Aino's Word Clouds about social media issues

Cool! Isn't it? Just enter your Delicious user name or the URL of your blog and you will get a nice word cloud on the most common words stated in your website.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.


Word cloud about my Delicious tags and bookmarks:


Word cloud about my blog (Second Life blog by Aino Kanto):


As you can see Aino's most favorite tags or words or bookmarks are related to virtual world of Second Life and social media tools. Well, is this some sort of surprise? I guess not regarding on the aim of this blog and social bookmarks site of mine. :)

Social Media in Adult Education Centre

The Finnish Adult Education Centre (of the City of Helsinki) has started a project dealing with interactive and social media web tools and facilities. I have made some notes about the early plans and goals about the project in this blog (see more from my notes at 2007 Nov 3rd).

The goals have been changed a bit during these several months (actually the first ones go back to one year almost) and our project has been funded by Finnish National Board of Education to meet the challenges, which is really respectful in this genre comparing on the national ICT strategies abroad.

Oh, I almost forgot to write that the reference group of the project is senior citizens, that need to cope with the new challenges in our information society (see more from my notes at 2008. Sep 4th).

There are more information and some pick-ups from our curriculum (social media classes) in the project blog. Sorry, the blog is only in Finnish! But wouldn't this be a nice idea to learn this nice and easy rare Fenno-Ugric language!!! In the Helsinki Adult Education Centre there is a wide selection of Finnish classes also for foreigners and immigrants (see more about Finnish classes from the website).

• Somedi - Sosiaalinen media ja ikäihmiset -project informatio
  http://somedi.blogspot.com
  

Language day and conferences in SL

I have participated in several nice virtual conferences in Second Life during the last weeks. Unfortunately I just have had lack of time so I haven't made any notes to my blog about these activities. Luckily my friend avatars have been more active in the blogospshere so I just give some references to the blogs and to the websites about the conferences.

Jokaydia Unconference, September 27th - 28th, Australian eLearning conference
http://jokaydia.wikispaces.com/jokaydiaUnconference
http://selentiak.blogspot.com/2008/09/jokaydia-unconference.html
Jokaydia in Second Life




European Language Day, September 26th, Swedish Institute island
http://www.ecml.at/edl/
http://literatour.ning.com/
http://selentiak.blogspot.com/2008/09/european-language-day.html
Swedish Institute in Second Life




Science Friday, September 12th, Science Friday island
http://www.sciencefriday.com/
Science Friday in Second Life




eLearning 2.0, September 5th, Swedish Institute island
http://elearning20sfis.blogspot.com/
http://selentiak.blogspot.com/2008/09/seminars.html
Swedish Institute in Second Life

Kirjoitettu Flock-selaimella

SL seminar in Paijat-Hame Edu Island

After two more weeks, Friday the 17th of October 2008, there will be a Finnish Second Life seminar organized by the Koulutuskeskus SALPAUS from Lahti, Finland (mentioned also in Le's and Sammy's blogs). The program and the registration can be found from the website [http://slseminaari.blogspot.com/]. Online participating (only half of the day) by Second Life is for free, real world participating in Lahti takes 80 euros.

There is Paijat-Hame Edu Island in the Second Life, one of the newest Finnish educational sims. This sim also offers buildings for business purposes around Lahti region. In one corner of the island the famous Salpausselkä sporting centre's slopes for ski jumping can be easily found. In the center of the island there are buildings for learning activities including several rooms and halls for collaboration and meetings where the conference will be held also I assume.

There are also a beach and a park for relaxing and a bar for chit chatting and a playing ground with some interactive games. In the another corner there is also a sandbox with the basic intstructions for learning building skills.

Inspired by the famous flying Finns I flew to the sandbox and after a minute (or maybe an hour) I succeed to create a Finnish flag with a wooden curved handle (see picture).

Web tutors' meeting in EduFinland Island

Marja wrote already about recent virtual meeting of the web tutors in the University of Helsinki. Also Sammy and Le wrote about the future happenings in the Educational Centre for ICT area in the EduFinland Island including the in-world Studia Generalia video streams in October and huge global Megaconference.

