Monday, October 11, 2010

An Outfit from Azzura Supplee




Zelda finally found some clothes over at Jokaydia Grid. Thanks to @Azzura47 _Azzura Supplee for this lovely outfit. Thanks to Jokay for giving me some advice about using the hypergrid feature. Instructions for this can be found at hyperica.com Now, Zelda is in Jokaydia, Second Life, and OSGrid. whooohoooo.  More to come on the educational adventures of Zelda Fromund.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Zelda goes to Jokaydia Grid

Another great day out in the virtual worlds....... Today, Zelda visited the Jokaydia Grid. I don't have any pictures yet because she needs to spruce up a bit, and add some clothes and hair to make herself presentable. the most exciting thing that happened out there was Zelda got to meet the great Jokay!!! It was great chatting with her. She answered all my questions about Jodaydia grid, and I also got to meet her U.S. manager, Azzura Supplee! Tomorrow, Zelda will get a makeover and then I will post some pictures. I am also working on an application to the HITS scholar program from the National League for Nurses. More to come on that as well.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

WOW! I just teleported into October!

Where have the last two months gone? I guess writing my final Doctor of Nursing Practice paper has taken more time than I thought it would. I just submitted the final draft, and will defend on November 2nd. In the meantime, I have submitted, and had an abstract accepted for the Society for Simulation In Healthcare International Meeting for Simulation in January. Once I defend, and graduate in December, it will be time to get going on Nightingale Isle. Once I am all finished, I will talk about the results here.

I hope to get some simulations set-up, and give some presentations out there. Zelda attended an interesting meeting today for the Virtual World Education Round Table (VWER) weekly meeting. It was a very interesting hour with Jokay Wollongong from Jokaydia.com. You can join the VWER on facebook. Jokay discussed the recent price hike for educational islands in Second Life, and the importance for educators to have their foot in many of the virtual world environments.


 Zelda hanging out at the VWER discussion

 She forgot to leave her stethescope at home. :)

A big group showed up to listen to Jokay discuss educating
students in the virtual world of Second Life.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Inclusivity in Nursing Education Project Results coming soon

The results from the Inclusivity in Nursing Education Project will be here soon! Also, some work will be done soon on Nightingale Isle to get it ready for students. Watch for Sloodle chairs and simulations. So....excited. And, also excited to be working with Tessa again! More to come soon.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

A Game Of Archery, and A Mysterious Disappearance

                    Mildred, Fadumo, Ned, Zelda, and Paty hanging out in the archery area.


At 7pm on Sunday evening, several of the students met out on Nightingale Isle. The Avatars were Fadumo, Ned, Susan, and Mildred. Fidelius teleported us to the new Green archery area up in the clouds above Nightingale Isle. I am very impressed with the skills the students have aquired in such a short period of time. A funny thing happened while we were running around in the archery area. Susan clicked on the circle to pick up the bow and arrows, and her clothes and hair disappeared. So, Susan was suddenly without her clothes and hair. Zelda quickly transferred some clothes to her. It gave all of us a good laugh. Nothing is ever normal out in Nightingale Isle. The students have had some very interesting experiences out on Second Life. I can't wait to read about them.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Games and Simulation for Healthcare

Eric Bauman from University Wisconsin Madison posted a story about Nightingale Isle on his Games and Simulation for healthcare Blog. Check it out:    http://projects.hsl.wisc.edu/healthcaregames/blog/

Sightings on Nightingale Isle

Zelda has been out and about in Second Life, and has had some recent sightings of some of the diversity project avatars. She has heard of some of the shenanigans that have taken place with all the newbies floating about. There have been disappearing floors, and an ambulance that ended up in the ocean. When Zelda signed on yesterday, the ambulance was found inside the Emergency Department. :) I am so pleased that the students are trying out their new skills, and will watch carefully for any new stories. Last night Zelda met up with jenice and spent some time with her doing Tai Chi. Also, Javan and Zelda spent some time practicing their dance moves. Javan had an interesting story about his travels on Solace Beach. After an uncomfortable encounter, he teleported quickly back to Nightingale Isle where he found Zelda hanging out. Zelda and Fidelius, the island builder, also met up with Manderson who was out on NI practicing his navigating skills. More stories to come.

