Buddy Holly Lives!

by scottlo Posted on May 16, 2012

For some reason, animated GIFs have become an important part of the ds106 experience. Everybody, it seems, loves looking at them. And the process of making them is not as daunting as most may think. Prior to ds106, I never thought I could do one.

I remember with glee the moment my first effort at making one finally “played” the way I’d hoped it would. It took a long time and many mistakes were made along the way. But it was a learning experience. These little moments of personal accomplishment are valuable and important. One of the things that I most adore about ds106 is that it affords these sorts of opportunities for those willing to dive in.

So I was wondering what sort of role animated GIFs would play during this Camp Magic MacGuffin version of ds106. I was blown away when Ol’ Hatchet Jack made one from my first campsite photo from Second Life. I typo on my part in the comment on his blog referred to his effort as “an animate GIFt.” But in a sense, that what his remix of the photo was: a GIFt.

This morning I asked myself if it was possible to work with animated GIFs in the virtual space. As I didn’t know the answer, Google was used. It turns out it’s easy peasy. Perigrine Salon has a web application that will upload and convert your GIF file into the appropriate file format and provide a script of making the animation run once it’s attached to an object in Second Life. Well maybe it’s not easy peasy until you get the hang of it. But it works like a champ.

The video above was another chance for me to practice doing machinima and to demonstrate how the Buddy Holly GIF I created a few months ago look in Second Life. If you want to see it in person, all you have to do is teleport in to Corona Cay.

Posted in Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, Second Life | Tagged | 2 Comments

Magic MacGuffin Camp Site Machinima

by scottlo Posted on May 16, 2012

This was mostly an experiment to figure out how to do a machinima video. As the recent spate of blog post would indicate, it looks like my participation in Camp Magic MacGuffin will have to be from the virtual world unless or until I’m able to get the motor home unstuck from the sand. I’ll do my best to participate as fully as I can.

Making this movie was fairly simple, though it was time consuming. The video was captured with iShowU and edited with iMovie. The camera movements were done with a Space Navigator.

The musical selection should have been attributed on the video as well but I wasn’t able to get the titles to work in iMovie. The song Relaxing Birds is by tigabeatz and can be found on the ccMixter website.

Posted in Camp Magic MacGuffin, Second Life | Tagged | 2 Comments

Another One Percenter

by scottlo Posted on May 15, 2012
Nobody knows like the Bava, nobody!

I wasn’t sure what Jim had in mind when I read his tweet this morning. I guess it’s just a little bit of good-natured ds106 ribbing. But it did cause me to continue wondering what this recent endeavor is all about. As if I needed any sort of cue for such navel-gazing.

More to the point, I wonder why this journey is something I need to do in this public forum. On one level, I suppose the one-percent rule that Karamoon recently told me about might explain things. According to this rule, it is only one percent of any online virtual community that ever goes to the effort of creating and publishing digital discourse (content). Another 10 percent or so might at some point be moved to comment or respond to someone else’s stuff. And the remaining 89 percent or so just lurkingly take it all in. It’s kind of an old theory and has probably been discredited since the advent of The Facebook. But one sometimes wants to know which demographic one belongs to, doesn’t one?

Another rule that is probably more applicable in my case is Sturgeon’s Law. According to the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeion, 99 percent of everything is crap. It would truly be a special person whose Venn diagram was the one percent overlap for each framework.

But I keep coming back to the either/or choice offered in Jim’s tweet. It seems the answer could be: all of the above. But there could just as easily be an alternative explanation. The one I offered in a follow-up to his tweet was the Colonel Kurtz Option. Maybe I’ve finally gotten off the boat and am intending to go all the effin’ way.

And yet, I remain as convinced as ever that I’m having a hoot popping in to this virtual space and pounding out the occasional bit of text. So what if it’s crap. Only with such repetitive effort might it become less so. And an experience that happened just a little while ago leads me to believe there is a bit of here here - or should it be there?

The image above was snapped while I joined in a fifteen minute activity called the Writing Dash. Sponsored by the Virtual Writers group, the event takes place every weekday morining at 6:00 A.M. SLT (Second Life Time = PST). Tonight was my first visit and I met nearly a dozen other avatars who each responded to the prompt: Shell Shock. When we’d finished our dash, we were welcome to share our notecards with the others.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with a incoming rush of cards being passed my way. It was wild to see the many different approaches people took the prompt. Some listed sentences phrases and free-wheeling colocations, others wrote poems, and there were several straight prose pieces. The text chat became a buzz of questions, responses and encouraging feedback.

As for me, I had a blast writing a scene that came instantly to mind when I heard the prompt. It was a 25 year old memory from my Army days. It was one of those episodes that had an alternative choice been made at a key moment, everything would have wound up very differently. I wont burden anyone here with a very rough draft. But it is something, based on the kind feedback received after the dash, that I will soon revise.

But first I need to check the twitter.

