One of the tenets of Enclave Harbor is to help raise environmental awareness while teaching middle school kids a little “real life” science via virtual field trips.  It is fitting to look at the environmental costs of computer usage since we are using OpenSim on a dedicated server that is on 24/7.

Today a perfect opportunity arose to explore this on a personal level.

I use Defraggler regularly on my work and home computers. Today I updated to the latest version of Defraggler and it has a new “Health” tab (see below). I was intrigued at the total number of hours that my work machine has been powered on.

My work PC has been on for a total of 14,924 hours over the last five years. I am the second “owner” of this box and the only time I leave it on overnight is for Blender renders (time consuming 3D graphics and animations).

If this power supply runs at 500 watts that means the PC has used 7,462 kilowatt-hours of electricity during that time.

In the US, the average cost per kilowatt is 13.4 cents (June ’11 national average – double that for Hawai’i). It has cost my company $999.91 in electricity to power this computer over the last 5 years. That’s only to power the box and does not include the dual monitors or any servers I access for work files.

Let’s compare my machine’s ~$200 a year cost with two hypothetical scenarios – one in which the machine is on eight hours a day, five days a week for 50 weeks a year and one left on 24/7.

• 8 hours X 5 days X 50 weeks = 2,000 hours or $134.00 a year in electricity
• 24 hours X 7 days X 52 weeks = 8,736 hours or $585.31 a year

That is a difference of $451.31 in one year! Or 4.37 times more electricity!

If we extend these scenarios to a company with 300 employees then we would have a difference of $135,393.00 in one year!

The numbers speak for themselves.

also posted on iliveisl.com

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) report on Science Education has just been released and science literacy is “unacceptable” according to the executive director of the National Science Teacher’s Association (the NSTA is something that both myself and our OpenSim builder Ener Hax have been a member of in the past).

One of our goals with Enclave Harbour is to make science fun, approachable, accessible, and affordable. There is a “craze” at the moment for 3D teaching materials that use special LCD projectors and 3D glasses. These projectors are expensive (the bulbs can run in excess of $1000!). This type of expenditure is beyond many school districts and while 3D content is seen as innovative, it does little good if it can’t reach every student.

click to explore more charts

The NAEP report shows that not only is the gender gap growing in science, something we are consciously addressing with Ener’s builds and my workbook, but so is the ethnic gap in science literacy.

The poorest schools have the largest gaps and they need ways to make science fun, affordable, and that allow teachers to add their own ideas to. Current 3D materials typically do not allow teachers to add to them nor do they allow any additions by students – they are passive and non-participatory.

In my graduate work I was fortunate to have a department chair that was focused on making science accessible and sustainable for the poorest school districts. He did this by creating science activities (labs) that used common inexpensive items, many of which were items that are often discarded after use (I’m dating myself but some of those items included things like 35 mm film canisters which used to be prevalent).

OpenSim is one potential tool that is priced right and fairly accessible. Many schools have computer labs and a computer is infinitely more useful as hardware than a 3D projector. The problem with trendy “hi-tech” things like 3D projectors and glasses is the long term use of them or, I should say, the abandonment of them. At some point, they no longer get maintained and join the other techie things that were past fads. If you are a school district that can afford these types of things and are not letting go of teachers, then more power to you.

In the real world we are obviously failing and Francis Eberle, executive director of the NSTA, summed it up like this:

Unfortunately, over the last decade, schools have been forced to reduce funding for teacher training and science classroom resources and even eliminate positions to offset budget constraints. As a result, students are barely able to keep their heads above water in terms of their science education learning.

Reduced funding will continue to be a challenge and has been a challenge in the sciences for as long as I have been in teaching – both at the secondary and community college level. When I taught at Miami Dade College, we had a fantastic Geology lab that was very well equipped, yet the Geology classes no longer were offered with a lab credit. The money had been spent but it was cheaper to shutter the lab. Cheaper in that a professor was paid for a three hour course rather than a four hour course. While I could not bring the students to the lab, nothing prevented me from bringing the lab to them. I would get to school a little early, load up an AV cart with rocks, minerals, sieves, balances, and whatever I needed to ensure that my students had the chance to “feel” science.

Science can be a blast (literally and maybe Ener will embarrass me and mention the times that Mr. Miller blew things up – not always intentionally) and there is no substitute for being immersed in science. Handling minerals and figuring out density is immersive but also requires the proper resources.

As Eberle wrote above, science classroom resources are often lacking and teachers need innovative and inexpensive tools. Some progressive teachers and science departments have discovered OpenSim as both an immersive tool and one that allows themselves and students to go beyond passive observation and enter the creative realm offered by OpenSim (great post by Ener about one tech coordinator bringing OpenSim to students).