In addition to those we are planning to produce in November one or more public lectures of the Helsinki Adult Education Centre dealing with the interactive and social media web facilities and tools.

Here is a short description and the dates about the lectures in Finnish:

Helsingin työväenopistossa on OPH:n osarahoittama sosiaalisen median hanke, jossa yhteistyökumppanina on Helsingin yliopiston Koulutus- ja kehittämiskeskus Palmenia. Tähän liittyen työväenopistossa on marraskuussa kolme yleisluentoa, jotka pyritään saamaan myös Second Lifeen Opetusteknologiakeskuksen auditorioon.

Maksuttomat yleisluennot, Opistotalo, Helsinginkatu 26, Kallio:

To 13.11.2008 klo 16.50 – 18:20
Web 2.0 tulee - oletko valmis? – Esimerkkejä sosiaalisen median nettipalveluista
Tietotekniikkasuunnittelija Juhana Mykrä

To 20.11.2008 klo 16.50 – 18:20
Nuoret ovat netissä – pitäisikö minunkin?
Suunnittelija Annukka Koivunen, Koulutus- ja kehittämiskeskus Palmenia

To 27.11.2008 klo 16.50 – 18:20
Wikit ja blogit sosiaalisen median verkoissa
Aineenopettaja Anne Rongas, Kotkan aikuislukio

Memorial Stone in SL | Victims in Kauhajoki, Finland

On Tuesday, September the 23rd, there came upon another horrible school shooting in Finland. This was not unluckily virtual but for real. If you want to put a candle in Second Life, there is a memorial stone in the Finnish Sauna Retreat area in the SL during this week.

Info about sad Kauhajoki School Shooting:
http://www.yle.fi/news/left/id102478.html

7 Seas Fishing | Finnish Sauna Retreat

I recently joined into a Finnish group, Suomi - suomenkielinen, and got a group announcement about the fishing competition in their region, The Finnish Sauna Retreat.

Before the competition started Friday, the 12th at 8 PM, there was also possibility to participate in the aerobics class...and afterwards go also in the real Finnish Sauna, naked or with a towel that avatar can get for free.

The region allows nudity, which is of course normal in case of the real Finnish sauna retreat. Usually Finns also swim naked after refreshing hot sauna...and indeed there was a strange looking naked Finnish "fish" in the lake already during the fishing competition.

Oh yes, the unofficial top 3 in the competition as far as I can remember:
1st Hannu 43 pts
2nd Brigid 35 pts
3rd Juhani 28 pts

Metaversal Arts

I had honour to meet a lovely avatar Yolanda Hirvi, who is an in-world designer and the owner of the Metaversal Arts island in Second Life. Metaversal Arts is a brand and a group of content creators in the Second Life metaverse. In the island there are various and wide selection of items for sell, mainly built in the spirit of the victorian period (ie. antiques). There is a lot to buy but also plenty just to admire by avatar's own eyes.

I was interested to see the island so I made in-world search and teleported in to the island. After some minutes Yolanda caught me and said hello. I never had met her before, but she is in my Facebook friend list. We started to chat and it was so nice and funny that it eventually took an hour or more.

After saying goodbyes she gave me an excellent pair of shoes made by her and a brand new model of victorian phone. :) Thanks for nice chat and those wonderful unique items I saved in to my inventory!

Tutoring volunteer students for web 2.0

In our ubiquitous information technology based society we need to manage through every day life which is more and more full of new challenges: electronic forms, web based tools, social networking sites, and virtual worlds such as Second Life.

To meet those challenges we have developed a great variety of services and facilities in our Adult Education Centre of the City of Helsinki, where we have, among regular students, a lot of those who want to study of their own. Self studying for information and community technology (ICT) skills is not so easy for starters, so they usually need guidance to manage through the real world problems with computers and networks.

We have about 20 volunteer students, who frequently give their guidance to the other students, mostly beginners, who seek for knowledge and skills. In addition of the warm heart, the volunteers will get some free classes and tutoring for their prize.

We have a project dealing with the new social media tools and possibilities in e-learning genre, so we decided to give a brief introduction about it to our brave and innovative volunteer students. We invited them to the Adult Education Centre and they got known about our project and also about Second Life.

