Virtual Learning Environments

Our objective for this assignment was to to create a richer learning experience for high school students by combining entertainment, games, virtuality and education on an easily accessible browser-based platform. Ultimately, we developed Fractor World to be a collaborative learning hub on the Metaplace platform that exposes students age 13+ to social, political and economic issues and encourages action on their behalf through a confluence of Fractor newsfeeds, games, videos and other multimedia.

As a brief overview of our project, Fractor World is designed for use by high school teachers and their students. Games embedded within the Fractor World learning environment are suitable for age 11+, while the Metaplace platform is navigable for age 13+. Overall, the Fractor World community is a “gamelike” environment that allows educators to aggregate appropriate topics and activist opportunities for students age 11+.

While the site is game-oriented, it is carefully structured and organized based on the topics and activist opportunities Fractor hopes to advertise and encourage. Primary emphasis is placed on learning from playing, and supplemental information is available on both The Playground and The library in the forms of RSS feeds, instructional videos, relevant websites, and articles of interest. As a functional platform, one of our main goals for Fractor World was to create a sense of community and interactivity within Fractor. Interactivity is present through the nature of the 3-D virtual worlds and chat settings, and through the game-like nature of such environments (chat, avatar, world-building, games). Additionally, Fractor World features a rich sampling of RSS feeds, videos, images, and web links, which all make integrating Fractor World into classrooms simple and effective; it’s easily adaptable for the needs of the students and educators, and makes learning more fun and dynamic than only following lesson plans by the textbook.

Fractor World Playground

By design, Fractor World is more interactive than Moodle and Blackboard, although it is a somewhat unconventional LMS platform. For some educators chiefly concerned about storage capacity, Fractor World may be used as a supplementary learning tool and one that is easily embeddable on a class blog or within other LMS platforms like Moodle. See: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10275758-2.html. For educators who wish to use Fractor World as a primary LMS, surveys, quizzes, and lesson plans may be easily incorporated throughout the platform. Additionally, depending on the educator’s abilities, new worlds can represent new lesson plans allowing for easy chronological transition through course curriculum.

As primary administrator of Metaplace/Fractor, educators have the option to tailor RSS feeds, videos, and games for their particular curriculum. Additionally, educators have the authority to serve as content managers, space-designers, and overall administrators of site, bringing creativity into education and tailoring lesson plans as necessary. To facilitate educator’s module building, Fractor should distribute a complete functionality – topic, links, RSS Feeds, and games list – so educators can maximize Fractor World’s potential. Overall, Fractor should consider Fractor World a central hub through which it can partner with teachers and schools to increase awareness, organize fund raisers, and create community outreach programs. Fractor specific newsfeeds, “action” feeds, and games can be used by teachers to promote social action and build enthusiasm for the issues that Fractor identifies as critical problems in need of attention.

Fractor World Library

While we hope that our presentation reflected a relatively polished product, we encountered a number of social/collaborative and technical challenges developing Fractor World. In terms of our social/collaborative challenges, one big factor was geographical separation and time differences. To build a successful project, we all needed to organize and keep each other up to date on goals despite significant time differences. Furthermore, coming to a consensus about project goals and methods proved to be difficult, but ultimately beneficial. Individual ideas, while duly recognized, had to be set aside to allow for a mutually agreed-upon consensus about the overall direction of the project. Also, ensuring all edits and additions to the site remained fluid and consistent with the work of the rest of the group was a priority as we needed the end result to be as cohesive as possible. As such, organizing all of our efforts to create a specific “look” and “feel” for the site, and assigning roles and responsibilities to each member to ensure that every topic was sufficiently covered and no gaps were left in our work were top priorities.

We also had a number of technical challenges as our group members have varying technical training and experience with computers/programming/internet navigation. What’s more, Metaplace itself is a relatively new platform and we experienced a few major issues. One was when Metaplace lost our site for over a day and we had to rebuild everything we had created. Smaller, but equally substancial challenges we faced were: access to well-made, good looking objects that suited our needs, functionality issues when assigning behaviors to objects (Youtube videos didn’t always work, and some external links would cause Metaplace to freeze), and site consistency when inserting objects and organizing our World (objects didn’t always stay where they were supposed to, and landscaping and other terrain building functions were unreliable and hard to work with). Over all the biggest challenge was that we had very specific ideas and goals for the project which needed to be adjusted because team members lacked the technical understanding to accomplish them. In many instances, Metaplace lacked the functionality to allow us to realize many of our ideas, and especially so in relation to game-creation.

Moving forward, we envision many important applications for Fractor World for teachers, students, and the general population. While Fractor World is currently somewhat limited by the ongoing development of its Metaplace platform, we believe Fractor World might be considered for the following uses:

Games: “The Activist”, “The Paper Boy”

Mobile: Josephine’s suggestion of mobile apps/collaborative play on mobile devices.

Geotagging: The user’s ability to click an area in the world and see what non-profit groups exist in that specific region.

