Feedback from our Second Life Theorist Project

Bill sent an email to us after the SL project unveiling. Here is some feedback:

Bill,
The presentation last night was fantastic. The student/designer/builders should feel very good about their work. It was great to be able to chat with them as I experienced the learning theorist spaces. I think that doing the project in SL probably engaged them with the learning theories more deeply than some alternatives (like writing a paper).
Are there any plans to install the work in a public area? The project is truly an exemplar of effective teaching/learning in SL. I would like to be able to visit again -- and bring some friends!
Thanks for sharing!
Rex Thursday Xu (SL)

Bill - I missed this... But I hope it went well. I have my Ed.D. in Ed Tech from Pepperdine, finished in 2003. Missed SL, but we did a lot of other great online stuff. I'll swing by sometime to look at the exhibits (I'm assuming they'll be up for a while). I have access to the Island. Way to get Pepperdine's name out there! Laurie Ralston

I would like to add my congratulations as well. What an engaging exhibit! I really appreciated the opportunity to visit the island, look at the theorist projects, and then fly around the island and view the overall set up of the sim. Thanks for the inspiration, Debora (SL Devorah Corvale)

Oh, YES!
You can add my voice in unison to what Rex/Thursday just said…a marvelous build, an awesome example of an effective (and fun!) learning space. This SHOULD be opened up again and in perpetuity for educators and other students to be able to appreciate!!
Have a great day!
RP

I'd like to add my voice here also - I am very interested in visiting, but was unable to. Are there any alternative possibilities? Thanks!
Beth Wellman
(Ivy Innis)

He said we've created quite the buzz in the SL education community. :) We are pleased!!

Second Life, Theorist display construction

I worked really hard this weekend to committing myself to this project. It took me hours to just get ahold of creating a room... just a room! It does go to show that others have a knack for things like SL and others have to struggle, like in anything.

I did, at one point get frustrated to the point of signing off... right smack in the middle of building. Brent was being ever so patient to help me use the focus key (which now I've come to love) and link my parts. For some reason, I have had the most problems with linking my parts together. One of those buggers always gets away unlinked. Well, I then consulted the SL manual, never thought I would... and low and behold, there was a way to drag an edit box around all of your OWNED pieces to link them. I knew this before as Brent has mentioned it, however, I could not figure out how to not link other people's objects together with mine. There was always a bush or tree in the way. Finally... using the SL manual, I figured out that there is a box under the tools menu that allows you to only link YOUR items. Phew.

I've also created a theorist poster in the main gallery to go with Csikszentmihalyi's room in which I am constructing. Todd and I were both doing Papert and have agreed to do two collectively as this would help out the team. And let's be honest... Todd would do Papert more justice than I... sad to say. I believe Rita sent over the information to create posters in SL. I am now the proud owner of $587 Lindens... great. ($2.50 real bucks. I'm a big spender)

With the help of Samiya and the scripting information sent over by Todd and Karen, I was able to create script that linked the visitor from the gallery to my room, and back. Successfull, although not without mistakes. Somehow I got the coordinates wrong and when Todd tried to leave my room, he got stuck in a wall and was kicking like a baby. :) All fixed now... changed up the coordinates just a bit.

As I was trying to add furniture to my room, I accidentally unlinked something, because when I tried to delete a chair, I deleted my whole room. No big deal because it was in my inventory, but the I had to go back and re-do my script for my teleporting.

I've also added some rugs to the main gallery to break it up a bit and add a little pizazz.

So far... that's the progress. I am excited to move forward with the actual interactive learning part now. :) Hm.... "flow"....

My Brain on OMET

Anyone remember that commercial about the brain on drugs... and then the guy fries an egg in a pan to illustrate that drugs fry your brain... well I think OMET does too.

My reflections:

638b: I am working, working, working away. I spent a good number of hours working on a lit. review that I have a feeling will be revised more than one time in the coming weeks. That makes me nervous. I have never been great at revising my work because I always feel like I did a great job. It's a tough process. I am also struggling through reading some of the books. I am all booked out for right now. I read a lot in the beginning and needed a little lull here. In addition, if I try to even think about sitting down to read (considering standing up), I will be asleep in a hot second.

664: I have enjoyed some of the adventures, but above all, I have enjoyed MicroWorlds the very best so far. I knew I would... considering that I had been messing around with it for awhile before we started up with it.

633: The Second Life project makes me anxious. I don't really know if we are going to be able to pull this off and make it as grand as we are hoping. I think we all want to do an amazing job, but are seeing the difficulty in distance learning as of now. Doing this project at VirtCamp seems like an easier task because we would all be in the same room. We are starting to see the major players in the program... especially on projects like this. Looking forward to beginning the building challenge. :) Turtles here I come!

Second Life: Conquering Fears?

I know this is probably a long shot... and when I was thinking about it last night before bed, I might have been just delirious so bear with me. Here was my epiphany:

Second Life could possibly be just what is needed to get people to conquer their fears. (or at least mess with them) Case and point. I have a surfboard and wetsuit that my avatar has used to surf. Now, in my first life, I would never surf (afraid). I am perfectly comfortable and I actually seek out things that I fear in my (first) life on second life.

In thinking about how children and others are drawn to second life (other than that it's entertaining, colorful, similar to a video game...), it's no surprise to me that people want to make their second life avatar into something that their first life character is not at all alike. Maybe I'll bust out some psychology and say that it's possible that because our human nature can often make us unhappy with self-image, that second life is a way to create the image of your dreams and be a person in which you never were on earth. Woah. deep stuff.