I was amazed how well they faced it: I think they truly got interested in, they did not get a shock for sure... at least not a bad one. I think at least some of them will also participate in the special course, to be held in spring, concerning about social media possibilities. Then they will get some more detailed tutoring about the Second Life also. Probably they will want to fill out the registration form, create their own avatar and begin their in-world journey. For orientation I sent them some more information about Second Life and url-addresses to the SL video tutorials.

I want to thank my avatar friends Le Selentiak and Midsummer Moonintoog for helping me during the in-world demonstration in the Second Life! You were great!

Second Life - käyttöohjeet in Finnish (Koulutuskeskus SALPAUS)
Second Life - Video tutorials - Basics
Le Selentiak's blog

Sky News

I was preparing myself to the class for our volunteer students in the Adult Education Centre and wandered through Second Life seeking for some good sites for the quick tour demonstration. I teleported myself to the Sky News sim and met a very nice avatar called Silvae Reuven, who works for Sky News in the real world. She was very helpful and I definitely got a good case to my show.

Here is the slightly edited citations of the SL chat history I saved in Sky News island. Thanks to Silvae Reuven for her statements. These words shown below gives a good description about Sky News' ideas of using Second Life.

Second Life citations of the avatars chatting in the Sky News island, September, the 3rd.

[10:33] Silvae Reuven: hello aino!
[10:34] Aino Kanto: oh, hello! Am i interrupting something?
[10:35] Silvae Reuven: no, not at all. nothing going on here at the moment. :)
[10:35] Aino Kanto: ok, nice to hear
[10:35] Silvae Reuven: do you have any questions about this sim?
[10:35] Aino Kanto: i am preparing myself for tomorrows lecture
[10:36] Aino Kanto: just wonder if it would be a good idea to drop by with my
students
[10:36] Silvae Reuven: oh, cool, a lecture about?
[10:36] Aino Kanto: it is about social web tools, i will show some cases in SL
[10:37] Silvae Reuven: sounds interesting. we've held a lot of pretty cool
events here. want to know more?
[10:37] Aino Kanto: yes, please
[10:38] Silvae Reuven: ok, just need to move cat that is sleeping on my
keyboard...
[10:38] Aino Kanto: lol, they always love warm cool places... isn't it a paradox.. :=)
[10:39] Silvae Reuven: yeah, this one's Very insistent... anyway
[10:40] Silvae Reuven: we've had some of our presenters make live
appearances here with their look-alike avatars. Some took visitors on a
tour of the place to explain what happens where and talk about their
job.
[10:41] Aino Kanto: oh, that is very interesting
[10:41] Silvae Reuven: We've also had them interview politicians and tv
celebrities (UK ones) right here at the desk.
[10:42] Aino Kanto: oh, that is fascinating
[10:42] Silvae Reuven: To make all of that available to a larger audience, we
streamed a video feed of this onto a website where people could take
part in the discussion via a live forum.
[10:43] Aino Kanto: a new approaching between the virtual and real
[10:42] Silvae Reuven: ...what else...
[10:43] Silvae Reuven: Well, when we first launched, the interviews held
here were streamed live onto SKy News television, which meant
we had a virtual and real audience at the same time. A first!
[10:44] Silvae Reuven: That's about it. :-)
[10:44] Aino Kanto: amazing!
[10:44] Silvae Reuven: sure, we uploaded some videos to youtube, shall i
find the link for you?
[10:44] Aino Kanto: thank you for your briefing Silvae... i would appreciate the youtube link for sure
[10:44] You: would you know if here is something happening in the
morning tomorrow between 8:30 - 10:00 AM UK time
[10:45] Silvae Reuven: no, nothing happening in the forseeable future
[10:45] Aino Kanto: ok, i think we will definetely drop by tomorrow
[10:46] Silvae Reuven: few good ones here: http://www.youtube.com/user/SkyNewsSL
[10:46] Silvae Reuven: and I think I may have different ones on mypage (not sure now): http://www.youtube.com/user/SilvaeReuven
[10:47] Silvae Reuven: could be interesting to show your students
[10:47] Aino Kanto: thank you very much! this is very cool
[10:47] Silvae Reuven: good luck with that lecture
[10:47] Aino Kanto: i might do that, thanks for the hint
[10:48] Silvae Reuven: ok, if you have no more questions, i'm gonna
disappear
[10:48] Aino Kanto: ok, i will continue my journey too, thanks for everything
[10:48] Silvae Reuven: very welcome, have fun
[10:48] Aino Kanto: and good times in the sky
[10:48] Silvae Reuven: quite ;-)

