Our first exploration in Second Life

We started out at Esme's house, then tried to find a place to explore that would give us some educative value. At one point Djang/Linda found some type of fair we could attend so David and I attempted to go there with the map coordinates. When we put the coordinates in they (the coordinates changed I noticed so we did not end up at a fair). Not sure where we were. David and I went back to your house.

Artemis/Heather and Madeline/Kristen came up with us going to explore Stem. At first when we all landed we went off looking around and I went through a passage which I ended up dropping like a hot potato. For me I just keep dropping instead of trying to pick myself up with the fly button I wait til I land and then try to figure out where I am. I felt so lost and it seemed liked I fell in a black hole and I could feel myself falling.

Finally I got on my feet and started to explore when I ran across Nasa. I looked around a bit then started flying to see if I could find the others. I felt a sense of loss not knowing if they would make the same mistake I had coming through that passage.

Finally I saw Djang/Linda and felt relief. David showed up shortly after and we went on exploring. We found a big ship and I had a hard time getting on that.

We then started on further exploration and we ended up in a place that kept telling me I wasn't supposed to be there. David showed up there to and I told him that if I fly around I get stuck at a certain oint mid sky and told "You are not allowed to be here".  Once I got near the planet there it stopped me. When I turned there were several barriers saying under construction.

We left there and found National Space Society NSS where we met our new friend Ariel. She allowed up to join her group. We may go back for Wednesday evening meeting.

I had an awesome time thank you to all of you for allowing me to explore with you!

Diana/Cabana

Working on that community...

I have to mention that last weekend several of us tried to get in to our island in Jokaydia and were transported to other areas. I ended up in Ajax it looked somewhat prehistoric. I plan to take some of my classmates here for a visit soon.

This week I have met up with several different students or groups of students. I started the week by joining Second Life®. That was an adventure and I am eager to go and explore with Esme and my classmates. I tried to get some new clothes but quickly realized I needed some type of monies in order to get them. I am sure I’ll find out more on SL soon.

One evening this week Daed and I worked on our couches and had some laughs at some of the things we did or did not do. We learned a lot and realized that learning together was beneficial. 

Last night before our meeting with Muffle (he was helping us learn some scripting), I met up with Artemis, Aurora and Muffle and we all built different things. While I was building I saw someone’s floating rotating big metal thing in the sky.

I was trying to create a simple picture frame and here behind the bush (above photo) Artemis was building a plane. I need to step up my game. She's really talented. Check out her plane (below).

So then it was time to meet up with Muffle and build a tic tac toe game. He let me play the game first but we could not find the X’s and O’s right away. We all learned a lot about scripting. Esme was there and helped Muffle help us.

And lastly for this week thus far I finally worked on my deconstruction assignment. I took a flag out of my furniture box and started deconstructing then reconstructing per our instructions. Well low and behold I tried to deconstruction or decode the texture for the flag itself and I lost the red, white, and blue :(. So I decided to customize my flag by adding the picture of my grandsons that I made into a texture earlier in the week. 

Here is hoping for more time in Jokaydia over the weekend! So I can build more items and more relationships!

Building Community in my Virtual World

The virtual world seems to have many surprises. During my readings this week I found that using 3D environments to enhance online web-based courses is not new. Others have been doing this and with success. I have so many ideas running through my head on how we could use this in our online courses where I work. I am hoping that I can help to influence some movement in this direction. Adding a 3D virtual world to our existing course will bring the community of students to a whole new level. Not only will they be able to build on their existing knowledge but they will be able to help fellow classmates or students from other courses or they can receive help. Students can choose to work collaboratively. I have seen students who are given the opportunity to work with one another synchronously rather than do all their course work asynchronously take that opportunity. Students like any other population are social by nature. I have seen students seek out classmates to do assignments together. The fun part is if you know something you can share it with others and them with you. It’s an exciting way to learn.

The 3D element gives working in an online course a reality that I have not experienced before. I can see my classmates (even if they are an avatar), I can hear them. I can collaborate with them. I am able to form relationships with them. It is so great to be able to share my learning with my classmates. I had no idea how much I missed this. I have taken online courses for the past 6 years I got accustomed to the way we collaborated through discussion boards to do group work. Now in the 3D environment I am able to work with my classmates and talk to them about any assignment. I think this is a great way to take a course.

During this week I have had some exciting moments in Jokaydia as well. Jokaydia was down last weekend so I felt I was a little behind on my assignments. I finally got back in and found I had forgotten almost everything I had learned. But with the help of classmates I was soon back on my way of building and exploring. We also have a great synchronous meeting this week that including a guest. We went to his world and we all learned from him. Now today I have found I could not get in to our home island and was automatically teleport to a nearby land. I ended up in Ajax and took a snapshot. It definitely looks like I’ll be doing some more exploring.