For a better view of our project and to see some relevant screenshots, supplemental videos, and game descriptions, please visit: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=0AZ_UMkdL1leRZGdwcXNxN21fNzAyZGI0bTNoZg&hl=en&invite=CLzmqtUE

Critical Foundations for Fractoplace

The response process models the responsiveness, cooperation, and content-relevant communication between the learner and the group. (Chang/Lim) 9The base of our project was created out of the ideas of shared creation and information transfer. Both Fractor and Metaplace are based on the idea of sharing information and relevant action and therefore support a “game” model that allows for exploration, cooperation and communication.

Much social organization no longer fits a group-centric model of society. Work, community, and domesticity have moved from hierarchically arranged, densely knit, bounded groups to social networks. (Hunsinger) Internet communications have given rise to a new tribalization of society, based on interests and on individual concerns, but because humanity is social by nature, individuals gravitate towards others with similar interests in lieu of space and family.

Research has shown that computer-mediated communication supports a range of instrumental, informational, social, and emotional exchanges in work and leisure contexts (e.g., Baym, 1995; 1997; Rice et aI., 1998; Wellman & Gulia, 1999; Quan-Haase & Wellman, 2004; 2005). There is little need to argue that the Internet is both a colossal waster of time and the biggest resource for information ever conceived by mankind. Fractorplace echoes the world of the internet—a user can walk around, see some sights, have a conversation, take in the news, etc. It allows for exploration, gathering of information and a platform to share it. True feedback loops may occur here. …A more complex form of play; the game which is constructed not upon the premise “This is play” but rather around the question “Is this play?” And this type of interaction also has it’s ritual forms… (Bateson)Fractorplace blurs the idea that research and exploration are boring, partially just through the medium, but also through the ways in which students can explore in the world. For example, they can learn about SlowFood through a hot dog stand!

Boundaries between play and production, work and leisure…are increasingly blurring. (Pearce) Metaplace provides an avatar for each user and through that avatar one experiences a secondary life that also is linked to our first lives through our minds’ connections. It looks as though a conversation is a game if a person takes part in it with one set of emotions or ideas—but not a game if his ideas or emotions are different. (Bateson)For students, it is important to blur this line because the work-learn paradigm in education is failing due to information and media saturation.

More Shots of Fractor World Playground

A space of mixed collaborations provides variety in play experience and flexibility in learning. Our findings suggest that lightweight collaborations can be enjoyable and enlightening and need not be negatively valued. (Nardi) Fractorplace provides these abilities to collaborate and to play—with enough customizable flexibility on behalf of the development team to create something worldly. The ability of some communication technologies to support simultaneous feed- back can signal listenership and turn-taking during the learning process. (McLaughlin) The ability to move around in Fractorplace allows for this asynchronous learning model to take root. The teacher and student are on a level playing field, thus allowing for true explorative and project based learning, with enough options to garner the attention of myriad groups.

The response process of asynchronous learning will encourage higher degree of response with media having higher social presence than with media having lower social presence during cross-cultural communication. (Chang/Lim 15) By setting up the form factors in Fractorplace, the Fractor community can help students to be active members in their society in ways that interest them, and it gives them the ability to research what actually interests them!

Polysynchronous environments are defined as virtual spaces that closely approximate real life environments. People..communicating polysynchronously not only talk synchronously (in real time), but also create temporal objects such as mail messages, newsgroup messages, as well as objects that can be experienced by others. This form of virtual reality has potential as a dynamic learning environment. (Robins)The ability to interact with each other, as well as with almost every object in Fractorplace provides a depth and a breadth of experience for the user, teacher and student alike.

E-Iearning has become an integral, valuable, and highly valued component of education, and standard-bearer for state-of-the-art learning and teaching as we advance into the 21 st century. (Harasim)

Hi everyone,

So it seems that our work is finally coming together! I added about 6 slides tonight and made some minor edits on a few others.  I plan to have all my slides completed by tomorrow night so I can spend the remainder of our time making edits and polishing the presentation.  It seems that our initial slides were created using lower-case for all words except for proper nouns with the Courier New font.  I used this formatting for the slides that I created to keep things consistent – does this work for everyone else too? I think it looks kinda cool and jives with the flow of our project, so kudos and thanks to whoever started it.  I’m assuming that we’re just working on the slides that we signed up for, correct?  If any presenters are swamped and need me to post their slides for them I’m happy to do so – just let me know!

Are we all meeting at 8:00 tomorrow?  I think it would be great to touch base before we head into the final stretch.  All in all, we’re on the right track and things are coming together well.  My only question is on videos.  Have we decided who is going to create them?  I can make one if we need another; I’m just a little confused as to who’s doing what in this regard.

See you  tomorrow!

Here is the video of screen shots showing the progression on using Metaplace/Fractors_World:

Geotagging Fractor/Metaplace

Cluster Map of Geotagging

Enjoyed the meeting with the group:

SL Meeting 7-22-09

We have some excellent ideas in our outline to answer the second question:
How does your project leverage and create a richer learning experience for your specific target population?