Opening ceremony - University of Helsinki

While my real ego was sitting in my office in the Adult Education Centre, the dear virtual avatar of mine participated in the opening ceremony of the University of Helsinki, which was broadcasted by video stream in EduFinland island in Second Life (SL). The quality of the stream was fine and it was nice to chat with the other avatars in SL while listening and watching the stream on the in-world screen.

Here is the slightly edited citations in Finnish (sorry folks!) of the SL chat history I saved during the opening ceremony. I have taken off some irrelevant parts. I hope no one of the kind avatars shown below will be offended about this conversation. After all, there are avatars chatting with their virtual roles. So, these words may not represent actually the thoroughly thought opinions of the real world persons' behind the avatars.

Second Life citations of the avatars chatting in the opening ceremony of the University of Helsinki, September, the 1st, 12:15 AM.

[12:17] Aino Kanto: heippa
[12:17] Sammy Breiz: Hei vain
[12:17] Marja Sideways: aino, taas uus kampaus!!!
[12:17] Aino Kanto: lol, täs oli vissiin vapaata (lol = laugh on loud)
[12:17] Le Selentiak: kyllä vaan :)
[12:17] Sammy Breiz: Jo vain. Vielä on tilaa.
[12:17] Marja Sideways: kivaa kun säkin tulit :)
[12:18] Aino Kanto: nii-in, on, kivaa nähdä näin paaaljon porukkaa
[12:18] Sammy Breiz: Saattaa olla meidän tontin yleisöennätyksiä tähän mennessä.
[12:18] Marja Sideways: ja kuunnella hyvää musaa. sibelius goes SL!
[12:18] Le Selentiak: tuolla salissa on vähän enemmän porukkaa...
[12:18] Sammy Breiz: Joo, tänne ei vielä nykyservereillä mahtuisi ihan kuuttasataa :-)
- - - -
Discussion about formal and non-formal behaviour (SL vs. real life)...
[12:21] Aino Kanto: (salamavalojen välkettä SL:ssa...tässä ihan häikäistyy)
[12:22] Khiira Weston: pakko ikuistaa näin historiallinen tapaus
[12:22] Sammy Breiz: Jep :-)
[12:23] Refreshing Iced Tea whispers: Refreshing
[12:25] Aino Kanto: (onneksi täällä voi kuskia: saliväki ei häiriinny)
[12:25] Sammy Breiz: (jep :-)
[12:27] Aino Kanto: moi Lara
[12:28] LaraAngelica Cale: moi
[12:28] Sammy Breiz: Tervetuloa :-)
[12:28] LaraAngelica Cale: moi telmus
[12:28] LaraAngelica Cale: ja peksu
[12:28] LaraAngelica Cale: ja kaikki
[12:28] Aino Kanto shouts: Moiii Midsummer!!! Tänne päin!
[12:30] Aino Kanto: (Midsummer, me täällä kuiskitaan, ettei reksi häiriinny)
[12:30] Sammy Breiz: Hmm, tällä kertaa vielä mene täältä paluufeedi tuonne saliin, mutta ehkä jo jossain vaiheessa syksyä... ;)
[12:31] Aino Kanto: no hyvä, voi siis puhua ihan "ääneen" täällä :)
[12:32] Sammy Breiz: Jeh :-)
[12:32] Sammy Breiz: (mutta silti tulee kuiskittua, ettei häiritse muita seuraajia)...
[12:33] Midsummer Moomintoog: en tuota videota saanut käyntiin
- - - -
Soft talk about Turku, the former capital of Finland...
[12:34] Aino Kanto: Hei Kim!
[12:34] Kim Zwiers: Hei
[12:34] Aino Kanto: siul on kiva punainen ferrari (kannettava)
[12:34] Kim Zwiers: aah aivan, hetken jo luulin että olet nähnyt minut kaupungilla :-)
[12:35] Marja Sideways: :)
[12:35] Aino Kanto: hehee, missä muuten virtuaaliturku sijaitsee? tuolla simin kulmalla?
