Showing posts with label Google Lively. Show all posts

Monday, December 22, 2008

Livelyzens Celebrate Christmas (and the End of Time)

This Livelyzen youtube video celebrates Lively, Christmas, and the end of time (for Lively, that is.)

So sad to see Lively go.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Dustin C's reflection on Google Lively

There was a lot of things that I liked about Google lively. One thing that I liked was the characters, you could move around freely and you could do almost whatever you wanted to. It also helps people to know how to access the internet. You could make your own rooms and you could put what you wanted in the room,and that's what I like about Google Lively.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tenacious Teacher meets the Digiteen Dream Team: Listen to our podcast

Yesterday we talked to the Tenacious Teacher on her podcast. The students and Mrs. Davis discussed Google Lively, whether this process was worth it, and how we use Woogi World to teach elementary students.

Listen to the podcast

Friday, December 12, 2008

Students in Hong Kong are joining in the protest

Students and educators in Hong Kong are joining in the protest. On the Kellett School ICT blog, they say:

"

I'm a big fan of Google, I think they do some great things that impact hugely upon teaching and learning. We've used loads of their tools at Kellett... Earth, Sketchup, Maps, Docs, Picasa, and sometimes students even use it for searching!

However, their recent decision to shut down Google Lively at the end of December has caused dismay amongst many in education who see the opportunity to extend classrooms into virtual environments as an important strand of 21st Century Learning. Whilst it's true that major virtual grids exist elsewhere, such as Second Life, the ability to create your own rooms and customise them for your own students offers huge potential.

Education is still only just dipping it's toe into the possibilities that virtual worlds afford us, but it's companies like Google with it's track record of creating innovative tools for educators that should be leading the way, not bailing out without giving leading innovaters time to experiment and share their practise."

If you speak out, leave us a message and let us know so we can share your thoughts.

Will Google listen to educators who think they've really done a GREAT job with Lively or will they move ahead and make a decision that will impact their future profitability?

I wonder if perhaps Google will look back in 5-6 years on this moment like the Big 3 automakers look back with chagrin on their decision not to invest in eco-friendly cars in their Research & Development.

Virtual worlds are the emerging future - how is Google going to search and index them without some sort of beta test bed to work on those algorithms?

This is a great tool for education, speak out!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Come to our virtual protest in Lively - STARTING NOW

This post is scheduled to appear at 2:10 pm on the day of our protest. To join us, come to our Lively protest room which looks like the Googleplex in Mountain View.

http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-2849071083291311649&pli=1

We LOVE Google but we want them to keep Lively alive!!

Friday, December 5, 2008

10 Ways Lively can make money

1 - T-shirts and Avatar clothing for Sale - Let companies "buy" t-shirt space or let companies "bid" on spaces in lively -- livelyzens will agree to wear the corporate t-shirt or a logo that week that is up for bid - this would be an easy free way for supporters support it. Every avatar would have a "logo spot" -- and on that spot would appear that days bidder. Each avatar could also specify a rating (see rooms below) and specify their interests so the advetising that appears on their clothing would be more targeted to that type of person. The best advertising is that of people who use the service.

2 - Pay for "eyeballs" - Let users "pick" their advertising "bling" of the day -- what they support and like -- then, the advertisers pay google for each avatar that picks their bling and pays by how many other avatars "see" the advertising "bling" -- literally paying for "eyeballs" -- something that cannot be done in the real world.

3 - Advertising billboards - people who support lively can designate spaces in their rooms to allow advertising to rotate through the rooms - again, this would be for bid. Let each person rate their room as to its use -- G - general audiences E - education, etc - this would allow targeted ads to get to the right people.

4 - Avatars - The companies can also create avatars to go in the worlds to advertise their products to other people.

5 - Commercials - Companies can stream commercials into the room. Events of certain categories can have "sponsors" who sign up to support that type of event.

6 - Products - Companies can put virtual products that they make in real life in the room

7 - Donations - Google can ask for donations.

8 - Rooms - Google can charge to make each room

9 - Ads - Google can show ads before people actually enter the rooms.

10 - Company rooms - The companies can create their own rooms that are bigger and better than the rooms that normal people can make, and they can advertise in their own rooms.

I think that if we want to keep Google Lively alive, that Google should allow companies to advertise so that Google can make money by having Lively.

Written by: Nole52, and Brooks02

Thursday, December 4, 2008

In Google We Trusted and Now Our Project's Busted

Find more photos like this on Digi Teen

A heck of a great potential tool is about to go away on December 31, 2008. Google's lively - while not perfect in many ways runs on a standard web browser and provides a way to create private rooms to teach in a 3d environment.

So, my students have used Lively for Digiteen and have loved it. ( created scripts, did plays in Lively to teach digital citizenship, created rooftops and whole virtual schools. (See their action wiki.)

We also created a wiki on which we recorded our ideas and opinions on the nine aspects of digital citizenship-literacy, access, etiquette, commerce, rights and responsibilities, law, communication, security and safety, and health and wellness. So, now, we're at least trying to bring attention to two important things:

1) Corporate Digital Citizenship

As we study about digital citizenship - we also think that it should extend to companies. In digital citizenship we learn that we must respect others whom we interact with on the Internet.

Image via Wikipedia
Lively goes away with no ability to download. Now, as we've looked into it, Lively is built on something called Gamebryo which we think has a license fee and perhaps that is why it isn't going to be released as open source.

