Saturday, October 27, 2012

Week Two-IOLE in Second Life

Hello all,

This is a belated post. I have had an extreme amount of difficulty typing since my shoulder surgery three weeks ago. My work seems to be piling up on me. I have trained my voice to text program and soon hope that it enables me to catch up on the blogs for this class as well as other work that I must do for my students.

So, here goes. I will share with you what my exploits have been in Second Life this past class week Friday thru Thursday.

Friday
Along with being a student in Second Life I am also an educator. starting this course last week reminded me of my time being instructed on how to teach courses in Second Life. So, I revisited my teacher/friend's display at the ARCHI 21 of her Cybergogy model, which she taught me in a six week course for Drury University.not only is this model effective for creating lesson plans to teach within Second Life but the virtual rendition pictured below passes out notecards for educational purposes by clicking on it.

It is the experience of Leslie Scopes a.k.a. Light Sequent that prompted me to take this module as she had difficulties maintaining ownership of her intellectual property within Second Life and the Internet.

Cybergogy ala Lesley Scopes aka Light Sequent

Scopes, Lesley J.M. (2009) Learning archetypes as tools of Cybergogy for a 3D educational landscape: a structure for eTeaching in Second Life. University of Southampton, School of Education, Masters Thesis, 103pp. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/66169/


     

Drury University



I also visited the Online Education Sim that is Drury University, as we are preparing to welcome new students for the next eight weeks.

The following courses are offered through Drury University this quarter:
PSYC 0240: Social Psychology
 with avatar Fenix Muhindra
RELG  0204: Intro to History of Christianity
with avatar ClementG
PHY S 0110: Elementary Astronomy
with avatar Orion Haystack


Burn 2 Poster
Saturday and Sunday
I spent a majority of my time in Second Life on the weekend going to a celebration of art. There was so much to see! the interactive creativity exposed to the world through this medium was inspiring. It was impossible for me to view it all due to my  time constraints.

Burning Man 2 Aerial view
"BURN2 is an extension of the Burning Man festival and community into the world of Second Life. It is an officially sanctioned Burning Man regional event, the only virtual world event out of more than 100 real world Regional groups, and the ONLY Regional to burn the Man" http://www.burn2.org/

Giants Are Among Us







Monday

Monday's in Second Life are spent counseling my clients. There will be no pictures of that process but I spend six hours every Monday evening helping people, in the form of avatars, manage their mental and emotional issues.


Tuesday
Happy Halloween - Burning Man style

Tuesday's time in Second Life was spent hunting down Halloween costumes. Halloween is a special time in Second Life and there are many themed sims to visit  for this time of year. Here's a picture of me in one of my new costumes at Burn2 flying on a butterfly over the moon.

I will include more pictures of hollowing costumes in next week's blog.


Wednesday


Every Wednesday evening I go to the PhotoHunt. this week we went to a lost world in Land of Glory. there were 27 hunters and the picture shows ribbons on the winners for this episode.
I particularly like taking pictures within Second Life because you have the opportunity to change the colors of the world that you see by using something called when my in the simple drop-down menu. Here you see an example of my use of when my to produce a completely different feeling of the same scene.
Land of Glory Original



Land of Glory Windlight adjustment
Thursday

IOLE 12 Dublin Institute of Technology
I created an SL group "Dream Team 2" to facilitate  communication between group members for the module project as well as passed an SL note card with my contact information to the class. This was in hopes that it would make the collaboration of ideas a little simpler considering I live in the USA and my team mates as well as classmates live in Ireland sans one other American.

The class focused on personal branding. I gave an "Elevator Pitch" to promote Fenix within the class as sort of an introduction and listened intently to others give theirs.

Also, throughout this week I have created profiles or pages on most social media websites for Fenix Muhindra to meet the requirements of this course.

So, another blog is written for better or for worse. I have learned quite a bit about the construction and publishing of a blog along with enjoying different aspects of my class and classmates.

Until next time ~

Fenix


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Here She Goes Again!