[12:36] Kim Zwiers: Virtuaaliturku?
[12:36] Aino Kanto: kun täällä SL:ssä on Dublinia, Amsterdamia, Lontoota, Pariisia, New Yorkia... niin miksei samantien kaikki suomen parhaat kaupungit myös
[12:36] Kim Zwiers: aah, ei taida vielä löytyä Turkua
[12:37] Marja Sideways: JEEE! Hyvä HY!
[12:37] Khiira Weston: Turkuun kannattaa tulla ihan todella, ei pelkästään virtuaalisesti
[12:37] Marja Sideways: Ollaan listasta riippuen Euroopan 5 paras!
- - - -
Occasional technical problems with the video stream from the real life...
[12:37] Sammy Breiz: Oho, katkesi. Hetki.
[12:38] Le Selentiak: katkes kaikkkialla, katson streami'ä muualta
[12:38] Sammy Breiz: Joo, koetetaan eri backuppeja...
[12:38] Le Selentiak: nyt takas
[12:39] Telmus Noel: jep tulee taas
[12:39] Marja Sideways: oks toi sami sun työpöytä?
[12:39] Sammy Breiz: Joo, vaihdoin läppäriä - toinen jumahti.
[12:39] Marja Sideways: oot varautunut kaikkeen ;)
[12:39] Sammy Breiz: Nooh, hätävarasäätöä :-)
[12:39] Aino Kanto: varasuunnitelman varasuunnitelma siis
[12:40] Marja Sideways: mitä noi valkoiset pisteet on meidän kaikkien päällä? en oo ennen nähnyt...
[12:40] Aino Kanto: meil on mahdollisuus myös livepuhua
[12:40] Sammy Breiz: Olisiko äänichatin merkit?
[12:40] Peksu Randt: Jep
[12:40] Marja Sideways: aah ok
[12:41] Aino Kanto: haluatko tehdä äänenavauksen Marja... :)
[12:41] Marja Sideways: no en! kääks!
[12:40] Aino Kanto: hups...onks varma, ettei tää mee suorana tuonne salin screenille?
[12:41] Le Selentiak: mut jos jotkut kuuntelee puhetta...
[12:41] Khiira Weston: toimiiko teillä toi video? mulla on jumahtanut
[12:41] Telmus Noel: toimii
[12:42] Aino Kanto: video toimii miulla, mut mitään ei tapahdu salissa
[12:42] Sammy Breiz: Joo, toimii. Koeta restartata?
[12:42] Aino Kanto: virtuaaliodottajan aika on pitkä
[12:42] Le Selentiak: seuraavaksi tulee musiikkia :) sibeliusta
[12:42] Khiira Weston: no, nyt se jumi aukesi ;-)
[12:42] Aino Kanto: kyl on upeeta tuolla salissa
[12:42] Telmus Noel: paremmat istuimet kun salissa
[12:42] Aino Kanto: jummijammi
[12:42] Telmus Noel: ja virikisteet
- - - -
Some real life notes from the University's auditorium...
[12:43] Aino Kanto: mikä orkesteri soittaa...vaiko nauhalta?
[12:43] Le Selentiak: ihan on salissa livenä
[12:43] Marja Sideways: YS, Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat
[12:43] Aino Kanto: ah, kiitos Marja
[12:45] Le Selentiak: hm ,vai onko kuitenkin nauhalta, sillä en näe soittajia?!
[12:45] Marja Sideways: paitsi en kyllä nää niitä soittajia...
[12:46] Le Selentiak: aika jännä, ennen on olllut livesoittoa
[12:46] Sammy Breiz: Joo, outoa...
[12:46] Aino Kanto: Kuka oli siellä yliopiston käytävällä livenä, vois kurkistaa ovelta... ei kai se YS kuitenkaan etänä soita... ?
[12:47] Le Selentiak: tuskin, vaikka ei sitä nykyaikana tiedä!
[12:47] Marja Sideways: jaa-a, HY on niin 2.0 nykyään ;)
[12:47] Aino Kanto: heh :)
[12:47] Marja Sideways: yleisöstä kuuluu analogisia yskähdyksiä, pitäis saada sellaisia myös tänne SL:een ;)
[12:48] Sammy Breiz: Mikki vain sopivalla hetkellä auki... ;)
[12:48] Le Selentiak: kyllähän mekin voidaan yskäistä, jos haluamme...
[12:48] Aino Kanto: ja itkeä, ilosta tietty
