Fleep’s Deep Thoughts

• Academic Survey on Television Convergence With Second Life http://tinyurl.com/5xlx6g #
• Democrats divide by race, gender, class: CINCINNATI (Reuters) - It’s now common wisdom that Sen. Hillary .. http://tinyurl.com/4gz76l #
• Late to the cluetrain, but I think http://weblins.com is something of a paradigm changer #
• er wrong link that, http://weblin.com #
• Imagining students with little weblins being able to talk with one another at course websites #
• @meerkatje We try to keep a list of SL specific research at http://tinyurl.com/2xu7qh #
• @meerkatje (There’s some more general VWs and social media stuff at the bottom) #
• Anyone have a sec to help me get a good screenshot? http://lite.weblin.com/?http://blackboard.uc.edu #
• Yep I got screen shots thanks to @ialja and @iyan and one other mystery av. Thanks all. :) #
• (The post is up on my website if you want to see what the fuss was about http://fleeptuque.com) :) #
• Re: the Weblins post from this morning http://tinyurl.com/5c264b if you make one pls friend me! fleep dot tuque at gmail. :) #
• @sorry_afk I’m not as productive as I’d like to be and I dunno what you’re talkin about, I can’t keep up with _you_. :) #

I was hanging out with @malburns and @tarayeats yesterday evening in Chilbo and we were having a wide ranging discussion of all things Second Life, Web 2.0, and virtual worlds more generally, when Malburns mentioned this cute little program at http://weblin.com. He was describing how it gives you a little avatar and you “teleport” from webpage to webpage, but I couldn’t quite grasp what he was saying until I tried it for myself.

This is a screenshot of the Weblin.com website, and you’ll notice along the bottom of the screen that there are a bunch of little avatars down there. Mine is in the lower right corner and hey presto, it’s actually an image of my Second Life avatar.

So in effect, you download this program and install it (doesn’t work with Macs yet), and then as you browse the web, you are represented by this little avatar and you can see the avatars of any other Weblin user if they happen to be on the same page as you. Which means, of course, that the solitary and isolated experience of browsing the web is transformed into a _social_ experience. I can pop over and see who else is checking out the CNN homepage. I can start a spontaneous conversation. I can add friends and invite them to view the web page I happen to be at. I can hang out on my OWN webpage and see who stops by for a visit and say hi.

I think this is something of a paradigm shift, and another transitional step to the fully immersive 3D Web or whatever you want to call the evolution we see happening with online social networks and virtual worlds technology.

How could this be useful for education? I’m glad you asked!

University of Cincinnati Blackboard homepage, with little Weblins hanging out below.

Imagine students going to their course website to get information about an assignment, but instead of being there “by themselves” they run into a classmate who happens to be there at the same time. The visual representation of an avatar, something that indicates co-presence, opens up all sorts of opportunities for spontaneous dialogue, greater engagement with the course material, and additional network building. Imagine if the instructor popped in and was available to answer questions about the assignment on the spot, or even held “office hours” at the course website at specific times.

But wait, you’re saying, this is already possible with Instant Messenger or an embedded chatroom or any number of other tools, and of course that’s true, but the sense of _co-presence_ we keep talking about in relation to 3D immersive environments is simply not replicated in a text based chatroom environment. I can’t _SEE_ you in a chatroom. I can “see” you with a weblin. Beyond that, the chance encounter aspect, the ability to meet random other people who happen to be, for that moment, reading the same webpage that I am reading, wherever they are in the world, is something that intentional entry into a chatroom can’t replicate.

Co-presence, immersion, deeper engagement, serendipity. These are some of the keys, even if I’m not sure exactly what we’re unlocking.

Want to try it for yourself? Click this link which should take you back to my website, but this time with a little demo Weblin of your own. And maybe I’ll be around here to say hi. :)

(With thanks to twitter friends @iAlja and @iYan for stopping by the UC Blackboard page so I could get a good screen grab!)

