You just never know who you’ll run into

I was working in the sandbox one evening when Marlboro College was having an Open House for prospective students in SL. Esme encouraged me to carry on and feel free to mingle with any of the guests that might happen by. I think, at the time, I was still in the throes of building/rebuilding my ‘opus’ – the planter. After putting on the finishing touches I moved it up to the roof of the coffeehouse -thank you so much, Verbena for the coffeehouse. It’s my home away from home -I usually tuck into a funky egg chair before logging out each night.

Glimpsing over the edge, down to the sandbox (yps’ing), I noticed Esme chatting with an avatar in long dark robes. It looked like a priest from across the distance. Being nosey paid off because I figured out that I could use the zoom on my camera controls to ‘check it out’ without being anywhere in their vicinity, cool. I pulled up his profile, which was part of this week’s assignment, and saw that he belonged to several different religious organizations. I was so intrigued. Being such a noob I hadn’t even considered that ‘the church’ would have a presence in SL. When I asked Esme, later, she confirmed that there are several organized religions (and probably several that aren’t..) with groups active in SL. Politicians, too, have infiltrated SL I am told.

A bit later I decided to fly down and say hello. He was alone and had spent some time looking around the sandbox at the debris we’ve been creating ; } He wore gorgeous priestly vestments. We chatted for a few minutes and I mentioned that I had only been in SL for a couple of weeks. He replied that he’d been in SL for three days. I blurted out, “Geez, you’ve sure joined a lot groups for just being here three days.” Quickly following up with, “Our assignment this week is to learn to read avatars’ profiles.” He said he was learning the same. We parted ways shortly after.

It was one of those moments when I realize that SL is so much bigger than the sandbox. That avatar evidently had L$ to spend (the nice threads) and connections (all the groups), implying there was a purposeful design behind his SL existence. Pondering our brief exchange later, I wished I’d asked him if he was a virtual missionary or just a fellow traveler.

But the soul of no body knows
Where the parson goes, where does the parson go?

Name that tune.

Going to school in SL

We have an assignment to attend an educational event in SL. This sounds very exciting and since I desperately want to learn to build things I know just what I’m after. I find that, just like in RL, I feel very brave and adventurous during the planning stages… pull up the handy Search utility and tap in Building for the criteria and select Events for the category. Hmm, many more returns than I was expecting. How to choose the one that’s ‘right for me’? I notice the third one down in the list – Building a Planter, and my heart flip-flops. Perfect. I click on the event listing and a new screen opens with more detail about the event… I’m looking for something that doesn’t require a lot of experience : ) Well, it doesn’t say it’s for ‘rank beginners’ -there is something there about experience with textures -which I don’t have.. but it does say everyone is welcome, and I’m still feeling brave and adventurous. The next thing I notice is that class starts in five minutes. Holy cow, it’s going to take me that long to figure out where I’m going and which end is up when I land. No time for the jitters. I click on Teleport and whoosh…

Immediately, my RL self is in a cold sweat. In SL I stagger this way and that, looking for clues to help orient me. Is there a keyboard combo somewhere for standing serenely while turning *only* my head to take in the new surroundings? I’m sure that’s probably a costly AO but I’m strictly freeloading at this point -and looking the part. I remember that the mini-map is my friend and pull it up to look for green dots. But I’m petrified of green dots. They’re there, very close by – oh, crap, am I ready for this? Glib avatars, oozing with confidence that I do not feel, slide onto pink cushioned bar stools spaced about 5 meters apart in rows. They text greetings to each other. Oh man, they all know each other. Well, if I’m lucky they’ll just ignore me. I’m lucky. I perch in the back row, thankful to have landed on the stool and facing the right direction.

The instructor introduces herself, her exchanges in the local chat window are shouted, to extend the range of the local chat,

“Ashlynn Enoch shouts: Hi Eruditus”.

There’s alot of other stuff happening, too. I touch an ivy ball overhead to register for the class and receive the supplies for class – they magically appear in my Inventory. In addition to the class chatter there are ads being displayed in the local chat window, which I find a bit disconcerting. I don’t need any distractons right now.

[17:55] B01 @ SLIP – Independant Learning Center: VACANT

[17:55] B01 @ SLIP – Independant Learning Center: L$50 per week [min 2 weeks (L$100), max 10 weeks (L$500) ]

The instructor begins giving building instructions via the local chat, there is no voice. Actually, someone else gives instructions for the instructor. Initially, I thought the instructor might wander around checking progress but she stayed seated in front of the class. Why move around when you have your camera controls?

[18:01] Ashlynn’s helper shouts: Please open chat history so if you miss something you can refer to it. To do this either click history or control H.

