What's in a name?

As we approach the end of our project it is time for some reflection on what was learned or achieved and what can be celebrated.  Equally we need to examine the challenges still facing us and provide advice to others who may wish to venture down a VATA path.

It was during the winter months "red wine weather “ when Ruth Frazer and Jacinta Ryan spent a couple of weekends writing their application for funding to the Australian Flexible Learning Framework to trial the use of a virtual world with a group of Aboriginal trainees.  When we were successful in winning the funding, we decided to name our project VATA  originally because we wanted Virtual and Administration Trainee in the name, but also because we found that VATA is a Sanskrit word meaning wind and we hoped that using a virtual world in education would bring winds of change and engagement.  Now, as white wine weather is upon us, we can look back over this relatively short period of time and with some pride relate to you what we consider to be our achievements.

Within days of presenting our Business Case, we were meeting with our VATA team and with members from the DECS department of Aboriginal Employment and Retention.  During this time our greatest concern was to get access to Second Life as it was clear to us that Second Life had great educational potential.  It is a virtual world that is user-friendly and can be accessed without having to spend any money at all.  In fact, we were surprised at how easily we could find suitable sites and various possessions for our avatars without having to spend a cent (or a Linden which is the currency used in SL).

The inability to have access to SL from the workplace meant that we needed to learn the rudiments of SL and hunt for educational sites from our home computers and so, for weeks, the VATA team met online each Sunday afternoon.  In the meantime, we realised that getting access to SL had become our most challenging obstacle, as each time we requested access it was denied.  Most times we were told that it was a DFEEST policy and that was that.  We then discovered that the IT Program group, managed by John Cocks and Stephen Donaldson, had their own server which could operate outside of the restrictions of the TAFE servers.  We approached them for assistance and it was through their willingness to find a solution and their absolute dedication to education that they provided us with some dates, rooms and times where we could access SL for our trainees.  We continue to be grateful to these two men because without their help, we would not have been able to continue. 

Since that time we have met with the trainees both in class and online in SL.  Initially we met in class so that we could give assistance with using the virtual environment (however, the trainees were more at home in this environment in 2 hours than we had been in two weeks).  In the latter part of our project, we were meeting with the trainees online in SL for about 2 hours every second week. This gave them an opportunity to catch up with each other and also to discuss any outstanding work that may have caused them problems. The competency we had chosen to “teach” via SL was “Deliver and Monitor a Service to Customers”.  All of the trainees were already in the workplace and so were already providing a service to either internal or external customers.  We looked at each of the elements of the competency and tried to find a way in SL to either focus on, practice with or assess the trainees knowledge and skill level.

Back to the IT issues

As early as June we had been informed by IT professionals outside of TAFESA that access to software like SL could be linked to a single ID or login.   We had met with the DECS management on 11 June and already by 19 June the HR Manager, Di Ferris, had put out a request to the various IT staff to enable access to SL for the trainees.  These trainees were located at various schools or Education District Offices across the state of SA.  By the 22^{July, all trainees (except one) had access from their workplace.  The one who did not have access was given permission to go online for 2 hours from her home on the days that we were meeting.}

It was not until the end of July that we received a forwarded email from a library staff member, Barbara Staite.  This email was between Paul Mersh (Manager ICT Infrastructure DFEEST ICT Services) and Ann Marie Betros (Director, ICT Services DFEEST) and the content of this email concerned what was or should be available on the administration and education servers at TAFESA.  It was suggested that staff should be able to have access to SL.  We were amazed at this and so started another round of entreaties and lobbying for access.  We started to get emails from a number of people who were interested in seeing an end to ICT restrictions that all TAFESA lecturers face when trying to bring their teaching into the 21^st Century.  There were many people attracted to the project and for a short while there was a flurry of emails and messages.  On 14 August, we discovered that a colleague from Regional Institute with support from Susan Meiers and had been given permission to use SL with his students.  This encouraged us and we continued to press for access.  Then on 19 August, as I was getting the 8.30am coffee to kick start the day, Sam Ntafilis (ICT Manager at TAFESA -  Adelaide South) informed me that we had access to SL on the education server via the NAL.  I nearly choked!  Quickly we tested it and sure enough it was working.  Within a couple of weeks we had access to our desktops and so were able to complete the last part of our project from the workplace.  This was an amazing end to a situation that had seemed totally hopeless at the beginning.

As can be seen from this long and tedious story, a large part of our time was spent in trying to obtain access and in finding ways to run our project in spite of the access issues.  To give an example, we had arranged an event to occur in SL and we had invited other educators to come to a certain location in SL to interact with our trainees.  These dates were set when we had initially worked with John and Stephen from the IT program.  On these particular dates, the only room that the IT program could offer us (and even this meant moving their regular classes) was a computer lab at the Noarlunga campus.  To get our trainees to the campus, Ruth Frazer and I drove to the Panorama campus, picked up Government cars, drove back to the Adelaide campus and picked up the students.  We then drove to the Noarlunga campus.  Then at the end of the day we drove the students back to the Adelaide campus.  We did this for the two days. 

