2015, p.415).

Fowler further speculates the trade-off between photorealism and behavioral realism may change according to the learning context (2015). The Greve Museum in Demark, for example, hoped to do just that by accurately recreating the World War I Mosede Fort to highlight its significant role in the war while engaging young children with the history of their country (Moesgaard et al., 2015).

As seen by Tokel & Isler (2015), high levels of perceived enjoyment (PE) and ease of use affected the children’s perceived usefulness (PU) in a positive way that allowed them to communicate and encourage others in their peer group to try the virtual reality

Immersive journalism has also made its debut for civics students to interact with news content through the virtual reality technology medium. This immersive content is synonymous with virtual reality as users can explore volumetric recreations of real-life locations and be witnesses to a news event unfold as if they were really there.

For example, there is an immersive journalism VR experience where you can witness a man fall into a diabetic coma while waiting in line at a food bank called “Hunger in Los Angeles. . . . People are down on the ground, trying to talk to the guy, trying to comfort him, trying to help him out” all the while showing an emotional humanistic response to an issue as if it has actually occurred right in front of them (Hendricks & Hendricks, 2016). Stories such as these, that unfold before students are powerful and can encourage many to write and express themselves.

English classes are seeing a boost in reading, writing, and word relationships through the effective use of virtual reality environments. Young students’ interests peak when they find things to be unusual

learning experience (2015).

and farfetched. But some, however, struggle to find the words to describe such fantastical occurrences. For example, the development and use of a magical cottage VR environment for young students to explore gave them a chance to experience amazing things and then afterwards create a story with their own characters to inhabit the location. This activity increased students’ motivation for the learning task which was expected since “pupils had the freedom to explore the 3D model without completing any specific tasks… [to] not influence the flow of the exploration” (Patera, Draper, & Naef, 2008).

To build more virtual reality environments for educational use, O’Connor suspects the influx of opensource programs such as Kitely, OpenSim, Unity, and Google cardboard will help students “express creativity and individuality, as… places to build community, [especially as] online environments can come alive and engender closeness, community, and learning” unlike that seen before the implementation of virtual reality within education in early years (2015, p. 168). The implementation of unusual environmental stimulation to motivate students to explore creative ideas using virtual reality is also a catching trend in the Far East. For example, Creative Thinking Instruction is the name for a class devoted to encourage creative and critical problem-solving skills among students in the schools of China where students have to collaborate with fellow students and communicate solutions through written and oral speech demonstrations. Not only did Hu, Wu, & Shieh observe an increase of fluency and sensitivity, they saw 3D virtual environments “induce students’ imagination and enhance the creative concepts to develop various feasible, unique, and novel creative concepts” (2015, p.478). This belief is shared by researchers Lau and Lee, who also saw within Chinese students, that with virtual reality integrated activities and modules, the learning experience became more meaningful and effective while going beyond their instructor’s expectations (2015, p. 4-5).

Being able to visualize a problem in a virtual space offers a unique outlook towards finding a solution. Even in math, where trying to solve for a solution can be easily framed within virtual reality technologies, there are limitless opportunities to explore equations in a virtual space. Balancing equations was performed

with higher degrees of success using virtual reality laboratories where students could see the molecule makeup to aid students in solving equations (Herga, Cagran, & Dinevski, 2016).

A more difficult problem for virtual reality is to create a mathematical agreeable and intuitive user interface to operate within the virtual reality environment to help aid in solving complex equations. Researchers found that to improve the formative framework of math concepts, some of the elements of design to consider while creating an ideal virtual reality learning environment were attributed to navigation speed, environmental richness, collision detection, coaching message, feedback type, and input device (Chen & Teh, 2007, p. 702). Other factors for assessment considerations in a 3D virtual reality space include displaying complex equations and high data, some of which were considered problems of higher difficulty. These included efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction of the students while using the VR space to understand and compute problem scenarios (Simic, Jevremovic, Kostic, & Dordevic, 2015, p. 631-632). Personalized virtual reality environments are a prime candidate for education.

Many challenges face school districts which make it difficult to incorporate virtual reality technologies within their schools. One major challenge is the cost of virtual reality technologies and the support structure needed to allow VR to function within a classroom. A high technology VR machine, such as an Oculus Rift headset, goes for $599 dollars, and that is just for the headset. This does not include the controllers, which greatly aid in accuracy (“Oculus Rift,” 2016).