[18:02] Ashlynn’s helper shouts: Please if you have a question shout it out so all may hear it. Thanks =)

[18:02] Ashlynn’s helper shouts: Create or rez a box.

I’m including excerpts from the chat for those who haven’t taken a class yet. We follow the instructions to rez a cube, change the size, hollow it out, etc. I’m bravely soldiering on, yup.. okay, got that. Well, I come to a screeching halt when we get to the ‘something about experience with textures which I don’t have’ part. I’m supposed to apply a texture to two sides of a cube but I keep getting all six sides. I tell myself to breathe, it’ll be okay. I use my camera view to look around furtively for someone else whose planter is at a standstill. Yes, there’s one over there, so I”m not alone. At the same time, while my camera is zooming around, I notice two bald spots on the back of my head. Crap, must be leftover from our ‘altering appearances’ exercise in class Saturday. I forgot to restore myself afterwards. Thank you for sitting in the back row I tell myself.

Bringing me back from that mortifying discovery, the instructor shouts, “anyone have questions?” No one makes a peep. The cat’s got my tongue. I realize I’m probably not going to have a successful outcome here. So, how to salvage the situation? I use my camera tools to move my view around and take snapshots of a planter that’s looking really good. I figure I’ll copy and save the chat history so that I can work out the kinks back at the sandbox – our sandbox, my safe haven. Class comes to an end. I schlup my half-built planter into my inventory while the other students are admiring their finished products. The instructor offers a notecard with the building instructions, which I gratefully accept. I read in the chat that the other ‘non-finisher’ had to go deal with a RL crisis during class and that’s why her planter was not complete. I’ll have to remember that one for another time I tell myself. I tap a quick Bye into the chat window and teleport home to the sandbox.

View from the bottom of the pond

I’m on a journey through SL to learn about Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds. This blog will serve as a repository for my thoughts and experiences. I come a bit late to this medium – the blog; as class is already in its third week. For my future self I’ll create a structure that I can lean on to maintain some semblance of order in my ramblings. SL has me reeling and I’ve barely scratched the surface. The header image on the blog is a picture of me taken at the bottom of a fish pond at the Biome. That pretty well sums up how I’m feeling.. I have such a low-level view of something so large and diverse all around me.

Class 2

Segment 1

Our instructor, Esme Qunhua, led us through our first attempt to use voice in class. There was a great deal of gnashing and crashing sounds from several of the mics. Some folks weren’t able to get their mics working and at least one classmate didn’t have voice capability yet. Esme was very supportive throughout the process. We chose to use text for the remainder of the class session. I think my mic works but I haven’t had anyone to test it out on yet. I’m guessing the volume will need to be tweaked. Also, I need to practice using the little button on the screen that turns mic sound on and off – to avoid sharing unnecessary sounds with the class. It’s so not polite to snigger when your classmate’s avatar malfunctions and looks like it’s breakdancing on a barstool – this one’s for you, Bigpickb. But there I was guffawing – hopefully with the mic off.

Segment 2

We visited four learning stations created by our instructor, Esme. Each area offered information and exercises for changing our appearance in SL. We saved our current image before beginning the makeovers. We practiced modifying practically every physical feature imaginable, as well as changing clothes. Two days later, while taking a class on building planters I disovered, much to my chagrin, that I had two bald spots on the back of my head – took a little too much hair off during the exercise, apparently. After class I high-tailed it back to the Marlboro Sandbox – my safe place, and grew back my hair.

Segment 3

We went on a field trip to the Biome, home to Northern Michigan University’s Learning Center, where we were greeted by Clowey Greenwood – Biome Evolution Director. Our class had the privilege of meeting with Clowey and she generously shared her experiences around teaching in SL. We had time to tour the Biome after class – there was a great deal to see. I will definitely return another day for a liesurely visit:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/biome/128/127/28

Segment 4

Upon our return to Marlboro, Esme led us through a live Likert scale exercise. There was a construct with five areas, each representing a Likert item; Strongly Agree/Somewhat Agree, etc. Esme would make a statement and we would navigate our avatars to the item we felt resonated closest with our response to the statement. There was some silliness on my part, of missing the statements – thinking they were part of the general chat going on, so I was late to the gate a couple of times. The local chat can be quite lively and sorting out conversations is an artform in itself. Esme’s statements were crafted to learn about our feelings with regard to different aspects of our SL experience, so far  …presumably to help inform our conclusions – Esme used the last phrase at some point awhile back and I liked it, so I just threw it in.

I think we must have exhausted her by the time class was over. So much handholding required at this point.