Quest Atlantis

My Quest Atlantis training has begun. This is not about Second Life but I learned about it in SL so I will blog about it a little. Here you see my class in QA waiting for everyone to make it in. We are all in white because we haven't yet earned the right to wear other clothing. Everyone can see that we are newbies. Quest Atlantis is a virtual world for 9 to 15 year olds. It teaches Internet safety, global awareness, the responsibilities of citizenship, and curriculum. Teacher train in pairs to learn how to bring Quest Atlantis successfully to students. My gifted resource teacher is my partner. We have to learn to walk and fly, communicate, and complete quests. Flying from a Mac laptop is challenging. I have done it once successfully and can not seem to repeat the performance. I have done two quests and have two to go. I'm doing one of them with Soulstar as a co-quest. I'm very excited at the prospect of bringing this to fifth graders at my school.

Thunder Traps Kiwi

Kiwi was my mentor when I was a newbie in Second Life (see http://thunderliving.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-does-this-happen.html and other early posts). While I have rented various parcels, bought land, and tried several houses on my island, Kiwi has always stood on the top of his bank at cybrary city. He's always there, or his avatar is. Very often he's in fact AFK and his avie is unattended. ;-) That's where I come in! It's great fun, okay my life is not very exciting at times, to go bump him off his building and see how long it takes him to notice. He awakens and sees me as Queen of the Hill, laughs, and we get to talk for a few minutes before I find someone else to bother. On this particular day he was gone a long time and I had nothing special to entertain me so... I enclosed him in a box. He came to in the dark and couldn't walk out. He used the map to TP to a nearby spot, but it was a fun moment.

President Obama Speaks in Second Life

Okay so that was misleading. It mislead me, too. He was only on a big screen with dozens of avatars gathered around watching, listening, and commenting. When the message came via one of my groups from someone I know and respect said that Obama was speaking in SL I thought he'd have an avatar there. I left what I was doing and followed the link almost immediately. Now I wouldn't cross a street in RL to see a celebrity. I don't want to be in a crowd. I wouldn't expect to be able to see or hear the celebrity, much less have any sort of verbal exchange. But this is a key difference between RL and SL. I meet avatars operated by real people who I've heard of and admired all the time. I get close to them, even have a one on one discussion, sometimes. No, I haven't meet a world leader, or famous actress, or wealthy athelete; but I have met a Holocaust survivor, a pioneer in podcasting with kids, and international speakers on the topic of instructional technology. So why shouldn't I expect to see my president if only as an avatar? Maybe some day I will. We have invited Senator Warner, former Virginia governor, to VSTE Island. I don't think there has been any response, though he was one of the first politicians to go public in Second Life. It seems like an easy thing to do to make an impression.

ITC Visits Channel Island and Learns Greedy

This was a fun time when Chellie came by while I still had Channel Island. She is a rare visitor to SL.

Virginia Trekkers

We were proud to have the Virginia Trekkers visit VSTE Island for a meeting in May.

Amethyst's New Home

Amethyst has a new crib! She moved across her sim to a larger, gothic Victorian house with three floors and at least two balconies. She has a flare for decorating! Here I visited with Louise.

Red Square with Jorgito