Our Celebration

Our celebration in this project is that we were able to bring the trainees into SL from the workplace and provide them with the support that being with each other in SL enables.  We were able to use fabulous locations such as the NMC Conference Centre and Terra Incognita to provide a fantastic context for our activities and discussions.  We were impressed with the teamwork that using SL engendered with the group and it was interesting to hear from Jodie Coleman, the trainee project officer, that she noticed that the trainees communicated with each other more in SL than they did in the real world.

The feedback from the "event" that we set was highly encouraging. Here are two of the comments we received.

" Congratulations to your students, from my interaction they did a wonderful job ." Malcolm Jolly, Lecturer GippsTAFE.

"..your trainees were excellent in the way they responded to these strange people wandering around and asking them often 'silly' questions.  They have certainly learned a lot about SL and also showed their great Customer Contact skills.  Judith sat with me for quite a bit, and was equally as impressed with their work.  She is keen to see how her program could use SL especially in the Lands, and as they do have access to satellite and are not using it very much."   Margaret Granger, SA E-Learning Coordinator Australian Flexible Learning Framework.

We regularly asked our trainees what they thought about using a virtual world and the responses were varied.  Mostly they were positive however we sometimes got a shy or non committal response.  We did, however, notice that each time there was a meeting online they were all there. When we followed up on the (usually) only one who was not positive about the experience the reason was that while she was at work she had very pressing tasks to complete.  Taking a couple of hours off to meet with a bunch of avatars in a tree-top destination to discuss the importance of customer feedback and to investigate various feedback mechanisms irritated her when she had so much REAL work to do.  However, this was not the feeling shared by the majority of the trainees and their willingness to participate in the project was evidence of their enjoyment.

Ongoing Challenges

The challenges will always be there.  For example, a major challenge with using SL is the age restriction.  All users must be over 18 and yet our classes often range in age from 17 to 50.  Currently, at our campus, we must request access for a classroom and then SL is available to anyone who uses that classroom.  This might be fine while we are there to ensure that only those over 18 have access, but that is not possible.  There are very few of us who have a class from 9am to 9pm each day.  Therefore, when we are not in the room we cannot see who has logged into the program.  We have requested that SL be linked to an ID number which would enable us to have better control over those getting access.  As yet, the linking of SL to an individual ID number has not been made available.

Another challenge is encouraging teaching staff to "give it a go".  Most people assume that it will be very difficult to control and to learn, yet we found neither to be a problem.  Another reason often given is that the infrastructure is either not there or not sufficient.  Of course, it will probably be some time before the infrastructure issues surrounding the use of web 2.0 and 3.0 software will be resolved and many educators won't try because it looks to be too hard.  However, waiting for someone (usually non educators) to decide what will or won't be approved for use just delays our uptake and further confuses and frustrates educators.  The VATA project was important to us and it was our commitment to the project that kept us lobbying for more freedom and it is this freedom, now won, that is the best outcome of all. Future educators who are prepared to become avatars and investigate the possibilities for their classes will find a fantastic array of choice with far more opportunities than exist for a traditional classroom. 

Our Future

We have continued to discover wonderful sites for education - the latest being a complete hospital with all the various departments.  For our medical administration students who must struggle with medical terminology this could provide a fun environment in which to practice their pronunciation and spelling of difficult medical words.  There is a fantastic law court for legal students to investigate and use.  The more we spend time in virtual worlds the more value we see for education.  As usual with any education, the more blended and flexible the delivery, the more interesting and useful it is for the student.  The virtual world option gives the educator another strategy in the ever expanding inventory of tools and devices to engage learners and provide quality education.

So, what is in a name?  Our VATA project truly lived up to its name - winds of change are definitely blowing through TAFESA.  We have had many meetings with educators from TAFESA, UniSA and from DECS who are interested in trying this fantastic software to engage their learners. In particular, we presented at an Aboriginal Access State Managers meeting in Port Augusta to show how SL could engage the indigenous students.   We have demonstrated the educational advantages of SL to educators from Justice Studies, Marketing, IT Studies, ELS, SA Virtual Enterprises Australia, Children's Education and representatives from private RTO's.  We now have staff seriously considering how they could bring some of the colour and enjoyment of SL into their delivery - to mash it with Moodle, Centra, Web 2.0 tools and so on.   So we believe we are well on our way to embedding more e-learning into our programs and developing partnerships with other organisations.  With the Skills Strategy target of more e-learning by 2012 we believe that we will be able to establish the use of SL as a legitimate teaching device which will bring more enjoyment, engagement and education to our students.

