MacZ Meets Maximillian

I was working on ideas for a venue for an upcoming VSTE meeting when Max instant messaged me to say "Merry Christmas." He asked me what I was working on. Well, said I, "Jan. 10th I have a woman who was born and raised in Mali coming to VSTE to be our '*griot' and tell stories about her homeland and growing up there."

She knows the Virginia curriculum and will keep that in mind. She suggested that making a machinima of this event to share with third grade teachers who cannot attend would be appropriate. I agree! I'm hoping to use this to finally get some elementary friends to try SL. 

Max had some ideas about the venue and soon he was creating the it for me.  I loved this night sky.

 

Having only Internet photos to go by I got MacZ, my griot, herself to come meet Max and make suggestions for the landscape. It turns out Mali looks a lot like Utah! The lady in the Santa outfit is a friend of Max's. MacZ gave me some free brightly colored Mali costumes for us to where.

 *Wikipedia, on December 29, 2010, says a griot is

A griot (English pronunciation: /ˈɡri.oʊ/, French pronunciation: [ɡʁi.o], with a silent t) or jeli (djeli or djéli in French spelling) is a West African historian. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards. According to Paul Oliver in his book Savannah Syncopators, "Though [the griot] has to know many traditional songs without error, he must also have the ability to extemporize on current events, chance incidents and the passing scene. His wit can be devastating and his knowledge of local history formidable." Although they are popularly known as 'praise singers', griots may also use their vocal expertise for gossip, satire, or political comment.

We left this project incomplete, but we like the redish stony floor with the night sky. We want to remove the lava-like fire and put in a smaller wood fire. I need to add matts and pose balls for sitting comfortably and the rest is up to MacZ!. I will try to find someone who can tape this for machinima better than I can.

Trying SL for the First Time

There she is! She calls herself Hermosapepita. She saw my post on Facebook about taking advantage of being snowed in to take time to try Second Life and she did! Here are her baby steps into this virtual world. We didn't get very far before she crashed and lost the use of her computer to a family member. She thought it was "cool" so I hope she will come back and try again and again. Yay, Hermosapepita! I'm proud of you (and I have to find you a nickname)!


How about Herme? Pepi? I like Pepi!

Comparing Notes

Taking advantage of being snowed in and on Christmas vacation, Ruckus came back to Second Life to polish her skills so she can begin to take part in VSTE meetings again. (YAY!) She connects quite well with a high speed MiFi from Verizon.

 

I love her look! I shared with her some of the recent meetings she's missed and some plans for future meetings. She seems excited to be back. :)

 

Jaz came online while Ruckus was at VSTE. Here we are enjoying Mandie's new Natural Bridge build. Mandie's 10 tools in 60 minutes was a recent meeting here that Ruckus wishes she'd seen. 

 

Since Jaz and Ruckus both missed the two holiday events we did I took them to see where Ballet Pixelle performs and where the Dreams building contests were. The latter were still there! This holiday window is Sunn Thunders's. Beautiful! Iridescent! 

 

Eventually we began to compare notes about our school systems and the Instructional Technology Resource Programs at each. Ruckus has three schools. She is called an iTRT. She can't teach all the lab classes all the time but it sounds like her teachers are still less IT savvy than mine. She is evaluated by her TRT Supervisor instead of a building principal. She does the monthly professional development at two of her schools. Her classroom teachers are just as overwhelmed as ours are. It's a universal problem. Even comparing notes with Jaz, who is in my same system, highlights differences among schools. It was an interesting discussion. I enjoy this part of SL most.

My Friend Max

Max is a scripter, a builder, an inventor, a networker, and a leader. He's a modern day, German version of Benjamin Franklin! This week he invited me to a sim that I guess he and his team created for a media company. It's called Orange22. The sim is beautiful with many different venues to explore. I think the idea is that virtual meetings can be held there for collaborators from different places. There are tours, tools, and imaginative spaces all over.

But we spent most of our time together in this skybox created to look like a winter wonderland.  I skated on a prepared animation poseball. There are hundreds of these in Second Life but this one includes a realistic fall! Hilarious.

 

Max loves to talk about his current and future projects. I have to just tell him when he gets over my head with the technical information. It happens pretty quickly.  I wonder if I come off silly and stupid to him, but he continues to instant message me first so I guess I'm not annoyingly so. He's helped me many times. All I have done for him is edit his technical writing a couple of times. Did you know that Germans capitalize all nouns? I wonder if this double capital letter compound word thing in digital nomenclature came from Germany: SharePoint, KidPix, ImageBlender...

Deep among the snowmen and Santa paraphenalia was the natvity.  While I'm glad someone remembered the reason for our month long festival of gathering, decorating, buying, giving, and baking it seems like an afterthought so often. This is a pretty setting for it.

The Nut

Wednesday, Dec. 22nd at 3 PM SLT several VSTE members went to see The Nut performed by Ballet Pixelle together. We didn't have a meeting Dec. 20th and won't Dec. 27th but we had two holiday events. This, and the trip to Dreams to see the snowmen and holiday windows.

You have to experience a ballet to really enjoy it but here are some stills.

Virtual Pioneers Holiday Party and Dance

Cyrus joined the dance.

Serena did a great job of decorating.

There were several dances to choose from.

Old friends and new where there.

We carefully selected a couples dance friends could do.

Cyrus is a good friend. I'm so lucky to know him so well.

ISTE Newcomers Game Night - December