The Best of Both Worlds: Second Life + Moodle = Sloodle! CIT2007

9:45 AM – 10:45
The Best of Both Worlds: Second Life + Moodle = Sloodle!
See how the world’s most popular learning management system can be linked to the most
popular 3D virtual world. Sloodle incorporates tools within Second Life that tie to a Moodle installation, allowing for in-world blogs that post to a website, chats between avatars and online students, and even in-world attendance tracking. Come learn how this exciting project started, where it stands now, and where it is headed.

D.I. von Briesen, Instructor, Futures Institute, Central Piedmont Community College, NC

Avatar: Icabad Vallejo

Used a flickr account at the beginning of the presentation – it was a collection of pictures from Second Life.

He opened the presentation with Radio Paradise in Windows Media Player.
Handed out a playing card that had the URL www.tropicalteachers.com

He discussed the importance of mood established by creating an environment – he used images and pictures to open the workshop to create an atmosphere.

They have a campus Island. He is offering office space for free for educators.

There are weekly meetings sloodle.

Question: how do you create a mashup between Moodle and SL? Why would you want to do this?

Second Life is good for:
1. Proximity
2. Emotional investment

Every Weds. 2:00 PM there is a developers meeting.

Jeremy Kemp at San Jose State headed up sloodle.

A mash-up actually has to use an API. Code that allows other programs to talk to one another.

Linden Labs made the code open source (the client not the server)

Question: How does a quiz happen in Second Life? Is it something that we should be doing in SL? Quizzes can be given some visual reinforcement.

There is a chat integration between sl & moodle. They use a chat logger. If someone was logged into Moodle, they can use this to chat with people in Second Life. This allows others who can not get into SL, are on a PDA, or a low connection speed.

He has a history instructor that gives extra credit for building virtual, historical sites.

Why would you want to give a slide show in SL? There is a sense of being and communicating in a space. There is a powerpoint that discusses this. But he says it is too long. The screens are going to be able to share from Flickr.

They are asking what is appropriate for teaching. An HUD for students should be able to reflect how people communicate in real time.

He considers Second Life as a 3-d web.

He used the Sloodle toolbar HUD (heads up display). User still has to authenticate into Moodle. The HUD has a blog and classroom gestures. The 3d world has a line of communication between SL & Moodle. HUD puts all the gestures one needs all in one place.

There are modules you have to install on Moodle.

Princeton just bought 9 islands.

We were at a place in SL called sloodleville (Sloodle Learning Center).

There is no connection between the assignments and the gradebook.

They want to create an in-world browser.