However, we WISH that someone somewhere would provide some alternatives. We've only had 6 months to get familiar with this tool and I wasn't able to take students into it until this fall. We barely got our avatar's hair combed until we heard it was going away!

Google sets a precedent here and unless we make it very loud and clear, other services will go away in the future with no warning and no user alternatives. There may be little we can do about it, but at least, my students and I would like to make Google aware that when they get rid of a service that they should consider their users and alternatives for them -- open source? for purchase on a server? something! Some alternative. And, besides, Google and Gamebryo could make some money off of this, potentially. Capitalism means that companies do want to be "for profit," after all.

2) The use of 3D worlds in Schools

We need free, usable 3D virtual worlds for schools. Teen second life is EXPENSIVE - we had it in our budget and now we're looking at $2300 a year to maintain and keep an island -- it is out of our league at this time. We don't have that kind of money to build in Second life !! HELP!

So, as we go on this journey and PROTEST the lively shut down, we're also going to investigate new worlds and other alternatives and share it with you. After a class meeting, the students have formed a Digiteen Dream Team. They dream of teaching digital citizenship in a virtual world.

What are we going to do?

First, this is a student led protest and as we've contacted the Livelyzens (other people who support the use of lively) - we've found that there are actually classrooms around the world using this tool.

On a skype call between my class and some livelyzen's yesterday, we learned that one Livelyzen has built a translator for multiple languages to allow avatars to communicate and speak in their native language! So cool!

Lively is a GREAT tool - not perfect - but a heck of a lot of potential.

1 - In Lively Protest - The students are going to lead protests IN Lively and invite you to join them -- other classrooms are invited to join lively - create their own private room and add their information to the calendar. You'll see more on this on their blog Digiteen Dream Team. They are designing T-shirts for their avatars and signs. Other classrooms are going to also host protests.

We hope Google will consider extending Google Lively for a month or two to see if education can really take hold with this tool.

2 - Student Blog - You can get in touch with my students on their new blog to document what they are doing. They are going to talk about why they like lively, its uses, and their exploration of other 3D worlds as well as digital citizenship for teens. This is going to be a public group blog for the students.

Additionally, we know and have discussed how Google is a for profit company that must maximize returns for it's shareholders -- so,
we're going to share ways we think Google can or could have made money from Lively and improvements that they should have or other virtual world companies should make in order to better serve classrooms. (Like the ability to remove an offensive person from the space.)

For now, we are writing in google docs and I'm posting until I get permission forms for the students for this.

3 - Explore the future of Digiteen Island -
My students have a dream to create 3D worlds for teaching digital citizenship - they are going to pursue this dream and I'm going to help them. We will not stop - but if we have to start over we want it to be the right place that is accessible to as many students as possible.

What can you do?

1- Create a lively account

Yes - create an account on a service that is going to die -- why? #1 Google like any good company pays attention to numbers -- so, getting a lot of people to get onto lively and try it out - that is something.

Make a private room (not on the public rolls) and get some kids to try out just that room -- (just unblock that room.) Experience it. Leave a message here that you set up an account to let us know!

2- Join a protest

You're welcome to come to any of our protest rallies - yes, we fully expect the rooms to slow down and maybe even crash - but the students want to do it and we're going to try anyway. Plan to see a speaker at each protest of some kind. Check our calendar and support these kids.

Sign the lively petition. Surely we can get 1000 people to sign the petition -- really, we should get more!

Join in the Liveleyzens.

3 - Host a protest

I know this sounds silly - but if you set up an account and like the service and/or your students do - why not have a class period where you create a room to host a protest. I'm dumbfounded and how much my students are learning about how to mobilize people in a Web 2 world.

Will you laugh or help us?

Laugh at us or them - but I support their desire to make a point to Google that this is something that kids like and would use in the classroom. Just contact us at our special Dream Team Email digiteen@gmail.com and I'll be happy to add your classroom to the activities.

4 - Stay tuned

I have no idea what all these students will come up with. But I think their points are valid.

#1 Companies that discontinue services should try to provide more alternatives to their users to be able to save content and continue use of the service in other ways

#2 Virtual worlds have a lot of potential in education and we need access to free virtual worlds so that schools without funding can use them.

Do I know where we're going with this? No. I do know that my students are in charge with my guidance. I told them when we discussed it that I will never tell them that they cannot change the world. And that if they disagree with something they should speak up. So, now, as a teacher, I must support them, in what I believe, is a noble cause.

OK, Google, I love your services and I know that we're nobodies down here in south Georgia, but I have about 20 students who are very upset about lively shutting down and I'm going to help them in any way I can.

And what kind of world is this - a protest in a virtual world? This is about using Web 2.0 to see if we can get Google to give Lively one more chance to see if it works in education. Will you help them?

When talking to the students about why they are pursuing this course of action, these are some responses:

"We might be small, but we have a big heart. We have worked long and hard on our project, and we are not going to give up without a fight. This project has been a huge success with our students, and I believe that it would be a huge success with other students as well. We would like everyone's support. I know that stopping Google seems like an unachievable task, but we can make a change. If everyone will come together and fight for what they believe in, we can save Lively." Miller S.

So, what do you think? Will you help? What is your advice? Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: google lively Google digital citizenship corporate digital citizenship education student protest

A simulpost with Cool Cat Teacher
This blog post was written by: Vicki Davis, Teacher and edited by Miller S., Student - approved by the Dream Team

Digiteen Dream Team