Brown and Green both agree that the cost of VR technology and the open source solutions amount to a fraction of the cost (2016). With open source software, such as Unity to create educational VR programs, and low technology mobile solutions like Google Cardboard, the opportunity of VR in the classroom can be managed. These are educational “opportunities [that] may never fit into the existing framework of education unless current approaches to the use of educational technologies change” and the integration of virtual reality learning experiences are done in a proper way (Psotka, 2013, p. 77).

Another hard task for educators is how to properly use VR technology to teach students concepts without getting in the way of daily instruction. Chen and Teh (3013) have researched the various educational frameworks and found a multimodal lesson would be a fundamental first step in creating an ideal framework for the implementation of virtual reality in education as a daily occurrence. With the main motivational use identified between “time problems, physical accessibility, limits due to a dangerous situation [and] ethic problems,” the cost of VR can be easily justified (Freina & Ott, 2015). The possibilities and opportunities provided by virtual reality outweigh the challenges that education poses.

Virtual reality technology is advantageous for teachers to use in any classroom. Virtual reality is an artificial three-dimensional simulation that allows users to interact therein. From the core subjects of Science, History, English and Math to more specified classes

of occupational and vocational education, virtual reality has offered opportunities for both young and old students to perform better in their studies. For students with mental handicaps or physical disabilities, virtual reality has provided better opportunities by improving their daily lives and increasing their fine motor skills.

The main challenge of virtual reality in schools is the cost and the integration within the traditional educational day. Perhaps, it is best seen that virtual reality will usher in a new paradigm shift in education. That is, one in which personalized and diversified lessons will cater to the individual student’s learning wants and needs. An educational system must be comprised of modularized lessons that can be chosen by the student while the teacher becomes the facilitator of the learning instead of just a teacher taking command of the learning in the front of the class.

REFERENCES

Brown, A., & Green, T. (2016). “Virtual reality: Low-cost tools and resources for the classroom”. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 60(5), 517-519. doi:10.1007/s11528-016-0102-z

Chen, C.J., & Teh, C.S. (2013). “Enhancing an instructional design model for virtual reality-based learning”. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 29(5), 699-716.

Coyne, R. (2007). “Thinking through virtual reality: Place, non-place and situated cognition”. Journal of Technology Education, 11(10).

Fowler, C. (2015). “Virtual reality and learning: Where is the pedagogy?”. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(2), 412-422. doi:10.1111/bjet.12135

Freina, L., Ott, M. (2015). “A literature review on immersive virtual reality in education: State of the art and perspectives”. eLearning & Software for Education, 1, 133-141. doi:10.12753/2066-026X-15-020 Hendricks, J.S. (Producer), & Hendricks, E. (Producer). (2016). Curiosity retreat 2016 lectures: Our virtual reality [Video presentation]. United States: Curiosity Studios. Retrieved from https://app.curiositystream.com/ video/1734.

Herga, N.R., Cagran, B., & Dinevski, D. (2016). “Virtual laboratory in the role of dynamic visualisation for better understanding of chemistry in primary school”. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 12(3), 593-608. doi:10.12973/eurasia.2016.1224a

Hu, R., Wu, Y., & Shieh, C. (2015). “Effects of virtual reality integrated creative thinking instruction on students’ creative thinking abilities”. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics , Science & Technology Education, 12(3), 477-486. doi:10.12973/eurasia.2016.1226a

Lau, K.W., & Lee, P.Y. (2015). “The use of virtual reality for creating unusual environmental stimulation to motivate students to explore creative ideas”. Interactive Learning Environments, 23(1), 3-18. doi:10.1080/1 0494820.2012.745426

Ludlow, B. B. (2015). “Virtual reality: Emerging applications and future directions”. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 34(3), 3-10.

Mahoney, E. (Editor). (2015). “Mars immersion: Nasa concepts bring precision to new virtual reality experience”. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-concepts-bring-precision-mars-to-virtual-reality.

Moesgaard, T., Witt, M., Fiss, J., Warming, C., Klubien, J., & Schoenau-Fog, H. (2015). “Implicit and explicit information mediation in a virtual reality museum installation and its effects on retention and learning outcomes”. Proceedings of the European Conference on Games Based Learning, 1, 387-394.