[12:50] Marja Sideways: Puheenjohtaja Elisa Hyytiäinen Helsingin yliopiston henkilökuntayhdistys HYHY ry
[12:50] Sammy Breiz: Kiitos Marja :-)
- - - -
Statistics of the Finnish avatars in Second life...
[12:50] Aino Kanto: HiHi... huhujen mukaan SL:ssä alkaa olla jo pitkälle toista tuhatta suomalaista... täällä on tietenkin nyt koolla eliittijoukko
[12:51] Khiira Weston: varmaan on jo yli 1500 suomalaista... taisin lukea Sulapinta-blogista tms.
[12:52] Sammy Breiz: Ja varmaan ihan kivasti kasvussa..
[12:52] Aino Kanto: ei ainakaan ole julkisuuskuvalle haitaksi, että esim. Kim käy "virtuaalievankeloimassa" tätä SL:a
[12:53] Kim Zwiers: hehee
[12:54] Sammy Breiz: Meilläkin talon sisältä tulevat SL-aiheiset yhteydenotot alkavat usein sillä, että tällainen Kim oli käynyt esittelemässä ympäristöä jossain sessiossa... ;)
[12:54] Khiira Weston: hyvä Kim :-)
[12:54] Kim Zwiers: :-)
- - - -
Real life snags virtual life too often: needed to go to the 1st life meeting...
[12:48] Marja Sideways: aino on ihan levoton... :)
[12:49] Aino Kanto: heh, kun pitää jo kohta ehtiä livekokoukseen...
[12:49] Sammy Breiz: Joo, reaalielämä usein haittaa SL-aktiivisuutta...
[12:49] Sammy Breiz: :-)
[12:49] Le Selentiak: tule myöhemmin takaisin, jos ehdit (aino)
[12:49] Aino Kanto: no, ainaskin perjantaina virtuaalituutoreiden tapaamiseen
- - - -
[12:54] Midsummer Moomintoog is Offline
[12:55] You: oho, Misummer jo läks kokoukseen..minunkin varmaan pittää tästä :( kiitti kaikille ja lämmintä tunnelmaa jatkossakin!
[12:55] Khiira Weston: moikka
[12:55] Marja Sideways: heippa aino, nähdään!
[12:55] Telmus Noel: moi
[12:55] Sammy Breiz: Kiitoksia samoin :-)
[12:56] Aino Kanto: (taidankin jättää avatarin tänne "botiksi" kuikuilemaan... saas nähdä kuinka pitkään sillä virtaa riittää)
[12:56] Sammy Breiz: Puolisen tuntia kestää kai oletusasetuksilla ennenkuin serveri heittää ulos..
[12:57] Iiris Mannonen: Kiitos minunkin tarvitsee nyt lähteä - työt kutsuvat!
[12:57] Marja Sideways: heippa iiris!
[12:57] Khiira Weston: moips
[12:57] Sammy Breiz: Jo vain, kiva kun poikkesit!
[13:00] Kim Zwiers: kiitos
- - - -
Multicasting statistics...
[13:02] Sammy Breiz: Sain juuri taustafaktaa videopojilta - tämän SL:n lisäksi avajaiset leviää multicastina, realina ja flashinä. Multicast-katsojien määrästä ei tietoa, realilla hetki sitten reilu 50 ja flashilla vähän vajaa 50.
[13:03] Marja Sideways: sehän on ihan kivasti! ja meitäkin oli parhaimmillaan yli10
[13:03] Sammy Breiz: Jep, eli saatiin live-katsojista yli 10% SL:n kautta :-) Ei paha.
[13:04] Sammy Breiz: Aika vähän katsojia tuo reilu sata, käsittääkseni.
[13:04] Marja Sideways: jaa musta se on paljon.
[13:04] Sammy Breiz: Olisi odottanut enemmän. Studia Generalia -luennotkin vetää kai monin verroin tuon.
[13:04] Marja Sideways: itse en olis muuten osallistunut avajaisiin alinkaan, mut nyt kun se on tehty näin helpoksi... eli kiinnostavuuteen nähden 100 on aika hyvin ;)
[13:04] Sammy Breiz: Tjoo. ;)
[13:06] Sammy Breiz: Streamia voi halukkaat testata myös flashina (saivat viime viikolla viritelmän tuotantokäyttöön): http://video.helsinki.fi/flash.htm
[13:07] Marja Sideways: hei ihan pöhköä jolleivät soita livenä :(

