Our own Machinima Video!

Here is a video I put together for an interview I am having this Friday by a Korean television station. Let me know what you think!
I am really grateful to have had Hathead Rickenbacker to work together with - we had a lot of fun filming the video!

In it, you will see Hathead making some mistakes when pronouncing "Hello" in Korean, but its very useful in demonstrating how
effective language learning can be when you have someone to help correct your pronunciation in such a media rich environment!.

Postcard from Second Life

This past weekend I went to a Second Life Technolo9gy Expo, inside Second Life to see new technologies made for the virtual world


I must say, the expo was well put together. There were three floors, filled with exhibition booths, of vendors displaying their products.

I was particularly interested in products that were attempting to integrate powerpoint. Another interesting technology was a white board, that sort of acted like a web browser. It basically was a whiteboard with hyperlinks attached to it.

Not a full internet browser experience, but more of a clever white board / presentation solution.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the expo.

posted by Fire Centaur on Silicon City using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Arr matey! I'm a pirate!

Totally great scenes here!

posted by Fire Centaur on Wales Harbour using a blogHUD : [permalink]

I've been searching for this Landscape artist... think I f...

I while back, i found an amazing Sim, it truly was stunny, amazing textures and waterfalls.... so... I made a landmark to it... but when ever I tried to teleport, the teleport was invalid. I just had a name of the place... when I did a search, I ended up empty handed. So today I went on the forums and posted a 500L reward for any detective who could lead the way to the paradise island... and voila - I found it! The island of wales.. truly stunning!

posted by Fire Centaur on Wales Harbour using a blogHUD : [permalink]

taking with PaiChai

Recently, Paichai University purchased a classroom on our island, really exciting to have a Korean University interested in us and using our island!

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Pay attention!

After reading Teach42's blog, I found a GREAT website called Teachertube.com, and also a GREAT video which articulates EXACTLY why educators should be delving into the Digital Age... Take your time to watch it - there are some GREAT messages
here it is:

A Korean Scene for our Holodeck anyone?

One of the builders who is submiting an entry for our Role-Play holodeck contest asked for a submission suggestion. After scanning through the holodeck scenes available, I relized there are several japanese ones available, but no Korean representation. So, i went on the net, and found a few images I hope he will use to make us a Korean Restaurant scene. Here's what I found:

Korean Restaurant Floor layout:



In a typical Korean restaurant, people sit on the floor (which is usually heated) In addition, there are usually mats for people to sit on.


Food
Korean restaurants are great, because your table us usually filled with scrumptious side dishes





And of course, what would a meal at a traditional korean restaurant be without SOJU????



And here is a typical menu:




My favourits are: Galbi with Gim, and Beansauce, as well as their Samgyupsal, Mandu, and Kimchi. (But i dont like bondaegi!!!!)


Are you hungry yet?

Hi everyone, I just thought of an amazing scene we could load into our holodecks as a resource to teachers! How about a Research lab!!!
Structured like a library, but instead of books with pages on the walls, load each book with a URL to research portals, libraries, and educational search engines! man.. that would rock!!!


If you have any links you think we should include in this research lab scene - please write them below!!!

Cheers!

Fire

meeting with Giovanna and Davidoff

Today I had a Chat with Giovanni, another Educator in SL... he is running Drive through English. Many people has said to me that he is our competitor.. but actually, i don't believe in competitors in SL.. instead, I see everyone who is learning to teach in SL as a welcomed collaborator! I mean really.. come on - we are ALL pioneers here... re-inventing Education - no one will rule them all - hehe - so instead of fighting over crumbs, id rather work together and bake some good bread!!!

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Google Calendar Links IN WORLD!

Hi everyone, I just purchased a cool little object and combined it with a few prims so we can get English Village's Google Calendar events IN WORLD!!! This has a number of advantages - First off - SCHEDULING!! It's been really rough trying to add our teachers schedules to English Village since every teacher is from a different Timezone! Now, they can add their classes themselves online through our GOOGLE Calendar - and it will automaticall propagate into SL! Very Cool - come to English Village and click on the calendar to get our latest events... thats ... er... if our teachers did their homework!

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Here is EV 2.0

Hey everyone, I finally decided to take a snapshot of EV 2.0 (English Village 2.0) My little creation in Second Life. I built this village so that English teachers and students from around the globe could connect with each other in a 21st century classroom! At English Village, any teacher who would like to teach can start their own elearning business. We already built the classrooms for them, and the environment, now they just need to start teaching! Currently our group has over 450 members, and over 10 teachers… stop by, and have a look! Sincerely yours, Fire Centaur

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Talking with Leif

Leif, Vinni and I in our office

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

The Market Place!

This past weekend, Kip Yellowjacket had a really exciting lesson. He had four teachers working with him for a team teaching lesson. Students went from station to station learning how to buy and sell objects. The turn out was amazing, we had over 20 students!

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Looking for an Advertising Representative

Since we have these awesome Adboards now... I am looking for an advertising agent to help me place them through SL... please let me know if you have anyone interested... cheers! Fire

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Advertising in SL...

Well, today I acquired the technology to proliferate advertising accross the second life grid.... super powerful... Now I can advertise all of the teachers classes who teach on my Island.. I've tasked a few of them to help find advertising locations throughout SL... anyhow.. bye for now!

posted by Fire Centaur on Lendrum using a blogHUD : [permalink]

New Class Ticket Vender

Good news teachers! I've been working with Erik Goff, an LSL scripter, and business owner, to create a ticket vender so you can sell tickets to your classes

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

class vender - continuted...

Then, you will get access to that class space (WHEN the class actually starts) Until then, you will not have access to the classroom. Teachers, ofcourse, are on a special list so they always have access... this week we will be testing it's functionality

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Podcast and Blog Wall

Hi everyone! Well, we got our Blog working again, it's not fully integrated with our site, but at least its wrapped nicely so you don't have to search for it! In order to inaugurate the rebirth of our blog, I added a podcast and blogging wall in our Village, so that we can help link the community together! If you have any podcasts, or blogs that you think would benefit the community, please send me a message! Cheers! Sincerely yours, Fire

posted by Fire Centaur on English Village using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Our Blog is Back!

Hi there everyone! Our Blog is back up! We WERE using Wordpress, but it doesn't integrate well with our Joomla, so we opted to use Blogger for the time being. Fire Centaur, the owner and sole architect of English Village, is re-initiating his use of the BlogHud too, so expect more posts from him soon! See you later! Fire