Nadan, T., Alexandrov, V.N., Jamieson, R., & Watson, K.A. (2011). “Is virtual reality a memorable experience in an educational context?”. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 6(1), 53-57. doi:10.3991/ijet.v6i1.1433

O’Connor, E.A. (2015). “Open source meets virtual reality –An instructor’s journey unearths new opportunities for learning, community, and academia”. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 44(2), 153-170. doi:10.1177/0047239515617158

Oculus Rift Oculus. (2016). Retrieved from https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/rift/ Patera, M., Draper, S., & Naef, M. (2008). “Exploring magic cottage: A virtual reality environment for stimulating children’s imaginative writing”. Interactive Learning Environments, 16(3), 245-263. doi:10.1080/10494820802114093

Psotka, J. (2013). “Educational games and virtual reality as disruptive technologies”. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(2), 69-80.

Shudayfat, E.A., Moldove, A., Moldove, F., & Gradinaru, A. (2013). “Virtual reality-based biology learning module”. eLearning & Software for Education, 2, 621-626. doi:10.12753/2066-026X-13-209

Simic, G., Jevremovic, A., Kostic, Z., & Dordevic, D. (2015). “Assessment based on serious gaming interactive questions (sgiq)”. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 31(6), 623-637. doi:10.1111/ jcal.12105

A Student’s First Experience on Second Life and the Grand Canyon Sim on the NOVA site on Second Life.

By Morgan Miller (RL) MoMilla (SL)

Grand Canyon Summary

I like how interactive the Grand Canyon on Second Life is. It is a demonstration of what platforms of rock have formed among each other and many signs that will give information about each formation. I have never been to the Grand Canyon before so I don’t know what to expect. But this virtual landmark seems to project a sort of replica to it and gives the sense as if yo u are right there. It may not be expansive as other landmarks but it has the required information needed. As avatars scale up the rock formations there are many signs to “touch” and receive a handout that will tell all about what for-

mation occurs as it grows. After climbing the Grand Canyon there is a scenic view of the virtual landmark overseeing the rock structures and river.

Brief summaries of the different layers in the Grand Canyon

At the bottom of the Grand Canyon is the Super group. These are older than all the other layers above – over 1 billion years old. In the most parts of the Grand Canyon the super group has eroded and no longer exists but there are some pockets that are preserved to tell of the ancient worlds. It mostly consisted of photosynthesizing bacteria that created

mats on the sea floor, trapped sediments and kept going through the sediment to create a structured layer known as stromatolite.

Above the super group are the Tapeats sandstone. The ocean began to move in across the land from the west. As the sea advanced the waves ground up the underlying rock into a sand beach – Tapeats. This sediment was down near the shore, in the beach, and offshore. The next layer is Bright Angel Shale. It is about 530 million years old and made up of mudstone shale. It is a soft purple and green banded layer that erodes easily to form gentle slopes and hills. It is also embedded with small sections of red-brown to brown sandstones of Tapeats and sandy limestone. Above the Tapeats is Mauv Limestone. It is a mixture of yellowish-green slopes and cliffs. This layer brings it back to the time where there was no life on land, only in oceans.

The next layer is the Temple Butte formation and it is over 400 million years old. It changes dramatically in the canyon. In eastern Grand Canyon, the temple butte only exists as lens-shaped deposits in between the

Redwall and Mauv limestone. As it moves throughout the west it gets thicker. The Redwall Limestone layer is next and it forms a sheer cliff that looks rose-colored on the outside, but if the fresh surface is seen, it is actually a lovely silver-gray. It is a resistant cliff-forming unit that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs that range in height from 500-800 feet. The upper and lower contacts of Redwall are both conformities, its upper contact is a disconformity.

The next group of layers are known as the Supai group. The fossils among these layers include reptile and amphibian tracks and plants in eastern part and marine fossils in the west. These layers include the Watahomigi formation ( gray and purplish-red, slop forming limestone, siltstone, mudstone, and conglomerate), the Manakacha formation (light-red, white, and gray upper slop unit and lower cliff unit of sandstone, calcareous sandstone, darkred siltstone, and gray limestone), the Wescogame formation ( a slope-forming, sandstone, red-orange geologic unit), and the Esplanade sandstone (lightred and pinkish-gray, cliff-forming, fine grained, medium bedded, well sorted calcareous sandstone).