Considering the time constraints for our project and the importance of contributing sufficient detail to each bullet, I think we should begin focusing on how we can begin translating our ideas into a media presentation.  How will we organize our efforts? Perhaps we should begin signing up to address the topics that need coverage.  We can always have multiple submissions for each topic, but it’s important that all the topics are covered by at least one person.  I’ll sign up tonight for the ones I want to work on.  Also, I think we’ll need one person who is good at compiling slides, videos, and content to tie together our various efforts into one cohesive presentation.  Obviously that is a big job, so that could just be someone’s sole role in the final project.  I’d say that we should divy up this responsibility, but unfortunately I think it’s a one person job.  Do you guys agree?  I guess a big question is - who wants to be the person to compile our individual efforts into one fluid presentation?  Does anyone have a lot of experience with this?  Once it’s all put together, I think the process is that we’re supposed to submit it to Josephine in a Quicktime format.

Does anyone have anything process related to add or change?

I just want to say again how much of a pleasure it has been to work with all of you on the project.  This group is by far the most responsive, fun, and intelligent I’ve ever had the opportunity to do work with.  Thanks again!

 

Second Life meeting on July 20th:

SL Meeting 7-20-09

SL Meeting 7-20-09

Here are a few snapshots of our site:

Metaplace Snap shot

Metaplace Snap shot

I think that it is very important to see people begin to produce and collaborate in virtual environments because otherwise participants end up just using the options provided by the software or the network and they can not work productively and creatively because of the limitations of the virtual platform just like in Metaplace or SL. We have to create our own game that works with the notions of social constructivist education approach where the users of the virtual environment including the instructors and the students work collaboratively and creatively with each other and learn from each other by facilitating imaginative and creative art projects.
In many ways what we do in metaplace is very much like playing exquisite corps and the wiki and blogs are very much that way as well. We all contribute to the virtual space, network or platform and form a literal, visual and audio environment where participants learn by doing research and by working with each other. It is the same in equisite corps. People can share and learn more from this creative process than you might imagine. The concepts of our project assignment which are games, news and activism fit very well with the idea of exquisite corps and also the written version of the game as well where people write a  piece of literature like a poem, story or book collectively. That is why I thought that it would be good game structure for our project purposes.
We can also introduce another game where we would teach about what we as individuals in the virtual  platform know the most about or we can share our knowledge on a specific subject so the virtual environment we are participating in would become an educational environment where people can learn about different subjects and that is absolutely the basis of activism.
For example I would teach about art and film and each person would teach about whatever they are most knowledgeable about or what they are interested in.
One more idea for an educational game is presenting an image and the one who looks at it responds with a word or a sentence so by exchanging images and writing about the images we can create a virtual reflective learning environment or a blog.
As I was reading about teaching and learning, especially about distance learning it became clear to me that entertainment and fun are supposed to be a part of the learning process just like in the example of the Sesame Street series. By incorporating creativity and imagination into our virtual presence and virtual learning environment I think we can maximize the level of educational quality and keep the attention of the participants without making the experience boring which means that the interaction and the visual elements that are exchanged would contribute to the over all social, collective, collaborative and constructivist learning experience in our creative educational environment.

MIke_v: The Minutemen are playing over at the concert stage.

MIke_v: Covers only though.

MIke_v: what is making that weird bouncing noise?

oly: the ball

strobe: hey there – just popped into sl and you guys were still there

oly: if it gets near someone it makes noise

MIke_v: um, yeah, duh. that would make sense.

oly: yeah i am doing double duty

MIke_v: I’m now Oscar Lowbeam in second life.

strobe: if you guys need any help with second life let me know – we spent a lot of time in my last class in there

ElleMcCarthy: hey guys- sorry if i’m in and out of this convo- following along from work still

strobe: should we start?

oly: that weird object is following you

MIke_v: Officially, sure.

oly: i’ll let the second lifers know

MIke_v: I’m gonna sit down first, all this waving side to side is making me crazy

oly: she is talking

Zmitm398: Hi guys

strobe: here is what JD posted for us to review – think everything you guys have been talking about is great with regards to incorporating cinematic/art interaction, though do keep in mind what the over-arching objectives are — how does it specifically relate to the delivery of news + social activism? In o

MIke_v: that cut off, but it was in the VLE group thing earlier.

oly: i think adding hte news feeds help with the objectives

strobe: In other words, news feeds will be coming in and will be matched up to social actions. How you guys want to envision that is up to you, and since the ideas are growing in leaps and bounds (which is great!) – I would re-focus on that objective: how will news come in (visually, through an avatar or ob

strobe: etc) and how will the matching social actions be presented? Once you’ve narrowed down that main objective, then you could focus on the surrounding interactions.

oly: i think a hard part is that fractor itself isn’t all that functional at the moment

strobe: totally agreed

Zmitm398: yes

MIke_v: I posted that there are going to be problems with actually aligning the two.

JonnyPancakes: hey everyone

oly: but the link someone sent today seems to cover some of the bases

oly: hey there!