Posted at 02:03PM Nov 27, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

SLoodle and Decka's Decks

Throughout this project we have met fantastic people who are interested and keen to help us.  Barbara Staite from the Adelaide Campus library has offered to help in whatever way she can and has made herself available for most of our meetings both in class and online.  Michael Ewer, Principal Lecturer Marketing Program, a seasoned Second Lifer, has been supportive in providing assistance and in participating in our 12 August event.  It was through Jim Plummer, Lecturer at the Urrbrae Campus, that we met Kristen Morgan alias Moggs Oceanlane, who is a part owner of the island of Eloquence on Second Life.  Kristen is interested in SLoodle which is a moodle that can be accessed from within Second Life.  We were initially busy with our preparations and planning for the trainees, but eventually we met with Kristen who showed us the beginnings of a SLoodle and asked what else we would like to see on it.

The SLoodle is a HUD - which stands for Heads Up Display - and really that is all I know about it.  However, this clever little piece of wizardry is an object that you can drag onto your avatar and it will open a little window at the top of your screen.  At the moment there are only 2 items on it - Classroom Gestures and a Blog.   When you click on the Classroom Gestures it enables your avatar to shake your head to indicate NO or you can nod your head to indicate YES - and various other non-verbal gestures such as waving etc.   The other feature is a blog which is fantastic because you can post an entry to your blog without having to leave the SL environment.  You just type the blog entry into the text chat line and it immediately posts to your blog.  I could see this being useful for people to keep a record of their reactions or thoughts as they move through SL.

The other exciting thing that we have been doing is looking at the Decka's Decks facility on Terra Incognita.  This is an island owned and built by Dr Lindy McKeown - Decka Mah in SL.  This island is totally set up for education and the University of Southern Queensland has a wonderful law court complete with jury room set up on the island.

The Decka's Decks is a tree-top part of the island which enables groups of people to meet in discussion groups.  There is a central facilitators chair and then groups of tables with cushions placed around them for the students to sit upon.  Usually when a large group of people meets there is a lot of cross-over with text chat or if they are using voice chat it becomes confusing.  The facilitator has the ability to place people together and then to zoom the "pods" into the air so that the text chat or voice chat is contained within the pod.  The participants have the ability from their airy loft to contact the lecturer or to come back to the main group at any time.  Also the facilitator has the ability to either send an IM or to zap up and visit the group.  Each pod has its own notecard postbox so that if you are asking the group to write their feedback on a notecard they can do so and post it so that the facilitator has a copy immediately.  There are many other fantastic little features to these decks - for example, the facilitator can change the colour of the cushions and ask the participants to sit on, for example, the red cushions if they agree with this statement, or on the white if they don't know.  This keeps the group active and involved.

On next Wednesday, 17 September at 11 am we are hoping that the trainees will be able to meet us at Terra Incognita and teleport to Decka's Decks.  We have prepared a notecard which explains to the trainees what we want them to discuss.  We will place this card in the gold box.  The gold box enables us to distribute the notecard to all participants at once without the need to drag the notecard to each participant's profile.  They will be able to use the notecard to write their responses.  Once they have finished they will post the card into the notecard postbox which can then be retrieved by the facilitator.  We are really looking forward testing this fantastic facility.

The following Wednesday on the 24 September, we are hoping that we can build screens that we will then place textures of various real life feedback forms onto.  These will be displayed at the various pods and we will ask the trainees to examine them and determine what kind of feedback is being sought, why that might be useful to an organisation and what it means to the organisation.

Posted at 11:06AM Sep 11, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

27 August VATA Meeting

My last attempt to add to this blog was somehow lost into the ether when I pressed the "post to weblog" button.  I have now taken Margaret Granger's advice and will cut and paste this entry from a Word document.

After the success of the event of the 11 and 12 August we decided to leave it a week or so before getting the trainees together again.  We had originally planned to meet on the 20 August but delayed it until 27^th.  It was during this time that we discovered, almost by accident, that the various lobbying that had been happening across TAFESA had been successful and we were granted access to Second Life on both the Admin and Education servers - which meant that we had access from our desks and in the classroom.  We were amazed - especially when we had been informed so catagorically at the beginning of our project that this couldn't happen because of DFEEST rulings, duty of care and various other reasons.  How much more time could we have spent on the educational aspect of our project if we had not expended energy in finding ways to get access to SL.  Just the event of the 11 and 12 August needed so much time and organisation to get access to cars (from Panorama campus) back to Adelaide campus to pick up students then down to Noarlunga campus to get access to SL - over 2 days!!  However, that is all in the past now - access has been granted and so we can move on.