Posted in Second Life, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Welcome Wagon

by scottlo Posted on May 12, 2012

I headed back to Corona Cay this morning to check and see whether I’d actually leased a parcel of virtual real estate or if it had all been a dream. Not only were the RV and campfire exactly where I left them but there was also a lovely pink lawn flamingo planted firmly in the sand. Checking the item’s properties revealed that it was a welcoming gift from one of the area’s managers: Keeme Brown.

Within moments I was joined by Keeme and Itazura Radio who is Corona Cay’s designer and owner. I’ve known both of these guys for more than four years. Even in text chat, they were as warm, friendly and encouraging as I remember them from my previous stints at Corona Cay.

It took me a few minutes to get the voice chat functioning but once I did we really began catching up. I told them my story about getting stuck in the sand on my way to a digital sotrytelling summer camp. I’m not exactly sure what they made of that – Second Life is a place where reality’s borders are both fluid and porous.

But I think I really scrambled Keeme’s feedback when I told him that my main reason for returning to SL was because of my recent discovery of how well it works as a word processor. As I think about it now, this whole methodology does seem a bit peculiar.

The desk I’m seated at is inside an old gypsy wagon I picked up ages ago which itself is on a sky-platform 500 meters above the Winnebago, campfire and pink lawn flamingos. The reel-to-reel tapedeck to my left is one fo the first objects I built in Second Life.

My plan at the time was to have the red light flash and tape reels spin while interviewing other avatars for what would have been part of some sort of podcast or radio project. In fact, it was Itazurra who explained the process about animating the action with a scrpt placed in the object.

It’s pretty weird to think back on all of this stuff now. Even weirder and extremely cool is something Keeme told me. Turns out he and other members of the community are in the midst of embarking on a series of creative media and performance projects. There’s a whole bunch of digital story telling going on here, just as there is at Camp Magic MacGuffin.

And for some reason, I’m suddenly jonesing for a peanut butter cup. I wonder if that means anything….

Posted in Second Life | Tagged | 4 Comments

Stuck in the Sand

by scottlo Posted on May 12, 2012


Upon waking up and checking the twitter this morning,  I noticed that Leezlebub had already sparked the magic with her first ds106 assignment for Camp Magic MacGuffin. The name of this fun and intriguing visual assignment is Pitch a Tent in Camp Magic MacGuffin. I was so excited to see Leezlebub’s awesome work that I swore that I would do my own before retiring for the day.

So when I finally got back from work I logged in to Second Life and hopped in my new 1973 Winnabego RV and set my course for Camp Magic MacGuffin. I stopped on a quiet beach at Corona Cay to see if the place had changed since I last resided here a year or so ago. The trouble began when I tried to leave. It seems the wheels of my RV got stuck in the sand. The sucker wasn’t going anywhere.

It looks like this locale will have to serve as my base of operations for the duration of the camp. Fortunately there’s good wifi access and I should be able to stay in touch with the rest of the campers. Who knows, some might even want to pop in world and see if there are any possibilities for a ds106 approach to learning Second Life.

Apropos of yesterday’s post, I’m still flying by the seat of the pants. But it seems that things are converging in curious ways. Writing a blog post and doing a ds106 assignment while sitting next to a camp fire near a high-centered RV seems as right as rain. Let’s see what happens next.

Posted in Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, Second Life | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Wondering and Plodding

by scottlo Posted on May 10, 2012

The idea in coming to Cedar Island to watch a sunset while listening to a smooth and comforting stream via Luxuria Music was to find a wee bit of solitude and inspiration to write a blog post. I’d hoped to be able to explain why I’ve recently decided to return to and blog from Second Life. It would also have been nice to sketch out some sort of bigger picture as to where this Scottlo Radio Blog project might be headed. The funny thing is that after an extended stretch of pounding the keys I remain just as befuddled as before – if not more so.

I mean this is supposed to be a radio blog, isn’t it? But there really hasn’t been much blogging about radio. And the podcasting thing, what ever became of that? And wasn’t 2012 supposed to be the year of the Lo?

So the process of thinking and writing has revealed far more questions than answers. I really don’t have a clue as to what this is all about.

Oddly, perhaps, that uncertainty feels comforting. I intend to continue plodding along with a hunch that a clearer picture will soon emerge. But the only way that can happen is to continue plodding on. So at least something was figured out: the journey continues.

Posted in Second Life | 2 Comments

Wish You Were Here

by scottlo Posted on May 9, 2012


Having a calm and relaxing time on Harbour island in Second Life. All is well. In fact, I’ve just come to realize that this virtual world program works great as a word processor. At this moment, I’m sitting on a dock below a rusty crane listening to some soothing electro-ambient music while writing this message. Pretty amazing times we’re living in, eh?

Speaking of amazing times, don’t forget that the Magic MacGuffin summer camp begins in two weeks (on May 21). Alan and Martha recently put a video telling you what it’s all about and what you need to pack in your duffel bag. I’d been hoping to volunteer as a camp counselor but circumstances got in the way and I wound up missing the deadline. Instead, I’ll be take part in this latest iteration of ds106 as an open online participant.

Get in touch if you’d like to meet up in either Second Life or at Camp Magic MacGuffin.

