Find us now at www.tdtatfit.wordpress.com

This blog has moved to the new Technology Development Team blog – www.tdtatfit.wordpress.com.

how IBM will bring the catwalk into your living room – changing the face of fashion and retail

Thanks to Shenlei for the link — this is amazing!

NMC Campus Observer » New Weekly Events- Join Metanomics Events on NMC Campus

from sl.nmc.org

China and Virtual Worlds: The Competition Gets Stiffer

Have a look at this article from the Guardian from just last month, “Virtual China Looks For Real Benefits.”

China is converting a 100 sq km site (yes, that is a very big space) on the former nationalised steel mill site to house, among other things, virtual worlds able to support not millions or tens of millions but billions of avatars.

and

If it were anyone but China planning this you would take it with a pinch of salt. But this is not the NHS, it is the world’s biggest manufacturing country pitching to lead the next stage of development as the internet moves into three dimensions. When I asked the professor whether the coming of virtual worlds would be on a scale commensurate with the industrial revolution, he replied: “It will be faster, bigger, more like an explosion.”

Wall Street Journal Article

Hildy sent me a link to a great article “Now, Virtual Fashion: Second Life Designers Make
Real Money Creating Clothes For Simulation Game’s Players,” from the Wall Street Journal.

Two Second Life Demos at FIT – Join Us!

Elaine Polvinen (Professor, Fashion Design at Buffalo State), Shenlei Winkler (fashion designer and entreprenuer) and Nyla (fashion designer and entrepreneur) will be joining us and talking to us about business, design and teaching in Second Life.

Elaine is my co-author on this blog and you can read her posts below — introducing herself and our speakers.

There are many useful links below — if you are in any doubt about the importance of Second Life, watch these two short videos from American Express that feature Nyla, one of our speakers.

http://www.houseofnyla.com/slvid.html
http://www.houseofnyla.com/slvid2.html

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Friday, November 30, 12:00-1:00pm, SR5
Tuesday, December 4, 1:00-2:00pm, SR4

LUNCH WILL BE SERVED

Please join us — rsvp to celia_baez@fitnyc.edu

Please leave a comment by hitting the “comment/no comments” link if you have any comments or questions about Second Life before the demo.

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And on the importance of brand building in Second Life:

Great Presentation today!

Thanks to Nyla, Elaine and Shenlei for a VERY successful presentation today about design and business in SL.

We have another presentation on tuesday 12/4 at 1 in SR4.

If anyone has any follow-up questions, please feel free to post them here by clicking the “comments” link.

Elaine talked about being open and flexible when planning do work with students in SL – essentially the opposite of what Larry recommended. That makes a lot of sense to me too. Hmmm…

Education in SL

Interesting interviews with some folks who are really exploring SL for education (from Emory and Ohio University Online) — click here (thanks to Nyla for the link!)

And wow! think about “transmedia storytelling” — the intersection of tv and sl

And here’s some fashion shows.

So, how to teach in this environment? What to teach in this environment?

Larry Dugan at Finger Lakes Community College advises,

Before you dive in, make a plan. There is no way we would create an online course with definitive learning outcomes and strategic plans… would we? My advice is to take the course, pick a chunk, and apply SL to it. Build your course this way before you dive in and drown. Use others experiences. Use the MCC island or the SUNY island to host your classes, where you will find friendly concierge types to get you through. But plan, don’t just dive in with students.

That makes a lot of sense!

The students are king! SL represents true Web 3.0 mentality. If we think about the pedagogy for our online courses, we have shifted the paradigm to empowering students to be masters of their own learning. This takes that to a whole new level. In SL, you truly become the guide on the side, and the master of the content, while the students become the masters of the exploration of content in a much deeper way. Give in. Let them teach as they learn.

More pearls of wisdom from Larry:

If nothing else, be ready and flexible for change. SL changes all the time. Keep in mind too that SL was not designed as an educational tool. For that matter, neither was the internet. What we have is an intense collaboration tool that “feels” different. I won’t say it feels like RL or like anything else, but it is different. It gives our students a feeling of belonging. It gives them a 4th presence we cant describe in terms of social, emotional or teaching. Its more like a “metaphysical” presence that we can use to encourage students engagement.

Larry’s final words: Recommendation…
Spend some time in SL before trying to get students in. When you do, plan-plan-plan.