MIke_v: hey…

oly: i like your 2nd life avatar

JonnyPancakes: i added the weather station on the bottom

oly: mike – the link you sent today helps some

JonnyPancakes: it might stick out too much though

MIke_v: oh. that link! ha.

oly: maybe a little walled in space?

JonnyPancakes: for the weather station?

oly: yep

JonnyPancakes: yeah, might be a good idea

MIke_v: walls are good, not the new ones here where I am…

oly: just to define the space

JonnyPancakes: ill add some walls then, thanks

JonnyPancakes: good idea

MIke_v: but yeah… sometimes hanging art on these walls isn’t so easy

strobe: great idea

MIke_v: it places the art behind them

oly: it’ll seem like an observation tower

MIke_v: the picture with the ? in iit works well though.

JonnyPancakes: i can raise the elevation too

JonnyPancakes: make a hill

oly: ah good idea

MIke_v: awesome.

JonnyPancakes: ok good

JonnyPancakes: ill do that

oly: i spent all day sunday rebuilding this world

JonnyPancakes: thanks

JonnyPancakes: haha i know… thanks

oly: it was nothing – some of us found it

Zmitm398: thanks

oly: i can’t figure out what happened

JonnyPancakes: so i guess we need to focus on what the assignment is

oly: absolutely

JonnyPancakes: but i thought we have been….

MIke_v: no idea, i was expecting to see all of metaplace messed up.

strobe: i think this world still has lots of glitches

JonnyPancakes: yeah, it’s definitely a work in progress

Naea: well i hope it doesn’t delte our world again

Naea: cause that really sucked

oly: that’d be a nightmare

JonnyPancakes: so what aren’t we doing that we need to be?

oly: it was literally shocking

Naea: i know

oly: i think we need to be more ofcused on the bones of the project

oly: rather than the decorations

MIke_v: we need to make this more interactive

JonnyPancakes: is it possible?

oly: and somehoe link action to news

MIke_v: slightly.

JonnyPancakes: with the functionality of metaplace?

oly: i know

oly: it is limited

JonnyPancakes: it seems like we can only link and stuff

Naea: i don’t see how we can do that

MIke_v: we need someone who actually plays games to play some games on metaplace

oly: i have played games

MIke_v: that way, with two golden eggs we can make our own game.

oly: on metaplace

MIke_v: did you win?

MIke_v: you have to win.

JonnyPancakes: haha

oly: i wasn’t interested enough

JonnyPancakes: winning makes it a bit harder

MIke_v: seriously.

JonnyPancakes: ok

JonnyPancakes: well that’s annoying

oly: they aren’t all that fun really

MIke_v: i asked in metacentral or whatver.

MIke_v: I know.

JonnyPancakes: and a huge pitfall for developing a site like ours

MIke_v: yeah. for sure.

oly: i can play games

Zmitm398: Can’t we just link all the items out to sites that promote social awareness and movement?

oly: i will me a martyr

JonnyPancakes: so… assuming we dont win any of these golden eggs

JonnyPancakes: is there a way to make this more interactive?

oly: i put on videos

MIke_v: what we really need to do is figure out a way to make the rss feeds link up

oly: and news feeds

MIke_v: activism to news

oly: they do

JonnyPancakes: link up to what?

Zmitm398: I’m not sure how we can construct games and such like some were suggesting

strobe: just link the hell out of the place – we can link games

JonnyPancakes: they do link

MIke_v: which requires coding.

JonnyPancakes: yeah

MIke_v: even to event i mean

JonnyPancakes: ive linked games and rss

JonnyPancakes: ahhh

MIke_v: event to event

JonnyPancakes: to live events?

JonnyPancakes: ok

Zmitm398: I agree. Link the hell out of this place

JonnyPancakes: that’s a good idea

MIke_v: recent i mean

oly: like what

Zmitm398: thats what we left with last week

JonnyPancakes: and a way to keep it automatically linked to new events?

MIke_v: well, Take Cheney’s link to the CIA…

oly: and how does that appeal to a middle schooler

JonnyPancakes: i guess we need to find the proper RSS feed

MIke_v: sorry.. tthat won’t work.

MIke_v: um

oly: i like that though

JonnyPancakes: to link to recent events

JonnyPancakes: ive added as many interactive things to the weather station as i could think of

JonnyPancakes: and a few games

MIke_v: weather is great.

JonnyPancakes: but i didnt see a way to really develop anything

oly: media shift is looking for editors, marketing and correspondents

oly: fresh off the rss

Naea: lol

JonnyPancakes: ok

MIke_v: gotta go then… see you.

MIke_v: ha

oly: LOL

JonnyPancakes: do we just need to find better RSS feeds?

oly: yep

strobe: i think so

JonnyPancakes: for current events/disasters/social issues?

