Major update to the island!

Hello!

We are very pleased to announce that the School’s Second Life Island has been updated in preparation for the new academic year.

The whole island has been redesigned using the open source OpenVCE objects & buildings that were released to the Second Life community last week.

Our Second Life orientation website has also been updated to reflect the changes on the island itself – Click here to visit it.

What’s new?

• Avatars now arrive at a new ‘Central Hub’ & are offered a landmark, a map of the island and a copy of the island’s code of conduct.
  
  
• A new multi screen lecture theatre has been added, replacing the old one.
  
  
• The visitors centre has been overhauled & now contains an updated presentation room & meeting room.
  
  
• A social work development zone has been added – providing staff and students with a number of configurable rooms where students can further develop their skills and be observed by staff in doing so.
  
  

And finally…

We are very pleased to welcome RSC Wales onto our island.

Inside their office you'll be able to learn more about RSC Wales and the work they do throughout Wales, as well as listen to their latest podcasts and attend any in world briefings and second life orientation sessions that they run.

You can learn more about RSC Wales by clicking here.

The RSC Wales Office

We’d love to hear what you think about the updated island – so please do stop by and say hello, or leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Paul.

Follow us on Twitter

Hello!

You can now follow us on Twitter if you want to:

https://twitter.com/SHSSTELLS

Many thanks!

Paul.

New Video: An introduction to teaching & learning on the school's Second Life Island

Following the video I made last week showing how our second life island can be used to enhance conferences, I’ve re-edited it to make a 2^nd version that illustrates how the school’s island can be send to enhance teaching, learning and collaborative work.

Some of the shots are the same as the previous video, some are new.

The text has been reworded for a different target audience, lecturers, students and parents of students.

The running time of the video is 6:11.

You can watch it below:

If you cannot see the video above, or wish to view it in high quality, please click here.

Cheers!

Paul.

New Video: Conference facilities showcase

Hello!

At the request of some of our staff, I’ve put together a short video showcasing how the facilities on our island can be used to hold online conferences, or support “real” face to face ones.

If you’d like to know more, or hold a conference on the school’s island then please get in touch.

You can watch the video below – I strongly recommend you set the player to view in “HQ” mode:

Please click here if you cannot see the video above

Many thanks!

Paul.

Visitors Centre & International Gallery Updated

Hello!

 

We’ve updated the top floor of both the Visitors centre & our international gallery.

 

 Visitors Centre

The whole top floor has been re worked, the prototype shop has gone and has been replaced by a DVD wall which takes you to the school's DVD web page when you click on it.

The SHSS ‘board room’

 

The presentation room has been turned into a board room and the circular seating has been moved out into the main top floor area.

Also the websites that were on show at the back of the top floor have been updated and now show the school’s main page, YouTube page, Facebook & the Second Life orientation site - when you click on each the actual website will load up.

 

The updated top floor of the visitors centre

 

International Centre

The top floor now has images taken from our International school overview video so that people considering studying with us overseas can learn more about the school.

The top floor of the international centre

 

In addition you can watch the video itself via the presentation screen that’s in the International building, you can also see it below:

Click here if you cannot see the above video, or wish to view it in high quality

 

That’s all for now  -feel free to drop in sometime and take a look around for yourself.

 

Cheers!

 

Paul.

Greeting from the Dean of the school now playing in the Visitors Centre

A recorded Welcome message from Amelia Lyons, Dean of the School of Health & Social Sciences is now playing in the Visitors Centre on the school's Second Life Island.

To hear it, please ensure your Second Life client is configured to pay streaming music, if you are not sure how to do this then please watch the following video:

Please click here to watch in HD

Virtual camera now available from within Second Life

Hello.

We have added the ability for lecturers using the School's Second Life Island to broadcast events taking place in second life outside to the rest of the world via the following web page:

http://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeuwnshss/view-our-in-world-camera

When the camera is not broadcasting we will be looping videos from our YouTube channel.

A ticker at the bottom of the screen also broadcasts the latest news from the school.

If you would like a demo of the camera & how it can be used to widen participation in Second Life events then please get in touch.

