Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;And far away into the sickly light,From many a wondrous grot and secret cellUnnumbered and enormous polypiWinnow with giant arms the slumbering green.Alfred Lord TennysonMy love of fantasy has taken me deeper into Second life (SL) than I’d imagined. The distinction between reality and fantasy becomes more diffuse with every minute I spend in these regions. Coming back to RL (real life) is a bit like walking out to a daylit street from an exciting and gripping movie. It puts a new perspective on reality.The effect that SL has on the mind can be powerful if the imagination is energised. For a few minutes after logging off, I wonder if real life isn’t all virtual too. It makes me think again about what some people say about violent virtual games and the effect they may have on the real life behaviour of some people.But like every other thought stimulation, SL is just another influence. Persona and personality are two entirely different things.Real adventureA recent sojourn into SL found me a delightful companion, Zylle (zill).Like me, she is new to SL but she has a little more experience and that is useful. We share our interests and our fascination for SL in conversation, while we show each other around islands that we'd discovered in the short time since we were rezzed.part of KalepaThe other night we took off to the volcanic island of Kalepa, one of Zylle’s favourite spots. It is an enchanting place with lots to explore, including a sail in a gondola and a journey on a huge enchanted feather.On our second visit to the island, she took me on the Da Vinci Gardens Indiana Jones Adventure. Here we entered the lobby, close to the entrance to the tomb of the Pharaoh where the Sarcophagus and treasure chamber lay.Among the rich assemblage of Egyptian statues, treasure chests and ornate accoutrements, were opportunities to actively participate in snake charming, or try a spot of belly dancing, supervised by the resident genie-of-the-lamp. Kallan watching Zylle belly dancingOur quest for the treasure chest was fraught with unimaginable peril.Zylle had to teleporte me to safety from the deathly pit of cobras and avatar-eating spiders at least twice. I wasn’t at my ease in those circumstances and had to keep saying to myself, "this is SL!"We found the treasure chest eventually, but unfortunately neither of us could lift any of the treasure it contained. Getting back out to the sunny sands of Kalepa meant retracing our steps! I was relieved to get out.While looking around outside, we spotted Felixx, the developer of Kalepa! We identified him by his name tag as the owner of all that we had seen in Kalepa.We approached him, and after brief introductions, he kindly showed us around. Felixx teleported us to his customer service depot where we had a chat and shared a few of our interests.Felixx meeting Kallan and ZylleI think he was taken with our interest in his work. He gave us the link to a recent video made in Kalepa, starring Alissa Moreno, singing and accompanying herself on piano.I got the impression time was running short for Felixx. He had lots to get on with, yet he continued to show us around.When Zylle explained that we’d been to Sunken Atlantis, he asked, "Did you take a ride on the sea-horses?" We hadn’t.So off we went, teleport-fashion, to ride the sea-horses in the "slumbering green".Kallan and Zylle on the sea-horse chariotFelixx took a snapshot of us as we rode into the depths, and bid us farewell. This journey was amazing, for it revealed the true beauty of Felixx’s animations.He explained that he first got into building in SL when he'd been out of work for some months, during which time he taught himself the ropes, while building his amazing fantasy land.He told us that, as a student, he'd studied Biochemistry. He had a PhD in Genetics. I could see where his love for detail in nature came from.A shipwreck, a lost treasure chest and a visit from a giant octopus set the scene for much adventure.The next evening, we were in Hawaii and met Pawn who had been newly rezzed. As dutiful avatars, we helped him with some of the basic skills in SL, and a few more tricks, not that I knew much! Swimming underwater with the dolphins was a great introduction to having fun with animation in SL. Zylle and Pawn swimming with the dolphinsBut Kalepa is obviously the place to go for ‘real’ adventure. So off we went, only to meet Felixx, once again! He so much wanted to demonstrate what he could do to entertain us and had us fascinated as he scripted the crocodiles to fight with each another.Zylle and Kallan look on as Felixx scripts the crocodilesIsn’t Zylle’s hair wonderful? She decided she needed a complete change after losing her hair while playing chess with Pawn earlier.Felixx’s power with scripting allowed him to work magic with the Sarcophagus of the Pharaoh.Kallan, Pawn and Zylle watch as Felixx scripts the SarcophagusLater, we decided to take up Felixx’s earlier advice to visit Mars! We’d spent too much time on the seahorses the evening before to enter the underwater spaceship that takes us to Mars from Sunken Atlantis.It was count down . . . - 3, - 2, - 1, - 0 . . . "We have lift off!"The journey was somewhat rocky. But with me in the controls, what would you expect? When we landed, we decided it was better that Zylle took the controls on the Mars buggy! Did you know that’s there’s water on Mars? And all sorts of fantasy plant life?And mushrooms! Or are they Marsrooms? For Jaba the Hut?Zylle got us safely to the observation tower, where we took a drink from the bar, relaxed a bit and enjoyed the view.Throughout the adventure, at the back of my mind I was making mental notes on the potential Second Life had in providing a platform for elearning. Its networking potential, for me, is implicit.In a flight of fantasy, one need not wonder if even romance is possible in Second Life.post editor Zylle( 7 ) ( 6 ) <- related posts - > ( 4 ) ( 3 ) ( 2 ) ( 1 )