JonnyPancakes: it seems so

MIke_v: no, but if there was a tsunami, we’d automatically have it set up to link to aid orgs in that area.

strobe: and world events

JonnyPancakes: i bet josephine knows a few good ons

oly: i looked for kid friendly ones and there aren;t a whole lot

JonnyPancakes: we should ask her

JonnyPancakes: yeah

JonnyPancakes: that’s a big issue too

JonnyPancakes: keeping it PG-13ish

MIke_v: did some of you just meet with her on second life?

strobe: exactly

oly: she wasn’t there

JonnyPancakes: with the TA

JonnyPancakes: cool place to meet, btw

Zmitm398: was there a scheduled meeting?

MIke_v: oh… wasn’t that just a geet to know second life thing?

JonnyPancakes: yeah basically

oly: maybe we could ask for a meetinf with her

Naea: yea at 7:15

MIke_v: we should for sure.

oly: then she could give us hints

MIke_v: she is the client after all.

oly: and helpful advice

JonnyPancakes: ok… so we need better RSS feeds

Naea: true

MIke_v: we should start looking at this in that way.

JonnyPancakes: if possible

MIke_v: she owns fractor

JonnyPancakes: can we get any closer to the assignment than we are now?

strobe: i think its a great idea to meet with her in SL

MIke_v: we are building it’s media presenece for her

oly: i had a bunch linking up to kid rss but like i said they weren’t all that great

oly: b4 the disaster

Naea:

MIke_v: kids don’t care about current events.

oly: more like current trnds

MIke_v: the goal is to get them to…

Naea: i guess thats what we’re trying to change?

strobe: what about more current event video?

MIke_v: barely that.

JonnyPancakes: the idea is to make them though

JonnyPancakes: to make them care

oly: did you all see the videos i have put up

MIke_v: well, yes, but we can’t even put videos embedded here.

MIke_v: or pictures even

JonnyPancakes: we can

JonnyPancakes: youtube embedds

MIke_v: it pops a second window

oly: maybe not the best but for kids

MIke_v: yeah.

strobe: i watched the youtube videos on our page today

oly: click on the pool

JonnyPancakes: yeah youtube works well

MIke_v: i know… i had a bunch of art links, but that’s not what i mean.

oly: it is an animation made by a high schooler

MIke_v: yeah, it’s awesome

JonnyPancakes: we need to make this more “live” and current

MIke_v: but it pops up a second window.

JonnyPancakes: so that we can link it to current issues of social activism

strobe: what is wrong with with a popup?

JonnyPancakes: based on what i think the site can do

JonnyPancakes: rss feeds might be the best bet

MIke_v: like the slideviewre over tnear the miniramp… it’s another that works that way.

JonnyPancakes: we need things that automatically update

MIke_v: kids don’t have the patience… but we work with what we have i uess.

oly: oh

oly: yes

oly: is that possible besides rss

oly: ?

JonnyPancakes: news matched with activism

JonnyPancakes: we need something live

JonnyPancakes: this needs to be a liason between the news and social issus

JonnyPancakes: where people can connect the two

oly: is there such a thing on video?

Naea: we’re missing the activism part

JonnyPancakes: yes

oly: well isn’t that the point of fractor.org

MIke_v: is there any other way we can do it without personally doing it ourseves?

JonnyPancakes: or a connection to activism

JonnyPancakes: it’s informative

MIke_v: like reading the news and then putting in a link that we ourselves find?

Zmitm398: I’m not so sure an rss feed will promote activism at all

JonnyPancakes: but not driving people to act, or telling them HOW they can act

JonnyPancakes: which is the most important part

JonnyPancakes: that’s true

JonnyPancakes: so we need new ideas

oly: hmm

MIke_v: hold on… grand scheme idea/

oly: we need to debrief with josephine

JonnyPancakes: probably

Zmitm398: I really feel like we should be linking these items to non-profit site, where people can learn about groups in their area that they can get involved with

MIke_v: here:

JonnyPancakes: ok

Zmitm398: such as united way or american cancer society

JonnyPancakes: so more non-profit links

JonnyPancakes: that’s good

JonnyPancakes: ok

oly: uh huh

JonnyPancakes: so how about this

Naea: doesn’t that take the place of Fractor?

oly: did anyone click on the bike?

JonnyPancakes: each area of interest should link to two non-profit sites

Naea: isn’t the point to drive peple to their site?

strobe: sure

oly: one links to a non profit

oly: i mean a video about a non profit

JonnyPancakes: so they can see the issues, and then see how to make a difference

MIke_v: Can i make a suggestion ?

JonnyPancakes: of course

Zmitm398: sure

MIke_v: Ok… we already have certain areas here.

MIke_v: We have a newstand with the most current events

oly: nea i am in agreement with you

MIke_v: We have a weather station

MIke_v: We have a playground .

oly: sorry naea

oly: is how you spell

Naea: no worries

oly: sorry mike

MIke_v: all of these places can have feeds and more specif items.

MIke_v: to their specific areas.

MIke_v: but then we have a central place where there is the “issue of the day”

oly: and how to help?

MIke_v: that issue we can have as a link to several articles about theat topic.

