User:Buncher7/Sandbox

Sloodle
History:

The following information was derived from an email correspondences with Sloodle Co-founders Daniel Livingston and Jeremy Kemp. Jeremy Kemp and Daniel Livingston met as residence on Second Life. Jeremy Kemp first proposed SLOODLE and Daniel Kemp enthusiastically jumped on board as co-founder, after an early contributor dropped out, their third project member was Edmund Edgar who continued a lot of development work - he's based in Japan.

The Project had, from the beginning, a presence across the globe (Daniel Livingston lives in the UK) with contributors initially only knowing each other through Second Life.

According to co-founder Jeremy Kemp 2006 was the birth of SLOODLE

Course Management Systems (CMS) were “originally developed as a complement to classroom instruction, a Web-based software technology to connect students and instructors anywhere, anytime” (McGee, 2005, p.345). As the technological needs of students begin to change, so must the CMS.

“Today, both students and instructors have more experience using the Web and Web- based software environments,” as well as wireless technology causing impatient users with information overload and the knowledge of how, now, when and where to get their information (McGee, 2005, p. 347). Students are no longer sitting alone in front of their computer hooked up to a computer in an office, now they are wireless able to receive information from several different devices. The new generation learner is social using collaborating tools such as wikis, twitters, and blogs to stay connected with what is current in all aspects of their life. The next generation of Course Management Systems must incorporate and support the idea of “social constructivism… wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings” (MoodleDocs, 2008, para. 4).

Moodle is a CMS that “is a global development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education” (MoodleDocs, 2008, para. 1). Using content repositories or drop-boxes, social and professional networking, e-portfolios, group collaboration tools, and threaded discussions among various ways of assessment.

According to McGee “the future of CMS promises to bring depth and color to what is now symbolically a rather flat, black, and white system” (2008, p. 345). Hence, Sloodle, Moodle’s current integration into the “multi-user virtual environment of Second Life… providing a range of tools for supporting learning and teaching to the immersive virtual world” (SloodleDocs, 2009, para. 1). Sloodle in SecondLife takes the CMS out of the 2-dimensional realm and brings it into a 3- dimensional environment with personalized avatars, immersive settings, and virtual manipulatives. Students can manipulate the CMS in real-time giving even more immediate gratification for the impatient user in a completely immersive environment while still retaining the benefits of a course management system.

[[Media:http://web.me.com/dlaks/FSO_Blog/LMO/Entries/2009/5/3_Future_Trends.html]]

A visit to the Sloodle website finds this definition: Sloodle, is an acronym for Simulation Linked Object Dynamic Learning environment. Sloodle is a free plug-in for the popular Open-Source web-based LMS “Moodle.” The creators of Sloodle (2009) state that it:” Enhances the existing support for learning and teaching through integration of Second Life and Moodle.”.

Conversely, blogger Brent Capriotti (2009) writes that Sloodle creates a Virtual Experience Space that offers the structure of LMS functionality in the context of a multiplayer simulation.

With that being said, if Sloodle is a mash-up of Moodle and Second Life, then we might want to know a little bit about Moodle and Second Life.

According to Montclair State University (2008), Moodle is a learning management system that lets you provide documents, graded assignments, quizzes, and so on. It is free to download and use.

And what about Second Life? According to writer R.Kayne (2003 – 2009), Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual community created entirely by its membership. Members assume an identity and take up residence, creating a customized avatar to represent themselves. This avatar moves about the virtual environment using the mouse and keyboard buttons. This world is being used for socializing, commerce, and educational application. It’s true potential has yet to be seen.

So what is the value of Sloodle, Second Life, or any Virtual Learning Environment?

Turning once again to blogger Brent Capriotti (2009), the virtual learning environment or VLE, that Second Life can represent, offers both asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences and presents a visually robust learning environment. In a VLE, a student can manipulate 3D objects, experience simulations, communicate with other students, and much more. Sloodle has the ability to pull learners and learning environments together by connecting the LMS of Moodle and the VLE of Second Life.

Prim Drop
A Prim Drop is an object in Second Life that allows an educator to create an assignment in Moodle and put it in the Prim Drop for students to retrieve. Obviously it is a bit more involved than this but the idea is that teachers and student can participate asynchronously. When the student has completed the assignment they follow the same procedure to return the assignment to the Prim Drop. This process can be repeated until the teacher and student agree that a scholarly work has been created.

The Sloodle Toolbar
The sloodle toolbar is a Heads-Up-Display (HUD) object in Second Life. It is displayed as an interface item on your screen with interactive buttons. For example, the classroom gestures button allows your avatar to display gestures specific to the classroom such as raising your hand and waving. You can also write a blog entry up to 1000 characters on the sloodle toolbar and it will send your entry straight to the Moodle Site. Just click the button labeled “click here to start” type your entry in the blog body and press enter and it goes straight to Moodle. Although this might not be a lengthy blog entry it will be enough for a sloodle student to post their reactions and observations of activities within second life and allow their instructor on the Moodle LMS site to read their reflections. The newest feature to the sloodle toolbar is the “Avilister” button. This will scan the local area for avatars then send the list of avatar names to your moodle site and request their moodle names. The sloodle toolbar makes interacting with second life and moodle quick, easy, and efficient. No need to scan through the many gestures in your inventory, no need for paper and pencil for note taking, and no need to wonder if a person on sloodle is an appropriate moodle user. Its all on the sloodle toolbar.

References:

“About Sloodle” (2009). Sloodle.org. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from http://www.sloodle.org/blog/?page_id=2

Capriotti, B. (2009). “What is Sloodle?” Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://edtech2. Boisestate.edu/capriottib/sloodle/Five Ws/what_is_it.html

Kayne, R. (2003 – 2009). “What is Second Life?” Retrieved April 26, 2009, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-second-life.htm

McGee, P., Carmean, C., & Jafari, A. (Eds.). (2005). Course management systems for learning: Beyond accidental pedagogy. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.

MoodleDocs. (2008). Social Constructivism. Moodle. Retrieved on April 23, 2009, from http://docs.moodle.org/en/Philosophy

SloodleDocs. (2008). Sloodle Toolbar. SJSU SLIS M.U.V.E Wiki. Retrieved on May 1, 2009, from http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl/index.php/Sloodle_Toolbar

SloodleDocs. (2009). Sloodle. SJSU SLIS M.U.V.E Wiki. Retrieved on April 23, 2009, from http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl/index.php/Sloodle

Stoas, Z, (2007) Using Moodle? Retrieved May 1, 2009 from  http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hansdezwart.info/hosc2007/worldmap.png&imgrefurl=http://www.hansdezwart.infohosc2007&usg=__6JBKUau3pX630CHltDOK-6W1B0g=&h=275&w=550&sz=74&hl=en&start=1&sig2=BuNcMSsjbObCN8ueu15Oxw&um=1&tbnid=pCA3se8Dzl6zzM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmoodle%2Bworld%2Bmap%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=k5r8SbHsCdXelQfRntXmCg

“What is Moodle?” (2008). Montclair State University. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://oit.montclair.edu/documentation/What_is_Moodle.doc