So on the 27 August we asked the trainees to meet us again at the NMC Conference Centre - in uniform - for a photo.  They were all coming in from their workplaces and so it was wonderful to see each one arrive.  Some had better speed than others - poor Joseph (alias Romeo) was coming in from Port Augusta and he found the lag was really difficult for him to participate.  At one point he got stuck near the flower bed and rather than wait for his computer to catch up, the others clustered around him for the photo.  Then, we took the trainees to an island called Eloquence where there are some change-rooms and invited them to get back into their preferred gear.

Most trainees made it to Eloquence; Romeo tried a few times but eventually gave up when he found that his computer was just too slow to provide the mobility he needed.  The trainees found their way to the 6 change-rooms and we were surprised to see some of them waiting outside.  They were modestly waiting for others to finish and vacate the change-room before entering and drawing the curtain.  We were interested in this as it was another indication of how closely they identified with their avatars.

We then asked the trainees to meet us on Terra Incognita at the Surf Club.  It was here that we planned to give them an opportunity to interact with each other and for us to take another photo.  At one poin I noticed that two of them were talking about their database assignment.  I had an arm wrestle with one of them and I am not sure if any of them got into the mud wrestling.  I think after getting into their preferred clothes, mud wrestling was out of the question!

After this we all said our goodbyes and quit the program.  We had achieved all we wanted for the day.  Our plan was to give them an opportunity to catch up with one another from the workplace, to reinforce the distinction between their professional and personal selves and to introduce them to the island of Terra Incognita where our next meeting is planned.  We gave them all a landmark so that they would be able to find their way back to Terra Incognita easily.

Posted at 10:11AM Sep 11, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

Success and more success

On Monday and Tuesday 11 and 12 August all of the trainees were in Adelaide for their monthly meeting at the Adelaide Campus.  There are 3 trainees from the country areas of Mt Gambier, Port Augusta and Port Lincoln.  We planned to use these days to set up an "event" that would provide them with an opportunity to practise their customer service skills.  The computer room we needed to use at the Adelaide Campus was not available so we had to ask permission to use the room at the Noarlunga campus.  This meant that IT lecturing staff had to agree to move their classes into other rooms.  Stephen Donaldson again organised this for us and without his help and the goodwill of the IT lecturers we would not have been able to continue. 

To get the trainees to the Noarlunga campus we needed to book cars and then pick them up from the Panorama campus, drive to the Adelaide campus, collect the students and then drive to the Noarlunga campus.  We did this for both days.  I mention this as it highlights some of the extra work we needed to undertake simply because we didn't have ready access from our campus.  Also we wanted as many avatars to participate in the event for our trainees.  There were lecturing staff who had avatars but who had teaching commitments during the day.  One comment was that they could have supported us if they had access to SL from their desktop.

So...difficulties aside, we all got to the Noarlunga campus and the trainees logged back into Secondlife, literally like ducks to water. The event that we organised for the trainees was to take place in SL at the NMC Conference Centre on the Tuesday afternoon at 1pm.  The treasure hunt had given the students an opportunity to get to know the facility really well.  On the Monday we planned to continue with the treasure hunt and those who finished early could assist others.   Then we had a group discussion about what excellent customer service would look like and how it could be demonstrated in the virtual world.  For example, one of the points raised by the trainees was to 'show enthusiasm'.  They decided that when communicating with an avatar, stepping forward and greeting politely was one way of showing  enthusiasm.  The group discussion led the trainees to talk about using the NMC uniform, making sure that their avatars looked professional, as well as what language they should use and how they could 'value add'.

At about 12.45 on Tuesday the trainees noticed avatars teleporting into the centre.  So they immediately went to work and for the next hour and a half there was no sound in the room except for the busy tapping of keyboards.  The engagement was total and they were all performing really well - taking care of all who came their way.  They were sending IM's to each other to let the other know that someone was heading towards their booth so that they were performing as individuals and also as a team.  Some of the trainees had thought ahead and prepared a map so that they could give directions and they had photocopied this and provided it to the others - they also had each other's SL name and booth so that they could send IM's to help each other.

We were very fortunate to have made friends with other avatars (some of them quite new themselves) who supported us by coming into the NMC Centre and interacting with our trainees.  We thank those people sincerely because their presence made the experience so much more real for our trainees.  Michael Ewer, Principal Lecturer of Marketing at TAFESA - Adelaide Campus, provided an interesting twist for the trainees by coming into the centre in a wheelchair.  He then at various points around the centre got himself stuck at the stairs or behind desks and at one point he managed to fall out of his chair causing two of the trainees rushed to his aid. 

 The silence in the room as these interactions were taking place was palpable.  The trainees were totally engrossed in what they were doing and afterwards when I spoke to Joseph, one of the trainees, he said that although it seems like a computer game, he actually felt that he was there doing the work at the centre.