The Hermit formation is the next layer. It is a gen-

tle slope covered in trees and blocks of sandstone broken off from the layer above it. The Hermit is so covered it can hardly be seen at all. It is 280 million

years old. The rich red color is a sure indication that the sediment formed in an environment with lots of oxygen to rust iron in the mud. Coconino sandstone

is the layer above it and it is a major barrier to the canyon travels and it is possible to build a trail through the faults that have broken through it. Its pure sand is made of quartz grains so it is gleaming white exposed by a rock fall. The next layer Toroweap formation is right above it and is about 255 million years old. It is made up of limestone mixed with little sand and mud but not quite as hard as a cliff. It is formed from the ocean near the shoreline. Brachiopods, coral, mussels, sea lilies, worms, and fish teeth can be found. The Kaibab formation is next and is about 250 million years old and it forms at the surface of the Kaibab and Coconino Plateaus. It is composed of sandstone limestone with a layer of sandstone below it. The color ranges from cream to a grayish-white. You can find fossils: sharks, fish, corals, brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, and sponges that tell us it formed in a shallow, warm, Caribbean-like ocean.

My Experience with Second Life

My experience with Second Life has been a pretty useful experience. If you are into virtual worlds,

socializing with people from around the world, and seeing many virtual creations, then this a great place to experience it. It is like another world but on the computer. You get to choose what your avatar looks like and give information about yourself in any way you like.

I like traveling to different landmarks and getting to judge the different spaces people have created because it’s just so wild how specifically the details are in the space around your avatar. It gives you a sense of addiction, but not too much, that pulls you in into the game, to be a part of a community that you have a common interest in. There are so many people on Second Life you will be able to find what you are interested in, other people with the same interest, and the places that welcomes your interest. You can roam anywhere you want, without being judged, and it’s a great experience to jump on your computer and join another world where you can explore what you have in mind and what you like.

LAN Party Meetups

Back in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s gamers decided they wanted to not only play their beloved computer-based games but they wanted to do it in a group. Well this presented a dilemma; how to do this?

So in the days before Wi-Fi, a person with hub or switch and some technical know-how (that was not as common then as it is today) could have everyone come over and plug in, and, voila a LAN Party is born. With the advent of Wi-Fi this became even easier as one just needed a password to the router so everyone could connect. Thus, the description of a LAN (Local Area Network) Party.

LAN Parties happened when a group of gamers get together and play their common video game in the same room all connected together. LAN parties usually ran late into the night (or days and nights), with many highly caffeinated beverages and a love for a particular game. Who ever said gamers are antisocial obviously never attended one of these!

As stated before LAN Parties have been around since the 1990’s and it must be said they are easier to make happen today than in the early 1990’s. Wi-Fi has made it very easy for small or large groups of gamers to get together to compete or play together. All of the large competitions you read about for games like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, or Overwatch are really just huge LAN Parties with a great deal of money on the table. But LAN parties can take many different shapes and appearances. They could be structured around one game, event, task, demographic, or location. There are no rules, it’s just a time for like-minded people to bring their computers and their gaming skills

By Trish Cloud

together to socialize and play. In most instances, Red Bull or Monster Energy drinks are being consumed and sleep is not on the menu. But, this is not always the case,

The LAN Party for ISTE’s Games and Simulations Network began in 2014 at the conference in Atlanta. It was a time for educators to come together and relax with their computers and other gamers. Tables were set up and different games were played or talked about. It gave some who had never had an opportunity to play an opportunity to do so. It also gave those who had played games long distance together a chance to sit and play together in the same room. It was a chance to bounce games-in-education ideas off like-minded collaborators who just might have the idea you were looking for to help launch game-based learning in your classroom.

Building off the success of that first party, a second one was held at the 2015 Conference in Philadelphia. At this conference the tables expanded to include tabletop games. Interactive fiction was brought out to showcase how much the genre had grown and developed since Zork, not only on the computer but now, had expanded to tablets. Classcraft provided a representative to talk to attendees about gamifying their classrooms. Bloxels (which was still not out on the open market) was on a table for people to experiment with and to tinker with building their own game. And of course, there were the tables with Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, and more.

This tradition was continued in Denver in 2016, and the Games and Simulations Network is excited to again be planning a LAN Party in San Antonio at the 2017 ISTE Con-

ference. The LAN Party will happen on Monday evening, June 26 (check the schedule). You can come and play your favorite game or just talk with other people who love games and like seeing their presence in the classroom.

