Last weekend I attended the Jokaydian April festival. You may think where is Jokaydia I have never heard of this place is it in the south coast some where one of those hippy towns or is it a Star Trek planet But no Jokaydia is a island in Second Life.
“The Islands of jokaydia in Second Life is owned and operated by Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong. It was launched in September 2007 and aims to provide a space to explore the uses of virtual worlds in education, the arts and social change. The Islands of jokaydia are self-funded and support a range of events, activities and services. We also host a vibrant community of educators and artists as part of our rental community on the Island.
The Island of jokaydia is designed to provide a flexible and dynamic space for educators in Second Life which includes informal and formal meeting spaces, plus a range of interesting objects and tools to explore. Our space is designed to assist new residents to gain competency and confidence in using the Second Life interface - whilst they are having fun! We also support mixed reality events, professional development activities and a number of other projects” http://jokaydia.com/about-jokaydia/
I have been hanging around Jokaydia for a while and chatting with Jokay Wollongong who is the administrator of Jokaydia. Even joined the Facebook group. Anyway after must consideration I decided to change my group for the assignment as my group Teacher Buzz only met once or twice a month and they were in San Francisco it just was not practical. So I have digressed.
Anyway I went to a couple of sessions at the April Festival. The Educator in residence Leroy Goalpost discussed his project creating a living space out of trucking containers and how the simulation in Second Life could be translated into Real Life or First Life. He also talked about home schooling and de-schooling society which to be seems like a model of social learning that may be interesting to investigate.
It was only my second experience in a so called “virtual” classroom so really I did not know how to behave as I am so accustomed to the model of teacher in front of the classroom you sit still be quiet and when it is time to participate then you can. I asked Jo is it okay to get up and look at the project as I did not want to appear rude while the presenter was talking. She said go ahead the etiquette of the virtual classroom is such a different kettle of fish. The one think that has not changed is participants did not speak. They did use the chat function to text questions but the participants did not use the functionality that allows them to speak using their real voice to ask questions of the presenter Like in the RL/FL participants still feel nervous to speak (This includes me). Won the lucky door prize at the festival RL cool tee very happy
Anyway will write more as I get more involved and will post some pictures
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