We felt that the trainees performed really well and that the day was a great success - not just for our project but also for the confidence of the trainees.  They had prepared so hard for this encounter and they were gratified by the success of the day.

 More Success

 Since our fantastic day at Noarlunga, we have found out that we have access to SL on the education server at TAFESA Adelaide South.  This is an enormous suprise and a wonderful breakthrough.  At the beginning of our project the situation was hopeless and had we not had the support of the IT program we would not have been able to continue.  Now we can use the education server to set up meetings with our trainees in their workplaces and support their studies.  Our next meeting is planned for 27 August and we are planning to get a group photo.  We are hoping that all will have access from their workplace by then. 

We do not have access from our desks because as lecturers we are on the administration server, however we have been told that ICT could find a way around this and we hope that they will.  This problem of access has been an all encompassing one and has taken time and attention away from the teaching which is what we are really interested in.

Posted at 08:00PM Aug 24, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

The rollercoaster ride

So much has happened in a week!!  Our wonderful DECS partners - in particular Di Ferris and Jodie Coleman havebeen working away with their cooperative and extremely helpful DECS ICT managers.  Jodie has contacted me several times to let me know that one by one the trainees have been given access to Second Life so that they will be able to log in from the workplace.  First it was 3 who had access, then 4, now 7.  There is still a problem with 3 trainees getting access but the DECS ICT teams are continuing to work on this to see what they can do.

This was great news for us and so we decided to continue with our planned treasure hunt today.  We had asked for the trainees to be allowed to go online between 11am and 1pm taking advantage of the lunch break so as to inconvenience the supervisors as least as possible.

The trainees had been emailed a series of questions relating to an area in SL which is called the NMC Conference Centre (spelled Center) which gives lots of help to anyone new to SL and is set up like a conference.  There are booths where you can pick up a conference bag, get info about how to use Twitter or Eluminate, create a tee-shirt, drink iced tea, visit various places of interest and so on.  The treasure hunt was designed to get them to find all of these places and so get to know the conference centre really well.  We plan to build on this knowledge at our next meeting when we want the trainees to be show their customer service skills to other avatars who will come in and ask questions.

So, today we set up our laptops in the Harvey Norman room at the back of the library at the Adelaide Campus of TAFE.  There are 6 network points in this room which are connected to the IT program's server.  This is yet another example of colaborative support offered by the fantastic IT program team - in particular Stephen Donaldson who has been a strong supporter of our project from the beginning. 

It was wonderful to watch as each of the trainees came into the centre and after greeting each other, set off to find the "treasures".  We saw that they all had their conference bags over their arms and we read the interaction betwwn them as they attempted to assist each other with directions to various places.

A few of the trainees experienced slow speed problems, something that they were going to discuss with their ICT people after the session.  A couple had to log out and then back in again. Unfortunately, we had lots of trouble with our laptops freezing and crashing.  At one point the trainees were all running around and we almost couldn't move.  Ruth decided to see if there was anyone in the computer room upstairs on the 5th floor and soon we received an IM from her saying that the room was empty and that the computers there were working fine.  So we abandoned our laptops and ran upstairs to finish the session.  Most of the trainees managed to get through most of the questions and all stayed until about 12.45 (by which time they were probably famished because this session had happened across their lunch break). 

Once again, Jodie was really pleased with the trainees and their involvement in the activities.  She thought it was an enjoyable session for them and is keen to follow up on the trainees who missed out on getting access today.

I have called this entry the rollercoaster ride because the thrill of watching the students interacting and participaing was tempered by - again - the poor technology.   The thrill of the trainees actually having access from their workplace is a wondrous miracle since we still do not have this luxury. 

Our next encounter with the trainees will be a face to face meeting over 2 days - 11th and 12th August.  On these days we will be giving them time to finish the treasure hunt and then organise themselves for the event we are planning on the Tuesday.  I will be asking other avatars to come in at 1pm to be "strangers" so that the trainees can demonstrate their customer service skills. 

On with the ride...

Posted at 03:53PM Aug 06, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

Malcolm's visit - Fantastic Success - Inevitable Snags...

Malcolm's Visit

Malcolm Jolly from GippsTAFE visited the VATA team on 1 July and spent the day sharing with us with his experiences of using Second Life as an educational tool. The team at GippsTAFE have been using the SL environment for some time and have created a really useful CD for others who are interested in following their lead.  One of the main questions we asked Malcolm was how to provide a scenario or event that would maximise the benefit of the "imersive" quality of SL.  I found this similar to the head shift I experienced when moving from the 'chalk and talk' methodology to the Virtual Enterprise situation.  Malcolm helped to clarify this for us and during the day he gave us access to the island that GippsTAFE have bought and support.  On this island they have built an office so we decided to try out a role play using, as a guide, some of the elements from the competency we are teaching the trainees.  Di Ferris, HR Manager DECS Aboriginal Recruitment and Retention, took the role of the reception attendant and the rest of us became demanding, rude, insensitive, pushy customers.  Di dealt with us all very well!! However, this experience showed us that we needed to be a little less intense with our scenarios and perhaps a little less prescriptive.  The day after Malcolm's visit we met and worked on setting up some scenarios and an event that would hopefully draw out from the trainees the behaviours, responses and knowledge required for the competency. We were very positive about the progress of our project and really looking forward to introducing the trainees to the wonderful world of Second Life.