Local Area Network doesn’t necessarily mean computers only. ISTE is a great place to build your personal learning network and coming to the LAN Party is a great way to establish professional and personal friendships in a local area kind of way. Hope to see you in San Antonio!

Editor’s Note: For more information about the 2017 ISTE Games and Simulations LAN Party be sure to check the ISTE 2017 Conference Schedule. If you’d like to “connect” to any of the online communities of practice to learn more about virtual environments, Games and Simulations and Mobile Learning, here are some links to checkout. Enjoy!

ISTE Virtual Environments Network http://venetwork.weebly.com/

ISTE Mobile Learning Network https://sites.google.com/site/istemobilelearningnetwork/ home

Game & Sims Network Facebook http://bit.ly/gmsimnetworkfb

Metagame Google + Community http://bit.ly/metagamebookplus

Inevitable Instructors- Gaming Guild http://inevitablebetrayal.shivtr.com

EXPEDITIONS: MARCHING ON!

BY. Christine Gries, (RL) Darra Nimbus in (SL)

Hi, I am Christine Gries, a.k.a. Darra Nimbus in SL and most other virtual worlds. Darra has been exploring virtual worlds and Multiplayer games for over 30 years (think Compuserve and the multiplayer trivia game, with a black screen and green lettering on the monitor). With the un-

timely death of our friend and colleague Matthew Pool, I asked if I could step in and try to fill his exploring boots. I cannot replace my predecessor’s great work, but I am willing to build on it. Our adventures will not only be of Second Life but of other Virtual Realms, so grab your exploring gear and let’s get going! Next stop High Fidelity!

In The Beginning

When Philip Rosedale started to create Second Life, as the story goes, developers showed up at his door with a copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenon, saying that they wanted to make the technology in the book come to life. Now in

2016, Mr. Rosedale has his sights set on something just as amazing as the virtual world he developed.

High Fidelity, https://highfidelity.io/ , a virtual world like Second Life, is created by its inhabitants. So, what is the big deal you may ask? This virtual world actually lives on your computer, on your hard drive. Furthermore your avatar can be more animated. Gone is the typing chat, your voice in this world. Although you can navigate with the arrow keys, having a virtual head set and hand controllers allow for a much richer experience in this virtual world.

Adam and Eve Version 3.0

Avatars are free and available on the Marketplace. The avatars come fully dressed and mouth movements sync to your voice. Avatars are continually being added to the Marketplace and you can develop your own using Blender and other products.

I have heard chatter in the Welcome Area about having more avatars that mirror a better representation of certain age groups, in particular the 50 somethings that tend to play in virtual worlds. The helper explained that avatars are being created all the time. Helpers, who seem friendly and

knowledgeable, populate the Welcome Area and can be asked questions. They can also be seen giving lessons on building as well.

Playing in your Sandbox

Each resident gets a sandbox, which resides on your hard drive. It comes equipped with two portals, one to the

Virtual Education JOURNAL

Welcome Area and one to the tutorial. It is recommended that you have Vive headset and hand controllers in order to take part in the tutorial. These accessories will also allow your avatar to be animated by how you move. Since your Sandbox is on your computer you control who has access to it, you can make it public or private and of course your friends can enter this area. You can use it to make an enclosed learning space or a public performing area. It is up to you.

Some disappointing things about High Fidelity

Unless you have Virtual Reality gear your experience will be somewhat limited. As previously mentioned you cannot view the tutorial area. The learning curve, much like Second Life, in its beginning stages, is tremendous. The navigational menus are not user friendly and sometimes when you open a window it is almost impossible to close it. I will continue to investigate and try to build in this world and continue to report on it.

Until next time keep those explorer boots on and stay curious.

Tech To Be Thankful For

In November 2016, the ISTE Games and Simulations Network along with the eLearning Consortium of Colorado sent out Tech 2 Be Thankful for Survey. 34 people participated in our unscientific poll, but it ended in some very fun results.

You can look at the results 2 ways –spreadsheeted responses or the wordles in the slides we made. Here’s a few of the wordles.

Some of the interesting tech mentioned that you might want to take a look at…

Mr. Cardboard A higher scale option to Google Cardboard HoloLens Now available and what everyone wanted their jolly procurement officer to bring!

