OpenSim Progress

OpenSim running in my server and accesed from a computer in the same LAN

Finally got OpenSim 0.6.6 working in my server and accessible from computers in the same LAN (mainly problems with my router config and iptables in my computers). Next step: make it work for people outside.

The black monolith you see in the picture is an homage to “2001: a space odyssey”. It is 256m tall.

First experience with OpenSim

A virtual world hosted in my machine

I did some experiments with OpenSim and now I have a working 3D world simulator that works like Second Life – you can even use the Second Life official client to connect to it – but since it is hosted in my own machine it is completely free to upload stuff and I get to control everything.

Give Inventory script Video by Shelly Waco

This video made by Michele Ryan (SL name: Shelly Waco) shows the use of the Give Inventory script, useful to deliver materials to students in one go. Just drop the script and the contents you want to deliver in a box and the contents will appear in the inventory of whoever touches the box, nicely stored in a folder. Best part of the video: it features me!

The script can be found here:

Personal Virtual Teaching and Learning Environment

What you see in the picture is my class inside Second Life for the ABC (Absolute Basic Cornerstone) Scripting that I’ve been teaching for a while. The set is pretty simple: 3 slides and a box that delivers the materials. And yet it took me always like 10 minutes to rez, arrange and align all 4 objects. Those days are gone thanks to Loki Clifton’s (from Inside This World) donation of his company’s holodecks for Muvenation participants.

Quick overview of SCORM 2004

SCORM 2004 is the most used standard (best thing about standards? everybody has one) for e-Learning, it was designed by the ADL initiative and must be used for all the web-based learning content of the Department of Defense of the United States.

The idea behind it is that learning contents that follow this format are easily found (via the use of meta-data) and interpreted and can be modified and reused by anyone… who understands SCORM 2004. Fortunately there are tools and you don’t have to worry that much about syntax and the like.

Editing is easy since meaningful content is packed into units of knowledge (called SCOs) that have meaning on their own but do not depend on others. This “atoms” of content can be joined in any form to organize sessions, didactic units or even whole courses.

Exchange of this type of documents among teachers avoids constantly re-inventing the wheel and facilitates enriching from other’s experiences. Right now every teacher lives on an island and collaborates only with those in his department or other close colleagues. If the standard is used, teachers would have access to materials prepared  many other teachers.

Module 1, Section 3, Activity 4 – Collaboration

Post in your blog about the collaboration in your sub group. You may want to think about some of these issues.

• Was it easy to define objectives and criteria?
• How did you distribute the work?
• How did you feel about your own participation?
• How did you feel about other participation?
• Where there any problems, or misunderstandings?

Collaboration in my group was practically inexistent because everybody else was busy due to the special time of the year we’re at. Objectives were kind of agreed among the other 2 people that showed up in the forum initially and myself, based on our common interests. As for distribution of work, meetings, etc., there was none. I did some research, found places and completed the activities on my own, up to the guide presentation yesterday. There has been some activity in the forum group today but I don’t think I should do any further work in this section even though I’ll help whoever contacts me if I can.

Module 1, Section 3, Activity 1 – Exploring educational places

I’m in subgroup 1.4 of MUVEnation.For topic of educational places to search, we sort of decided “Computer Science and use of Web2.0 communications through Internet“. I’ve explored several places but in this post I will focus on four of them; to see all the search results please check the wiki page of the group here. The 4 places I’ll discuss are Sloodle Island, the Podcaster’s Place, Dell’s computer and the Web 2.0 galleria.

Module 1, Section 2, Activity 4 – Reflecting on Identities

Evolution of my avatar in Second Life – from beauty to the beast

My avatar’s looks

Activity 5 – Sharing stories of our first steps into Second Life!

How would you describe your first steps? What were the technical issues, if any? What did you feel about the avatar you chose? What was orientation island like? Could you find help as needed? Where did you go? Did you speak to other avatars? What would improve the experience, if anything? What previous knowledge and skills helped you?

The best web translator available. Ever.

Search page of IATE translator

Many people don’t know it, but I use it all the time for technical stuff or simply where wordreference.com does not help: it is called InterActive Terminology for Europe (IATE) and it is the European Commission’s multilingual term