Firestorm, OpenSim and Virtual Worlds

by Dr. Jasmin Bey Cowin – Virtual World Explorer

Better late than never!  After watching my son battle giants, slay dragons, and built complete societies, I decided to become cool too.  To achieve that highly desired “cool mom” status I enrolled in a course at Marlboro College for Graduate and Professional Studies and am taking an online course in Games and Simulations. I am currently pursuing a Certificate in Educational Technology at Marlboro College.

I shall be writing about my adventures in JokaydiaGRID, which is an OpenSim grid for education. Click me to go to Jokaydiagrid and enter an educational world.  So far, I have created an Avatar in Jokaydia and joined Second Life, a 3D virtual world created by its users.Signing up for JokaydiaGRID will take a couple of days as one gets vetted.  How I don’t know!

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A Firestorm in Germany Real Life Photo by Jasmin Bey Cowin.

However, before I could enter any world I had to get acquainted more closely with my computer operating system and install Firestorm an OpenSim viewer which is a software program developed by the Phoenix Viewer Project. There are many Open Simulators but this was the one recommended by my teachers – or should I say Virtual World guru guides?

Was the signing up easy, painless and hassle free?  No, it was filled with vexing problems, online tutorials and sad emails such as Which buttons do I press? Why does it not load? Or even:  Where am I?  I will explore the finer points of In World experiences my next blog.

I shall let you know through updates where my travels have taken me, which worlds I discovered or created and the fabulous failures which surely will happen.

Visit my blog often!

 

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Author: drcowinj

Dr. Jasmin (Bey) Cowin, an Associate Professor at Touro University, received the 2024 Touro University CETL Faculty Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching and the Rockefeller Institute of Government awarded her the prestigious Richard P. Nathan Public Policy Fellowship (2024-2025). As a Fulbright Scholar and SIT Graduate, she was selected to be a U.S. Department of State English Language Specialist. Her expertise in AI in education is underscored by her role as an AI trainer and former Education Policy Fellow (EPFP™) at Columbia University's Teachers College. As a columnist for Stankevicius, she explores Nicomachean Ethics at the intersection of AI and education. She has contributed to initiatives like Computers for Schools Burundi, served as a resource specialist for Amity University in Uttar Pradesh, India, and participated in TESOL "Train the Trainer" programs in Yemen and Morocco. Her research interests include simulations and metaverse for educators-in-training, AI applications in education and language acquisition and teaching, and distributed ledger technologies, with a focus on her 'Education for 2060' theme. In conclusion, my commitment extends beyond transactional interactions, focusing instead on utilizing my skills and privileges to make a positive, enduring impact on the world.

4 thoughts on “Firestorm, OpenSim and Virtual Worlds”

  1. If you really want to be cool, let’s go parachuting. Our sons’ll know for sure that we are the COOLEST MOMS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Alice

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  2. Hi Jasmine,
    I can commiserate with your pain regarding getting started with JokaydiaGRID. I ran in to technical problems that it took hours of trouble shooting with Sally via email to just get onto the Grid, then we even had to meet up for an hour and a half on hangouts to truly resolve the issue and get me completely up and running. My avatar was on like a 10 minute delay. I could not navigate and it was impossible for me to get places because of the delayed response one minute I would be walking to the store the next minute completely somewhere else. This experience alone instantly made me hate this online worlds and made me wonder why people do this.

    Now that I am logged on and everything seems to be working I find it more manageable and interesting but also hesitant to explore because I do not want to get sucked into wondering around. I have two other graduate courses and a full teaching load and coaching. The amount of time loging in was already a huge time suck. I do not want to spend hours on the GRID that I should be spending reading and writing for other grad courses or lesson planning for my students. But I will have to get over that aversion log on and move on. Good job on getting over the initial hurdles and like Matt said your blog looks awesome I wish I could make mine nice.

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  4. Hi Jasmine, Thanks for your informative post. You are certainly on your way to being a “cool mom” as you said. Aside from the usual trials and tribulations of starting up new software and viewers, you seemed to have survived the first “quest”! Congrats! See you online soon. One of the “guru guides”, Mike B.

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