Virtual World - Second Life

Virtual World – Second Life

Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual community created entirely by its membership. Members assume an identity and take up residence in Second Life, creating a customized avatar or personage to represent themselves. The avatar moves about in the virtual world using mouse control and intuitive keyboard buttons.

Second Life’s virtual world also includes sound; wind in the swaying trees, babbling brooks, audible conversation, and built-in chat and instant messaging. Residents buy property, start businesses, game with other residents, create objects, join clubs, attend classes, or just hang out. The rendering of Second Life is remarkable, making it an instant guilty pleasure. Further Reading.

I have just created my account, my user name is Krish Bluebird and I m looking into exploring it more in detail. Sarah shared her experience using Second Life – for virtual birthing unit. I think it’s quite amazing the kind of things you can do with these virtual platform. Looking forward in experimenting with it further.

Cheers
Krishan

Blog Networks – Blogospheres

Blog Networks come in a range of shapes and sizes and have been designed with different purposes in mind – but in a sense if you strip them all back they are simply clusters of blogs that are in some way linked together under a common name or banner.

Most of these networks are have some commercial aspect to them while others are more about about promoting blogs and social networking. Further Reading

Blogospheres is the world or blogging and bloggers. As defined in the wiki - Blogosphere is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community.

Blogging Network is simply where a group of blogging people share and interconnect their blogs with each other forming a blogging community. I think a lot of blogging networks need facilitation service in order to maintain and regulate and keep up with the blogging.

It was interesting to find out that you can get a job as a blogger for a blog network and it can be a great way to enter the world of professional blogging.
One of the most widely used Blog Network is http://www.b5media.com/ and it has over 30 million page views per month, so you can just imagine how popular this network is.

Cheers
Krishan

Social Networking - Ning

Hi Guys,

Just decide to signup for Ning, and explore it a bit, it seems like quite similar to FB I gues, but have not really gave it a go. Debra is doing her mini- conference event via Ning to have asynchronous discussion before the meeting.

In Ning you are able to create your own social network and start a discussion on that. Have your blogs and events similar to other platforms. You can join the Forum that debra has created for her assignment two for the mini conference and add you comments on that.

Looking forward in exploring NING.

Regards
Krishan

Meeting Summary - What an experience !!!

Hi Guys,
My meeting was planned to happen on Elluminate and guess what...
Elluminate was down during the meeting start time.

I than decided to use skype and dimdim as an alternative option.
Its bit hard to chat together using Skype, so dimdim seems to be a better option.
I had emailed the dimdim room ID as we started, sorry for those who missed out that email, and went to elluminate.
Most of the class participants were there in dimdim - more than 10 people were present in DIMDIM.
Special thanks to Cherie my presenter for the night, she did an awesome job tonight... thanks Cherie.

I was able to see the powerpoint and listen to cherie crystal clear.
but i assume some of you were not able to hear her and could not see the presentation.
(so I emailed the powerpoint to all who could not see the presentation.) (Sorry to those who had auidio problem)

Thanks Sara for reminding me to press the record button (missed at least 10 minutes of it) :(

To be honest i was too confident with elluminate that i did not spend much time with other alternatives
but ended up using dimdim...(Thanks to dimdim).

My advice to all - always be prepared with these technologies.

Thanks you Sarah for your support - I was panicing big time...
Thanks to all the participants for being with me from elluminate to dimdim to skype back to dimdim....

I guess we all had good experience.

Cheers
Krishan

Mini Conference Update

Hello Everyone,

Here are the details about my mini conference.
Thank you for all those who voted in the poll.
According to the poll, Majority seems to be in favour of the session to be on Monday 16th November @ 7.30pm. So I have just finalised my time and date.
Title: Elearning Interaction Through Online Discussion Forum
Date: 7.30 pm, Monday 16th November, (UTC/GMT + 13hrs)
Facilitator:Krishan Mani (kmani@manukau.ac.nz)
Presenter:Meena Adhikari (MIT) and Guest Speaker: Cherie Wright, Programme Leader National Certificate in Computing, Manukau Institute of Technology.
Venue:Elluminate: meeting room here
Description:For my Mini Conference I would like to discuss the Importance of Online interactionusing online discussions forums. How effective is asynchronous communication. Discuss some pros and cons of Online Discussions Forums. Share examples of online discussion and how users befit from it.
Back Up Plan: Skype : krishanmani83
Feel free to leave your comments regarding the topic. :)

Please do visit my blog and add your comments any specific question you want to discuss at the mini conference.
Try our the meeting room : Elluminate - and see if it runs in your PC prior to the meeting, if any technical problems please flick an email to me.

Regards
Krishan

Mini Conference - Online Discussion Forums

Interaction has always been a major issue while dealing with elearning. How can learners interact with peers and facilitators, share ideas and thoughts and get feedback from the rest of the participants.

The best way is by having online discussion forums available for any online course, whether it needs a lot of discussion or not, it is always good to have peers interacting with each other regarding the course.

For my Mini Conference I would like to discuss the following issues:
· Importance of Online interaction
· Online Discussions Forums
o Asynchronous communication – text based
· Pros and cons of Online Discussions Forums
· Examples of online Discussion

There are different online applications that you can use for Online Discussions Forums, in this mini conference will discuss the benefits of using online discussion forums rather than analysing any specific discussion forum.

Date and Time: Friday 13th at (4pm or 7:30pm) or Monday 16th at 7:30pm
There is a poll on the left side – please vote to let me know what times are more suitable to everyone.
Venue:Elluminate
Please add your comments and ideas :)

Kind Regards
Krishan

Mini Conference Ideas

I am thinking of running the mini conference about Online Discussion Forums. I have used a lot of different online application as a student and as well as a staff. I have discovered that there is a very less usage of discusion boards /Forums.

I have used Blackboard discussion Board- and i think it is a very useful tool in elearning. I would like to see why people arent using the discussion Board - or discussion forums.
I am not sure what should I call my conference - Discussion Board is specific to black board. but is simliar to any online forum or blog - where people are able to discuss ideas , projects etc and get feedback from others.

Should I generalise it to any online discussion forum, or make it a specific application like Blackboard - Discussion bord and stick to it. Just trying not to make the topic too broad.
These are my ideas... Please feel free to give me some comments.

Regards
Krishan Mani

Social Networking Safety Tips

Here are some tips that can be taken into considerations while working with online networking.

Protect your privacy
You can avoid these risks and enjoy social networking sites by following a few sensible guidelines:
· Don’t let peer pressure or what other people are doing on these sites push you into doing something you’re not comfortable with. Just because other people post their mobile phone number or birthday, doesn’t mean you have to.
· Be wary of publishing any identifying information about yourself. In particular things like: phone numbers, pictures of your home, workplace or school, your address, birthday or full name.
· Pick a user name that doesn’t include any personal information. For example, “joe_glasgow” or “jane_liverpool” would be bad choices.
· Set up a separate email account that doesn’t use your real name and use that to register and receive mail from the site. That way if you want to shut down your connection, you can simply stop using that mail account. This is very simple and quick to do using such providers as Hotmail or Yahoo.

· Use a strong password.
· What goes online stays online. Don’t say anything or publish pictures that might cause you embarrassment later. As a general rule, if you wouldn’t say it to your boss or your grandmother, don’t say it online.
· Learn how to use the site. Use the privacy features on the site you use to restrict strangers’ access to your profile. Be guarded about who you let join your network.
· Be on your guard against phishing scams.

Further Reading

Source: http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1459

Another Impotant thing is not to give out a lot of details of hwre you work and what you do - work history online.

Cheers

Krishan