Second Life Sculpties…my first beer can

By Mike McKay | Jul 29, 2008

Yep. It took me a few hours, but I finally figured out Blender and how to make a pretty decent sculpty beer can. Now if I can just figure out how to incorporate it into my lessons.
Here are the links that helped me:
Blender.org - download the free software
and simply a search for Sculpties Tutorials [...]

Kids building in Second Life

By Mike McKay | Jul 28, 2008

Wow! 8 years old and he’s already built his first 3D house. My son came to me yesterday and said he wanted to build a house in Second Life. I swear. No joking. Out of the blue. He already knew how to walk and fly around, but he didn’t know how to use the mouse, [...]

Do teachers even want to teach in Second Life?

By Mike McKay | Jul 24, 2008

Yes and no. I can’t speak for everyone, but I certainly can’t make enough money in Second Life to even do it as a hobby. In my case, I earn money outside of Second Life to invest in my future in virtual worlds. That’s probably an important point, it’s an investment. For others, I don’t [...]

By 2011 80% of us will be avatars

By Mike McKay | Jul 24, 2008

I was reading an archived article from Business Week entitled Just Ahead: The Web As A Virtual World .
Imagine being able to have a digital replica of yourself stroll from one site to another. In it was a quote I thought worth posting. You can read the article here.
“It feels like the early [...]

It’s time to create the virtual classroom

By Mike McKay | Jul 23, 2008

Over the past 8 months, I have been working on ways to teach in Second Life and virtual worlds. Basically, how can we create an environment for our students to be engaged in learning a particular task that can be applied in the classroom while making it comfortable and easy to use?
I think students need [...]

Do you remember “Choose Your Own Adventure”?

By Mike McKay | Jul 23, 2008

Making interactive e-learning more motivational could mean making content so riveting that it draws the student into the content, making discussion among groups meaningful. Think of how television dramas affect conversations. We watch them week after week and talk about them at work, well, at least some of us do. I remember reading “Choose your [...]

Mouths moving in Second Life

By Mike McKay | Jul 18, 2008

That’s right. Finally! My mouth will be able to move. Gestures and mouth movement are just a little important when learning a language, don’t you think? Granted the movements aren’t precise, they’re still much needed. I had to make a little movie of me playing with it in the Release Candidate Viewer. You can play [...]

How much should I charge to teach English in SL?

By Mike McKay | Jul 14, 2008

Good question. I just got back from a Metanomics presentation sponsored by Manpower. Philip Rosendale (Founder and Chairman of the Board at Linden Labs) spoke as a panelist in a round table discussion on Second Life’s potential for burgeoning labor market. I and a few others posed the question, “When will fair market value [...]

Team learning success

By Mike McKay | Jul 13, 2008

We no longer teach them, we facilitate a learning environment by assigning tasks and projects which hold each individual accountable for their team’s success. The amount of feedback each student wishes to receive is dependent on how active they choose to be.
Long gone are the days of dydactic, passive, boring lectures. If you speak more [...]

Waiting for a Revolution

By Mike McKay | Jul 11, 2008

The teachers who get “burned out” are not the ones who are constantly learning, which can be exhilarating, but those who feel they [...]

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