Secondlife in Shropshire
20 06 2007I have recently been given approval and funding to set up a private island in Second Life, the purpose of he island will be to support the delivery of the new Diplomas in Shropshire schools. The island will need to be accessed by students aged 14 - 19 and also their teachers. So now I am after some help and advice, any generic help would be most welcome, either in a comment or email steve[at]it4L.org . I have a couple of key questions at the moment:
- Should I set the island up on Teen Grid or Second Life, from reading the second life website, I think it would be best put on the Teen Grid and then getting the teachers access to the island.
- Do all teachers have to get clearance through Ascertain, or can their LA clearance be used?
I would be keen to hear from anyone using Second Life with high school students in the UK, at present I only know of Digital Katie, who I heard speak about her use of Second Life at TeachMeet 06.
Steve ring me about this :
Leon
07900 313 806
I would recommend getting an island in the teen grid, as your 14-17 year old pupils would not be allowed in the main grid and it really is best not to encourage them to go there. The fear that they might get caught and banned from SL seems to work for most of the teen grid residents. Your 18 and 19 year old students can be registered as teaching assistants and allowed onto the island that way.
The Scottish Disclosure check has been acceptable for myself and Sean, as well as Hugh O’Donnell in Argyll and Bute, however I know Linden Lab are very keen to use Ascertain for most cases. If you get in touch with Claudia at Linden Lab she will give you details on how to progress with this, as well as how to contact an agency who will do mass registrations for pupil groups.
Sean and I would be happy to help with any questions you have, or ‘pop’ over to the island and give you a hand (this would need to be arranged with Claudia again, let us know first
All the best!
Hi Steve
There’s an interesting article on the use of Second life by people with Autistic spectrum disorder (in particular Asperger’s syndrome) in this week’s New Scientist. It may give a few other possible ways of using second life with students. I’ve added a link below for you but the gist is that it is a potentially very useful tool.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg19426106.100-web-removes-social-barriers-for-those-with-autism.html
Cheers
Bob
You can use enhanced CRB disclosures instead of the ascertain checks.
The ascertain checks have the advantages of being very quick - a couple of days - compared with the several weeks for a CRB disclosure. Each ascertain check costs $80 - compared with about £42 for a CRB …
The only way for you to go (at the moment) is to have an island in the Teen Grid - cos the under 18s are currently not allowed on the Main Grid in any circumstances. You will have to get ‘police checks’ for anyone aged 18 or over before they can go to your Teen Grid island. Expensive …
There is info on the schommunity website about how we set up Schome Park - our island in the Teen Grid and how we registered students etc.. Things have moved on a bit since then but might be of interest.
Issues you need to consider include whether or not you Teen Grid island will be totally closed (ie your kids cannot visit the rest of the Teen Grid and other folk on the Teen Grid cannot access your island) or not …
PeterT