Are You Ready?

The PATINS Second Life Open House is only 11 days away!

1. Do you have an Avatar created? See here: www.patinsproject.com/htm/TrainingVideos/SecondLife/SecondLifeIntro1/Second%20Life%20Introduction%20Tutorial%201.html
2. Do you have the software downloaded and installed? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/?lang=en-US
3. Have you checked to make sure you can access Second Life and that your computer meets the minimum system requirements? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements
4. Do you have the address or slurl for the PATINS Island? Here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/PATINS%20Project%20Island/114/102/26
5. Need The One Page Getting Started Hand Out? Second Life Getting Started Informational Sheet

Regarding System Requirements: The two most common issues with some computers not being able to access Second Life are High Speed Internet Connection and a new enough Video Card and Drivers.  The high speed internet connection speaks for itself, but you can check here for info on updating your computers video card drivers to the latest, which just might solve your problem:

Update Your Video Card:

• ATI Video Card Drivers: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
• NVIDIA Video Card Drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Info on Letting Second Life Through! Here’s some techy info which may be necessary for accessing Second Life from your teacher computer at school:

• Hardware firewalls need to allow access on certain network ports. Second Life needs to connect to ports:443/TCP, 12035/UDP, 12036/UDP, 12043/TCP, and 13000-13050/UDP.
• You should configure your firewall to allow outbound traffic on those ports, and related inbound traffic.
• You’ll need to consult your firewall’s documentation, or the manufacturer’s website, for instructions on how to make these changes to your firewall.
• As of Version 1.13.2, released Jan. 10th, 2007, you need to enable UDP/TCP in order to access Second Life.Second Life Subnets used for connections:
  • 63.210.156.0/22
  • 64.154.220.0/22
  • 8.2.32.0/22
  • 8.4.128.0/22
  • 8.10.144.0/21
  • 216.82.0.0/18

Contact Us
With Questions.  We’re Happy To Help!

CRU’s for ROL:

You may or may not be aware that you can get CRU’s just for learning how to use  Read:OutLoud software that Indiana has made available to every computer in your district AND take-home rights for students.

• CRU’s available here: www.donjohnston.com/state/indiana/indiana_readoutloud/index.html
• More info on ROL here:  www.icam.k12.in.us/downloads.php

NPR in Second Life: As I’m sure you’re eagerly awaiting the Open House for our very own PATINS Project Island in Second Life on Oct. 20, you might want to spend some time over at the NPR Island, especially on Fridays when they have their “Science Friday” presentations!   Here is a great set of resources on the blog: www.storyofmysecondlife.com/?p=397 and here is the Island Location in SL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Science%20Friday/205/250/23

Two Other Virtual Spaces: I’ve blogged about lots of different virtual spaces, in addition to Second Life, including the 150 or so that are specifically intended for school aged children.  Well, here are two more that are new to me.  I’ve not explored either of them yet, but wanted to throw them out there and if you decide to check into one or both, I’d love for people to report their thoughts back here to the blog as comments.

• Blue Mars: www.bluemarsonline.com
• Metaplace: http://metaplace.com

Jokaydia Island and Resources:  “…a community of educators and artists exploring Second Life. Lots of great, creative resources here.

• The Wiki: http://jokaydia.com/2009/10/02/trademarks-and-the-sleducation-wiki/
• The SL Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/128/128/25

1 Quick Teleporting Tip: Ever teleport away and want to go back?   See here:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/tnt/blog/2009/10/01/quicktip-ever-accidentally-teleport-away-and-want-to-go-back

K-12 Podcasting: …had a few questions this week about podcasting at the K-12 level.  Here’s just a real quick and NOT comprehensive list, but a good place to get started if you are new to the concept of podcasting:

• http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
• http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
• http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~nshelley/
• http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml
• http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/podcasts/
• http://kathyschrock.net/podcasting/podcasting.pdf
• http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/
• http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/

I do have a free hands-on podcasting workshop scheduled for Feb. 9.  We can also come out to you to do a training and/or we can have a training online in our new Second Life Island for free, saving travel costs for everyone!  Let us know how we can help!