Fantastic Success

On 9 July Kate Neal and I met with the trainees and introduced them to the idea of the VATA project.  None of them had experienced SL before so there was a moderate level of interest - most of it regarding the novelty of it, I think.  We spent some time talking to them about the environment and about the protective behaviours that the GippsTAFE team had stressed was very important to cover.  Their CD presents this beautifully and so we used their diagrams and spoke to the trainees about how to avoid uncomfortable situations.  Then we took them upstairs to the room that had been made available to us.  We provided them with an avatar and gave them instructions and time to alter its appearance.  We had been advised by Lindy McKeown (Decka Mah from Terra Incognita) to let the trainees create their own avatars - this way they would have more ownership and therefore respond more honestly in any role play they are place in.  However, the room that we have been allocated only enables one avatar to be created per day - Phil Ingram had warned me that this might happen as the room had one IP address - not sure of the reason, but Kate and I tested it before the trainees came in and indeed there was a problem.  So we had created several avatars each and named them.  We then allocated them to the trainees and gave them the time and tools to alter their appearance.

Once the trainees were logged in and started to alter their appearance there was total engagement.  They were speaking to each other only through the avatar, although occasionally there were cries of delight or chuckles as they realised who each one was.  At morning tea time, no-one wanted to go.  They eventually went but all were back within about 10 minutes.  Again at lunch they didn't want to leave and again they were waiting at the door after lunch.  Afternoon tea was the same and they were happy to stay right until the end of the day at 4pm - even then some were reluctant to leave.  They had learned how to teleport, fly, communicate with each other and with strangers as they crossed their paths.  They had individualised their avatars so that they were no longer recognizable as the avatars that they had been issued with at the beginning of the day.  They had visited Egypt, Sydney Opera House, Africa, and several other places of interest.  They had learned how to manage their inventory and were offering friendship to each other.  These skills had taken me weeks to learn and they picked them up in a matter of hours.

Jodie Coleman who is the project officer for these trainees was thrilled with the level of engagement and was delighted with the fact that noone had asked to leave early - something that regularly happens.

One of the things that I noticed was that one of the trainees (who had arrived slightly late) had a bit of an attitude to the morning talk about SL and about the protective behaviours.  Of the whole group she to me seemed to be the one who would be the most difficult to please.  I watched her get her avatar and set about giving it a mohawk hair style.  She then hunted on SL for the clothes she wanted it to wear.  She spent time on detail like slightly raising one eyebrow which gave the avatar an imperious look and she gave it a piercing - not sure if it was eyebrow or nose ring.  At one point during the afternoon I sat with her and commented about how she had given her avatar "real attitude".  She seemed really pleased with this comment and it seemed that the more "attitude" she could put into her avatar the more drained out of her.  She was really co-operative and at the end of the day told me that she had enjoyed the session a lot. It will be interesting to watch this student and see if she chooses to make her avatar more conservative when she needs to have her attend the customer service event we are planning.  Perhaps we can use the SL environment to discuss with her the fact that she can be a punk on the inside but still present a professional image to customers on the outside when required.

Before the trainees left at the end of the day we asked them to meet us at Biscayne Bay - an island where we can swim, jet ski and ride on a whale.  The real purpose of this meeting was to ensure that they could log into SL from the workplace - a worry I was secretly harbouring and also to provide them with the social interaction that we felt might encourage them to commit more seriously to their traineeship.  It was decided that the day of this meeting would be on 22 July between 11am and 1pm.

Inevitable Snags...

 And so the day of the 22 July dawned and it wasn't long after 11am that we received a call from Di Ferris with the news that none of the trainees could log into Second Life.  It appears that the DECS ICT group had misunderstood the need for the trainees to actually download SL and log in.  They had cleared the trainees to get to the website only.  Kate started to get emails from distraught trainees asking what they were doing wrong and so Di Ferris sent an email to all trainees explaining the situation and she was also talking to the ICT team to see what could be done.  She said that the DECS ICT team were extremely helpful and realised the need but didn't know how they were going to provide access to all trainees.  Di did not think that this was their final answer and is continuing to press for access.  To date, we are no wiser about the outcome of this.