OpenSim does require computers but many schools have them and they are far more versatile than projectors. Thanks to Roger Stark’s tutorials on installing OpenSim on a USB drive and Ener’s sim-on-a-stick website, OpenSim use can be very simple requiring a minimum of tech skills to place this great immersive tool into the hands of teachers and students.

Your imagination is often the only limiting factor and OpenSim can be used for more than just science.

reposted on the iliveisl blog

What is Enclave Harbour and why being counted in OpenSim stats don’t matter?

Counting the regions that come and go in OpenSim is a bit like counting sites using Flash was ten years ago. Flash was new and allowed for new things to be accomplished in the World Wide Web. Today, Flash has enjoyed a bit of news with Steve Jobs waging his war against useless content on the web. Steve Jobs can do anything he likes but I take offense to him making the decision on what is useful and of lasting value on the web.

Apart from that, Flash has enjoyed ubiquitous reach and is a part of a great many things, including being a large and significant part of eLearning. Ten years ago there was a lot of bad Flash and so many “Skip Intro” buttons that it’s a wonder it did become mainstream. Today Flash serves many purposes and for the most part, people don’t realize that they are using it.

OpenSim may become like that one day, a vehicle to deliver an experience, eLearning, entertainment, or any of a number of things that have shaped the Internet into such an important part of modern day life.

No one counts the number of sites using Flash because Flash is so well integrated.

No one needs to count Enclave Harbour because it is a vehicle to teach with. Enclave Harbour does not rent land to others and is just a medium like a photograph in a school text book is. If we do our job well (and Ener is an ace at building these activities out) then the OpenSim part of Enclave Harbour will simply be just the instrument and not the focus.

Our grid runs so incredibly well that no one will think about lag and thus can focus on the activities, which is its entire purpose. When you view this or that on the web, you don’t wonder what version of Apache that site is running. When you watch Lord of the Rings, you don’t wonder what brand of microphones they used or how many they used. If Enclave Harbour can achieve its goal to be part of reaching out and teaching kids science, then we will have achieved a good thing.

I would like to see OpenSim reach the level that Flash has been at for years, to be a vehicle to deliver content. With great hosts like James at SimHost and the passion of the core OpenSim developers, this goal is become a reality.

So don’t count us as simply a set of OpenSim regions, that has little value except to show others that OpenSim is hitting the proverbial nail on the head as a great platform for delivering immersive content.

Now to get back to writing and I hope I do justice to all the wonderful work our Ener is doing!

Ener's OpenSim work

Publication use of OpenSim work

reposted on iliveisl

I truly enjoy creating eLearning because it is an effective way to reach and teach others. Typically eLearning is available at the learner’s convenience and hopefully makes a positive impact in their work, life, or hobbies. I take advantage of the many tutorials out there from learning how to move a blog to ActionScript to how to build a wooden kayak.

eLearning is all around us and much of a video sharing site like YouTube is decent eLearning. Sure YouTube videos are not in an LMS, you don’t have assessments, and you don’t print out certificates. But millions of people turn to YouTube to learn everything from tying fly fishing flies to plumbing.

How about CommonCraft? They have been used to teach many things and started out of a desire to help others understand everything from photosharing to twitter to how US presidential elections work. I like that they could even take themselves lightly and create a video on how to deal with zombies!

In our virtual world, Enclave Harbour, we are creating science education spots to help students learn environmental science. So far we have 50 activities with number 51 going in tonight. It’s a virtual science field topic that is sure to grab a middle school students attention – electricity from a toilet flush! (update: Ener blogged about this here)

In an article today on SmartPlanet.com, a De Montfort University student has created a working turbine that takes advantage of the waste water flow from high rise buildings!

Creating a virtual world example of this along with teaching materials should result in a fun eLearning exercise (and one that should elicit many giggles).

This is something I do in the evenings as both a way to unwind from the day and also as a potential business. I am applying my multimedia skills to laying out my own print-ready version of a workbook, creating online resources, making promotional videos for use in conference exhibits, and doing virtual world development.

This is where you can use your daytime eLearning skills. Doing so may open the doors to new opportunities, add more value to you in your day job, or serve as a creative outlet.

If you are a subject matter expert, maybe you can help your city develop online materials to help move your community toward “greener” practices. If you are a graphic artist, maybe you could create artwork for any number of projects – from little league baseball team logos to your fire department’s annual safety awareness program. Or maybe you will create the best eLearning cooking blog in the world! A flip video camera, some editing, and well written instructions are certainly eLearning made practical (and tasty too).

Your eLearning skills can go far beyond what you do at work. Donating your time and skills to charities can be rewarding as well as making a community impact (and may even be a tax write off).

Just because it’s not in an LMS, doesn’t have metrics, or is not mandated for compliance does not mean it has no value and is not worth your time to create.

Who knows, you may create the best ______________ (fill in the blank) in the world!