Walkie-talkie voice recording system

Canva Quick graphics like a baby Photoshop

Padlet Digital wall or bulletin board

Zamzar Online file conversion

Voxer

Edpuzzle Video annotation system

Blendspace Interactive lessons, projects, and presentation system

Flipgrid Video collaboration tool

AnswerGarden feedback tool for real time audience par-

[Editor’s Note: A special thanks to ISTE Games and Simulations Network for sharing this survey information with VEJ Reader’s.]

ticipation, online brainstorming and classroom feedback. codepen.io front end design and development where students can see what code does in real time

2016 Favorite Places to Visit in SECOND LIFE

We asked our readers, “What is your favorite place/sim to visit in SL during 2016?” We would like to thank our readers for submitting so many responses. We have selected the top 3 places we thought everyone would enjoy visiting.

TOP 3 PLACES TO VISIT:

Horizons Experience

From Scott Merrick:

I would suggest the Horizons Experience. There is a very good blog post introducing it, by Inara Pey, along with a great video, at https://modemworld.me/2016/11/15/inside-the-horizons-experience-in-second-life/ and here’s the link to Horizons-- http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Horizons%20A1/140/216/69 .

I am stuck on the 5th Challenge, having attempted it probably 40 times. That final challenge is daunting, very adaptive each time one attempts it, but I swear I’ll get it done. I don’t see a way to contact the blog author to request perhaps a reprint of her blogpost in VEJ, but that would be an excellent addition. To learn more about this exciting place, read Inara Pey’s articled, “Inside the Horizons Experience in Second Life” reprinted in this issue of VEJ or on her blog --- Living in a Modemworld: Thoughts on Virtual Living.

Bluff Cove

From Any Gynoid:

My favorite place/sim is Bluff Cove http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bluff%20Cove/111/172/22 It is a Second Life region dedicated to surfing… Never crowded... free surfboards... gorgeous etherial solitude and epic surf waves. Plus the most egregious surf troll is banned here! LOL A surfer’s paradise.

From Berry Paulino:

This is the one place where you can hear SL live entertainers. If you are looking for the BEST person to entertain guests or perform at one of your socials, this is THE place to go! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Trax/140/178/27.

TRAX Live Music Resource Center – TRAX Shoutcasts Streams

By Inara Pey

Inside the Horizons Experience in Second Life

Update, November 19th: some users on TPVs may find the gun used gun in Quest 3 of Horizons Experience doesn’t work with their viewer. The Lab is aware of the issues, and is investigating options for a fix. For the moment, those affected will need to swap to the official viewer, but only for Quest 3. Full details can be found in llTakeControl issue and the Horizons Experience.

On Tuesday, November 15th, Linden Lab announced a new Mainland community initiative called Horizons. First hinted at during the Meet the Lindens talks at SL13B in June 2016, it became the subject of widespread speculation when two testing environments related to it appeared on the Second Life world map in October, with Patch Linden further stirring up interest by posting some teaser images to his Profile feed.

Picking up on the SL13B hints, I contacted the Lab with the idea of covering Horizons. Patch and his team were very receptive to the idea, and as result, I had the opportunity to tour the regions ahead of the opening, and learn more about Horizons from Patch Linden and Naughty Mole of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).

In short, Horizons is a new themed Mainland residential community built around a central, 6-region gaming environment called Horizons Experience. As I’ve covered the community aspects at length in New Horizons in Second Life, this article focuses solely on the new six-region gaming experience.

Looking down on one of the Horizons Experience quest regions

Horizons Experience essentially builds on the Lab’s work with PaleoQuest, the dinosaur themed adventure which opened in July 2015 (see Experiencing PaleoQuest, the Lab’s latest adventure in Second Life). As with PaleoQuest, players are tasked with completing a number of quests and multiple tasks in order to come to the rescue of Magellan Linden’s assistant, Tyrah, who is in deadly peril at the paws of the nefarious Doctor Talpa. Note that the game is on Adult rated regions, but this is not reflective of the games content.

“PaleoQuest was our most recent gaming project that we had put out at scale,” Patch said as we discussed the game ahead of our tour. “We took from that a lot of the game mechanics which people really enjoyed and liked, and we’re including them and a lot of new elements within the Horizons Experience.

“For example, one of the big new features is the ability to participate either as a player in the game or as an ‘explorer’ – someone who is not active in the game, but who can travel through the regions and observe as a bystander. With our other gaming experiences, you’re either in the regions with the intent to play, or you wouldn’t go. As Horizons is part of the Mainland, we felt it was important that people be able to drop in without disrupting the game-play.”