This puts our planned Treasure Hunt at the NMC Conference Centre on the 6 August in doubt and so this might now have to be transferred to the next time we are altogether in a face to face classroom.  This will happen on 11 and 12 August and so, not all is lost, but the value of having students log in from their workplaces was one of the main things we wanted to test. 

We remain, perhaps misguidedly, optimistic about our ability to work with students using SL as a fantastic learning space.  I have been in touch with Lindy McKeown and she has shown me some of the fantastic break-out spaces she has created on her island.  This potential - to enable distance learners to participate in group discussion - is wonderful and perhaps in 5 years will be commonplace, but right now we face a very sturdy brick wall.  We at Adelaide campus have found a temporary way to remove a brick or two from this wall to enable us to have SOME access but the whole thing is difficult enough to deter others from wanting to attempt using SL.

Posted at 12:58PM Jul 30, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

Picking up a little bit of pace...

Today I received confirmation from Malcolm Jolly that he is able to attend our workshop on 1 July.  He is looking forward to working with us.

Yesterday I spent time with Phil Ingram (lecturer's assistant in IT Studies) who cleared all of the necessary ports so that Second Life is available on the computers we will be using on the day of the workshop.  He has offered to be "around" in the morning so that he can deal with any difficulties.  This level of support is incredible and we are most grateful.  With help from our project money, the IT Studies group have purchased new graphics cards for the computers in this room and so Phil will make sure that they are installed before the day of our workshop - thus making the graphics in SL better.

In the meantime, I struggle with my own computer - incredibly slow and freezing every 20 minutes or so. The box has been replaced but the problems remain, prompting me to suggest to the ICT Help Desk that it may be a network problem.  This morning I rang them (again) and asked if others were experiencing the same problems.  They connected by "remote" to my desktop and then commented on how slow the machine was!! Today, to get an email out or to check something on a website has been a huge task taking sometimes up to 30 minutes.

Interestingly, I have heard from our DECS colleagues that their request for the trainees to have access (from the workplace) to SL has been met with a "can do" attitude and, in fact, the preparatory work has been done and will be in place until the end of October - by which time, the project will be winding up.  There is still a question about one school, but Di Ferris, the HR Manager of DECS Aboriginal Employment and Retention is following this up and will let us know.  The support from Di, Jodie Coleman - project officer and Tanya Mills (Manager) has been fantastic. We are so fortunate to have such great partners in this venture.

Last night, between the hours of 11pm and 3.30am, Ruth and I attended a history conference in SL.  It was incredible being around so many other avatars and listening to the keynote speaker.  Then we were taken around a recreation of Harlem in the 20's.  There was a tram you could take, or just walk along with the other avatars chatting and learning about what other educators are doing in this fascinating new world of virtual worlds.  As well as Ruth and me, there were 2 other Aussies at the conference.  One from Sydney and the other from Adelaide.  I spoke to Shaqq from Sydney and he passed his email address as well as his website to me.  He is interested in the future in using SL to do some training with Indigenous students.  So he is keenly interested in our work and may join us on Sunday afternoons at 4pm to see what we are up to.  So, sitting in front of the heater with dressing gown and slippers on- in the comfort of my own home, I was able to attend a fantastic conference - happening in real time - and network with others - all through the magic of SL.

We are really starting to get a feel for this environment.

Posted at 05:10PM Jun 25, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  | 

The journey so far...

Ever since seeing Brad Beech at the 2007 E-Dayz presenting the value of a Virtual World environment for education, the Business Administration team at TAFESA South had been enthusiastic to use a virtual world with their students.  We had already been running a Virtual Enterprise for some years and the next natural step seemed, to us, to move to the virtual world and so expand our teaching to people who for what ever reason could not attend the offices set up at the Adelaide, Panorama and Noarlunga campuses. As a first step towards this goal, we applied for and won some project funding from the SA E-Learning and Innovations program of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework.  The project was to look at a range of Virtual Worlds and to take a group of 15 Aboriginal DECS trainees through some of the elements of the Deliver and Monitor a Service to Customers competency using a virtual world as a platform.  

Prior to completing the application for funding, I had written to Sam Ntafilis, the manager of the TAFESA South ICT program and told him what we were intending to do.  I indicated that even if we did not win the funding, we would like to have Second Life cleared for use by a group of the lecturing staff as we wanted to investigate its value for our students. At that stage, we could access the Second Life website from our desktops, but we could not download or use the program.  Sam responded that he would do what he could to assist us.

Shortly after this time, 2 of the lecturing staff found that they no longer had access to the SL website - the Content Keeper message came up each time they tried to get on.  More emails went back and forth and one machine has now been cleared - the other is still blocked.

