LEARNING RECIPE 1: 

MUVEs Table d’Hôte 

This meal was first served to art and design students, but it should taste good whatever your clientèle. 

YOU WILL NEED: 

A computer lab with 20 computers. 

Lots of students. 

PREPARATION TIME: 

Half a day. 

COOKING TIME: 

At least three weeks, but you can leave it cooking for most of that, and get on with other things. 

APPETISER 

OpenSim induction. 

Ask an adult to install and test OpenSim standalone on all of the computers in the lab. 

Divide the students up into groups of 20. 

Log into OpenSim standalone on all the computers. 

On the hour, every hour, until the day has ended, invite 20 students in and sit them in front of the prepared computers. 

Get them to walk, fly and move their cameras. Get them to move their cameras again. And again. Emphasise the importance of moving the camera. Then emphasise it again. And again. 

Get them to create a cube. 

Get them to mess about with the settings on the ‘properties’ floating window to make new and exciting shapes. 

Get them to upload an image and drag it from their inventor to the shape. 

Let them have fun messing with these things, and see what they come up with. 

Wander round and assist as appropriate. 

After half an hour, hand out a sheet with instructions about how to sign up to Second Life, and how to IM your Avatar. Add further orientation tips to taste. 

Send them out, take a deep breath, and prepare for the next 20. 

SOUP 

Second Life pre-welcome. 

Make friends with everyone who has IM-ed you. 

Give them some money. 

Invite them to join your group. 

Send them a landmark to your island. 

Give them a notecard with landmarks to exciting attractions on the mainland. 

Give them a notecard or ‘The Manual’. 

Set a date to meet up on your island. 

SALAD 

Second Life welcome 

Meet up with all of your new friends and say hello. 

Ask where the coolest place to visit on the mainland is. 

Go there for a field trip. 

Take snapshots and share them on the web. 

TP home. 

Go off in pairs to the mainland. Take snapshots. 

TP home. 

Introduce ‘The Manual’. 

Do the word association/seat building exercise from the manual. 

Get each student to pick a task from The Manual. Arrange a date to meet up. 

MAIN COURSE 

Meet up and discuss the progress on the tasks. 

Discuss strategies for developing/improving/starting the chosen task, or negotiate a different task from The Manual. 

Set a new date for discussions. 

SIDE DISH 

One day set project. 

Identify common issues with the group, and select a task from The Manual to set for all students to work on simultaneously. 

Do a one day project with this task as the focus. 

Get all students to work on the task on the same island, either individually, or as a team if appropriate to the task and the group. 

Work alongside the students on the same task yourself, to lead by example and to appreciate the challenge of the task. 

Spend time wandering round the group and discussing the progress of the task. 

Serve more portions of the main course and side dishes until full. 

COFFEE 

The crit. 

Do a ‘crit’ to finish off the meal. 

Get students to show everything they have created. 

Discussing their achievements and learning. 

Assess if appropriate.