Four slideshows for Second Life Workshop

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I’m running the first of three “Discover your Second Life” workshops at work tomorrow. Below are four slideshows I will use to guide people through some background to Second Life, creating an avatar, getting through Orientation Island and then finally completing a “Treasure Hunt” designed to familiarise them with the interface on Murdoch University Island.

I played around with SnagIt to capture images from Second Life and then caption them. Easier than using the snapshot tool within Second Life.

For previous workshops, I have just had a few images on a wiki ( Murdoch Second Life ). I decided to try doing a screenshot for most screens in the process this time. I embedded the slideshows in the class wiki so people can follow along in class or used them as a resource after the class.

Second Life training NEVER goes according to plan, so I wonder whether it will be too structured. I was also struck by how complex the screens all seemed when each one is shown. When people have to work out what goes next, it doesn’t seem like so many steps or so complex. I wonder whether it will be a bit more off-putting than my last workshops where I just showed people what to do and said “now, go for it”?

During the Treasure Hunt, I also give them a “how to” notecard with instructions how to complete each station. I also have some good old print handouts.

I just hope I don’t get caught out by the Rolling Restart possibly planned to happen during the workshop.

Anyhow, here’s the slideshows.

Second Life Workshop Background

Creating a Second Life Avatar

Orientation Island in Second Life

Second Life Treasure Hunt – Murdoch University Library

Twitter is like …

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Peter Bromberg started it by asking a mob of techno-geek librarians on twitter what twitter was like. Check out his extended list.

Michael Sauers continues it by juxtaposing some of the answers with some fantastic images to produce this laugh-out-loud slideset, Twitter is like ….

Three blog posts is a little excessive for a Thursday morning … back to twitter and drunk sex with a kaliedoscopic whippet ….

Five social software sites that libraries shouldn’t ignore

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Here are the slides from my plenary session at the “Library of the Future” forum for the Learning Resources Network Services Network, hosted by Challenger TAFE here in Fremantle – Five Social Software Sites that Libraries Shouldn’t Ignore.

The presentation used a lot of pictures of monkeys to look at:

1. Why should libraries care about social software?

2. What is social software?

3. Massive content sharing sites

4. Five sites and:

  • The “so what” of the site
  • Usage
  • Sites with a similar purpose

5. Sites covered:

6. Not in so much detail, but libraries should know about

7. Information storage and retrieval is via social elements, not controlled vocabulary

8. Social does not mean trivial

9. Social elements

Used Adventures of Superlibrarian clip on YouTube as an example

  • Profiles
  • Subscribing
  • Friends/contacts
  • Internal messages
  • Groups
  • Tagging
  • Rating
  • Favouriting
  • Commenting
  • Related items
  • Responses
  • Remixing

10. How libraries are using these sites – two examples of each, but extra slides with more examples at end of slideshow.

YouTube

Flickr

del.icio.us

Facebook

11. Checklist for action

  • Ensure reasonable public access to these sites in your library
  • Ensure your staff know how to search content on these sites
  • Check your library’s web presence
  • Use social software to collaborate and have conversations……with other librarians about where libraries fit in this space

12. Finally, when considering social software and your library, remember that it’s not all about what suits US, but what suits our USERS.