Building class in the Insight Virtual College

There is quite useful in-world search option in Second Life. I used it for seeking what would happen in the learning genre in the near future. There were plenty of activities going on and to be. I picked up one which started in some minutes: A free building class in the Insight Virtual College.

I will add the introduction of the class here: "Building Module II is a detailed overview over the different tabs of the Edit Menu. Today we will look at the Features Tab. This class is designed for students with beginner's experience in building who have already completed Module I and want to deepen their knowledge about the Edit Menu. By the end of class you will understand how to use the Features tab and you will walk away with a simple but funny hat!"

So I teleported to the Insight Virtual College's Shepherd Halls Ground Level where the class was just about to begin. The instructor, Lara Shepherd, wished me warmly welcome and the class started...and it was all fun.

I can very warmly suggest the Insight Virtual College's classes. The atmosphere was comfortable, the class was well structured and I got what I was looking for: The basic knowledge of Edit window's Features tab's possibilities and skills for building a funny flexible hat!

There is information about the classes also in the web: http://ivc.2ksite.com/viewforum.php?f=4

Second Life meets FaceBook

I found and installed a brand new Facebook (FB) application that generates Second Life information into FB account profile. It will automatically update FB user's Second Life status so that FB friends can see if the user is online or not. User can also easily share favorite virtual destinations and of course display the SL-avatar to the FB-friends.

The application can be installed into Facebook from this link:
http://apps.facebook.com/second-life

It is still in beta version but it worked fine in my FB site:
http://fi.facebook.com/people/Aino_Kanto/1363390681

Using the Animation Balls

I got some fun this morning trying several animation balls, those balls in the Second Life, that makes your avatar moving and doing almost anything. First you need a find one, then sit down on it and just enjoy the show.

So I teleported myself into the Muse Isle, where I could amuse myself as an artist (painter animation) and do some some tricks with the slay pottery. I flew on the top of the hill and found a vehicle that transports avatars high in the sky and drops down in free fall...luckily I got the free parachute with me...and remembered to wear it at the first place. Believe me or not it was really fun to sky dive! Finally I teleported to the Stanford University Libraries where I took a steam train tour around the sim. Do we need the amusement parks anymore?

What a wonderful world

This morning I got an inspiration of searching the most beautiful sims (digital areas) in the Second Life virtual world. Unfortunately my computer's memory and graphic card was not able to work properly so that I could make some splendid photo shots over the sites. Luckily I found a short video clip from YouTube (see above) which will do the trip. Isn't the world wonderful!

Kirjoitettu Flock-selaimella

Making the Inventory

This morning I decided to rearrange my Inventory because it would otherwise be soon a huge mess. There was already a lot of stuff such as free clothes, shoes, hairs, skins, objects etc. Together there were over 3200 objects before rearranging in the inventory, afterwards slightly below 3000.

I made a new folder structure inside the main folders and created sub folders with short but descriptive titles so that it is more logical and easier to find objects. I also deleted those that I would probably never need and that could be easy to get again if needed.

