I have the privilege of giving a guest lecture on Tuesday morning, and I will be speaking on political frameworks in virtual worlds. In other words, there are commonly accepted models to describe politics & economics that I have found to be replicated quite clearly in so-called synthetic environments.

The “virtual” economy of Second Life, for example, has a fluctuating currency exchange rate and generates millions of real USD$ each year in commerce transactions.

Although the topic is one that I’ve spoken on several times, I am particularly excited about this one because we’ve changed up the format a bit. Instead of just talking about how the virtual world of Second Life can be useful as an educational, research and commercial tool, I’m actually giving the presentation inworld (<<that term refers to being “inside” the virtual world). Basically, I converted each of my PowerPoint slides into image files, uploaded them into Second Life, then sorted them into a presentation tool. I will simply click on the picture to advance the slides, just like you would in a normal PowerPoint presentation. I will be there “live” to conduct the presentation, but we could also have set it up where the professor and I both use headsets and communicate through my avatar. Isn’t technology grand?

(This is a snapshot of my Second Life avatar. I made a new t-shirt for her today, in honor of Baylor’s heart-stopping, knuckle-clenching win over TCU last night.)

I am not reading anything new right now, whether for school or pleasure. I am on p. 492 out of 873 in A Clash of Kings, which is difficult to put down to concentrate on my required reading concerning education policy, but I’m managing my time ok right now. Things at work have been pretty busy lately, so I thought I would talk this week about writing grants. Grantwriting (yes, I prefer it as one word, though I’ve seen it both ways … I think either is acceptable) can be intimidating. Then again, asking for money face-to-face is intimidating, too!

I have worked with grants in some way, shape or fashion for about 12 years. I’ve experienced the process from start to finish: researching prospective funders, writing the proposal, editing and submitting the proposal, stewarding the funder and administering the budget. My favorite part of the whole process is writing the proposal. It may sound like a no-brainer, but the key to success in grantwriting is to follow directions. If the funder says to use Times New Roman 12pt font with 1″ margins and no more than three pages, then by golly, don’t ramble on for five pages in Arial, for cryin’ out loud.

Before you start writing, research what the foundation/agency has funded in the past. If they don’t have a website, look up their IRS Form 990 — they have to report earnings and distributions. It isn’t always necessary to apply for the same thing as another organization, but you do need to be mindful of the funder’s interests and priorities. If they have a website, be sure to look at the president’s bio or welcome page. There are often nuggets of very helpful information about the funder’s strategic plan or vision.

When I first began writing grants, it reminded me a lot of scholarship applications that I submitted my senior year of high school. There are standard tidbits of info that you ought to include about yourself, yet you want to make yourself stand out, so you pick a couple of accomplishments or interests that might make your application resonate with the reader. The same goes for grants–you must be keenly aware of their funding priorities, yet you need to paint a word picture of how your project/program is different from the [many, many] others that they will read.

No matter what the result of the proposal, send an acknowledgement letter. In my office, we refer to the “Thank you for rejecting us letter” that we send when a proposal has been declined. We thank the foundation for considering our request, acknowledge that we realize not all requests can be funded, and end with a positive sentence about how we look forward to finding future opportunities of mutual interest. It never hurts to be gracious, even when you’ve been rejected. It might just be that same program officer who reads your next proposal and is more willing to give it a second chance.

I am so stoked about a new project that I’m working on. After the poli sci conference last month, I began thinking seriously about changing the direction of my dissertation research. (It’s still a bit early to carve into stone, but I do need to start focusing on a general theme.) You may recall that I was planning to talk to a friend/mentor about possibly co-authoring a paper with me. If that worked out, then it could certainly put me on the path of my ultimate dissertation focus.

Well, we bounced some thoughts back and forth, and after we hammered out some more specific ideas today, I think we have landed on our topic! Woot!

What is especially thrilling is that the topic is under-researched and represents an opportunity to make a ground-floor impact on future scholarly efforts. On a totally unrelated note, I just-so-happened to talk to someone later in the day who — as it turns out — may very well have contacts in one particular area that I need to delve into further! How cool is that?!

This paper wouldn’t be for a particular class, per se, but it would be a huge step in establishing my credibility as a researcher. Having a published article would also look great in my portfolio for my capstone class (part of the dissertation process) and set the stage for future prospective articles … textbook chapters … books … ?!? … the possibilities are endless. I can’t let my imagination get ahead of me; I have to focus on the task at hand, first.

I don’t mean to be overly vague about the paper; I just want to pull it together a bit more cohesively before I share a lot of details (and avoid sounding like a bigger dork than I already am, LOL!).  The pieces do seem to be falling into place, though, and it’s really exciting to me to explore this new area of research!

Living and working in a university town has some wonderful perks, like being able to attend free- or low-cost events on campus such as last night’s Black Glasses Student Film Festival. I love doing activities like that together with my boys. It is great memory-making time, exposes them to different aspects of college life, and besides … I’m not so naive as to think that they’ll continue to want to hang out with their ol’ mom in a few years! I have to enjoy “date” nights while it’s still cool.

I invited No. 2 to go with me, but he politely declined. (It was a Friday night, after all, and he wanted to play video games and stay up late.) No. 1 readily accepted the invitation, and we had a ball. He said as we were driving home that No. 2 was really going to regret not going. 🙂

The short films – 16 in all – ranged from trailers for full-length features to comedy clips to drama to stop-motion. I was floored by the talent of our students! I was impressed by the well developed stories, outstanding cinematography and mind-blowing computer graphics. I also recognized several Theatre students who acted in the films. Love it!

We got to vote for the Audience Choice Award, and although our picks didn’t win, the one that did was actually both of our next-favorite. It was a tough choice, and I was proud of all the student filmmakers. Some of these kids’ names will be on the big screen one day!

My debut conference experience was a bit anti-climatic, unless you count the part where I woke up the next morning (ie, today) vomiting with a fever and had to leave early to come home. But, we won’t dwell on that. I’m still running a low fever but managed to have a light dinner and kept it down, so we’ll call that a big improvement.

My panel session yesterday morning went very well. We had a very low turn-out, but I was forewarned by some scholarly friends not to take it personally if few (or no) audience members arrived. We still had a lively discussion, and I received some great suggestions for further research. Once I walked into the room, my nervousness started to melt away, and I felt confident about the material that I was presenting. One of my fellow panelists walked up to meet me, and when she noticed my name tag, she exclaimed that she found my paper fascinating! I was just so pleased that someone bothered to read it. 😉

I will admit that it made me feel much better about the lack of audience when I attended other panels with just a handful of people in the room. They had so many sessions running concurrently; I don’t think anyone had a full house.

It was a great experience, all in all, and I was encouraged to delve into the topic a little further. I’m going to try to expand the paper and see if I can submit it to a journal. There are so many policy implications to explore within persistent worlds (“virtual” environments), and it’s a relatively under-researched area that is ripe for new input. So … we’ll see!