Building interactive eLearning usually means you have to have programming skills or a team of programmers at hand. Today, that’s no longer the case. With Articulate Storyline you can experience the simplicity of working in a familiar interface and the power of creating more than click-and-read eLearning…all at the speed of business. Attend "How to" workshops - free to members of Training Magazine Network. Registration will be limited to the first 2,000 to sign up. To access handouts, access links, etc, participants will need to register as members of Training Magazine Network.  TUE, April 3: Getting Started with Articulate Storyline THURS, April 26: Create Interactive Software Simulations with Articulate Storyline THURS, May 31: Interactive E-Learning Made Easy with Articulate Storyline WED, July 11: How to Create Interactive Scenarios in Articulate Storyline

Greetings Eliademy users! During past week we have improved the following in Eliademy: We added live chat support to our website as one of our customer support methods - simply click on the window in the bottom right corner to get help in real … Continue reading →

Topic: Creating Quizzes with Random Questions in Adobe Captivate 5.5 Date and time: Thursday, March 1, 2012 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM US/Pacific Description: Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh and Vish to learn how to create quizzes with random questions using Adobe Captivate 5.5. They will show you how to create a question pool, create a quiz with random questions, reuse question pools created for other projects, and create a quiz with questions coming from various question pools.Registration Link: http://adobe.ly/zbZNGyTopic: Best Practices for Working with Objects in Adobe Captivate 5.5 Date and time: Thursday, March 15, 2012 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM US/Pacific Description: Join John Daigle, Pooja Jaisingh and Vish to learn about the best practices of working with standard and interactive objects in Adobe Captivate 5.5. These objects include text captions, images, rollover images/captions/slidelets, animations, click boxes, buttons, and highlight boxes. They will also be sharing some quick tips on troubleshooting common issues you can face when working with objects in Adobe Captivate 5.5. Registration Link: http://adobe.ly/zEFBGA

Relatively low-cost digital technology is ubiquitous in daily life and work. The technological advances hold great potential for improving educational outcomes, but by themselves hardware and networks will not improve learning. Decades of research show that high-quality learning resources and sound implementations are needed as well. With so many reasons to expect dramatic progress, something more—better use... Read More ›