I found some really beautiful clothes and other stuff that could fit really fine on me (I am quite slim, lol), so I started to make some new outfits including clothes, shoes, jewelries, haircut, makeup and so on. I must say I succeeded to create a very wonderful summer collection. Maybe some day I could invite some friends to my very own private fashion show (lol).

SOMETU - Sosiaalinen media oppimisen tukena

View my page on Sosiaalinen media oppimisen tukena

Tutoring my colleague

One particularly nice person, Midsummer Moomington, a librarian of our Adult Education Centre was in troubles last Thursday in the EduFinland island. She needed some help in her very first steps in the virtual world of SL. First there was a problem of getting inside the open learning center house in the island: the door just did not open at all in first attempts. We noticed finally that it needs to be opened by touching the window - not the wooden parts of the door.

After a lots of efforts trying in (lol) I suggested that she might want to sit down in the bubble chair. It was not so easy either cause it usually needs to click on the right mouse button, not left.

Then nothing happened: no actions taken on her avatar. I asked if everything was alright or not. She just got a customer in first life so she could not concentrate on the second life. So after she finished with the customer we continued our tour inside the house. We found a very nice blue laptop in the table. She got a copy but could not find it from the inventory. Instead of the laptop she found a mug of chocolate which she took in her hand with my help. I also gave her an animated cup of coffee, which was nice looking.

After some cups of coffee we learnt how to zoom and pan in t the SL. That was all for almost one hour. The skills will be improving gradually.

Meeting in the University of Helsinki in SL

I was making a task list for the group meeting of the Adult Education Center's "Social Media -project" persons. The meeting was to be held Wednesday the 18th of June 2008. I were taking a deep look in the EduFinland island and suddenly saw there was an announcement for a meeting of the ICT designers of the University of Helsinki in SL which was just about to start. In despite of I do not belong to the staff of the University I decided to stay in the island for a while to see how the meeting would go.

Gradually about 20 avatars teleported themselves into the EduFinland island and the meeting started. First we were just gathering the avatars into the small auditorium and introduced ourselves. Afterwards we were walking around to get known about the island, specially the University's area in it. Then we devided into two groups and were chatting about SL's possibilities in eLearning genre. Finally we reflected with each other what we had chatted in the groups.

The meeting took about one hour and 15 minutes and there were some good ideas. We also chatted about the problems of SL and compared it on the other communicating systems. Everyone agreed that there are many challenges if thinking about using SL as a learning tool. The immersivity of SL makes it both interesting but also addictive.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Avatars have dreams in first life also

I teleported to ESL SL School (English as a Second Language in SL) and chatted with Johnius Petrov who is a member of a Help Team there. He is a russian who lives in Ukraine. He seemed to be a very nice person and had an interesting dream in the real life. He has a master degree of Computer technology from the University but wants to be a psychologist and to study abroad. He needs some money for that. The average salary in Ukraine is 300 USD so he has a dream to work in Canada and study later in England.

It was my first visit in the ESL SL school since about six months. The building itself had been changed: has now some more luxury comparing on the past seen :). I asked about Violet Meili, my first SL friend, who had also been working as a member of the Help Team in ESL SL school but Johnius had not seen her for a long time. I wonder what has happened to my dear friend Violet...maybe she has been concentrating in the first life like me recently.

Kirjoitettu Flock-selaimella

University of Joensuu in SL & RSS

The first Finnish University has established an own island in Second Life. The main aims are focusing in the pedagogical use of virtual spaces in the genre of ICT. The island will be used also for training.

I visited in the island on Saturday morning. It was really calm: no one there. Well...it was a really sunny and warm day in the Frist Life, so no wonder :). The structures in the island have been very well done and there are some really nice ideas there.

There are now six different houses or rooms for different activities including House of best practices, Reference library, Show room, Movie theatre and Pod casts. Also the Sand box for building practices is handy.

Since last visit in the Second Life it has been improving I can see. In this island there is for example the possibility to feed real time RSS from the Internet (see the screen capture). Also the interface itself has been improved: now it includes the search possibility in the upper right hand corner and the auditive Chat bar in the lower right hand corner.

Kirjoitettu Flock-selaimella

Back in the Grid

After a very long pause I am here again. So, there will be something new soon...

Kirjoitettu Flock-selaimella