Once it was clear that we had won the funding Ruth Frazer, Project Manager, Pamela Orr, Education Manager, Sam Ntafilis, ICT Manager, Margaret Granger, SA E-Learning Coordinator and Stephen Donaldson, IT Manager met to seek a solution to the Second Life access problem.  It was indicated at this meeting that there were 2 rooms at the Adelaide Campus that could work outside of the education server (referred to as Red Rooms).  It was decided that Ruth Frazer and I would meet with the ICT team to work out when we could have access to these rooms.

At this meeting, Sam and Andrew Dewis told us that there were actually about 6 "red rooms" but that they were all in use most of the time by the IT program.  It was also stated that the IT program had bought their own server and maintained  this so that their students could have access programs necessary for their awards. I was shocked to realise that the TAFESA South  infrastructure was unable to help us. 

So it was apparent to Ruth and me that we needed to work with the IT program to find out if and when we could access their rooms.  Our constraints were that we needed to find times when the IT program was not using the rooms but also days when our Trainees would be on campus as these days were already pre-determined. We met with John Cocks and Stephen Donaldson and through their flexibility, good humour and generosity, and desire to break down the silos that exist between program groups, they worked with us to provide a room for each of the days that the Trainees would be on campus. However, John and Stephen pointed out that their program area could not support all other programs that may also need "red room" access and asked us to make this clear to the director, Mr Stephen Conway.

We made an appointment to see Stephen Conway and explained how helpful the IT program had been - in particular Stephen Donaldson and John Cocks.  Stephen Conway, who has been a Flexible Learning Leader and who currently has an E-Learning responsibility as part of the Skills Strategy was not surprised to hear about the inadequacy of the TAFESA South ICT infrastructure but was very supportive of our project and pleased with the support offered the project by the IT group.  It was made clear to Stephen Conway that without this support, our project would be jeopadised. He offered to write an email to the IT group thanking them for their support.  He was well aware of the need to drastically update the TAFESA ITC infrastructure to cope with the proposed increase in online training by 2010.

Our first meeting with the whole project team was  at the Noarlunga campus on 11 June. Prior to this full day event, Ruth and I went to check the room and the computers.  We were helped incredibly by Stephen Donaldson and also by Peter Allen.  We found that there was a problem with getting into Second Life, but Stephen Donaldson rang another colleague and within 10 minutes the SL program was downloaded and working really well.  Ruth and I were delighted as for the previous 2 or 3 weeks we had been fighting to get to this point.

On the 11 June, we met and looked at responsibilities and roles and spent some time looking at the environment.  It was fun trying to line up our avatars for a group photo for publicity purposes.  For a few months all of the project team have been meeting on Sundays at 4pm in Second Life.  We have watched each other go from total "noobies" who stagger into the sea or who get caught under bushes to our now more experience avatars who are now expert flyers navigating our way by map or by teleport to various locations.

We are lucky to have Kate Neal as part of the project team.  Kate seems to be more at home in the virtual world than the real world!  She has been really supportive of those of us who are slower to adjust to the virtual world mores.  We are also very lucky to have people on the periphery of our project team who have interest and experience in the SL world and who want to assist.  In particular, I mention Michael Ewer, Principal Lecturer Marketing, who has been a closet SL'er until he "came out" as a result of this project.

We have made contact with Malcolm Jolly from Gippstafe.  Malcolm is one of a group of educators who works with Brad Beech and who has had a lot of experience in working with students in SL.  He has agreed to come to Adelaide on July 1 to work with the project group and to give us an idea of the methodology required for the virtual world environment.  I have also been in contact with Lindy McKeown, Education Consultant and owner of a SL island called Terra Incognita.  Her SL name is Decka Mah.  Ruth Frazer had found this island and she and I thought that this would be a perfect place as a home base for our Trainees.  For $50 a month we can have access to the island, and to Lindy as a mentor for us.  She has offered to build small things for us such as a filing cabinet for our Trainees to put notecards etc. 

Both Lindy and Malcolm have said that it is important not to waste the immersive quality of the virtual world environment.  Malcolm has warned against being too prescriptive and I think that it is this aspect of working in a virtual world that I need to learn the most.  I took an hour out one Sunday to watch a youtube presentation -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueAcz7ZyFpM&feature=related – long but great video on creating authentic learning communities on SL.  Sarah Robbins, doctoral candidate at the University of Indiana, aka Intelligirl, talks about her experiences using Second Life in her classrooms.

 Sarah Robbina also talks about the unexpected educational experience of the virtual world.  She gives examples of what she is doing with her students and how sometimes what looks like a failed activity actually has more value than you think.

Our project group are looking forward to meeting with Malcolm Jolly and of working towards making the learning experience for our Trainees a really valuable and worthwhile one.

Tags: second life customer service trainees ict vata
Posted at 02:20PM Jun 17, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  |