 

Inclusivity in Nursing Education Project launched

On Wednesday May 5th, my Doctor of Nursing Practice Systems Change Project was launched. The study involves 15 - first year Masters of Nursing Education students at St. Catherine University. They were randomly assigned one of a group of diverse avatars that were made and adapted for this project. The students will evaluate the use of this new pedagogy, as well as journal about how they were treated when visiting some of the social sites in the virtual world of Second Life. I have loaded the pictures of the avatars, and will put up the bios later. Each student was provided with a picture and a biography of the individual, and were told to go out in Second Life as the assigned avatar (person). Watch for updates.



Saturday, April 3, 2010

For The Love Of Learning!!

What an amazing night in Second Life. The evening started at the birthing center on Kowhai Island. This is an island built by the New Zealand virtual world education group. This group, called the Second Life Education New Zealand (SLENZ), has set up a research project in the on-line virtual world of Second Life. Their aim is for New Zealand educators to pilot at least two projects into determining how multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) might benefit New Zealand education and how this can best be done.On the island, Zelda met up with Petal Stransky (@SarahStewart), a New Zealand mid-wife, educator. We were also met by Ginseng LeFevre, (@allonsdanser), a librarian from Alabama. The three of us toured around the island and then headed over to Nightingale Isle. The cool thing is that we are all passionate about pursuing innovative strategies to spark learning in students, as well as those in our respective practice disciplines. As Ginseng said in her recent blog entry:
              "This is what I love about online Social Media: it fosters passion. Tonite as I was finishing up some school work I saw a tweet in my TweetDeck stream from a midwife in New Zealand who was about to give a tour of her midwife birthing unit in Second Life. It was an open invitation so I immediately teleported there. I met two very smart and passionate nurses who are invested in using SL for teaching nurses and midwives! The tour of the facilities was great, but what I really came away with from that time in SL was a sharing of education passion. Both women were passionate about trying to engage students in the learning process and saw SL as a vehicle for getting there."  

I couldn't agree more.............and am so excited about hanging out with Petal and Ginseng, and many other people in Second Life with a passion for education!! You can catch the rest of Ginseng's blog at:  http://www.mymindgap.com/    Petal also has a very cool blog. You can follow her at http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/


 
 Above is a picture of the Operating Room on Nightingale Isle. Once it is finished, the equipment will be fully functioning, and simulations can be performed by students and/or multidisciplinary medical professional teams.
Above, is a picture of Petal and Ginseng performing CPR on Zelda. Thankfully, their BLS certification was up to date, and Zelda pulled through. Great Job!!! 
Above is a picture of the new simulation debriefing room equipped with a video screen, so videos of simulations can be played back for evaluation purposes. Below, Zelda is sitting at one of the computers in the recovery room.
Above is the education center equipped with one powerpoint, and two video screens. By fall, I hope to have a weekly visiting scholar program. This lecture series will include presentations by professionals from medicine, nursing, risk, legal, and other disciplines associated with the delivery of healthcare.
Below: Zelda is delivering Ginseng's baby with the help of Fidelius, the island builder.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Three Muskateers Strike again!


Here is a picture of the three muskateers, Zelda, Fidelius, and Tessa, sitting in Fid's new teleporter system. He has a little work to do on this to finish it up, and then it will be in service to teleport people to different parts of the island. Way to go Fid!!! :)
Zelda standing by the new xray machine in the xray department

Zelda and Fid taking a little time out to play a game of twister. Hmmmmmmm I wonder who won? I am sure it was not Zelda, she started laughing the minute she became a pretzel.

Zelda chillin in the hamock!