“We’re using different coloured indicator above people’s heads in the game regions to indicate whether they are a player or an explorer,” Naughty Mole added. “If they have a blue ball floating above them, they are an explorer. If they have an orange ball, they are a player. That way, the people in the game know who is who. Obviously, you can’t complete any of the quests as an explorer, nor can you receive any prizes; but you can walk or fly around and watch players (who can’t fly). Oh, and you can still be killed by any of the quest hazards!”

Part

of the Horizons Experience start region, showing the Portal Room where returning players can jump to their last point of progress

Given that Horizons Experience is sitting in the middle of a residential area where flying vehicles are permitted, I wondered if there was a risk of aircraft interfering with the game. “Flying vehicles can pass over the gaming regions,” Naughty Mole answered, “but they must keep above a certain height. If they are too low, they will get a warning, and if they don’t increase their height, they will be auto-returned and those on board will be transferred to a resurrection hub inside the gaming areas as explorers.”

“The six regions of the experience are all uniquely themed,” Patch resumed, “The first region you go into is the starting region, where residents are introduced to the quest and receive their game HUD. While there they can watch an in-depth tutorial video and background story video, see the payout stations or follow links to the Horizons Experience wiki page for more information. Beyond all this are the five gaming regions, which are linear, like PaleoQuest. Each must be completed before you progress to the next one.”

Horizons Experience can be accessed in a number of ways. Anyone in the Horizons regions can fly to the central gaming regions, or they can use the teleport portals located at the Horizons info hubs and community centres, and which are scattered across the residential regions. Direct teleport via the map is possible, and there is also a Horizons Experience gateway at the Portal Parks.

Down in the mines

Naughty added, “When people first arrive, they are given the choice of being a player or an explorer. If they selected ‘player’ they are registered for the game and receive a HUD. If they remove their HUD, they become an explorer. If players leave the game regions, their HUDs are automatically removed. However, all progress up to the point where they removed their HUD is saved.

“Returning players arriving at the start area can use the Portal Room to jump directly to any quest they have previously completed, or go to the Quest they were on when they left the game. So, if someone left while trying the third quest, they can use the Portal Room to get to quests one, two or three, but they will not be able to jump to quests 4 or 5.

“Also, there are HUD kiosks throughout the quest regions, so any player who removed their HUD can get a replacement, and they will be asked if they would like to teleport to their last point of progress. Explorers who have never played the game can also use these kiosks to obtain a HUD, and they will be asked if they would like to teleport to the start of the first quest.”

The Horizons Experience HUD and an access terminal – essential parts of the game mechanics (r)

The HUD (above, left) is easy enough to understand, and can be minimised / maximised with a click on the bottom information bar. The top right of the HUD will sometimes reconfigure itself as a part of a particular quest, and additional HUDs may also be attached and removed as a player progress through the game. All of the quests are against the clock – hence the timer on the HUD; run out of time and you’re back to the local resurrection hub. Completion of a particular quest is indicated by players locating the local access terminal (above, right) and touching it. All progress throughout the game is automatically recorded for each player.

I don’t really want to say too much on the individual quests (although the tutorial video does!); I think it is far better to experience the game than to have it explained. Help is always available through the HUD prompts, Magellan’s voice prompts (if you have sound enabled) and the Help button to the wiki page. Each quest also starts with several information kiosks, which will supply a note card explaining what needs to be done.

The first four quests require the player to complete an assigned task or tasks, working against specific hazards, so of which might be obvious, such as laser-wielding robots, giant machines, and so on; other of which may be far less obvious, such as nasty plants, unexpected rock falls, and little, easily missed robots. The fifth quest involves penetrating Doctor Talpa’s secret lair to rescue Tyrah. When successful, players are teleported back to the start region, where they can receive a random prize / Linden Dollar reward from the payout stations. Once they have done so, their HUD is reset, and they can try their hand again, if they wish.

Note that Linden Dollar payouts require players have payment information on file and payment information used (i.e. they have a payment method registered with Linden Lab, which has been used at least once, such as to purchase L$). , and only one L$ payment is made per player per 24 hours. This statement has been placed in a paragraph of its and expanded, as some readers apparently missed it in its original form.

The Horizons Experience HUD and an access terminal – essential parts of the game mechanics (r)

I’m not a major game player, but I enjoyed my time in Horizons Experience – so much so, in fact, that I later sneaked back to run through the five quests on my own. The game play regions are well designed and suitably atmospheric, and there is plenty of space to play as an individual or alongside friends.

