Second Life Campus: Grand Opening Announcement
May 16, 2007, noon - 6:30 p.m. PDT
San José State University's School of Library & Information Science is holding its Second Life Campus Opening on May 16th, noon - 6:30 p.m. PDT on its 16-acre campus site in the Second Life virtual environment. The project began with a Soros Foundation grant to Associate Director Linda Main to acquire the island and build the campus. Assistant Director Jeremy Kemp then worked with a design team of graduate students to develop the site and train faculty, staff and students.
- 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.: Dr. Daniel Livingstone gives a video lecture on Sloodle.
- 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.: Student Robin Williams chats in SL.
- 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.: Interact with information appliances.
- 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.: Dr. Ken Haycock gives dedication at official ribbon cutting ceremony.
- 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.: SL Guides give tours on 'magic carpets'; Teal Smith serves at Tiki Bar; Kala Pixie will launch a fireworks display.
Tour guides and hosts will be available.
To attend on Second Life, you need to create an account at Second Life.
If you are unable to enter and visit the site, participate in the event at: Sloodle.org. (You must create an account on the Sloodle Web site to access chat.)
Events, Free Stuff
At noon, Dr. Daniel Livingstone from the School of Computing at the University of Paisley in Scotland will be delivering a talk on Immersive and Web-based Virtual Learning Environments: Bridging the Gap with Sloodle. The talk will be video simulcast into Second Life from the San José SLIS. See SLIS Spring Colloquia.
From 1:00 - 2:00 p.m., Student Robin Williams chats in SL. She is the SL "Guides Guru" and manages the peer mentoring program. This brings students into the environment to build expertise and help others succeed. You may chat with Robin within Second Life on the campus. You may also chat with her on Sloodle at Sloodle.org.
From 2:00 - 5:00 p.m., Interact with information appliances displayed on the island from Reuters News, SLQuery.com, SLTrivia, Sloodle.org.
At 5:00 p.m., SLIS Director Ken Haycock will open the island in an official ribbon cutting ceremony and give a short chat about the future of distributed learning in this setting. Access the event on the island or on Sloodle.
From 5:30 - 6:30 p.m., SL Guides will be giving magic carpet rides around the island and passing out the newest Sloodle.org tools such as Classroom Gestures. Come see the prototype Web-enabled calendaring system. Teal Smith will serve tropical concoctions and espresso in a Tiki Bar mixer and dance party. Particle Illusionist Kala Pixie will launch a stunning fireworks display. There may be a knife throwing contest, bowling and skeeball as well.
May 1, 2007 Overview Video
Current spring classes are entering for short visits. Summer students will use Second Life as a lab to experiment with virtual environments for teaching, service and library space building. See the video below for an overview and recent developments.
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Sloodle
Livingstone and Kemp also received a first-year grant of £80,000 from Britain's
Eduserv Foundation to develop their Sloodle project.
New developments for Spring 2007 include a design laboratory for young adult spaces, an e-portfolio exhibit and new presentation spaces. Beginning in Summer 2007 students will be taking full and partial classes in Second Life.
Note from iSchool Director Haycock
San José has grown to become the world's largest accredited MLIS program, offering a variety of program delivery methods, from more traditional on-site classes, to cohorts such as the world's only Executive MLIS program, to distance learning, to hybrids.