JonnyPancakes: how will it get updatd though?

brooklynmg: sorry i’m late!

JonnyPancakes: an RSS?

oly: or links to non profits

brooklynmg: i’m here

MIke_v: and several oportunities for helping.

oly: maybe it will get updated thru fractor

JonnyPancakes: ok

MIke_v: we will have to do it ourselves for now.

JonnyPancakes: i think that’s a big issue

MIke_v: and then the fractorites will do it then.

JonnyPancakes: we need to bring this back to fractor

MIke_v: we can easily break it up for one of us per day.

JonnyPancakes: we need to brand this a bit

JonnyPancakes: ture

JonnyPancakes: true

oly: because this is supposed to be a beginning

MIke_v: Fractor isn’t a brand yet!

oly: i know

JonnyPancakes: ha i know

JonnyPancakes: we’re making it a brand

MIke_v: theyhaven’t updated their blog since april

oly: we keep running into this problem

Naea: good point

MIke_v: but my point is we dont’ have to reinvent what we have done.

oly: if they were functioning it’d be easy

JonnyPancakes: i agree with that

oly: i agree totally

MIke_v: maybe a little more.

Naea: hmm

brooklynmg: are we discussing the rss feeds?

JonnyPancakes: kind of

oly: soryy!

oly: sorry!

JonnyPancakes: we need a way to keep this current

JonnyPancakes: is the issue

oly: we are trying to figure out the point of this place

MIke_v: it needs to be hand done

brooklynmg: gotcha

MIke_v: daily

oly: that’s not so hard really

MIke_v: we actually have to read the news and find an aid org.

oly: and as i have mentioned b4 you can embed this site into a website

JonnyPancakes: yes

Naea: there’s no way to make it automated?

MIke_v: your day you analyze the news and pick a story that would apply to a 12 year old and give them something to do about it.

MIke_v: not easily.

oly: maybe pick a news item in the rss feed and find an org to match

MIke_v: Sure.

JonnyPancakes: i like that

brooklynmg: that’s a good idea

strobe: thats great

oly: easier anyway

JonnyPancakes: maybe we can all do it for each area of interest

JonnyPancakes: for food issues, weather issues, etc.

MIke_v: then we stilll have all the rsss and aid stuff that everyone here has done already

JonnyPancakes: keep us on task

oly: but how does fractor plan to use this in the future?

brooklynmg: right

brooklynmg: that seems like alot of work for them

MIke_v: nope

oly: are we laying the foundation?

MIke_v: i did it for an alternative power magazine i started.

MIke_v: in 2001

oly: did what?

MIke_v: and for a telephony mag.

oly: exactly

MIke_v: newsletters

oly: ?

MIke_v: read through all the pertainent news for my subject area.

MIke_v: then chose which artcles were best.

MIke_v: we could probably use twitter to update even

oly: but my point is that fractor as a site is supposed to link current events and match to social action

oly: so what is metaplace fractor

MIke_v: a fun place to do it.

oly: so we are making fractor.org ourselves?

MIke_v: ON metaplace…

Naea: ok but it doesn’t seem like we need to re-create fractor

oly: exactly

MIke_v: you mean CREATE?

Zmitm398: exactly

Naea: lol yea

Naea: rue

oly: ibut it isn’t our assignement to create fractor is it?

MIke_v: it’s only one bit of news a day though, and fractor will be more robust it seems

MIke_v: that’s my point.

MIke_v: we aren’t

oly: i see isee

brooklynmg: so what do we need to do

Naea: ok

brooklynmg: to get from where we are

brooklynmg: to where we want to be

strobe: this seems to address her recent request – news feeds will be coming in and will be matched up to social actions.

brooklynmg: and what will be the “medium”

MIke_v: I’ll make a Kiosk and a first aid station

JonnyPancakes: but that sounds like RSS feeds

JonnyPancakes: which do it automatically

brooklynmg: how will they get the message?

JonnyPancakes: if we find good ones

MIke_v: the kiosk will have a new bit of news

JonnyPancakes: we’d be doing a manual RSS feed

MIke_v: and the first aid station will be the link

MIke_v: yeah.

MIke_v: not really RSS, manual linking

JonnyPancakes: linking to organizations?

MIke_v: I wish we could at least make signs.

JonnyPancakes: or articles?

MIke_v: first aid station: organization; kiosk: news article

brooklynmg: our food stand links to an organization/online game

JonnyPancakes: ok

MIke_v: awesome, when e. coli breaks out, that can be the first aid station too.

Naea: HAHA

MIke_v: seriously

JonnyPancakes: so… we’d be have one or two organization links,… and then articles that relate to each organization and issue?

oly: but again…how does this appeal to middle schoolers?

brooklynmg: right

JonnyPancakes: ok

oly: i know interaction but is it appropriate for their age group?

JonnyPancakes: so we need to get more organizations involved in our Wiorld

MIke_v: it’s in the news you choose.

MIke_v: that’s a great idea

oly: organizations that are kid friendly?

