murge yourself

eduate.eu wants to use a virtual environment with Second Life to present national and international projects regarding lifelong learning. The presentations shall offer both information about the project works and suggestions for other project executing organisations, in order to implement Second Life as a learning and communication tool for their project work.
People interested in the realisation of education projects in Second Life can stroll on a learning path and follow the individual steps of such implementation. Of course, eduate.eu is also available for other educational institutions, that wish to include Second Life in their project work.

With the preparations, suited to the media, of complex project contents for Second Life, eduate.eu wants to address users, for whom learning and Second life have so far been contradictory to each other.

For the realisation of the plan, eduate.eu engages the consultancy agency y.s. authentics situated in Cologne. y.s. authentics is specialised in the use of virtual worlds as a communication tool and decisively contributed to the development of the first professional TV station in a virtual world. Besides successful projects in Second Life, y.s. authentics is equally active in many other virtual worlds.

During the coming weeks, a virtual European meeting place will be created namely on the island acquired by eduate.eu, that invites to the first information exchange. The offerings will be expanded perspectively through teaching rooms and a sandbox, in which knowledge is conveyed in a practical manner. Furthermore, a learning path will be designed, explaining clearly by means of a detailed example how one can use a virtual environment in order to be creative, to learn and to make money. The completion of this new presence is planned for September 2008.

About eduate.eu
eduate.eu, an independent, non-profit consulting company, develops concepts for lifelong learning, which are implemented in organisations, companies and educational institutions. The aim is the adequate adoption of modern technologies for the inclusion of learners of all age groups independent of social backgrounds.
eduate.eu participates in national and international education projects and offers its services in different languages.

About y.s. authentics
The private limited company was founded beginning of 2007 with the aim to consult firms, that wish to position their brand and/or product in a virtual world. y.s. authentics has sound experiences in the area of immersive environments, ranging from the creation of virtual objects to the use of virtual environments for the integration in an innovative marketing strategy and management of brand communities.

In January this year, together with Hagen Graf, we created eduate.eu, which is an independent, non-profit consultant company with the focus on developing customised education projects for organizations, companies and private individuals. The aim is to educate, provide advice and guidance to encourage social inclusion and skills development.

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Eduate runs a virtual island in Second Life. Present are, at the moment, Pearson Education, cocoate, OpenArtMuseum and Maxie Schneider.

Many of these participants offer services revolving around education and lifelong learning.

Eduate will develop the presence in Second Life into a learning path for the use of this medium in education projects.

The Eduate Second Life Team consists of:

• Tine Stine -> Christine Graf (Business Administration)
• Isapisa Stine -> Isabell Schulz (Business Administration)
• Fitou Foulon -> Hagen Graf (Technical Administration)
• Lara Delgado -> Ruth Prantz (Gardening)

We inform you about the development of this project in the concierge Blog.

I have an interview with Message Business the week after Easter But first a little time off in Italia with pasta and Guggenheim

Today, there was a "journée entreprise", around 40 (French or French affiliates) companies were present on the campus. Little interviews of 5-10 (or even 15) minutes were possible with representatives of each company.

Companies, that intrigued me, were Epson and Leader League. Message Business also had an interesting profile for future interns, as they are a start-up company, allowing to be part of the European expansion from the beginning. And, apparently, I have the profile needed for Lidl. Their French headquarters are in Strasbourg, I speak German and am flexible.

Most of the internships offered are in marketing and commerce and as I am a final-year-student, the representative actually took time to find out what we are looking for and hoping to do at what time and where, which was quite refreshing.

So, next step, is to follow up on them next week.

was this:

As always, the majority would sit in the back and minority in the front, which led to two rows being unoccupied...the result: difficult to have everyone included in the class discussion, let alone being understood in the back or being able to understand what was said in the back. But neither one group was letting go of insisting..

First case, that we had a vivid discussion about in strategic management was about Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Robin Hood was stealing from the rich to give to the poor and wanted therefore to improve their lives. Another objective though, was to release the Kind. However, Robin Hood encountered managerial problems, as the band, that he "created" got bigger and bigger and more and more outlaws would join the banditry. Therefore, a new organisational chart with more hierarchical levels is an option to solve the problem of mistrust, disorganisation, money, food, space, etc.

For example, would it be a good idea to enlist new people or rather fire existing members that do not agree with the band's values? On what ground do you decide, whether to fire the bad or the good people. If you'd fire the bad ones (i.e. criminals), would the chance not be higher, that they collaborate with the barons, that Robin Hood is fighting against? Or would it me strategically more effective to manipulate "bad" members, if all had the same goals, but adhere to the band for different reasons?

Long day after a long time

I started off with a training this morning for the communication team of the American Business School Paris, that was led by a sales communication trainer. So yes, he knew what he was talking about.

The training was very interesting and grouped together what has already been heard before but has not yet been applied. It was all in French and I have to say, I understood everything and followed from beginning to end (almost).

We were given the basic structure of seller and buyer and what the seller needs to provide to fulfil the buyer's needs. You have to listen, observe, anaylse and adapt. We talked about the two/three types of questions that can be asked: Open, closed, alternative/positive. We were given some examples for open questions in order to make the buyer talk and also given argumentative examples of what we could say when being asked questions that destabilise us.

A little memo "MASTER" (maitriser, auditer, séduire, traiter, engager, réussir) was given. The steps to success, before, during and after the communication.

After the training, several of the team were able to apply what was taught in the morning. So we went to the Salon adrep and met loads of prospective students whom I used to practise new techniques And sometimes it was working, sometimes not. But, well, it's only the beginning, right? It was fun, but very tiring, standing under neon flashlight and not knowing where time goes.

This is what you can see when you type Hagen Graf in google.de
I'm proud to say that this man is in my family.

Oh, and if interested in the Joomla! Seminar in February/March, click here (in German only).

So I received my results from last semester and it looks all good with a GPA of 3,86 (out of 4) giving me a total GPA (from all semesters so far) of 3,87. Yay!

On Saturday and Sunday I will participate at a trade fair to represent the school (8 hours each day). long days ahead...

Since Tuesday, I am part of the official communication team at the American Business School.

We have a new administrative person responsible for external communication and initiated this group of people, that are willing to engage themselves in trade fairs, open days, spend-a-day-with-us etc.

We will have a training just before next semester to learn more about communication techniques. We will also do some other marketing: phoning, that is to contact prospective students and tell them about upcoming events at the ABS.

So this new team might be a challenge as, let's say, it is "more serious" than the previous "we just participate in the trade fairs". I hope it will be interesting and that I will improve my personal selling skills. Rather this than the course, huh?