Posted in ds106, Second Life | 3 Comments

Blue Suede MOOCs

by scottlo Posted on May 4, 2012
MOOC: Education's El Dorado?

I can’t find the link for it now but I read in the Twitter yesterday that some tycoons were going to pay $60,000,000 dollars for the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at MIT and Harvard. Seems they think there might be some way to double their money or something because the MOOCs are getting a lot of attention. Judging by the excited words I’ve seen scroll by on the Twitter and the Google Plus, one would think this was some kind of bolt of lightening from a blue sky (bolt from the blue).

I must confess that I don’t know enough about how the education racket works to be put forward any meaningful commentary or analysis. But as all the chatter was happening yesterday and today, I really wanted to weigh in the matter. If I knew enough about the inner workings of finance and capital to sound convincing, I might be able to offer some investment advice to the punters.

Fortunately my knowledge of Rock-n-Roll and my brief experience in the ds106 does provide a bit of an in to this titillating discussion about how the tycoons are throwing money around like drunken sailors. The idea to rework the 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong album cover came the moment I read sixty million dollars (I was like wow, that’s a lot of money). But for some reason I hesitated.

It wasn’t until I saw Alan’s brilliant Sixty Million Dollar MOOC video that I realized I better move quick. I imagine before too long we’ll here somebody saying he predicted this thing back in 2011 or something. Now more than ever it seems that Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni were right when they said:

It’s
Dog eat dog eat dog eat dog
Eat dog eat dog eat dog
Leap frog the dog
And brush me Daddy-O

 

Posted in ds106 | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Flippin’ Out

by scottlo Posted on April 27, 2012
FLip backImage: FLip Back by Milom through cc licensing

I noticed the following tweet from Alan before retiring last night:

Having had spent several hours prior doing important online research into Uncertainty Reduction Theory for a soon to be proposed ds106 assignment and Encyclopedia Dramatica in an effort to understand why so many of my current students are talking about the term Brony, I lacked the stamina to nibble on the link bait. Sometimes a bit of time and rest is required to allow these deluges of Too Much Information to percolate.

Flipped learning is a term I’ve heard a lot recently. I’m a bit ashamed to say that until now I’ve not taken the time to figure out exactly what it means. This morning it greeted me again when I checked the recently added podcasts in iTunes. The most recent episode of American Radioworks is called Flipping the Classroom. Though I’ve not yet listened to the recording, nor have I deeply dug in to the link to Jackie’s post that Alan tweeted, I did take a moment to read the about page from the Flipped Learning Network. This is what they say they’re about:

Flipped learning happens when the teacher’s lecture is delivered outside of the traditional class time, via a video students view on their own as homework. Class time is used for active problem solving by students and one-to-one or small group tutoring with the teacher. Students can watch the short lectures as many times as they wish to grasp the content and then come to class ready to jump into the lesson, answer questions, work on collaborative projects, and explore the content further. Teachers are embracing Flipped Learning in elementary and secondary schools for all disciplines.

I think I can get on board with that – maybe I already have just without knowing the proper nomenclature. As soon as I can muster up a spare moment, I intend to dig more deeply in to the matter.

This post is intended, more than anything, to serve as a placeholder and reminder to get digging on the flipping.  I’ve also just put together a storify page in a hope to keep track of incoming information now that my awareness has been heightened. For those of you who might be long term noshers from the Flipped Learning Chuckwagon feel free to leave some pointers in the comment section.

Posted in just plain blogging, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Game On

by scottlo Posted on April 25, 2012

A couple of weeks ago I referred to a line from a television commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups when I first announced a plan to share the ds106 digital storytelling class with some web-savvy ESL/EFL educators. But for folks who’ve never heard of a peanut butter cup, as I’m discovering there a great many in other parts of the world, the idea of two great tastes that taste great together doesn’t have the same resonance as it does for any American kid who spent time in front of the television in the 70s or 80s.  Suffice to say, the peanut butter cup is a wonderful confection. But I don’t think that’s the point of this post.

I’d like to take a moment to confirm the time and date of the event. Vance Stevens has been kind enough to reserve a slot for 14:00 GMT on April 29, 2012 (Sunday). The hour-long session will take place in the Learning 2gether Elluminate space.

Since the previous peanut butter cup post, I’ve spent some time thinking about the idea of  setting this thing up as a mini MOOC-like course. It seems that that might be a bit over the top. My hope for the hour-long session this coming Sunday will be to share my sense of what ds106 is and means, show people how it works and how to get started, and reflect on the experience of using the ds106 assignment bank for the past three semesters with the Cyberspace and Society class.

I’m hopeful that it will be an interactive session. I’m anxious to hear what sense folks in the Webheads community have about ds106, if any. I continue to be convinced that a ds106 type structure could have exciting implications if applied to language teaching. But I don’t have a clear vision of how to operationalize this yet – that’s part of the purpose of trying to connect with webheads and other ESL/EFL people.

I’ve also got a request for the ds106 stalwarts. It would be wonderful if some of you could join in to introduce yourselves and share your thoughts. Please hit me up via the twitter or in comments here if interested.

Posted in ds106 | 5 Comments