I have viewed a few of the links given to us in our ECI832 wiki which illustrates how some educators are incorporating SL into their classrooms. I am nowhere near incorporating SL into my class but I do see why some students would be engaged in their learning.
Over the past two days I have explored using SL to implement a Chemistry experience for my high school students. What excites me the most about SL is that it is something different with lots of potential to bring an otherwise invisible world into plain view and it also has the ability to bring people from all over the world together to work collaboratively.
Last night, my goal was to find a true meaningful Chemistry experience. I chatted with anyone who would listen and anyone who would provide me assistance about using SL to teaching high school Chemistry. I met many people who felt SL acted as a social platform to meet with others around the world. For others, it is used as a sexual experience while others had a more academic agenda like myself.
I received a suggestion to check out NCI island. I teleported to NCI (New Citizens Inc) and stumbled into Pepsi (literally), an avatar that I am sure who has blocked me if at all possible but who was extremely patient and helpful with connecting me to a Course Schedule at NCI. On the agenda last night was last weeks most popular presentation, “Second Life Basic Scripting”. I attended the lecture with 3 other avatars in the “Sky Classroom” and built a rotating cube.

Nothing to fancy but still tricky to comprehend for a first time scripter. I always wondered why I needed to take Computer Science 110 for my science degree and found out last night in SL. It might not be the exact syntax but having gone through C++, it has given me a basic understanding of using scripting in SL. The presentation took about an hour and fifteen minutes which covered syntax, codes and lots of computer jargon. The logic is there but I found it a little difficult to follow through the lines of code. I will have to redo the course at a later date.
According to Sally, our “Scripting Instructor”, after completing last nights basic class, supposedly I am ready for “Intermediate Scripting” which is on the schedule of events but not until I go back an research “Basic Building” first. I am a bit confused how we create commands. Is there a book of commands to choose from a list for individual events or are we suppose to create our own?
Another part of my online adventure led me to ACS Island (American Chemistry Society) where I spent a good hour reading posters and checking out Jean Claude Bradley’s blog on using Chemistry in SL. His teaching is on a different level than mine. He doesn’t lecture anymore, he has podcasts for all of his material which he gives the students at the beginning of the semester and then they can watch it anytime they want during the course. He refuses to lecture because he finds his time is better off spent investigating chemical perspectives with his students, in a lab but mostly on SL.
While I was at ACS island, I joined a “Science Center” group and I am no longer an “Explorer” in SL …I am a “Science Enthusiast” which I have excitedly shared with my students. I also found an article, that discusses using Chemistry in SL but have yet to read it. If anyone does come across some engaging high school Chemistry links in SL please let me know.
After my 4 hour fade from “reality” in 2 days, I sat and reflected on what I had just been a part of. I spent some time chatting with my wife actually trying to convince her to travel with me in SL the next time I went on so I could wash away the misconceptions that we formed from watching the Fifth Estate’s: Strangers in Paradise. You have to appreciate that 2 days ago, I would have shrugged my shoulders to SL but finding an application closer to my discipline has intrigued my senses and tonight I will disappear again in my second life in hopes of finding out if SL is for me in my teaching practices.

It is amazing how many inappropriate situations I avoid in SL by appearing as a experiment that has gone wrong. In SL, I used to be beautiful :() before I found my new attire and I would get the strangest invites and messages so I think I will continue to promote Chemsitry in SL by walking around as a burnt match stick.

Has anyone signed up for Earn2life yet? Supposedly, you get paid to go and hang out in different areas on SL and supposedly, more avatars in one location increases the search results a particular island gets. I spoke with an avatar (Ayrana) who is on SL all the time. She has created an E2L account and told me that every 5000 Linden accumulated can be converted into 20 USD and as a result she gets paid in real life by working in SL. Personally, the amount of time I would have to spend in SL to make this payment option worthwhile seems unrealistic for me as I just can’t seem to justify devoting a lot time in something that doesn’t directly benefit my teaching or family life.
Ayrana probably spent a good hour with me after our scripting class showing me around and answering the plethora of questions I had. I learned quite a bit from her and found it interesting that one of the goals of SL is to continually upgrade your avatar. She can transform her avatar into a space alien robot with a backpack that acts as her pet and flies around whereever she goes. Impressive but does she have a burnt match stick costume 🙂
Sheesh, what a mind trip…I had difficulties falling asleep over the last couple of nights because I spent so much time in SL trying to make sense of everything. I now see how real life responsibilities can get quickly displaced. What is usually packed filled evenings for me is now being occupied by intereactions in another life. SL is contagious and the more I engage myself in this world the more I want to learn how to use SL to enhance my teacing practices.
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