Many thanks.

Paul.

SHSS International blog now available in the International Centre

 

Hello!

Just a quick message to let you know that you can now access the school's international blog via the International gallery.

Presently we have 2 staff in Mumbai, India and they are giving daily updates via text and video on the blog.

Feel free to drop by and take a look, or visit the blog directly here:

http://hssinternational.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Paul.

The blog as it appears in the International Gallery

New Tutorial Video | How to enter the counselling chamber

As a response to staff & student demand to use the counselling chamber we've created a a short video that shows people how to enter and make use of it's facilities.

This video has now been added to the Counselling Chamber web page which you can view by clicking here.

Click here to watch in high res.

Thanks for reading.

Paul.

How to install Second Life on a Mac

Hello!

Just a quick update to let you know that we've added Torley's guide to installing Second Life on a Mac to the "Getting Started" page on the orientation website.

Please click here to watch it.

Many thanks.

Paul.

Take our Media Remote Control for a spin

Hello!

We’ve added a large “Remote control” to the presentation room in the Visitors Centre.

By clicking on the remote you will see a blue pop up menu appear in the top right corner of your screen – just use this menu to choose what you’d like to look at on the screen and then it will be shown/start to play.

Please note you must have Quicktime installed on your machine and have set media streaming to automatic for this to work correctly  - click here to watch a video that shows you how to do this.

Feel free to login and give it a whirl!

 

Alternative way of creating a Second Life Account added

Hello.

We have now added a method of creating Second Life accounts for staff and students from PCs within Newport University.

The official account creation page has a limit to the number of accounts that can br created per site and we have reached ours - forcing staff and students to create new accounts from home.

This new link to the NMC Campus account creation page lets staff and students create new Second Life accounts from within the University, and lets us support them with face to face training sessions in doing so.

You can access the updated page here:

http://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeuwnshss/getting-started#TOC-Create-a-second-life-account

I would like to thank Daniel Livingstone for making me aware of this soloution - thanks Dan!

Second Life Island is now open.

Hello.

We are very pleased to tell you that the school's Second Life island is now open to the public.

You can access it easily via our orientation website by clicking on the orange "Teleport Now" button in the top left corner of the site.

Alternatively, you can click on the link below to go straight there:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/uwn%20shss/100/146/28

Getting Started page updated

Just a quick message to let you know that we've updated the Getting Started page on the website.

You can take a look at the updated page by clicking on the link below:

http://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeuwnshss/getting-started

Phillip Cole's Mini Lecture now available outside of Second Life

The first of the school's mini lectures is now available via the Lecture Theatre webpage as well as within the Lecture Theatre itself on the School's Second Life Island.

This means you are able to listen to the content without having to login to Second Life if you so wish.

 

 

Postgraduate Course Showcase added

We’ve added a postgraduate course showcase on the first floor of the Visitors Centre.

To visit it, enter the visitors centre and then go upstairs.

 

Here you can learn more about our post graduate courses by clicking on each of the signs, as shown in the image below:

New resource added to the TELLS Teaching Zone

Just a quick message to let you know that we have added a “Landmark” giver at the TELLS Teaching zone.

By clicking on the large red push pin, you will receive a folder with a note card inside that lists places of interest that you may wish to visit to learn more about Teaching & Learning within Second Life.

We will be adding more places to the list as time goes by – if you know of a place which you think should be added to our list then please let us know.

1st mini lecture now playing in the Lecture Theatre.

Phillip Cole, the Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise in the school has published a mini lecture on on research ethics for undergraduate students.

It’s 8 minutes long and is now playing in the Lecture Theatre on our Second Life island.

To listen to the lecture, just walk into the lecture theatre and ensure that streaming audio is turned on.

TELLS Teaching Zone added to the visitors centre.

A new teaching zone has been added to the islands visitors centre, called the TELLS teaching zone it showcases 3 of the E-learning websites created by the School’s Academic Leader and lets users pick up free teaching objects & structures for use in world.

To visit it, just teleport to our island and then go to the 1st floor of the visitors centre.

You can learn more about the TELLS teaching zone by clicking here.