Maka, Huntress and Kallan enjoying a night out dancingThis is the last of a series of September posts summarising some of what I’ve learnt while looking around Second Life (SL).Exploring SL from the elearning perspective, there is a range of features that facilitate communication, making it an accessible networking tool.Here are the features I’ve found most useful during the 3 weeks I have been exploring in SL: Local chat and voice This feature provides synchronous text or voice communication. In local text chat, selecting the range of communication provides a means of control over the ‘loudness’ of the chat.Normal chat can be ‘heard’ within a virtual range of 20 m from the participant’s avatar. A whisper cuts the range to 10 m, whereas a shout extends it to 100 m (SL).Instant Message (IM) Instant Messaging provides a direct means to communicate across SL between two avatars. This is useful if there's a need for close communication between two avatars when in company. It has global range in SL and permits avatars to chat asychronously if need be.Avatar profile There are often delays in chat when avatars meet for the first time. This is mainly due to the customary practice of mutual avatar profile checking during an initial conversation.There are sections or tabs in the avatar profile where useful information can be put by the avatar’s owner.Since most of this added content is viewable by others, it pays to give careful thought to what’s entered that is viewable by the 'public'. It can be helpful to those you meet and save a lot of misunderstanding. Drop-box transfer between inventoriesEach avatar has its own Inventory - an accumulated ordered series of virtual commodities. These can be images (Textures), text files (Notecards) and sound files (Sounds) or more particularly .wav files and other items such as scripted objects that have specific functions in SL. A simple click-and-drag from the inventory of the giver to the drop-box of the recipient permits a copy of the item to be transferred across SL.Media BrowserA built in browser provides ready access to the Internet direct from SL. As well, the Media Browser can be set so that the browser on the user's PC opens by default. I found this a useful function as it permitted a separate browser window to be opened on the screen giving greater flexibility of use. Ratings in SL On 15 September 2009, Linden Lab successfully separated the "adult content" from the general grid. This is a welcome move, for business people and educators using SL, towards a safer and pleasanter environment. It is also a good move for the reputation of Second Life.( 7 ) < - related posts - > ( 5 ) ( 4 ) ( 3 ) ( 2 ) ( 1 )

Hello Humans, During the last 2 years, Eliademy was part of the largest Research project of Finland. The objective? To research and prototype new technologies around health, education and banking under the auspices of Digile Digital Services. Digile is a … Continue reading →

Do you have time to volunteer your instructional design skills during a three-month period? If so, e-Learning for Kids, a global non-profit foundation that reached over 3 million children in 190 countries in 2011 (with 50 percent usage in the United States) with its free courseware, needs your help! The goal is to develop 100-plus lessons in 2012 for Math World—a virtual world for learning Math in the context of different countries and continents. To-date, more than 80 lessons have been launched! How can you help?  Are you a skilled instructional designer who can develop two or more storyboards? Do you have approximate 30 to 40 hours to volunteer during a three-month period? If you have the skills, time, and interest to make a difference for children, e-Learning for Kids needs your assistance! To learn more and participate, please complete the volunteer form here. You will be contacted and provided a storyboard template (with a manual) and a subject matter expertise package (with math examples) so you can begin! Thank you for considering making a positive difference in the lives and education of children! To learn more about the foundation, please visit www.e-learningforkids.org

Education must capitalize on the trend within technology toward big data. New types of data are becoming available. From evidence approaches to xAPI and the whole Training and Learning Architecture(TLA), big data is the foundation of all.  Data-Driven Learning Strategy from Jessie Chuang

I have three announcements about things that will be happening in the blogosphere next month. The first is an appeal to all bloggers to contribute to Blog Action Day 2009.1"Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web."This year’s Blog Action Day is on 15th October, the issue being Climate Change.Bloggers are encouraged to write about climate change in the context of how it relates to the topic of their blog. To help you start thinking, hop across to the Blog Action Day site where there is listed a few ideas about how you might connect climate change to things you might write about on your blog.Please contribute to this worthy cause by registering your intended post title at http://blogactionday.org/ and publishing your blog post.2George Siemens, Jay Cross and Tony Karrer have recently announced the first ever LearnTrends 2009 Innovation Awards. The intention is to attract nominations from all parts of the globe."These awards are designed to recognize the products, projects and companies that represent interesting innovations in the use of technology for Corporate / Workplace Learning and Performance." The deadline is 30 October. To apply for an award you must complete the Submission Form.If you wish to find out more, leave a comment on Tony Karrer’s site, or drop him an email at akarrer@techempower.com.3My third announcement is to do with Blogger in Middle-earth's nomination for the Blog-o-the-Month award, sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).The announcement and polling place is at ISTE Island's Blogger's Hut in Second Life.So fly across to Blogger’s Hut on ISTE Island now, and register your support for this blog. If you need to register with Second Life first, the registration is easy. I recommend it.Blogger in Middle-earth has the blue square on the polling board. Pick up your avatar and teleport to Blogger’s Hut.