• Oh darn, I was weeding the garden and saw something that I thought MIGHT be poison ivy. It was. :( #
• I can’t log into SL at all, it just keeps freezing. was fine earlier. #
• Wow, the two IN counties where I was born/grew up went 69% and 68% Clinton. Shocked its so high. #

• I agree tht teachers posting inappropriate things online is not smart, but that expose was mean (@kjarrett) #
• Story about teachers w/ bad online profiles at http://tinyurl.com/6765g8 #
• @kjarrett Was also unhappy with the ohio warning, discourages teachers from using MySpace/FB at _all_ and that’s silly #
• @kjarrett How can we encourage kids to use tech responsibly if the teacher’s don’t know how?? #
• @RadHertz Oooh, thx for info about Bamboo project http://tinyurl.com/5geu69 #
• @melmcbride Agree, the personal private split is blurring bigtime, and hypocrisy is it’s ok to do but not take a pic of it? #
• Er meant public private split, doh. :) #
• @kjarrett Definitely agree with that. "Think about what you post online." "know how to protect privacy with tools you’re using" #
• @kjarrett Note the HS student who said that’s what _private_ myspace pages are for. Kid knew better than teacher! #
• Throwing good money after bad, that’s the card playing phrase I couldn’t remember. #
• Btw, @kjarrett, this is terrific College Student’s Guide to Managing Online Reputation http://tinyurl.com/6×7rsc #
• Q: How do you decide when to cut your losses on a project that Just Isn’t Working no matter how much you try? #
• @intellagirl laugh! Good pt! @alizasherman and @audio are on the same page too. :) #
• Too many good answers to @ them all, but thanks, good food for thought. I <3 Twitter. =) #
• @gracemcdunnough I dunno, who did you tick off recently? :) (Akismet is your friend if you don’t have already!) #

• Hm so it looks like the utterz cascaded through, but I can’t hear anything. Hm. #
• Ah, the problem was I needed to update Flash and FF! Thx @sine922 @injenuity and @nealcross. =) #
• Bonjour @gehan! And that is the extent of my french. :) #
• @weelibrarian I can’t get in either, but nothing on the blog yet. #
• @BRad_King I suggest holding on to the listserv during transition, I don’t think NING is all that #
• @Brad_King NING groups seem somehow inadequate for long term sustained use. Email still most familiar for most people. #
• @BryanPerson Had that problem earlier today, closed browser and upgraded FF, then Google Reader as fine #
• SL peeps, I was just able to log in, but took a long time and 10 tries. #
• @kliger you should blog about it, still waiting for some user reviews of HIPIHI :) #

Courtesy of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign comes a summary of recent news articles with information about Gov. Strickland’s plans for reforming education in the State of Ohio.

There has been a flurry of news reports about Gov. Ted Strickland’s education reform plan. According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, the governor said he would spend much of the last half of the year working on his school reform plan. He plans to host regional summit meetings across the state to build support for his plan that will go to legislators in early 2009. Strickland also remains committed to his proposal to appoint a director of education to oversee primary and secondary schools.

To read related articles, visit:
4/28 Akron Beacon Journal
Failure is not an option: Ted Strickland sounds serious about repairing school-funding

4/21 Akron Beacon Journal
Digging Ohio out of an education rut

4/21 Dayton Daily News
Our view: State school board has duty to bow to governor

4/19 Plain Dealer
Plan for new director of education inches forward

4/18 Plain Dealer
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland vows education reform

4/18 Columbus Dispatch
Strickland plans push for school-funding change

If you’re involved in education in Ohio, this may be an indication of what’s coming down the pike, and if you’re in another state, I’d love to hear what your state administration is doing to address budget shortfalls and challenges with the current systems in place.

Update: Oops some of those links were ugly, reformatted to make it readable!

• Chilbo event: Cecilia Delacroix will be doing her first public poetry reading, come support a new artist http://tinyurl.com/4vd2vv #
• Just finished the Widgetcast recording, that was fun! Thanks all! #

• Oops, I hosed the chilbo site tweaking the templates. Let’s hope it all goes back to normal with the old one! #
• @lesliecarbone YouTube looks like it’s down for me #
• Nothing on the SLblog, is the grid down? Can’t seem to log in #
• @sintrenton Thanks, glad to know it’s not just me. Supposed to give a talk soon, hope it comes back up! #
• @sintrenton I got in for a millisecond, then it crashed! #
• @deanpence Thanks, now following @SLGridStatus, didn’t know about that one. #

Julynn Lilliehook, Dean of the soon to be opened Second Life Law School, spoke at the “Educational Possibilities of Second Life” series, sponsored by SL’ang Life magazine.

“I have found in both RL and SL that people are very uneducated about the laws that affect them,” she said, “In SL it’s vitally important to me that people outside of the USA understand the Ameican legal system, since most of what the world learns about the US is media driven. I’m also very interested in hearing about how the legal systems operate in other countries.”

According to Julynn, the school will be focusing on educating Second Life residents on legal systems and issues, it will not be focusing on training lawyers. “I would like to have at least one lecture series session per week, plus 3 or more sessions per week on particular topics,” she said, “and then a weekly open discussion session.”

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