Fenix/Jacki

An internal conversation erupted, after reading an email a few weeks ago, that kinda went like this:

A new class, really? You don't have enough on your plate? It's in Second Life?

Fenix! you just cant seem to stay out of that place!
  • You counsel at your office there
  • You teach classes for Drury there
  • You go to meetings there
  • You build things
  • You ride motorcycles
  • You photograph everything
  • You hang out with that global bunch of friends
  • going to live concerts and festivals
  • shopping/exploring
  • parties

 
And NOW you think you have to go to a class at the Dublin Institute of Technology in your beloved Second Life of all places!

WELL, OK! GO AHEAD!



On 10/11/12 Fenix got her wish and  joined her instructor 'Accupa Tae', guest speakers and classmates in Second Life(SL) at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). We were tasked, among other things, to visit three places in SL and then describe them in a blog which should be then tweeted.








First, I went to a familiar place to gather ideas about where I would like to visit. The picture shows the Photo Gallery for the Virtual Artists Alliance competitive group called "Photohunt" owned and operated for several years by Dave Koi. Here  there are hundreds, maybe thousands(all told) of snapshots taken in Second Life of various simulations(virtual land) with information on how to teleport(tp) to the land.

 A classmate, Dudley Dreamscape, was online and I tp'd him to my location to share the bounty. He encouraged me to blog about this area. The landmark is embedded in the caption of the photo for all to visit. I compete with other avid photographers each week for bragging rights and Linden Dollars, the Second Life currency, which is able to be converted to actual cash in my real life bank.



Blood City (starbucks inc.) and the Dark Forest.
Mieka Birdsong and Eso  Darkrose


Next on my journey was a Vampires Haven where I participated in the Blood Dolls ceremony.I met up with one of the owners, Mieka. I had met her quite some time ago in the Photohunt. She calls herself a "Reluctant Vampire" but the place that she and her friend has created is a tastefully done dark and foreboding place with intricate structures like the church where I am rained in blood as well as wonderful forest landscapes.







Addicted
cutiepie.feiri, twinklestarlight, addictedhottie,and Ronan Wardark


Since I love photography and the surprises that are in-store around every corner of a new sim. I had to visit 'Addicted!' after seeing the photos displayed of it at the photo gallery, just for the sheer beauty. There are so many items that it is difficult to know where to look next. This Dali-esque vignette caught my eye for a snapshot. The words, surreal, fantasy and pretty come to mind while strolling around this watery sim.







A Rusted Development
Haveit Neox Linden Endowment for the Arts




Another surreal sim "A Rusted Development" to be true it is one of my favorites. I have been here many times. I have taken maybe 30 pictures at different times here because there is so much in the way of unusual beauty. I learned about the artist Haveit Neox at Second Life's 9 year birthday party. I visited his other creations and had a long and friendly Instant Message (IM) conversation with him during that time.







Snapshot _ Squallor _NH_ Wasteland Buildings, The Wastelands (1
Squallor _NH_ Wasteland Buildings, The Wastelands



 Finally, this evening I traveled with a friend to an old sim 'The Wastelands' where he honed his skills of SL craftsmanship and scripting. While sitting together he described the fun that he and his friends had perfecting weapons, vehicles and other assorted objects. Hanging on the walls were interesting abstract drawings. This is a self portrait by neon hammerer.








Tomorrow is my REZ (birthday)day! I will be four years old. I am still amazed at the beauty and wonder that is SL and it's residents! There are friends here that I would never have met. Places here that I could never have imagined. Opportunities that were never on my horizon before!


I have learned this week the setting up of a Twitter account, the minimum of manipulating and writing a blog, and the briefest information regarding a couple of classmates. I have also learned that much is taken for granted with the intellectual properties of creators in SL. I hope that I did alright in the crediting of the artists within this blog but I realize that it was a minimal and sloppy attempt. I look forward to what this module"Is One Life Enough" will teach me regarding the best way to accomplish such things.

Until next time :)