Polling Educators on Griefers

Serena Offcourse led the ISTE SIGVE social meeting this week. Quite a few educators came out to particpate in her activity. She prepared a set of statements about "griefers" in Second Life and we responded by walking into the Opinionator, a scripted Likert scale.

When we walked into areas that matched our level of agreement with Serena's statement, the piechart in the center of the Opinionator created a matching chart. Discussion ensued after each statement. Sometimes there was quite a spread in opinion, which made for lively discussion.

Are griefers mostly teens? Do they add to the SL experience or are they merely an annoyance? What's your opinion?

Tribute to Dick Clark

Karen Carpenter

An interesting participant

Buddy Holley

Dick Clark

Michael Jackson

Patsy Cline

I can't remember who this was supposed to be.

Donna Summer

More Avatars

I'm enjoying people watching these days.

Random Avatars

from a brief visit to a welcome center

 

 

 

Earl Grey

Spoke to Earl Grey to compliment his avatar, but he didn't respond. His profile is nearly blank. Why would someone go to the trouble of creating such an interesting character and not communicate anything about himself, real or virtual? I don't understand but I appreciate the creativity.

 

The avatar on the right of this trio was playing 80s Nintendo music and talking in the background. They weren't bothering anyone but they have a "griefer" look about them. I was drawn to the interesting avatar on the left but did not try to engage him in conversation.

 

This was was just floating in midair near the trio above. Why the shrunken head? Unattractive but eye-catching. The rest of his avatar suggests he isn't all bizarre, but a more typical SL player.

Bee Looks for Hats

I don't know why Bee decided to look for hats unless he admired Leko's hat at a recent meeting, but he went inworld on his own and starting looking. I showed him how to use SL Marketplace to shop without running here and there and he liked that. He found a lot of free or cheap hats and I purchased one for him. The by product of all this was learning to edit attachments. No hat fit over his hair, as is normally the case. He learned to add the hat so it didn't replace his hair and he learned to use a posing stand to keep his avatar from moving while editing. We'll have to see if he wears any of these in the future.

Not bad, but what is it?

True to life and best fit

Yeah, ok, but you never wear a baseball cap in real life

UVA-Wise Last Class Session 2

If you are a teacher in Virginia you can take online recertification classes from the UVA Wise Center for Teaching Excellence. The last time I looked they were $349 for a three credit course. I have taken one and was reimbursed by my school district. That made the course convenient and free! My course did not take place in Second Life but for two semesters now there has been one taught there. The VSTE Island team has been there to help with the SL skills. These photos are from the last class. There was usually a weekly discussion of reading done, then some activity in Second Life - a tour or lesson in avatar appearance, locomotion, or communication.

There will be another course offered in SL this fall. Register now! https://www.uvawise.edu/cte/current/courses

Space Travel While Still

This is cool. Cyrus, the mastermind behind Expedition Central, found a ...thing that you rez when in any spaceship that you appear to drive throughout the universe. There is a HUD that not only you can see which has all sorts of controls that Cyrus has figured out how to use to take a group of folks to the moon, planets, other galaxies, etc. My favorite, the most spectacular part of the journey, is through wormholes. There was even a black hole. Hold onto your seat and stay tuned for an announcement about a space tour with VSTE coming soon.

Cyrus' spaceship approaches the moon.

The spaceship eclipses the moon.

Cyrus at the con.

The control center of the spaceship from outside.

Wormhole 1

Wormhole 2

Wormhole 3. Without movement you can't appreciate the beauty.

Wormhole 4

Approaching Alpha Centauri, I think

Heading into a wormhole