During my first run through with Naughty and Patch, we were joined by several other Lindens and Moles to make a tidy number, and the mix of explorers and players didn’t in any way appear confusing – I was far too focused on the task at hand! However, I do wonder how things will go during these early days and weeks, when interest in Horizons Experience will likely be at its peak. Unlike PaleoQuest and Linden Realms, where there are multiple instances of the game, allowing players to be balanced across game play areas, there is only the one Horizons Experience, so things might initially get a little crowded simply as a result of users’ curiosity.

Making an experience like this a central part of a community environment is an interesting idea. Whether it helps attract Premium members into obtaining a house in one of the residential regions or not remains to be seen, so again, it will be interesting to see how this goes.

In the meantime however, the game is there, and is fun to play, either individually or with friends (some of the tasks offer the chance for players to help one another). But don’t take my word it; go take a look for yourself!

Editor’s Note: This article was first published November 2016 on Inara Pey’s – Living in a Modemworld –Thoughts on Virtual Living blog. It is reprinted in this issue of VEJ with permission from the author.

The Places You Can Go!

By Helena Kiama/Barbara Seaton

Some of the greatest writers pull from their experiences around the world, whether it be ducking behind sandbags in the midst of a war zone, sitting on the front porch of a rundown cabin in a Louisiana swamp, or wandering through an art museum at the Smithsonian. What makes each of these places so special that it puts its indelible mark on the writer? In one word, immersion.

Each immersive experience takes them away from the day-to-day grind of their hurried lives and lets them transcend to another time and place, another way of being, another way of thinking. In these moments, doors open in the mind, views grow wider, and insights flourish.

Not all of us can travel around the world to unusual and exotic places. So how do we find these immersive places? How do we make the time when we do find them?

In the future perhaps it would be as easy as saying “Beam me up, Scotty.” But the future is not here yet. Or is it?

What if I told you, within the next hour you could be standing on the sandy beach of a turquoise ocean? Or wandering through an art exhibit of some of the most famous painters of all time? Or slogging your way through a dark and foreboding swamp full of alligators and rats?

What if I told you that time has no relevance? One moment you could be wandering the streets of Luxembourg in 1867 and the next standing in the holodeck of the starship Enterprise that is yet to be.

What if I told you the law of physics has no place here? You could climb the alabaster steps of a floating cathedral, or step inside a fractal world.

What if I told you, you could step inside the

Step with me into the world of virtual reality and let your imagination soar. Immerse yourself in the creations of others. Explore landscapes real and surreal. The possibilities are endless.

Virtual reality provides those of us writers that do not have the chance to travel much in the physical world places to “travel to” from our own homes, places that give us immersive experiences, that make that indelible mark on us that we will never forget. We come away with new insights, new ways of thinking, new ways of being.

Over the past year our ISTE VEN writers’ group has explored such places in a virtual world called Second Life. It is here we take the time to immerse ourselves in environments created by writers, musicians, and artists.

We devote one hour a month to focus solely on a particular environment. One month we explore and immerse ourselves, taking in the visuals and sounds around us.

The next month we share our work based on that exploration. Even in the sharing we discover new ideas as we listen to others.

Our travels have taken us to Memento Mori, a floating cathedral in the sky; Cyberpolis, a colorful fractal world; Preiddeu Annwyn, where we follow

imagination of others?

There are such places, such times, such possibilities. We can virtually be anywhere, anytime, in any way we want. And it’s right at our fingertips.

Arthur and his men into the underworld; Mama Brigitte’s Bayou, a dark swamp connected by boardwalks; and La Digue Du Braek, a shoreline that once saw battle in World War II and now is a tender balance between nature and industry.

That doesn’t even begin to touch the thousands of environments waiting for us, carefully crafted by their creators, waiting to evoke our emotions.

We don’t have to travel half-way around the world and spend lots of money to get there. Virtual reality allows us

to transcend all time and place with a single click. Then for a brief moment we can suspend the clock and dive deep. I hope you brought along plenty of paper and pencils. You will have much to write about.

Editor’s Note: Everyone is invited to join the ISTE VEN Writer’s Group which meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 5:00 pm slt at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland%209/28/99/22 . Readers can also pick up a folder with info about the current writing adventure and TP to previous destinations visited by Writer’s Group.