MIke_v: has anyone spent much time around metaplace elsewhere, though?

oly: i have explored

MIke_v: it’s kinda weird.

oly: i agree

brooklynmg: it is

JonnyPancakes: so i guess moving ahead, we all need to find more otganizations to attach to each area of interest

strobe: yes but its not very kid oriented

Zmitm398: ok

oly: i agree

JonnyPancakes: so that the information in each station will have something to connect to

MIke_v: we need to choose a day that each of us will update the news kiosk.

MIke_v: and the first aid station.

strobe: can we add links to other world in metaplace?

oly: i think so

MIke_v: and continue to fine tune our own areas.

oly: teleports

MIke_v: yeah.

oly: to other worlds

MIke_v: the bench in front of the miniramp used to link to my art gallery world

JonnyPancakes: ok is there a central news kiosk?

oly: in metaplace?

MIke_v: I’ll build it, they will come

MIke_v: I’ll find something that works like that.

MIke_v: I’m sure there’s something.

MIke_v: I mean, i found a miniramp

oly: it is almost like we need organizastions looking for people who want to help

oly: from our site

oly: or at least offer info

oly: on how to help

brooklynmg: well…i think eventually the non-profits who pair with fractor will go in here

MIke_v: add that to the job of the day?

oly: hah

MIke_v: yeah. for sure.

JonnyPancakes: yeah… that’s the idea

brooklynmg: on the site, they mention that

oly: yep but are there organizations?

MIke_v: is it our job to make those relationships?

JonnyPancakes: we can find them

oly: so i think we need ameeting with josephine

JonnyPancakes: i dont think so

JonnyPancakes: yes

MIke_v: very much so

strobe: i think we need to comb through the site and find links

oly: can we schedile

JonnyPancakes: i think we need to touch base with her’

oly: she may have some orgs ready

JonnyPancakes: let’s see exactly what she wants

brooklynmg: i agree…we don’t have much time life

brooklynmg: left

JonnyPancakes: and we wont have to speculate

JonnyPancakes: yes

oly: so let’s write her and schedule

JonnyPancakes: 2 weeks

Naea: i think so

JonnyPancakes: ok that’s a good idea

oly: sometime this weel

oly: week

oly: on 2nd life

MIke_v: Lets put questions in here and then post them to the blog and email them to her.

MIke_v: or in the VLE group2 feed.

JonnyPancakes: ok good

brooklynmg: and can someone please post this whole convo?

strobe: ok

brooklynmg: so i can catch up on what i missed

MIke_v: So questions:

MIke_v: Go ahead!

oly: i’d really like to meet where we can actually discuss

brooklynmg: mine is less of a question…i just want to get some feedback on what we have

brooklynmg: to make sure she’s happy with it

JonnyPancakes: yes

JonnyPancakes: feedback

MIke_v: But if we give her questions ahead of time she can prepare

JonnyPancakes: a trajectory

brooklynmg: and that we’re going in the right direction

oly: or what the expectations are of a working site?

brooklynmg: yes

brooklynmg: good

JonnyPancakes: agreed

oly: good idea

oly: sorry

MIke_v: Good.

MIke_v: What is the role that the Metaplace page will play in the Fractor organization?

MIke_v: Is it to send traffic to the site?

oly: are there existing organizations that would like a presence on the metaplace site?

MIke_v: Is it to echo the work of Fractor in a 3dWorld?

brooklynmg: does she mind which organizations we link to?

brooklynmg: or as long as they’re ok for middle school

oly: age group, specifically?

brooklynmg: if this is “game like” enough

MIke_v: she was ok with middle or HS

MIke_v: which is where I think we stand so far.

brooklynmg: or if we need to do something else

oly: well, that is a huge range really

JonnyPancakes: what are the expectations in terms of keeping this site a live resource to link to social issues and activism

MIke_v: look at edutopia.

strobe: i copied the notes thus far

JonnyPancakes: ok

JonnyPancakes: then i think we’re good…. let’s try and schedule a “meeting” with Joesphine

MIke_v: wide range of abilities and interests and media saaviness, but it’ll work

MIke_v: I’ll send her the questions.

Naea: ok thanks

oly: let’s do it soon

brooklynmg: yeah

oly: this week hopefully

brooklynmg: hopefully we can discuss another night this week

MIke_v: yeah… later at night too, so it’ll be morning here.

oly: that’s okay with me

brooklynmg: i’m also available during lunch time EST

oly: i’m not htis week

JonnyPancakes: I’ll send an email to the group to schedule something with her if possible

MIke_v: since its 3.30am

oly: but evenings

strobe: im only free after work since my computer is locked

brooklynmg: ok

Naea: same

JonnyPancakes: ok

JonnyPancakes: so let’s coordinate a meeting with Josephine

brooklynmg: can someone also post these questions on seesmic?

MIke_v: that is one reason we should echo some of this in the blogs!!!

