- Baby Boomers will cede the majority of the workforce by 2015 to the Millennials.
- The University of Texas System is starting a year-long project to explore the use of virtual worlds for learning.
Being a leading edge Baby Boomer this news directly impacts my career direction and future opportunities. The Millennial Generation is also called Digital Natives as they have grown up digital. Older generations had more analog experiences in their growing up years creating different values [desired learning methods] from different experiences.
As I am seriously unemployed now [serious about landing my best next opportunity], I best get up to speed on the latest and innovative means and methods for workplace learning events. Sure, I have done a gizzillon classroom, seminars, workshops, OJT, one-on-one coaching, team role playing, experiential learning events.
At the 2009 ASTD International Conference in Washington, DC, I attend sessions on the future of learning and development which involved the use of virtual worlds. Both were eye-opening for me. For what I had been missing in my professional enlightenment and how much fun they could be for world-wide audiences and me. I always enjoy using new toys. My weekly Internet TV show is one example.
So I got a second birthday in SL and became 'Doug Pelazzi'. 
Enrollment is free and there are lots of on-line resources from SL and other contributors to guide you through the growing up/learning process. What follows are my first learning WOWs! & O*M*G* moments conducting a learning event. Much is still the same as 19th century classrooms that are still being used in the real-world/1st life. But with the 3d dimension added now.
Before the show
Practice, practice and just a bit more practice. You want to talk and move as if you really do belong there. Just like in the first life experience. You are skilled and poised in the formal/informal classroom setting so seek those attributes in the virtual classroom. You literally relearn how to walk, fly [yes, fly], hop, sit down, move left/right, walk backwards, etc. Click on these bullet points for further explanation.
- How to sit
- How to get your lips to move in sync when talking
- How to leap small objects [not tall buildings]
- Press letter 'e' on keyboard which makes your avatar hop, then tap up arrow key to move your avatar forward a short distance
- Using slideware in presentations
- Using hand/arm gestures while talking [otherwise you look very boring]. And more on gestures.
- Insert a video into a SL location
- Requires ownership access to SL location, Consider having landowner create the video screen and insert video for you.
- Plan B: On two occasions the presentations I attended the video wouldn't play for some reason. Work around was to give audience a notecard [handout] with the URL of the video location in 1st Life. The audience left SL briefly to view the video.
- Ask audience when they leave/return to stand or sit if they have seen the video. That way you know which audience member is still watching vid before continuing.
- The real-world video URL can also be given to the audience via the IM chat window.
- Your avatar's profile
- Complete your 2d and 1st profile for your audience. They can click on your avatar during the session to get background info on you.
- Promoting your show
- Include the SL time zone, your real-world time zone and the SLurl for meeting location.
- Let them know in advance if show is voice chat-enabled, or IM text message or combination. One can start the program having chat-enabled for some and the rest text message and change it during the show.
- Location, location, location
- With SL one can present in environments that can only be imagined in 1st Life, so visit beforehand and make sure it supports your presentation and is not a distraction.
- For slideware and/or video you will need a suitable viewing area already built. Make the audience comfortable because even an avatar can get tired. Provide tables, chairs, bean bags, benches, steps, anything that fits the surroundings to sit down. Or just the floor will work.
Just like in real life, the audience arrives when they arrive so plan to be there early to meet and greet. In first life I made it a practice to move around the room and offer personal welcomes to individuals and get a sense of the audience's mood. It's a great way to get a preview of their expectations of the presentation. And it helps me decompress before the program started. In SL, I wasn't able to do that. Not everyone was chat enabled or would respond with a text message when I spoke to them. You don't know if they are really standing or sitting down or sense their mood from their body language. Besides what do you say to someone who has a fish circling over their head in greeting them.
In my practice for the show, I wasn't sure how I was going to handle watching the audience and controlling the slideware. In real-life classroom setting I stood off to the side and shifted my view between the audience and the screen. After each slide was presented and discussed, I would click forward/back to the slide. In Second Life one can be seen by audience in front of/beside/on top of/underneath the screen, but your camera view can be as if you are in the audience.
Normal view in SL, is behind and above your avatar. One can't turn yourself around to look in your avatar's face unless you are changing your appearance. And then your avatar is frozen in place. But there are two ways to conduct the show, but from the viewpoint of your audience and watch the screen to control things.
- Sit down. Then you can use the movement controls [mouse or up/down/left/right arrows keys]. Your avatar stays in place and you move the camera view to the audience's perspective.
- Or click 'alt' key, which changes your cursor to a magnifying glass to zoom-in/out when left-clicking on an object with mouse. Takes practice to control. You can click on your avatar to move your camera view to the audience view.
Avatars never get tired...but they do get bored. A presentation/show in SL can be boring for the audience just like death by webinars. The audience can be off doing email, on phone in 1st life, texting, multi-tasking. Unless you specifically engage an individual or the entire group, people will drift away mentally. Here are some ideas I have experienced to engage the audience which requires the avatars to be moved:
- Ask the audience to stand/sit in response to yes/no question
- Construct area in SL labeled "strongly agree/agree/neutral/disagree/strongly disagree", ask question and have them move into appropriate area.
- Ask audience to raise their hands in response. My host asked this question for me and I didn't know how to do it. Note to self, find out how before next time.
- Send text chat message
After the show
Clean-up and packing up your stuff is very easy. In your notecard [handout] include your contact in 1st Life. You do want to be contacted.
Thank everyone.
Go to File>Quit from the menu bar.
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