JonnyPancakes: ill send us all an email to schedule something

brooklynmg: i’m happy to once we have the questions list

oly: i can do the seesmic

MIke_v: I’ll email the questions

brooklynmg: ok, thanks

oly: mike email me the ?s

oly: and i’ll seesmic it

MIke_v: ok.

brooklynmg:

brooklynmg: thanks

oly: too

strobe: i will post the notes tonight

oly: sorry

oly: i am all wired out

brooklynmg: haha

MIke_v: also… should we do the daily sign ups for news/activism?

brooklynmg: when should it start?

MIke_v: I’ll do Tuesday’s

brooklynmg: the week the project is do?

brooklynmg: due

JonnyPancakes: ok

MIke_v: Tonight/tomorrow.I”ll build it up now.

JonnyPancakes: we

oly: let’s wait till we get more info from josephine to sign up

MIke_v: after our convo

oly: right?

brooklynmg: i think so

JonnyPancakes: i think so

strobe: cool

JonnyPancakes: ill send her an email now

brooklynmg: see if that’s something she’s looking for us to do

oly: b4 we do it

brooklynmg: right

oly: and have to undo

oly: or redo

JonnyPancakes: agreed

strobe: yep

JonnyPancakes: ok

oly: i willseesmic tonight the ?s

Naea: l agree

JonnyPancakes: ok

oly: if we want to do that

brooklynmg: yes

Naea: ok

brooklynmg: that would be great

brooklynmg: seesmic/email her

JonnyPancakes: yeah thanks

MIke_v: wait don’t email her now…

JonnyPancakes: ill email us

oly: both is better

brooklynmg: ok

oly: thanks

MIke_v: i need to get the questions together.

oly: thanks

JonnyPancakes: ok

MIke_v: i’ll email her when i edit them down.

oly: email them to the group

JonnyPancakes: il send one tomorrow then

JonnyPancakes: ok

MIke_v: i’m up for the day anyways

oly: so we all know and can add and not reask

JonnyPancakes: alright

MIke_v: right. ok.

JonnyPancakes: so we’ll stand by once we know when we can meet with Josephine

JonnyPancakes: or get answers to the questions

oly: so then i’ll seesmic tomorrow after mike emails the questions

JonnyPancakes: sounds good

oly: and we willtry to meet or get answers another way

MIke_v: and i’ll email her the qs

JonnyPancakes: ok sounds good

strobe: perfect

JonnyPancakes: thnks

oly: haha

oly: too much

JonnyPancakes: good meeting methinks

MIke_v: both oly and josephine

MIke_v: are we not going to do the manual news updates

MIke_v: ?

oly: we prob will but are waiting

Naea: i think we decided to wait

JonnyPancakes: let’s see what we know what we’re expected to do first

JonnyPancakes: yeah

brooklynmg: we want to see if that’s what josephine works

strobe: i agree

brooklynmg: wants

JonnyPancakes: yeah

oly: i just got message from mark who can’t see the chat

MIke_v: ok. i was copying questions. no problem

JonnyPancakes: so we need to touch base with prof

MIke_v: very much so.

strobe: i have the whole notes too

brooklynmg: and then after we meet with her

JonnyPancakes: that’s the verdict….

brooklynmg: it will be crunchtime!

JonnyPancakes: sound sgood

JonnyPancakes: we can do it

MIke_v: ok. cool! ha

oly: so mark and michelle were both unable to chat with us

brooklynmg: ok, well everyone have a good night/morning!

JonnyPancakes: ok guys

brooklynmg: i am here now

JonnyPancakes: thanks again

brooklynmg: i only missed a few minutes i think

oly: oh ok

oly: mark?

MIke_v: ?

JonnyPancakes: once Mike sends out the Q’s and the email we can see where we need to go from here

oly: all the names are confusing

brooklynmg: i’m michelle

JonnyPancakes: thanks again

brooklynmg: haha

oly: i thought i knew you!

brooklynmg: ok, guys

Hi Everyone,

I guess I should be fired from posting minutes – I was having trouble with my computer allowing me to copy and paste the conversation directly from the window into this blog, and then I lost my internet connection and lost the whole thing!  My sincere apologies….I will however, do a recap here.  Please feel free to chime in with anything you feel I’ve missed.

Group #2’s meeting on 7/6, the short version of what we discussed:

-This week we will focus on building up our Fractor World, making objects interactive by linking them to action sites & games. Games for Change’s site features many games that we’ll use as examples for our project, along with other relevant examples that we find.  Our world’s objects will be relevant to their corresponding action – i.e. building a food stand that will link to world hunger issues and sites to prevent/act upon starvation problems, etc.  We already have interactive art pieces and a skateboard ramp that lead to other sites.

- Players will also be able to teleport to a library that will feature news events (the books), to build up our world even further.  Michelle McCarthy has already started working on this world and we will continue to develop this area as well.

- We’ve decided our target group will be middle-school aged children.  Moving forward we’ll be working on a bio that explains how our world works, etc. focusing on appealing to middle-schoolers.  We feel that the playground concept works for this age group, and will be a fun place to visit and to learn from.